Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville

Author:Kate Grenville
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

Shocking Joan

Joan’s back was pasty and pimpled, but she did not care, and showed as much skin as she liked. In the quadrangle people stared and clucked, but Joan swung her book bag at them or made a face like a rabbit, and they steered well clear. She knew more swear words that Duncan had ever taught me. Oh, how droll! she exclaimed when I told her what I knew, and she taught me another. Lil, what an innocent you are, she said, but her smile did not make innocence contemptible. She took my hand in both of hers and squeezed it. Do you speak French, Lil? she asked, and I was surprised, but said, Well, we learned at school, “La plume de ma tante est dans le jardin,” and her laugh made birds take off in fright from the grass, but I was not displeased. I enjoy you, Lil, she said, and was not like anyone I had known. She pulled me close to her so that she was near enough to fill my ear with her tongue. You are good enough to eat, she said after I had first squirmed, then enjoyed the feel of that outrageous tongue, and she nudged me as if it was all a good joke I had not grasped.

How about a cheap Chow feed, Lil, she shouted then, and a bottle of plonk, eh? A boy with four fountain pens in the breast pocket of his suit stared at us, smear of ink on his cheek. He would like to join us, Joan giggled into my ear so that her voice was huge and moist. But he is not invited.

Few people had dared to encircle my wide waist, but Joan did. Her arm was hot and heavy around me and I could feel her hip jostling against mine at each step we took down the hill towards our cheap Chow feed. Men came to the doorways of pubs and stared at us, whistled, made comments that were too thick with beer and bashfulness to be understood. You are only jealous, Joan turned and called, and a man with a large red nose snatched the hat off his head and flung it at us in rage, but could not seem to find words. With the sad countryman’s hat lying on the pavement I would have liked to separate from Joan and hurry away with my head down, and let them laugh at the way my bottom looked in haste. But Joan took another handful of my waist and made me slow down. Between us, Lil, we could launch every ship in the world, she said, and the man with the red nose heard, and his eyes changed in fear, thinking she was mad.

And what do you think of boys, Lil? Joan asked later, refilling our glasses with the urine-coloured wine they had brought us. Boys, she said again, making it sound ridiculous, and laughed. Behind her a Chinese waiter stared at her bare back and seemed to be waiting for the scarf she had tied around her chest to slip down.

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