Mai at the Predators' Ball by Marie-Claire Blais & Nigel Spencer

Author:Marie-Claire Blais & Nigel Spencer [Blais, Marie-Claire & Spencer, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781770890053
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Published: 2012-06-26T04:00:00+00:00

The lights on the terrace added to the nighttime glow and Nora’s self-portrait was nearly finished, though so huge one person could barely carry it, she herself being just able to but not without complaining loudly, the picture appeared to undulate as the night sky threatened to obliterate it with fog that was gathering bit by bit, absorbing both the oil marks and the liquidity of colours from the sky reflected in the pool, but perhaps it was overly dramatic around the eyes, especially Nora’s, which were striking against the sky, above all in their expression, suddenly enlarged beneath the dark circles at her temples, yet the wrinkles and lines were unavoidable even though she’d painted this for her granddaughter as a memento to keep in her room, Greta had wanted it for her daughter while she grew up but Nora wondered if something so large and imposing was really the thing for Stephanie to have hanging over her bed, but of course it is Mama, Greta had said, Stephanie adores you, but it was probably more for Greta herself to remember her own mother by, she must be struck by her mother’s approaching end to think about this, for she had always seen Nora as being still a young woman like herself, no, no time for such thoughts, focusing solely on the eyes, wouldn’t that be a bit too intense for a child’s room while the thirteen-year-old read or did her homework, awkward perhaps though at that age Nora herself had no longer been a child, she already wanted to be a surgeon like her father, that was when they were in Africa and already she went everywhere with him, caring for the sick, nowadays a woman just under sixty was still considered young, Greta would realize one day, Nora’s hands often rough then, especially since she chewed her nails as she waited for him to pay attention to her, in the fall you’ll go to boarding school in Europe with your brother, oh for just a thought, some attention from this gruff oracle perpetually irritated by us both, even when Mother served him his meal, always having to leave quickly and be useful, headed off again into the thorny bush, you will be, yes you will, a clever, learned girl, nevertheless pushing her and her skillful healing hands away, yes this is not for a woman, oh no, now for the facial expression to be so dramatic I must have overdone a line or a wrinkle somewhere, perhaps a little more white just here, muted, not too bright, perhaps I can just smooth it with my finger a bit, and on went her smock again, she knew she wasn’t going to sleep after this, too many details streaming out of the portrait and demanding her attention, her smock, originally blue, was stained with so many coloured splotches and smears it looked like an abstract all by itself she thought, so stiffened by now there was no way to

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