May by Naomi Kruger
Author:Naomi Kruger [Krüger, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781724293
Publisher: Seren
2:55 pm
The birds go tap, tap, tap, but I never learned Morse code. I used to know
things
Ostrich lapwing heron tern. None of them fit. These
birds. All they want to do is get inside.
Thereâs no green, not here, not for miles. The doors are locked. I canât feed the birds in these shoes. These shoes are soft. They
bend too far
this seat is wet.
my legs all fizzy
if they knew the seat was wet theyâd send the birds away. And then Iâll never find him
and
4 February 1997
Afsana
The air stings. I pull my scarf up over my mouth. The sky is blue, but winter blue. Sharp and mean. Not a single cloud. I lock the door and walk away from the flat, along the gravel by the hundred-year-old houses. The bay windows, and special parking permits, sitting right at the top of the hill so they can look down on everyone else. I follow their gaze. Down to the river, the green bowl of the park, the bandstand and the gatehouse and the Japanese garden. Dog walkers and people training for charity fun-runs and the man on the bench with his head in his hands like heâs just heard some terrible news.
Ewan has a lot time for the Victorians. They had vision, a sense of the future. They planted the avenue of trees by the river knowing full well they wouldnât live to see it mature. âThereâs something impressive about that isnât there?â he said once, âleaving a legacy for the next generation, building something thatâll last for hundreds of years after youâre gone.â We were in the flat one Saturday, taking a break from revision. Drinking coffee. I nodded. I was thinking about Baba, and the surah about rewards after death. So many ways to cement your place in paradise. Building a mosque, planting a date palm, leaving behind a righteous child whoâll pray for you after youâve gone.
âCome with me,â he said. He seemed excited, eager like he got sometimes when he was talking about something he loved. I followed him across the room and he opened the door to the bedroom. I hesitated. I didnât want him to know what I was thinking. So I went in. Everything was too neat. Just an alarm clock on the bedside table. The wardrobe and drawers shut flush. The beige carpet newly hoovered. Like a hotel, or at least like I imagined a hotel to be. He stood by the window and pulled the blinds up. No dust on the sill. The light coming in, shining on the white walls.
âLook,â he said. And I did. I stood right next to him so our arms were almost touching. This same view, just cut up a bit by the window frames, blocked by the roofs of all the posher houses. The trees were green that day. There were tulips in the borders and the river wasnât quite as high.
âDesigned to last,â he said and I thought about Baba talking to his friends about the British. The English Viscount who carved up their country by drawing a pencil line on an out-of-date map.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Beautiful Disaster by McGuire Jamie(25000)
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh(21023)
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman(19902)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt(18161)
Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut(14759)
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda(14731)
Pimp by Iceberg Slim(13777)
Norse Mythology by Gaiman Neil(12826)
The Tidewater Tales by John Barth(12391)
4 3 2 1: A Novel by Paul Auster(11790)
Scorched Eggs by Childs Laura(11119)
The Break by Marian Keyes(9075)
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna(8585)
The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro(8393)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens(8330)
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro(8313)
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr(8274)
A Man Called Ove: A Novel by Fredrik Backman(8185)
Circe by Madeline Miller(7813)
