Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Author:Lloyd Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9780440337164
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

MY MUM HAD PACKED away her guilt someplace and recovered her voice. And now, as if to make up for lost time, she returned to her favorite pastime of constant putdowns of Mr. Watts, or Pop Eye, as she was back to calling him.

Pop Eye. She put all her contempt into that name. Pop Eye is a man who stands beneath a coconut tree never believing a coconut will fall until it lands on his head. He would eat a sunfish, given half a chance. Dumb bugger. Does your Mr. Watts know a stonefish when he sees one? His ignorance makes him a dangerous man. And you, Matilda, why do you look to an ignorant, dangerous man for a teacher? This is how crazy the world has become. Can your Mr. Watts build a house? Can he paddle out to the reef at sunset and sneak up on a shoal of parrot fish? Your Mr. Watts is dependent on other souls to feed him and his wife. He is nothing by himself.

Once upon a time I would have walked away from her attack on Mr. Watts—now I listened. In her mocking I could hear Estella. So I trailed after her like a mangy dog after a scrap of food. I followed her from our crude shelter to the garden to the creek until she tried to bat me away. She called me names. I was a mosquito. I was a tick on a dog’s arse. “What’s the matter with you, girl? Do you not have a shadow of your own to play with?”

Most of the time her words fell harmlessly off me. But that last sentence stuck. Do you not have a shadow of your own to play with? I smiled at my mum. I wanted to thank her, but I didn’t know how. I went to hug her, but she saw that coming and took a step back. She raised her hands, pretending I had turned into a demon. I couldn’t speak in case what she had said escaped my mouth with the other words. I was a bird with a worm caught in its beak.

I ran to Mr. Watts’ house with my fragment. I wasn’t going to let it leak from my mind. I ran past the schoolhouse and followed a path half covered in overgrowth. One of the more general criticisms directed Mr. Watts’ way was that he didn’t take care of his property. And it wasn’t just my mum who said this. But as every other house was burned to the ground, I wonder if there was purpose behind Mr. Watts’ neglect, that in the end he was the smart one.

As I made my way there I felt a bit like Pip approaching Satis House. I also felt nervous. At least Pip had been invited by Miss Havisham. I hoped Mr. Watts wouldn’t mind my turning up like this. I thought he wouldn’t mind so much, given the responsibility of our task and once he heard the quality of my fragment.

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