New Cardiff by Charles Webb

Author:Charles Webb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Washington Square Press

12

After she’d been in New Cardiff nearly a week Vera decided the time had come to resolve the issues between herself and Colin, and the place she chose for their discussion was a golf course she’d noticed on one of her drives around the town.

As she explained to Colin when she called to propose the meeting, the stresses she’d encountered in America, far from enabling her to give up her smoking habit—something she’d tried to do off and on over the years, and something she’d hoped the change of scene might help her accomplish—had caused it to escalate, and she was up to almost two packs a day, the highest consumption she’d ever attained.

Since there seemed nowhere indoors in New Cardiff to smoke, and since it wouldn’t have been suitable for such a serious discussion simply to wander around the town smoking, she suggested the golf course, where she’d stopped the day before and learned it was permissible to smoke as long as a distance was kept from other golfers and the smoker carried the extinguished cigarette butts back to the clubhouse in a small plastic bag, which would be furnished prior to their going out on to the links.

With hundreds of accessible square miles in every direction, Colin asked, why did Vera not feel she could go off some place in the woods and smoke while they talked, but she responded that it was hard enough to concentrate in the rural village atmosphere of New Cardiff, but to be dwarfed by all of nature would altogether distract her from the matters at hand, and at least with a mown lawn under her feet, along with the pacifying effect of the nicotine, her anxiety might be reduced to levels where she could begin gaining perspective on the upheaval taking place in their lives.

Colin walked through the car park and toward the clubhouse, where Vera was standing beside the entrance. ‘I’ve already paid our fees,’ she said, as he approached. She held up a large plastic tag with ‘27’ on it. ‘This is our number.’ She turned and started through the entrance.

‘Vera?’

‘It’s too late to reserve a golf cart,’ she said, looking back at him. ‘I told them we probably wouldn’t need a caddy.’

‘Could you stop a minute?’

She stopped and came a step back toward him.

‘Is all this supposed to be funny?’ Colin said.

‘What?’

‘ caddy to carry your cigarettes around for you? Is that the gag? I want to be sure I’m not missing any classic humour here.’

‘Colin, I always try to see the funny side of things—otherwise we’ll end up jumping off a cliff. You taught me that.’ She stepped aside while a man carrying a bag of clubs clicked past her in a pair of cleared shoes and went into the clubhouse.

‘I got the impression we were meeting here for something serious.’

‘We are.’

He nodded. ‘You got my letter.’

‘I did,’ she said, ‘and I was very touched.’

‘Just not touched enough to do the right thing.’

She looked at him a moment before speaking.

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