One Story by Pip Finkemeyer

Author:Pip Finkemeyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ultimo Press
Published: 2025-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Thursday, 4 pm

‘WELL, IT’S FIVE o’clock somewhere,’ Dot declared. She stood up from her desk and stretched like a cat. Rae heard her spine crack. ‘Let’s call it a day, kids.’

Rae looked at her watch, thought about quipping, ‘But it’s not five here,’ only Dot was already in the kitchen emptying another bottle of mescal into the blender.

Jon, it seemed, was all too ready to make his exit, didn’t need to be told twice. Rae looked up to see him disappearing outside, heading down the path that led to his archives and studio. She waited to hear a song come on, hoping he was intending to choose some music and then return to the house, but no music did come on, nor did he reappear.

Rae went to join Dot in the kitchen. Dot was standing at the bench, chopping limes. Rae’s hands floated awkwardly, wanting to squeeze Dot’s hips as she approached from behind, but she ended up patting her upper back rhythmically, like a drum. ‘So that’s a wrap on day one, hey?’

‘Mm-hmm,’ Dot said, not looking up.

‘Need help with that? I used to supervise limes being cut, not to brag.’

‘I think I’ve got a handle on it. I’m going to unwind. I’ll see you back here for dinner in two hours.’

Somewhat affronted, Rae turned to leave but didn’t know where to go; the guesthouse seemed too sterile and isolated.

‘No, wait—Rae?’

Rae turned around, hopeful.

‘Three hours. Dinner is in three hours.’

‘Oh. Okay.’

She went down the path that led to the archives, and saw Jon was not there but in his pottery studio, the door open. He was shirtless—he’d removed his hoodie and tied an apron over his bare torso—and she watched him for as long as she felt propriety permitted. His lanky legs straddled the pottery wheel, and she could see his profile as he worked. The wheel span as he pressed a wet rag over it, turning the dry surface to dark stone in concentric circles. His fingers dug into the clay.

She shuffled forward.

‘Oh, I didn’t see you there,’ Jon said, startled, like a man in a smoking jacket at the beginning of a TV special.

‘Well, here I am,’ Rae said.

‘Let me guess: Mother banished you, asked for alone time?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well congratulations are in order then.’ Jon twisted around on his stool to face the doorway, his legs still spread around the wheel, bare feet planted on the cement floor. He waited until he caught Rae’s eye. ‘I’d say that makes you part of the family then,’ he said, and gave her a half-smile that was almost a wink before turning back to his work.

‘I was going to put on some music. Do you mind?’ She gestured towards the door of the archives, although Jon was no longer looking at her.

‘Knock yourself out,’ he said, as he pressed two knuckles into the clay on the wheel to form a ridge in the centre of his pot.

In the archives, Rae saw the book again, Brave New World, open to the section Jon had quoted just that morning, spine cracked flat in the middle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
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.