Other People's Worlds by William Trevor

Author:William Trevor
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

Joy dawdled on her way to school. She felt perfectly normal. She’d eaten two plates of cornflakes and four slices of bread and blackcurrant jam for breakfast, and what she was thinking now was that she didn’t want to put in an appearance at Tite Street Comprehensive. She didn’t mind taking a drug, any more than she minded starting fires. But the latest craze Clicky Hines had come up with was tattooing, which everyone said hurt.

She gazed into shop windows, wishing her mother wouldn’t always leave the cornflakes packet open so that the cornflakes became limp. She wished her mother wouldn’t hide her bottles of booze all over the place. She wished she was on the way to the Bovril factory, earning money instead of having to spend it on drugs and tattoos. She’d have to save in order to get a tattoo. For weeks she wouldn’t be able to call in at the Rialto or the Chik ’n’ Chips.

She stared at people in cars held up at a set of traffic-lights. If only he could be in the flat, listening and understanding as he did in the Pizzaland. He understood about the Comprehensive and the boredom of the place. He understood about the sex craze, even about the student teacher in the cupboard. She could have said to him about the elephant stuff. She would have thrown it away if he’d said, not caring if 3B took the mick when she told them. He never fussed. When her mother had a drink in he was always quiet and calm; when she was embarrassing, saying he’d called the tune for her heart-strings that day on the bus, he just nodded patiently.

Joy reached the railings of the school and looked through them. The playground was empty because she was late. In 3B they’d be passing round the tattoo sketches, Niagara Falls in blues and greens, Jesus on the Cross, anchors and hearts and Mrs Thatcher. She turned and walked away.

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.