Paper Moon by Marion Husband

Author:Marion Husband
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Accent Press
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Hugh slumped on to a bench outside the waiting room and lit a cigarette. He felt exhausted, the tightness in his chest worse than ever. He wondered how much of the pain was caused by her leaving and how much by the fear that his own idiot clumsiness might keep her away from him. He had never met anyone so difficult to understand; being with Nina was like being lost in the middle of the Atlantic without a compass, without sun or moon or stars. She made him feel afraid of a future without her.

Bobby came and sat beside him. He didn’t speak, only lit his own cigarette. They smoked in a silence punctuated by Hugh’s coughing.

At last Hugh said, ‘We’ll go.’

Bobby stood up, crushing his cigarette out beneath his shoe as he took his car keys from his pocket.

The rehearsal had started badly and disintegrated into farce. Jane watched in dismay as the boys fluffed their lines and missed their cues, their concentration totally shot by the appearance of the awkward young man sitting at the back of the hall. He had come in so quietly she hadn’t noticed him at first. It was obvious he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. He sat on the edge of his seat, hunched forward as though listening intently. Jane sighed as Mark Redpath stammered over a line she thought he had learnt perfectly. Stepping on to the stage she clapped her hands.

‘All right. Let’s call it a day, shall we? And all of you – I want to see an improvement. The day will soon be here when you’re doing this for real.’

Mark Redpath approached her. His face was flushed with embarrassment. Sorry for him, she said lightly, ‘Is that your brother, Mark?’

‘Yes, Miss.’

They both stepped down from the stage and Mark looked towards the back of the hall where his brother had got up and was walking towards them. Jane began to feel afraid of how she might react to his disfigurement and found herself standing up straighter and smoothing back her hair.

Mark said, ‘Mrs Mason, I’d like you to meet Bobby Harris, my brother.’

He said it with such pride that the young man laughed. He held out his hand to her. ‘Hello. I hope you don’t mind me turning up like this.’

Shaking his hand she said, ‘No, of course not. I’m very pleased to meet you at last, Mark has told me a lot about you.’

She was smiling too broadly. Although she hardly ever blushed, she felt her cheeks colour. She glanced away towards the stage. ‘I’m afraid you didn’t catch us at our best.’

‘Well, sometimes an unexpected audience can put a spanner in the works.’ Turning to Mark he said, ‘Mark, why don’t you catch up with the others?’

He looked relieved to get away and there was an awkward silence as they both watched him leave. When he was out of earshot Bobby said, ‘Mrs Mason, please say if you don’t think this is a good idea.

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.