Parlour Games by Mavis Cheek

Author:Mavis Cheek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ipso Books

3

From the window of her third-floor room Celia looks down upon Salisbury. She has a nice view, the sort of view any tourist would love, for she overlooks the fine cathedral with its charming surroundings. At this time of evening it is almost deserted. The neatly manicured lawns, the quaint cobblestones, the warm brickwork of the eighteenth-century buildings that surround it complete a harmonious and tranquil scene: in the June sunlight, Celia thinks, they should create a sense of hope. The bright radiant blue of the sky, the early summer flowers of the gardens, the freshness of the light, all speak of being at the beginning of something. Celia shakes her head and turns away: she smiles ruefully. She certainly is at the beginning of something but it is not a something in which she wishes to participate. This beginning belongs to Alex and Pastel Frock downstairs. What Celia has experienced is an ending. But then, she thinks, all endings are beginnings. Close the door on one thing, you automatically open it to another – even if it leads to total darkness. Not a philosophical conundrum that she wishes to dwell upon at the moment.

There is a knock at the door. She calls out ‘Enter’ and is pleased to hear her voice sounding just the same as before: if anything stronger and more imperious. At any rate it has none of the whimpering uncertainty expected of a newly wronged wife.

In comes a small, rather plain young woman bearing a tray on which are perched the champagne in an ice-bucket, a glass and the packet of cigarettes. Celia is so grateful for these things arriving that she gives their bringer a five-pound note. She will never know that her largesse meant that the chambermaid who received it was thus able to spend her next night off at the Three Brass Bells (a very fine Jacobean hostelry on the outskirts of Salisbury) where she got extremely merry, accepted the advances of the head of the local darts team, had twins nine months later and now runs a nice little hotel near Swanage with her husband. She is a very happy woman and it is all thanks to Celia’s five-pound note. This merely continues to illustrate that there are silver linings to be had in everything leaden – even if we do not know what they are. Out there, somewhere, someone or something is always benefiting from the misfortunes of others. Look upon this as a positive situation, one to be encouraged: it would be tragic to think that no good at all comes out of what we suffer, for we all seem to suffer so much.

Celia is definitely not in the mood for considering silver linings at this moment. She feels – well – how does she feel? She puts her hand around the neck of the bottle and clutches it tightly for a moment. But it is cold and wet and not at all like living flesh so she just gets on with removing the cork.

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