Passing On by Penelope Lively

Author:Penelope Lively
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Grief, Loss (Psychology), Death, Brothers and Sisters, Mothers, Bereavement, Fiction, Psychological, Family & Relationships, Literary, Inheritance and Succession, General
ISBN: 9780802136268
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 1989-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

I

Louise flopped on to the sofa. ‘How did you enjoy your day in London?’

‘It had its moments,’ said Helen evasively.

‘What about the investment people?’

‘They made it fairly clear we were too small fry for them. And I the place was more like a botanical gardens than an office.’

Tim knows some other people. I’ll tell him to …’

‘No,’ said Helen. ‘We have still to recover from those.’

I

‘Think about it,’ conceded Louise. ‘So what did you do after that at — it can’t have taken you all day?’

‘We had lunch in that restaurant in South Kensington.’

‘It doesn’t exist any more.’

‘Exactly,’ said Helen. ‘So we discovered. We had lunch on its ashes, as it were. Then we went shopping.’

‘Well! Quite a spree! Very good for you both.’

‘Don’t patronise,’ said Helen. ‘We’re less socially disadvantaged than you imagine. The village provides resources undreamed of in Camden Town. Though I will admit that I find London disconcerting these days. The landscape. Everything seems to be built of mirrors — what on earth has happened to brick? But I grant you that I’m behind the times in some ways.

Architecture and offices full of botanical specimens are the least of it. Social etiquette, for instance … What’s done and what isn’t.’ She shot her sister a crafty glance. ‘Most of it is quite irrelevant to me, of course, but one keeps a sort of technical interest.’

‘Huh?’ said Louise. ‘What are you blathering on about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know … How people behave … Men and women, for instance. Such as … Do women take the initiative nowadays?’ She felt the beginnings of a disastrous blush and busied herself with a dirty mark on the window, getting out her handkerchief and scrubbing, her back to Louise. ‘I mean — time was, you wouldn’t … Nowadays, would they ring up first — that sort of thing?’

‘How should I know?’ said Louise sourly. ‘I’m married, aren’t I?’

‘Well … your friends …’ Helen persisted. ‘For instance, if someone hadn’t heard from a man friend for — oh, for a couple of weeks or so — when he’d said vaguely he’d ring — I mean, she might wonder if there was something wrong, if he was ill, or if she’d offended in some way. Would she feel nowadays it was up to her to make contact?’

‘Look, what is all this?’ demanded Louise.

‘I’m just curious. Detached interest. One ought to know how things are. If they’ve changed or not.’

‘You are a funny old thing,’ said Louise. ‘You’re making that window worse, you know. Haven’t you got any Windowlene?

Actually so far as I can see it’s sod’s law for women, just as it always has been. You know my friend Judith? Well, she’s been having an affair with this bloke for the last year or so and then out of the blue he turned round and . . Here’s Edward. Open the window and he can come in this way.’

Edward was advancing across the lawn. ‘What did he turn round and do?’ said Helen.

‘Oh, some other time … Hi! Thanks for the birthday present.

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