Springtime by Michelle de Kretser

Author:Michelle de Kretser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2016-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

COLORS AFFECTED FRANCES. ALONG WITH the blue couch, there was a worn red leather chair in the living room. She had painted the walls yellow. There were pictures. The small rooms, with their patterns and strong colors, were paintings by Matisse. Frances shifted the position of a jug that held tulips, and began to think about dinner—it was obvious that Charlie wouldn’t be the one to produce it. “Do you like pizza, Luke?” she asked.

He was watching a documentary about giraffes. “Not frozen,” he said absently. “Trans fats give you cancer.” His phone rang. He was six years old and his phone had cost twice as much as Frances’s. Luke said, “OK,” and “No,” and “It’s Daddy’s back again.” Moving away, Frances heard, “Pizza,” and “I said.” But it was the word “again” that went through her like a wire. It alluded to a history from which she was forever banned. In addition to Luke’s mother and fused vertebrae, that history held a long list of people. Some of them were called Sarah, Juliet, Anna, Daisy, Felicity, and Jane. Frances had googled those with surnames. For Charlie’s benefit, she produced baroque entanglements of her own and handsome, corrupt strangers. What was the use? The truth couldn’t improve on a few boys as tame and necessary as hygiene, and a botched weekend with a professor who produced a school uniform he wanted her to wear in bed.

The thermostat in the oven was unreliable, and the cupcakes came out slightly burned. Inside, they were greasy in spots where the butter had melted. Luke said that Peter Paint wasn’t crazy about cupcakes. Frances ate one, gave three to Rod, and threw out the rest. She sat on the yard steps, and Rod came and leaned against her. The dog’s flat brown head, bony under her fingers, made Frances feel like crying. She saw Rod provoked, Luke bitten (a small flesh wound, a warning such as one animal delivers to another), an order for execution made out in exquisite italics. Luke’s mother voted Green and didn’t approve of pets. She was also careless about Facebook security. Frances knew her views on the appalling selfishness of dog owners and the mushy way they carried on about their animals—If the dog really could understand, it would die of shame. That had attracted nine Likes. Frances also noticed that Luke’s mother always referred to a baby as a gorgeous bubs. Frances didn’t believe in gushing over the young of any species. She was, after all, her mother’s child.

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