Super-State: A Novel of a Future Europe by Aldiss Brian W

Author:Aldiss, Brian W [Aldiss, Brian W]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781504010306
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2015-05-18T16:00:00+00:00

Nurse Gibbs carried a bowl of bread and milk in to her invalid. Jane Squire followed her. Jane had retained her good looks well into middle age. With her stalked her lanky older son, John Matthew Fields. John was at university; the seriousness of his grandfather’s illness had brought him down for the weekend. Bettina and her visiting boyfriend, Bertie Haze, were already in the conservatory, talking to Sir Tom, and to each other when Sir Tom lost interest. He had slept most of the afternoon.

Tom’s gaze shifted rather vacantly to the large ambient screen on the conservatory wall where racing results from Newmarket were coming through. He was sinking slowly. The days of nurse’s injections every half-hour were over. He was now connected to a trigger which administered a morphine derivative whenever needed.

His daughter had brought a vase of flowers cut in the garden. She arranged them where he could see them.

‘They’re beautiful, Jane. Thank you so much.’ After he had spoken, Sir Tom took a sip of water. His mouth was dry.

‘It’s been a bad year for roses, a good one for lupins.’

‘Mmm. Global warming.’

Nurse Gibbs was arranging a table on which to place the bowl of bread and milk. Her ASMOF for the day had said, ‘People may ignore you. Your day will come. Be patient.’ But, she had said to herself, she was not patient, she was nurse. She wanted to retire and run a teashop in Bideford with her sister.

‘You know, I had forgotten what a lovely room this is,’ said John Matthew to his mother, as he looked about him. ‘The damp’s getting in at that corner. You ought to have the windows double-glazed.’

‘Couldn’t afford to, darling,’ said Jane, smiling. ‘But I agree that it is beautiful. Ideal place for your grandfather to be at present. This conservatory was designed for happiness.’

Little aromatic candles burned on the floor, sending out fragrances of Norfolk lavender.

‘Where’s your painting bloke, Mother? Gautiner?’

‘Things are getting rather serious. Remy’s had to return to Paris.’

He smiled at his mother with affection. ‘So you’re living the life of a nun.’

‘Bettina and Bertie are making up for it.’

They stood together, gazing out at the late-afternoon sunshine on the sweep of lawn. John Matthew sensed the sorrow in his mother and took her hand. She flashed him a smile. Nurse Gibbs moved about the room, adjusting curtains, tucking slippers under the bed. She was not happy about too many visitors.

Bertie was saying, brightly, ‘The effects of global warming don’t seem to have been so bad this year. Perhaps –’

Sir Tom held up a frail hand. He had caught a tone in the BBC announcer’s voice. ‘Wait! Let’s listen to this!’

The announcer was speaking on the ambient. ‘– Grave warning. A large section of the ice sheet on Greenland’s east coast, near the town of Angmagssalik, has fallen away, bringing a headland down with it into the ocean.’ Jane and John Matthew turned to listen.

‘The resultant tsunami or tidal wave is now spreading rapidly across the Atlantic Ocean.

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