The Pools by Bethan Roberts

Author:Bethan Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile
Published: 2009-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

Robert tilted his glass towards me. I half-filled it. Paul also tilted his glass, and he got the same amount.

I stood at the head of the table. The crisped roast potatoes had their own warmed dish; the peas and carrots steamed under a sliding knob of butter. The gravy sat in its jug, next to a jar of cranberry sauce, unopened since Christmas. A ring of chipolatas surrounded the bird; each was pink on one side, deep brown on the other.

‘Want to carve, Howard?’ Kathryn handed me the knife and three faces looked up, waiting for their meat.

I knew my knife was too blunt for the job. I remembered that somewhere in the cutlery drawer there was a sharpening stick, unused. Paul’s father probably knew how to sharpen a knife on such an implement, wiping it back and forth along the granite at just the right angle, flicking his wrist like a painter. He’d know how to plunge the knife into the bird, puncturing the crisped skin with the tip of his blade and slicing through so that slivers of clean, gleaming meat folded down like yards of silk on a dressmaker’s table.

‘Leg or breast, Paul?’ asked Kathryn.

‘I’m easy, Mrs Hall.’

The two boys exchanged a smirk.

I sawed through the string that held the legs tight to the bird. It pinged back under the carcass, splattering my hand with pink juice. I stripped off clumps of breast meat and heaped them on the plates. Occasionally my blade hit a bone and there was a cracking noise.

I served myself last: two wings and a stringy piece of breast.

Robert picked up his fork, but before he could start to eat I raised my glass and cleared my throat. ‘We should make a toast.’

Robert held up his glass, and Paul followed.

‘What to?’ Robert asked.

I thought for a moment. The two boys leaned together, their elbows almost touching. I noticed that they both wore matching leather straps around their wrists.

‘To friendship.’

We all drank.

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