The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

Author:Rachel Joyce [Joyce, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781473508316
Google: jZOuAwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00HFAZ3W8
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-10-06T23:00:00+00:00

A happy day

IT’S LATE October. One of those beautiful mellow days when the light is blue-gold and the trees haven’t yet lost all their leaves. The greens are tinged with red and brown, and that gives them more definition. Michaelmas daisies make banks of purple along the road. Summer is gone, and yet here is the sun again, and it is a kinder, older version of its August self.

You and I travel with our car windows down. The air is soft and warm and it strokes our faces. It occurs to me to ask how things are going in Cambridge, but I don’t want to spoil this late afternoon so I choose to stay silent.

And then the car gives a splutter and you glance at the dashboard and the car gives another shudder. When you pull over and turn off the ignition, the engine emits a heavy hiss, as if it is sighing.

‘Bloody hell,’ you say. You open the driver’s door. Step out of the car. I remember the silence in the country lane. There is nothing but birdsong, the buzzing of insects. The stillness of a warm road. Ahead of us there are only trees. Behind us too. You rub your hands and lift the bonnet. I close my eyes a moment. Feel the autumn sun on my skin.

‘What is it, Harold?’

No reply.

When I step out of the car, you are puzzling over the engine. The light falls gold on your shoulders. You scratch your head. When you stop, a smear of black grease sits above your left eye.

‘Is there a problem?’ I ask.

It seems there is. We need a garage. But this is South Devon. The nearest one will be in Kingsbridge. Also, you add, there is another more significant problem. You have no idea where we are.

‘Do you mean we’re lost?’

‘I was sort of hoping you wouldn’t notice.’

I look at the empty lane ahead and behind us. A watery haze shimmers above the tarmac in both directions. ‘What should we do?’

‘I need to go and fetch help.’

‘But you don’t know where we are.’

You grimace. You sigh. ‘Ah, no.’

‘Do you have a map?’

Ah, yes. A map. You dive into the car and produce the Ordnance Survey. After slamming down the bonnet, you unfold the map very carefully and spread it out. We both bend over it, trying to work out where we are. For a moment I forget about you, I forget about the autumn light, I am completely absorbed in deciphering the map. And so it surprises me to realize that we are almost touching, arm against arm, face against face, the smell of you so close it is on my skin too, and yet I am able to look at the map and see the roads, the contours, the marked farm buildings and churches.

‘Here we are,’ I say. I point my finger triumphantly at the spot. ‘This is where we are.’

To my surprise you begin to laugh. I straighten up, and frankly if anyone should be laughing it is me, because you are the one with oil grease above your left eye.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.