This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy

Author:Maeve Binchy [Binchy, Maeve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

T HE C HRISTMAS

B ARAMUNDI

S he had met him fi rst at the fi sh market on Christmas Eve. It was very early in the morning, but already crowded. Their hands touched as they each pointed to the same ocean perch.

"That one," they said at the same time.

They all laughed, Janet the schoolteacher, Liam the banker, and Hano the younger son of the fi sh merchant.

"You have it," Liam said gallantly.

"No, no, you were the fi rst," Janet countered.

Hano said, "He has many brothers and sisters, you can have one each."

"I don't like to think of his brothers and sisters," Janet said.

This Year It Will Be Different "I know, but we're very hypocritical, aren't we?" Liam had a crinkly smile that lit up his face.

"Who was it said they could never eat anything that had a face?" Janet looked thoughtfully at the slabs of fi sh, each one with a very definite face, some of them indeed with expressions that you could almost defi ne.

"Hey, you'll have us eating bread and cheese for Christmas," he said.

Janet sighed. "No, that's the problem, point out all the disadvantages about something and then go ahead and do it all the same."

"Mine's different, I favor the ostrich tech-nique; pretend things don't have faces, or brothers and sisters. Just grill them and eat them."

"Poach them surely, or cook them in foil.

This is much too big to grill." Janet took things literally.

"Have coffee with me," Liam said suddenly.

Hano wrapped their fish for them. Janet paid in cash, Liam used a gold credit card. He took her by the elbow and they went to where people drank small cups of coffee and ate delicious Italian bread. Hano waved them good-164

T he C hristmas B aramundi bye. He would love to have gone with them, to have talked and laughed as they did so easily.

Instead he would have his father's eye on him and his uncles' and the eyes of his two older brothers. This was one of the busiest days of the year. He should be working, reaching out toward customers, not dreaming.

More and more people bought fish for Christmas Day. Going to the market in Pyre-mont was now almost a tradition. The customers enjoyed the experience as much as the fish they bought. Look at that couple, for example: The man was rich, he had a jacket that Hano would have to work for fi ve years to earn. His watch was gold. He didn't even look at the docket he signed. He surely didn't need to come here and buy fish; someone could have got it for him. Perhaps he was lonely; maybe he had a fi ght with his wife. Possibly he was a bachelor or a divorced man. He must be about thirty-fi ve or forty.

Janet was asking herself all these questions, too, as they went together for coffee.

But by the time they were sipping their espresso and eating the warm foccacio she didn't care if he was married or single, if he had twenty people waiting at home for him or 165

This Year It Will Be Different nobody.

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