Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman

Author:Elliot Perlman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2011-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

In the morning I awoke to find myself alone in bed once more. My wife, who knew the bed in all its moods, was up with a purpose. She and Kate were preparing a lavish breakfast and Abby was leafing through a book, primarily concerned with tigers, in the warmth of the couch that had been Kate’s bed. From the bedroom I could hear the festive sounds of capable women teasing out their destinies over the random clatter of morning domesticity, a sort of tertiary pyjama party. One of those inarticulate night-time fears which are meant to evaporate on contact with the morning was hanging on valiantly despite the sounds of human activity: the fear that Kate and Tanya had come back almost full circle to Freud’s latency period, and that if they had they would virtually ignore me and only read books by women authors.

I crept out of the bedroom into the bathroom which had been swiftly and painlessly colonised by Lancôme. Being a male felt a lot like being alone. I wondered who my male Kate was and remembered Paul. He was an idiot. I did not want him sleeping naked on my couch.

In the vanity mirror my teeth smiled back at me under sufferance, tobacco-stained from too much tea and coffee. The bathroom had its attractions. I could shower and shave. But the bedroom contained my clothes. Each room was a beach-head with its own distinct advantages and disadvantages. I felt the need to meet the activity of the rest of the house only when I was fully prepared. I took off my pyjamas, and while waiting for the water under the shower to become anaesthetisingly warm, I noticed the bathroom window was slightly ajar. Fresh air had been invited to join forces with deodorant, soap and perfume in the war against steam and the products of our bodies. I looked irresolutely through the window along the side of our house, and out onto the street. Several dogs had nothing to do.

Why do we love? It gives us hope of escaping a solitary existence. When I was clean I wrapped myself in a towel, shaved and sneaked back to the bedroom to dress for the breakfast party. I put on corduroy pants, an innocent face and, quite alone, went to join them.

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