Eyrie by Tim Winton

Author:Tim Winton [Winton, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9780374151348
Amazon: 0374151342
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2014-06-09T12:00:00+00:00

*

Despite the fact that Kai’s school was on the same block as the Mirador, Gemma insisted on collecting him in the car. Keely’s headache was luminous; he would have preferred to get out, cross the street and go up in the lift, but he didn’t have the heart – or maybe the nerve – to leave her in this moment of triumph, so in the minutes before the bell rang, they idled in the sweltering line around the block behind all the other vehicular parents and guardians and afterschool carers.

He doesn’t like surprises, she said. But he’ll like this one.

Why the convent school? Is it just because it’s close?

Well, duh.

I wondered if you might have gone Catholic.

Nah, just went to Sunday school with you and Faith. Whatever that was.

Like you said. A hippy preacher with a hurtin heart – Billy Graham meets Billy Jack. Singing ‘Morning Has Broken’ if memory serves.

They told us there was angels lookin out for us.

Well.

When I was livin at your place with Nev and Doris, it sorta felt true.

And now?

Angels move away, mate. They die. They get old. They leave you on yer own.

Still, he said. You’re a tough bit of gear. No illusions. Just yourself.

Your self, she said with unsettling authority. Your self isn’t enough.

Keely had nothing honest to offer her. How could you counter such a sense of abandonment? She really did carry with her a kind of desolation. It wasn’t just his parents who’d vanished from her life, but their fierce saviour, too, their Great Defender evaporating along with them. That much he understood. He had a hole that size in him too; sometimes it was the size of him entire.

He gazed out at the retro Minis, the 4x4s, the muscle cars ahead in the line. Behold, the miracle of hire-purchase and lax lending. Clearly he wasn’t the only one to feel empty. What a pageant of consolation this line of vehicles was, what a spiritual mystery conveyances had become.

He angled the poxy little A/C vent his way. This hangover wasn’t just making him maudlin, it was bringing on mortal thoughts – not helpful. A blast of icy air would have been welcome. But from this triumph of Korean engineering? Not happening.

Listen, she said cautiously after a long silence. Now I’ve got the car, I’m gunna visit Carly.

That’ll be nice, he said, sensing it coming.

Yeah, she said. I’m going up Saturday week.

Please, no, he thought – don’t ask me.

I was gunna say. If maybe you wouldn’t mind.

Keely averted his gaze. His temples felt scorched. He didn’t want this.

It’s way the hell out towards the hills, I know, she said.

Keely ran his dry tongue across his teeth. It was maddening, this obscure, relentless sense of obligation. It wasn’t his fault they’d lost the house and moved away from Blackboy Crescent. You couldn’t hold Nev responsible for a heart attack. Doris had her own children to see to; hadn’t she done all she could? This was getting ridiculous.

He said nothing, gave her no relief.

I know you’ve never met her or nothin.

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.