Heartbreak by Craig Raine

Author:Craig Raine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books

Bishop’s mind had been an empty horizon, a line, an innocent line, geometry’s uninterrupted point in motion – graphite in the morning, iodine in the evening. Barbara’s jealousy had him watching for a speck of interest.

Kristin Scott Thomas at the Royal Court

‘She has a mannerism. Did you notice?’

They were in the Downstairs Bar, drinking tap water and, between bites, holding their home-made cheese sandwiches under the table.

‘I think she’s a brilliant Arkadina.’

‘You just think she’s beautiful. She is beautiful. Fantastic. Those eyelids,’ Milly said. ‘But she’s got a tell. Like a poker player. She doesn’t think she’s beautiful. Or beautiful enough. You must have noticed.’

Bishop raised his eyebrows.

‘The thing about being beautiful,’ Milly continued, ‘is that it’s great while it lasts. But it doesn’t last. It can’t. So you start to feel anxious. Beautiful, but anxious. At first, the anxiousness looks like acting. You pass it off as acting. It gives you an expression to your beauty. An accent. So you’re not just a beautiful egg like Emmanuelle Béart. But really it’s just that you’re afraid the audience will notice the signs. That your beauty is threatened.’

‘And you saw the signs?’ Bishop’s question wasn’t really a question.

‘How many kids has she had?’

‘Dunno. Two or three, I think. By that French doctor.’

‘That’s why she doesn’t like being looked at. It isn’t the face. The face is fabulous. It’s her belly she doesn’t like, doesn’t trust. Watch her right hand. Never stops smoothing her dress over her tummy. OK. OK. Never is an exaggeration. You know what I mean.’

It was true. He checked in the second half.

Kristin Scott Thomas with stretch marks, smocking, the navel in its plump stoup.

‘Thing is,’ Milly added before they went their opposite directions on the tube, ‘that insecurity is great for Arkadina. Trigorin fancies Nina because she’s younger. Arkadina has a grown-up son.’

‘So it was deliberate, you think?’ Bishop asked.

‘Might be. Might not be. Might have been intuitive. Or maybe she does it all the time. We’ll have to see her in something else. There’s my train. Bye.’

She ran for the escalator, her raincoat buoyed behind her, and skittered sideways down the steps like a foal.

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.