Roxy by Esther Gerritsen

Author:Esther Gerritsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: World Editions
Published: 2019-05-14T08:07:11+00:00

-

AS HER PARENTS wave them off, it’s easy to love them. Roxy drives; she toots another couple of times. They turn the corner and quietness descends.

On the ring road, Roxy says, ‘That was them doing their best. Can you imagine?’

Jane gets the liquorice out of the glove box.

‘You didn’t go to university at all?’ Liza asks.

‘I studied Countdown.’

‘Countdown?’

‘At least ten years, every night: Countdown. Seven, eight, nine letters—I can beat anyone.’

‘Rubbish.’

‘No, really.’

‘I don’t believe you. Jane, do you believe her?’

‘Yes,’ Jane says, ‘I read about it.’

‘In my book?’

‘Yes.’

Roxy blushes because she’d quoted herself word-for-word, a witty answer she pulled out of her sleeve for familiar questions. Her alter ego in her first novel had it down pat.

‘Why did you watch Countdown every day?’ Liza asks.

Roxy searches for new words, but her youth has become a novel she repeats out loud.

‘Because we had dinner like that, in bed, my mum and me, and watched Countdown.’

‘Every day?’

‘Often.’

‘Christ.’

Roxy spells it out, ‘C H R I S T, Christ, but proper nouns aren’t allowed.’

‘That bit about the Polish prostitute in your novel,’ Jane begins, ‘I’ve always wondered about that—is that true too?’

‘Polish prostitute?’ Liza says. ‘I think I’m going to have to read that book.’

‘Don’t,’ Roxy says. ‘It’s a bad book.’

‘It’s not a bad book at all,’ Jane says.

‘Is it autobiographical?’

‘Not all of it.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘Ask Jane, she’s read it.’

Jane recounts the plot, a colourful recapitulation of Roxy’s childhood. Roxy listens, enthralled.

They drive and eat liquorice non-stop the way girls do. Each time Jane puts a sweet in Roxy’s mouth, she feels Jane’s fingertips brush her lips. They sing along to the radio; it’s a lot like fun.

The car belongs to Roxy; they’ll use her credit card to pay for everything. The women are employed by her, yet her power is brittle because the money is finite; Jane has already made that much clear to her. Roxy isn’t the person who earned the money, either. She easily could have lived for years on the sales of her book during the short period everyone was interested in it, had it not been, compared to Arthur’s income, a ‘nice extra’, which she used to finance nice extras, like the conservatory. Roxy is out on the razzle with inherited friends she is paying using his money.

They drink wine with their late lunch. Liza, who doesn’t have a driver’s licence anyway, goes all out.

‘I’m not Des,’ she grins, and they understand she’s making a reference to Roxy’s father.

‘Who’s Des?’ Louise asks.

‘I’m not,’ Liza says.

‘I’m the designated driver,’ Jane says.

‘You’re Jane.’

‘Jane Des.’

‘I’m Louise Rombouts.’

‘So, if I’ve understood correctly,’ Liza begins, after her third glass of wine, ‘your mother’s a sad case because she voluntarily joined a dismal convent and after that she married an idiot who was never home or at some whore’s house in Poland …’

‘Yes?’

‘And you went to live like a nun in your own convent and you married an old idiot who was never home and who—’

‘Who?’

‘Fucked his interns.’

‘Or the babysitter?’

‘No way.’

‘No?’

‘And why do you

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.