The Deck by Fiona Farrell

Author:Fiona Farrell [Farrell, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781776953776
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

The others have dawdled off to their pods. There is just Philippa wiping down a bench and Maria who stands by the open door of the fridge picking delicacies from the interior — a slice of cold lamb, a tomato, the remains of some potato salad — with her bare fingers. A habit Philippa remembers only too well from childhood. Maria picking with her fingers at the Sunday joint and their father yelling and the way she persisted, seeming to enjoy the upheaval.

‘So,’ says Philippa, ‘what’s all this about? What’s going on?’

Maria shrugs. ‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘Thought I’d come and see you, that’s all.’

‘I don’t hear from you in decades and you turn up here, no warning. Why?’

‘Can’t this wait till morning?’ says Maria through a mouthful of potato and mayonnaise. ‘The cross-examination?’

‘No,’ says Philippa. ‘It can’t wait. And Zoe? What’s she doing here?’

‘Look, I’ve been driving for hours,’ says Maria, ‘including that damn goat track up there, in the dark. You’ve obviously spent a fortune on this place. Why didn’t you upgrade the access? It’s a nightmare.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ says Philippa, feeling herself revert in a split-second to thirteen with a kid sister who drives her insane.

‘We’ll get on to the case for the prosecution tomorrow,’ says Maria, filling a glass with water. ‘The summing up of all my shortcomings and the bloody sentencing. But right now, I’m going to bed. I need to sleep. Okay?’

She sets off across the deck, pauses midway and turns.

‘This place,’ she says, ‘by the way, is hideous. This whole fake scruffy kiwiana simple-crib-at-the-beach schtick. I mean, are you kidding me? I preferred the real thing, Bimmi’s place. It was old and dirty and it stank, but at least it was real.’

‘What do you mean?’ says Philippa. ‘This is real!’

But she’s gone. A shadow crossing the deck to the third pod. The glass door slides open, a rectangle of light, then shuts with a click.

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