The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

Author:Colm Tóibín
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780670918195
Publisher: Penguin Adult
Published: 2010-07-17T10:00:00+00:00

Over supper, while Nuria was upstairs, having taken the children to bed, and there was a strained silence at the table, Carme mentioned that she thought she might drive into Ciutadella later to see the festival.

‘Oh, we never go to that any more,’ her mother said. ‘Not for years now. No one goes.’

‘No one?’ Carme asked.

‘No one we know. It’s too full of outsiders and tourists now.’

‘It’s been completely spoiled,’ her father said.

There was silence again, broken only by the sound of crickets and frogs beyond the swimming pool. Carme watched her parents and was tempted for a moment not to say anything, or to wait until Nuria came back. But there was something about the way her mother was eating, something so self-satisfied, that she could not contain herself.

‘Completely spoiled,’ Carme said in a low voice, ‘like the view from this house.’

Her father sipped a glass of water, her mother stared into the distance.

‘Like the view from this house,’ she repeated, raising her voice.

Her parents pretended that she had not spoken.

‘Did you hear what I said?’ Carme asked. ‘Spoiled like the view from this house. Don’t you agree?’

As Nuria returned to the table, her mother moved as though to say something.

‘Excuse me,’ Carme said to her father, ‘don’t you agree with what I said? Or have you grown deaf as well as fat?’

‘Carme!’ Nuria said.

‘He has grown fat selling our property to tourists and now he has the nerve to complain about them spoiling things!’

‘Keep calm, everybody,’ her father said.

‘By the way, I bought the furniture back. I found it down a side-street. The old piano and the rocking chairs. And if you sell anything else,’ she turned to her father, ‘I will call the police.’

‘Oh, listen to the communist!’ her mother said. ‘The police! Will that be the Russian police? Or the Chinese police?’

‘The bungalows are ghastly,’ Carme said.

‘Do you know why your grandmother sold the land?’ her mother asked. ‘So she would have enough cash in the bank to send money to you every month. How we used to laugh as we went to the bank together! You know, even the manager used to laugh as your grandmother would announce that she wanted to send money to her little communist in London.’

‘Montse, shut up!’ her father said.

‘Her lazy little communist, too lazy and useless to work and too lazy and useless ever to finish a course.’

‘Montse, I asked you not to …’

‘How we used to laugh when she said it! The little communist living off her granny. And now the little communist is eating our food. And complaining about the view.’

‘Montse, we are going to need …’ her father seemed angry and agitated.

Carme turned to her father.

‘Need what?’

Her father stood up.

‘Come on,’ Carme said, ‘finish it. Sit down and say what you were going to say.’

‘You know what we need you to do, Carme,’ her father said, sitting down again. His voice was calm. ‘Nuria has told you. I asked her to tell you.’

Carme looked at Nuria, who kept her head down.

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