The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St John

Author:Madeleine St John [John, Madeleine St]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literary, General, Azizex666, Fiction
ISBN: 9781921776830
Google: NnIgrOXIuB0C
Publisher: Text Publishing Company
Published: 2010-05-16T04:00:00+00:00

40

‘Geoffrey, what have you done with the drill?’

‘Why do you want the drill?’

‘So that you can put up that rail.’

‘What rail?’

‘For Nicola’s clothes.’

‘Oh, not that again.’

‘She’ll be here on Saturday.’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘I’m not though.’

‘Oh, God.’

‘So where’s the drill?’

‘Sam’s got it.’

‘Sam?’

‘Yes, he borrowed it, a while ago, to put up shelves.’

‘Honestly, you’d think with a whole house to fix up he’d buy his own drill. Pathetic.’

‘Yes, well, there it is.’

‘Well, you’d better get it back, pronto.’

‘I can’t go round there now, I simply can’t.’

‘You don’t have to, Guy can go on his bike. Just ring up and say he’s coming.’

‘Oh, God, must I?’

‘Please. I just want to get this bloody rail sorted out once and for all. Now. Look, I’ll get the number for you. Where’s that address book? Ah, here we are. Now.’

They did the business: Sam was in, thank goodness, because it was his turn to look after baby Chloe while her mother, the not-so-very-fair Helen, worked in an advice centre. Guy was called and sent off to do the errand and within half an hour Geoffrey with loud complaint was at work fixing the rail. The task itself was accomplished in ten minutes flat, it was only the stages leading up to it which had taken up a total of—con servatively—five hours, spread—to be fair—over four days.

‘Shall I take it back to him now?’ said Guy. ‘He said he hadn’t finished with it.’

‘Of all the bloody cheek!’ said Susannah. ‘No you won’t. He can bloody come and get it himself. The very idea!’

‘How long is Nicola going to stay here?’ asked Guy.

‘I don’t know. As long as she likes. Listen. I want you to be very very nice to Nicola when she’s here, okay. Not that you wouldn’t be, but still. She’s feeling rather frail.’

‘Frail. What does that mean?’

‘Fragile.’

‘Like glass?’

‘Yes, exactly.’

‘Might she break?’

‘Yes. In a way.’

‘Cor.’

‘So just be very very nice, so that she doesn’t.’

‘I’ll let her play with my mice.’

‘That’s the ticket.’

‘She can have them in here if she likes.’

‘That might be going a bit far. Just let her play with them, if she wants to. She might not want to.’

‘Oh, she will.’

‘We’ll see.’

‘Yes, we’ll see—when’s she coming?’

‘Saturday.’

‘Oh, but that’s when I’ll be at my riding lesson!’

‘So, she’ll be here when you get back.’

‘Whizzy!’

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