There But For The by Ali Smith

Author:Ali Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction - Literary
ISBN: 9780307379986
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-27T10:00:00+00:00

The front door of the Lees’ house was wide open. A girl with a clipboard and a man carrying a camera rig were standing in the doorway. The cameraman was gesticulating at a man in a van parked at the kerb. The girl with the clipboard was speaking to Jen Lee, who was also in the doorway and who, just at that moment, caught sight of Mark at the foot of the steps and looked away as if either she had no idea who Mark was or she was making it clear she didn’t want to have to deal with him now.

Hello!

Mark looked down.

It was the child, the Bayoude child.

Oh, hello, he said.

I remember you, she said.

I remember you too, Mark said. Something happening?

It’s Channel 4, she said.

Right, Mark said. How’s your dad and mum?

They’re very well, thank you, the child said. They got your nice card saying thank you for the book and everything. We have it up all the time, on the mantelpiece, in the front. It is an honour kept only for very special cards.

That’s lovely, Mark said. I’m honoured.

Yes, you are, the child said.

Oh, hello Mark, Jen called down now. How are you?

She was free; the clipboard girl had come down the steps to the van and was unloading a heavy-looking tripod. The cameraman had disappeared, probably inside.

I don’t think they’ll need to speak to you, she said. I think we’re pretty much giving them what they’re after.

Good, Mark said. Well. I was just passing. I was just up at the park for the afternoon, and was just, you know, passing.

Right, Jen said. Well, if you’ll excuse me. Lovely to see you. You do look well.

She went back through the door into the hall.

What did you do in the park? the child said. Did you go to the Observatory? Did you go to the Planetarium?

Yes to the first and no to the second, Mark said.

Were you at the Observatory all afternoon? the child said.

No, I spent some of it sitting on a bench talking to my mother, Mark said.

On the phone? the child said.

In my head, Mark said. She’s long dead, my mother.

Oh. I knew that, the child said.

Forty-seven years dead last week, Mark said.

That actually happens to be longer than both my parents have even been alive, the child said.

Last Thursday, to be exact, Mark said.

That makes it sound like it was last Thursday that it happened, the child said.

In some ways it was, Mark said. Just last Thursday. Directly before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ever heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

No, but it sounds serious, the child said.

Oh, it was, very serious, then, Mark said.

Mark took the folded pieces of paper out of his pocket, made sure the one he was putting back in was Miles’s handwritten note, and held the magazine article out to the child.

Do you think you could slip this under his door for me? he said.

The child nodded, sure.

She ran into the house.

Half a minute later she skimmed out the front door and down the steps again.

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