Unwelcome Words by Paul Bowles

Author:Paul Bowles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Tangier 1975

I first met her just after she’d bought the big villa overlooking the valley Saudis have it now they’ve got most of the good properties I remember she asked Anton and me to tea we hadn’t been married very long then she seemed very much interested in him she’d seen him dance years ago in Paris before his accident and they talked about those days it was all very correct she had delicious petits fours strange how that impressed itself on my mind of course at that time you must remember we were frightfully poor living on the cheapest sort of food fortunately Anton was a fantastic cook or we should have starved he knew how to make a meal out of nothing at all 1 assure you well it wasn’t a fortnight later that she invited us to lunch terribly formal a large staff everything perfect and afterward I remember we were having coffee and liqueurs beside the fireplace and she suddenly offered us this little house she had on the property there were several extra cottages hidden around you know guest houses but most of them were up above nearer the big house this one was way down in the woods far from everything except a duck pond I was absolutely stunned it was the last thing I should have expected of her then she took us down to see it very simple but charming tastefully furnished and a rather primitive kitchen and bath but there were heaps of flowers growing outside and lovely views from the windows we were enchanted of course you understand there was nothing to pay we were simply given the use of the house for as long as we wished I admit it was a very kind gesture for her to make although at the time I suspected that she had her eye on Anton I was quite wrong as it happened in any case having the house made an enormous difference to us it was a gift from the gods there was as a matter of fact one drawback for me Anton didn’t seem to mind them but there were at least twenty peacocks in an enormous aviary in the woods not far away and some nights they’d scream you know how hair-raising the sound is especially in the middle of the night it took me weeks to get used to it lying there in the dark listening to those insane screams eventually 1 was able to sleep through it well once we’d moved in our hostess never came near us which was her privilege naturally but it did seem a bit peculiar at least she wasn’t after Anton the months went by and we never caught sight of her you see we had a key to the gate at the bottom of the estate so we always used the lower road to come and go it was much easier than climbing up past the big house so of course in

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.