‘it’s not often we’re all together.’
Pegasus was irritated by this apology. If the Shah of Persia had been there, what would he have thought? And he was irritated by his own irritation. A bottle of wine was an extravagance.
It had meant financial sacrifices bringing up the children. It had meant frayed carpets, a rusty lawn-mower, Radio Times but no T. V. Times, an old decrepit car. Pegasus felt that it was his irritation, not his father’s apology, of which the Shah of Persia would disapprove. And even now Paula was making love to a man who translated Ogden Nash into Latin. At this moment while Pegasus was chewing Yorkshire pudding she was biting gently at the thick dark hairs on that odious young man’s revoltingly hairy arms, while he mouthed sweet hexameters into her ear.
‘What’s wrong, Pegasus, aren’t you hungry?’
‘I was thinking.’
‘I hope you aren’t sickening for something.’
‘No, mother, I’m not sickening for anything.’
‘Well, anyway,’ said his mother, ‘it is nice, all being together like this.’
‘Quite a family,’ said his father.
‘I think Morley’s gone a lot more dour since he went up North,’ said Diana.
‘My library book’s set in the North,’ said his mother. ‘I can’t get into it. I don’t like sordid books.’ (Murmurs of dissent.)
‘There’s nothing sordid about the North,’ said Morley.
‘Except what the bosses plunged it into in the industrial revolution,’ said Diana.
‘The distinctions drawn between the North and the South are a romantic myth,’ said Morley. ‘We try to see in the North the kind of strength and simplicity we would like to have.’
‘There are some very nice parts of the North,’ said his mother. ‘Your father and I are very fond of Wensleydale, aren’t we George?’ (Uproar.)
‘We’re talking about the real North,’ said Diana.
I must join in. I must say something. I mustn’t put myself at a distance.
‘Anyway this Yorkshire pudding is very good,’ said Pegasus.
How old his mother was, he thought. Shrinking. Hardly more than five foot tall these days. Liable to disappear by 1990 at this rate. Beginning to call him Diana by mistake. She had aged at the same rate as him, and so he had never noticed it. She had been there, busy about the house, not sparing herself, a familiar landmark, twenty-five years older than he was. Now overnight she was old. She was a human being. She had been young. He knew nothing about her.
‘It’ll be warm enough to sit outside,’ said his father.
His father looked a little strained, a little haggard, a little baggy. His father too was very pleased about his scientific leanings.
‘The temperamental differences between Yorkshire and Lancashire people are considerably more radical than the difference between say Pontefract and Bedford,’ said Morley, droning on.
Short work was made of the washing up. It was found to be just possible to sit outside in the deck-chairs, in a sheltered corner of the garden.
They drank their coffee, while all around them the first lawn-mowers of spring whirred, and above them aeroplanes came in towards London Airport bringing carefree foreigners, and over the road Mr Munsford lovingly touched up his repulsive topiary with a very special pair of clippers. Suddenly, in a brief gap between planes, Pegasus took the plunge.
‘I’m leaving my job,’ he said. ‘I’m going to be a chef.’
He was ashamed. The Shah of Persia would never have been so embarrassed about so minor a matter.
‘You can’t mean it,’ said his mother.
‘A chef?’ said Morley incredulously.
‘Good God,’ said Diana.
‘This is a bit late for April fools,’ said his father.
‘I’ve taken a job as vegetable chef in a hotel in Suffolk.’
‘It’s a bit of a waste of a good second in science, isn’t it?’ said Morley.
‘It’s my life.’
‘You had a good career at the institute,’ said his father. ‘Aren’t you a bit of a fool to give all that up?’
‘Mad,’ said Morley.
‘Shut up!’ said Diana.
‘I found it grotesque,’ said Pegasus.
He longed to pass overhead in one of those planes.
‘But the catering trade,’ said his mother, wrinkling the nose of her voice in disgust.
‘You make it sound so sordid,’ said Pegasus.
‘I think food’s a jolly good thing to go into,’ said Diana.
‘You aren’t as old as he is,’ said their mother.
‘And you’re a girl,’ said their father.
It began to pour, a sharp gusty shower. There was a general rush indoors with rapidly folded deck-chairs. The business section of the Sunday Times floated off towards Hillingdon. The rain, which George Baines had not forecast, had saved the situation.
They all disappeared, his father to finish some graphs, his mother to bake a cake, Morley to pack, Diana to go over to Ursula’s to do some French. Pegasus recognized this ploy. He was now expected to do the rounds and be lectured by each in turn. If he didn’t, they would all come to him.
He followed Diana up to her room.
‘Thanks, Di, for backing me up,’ he said. ‘You know it’s rather nice in here.’
‘Naturally.’
She was busy with her face.
‘You like to be at your loveliest when you do your French, do you?’
‘Of course.’
She came up to him with swift movements and kissed him on the lips with her round rather jolly face.
‘You’re a sweetie,’ she said, and then slapped him hard on the bottom and left the room without turning round. He watched her swinging aggressively up the road with her broad hips and slightly muscular white-stockinged Sunday afternoon in Uxbridge legs.
He went out into the corridor.
‘Is that you, Pegasus?’ called Morley.
He went into the bedroom which he shared with Morley when they were both at home.
‘You aren’t
