he had met the girl in London) but in which they were living like squatters.
Three children were playing by the back door with some chicken wire. The mother was in the kitchen. She was a woman in her late twenties with long black hair, thin long hands and grey eyes that were both bright and very liquid. Her skin had an unwashed look which is more to do with anaemia than dirt.
‘You won’t be able to stay here in the winter,’ he said.
‘Jack says he’s going to patch it up when he gets the time.’
‘It needs more than patching up.’
There was a table in the kitchen and two chairs. By the stone sink there was an orange-box cupboard with some cups and plates and packets in it. Half the window above the sink was broken and there was a piece of cardboard across it. The sunshine streamed through the other half and the grey dust slowly rose and fell through the beam, so slowly that it seemed to be part of another uninhabited world.
Later in the front room she sat down on the bed and allowed herself to ask the question for which she had really sent for him.
‘Doctor, can a woman of my age have heart trouble?’
‘It’s possible. Did you ever have rheumatic fever when you were a child?’
‘I don’t think so. But I get so out of breath. And if I bend down to pick something up, I can scarcely stand up proper again.’
‘Let me have a listen. Just pull up your blouse.’
She wore a very worn black lace petticoat. The room was as little furnished as the kitchen. There was a large bed in one corner with some blankets on it and some more blankets on the floor. There was also a chest of drawers with a clock on it and a transistor radio. The windows were overgrown with thick ivy and since there was no plaster ceiling and holes in the rafters, the room scarcely seemed geometric and was more like a hide in a wood.
‘We’ll examine you properly when you come up to the surgery but I can promise you now that you haven’t got a serious heart disease.’
‘Oh I’m so relieved.’
‘You can’t go on like this. You know that don’t you? We’ve got to get you out of here –’
‘There’s lots more unfortunate than us,’ she said.
The doctor laughed, and then so did she. She was still young enough for her face to change totally with her expression. Her face looked capable of surprise again.
‘If I won the football pools,’ she said, ‘I’d buy a big house and start a big home for children, but they say they make all kinds of difficulties these days for that kind of thing.’
‘Where were you living before you came here?’
‘In Cornwall. It was lovely there by the sea. Look.’
She opened the top drawer of the chest and from among her own stockings and children’s socks she took out a photograph. It showed herself in high-heeled shoes, a tight skirt and a chiffon scarf round her head with a man and a small child walking along a beach.
‘That’s your husband?’
‘No, that’s not Jack, that’s Cliff and Stephen.’
The doctor nodded, surprised.
‘I’ll say that for Jack,’ she continued, ‘he never makes no distinction between the kids that are his and those that are mine like. We share fifty-fifty. He’s better to Steve than his own father. It’s just that he can’t touch me.’
She looked at the photograph, holding it out at arm’s length.
The doctor asked whether she and her husband wanted to stay in the area and what would they think if he tried to get them a Council house. She answered without glancing away from the photo.
‘You have to ask Jack about that. We do everything fifty-fifty.’
Still holding the photograph she let her arm fall on to her lap and looked at the doctor, her eyes now angry.
‘Can you tell me if I’m too old? Jack says I’m too old. I only want it every two or three months.’
‘That’s all to do with your being tired and feeling you can’t cope.’
‘I’ve had a bellyful all right. Sometimes I think I just can’t go on. I just want to lie down and stop.’
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
