Read Online Currawalli Street by Christopher Morgan - Free Book Online Page A

cracks of a marriage and open them further.
    Rose looks over at the rose bush she and Alfred planted when they first moved here. Its flowers are still as beautiful as when it firstbloomed but it is now untended and its thorns turn inwards and scratch its own strangled branches. She comments, as if to herself, ‘I have been meaning to prune that rose for two years. Now I will have to wait till August.’
    The wind has turned around; it is now coming in from the north and carries with it strange scents. Janet looks at the line of currawalli trees in the distance.
    Rose stands up straight and stretches her back. She invites both women to dine with her tonight. Alfred is going down to the pub, Johnny has gone into the bush. Janet will be alone because Thomas is attending a dinner at the bishop’s house. On the strength of their new communion and because they accept that Rose is more at home in a landscape like this than either of them are and because they have their own dread for the night’s isolation, both the younger women accept the invitation. All three are mildly surprised by what they just agreed to.
    â€˜Are you not invited to the bishop’s house?’ Rose asks.
    â€˜Of course. I am always invited. But I choose not to go.’ Janet shakes her head slightly as she speaks. ‘Do you know the bishop? No, of course not. How could you? He is a strange little man. Quite horrible.’
    She turns again to watch a willy-willy dance down the street. This bishop, whom Thomas has to rely on for so much, makes depraved suggestions to her without using any words, his leering eyes, his overly wet mouth, his lifted eyebrows proposing retreats into the shadows. Holding a spoon to her mouth or wiping her lips with a napkin seems to give him some kind of perverted pleasure that he barely conceals.
    She turns back to the others and they see that her cheeks have reddened. She shakes herself and tries to smile. Kathleen and Rose don’tsmile back.
    â€˜The bishop has made inappropriate suggestions to me,’ she finally says.
    â€˜Does your brother know about this?’ Rose asks.
    Janet begins pulling at the foxglove she has picked. The petals float down to the ground. ‘Oh yes. He knows very well. I keep nothing from him. I imagine that my non-attendances at those dinner parties will eventually work the bishop into a frustrated fury. And then he will send Thomas somewhere far away as punishment. The bishop will blame me for the way he feels.’
    Kathleen thinks, how much further could far away be?
    Rose thinks of her vision, and of the grass next to the church.
    Looking out the window of number twelve, Nancy sees Rose chatting to Kathleen and the reverend’s sister and decides to join them. She walks across the street to Rose’s front fence, leans over and smiles at the three women. Each is happy to see her, in varying degrees.
    For Kathleen it is only a little, for although Nancy brings with her a sense of Britain that Kathleen has not otherwise been able to find this far away from London, she talks too much and too loudly about things that aren’t really important.
    Janet is a little more pleased to see her, because Nancy evokes a kind of earthy sensuality that isn’t common with the other women of the street. Except Maria. But if Janet is ever going to confess her adventures to anyone it will probably be Nancy, for she feels that Nancy will understand without needing an explanation whereas Maria will needone. And she sometimes thinks that Nancy already knows, which is a sort of comfort.
    Rose is the happiest at Nancy’s presence, because the Scottish woman knows how to allow life to throw itself at her and never loses her resolve in the face of it. It is good to have someone like that close by.
    â€˜Will you come over for dinner tonight?’ Rose asks her.
    Nancy doesn’t have to consider for long. Eric is going down to Station Pier tonight to have dinner with an