Read Online Mavis Belfrage by Alasdair Gray - Free Book Online

delicious. And here’s a bookcase half a yard away. The best minds in human history, Shakespeare, George Eliot, Agatha Christie, Edna O’Brien have sweated blood to fill these shelves for you. Or here’s television, our window on the world, a choice of three windows nowadays. Not a night goes by without it showing people slaughtered by bombs in Asia or famine in Africa. Watch them doing it and feel
privileged
Mavis. Or do you want the sound of a friendly human voice? Try the telephone! Dial the speaking clock and find what the time will be on the third stroke.”
    His voice had grown louder but now, losing his temper, he thrust his face toward hers and said in spitting whisper, “Do anything, Mavis, but shut me up in your depressing little predicament for the next two hours.”
    She cried out, “I wish I hadn’t sent Bill away! He loved me.”
    â€œKids have no choice, have they?” said Evans soberly. “Funny. I never thought there was cruelty in me but when you tighten your sullen screws on methe stuff comes bubbling out, doesn’t it?”
    She seemed to ignore him. He put a coat on saying, “You’re still a young woman. Why not try for a job?”
    â€œWhat job? Nursing the sick? Wrapping biscuits in a factory?”
    â€œYour trouble is you feel too good for the world so have to depend on people like me, who don’t.”
    At the door he turned and said, “I still love you Mavis, as much as you let me nowadays. I’m still glad we met when you were tiring of Colin Kerr. Weeks may pass before you find a way to leave me. Let’s pass them as pleasantly as possible, eh? When I come back at eleven I’ll be a lot less ironical.”
    He left and soon after she went to the phone and dialled. A voice said
Colin Kerr here
.
    In a low voice she said, “Hullo Colin. Do you remember me?”
    Mavis! How good to hear you! I was hoping you would call
.
    â€œYou mean that?”
    Of course
.
    â€œWould you like to see me?”
    Of course. I’d have called you long ago but didn’t know where you were
.
    â€œTonight?”
    Definitely
.
    â€œCould you pick me up in the car?”
    No, I’ve sold it
.
    â€œThen I’ll come by bus unless … Colin, is Gordon with you?”
    No
.
    â€œRight, I’m leaving now. Are you sure you don’t hate me?”
    I love you
.
    â€œI just want to see you tonight Colin.”
    Fine. Do it
.
19
    At Saint Leonard’s Bank the Colin who opened the door to her was more fleshy, more relaxed, more like his father than the Colin she remembered. He led her into a living-room where a rolled carpet lay like a felled tree trunk on bare floorboards. Windows were curtainless. All furniture but the sofa was stacked in a corner.
    â€œYou’re leaving!” she said.
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œSo I’ve caught you on your last night in the old home?”
    â€œO no. I’ll be here till Tuesday when the furniture will be removed. Then I’ll spend a week in Gordon’s place, then I’ll go to Zambia.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œTo lecture in a college there.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œIt might be more interesting. It might not, of course. Come with me and find out. But first of all, a coffee? I can also offer sherry. I still have a full bottle I bought for that disastrous party.”
    â€œCoffee please,” she said smiling back at him. “I’m glad you didn’t drink all the booze in the house.”
    He went to the kitchen. She walked to the sofa between books piled on the floor. Before she arrived he had obviously been tying his library in bundles. She sat and lit a cigarette. He returned with a loaded tray and sat beside her with the tray between them.
    â€œYour health,” he said, raising a mug of tea.
    â€œYours!” she said, lifting a mug of coffee. They clinked mugs and sipped.
    â€œLife with Evans hasn’t made you