Read Online The Paperchase by Marcel Theroux - Free Book Online Page B

but I was talking about Stevo.’
    ‘Only the ones that won’t shag me,’ said Stevo, and he took an enormous inhalation of his joint. He let it out in little gasps and then offered Lloyd a puff.
    Lloyd took the spliff but didn’t put it to his lips. Instead, he passed it on to me. ‘Here you go. Take some of Stevo’s cold sores to your home in the New World.’
    I turned up the music to drown out the two of them bickering and make it seem like there were more of us. I told myself that after two or three drinks, things wouldn’t look so bad.
    Lloyd lit a cigarette. ‘What are you actually going to do when you get out there?’
    I could tell Lloyd was doubtful about the wisdom of going. As we had all got older, caution had overwhelmed all his other characteristics. It was surprising if you had known him as long asI had that this had emerged as his dominant trait, like the most unlikely candidate in a thriller turning out to be the murderer. But then two years ago, who would have thought Stevo would become this raddled parody of a skirt-chasing hedonist?
    ‘I don’t know really. Read, paint …’
    ‘I didn’t know you could …’
    ‘Paint? Not particularly well. That’s not the point. It’s just a chance for a change. Things are going nowhere for me here.’
    ‘I thought you enjoyed your job.’
    ‘I don’t know what gave you that idea.’
    ‘Damien, is it okay if I use the phone?’ said Stevo.
    ‘Of course,’ I said.
    Lloyd sprawled back on the sofa and let out a defeated sigh. He seemed to use his work as a narcotic. It drugged him with exhaustion. He always looked tired, like a prisoner who had been kept short of sleep and food to render him submissive. It was as though Lloyd was afraid that if it were contented and well rested, his body might make plans to escape from him.
    ‘Heather mentioned some kind of annuity,’ said Lloyd.
    ‘That’s right. It’s not much. It’s tied to the upkeep of the house.’
    ‘Do you know what kind of trust it’s held in?’
    ‘No, I don’t really. That’s one of the reasons for going over: I’ll be able to find if there’s any way I can rearrange the provisions of the will.’
    ‘Yeah, you ought to look into that.’
    ‘Do you hear anything from Laura?’ I asked.
    ‘Heather talks to her now and again. I gather she’s doing well.’
    There was a knock on the door which turned out to be Tina from downstairs. She had lived there for over a year, but I had avoided getting to know her on the very English principle that it’s better to have cool but cordial relations with your neighbours than try to make friends and discover you actually hate each other. Since I was going away, I decided it was safe toinvite her to my party, but I hadn’t really expected her to come. She was in her thirties and did something involving the Kurds which she had explained to me once when I was out trimming the hedge, but I’d forgotten.
    She came in and I introduced her to Lloyd and Stevo. Her presence somehow exaggerated the atmosphere of oppressive maleness that we had managed to create between us. I gave her a drink and told her that more people would be along soon, but I didn’t fully believe it myself.
    Stevo’s phone call conjured up a mob of people who spilled in at about half past ten. All of them were unknown to me; most of them were unknown to Stevo. By that time, some other guests had come, so the party didn’t seem quite so bedraggled, or quite so male as it had at the beginning.
    Once I had managed to stop nursing the party as though it were a sickly baby, it managed to thrive by itself and develop an unpleasant, vaguely rowdy personality that was all its own. Stevo’s obnoxious friends commandeered the hi-fi. I went over to help out and a man with shiny silver trousers shook his head at me and said: ‘This geezer’s got crap records.’
    Cravenly, I agreed with him and went into my kitchen to make a coffee.
    Tina came in and I made her one too and bitched