Read Online The Well by Elizabeth Jolley - Free Book Online Page B

places like England and America to scare the kids.’ But Hester, holding the scent of the letter in her large nose, was not at all sure.
    Joanna’s visit was still a little time off as she was in a typing pool and had to wait for her appointed holiday. The letter on the dresser caused a small deep frown to appear at the fleshy bridge of Hester’s nose. Since she did not look in the mirror at moments like this she had no idea how much more severe the frown made her look.
    One morning while they were eating an early breakfast Hester, suddenly disturbed by the too close crowing of their most handsome rooster, tilted her chair back and, putting an arm round the edge of the flywire door, caught the bird by the neck and, with a twist of her strong fingers, she broke his neck.
    â€˜Oh Miss Harper, dear,’ Katherine began.
    â€˜Hang him up in the shed, Katherine,’ Hester said going on with her meal. ‘We’ll deal with him later. A good dinner!’ She laughed her loud braying laugh. ‘In mid-crow,’ she said. ‘He’s been getting on my nerves lately.’
    Hester knew she could not ask Katherine about the scent on the letter, the pages still smelled or seemed to smell. What could Katherine say to any question about the scent of a letter. I don’t notice anything Miss Harper, dear, or, in one of her film-star voices, oh Miss Harper, dear, it’s my perfume. Remember the French perfume spray,
Chloe
, you bought me? I’ve just started to use it. Joanna will love it. She’ll rave about it.
    But Katherine was talking, ‘We’ll be able, Joanna and me … we’ll be able to go to town in our gear.’
    Hester was too slow to correct as she usually did. ‘We’ll be able, Miss Harper, dear, to wear our boots in town I’ve always felt too shy to wear them going out but with Joanna,’ she paused, ‘it’ll be just great, but. The only trouble is …’ Katherine said, ‘how will we get to town from here. I mean how shall we get to the café …’
    â€˜I shall drive you there of course,’ Hester’s reply was prompt. They looked at each other across the table. Katherine’s expression suggested a dismay which she was attempting to conceal. Hester, seeing herself through the eyes of Katherine and Joanna when they were together, imagined herself sitting like a poker, a black one, at one of the laminex tables, probably one with a messy top, while the two girls, overdressed and self-conscious in their high boots, put coins in the juke box at the same time eyeing the few youths and tossing their heads at the stringy-haired country girls who would also be eyeing the heroes of the wheat as they gathered in their one meeting place, the road house,
El Bandito
.
    â€˜Oh Miss Harper, dear, you couldn’t,’ Katherine whispered.
    â€˜I could wait in the car,’ Hester said with her grim little smile.
    â€˜I could take my sewing with me and sit in the car.’
    â€˜Oh Miss Harper, dear, you couldn’t!’ Katherine cried. ‘I wouldn’t hear of such a thing.’ She paused. ‘Miss Harper, dear,’ she said, ‘could I learn to drive? Please?’
    â€˜Perhaps,’ Hester began with reluctance. Remembering her sick headache she tried not to be too grudging. ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said.
    It was more than possible, she was thinking, that Joanna could drive. She was able, in her mind, already able to hear Joanna’s voice calling: ‘All right if we take the car Miss Harper? O.K. if we have the car tonight Miss Harper? We’ll need the car, Miss Harper, all day.’ My car, Hester said to herself, her frown deepening. Katherine, now busy at the sink, did not see Hester’s face. ‘Hurry up with those dishes, Katherine,’ she said, ‘if you must drive, you must! We’ll go out today, straight away.’
    â€˜Oh thank you Miss