Lanark_ a life in 4 books - Alasdair Gray [176]
“No you don’t! Stop! Stop it!”
She got up and started to dress, saying, “I cannae afford to take chances.”
Thaw watched her, his mouth hanging stupidly open. He couldn’t quite believe what was happening. She buttoned up her dress.
“Get up!” she said roughly.
He sat up slowly and started dressing. His mouth still hung open. Once or twice he stopped and stared hard at the floor and she told him to hurry up. He felt dizzy and said, “Let me sit for a bit.”
He heard her say in a kindlier voice, “I cannae afford to take chances.”
“It wasn’t what you thought. Not contagious or infectious.” He took three pound notes from his hip pocket and laid them on the table.
“What’s that for?”
“Your time.”
“Take it back.”
He stared at the money without moving. She seized it and shoved it into the pocket of his jacket. He stood up and put the jacket on. She led him downstairs.
He went slowly by back streets to Drummond’s house, opened the broken-locked door and moved stealthily into a room off the lobby. Light, reflected from a street lamp, showed a leatherette armchair with china ornaments on the seat. He moved these and sat, elbows on knees, chin on knuckles, until cold sunlight dawned on the roofs outside the window and his teeth were chattering. In occasional waking dreams he seemed another object in the room, like the clock on the mantelpiece, the ornaments at his feet. The sound of conversation from the kitchen struck him as it struck the objects. Once Mr. Drummond passed the door muttering loudly, “Sheer bloody nonsense … ” then came noises of the lavatory being used. Thaw wrapped a small carpet round himself as protection from the cold. He began to dream he was a carpet himself, a mat of flesh with a hole in it. Something dreadful was going to emerge from that hole, he could smell its cold breath. He heard quick footsteps and a voice shouted, “Sponger and scrounger!”
He opened his eyes and saw a brisk, erect, fairly old woman staring at him accusingly. One hand was on her hip; the other held a bird cage with a stuffed canary on the perch. She glanced down at it and tears came to her eyes.
“Poor wee Joey,” she whispered softly. “Poor wee Joey. That bloody cat. Sponger and scoundrel!” she yelled again. “I won’t stand it!”
Drummond strode in saying, “Pull yourself together Ma. Oh, hullo Duncan. Ma, for God’s sake make yourself a cup of strong black coffee.”
“I won’t stand any more! You fill the house with Mollys and Janets till I’m driven out by the stink of bloody women, then your lazy friends come crawling in and shift all my good sister’s china, I won’t stand it!”
“Sorry about this, Duncan,” said Drummond grimly. He picked up his mother and wrestled her out of the room. Thaw went away.
It was a bright morning and the city stank of cheap perfume. He wandered eerily round to Brown’s tearoom and sat an hour or two in the teaspoon-tinkling warmth. His head ached. A small girl sat by him and said, “Hullo, Duncan, you look very well dressed today. Crumpled, perhaps, but quite smart really.” He stared at her. She said, “Do you remember you once said illness was useful sometimes?” He stared at her.
“Well, my doctor’s told me the same thing. You see, my mother committed suicide when I was three which probably … and then I lived with an aunt and the doctor thinks I made myself ill to … to be attended to. He said first I gave myself pleurisy and then anaemia and then colds, so now I’m going to a psychiatrist. Are you all right?”
Thaw stared at her. He heard the words but they seemed meaningless.
“Did you know that somebody, I forget his name, said you were a genius? Do you know who said that?”
Thaw stared at her.
“I forget his name but he’s a painter…. I think his first name begins with B. He’s quite well known. Anyway, that should make you feel … rather … I’m expecting Peter here soon. Did you know I was married?”
Thaw stood up awkwardly and climbed to the street. A Riddrie tram stopped at nearby traffic lights and he boarded with an effort. His seat in the downstairs cabin seemed to be a dog. When he looked at it