Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [94]
Thomas sighed. ‘What do we think of girls who care more about their friends than feeding Beryl?’ he asked Beryl. ‘We’re not impressed, are we? No.’ He shook his head, and so, it seemed to Tara, did Beryl.
‘Oh for God’s sake,’ Tara exploded. Thomas’s insecurity had always been behind his unpleasantness to her friends, but this was going too far. ‘Fintan’s got cancer!’
‘Oh, really?’ Thomas asked, disbelievingly.
‘Yes, really.’
‘But think about it, Tara, his lymphatic system is part of his immune system. And he has a deficiency with his immune system. Maybe an acquired deficiency with his immune system…’
‘Thomas, Fintan doesn’t have Aids. He’s HIV negative.’
Thomas huffed and puffed scathingly.
‘He’s got cancer,’ Tara reiterated.
‘Well, what does he expect?’ Thomas demanded. ‘It’s bludeh unnatural what they get up to.’
‘Thomas, you don’t get cancer from having anal sex.’
Thomas winced and put his hands over Beryl’s ears. ‘Do you have to be so brutal?’
Tara eyed him for a long, silent, thoughtful time. ‘Do you have to be so brutal?’ she eventually heard herself reply.
33
While they waited for the result of the bone-marrow biopsy, and Fintan almost drowned in a sea of visitors and get-well cards, life took the liberty of going on.
Lorcan’s so-called career was causing him great anxiety. The morning after Amy had set the filth on him he’d done an audition for understudy to Hamlet. And not just a church-hall production either, but a real play, with real actors, with a real audience paying – most importantly – real money.
As he waited a full week to hear if he’d got the part, Lorcan intoned repeatedly, ‘If I don’t get it, I’ll die.’ I’ll just die.’
But it looked like he could hold off on the dying for a while. On Monday evening his agent rang him and told him he’d been called back for a second audition, and there were only three other candidates.
Lorcan still hadn’t spoken to Amy, even though she had now left well over a hundred messages on his machine, of varying tenor. On some she sounded jolly and upbeat, chirruping, ‘Hi, there! Amy calling. Hoped to catch you in. Oh dear, never mind! Trust all is well with you, we must get together for a drink sometime. ‘Bye for now.’ These usually came at the start of the evening.
Later on, at about nine o’clock, the mood changed to sombre. ‘It’s Amy here. I need to speak to you. There are some matters that we must discuss. We can’t just leave things as they are. It’s irresponsible. It’s your duty to talk to me. Call me.’
Then, after midnight, she turned nasty. Her voice was usually drunk and tearful. ‘’S me,’ she’d say thickly. ‘Jusht calling to say I won’t be calling you any more. I’ve got lotsh of offers from other men, and do you know something? I’m glad, glad I’m not going out with you any more. You made me completely bloody miserable the whole goddamn time. You’re a total sadist and I’ve met a lovely man at work, and he thinksh I’m fantashtic and I jusht want you to know that you needn’t worry about me because I’m fine. Just FINE. Got that? Fine. F. I. N. N. Never been happier, actual – BEEEEEP,’ as she went over the message time.
Seconds later she always rang back. ‘’S me,’ she’d say again. ‘Look, I’m sorry, very sorry. You’re not a total sadist and there isn’t any lovely man at work. Just give me a call some time, because this is terrible.’ Then she filled the rest of the message time sobbing. He never returned any of her calls.
On Tuesday morning, as Lorcan got the tube to the Angel he felt that everyone on the train must know how important his journey was. That the air around him was surely buzzing with momentousness. Look at them all, he thought, in pity. Off to their sad little jobs. In a way I almost envy them, it’d be great to have nothing to worry about. The burden of being an unacknowledged genius was a heavy one. But what can you do?
When he got off the train, he made a bargain with himself. If he could walk from the station to the King’s Head without standing on a crack in the pavement, he’d get the part. And