There but for The_ A Novel - Ali Smith [76]
Known a couple like him in my time.
Bet you have, Mrs. Young, the girl said.
You be careful round him.
I can handle myself, the girl said. Don’t you worry.
May sat in the sweet smell of May. She could feel herself all down herself, cold now, very unpleasant, all round and down her legs. The girl pushed her along the dark pavement, round a corner, and the road turned into a crowd. There was a great noise and a great smell of food, and there were people all over the place, standing and sitting around even in this cold. There were stalls, places you could get things to eat. It was like a circus, or a hanging. The place was mobbed. People standing in a queue parted for them so they could push through; the girl laughed and told May the queue was for the Portaloos.
Well, I don’t need to go, now.
This we know, the girl said.
Where are we?
Greenwich, the girl said behind her.
Oh.
You said. You wanted to come, the girl said.
Did I? It’s the Greenwich Fair, is it?
Could call it that, the girl said.
The girl pushed the chair up a ramp into a big hut with heaters in it. Oh, it was warm! A woman wheeled her through the back and there were sinks, with taps and all. There was hot water and things for cleaning people up in this hut. It was marvellous what was possible in a hut these days, and a kind woman washed her down with a showerhead and towelled her dry and there was baby powder too, in a cupboard in the hut. When the girl came back she’d brought blue pyjamas, with trousers, and a jumper and a coat and things.
Cut this thing off my wrist, will you, girl?
The girl found a pair of scissors and she cut the plastic thing with the date of her birth on it off. That felt better, it did. Then the girl wheeled her back through to the door of the hut where there was a chap sitting waiting. He was an older chap but he was quite a looker. He wasn’t wearing a suit.
This is Mark, Mrs. Young, she said. He’s the one who found you. He’s going to take you to his house for tonight and make sure you’re okay.
Not Harbour House.
She’s scared of boats, the girl said.
I’m not scared of boats.
The man shook her hand.
Careful where you touch. Couldn’t keep it in.
Understandable, the man said.
You’re nice and clean now, the girl said.
The man was going to take her somewhere warm. It would be a pleasure, he said. He said he’d pick her up at the main road, if the girl, he called the girl Joe, would have her ready waiting at the kerbside so he could just duck the car in quick.
The girl wheeled May back out into the great crowd, through all the people. It was a great celebration. It was just like after the war. The girl stopped the chair and came round the front and bent down to fix the scarf round May’s neck, make sure the hat was properly on.
What’s it all for?
God, you smell loads better now, she said. You actually smell positively nice.
If it’s got to come out it’s got to come out. No stopping it.
The girl turned with one arm round May and pointed above the crowd, up at the backs of the houses.
See those windows? See that one in the middle? He’s in there, she said.
The man in the suit?
He’s not in a suit, not as far as I know, the girl said.
Well, I’m not dead yet, then.
You said it, the girl said.
For 29 January
Dear Mrs. Young,
I’m sorry not to be there in person this year, I’m in Canada on secondment and won’t be home in the UK again till the end of February.
But am sending this card to say hello.
With best wishes.
I hope you are well.
Miles
fact is, London might not always be here! There have been times in the history of London that London practically stopped existing! Brooke stands next to the Shepherd Galvano-Magnetic Clock. She holds her sides. It is what you do when you are getting your breath back. Then she feels her jeans pocket to check for the Moleskine book. Moleskine books are notebooks that were famously used by famous authors like Ernest Hemingway and Bruce someone. She can feel the edge