UNIT 3 FICTION
The next morning she throws out her father’s old vests she’s used as dusters, carries the empty stout bottles up the wood and dumps them under the bushes. She takes out rugs and beats them with more vigour than is necessary, raises a fl urry of dust. She hides old bedspreads at the back of the wardrobe, turns the mattresses and puts the good sheets on the beds. She always keeps good bed-linen in case she’ll get sick and she wouldn’t want the doctor or the priest saying her sheets are patched. She takes all the cracked and chipped plates off the dresser and arranges the good willow-pattern dinner set on the shelves. She orders bags of fl our and sugar and wheaten meal from the grocer, gets down on her knees and polishes the fl oor until it shines.
They arrive in the avenue on a hot Friday evening. Betty takes off her apron when the taxi beeps the horn and rushes out into the avenue to greet them.
‘Oh Betty!’ Louisa says, as if she’s surprised to see her there.
She embraces Louisa, who looks as young as ever in her white summer two-piece, her hair hanging in gold waves down her back. Her bare arms are brown with the sun.
Her son, Edward, has grown tall and lanky, a hidden young man who prefers to stay indoors; he extends a cold palm, which Betty shakes. There is little feeling in his handshake. The girl, Ruth, skips down to the old tennis court without so much as a word of hello.
‘Come back here and kiss your Aunt Betty!’ Louisa screams. ‘Where’s Stanley?’ ‘Oh he’s busy, had to work, you know,’ Louisa says. ‘He may follow on later.’ ‘Well, you’re looking great, as usual.’
Louisa’s prominent white teeth are too plentiful for her smile. She accepts but does not return the compliment. The taxi-man is taking suitcases off the roof-rack. There is an awful lot of luggage. They’ve brought a black Labrador and books and pillows and wellingtons, a fl ute, raincoats, a chessboard and woolly jumpers.
‘We brought cheese,’ Louisa says, and hands Betty a slab of pungent Cheddar. ‘How thoughtful,’ Betty says, and sniffs it.
Louisa stands at the front gates and gazes out towards Mount Leinster with its ever-lighted mast, and the lush deciduous forest in the valley. ‘Oh, Betty,’ she says, ‘it’s so lovely to be home.’ ‘Come on in.’
Betty has the table set; two kettles stand boiling on the Aga, their spouts expelling pouty little breaths of steam. A pool of evening sunlight falls through the barred window over the cold roast chickens and potato salad.
‘Poor Coventry was put in a cage for the entire journey,’ Louisa says, referring to the dog. He has slumped down in front of the dresser and Betty has to slide him across the lino to get the cupboard doors open.
‘Any beetroot, Aunt Elizabeth?’ Edward asks.
Betty has taken great care washing the lettuce but now fi nds herself hoping an earwig won’t crawl out of the salad bowl. Her eyesight isn’t what it used to be. She scalds the teapot and cuts a loaf of brown bread into thin, dainty slices.
‘I need the toilet!’ Ruth announces. ‘Take your elbows off the table,’ Louisa instructs, and removes a hair from the butter dish.
There is too much pepper in the salad dressing and the rhubarb tart could have used more sugar, but all that’s left is a few potato skins, chicken bones, greasy dishes. When evening falls, Louisa says she’d like to sleep with Betty.
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