Edwin stood a moment, looking away from her towards the Hudson. ‘You got back your nerve. Perhaps you should go back on board.’ They walked on and he said no more except to ask, ‘What happened to that whippet you were so attached to?’
‘Cleopatra? I took her for a run in the park before I collected my things from Bruno’s flat. But I couldn’t go back there again. Not ever. I missed her too.’
‘She was a pretty dog, but not the brightest.’
‘I didn’t need bright.’
They reached her hotel and Vi, still holding Edwin’s arm, stopped him outside.
‘Ed, I’ve been mulling. If there’s a seat on the plane I’m going to fly back tomorrow and put my elder son out of his misery. He’ll fret himself to death if I don’t.’
‘I thought it was the younger one you said was marrying.’
‘It is. But his brother does the fretting for him. What with me and his brother to fret over, I worry that my Harry may become too forgetful of his own happiness.’
Edwin took her hands and in the light thrown out from the illuminated hotel lobby she made out his odd-coloured eyes.
‘So you’re going already?’
‘I thought I might decide to go, so I’ve written you a note.’
They stood there as a couple pushing a child passed. Vi heard the man say, ‘Surely he’s asleep now.’
‘For what it’s worth, the poem I wrote on board ship is in there too. It’s nothing, a faint whistle in the dark, but it’s yours—well, ours maybe.’
She handed him an envelope and they embraced. And then there was nothing more to be said.
‘You’ll come and visit again, Vi?’
‘I have a return ticket, Ed. You can trust Harry not to let me waste it.’
Comic Turn
Small children like tragedy, They do not mind Lear’s madness, They recognise our maladies In Hamlet’s sadness.
Large states are compassable, Childhood nights prepare us for such pains, It is the matters risible, The small affairs that maim.
The letter unarriving That brings us to our knees, Contains a power harrowing—The stuff of comedies.
H.V. St John
Also by Salley Vickers
Miss Garnet’s Angel
Instances of the Number 3
Mr Golightly’s Holiday
The Other Side of You
Where Three Roads Meet
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by
Fourth Estate
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Copyright © Salley Vickers 2009
FIRST EDITION
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Dancing Backwards Page 21