by PW Cooper
* * *
-It was a lovely service Mrs Glaser.
-I suppose it was / you're Vanessa?
-That's right / It's a pleasure to meet you / I wish the circumstances
-I know I know / come on I'll drive you back to the house.
-I'm sorry?
-I thought that you might as well stay with me / I just assumed.
-Oh.
-Is that a problem?
-No I just / you're very generous.
-Not at all / this could be a big project no point staying in a hotel when I have all those empty rooms.
-Is there a lot to go through?
-I sometimes think my husband may have been a what do you call it a compulsive writer.
-Hypergraphia / they say Dostoevsky had it.
-Well then that would explain a few things about Dostoevsky.
-You don't like him?
-I like him just fine / only it seems I just never have the time for books that long anymore / I suppose I ought to make time my students would riot if they found out I've never read The Idiot.
-So how much is there to go through?
-Quite a lot I'm afraid / a dozen boxes at least in the basement / piles and piles of papers in his study / who knows what he has / had rather / at the university / I can't imagine all of it's worth looking through / but then if you don't look through it all
-You never know if you missed something special.
-Exactly.
-So how long do you think?
-Are you in a rush?
-No I just don't want to intrude.
-Oh please what's an old woman like me going to get up to all by herself anyway / I could use the company.
-Come on now you're not that old.
-Aren't you sweet.
-How long?
-A week maybe / we'll just have to see now won't we?