poppy stopped crying and her voice switched to the icy cold ." you know , this is none of your business ."
"maybe ." i rolled poppy's dislike of me around my head "but it does not alter the situatuion ."
we said good bye . more or less politely and , almost immediately , deb came on the line ." deb , you sound very cheerful . have you won an oscar or something ?"
the words almost choked deb , so anxious was she to spill them ." actually , i spent the evening hooked up with chris sharpe . quite by chance . he's really fascinating . done lots of things ."
i supposed - correctly - this information was the real point of deb's call . " chris is your new best friend ." i tried to make it sound like a question , not a statement .
"my new best .... yes , friend . what i was callling about is middle age ...." deb's incredulous lilt , yet again , underlined how remote it was from her own situation ." some neew statistics have come in . one of which gives a rather shocking percentage of widows living below the poverty line . might be something you shoul;d build in ?"
"sure . thanks ."
"by the way ," deb added ," does the name rose lloyd register with you ?"
"no ." i said . o, no .no ." i mean yes . she's my husband's first wife ."
there was a small silence . when it was clear i was not going to elaborate further , deb said ." someone mentioned her as a possible presenter for the slot on city garedens . apparently , she's considered good news , i think i might pursue it ."
"i thought the idea gotten the thumbs down ."
No comments:
Post a Comment