138 wivesbehavingbadly

"gisela ," i repeaated ." what is nathan doing at rose ?"
she did not meet me my eye ." there's probably a very good reason ."
i stared out the window . nathna and rose . old times .
keeping one hand on my leg to anchor me . gisela hunched forward on the seat and issued instructions to the driver . once , she assked me for more precise details , and i heard myself giving them ." it's left at the bottom of the street  , then right ..."
was  nathan really ill ? he had rung me that morning on my way to work . it had been a relaxed , easy conversation , almost intimate .
"lost my glasses ."
\"i saw you put them in your briefcase ."
"ah ."
" what have you got on today ?"
"roger wants to see me about somehing . probably something to do with the supplement on africa we're planning for auturm . how we can help it without inflicting . western values at the expense of indigenous ones .... that sort of stuff .  doesn't stand a prayer of enlightenning anyone because it will be so politically correct it will be utter rubbish ."
i had laughed and now in the speeding taxi , with anxiety  beating a rising crescendo in my ears , i wondered if he'd heard that laugh .
surely there could be nothing wrong with nathan ? but perhap there was perhaps nathan so missed the nice , loving things that happy couples say to each other that he had gone to rose AND SAID ," LET'S GO BACK TO WHAT WE WERE  ," and the effort had made him ill .