Stories to tell
For a little time, you could believe that the world outside was no longer threatening and no longer cold, that there was nothing to be afraid of, that those of us who made it here were really at the prime of life, and that the minds clasped shut within the shells of our skulls were really, wholly ours.
She had been nervous to see me, but her discomfort dissipated quickly enough. "Your brother works here?" I had asked, and she had said, "Yes, but he's not here tonight." So she told me the story about her brother.
He paints, plays the guitar and wants to write a novel. It doesn't go down well with her parents who simply do not care for the arts, and he's been thrown out of the house three times, and taken back three times out of obligation and some degree of guilt.
"At least he's trying to earn enough to eat," she said, sipping the G&T, of which the gin was the cheap sort. The contents of my glass glowed suspiciously blue under the light, and again, I wished for a lemon, lime and bitters which strangely doesn't seem to exist outside Australia. Between the two of us, we devoured too-thick chunks of chocolate slices obviously cut by someone who has a big mouth. Then she told me the stories about her jewellery.
On her left hand, she wore the gold ring she had since she was sixteen and her grandfather's wedding ring. On her right thumb, she had a simple silver affair similar to another on her fourth finger. The latter was pulled over a delicate ring of old-gold braid which she said was from her hometown.
"This is from my aunt, this is from my mother, and these my grandmother sent to me for my twenty-first birthday." She jangled her bracelets and pointed to a black necklace hidden under her collar.
I looked at the butterfly ring on my left hand which I had bought on impulse from a tiny boutique in Sydney. Circling my right wrist was the precious bracelet sent by a dear friend. I felt the dangle of my earrings from Tokyo.
I didn't tell her these stories. Somehow, they seemed much less important.
Posted by sniffles at December 08, 2002 02:35 AM