Hamish and Kate Read online

  A strong and cold wind channelled down the street, it was focussed and forced into directions it did not want to go by buildings whose summits were sometimes lost in low, scudding cloud. The wind audibly complained as it was squeezed. The winds from different directions bustled with annoyance at each corner when they were forced to interact. Some corners were calmer where peaks and troughs cancelled each other while at other corners or at different times the wind was angry and became physical like a New York resident delayed by groups of annoying tourists.

  Ben took Euan by the elbow, 'You're making it clear that you're not a local. New Yorkers don't stand still.' He pointed in the direction Euan was being led, 'We're going just around this corner.'

  'I was thinking of something I wrote,' Euan said.

  Ben kept walking as he looked around and up.

  'Yes, that time, in the postscript, in New York City. Scudding clouds and things. It’s a funny thing to write these days. No-one uses that word anymore. But, I liked the description of the wind around the streets.'

  Ben turned Euan around the corner with his hand on his shoulder, 'Just around here. In minutes you'll be signing copies of your book for crowds of purchasers.' He gave Euan a cheesy smile, 'We hope and pray.'

  Euan stopped and Ben's hand slipped from his shoulder as he took a half-step forward before he was aware that Euan was no longer moving.

  'Problem?' Ben asked.

  'Not really. But I can't get used to seeing my face plastered over windows.' Euan was staring at a poster of himself.

  'The punters like to see who wrote the book, and who to queue before to sign their purchase. A necessary evil I'm afraid. It's not that bad though.' Ben looked at the poster and itemised it like it was a work of art under examination. 'Studious, careworn. Even, I dare say, literary, in a contrived way.'

  'It's not that. It's not really me.'

  'Well, you're lucky that it doesn’t matter. You're a celebrity, in a small way, and this is New York where that can be of use and this is a bookstore and you're an author and you want to make us, and yourself, some money.' He put his hand on Euan’s shoulder again, 'Let's go in and make me, you and the owner happy people.'

  Euan remembered the photo session for the poster. Originally, he had a friend produce a series of photos that he thought would be good for promotion, only to have them rejected by the publisher after a single glance. Those photos looked like him.

  He was sent to another photographer and after a lengthy session photographs were created where Euan became someone else. He became a professorial, erudite, literary writer. That person had his features, although by careful photographic construction they were more regular than his, and that person in the poster stared mockingly at Euan like a father whose achievements could never be matched.

  The entrance to the bookstore was low, forcing a tall person to bend and bow as if in supplication. It had once been a grocery store and the entrance remained unchanged. Euan half expected a little bell to ring, as Ben opened the door, announcing customers.

  It was bigger inside than the outside suggested. There was a momentary silence as heads turned when Euan entered the store. He was matched to the posters, probably found wanting Euan thought, and then activity resumed. Ben gently kept Euan moving forward as non-queueing patrons spoke to him. He did not want customers talking to the author unless they purchased a book for signing.

  Ben led Euan to a chair behind a table stacked with copies of his book. He was surrounded by images of himself, a crowd of better looking clones. Before he sat down, Euan spoke a few words of welcome, he talked about his book and then invited purchasers to have their copies signed.

  Some people spoke to Euan at length, to the annoyance of those behind in the queue. Others were reticent and said only a few words of greeting or encouragement. The queue thinned, too quickly for Ben’s liking, until there was only one older lady left. She had been holding back.

  ‘Hello Kiwi,’ the lady said, when she approached the table.

  Euan looked up quickly.

  Ben had been quietly chatting with the store owner. He heard the lady and smiled a smirky, superior smile as if he was in on an obscure literary joke. The lady had obviously read the book already.

  Euan was silent, which worried Ben, as he stared at the lady with his book in her hand. Ben then had a hard look at that last lady in the queue. He understood why Euan was gob-smacked. The lady was beautiful, for an older woman, Ben thought quickly as he fought to dampen the beginnings of arousal.

  ‘I liked your book,’ the lady said diffidently.

  ‘You can close your mouth now, Ben,’ Euan said, with amusement.

  Ben turned to Euan, annoyed he had been noticed staring at the older woman but Euan had turned back to the lady.

  ‘Hello Kate,’ Euan said softly.

  There was a long silence. Kate wrenched her eyes from Euan and spoke to Ben.

  ‘Hello, Ben is it?’

  Ben nodded his head.

  ‘You’re helping him are you?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Ben said quickly. ‘Making sure he gets to appointments. Organising things.’

  Kate turned back to Euan. ‘We’re not that old are we? That we need minders yet?’

  Euan smiled but Ben quickly interrupted. He touched one of the books piled on the table.

  ‘You’re this Kate?’ Ben asked.

  Kate smiled. ‘Yes, afraid so.’

  Ben reluctantly took his eyes off her. ‘It’s all true?’ he asked Euan. ‘All of it? You never said anything about this.’

  ‘No, I didn’t,’ Euan said.

  There was another awkward silence. The two older people simply stared at each other.

  ‘Well,’ Kate said. ‘Here I am.’ She smiled a little but was obviously worried about Euan’s reaction to her presence.

  Euan kept staring at her. Kate peered around the bookstore.

  ‘Prescient, weren’t you?’ she said, as her eyes returned to the silent Euan. ‘I never guessed half of what you were feeling,’ she said as she touched one of the piled books. ‘Not at the end. I thought you’d gone. I really did. I never knew how sad you were, Kiwi.’

  ‘Sad?’ Euan said vacantly. ‘That’s one way to put it. Actually, Kate,’ he said with annoyance. ‘I was a bit more than sad. And for quite awhile.’

  Euan frowned.

  ‘Did you end up having many kids?’ he asked abruptly.

  ‘No. Just a son. Hamish couldn’t have children.’

  She stared at Euan.

  ‘And he’s how old?’ Euan asked slowly.

  ‘He’s your son, Euan,’ she said with exasperation, as if he was asking a question to which he knew the answer. She brightened a little, there would be plenty of time to discuss, even meet, their son and his family. ‘Have you seen anyone else from your book?’ she asked quickly.

  ‘No. They’re better off staying where they are,’ he said, not thinking of his book.

  ‘Me too?’ she asked tentatively.

  ‘No,’ Euan said emphatically. ‘Definitely not.’

  ‘I’m staying at my parents house,’ she said. ‘Dad died years ago but Mum’s still going. I went there to find this.’ She twisted her shoulder bag around and rummaged inside.

  ‘It was obviously very important to you,’ she said. ‘I spent ages looking for it. Ah, here it is.’ She produced a small picture and placed it on the table.

  ‘It’s for you, to keep,’ she said.

  ‘Even the fucking picture’s true,’ Ben exclaimed and then immediately looked sheepish. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said to Kate, ‘I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’

  On the table was a small, now discoloured, Polaroid picture. It was old but well preserved like its life had been lived hidden and forgotten. Ben craned his head to look. It was mostly a picture of a bathtub, with the edge above the level of the camera. On the floor, to the left of the bath was a mottled but mostly grey cat sitting with its tail wrapped around its paws. On the right of the pictu
re and leaning over the side of the tub, obviously naked but only visible from her shoulders up, was a beautiful young woman with small, impossibly regular features and mousy, unkempt mid-length hair. The image froze the moment that the cat returned her kiss. The woman’s eyes were turned to the camera. She was looking down the lens, from all those years ago, she was staring at the three of them standing around the table in the bookstore. Her eyes glowed. Ben felt he was witness to the perfect moment, a moment of pure pleasure, of perfect love.

  ‘I’ve left Hamish,’ Kate said quietly. ‘Again. For you. If you want,’ she added, unsure of herself.

  Euan looked up from the faded photo on the table and smiled. Kate smiled back.

  ‘Anyway,’ she said brightly, acknowledging Euan’s silent agreement. ‘This is for you.’

  She gently pushed the old Polaroid photograph closer towards him.

  END

  From the same author on Feedbooks

  * * *

  The First Genesis (2011) The world was created for, and because of, an incredible woman. The creator god Hachakyum lived among the ancient Mayans and these are the stories of his life among them.

  The god's love for one human woman caused the world's beginning, and his loss will ordain it's destruction.

  There is a sex scene. Please don't read this book if that concerns you!

  Book 2 of the five book "At the end of the world" series.

  Book 3 - Hamish and Kate - is also available here. At the end of the world, Book 1, can be found at Amazon or Smashwords.

  www.feedbooks.com

  Food for the mind