As Far as You Can Go by Lesley Glaister Read Free Book Online Page B

his breast pocket. ‘Ready?’
    He takes them not further into the house but outside and down the veranda steps to a long low hut opposite. The hut has two blue painted doors – one into each half. ‘This houses the generator – at the other end,’ Larry jerks his beard towards the far door, ‘and Mara stays in here.’
    Cassie looks at him. ‘She doesn’t live in the house?’
    ‘She prefers – well –’ Larry seems to struggle for a moment. ‘Well, you’ll see.’
    Cassie looks at the door, the slivers of peeled blue paintshowing up a rusty undercoat. She’d barely noticed the shed last night. Certainly never dreamed that Mara might be inside. Beside the door is a window, the glass dusty like all the glass, like everything, and swathed with a thick curtain.
    Larry opens the door into a dark room. They go in. Larry closes the door and the drape that covers the door falls with a muffled gasp.
    Cassie grabs Graham’s hand, seized by a fierce urge to giggle. Once the door is closed she can see nothing for a moment, eyes full of sun-dazzles – and then the detail creeps back: red Turkish carpet on the walls and floor, cushions, piles of them, long and square and round, all shades of red from black to vermilion. The shadows are solid, beastlike, everywhere, lounging in corners, slumped against the walls. There’s a strong smell, female, a thick perfume, a woman’s private odour, familiar and shocking.
    ‘Could we –’ Cassie begins. Not funny now, she needs the door open, needs to breathe. Feels about to suffocate or faint.
    ‘Wait,’ Larry says. ‘Mara? They’re here.’
    ‘I can see that.’ The voice comes from a corner. Despite the stifling heat, Cassie’s arms riffle with gooseflesh.
    ‘Perhaps you’d like to greet them?’
    The darkness stirs and a jumble of shadows jumps together. A woman becomes visible, struggling up. Short and wide, her eyes gleam in the sparse pinkish light.
    ‘How do you do?’ Her voice sounds creaky, as if not lately used.
    Cassie takes a deep breath and pulls herself together. She lets go of Graham and shakes the moist, spongy hand held out to her. ‘Fine, thanks,’ she says. ‘And you?’
    Mara yawns hugely. Cassie looks away from the gape of her throat. They stand in silence for a moment.
    ‘They’ve been very keen to meet you. Cassandra and Graham. I told you. Graham is a painter,’ Larry says.
    Graham holds out his hand. ‘Hi.’
    ‘I used to be a painter,’ Mara says, taking his hand and frowning down at it before letting go.
    ‘They were beginning to think you didn’t exist,’ Larry says. ‘That you were a figment –’
    ‘I am no
figment,’
she says, her voice rising, panicky.
    ‘Of course you’re not.’ Larry pats her arm. ‘Now I’m going to show them round. And later we’ll have lunch together. Get properly acquainted. Eh? I’ll come and fetch you in time for lunch.’
    ‘I’ve not been well,’ Mara says, leaning towards Cassie. ‘I have these – turns, Fred was here, he helped me.’
    ‘And now Fred’s gone and we have Cassandra and Graham.’
    ‘Cassie,’ Cassie says.
    ‘Come.’ Larry lifts the curtain over the door. Mara turns away but as the door opens, a blade of sunshine flashes across the room, illuminating heavy black hair tied loosely back, a red velvet dressing gown, deep sadness sketched in round a fulllipped mouth.
    ‘See you later, Mara.’ Cassie picks up a prickle of the woman’s sadness.
    Outside, she presses her hands over her eyes, the sun making her reel. Like coming out of a theatre into the brightness of a sunny afternoon. She pulls her sunglasses down from her hair but still it’s blindingly bright. Above them the pump creaks, a bird shrieks and far above, deep in the sky, a plane draws a chalky stripe across the blue.
    ‘Fucking –’ Graham starts but Larry puts a finger to his lips and leads them away from the door.
    ‘Yes?’ He smiles, a curl of eyebrow rising from behind his