Cotter's England by Christina Stead Read Free Book Online Page B

you? A news story?"
    "That's different. They have great faith in the press; a lever to move things for them."
    "But today one of the men said to me, Write about this, what you see, write a book about us. I told him I wanted to. He said good."
    Nellie, not heeding, broke into a blackbird whistle, a headless and tailless motif and went striding along. After a while, she slowed down and said protectively, "I understand the urge. But you'll need more experience. That's not enough, the seamy side. You can't butcher them to make a holiday in print. Writing's not just a case of self-expression or conscience clearing. The muckrakers did their work. Now we want something constructive. You see, sweetheart, just to photograph a refuse yard with its rats, that wouldn't help the workers one tiny little bit. It would only be glorifying your own emotions."
    "What would you write about, I mean given your experience? Of course, I can never rival your experience."
    "No, I've been up to my ears in it all my life. I always knew reality."
    "Well, what would you begin with, say?"
    "You just write what you see, Caroline sweetheart. Stick to reality; and when you've got the hang of it, you'll be all right. I knew I had something to say when I started out, pet; but when I saw the paper-spoilers, I said, I'll never do that, so perhaps something great is lost; but that's my feeling."
    "I have to see it myself, I know."
    "Aye, but you don't want to dress it up in romantic illusion or disillusion. You want to give stark staring reality, straight in the face. And no destruction, nothing depressing. The lives of the workers are depressing enough. You want to cover it with a rosy veil, a mystery."
    "No destruction. Yes, I said to myself I never heard talk about retreat and failure from Nellie Cook. And I wanted to come and learn from you."
    Nellie was charmed, "Did ye, pet? That was wise and good of you, sweetheart. The workers, pet, were walk-ons in all this glorious history. Their play has got to begin."
    "That's well put."
    Nellie declared with false melancholy, "No, pet, I haven't fulfilled my promise to myself. Let's go in and get a beer at the Queen's Head. Caroline, I'm dry! And I've got to take a pee."
    She rapped Caroline on the shoulder, pushed her into the next pub, and ordered for herself, first a sherry, then a whiskey, then a gin.
    "You'll be ill."
    "No, I'm just beginning to come round. The social quack Robert Peebles, me editor, blue-penciled half me article. What are ye doing, I asked him, tailoring reality closer to your theories? The air here is thick with theories; you want to get out into the fresh air of dockside: it's a long time since you were there. Ah, pet—give me a minute."
    For a while Nellie worked on some notes she had to take in in the morning. She then slapped her book together, gave a huge laughing sigh and ordered for herself a whiskey and a gin.
    "And now let's have a good talk. Are you hungry? Or can you hold out for a bit so I can get to know you."
    Caroline looked round the room, said it was nice and friendly. "My parents would think it sinful to be here. But here they're just nice ordinary people, kind."
    Nellie stretched her legs out and said a perfect friendship was a fine thing. Had Caroline ever had a friend?
    "I had plenty of friends, at school and in the church, everywhere. Dozens I suppose if you count them all."
    Nellie said earnestly that was not what she meant, "You can't have dozens of friends. You can only have one, one true friend. Have you never had a true friend?"
    "Oh, yes, when I was about eighteen I had one. We used to take long walks together. We were both interested in serious questions. She was lovely: so true."
    "And she was your true friend, pet?"
    "We got on because we weren't too close and weren't alike. That's best. Our lives ran parallel and never met: no friction. And she's loyal and so am I."
    "Ah, no, your lives didn't run parallel; they met."
    "No, my life never met anyone's till I met