How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland Read Free Book Online Page B

are taking furniture out of somebody’s house and loading it into a van.
    I remember an old joke I made up that nobody ever gets.
    ‘I’d like to start a furniture removal business called The Heimlich Removers,’ I say.
    James doesn’t look at me, ‘Congratulations,’ he says. ‘That’s very funny. You should tell somebody who thinks it’s as funny as you do.’
    I am red again. James smiles, a twisted smile, and then he looks at me, long and hard. Our eyes connect for too long,my stomach lurches and I look away.
    Margaret comes into the room and stands between the two couches.
    ‘You’ve been watching that TV for hours,’ she says.
    ‘Really?’ I wonder what the rule is on a Saturday.
    ‘It’s all crap,’ says James, ‘but there’s been some witty distractions along the way.’
    Margaret sits on the couch next to me, produces a small apple and starts to munch. These apples appear so frequently it is as though she is a tennis player producing balls from within the folds of her pleated skirt. She takes regular toothy bites and finishes quickly. She holds the apple core between her thumb and index finger. ‘James, why don’t you change out of those sweaty gym clothes?’
    James ignores her.
    She frowns. ‘I don’t know why you’d have a shower and then get right back into the same clothes.’
    Margaret leaves the room and I say, ‘I’m going to my room to read.’
    James swings around. He sits up and rests his chin on the back of the couch so that he can watch me go.
    ‘We have root beer,’ he says. ‘If you get me some you can watch whatever you want on TV.’
    I am forced to look at him and he sees that I am blushing again.
    ‘You’re blushing.’
    ‘Congratulations,’ I say. ‘How astute.’
    He returns to a supine position, so that I can’t see his face.
    I go to my room, but feel lonely straight away. I decide to find Henry. I want to talk to somebody.
    I knock on the door to Henry’s den.
    ‘Come in,’ he says.
    ‘Hi,’ I say, ‘I was wondering if I could come and sit with you for a while.’
    I look at his armchair and the identical armchair opposite him. He has a newspaper on his lap and is smoking a pipe. I have always wanted to smoke a pipe. He looks at his watch.
    ‘Sit down,’ he says. ‘Is there something you need to talk about?’
    ‘Oh no,’ I say, ‘I just wanted to sit in here with you and maybe read a book or something, while you keep doing whatever you’re doing.’
    ‘Okay,’ he says, ‘if you’d like.’
    ‘Oh.’
    He puts his newspaper down and starts asking me questions; the kinds of questions he and Margaret asked me on the drive from O’Hare airport. What do I like to do on weekends? What are my favourite subjects at school? Have I seen many koalas? If I tell too many more lies, I’ll have to write them down, to keep track.
    I like talking to Henry. He is shy, yet calm. He makes me feel better. I think he’s the kind of person I’d like to be. His shirt is loose, about three buttons undone. I feel like telling him something about my family, something that will make him realise I should never go back. Instead I say, ‘Could I just read one of your books for a while?’
    Henry tells me to help myself and I take a book off the shelf. We sit in silence then and it is good to sit and read in Henry’s den like this. I look at him and his relaxed body and try to relax like him. I read five pages and then suddenly I start talking.
    ‘Actually,’ I say, ‘my life at home is probably not what you think it is.’
    Henry moves in his seat and sits up straighter.
    ‘I know that your family isn’t well off,’ he says. ‘Which must be hard sometimes.’
    ‘It’s not that,’ I say. ‘The trouble has more to do with my sisters and the bad characters they hang out with.’ I pause to swallow, but not long enough to stop myself from telling this lie.
    ‘My sister Erin’s boyfriend Steve is in prison and before he went inside he was always hanging