Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas Read Free Book Online Page A

like another world. Well, it is another world, of course. Glorious Araby.’
    ‘What did you say?’
    ‘When? Oh, that. I dunno, it’s from a poem or something, isn’t it? Don’t ask me who wrote it or anything. I suppose I read it or heard it. Probably bloody Radio 4, it’s always on in our house. You know how some things you don’t try to remember, quite weird things like bits of poems or whatever, they just stay in your mind? And other things you’re supposed to remember, however hard you try it’s just like, phhhhht , and they’re gone? Stuff you’re supposed to learn for exams, mainly?’
    ‘If it matters, you will remember it. You have to hope for that.’
    ‘Depends on what you reckon matters.’ Ruby laughed, then caught sight of her grandmother’s face. It had fallen suddenly into lines of anguish and the powdery skin under her eyes looked damp with tears.
    She bit her lip. ‘Did I say something wrong?’
    Iris reached a hand inside the sleeve of her robe and brought out a handkerchief. She dried her eyes carefully and tucked the hanky away again.
    ‘I am becoming forgetful myself,’ she said. She made a little gesture with her hands, swimming them through the air and then closing them on nothing. It made Ruby think that memories were slippery, like fish.
    ‘That must be frightening, sometimes,’ she ventured.
    ‘It is.’
    ‘What can you do?’
    Iris turned her head to look full at her. ‘Try to … try to capture what you can’t bear to be without.’
    Ruby didn’t understand this but she nodded anyway. The sound of water splashing from the little spout filled the courtyard. The sun had crept closer and now the thin stream sparkled like a diamond necklace.
    ‘Well,’ Iris said in a different voice. ‘Have you had quite enough to eat?’
    ‘Maybe one more of these.’
    She bit into another pastry. Sugary flakes stuck to her lips and she darted her tongue to retrieve them.
    Mamdooh came through one of the arches and stooped beside Iris’s chair. It was time to move it further into the shade. As she watched him helping her grandmother and settling her again Ruby noticed he wore the same tender expression as last night, as if Iris were a little child.
    While they were talking quietly together, Ruby stared up into the parallelogram of sapphire-blue sky. She could just see the tips of towers, topped with slim bulbs of stone and spikes bearing crescent moons. There was a whole city on the other side of these walls, the teeming place she had seen out of the taxi windows last night. Now that she had found her feet she was longing to explore it.
    ‘Mamdooh is going to the market now,’ Iris said.
    Ruby leapt up so eagerly that her stool tipped over. ‘Can I go with him?’
    Iris lifted her hand. ‘You will have to ask Mamdooh.’
    ‘Please may I come with you?’
    He had round cheeks, rounded eyelids, full lips the colour of the breakfast figs, but his bald head was all speckled and his eyes were milky. His stomach made a sizeable mound under his long white robe. He didn’t look as old as Iris or Auntie, but he wasn’t young by any means. He looked Ruby up and down as she stood there with Iris’s shawl knotted round her midriff.
    ‘To the market, Miss?’ He sounded doubtful.
    ‘I’ll, um, put a cover-up shirt thing on? I’ve got one in my bag. I could help carry the shopping, couldn’t I?’
    ‘I do this for many years, thank you.’
    ‘I’d really like to come.’
    Iris closed her eyes. ‘Show her the market, Mamdooh, please. She will be going home to England tomorrow.’
    He bowed. ‘Of course.’
    When she came downstairs again with a man’s shirt buttoned up over her vest, Mamdooh was waiting for her. He had a woven rush basket over his arm, and a faded red flowerpot hat set squarely on his head. A black tassel hung down towards his left eye. Ruby felt a giggle rising in her throat, but Mamdooh’s expression quelled it.
    ‘Is this OK?’ she meekly asked, indicating her