Kazuo Ishiguro by When We Were Orphans (txt) Read Free Book Online Page B

names against a register. When it came to my turn, I was gratified to see a flicker of excitement cross the frosty man’s face as he ticked off my name. I signed the guest book, then moved on towards a doorway leading into a large room, within which, I could see, there was already a sizeable crowd of guests.
    As I crossed the threshold and the hubbub engulfed me, a tall man with a thick dark beard greeted me and shook my hand. I supposed he was one of the evening’s hosts, but I failed to register much of what he said to me because, to be frank, I was at that moment finding it hard to think about anything other than what had just occurred downstairs. I was experiencing a curiously hollow sensation, and I had to remind myself that I had not in any way ensnared Miss Hemmings; that any humiliation mat had befallen her was entirely of her own making.
    But as I parted from the bearded man and drifted further into the room, Sarah Hemmings continued to dominate my thoughts. I was vaguely aware of a waiter approaching me with a tray of aperitifs; of various people turning to greet me.
    At some point I fell into conversation with a group of three or four men - all of whom turned out to be scientists, and who seemed to know who I was. Then, when I had been in the room for perhaps fifteen minutes, I sensed a slight change in the atmosphere, and looking about me, perceived from the glances and murmurs all around that some sort of commotion was occurring near the doorway through which we had entered.
    No sooner had I noted this than a sense of grave foreboding came over me and my first impulse was to escape deeper into the room. But it was as though some mysterious force were pulling me back to the doorway, and I soon found myself once more beside the bearded man - who at that moment was standing with his back to the reception, watching with a pained expression the drama unfolding in the anteroom.
    Peering past him, I ascertained that Miss Hemmings was indeed at the heart of the disturbance. She had brought to a halt the procession of guests signing in their names at the desk. She was not shouting exactly, but seemed quite beyond caring who heard her. I watched her shake off an elderly hotel employee trying to restrain her; then, leaning right over the desk so as to glare all the more intently at the frosty-faced man still sitting here as before, she said in a voice close to a sob: ‘But you simply have no idea! I simply must go in, don’t you see? I have so many friends in there, I belong in there, I really do!
    Oh, do be reasonable!’
    1 really am sorry, Miss…’ the frosty-faced man began. But Sarah Hemmings, whose hair had tumbled over one side of her face, did not let him finish.
    ‘It’s all the most silly mix-up anyway, don’t you see? That’s all it is, the most silly old mix-up! And just because of that, you’re being beastly, I can’t believe it! I just can’t believe it…’
    All of us witnessing this scene seemed for a moment united in frozen embarrassment. Then the bearded man regained his wits and strode into the anteroom with authority.
    ‘What has occurred?’ he said soothingly. ‘My dear young lady, has there been some error? There, there, we’ll sort it out, I’m sure. I’m at your disposal.’ Then he gave a start and exclaimed: ‘Why, it’s Miss Hemmings, isn’t it?’
    ‘Of course it is! It’s me! Don’t you see? This man’s being so beastly to me…’
    ‘But Miss Hemmings, my dear young lady, there’s no need to upset yourself like this. Come, let’s go over here a moment…’
    ‘No! No! You won’t turn me away! I won’t have it! I tell you I must, I absolutely must go in! I’ve dreamt of it for so long…’
    ‘Surely, something can be done for the young lady,’ a man’s voice said from among the bystanders. ‘Why be so petty? If she’s taken the trouble to come here, why can’t she be allowed in?’
    This produced a general murmur of assent, though I noticed too some faces