Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl Read Free Book Online

supper. “Are
you worried about me getting lung cancer?”
      
“I am not,” he had answered.
      
“Then why can’t I smoke?”
      
“Because I disapprove, that’s why.”
      
He had also disapproved of children, and as a result they
had never had any of them either.
      
Where was he now, this William of hers, the great disapprover?
      
Landy would be expecting her to call up. Did she have to
call Landy?
      
Well, not really, no.
      
She finished her cigarette, then lit another one immediately
from the old stub. She looked at the telephone that was sitting
on the worktable beside the television set. William had asked
her to call. He had specifically requested that she telephone
Landy as soon as she had read the letter. She hesitated, fighting
hard now against that old ingrained sense of duty that she
didn’t quite yet dare to shake off. Then, slowly, she got to her
feet and crossed over to the phone on the worktable. She
found a number in the book, dialled it, and waited.
      
“I want to speak to Mr Landy, please.”
      
“Who is calling?”
      
“Mrs Pearl. Mrs William Pearl.”
      
“One moment, please.”
      
Almost at once, Landy was on the other end of the wire.
      
“Mrs Pearl?”
      
“This is Mrs Pearl.”
      
There was a slight pause.
      
“I am so glad you called at last, Mrs Pearl. You are quite
well, I hope?” The voice was quiet, unemotional, courteous.
“I wonder if you would care to come over here to the hospital?
Then we can have a little chat. I expect you are very eager to
know how it all came out.”
      
She didn’t answer.
      
“I can tell you now that everything went pretty smoothly,
one way and another. Far better, in fact, than I was entitled to
hope. It is not only alive, Mrs Pearl, it is conscious. It recovered
consciousness on the second day. Isn’t that interesting?”
      
She waited for him to go on.
      
“And the eye is seeing. We are sure of that because we get
an immediate change in the deflections on the encephalograph
when we hold something up in front of it. And now we’re
giving it the newspaper to read every day.”
      
“Which newspaper?” Mrs Pearl asked sharply.
      
“ The Daily Mirror . The headlines are larger.”
      
“He hates The Mirror . Give him The Times .”
      
There was a pause, then the doctor said, “Very well, Mrs
Pearl. We’ll give it The Times . We naturally want to do all
we can to keep it happy.”
      
“ Him ,” she said. “Not it. Him! ”
      
“Him,” the doctor said. “Yes, I beg your pardon. To keep
him happy. That’s one reason why I suggested you should
come along here as soon as possible. I think it would be good
for him to see you. You could indicate how delighted you

were to be with him again—smile at him and blow him a kiss
and all that sort of thing. It’s bound to be a comfort to him to
know that you are standing by.”
      
There was a long pause.
      
“Well,” Mrs Pearl said at last, her voice suddenly very meek and
tired. “I suppose I had better come on over and see how he is.”
      
“Good. I knew you would. I’ll wait here for you. Come
straight up to my office on the second floor. Good-bye.”
      
Half an hour later, Mrs Pearl was at the hospital.
      
“You mustn’t be surprised by what he looks like,” Landy
said as he walked beside her down a corridor.
      
“No, I won’t.”
      
“It’s bound to be a bit of a shock to you at first. He’s not
very prepossessing in his present state, I’m afraid.”
      
“I didn’t marry him for his looks, Doctor.”
      
Landy turned and stared at her. What a queer little woman
this was, he thought, with her large eyes and her sullen,
resentful