The Love Object by Edna O’Brien Read Free Book Online Page B

crepe with the years.
    They began to walk, her hand in his pocket. Sometimes their hips touched. His body was very thin. His hip-bone stuck out.
    ‘We’ll have the time of our lives,’ she said. She didn’t know quite what would happen the day he visited her, but it would be the deciding one in their lives.
    ‘You’ll give me pork chops,’ he said.
    ‘Two for you and one for me.’
    ‘And a cuddle?’ he said.
    ‘I might,’ she said. She felt glowy all over, even her toes were no longer numb.
    ‘Oh.’ she put out her hand to make sure. It had begun to snow again. Her perm would be ruined.
    ‘Just a minute,’ he said, and ran into a paper shop. He came back with something for her head.
    ‘A new paper,’ she said. ‘That we haven’t even read.’
    He held it over her as they walked along, keeping step.
    ‘We’re extravagant,’ she said. They stopped and kissed, using the paper as a shield to dismiss the world. That’s what being in love meant.
    Three days before Mr Farley’s summer outing Mrs Farley celebrated her forty-seventh birthday. A day like any other, she cleaned two houses and hurried home to put on the dinner. Mr Farley hadn’t mentioned the birthday that morning, but then he was unbearable in the mornings. She bought a cake just to make the meal resemble a happy occasion. The antimacassars were made, she had paid five pounds on the three-piece suite and if he gave her money instead of an umbrella she could pay the balance by Saturday. She would have it delivered that day and when he came home from his outing he would be too tired to complain. There was one thing she would have to be careful about: her friend’s pipe. Mr Farley had a sensitive nose,, as he didn’t smoke himself. She’d have to get her friend out of the house by five and prop the door back as well as opening the window.
    ‘Is that you, Dad?’ She was upstairs when she heard him come in. The ‘Dad’ was an affectionate word since one of the three times when Mr Farley was almost a father.
    ‘It’s me,’ he said. She came down in a flowered summer dress, her face newly-freckled, because she’d done a bit of gardening while the dinner was cooking. Afterwards she undressed upstairs, and had a good look at herself in the mirror. If the neighbours knew they would have the Welfare Officer on her.
    ‘Dinner’s ready,’ she said to Mr Farley, as she got his slippers from under the stairs. He put them on, then walked across to the laid table and put three pound notes on her side plate.
    ‘What’s that for?’ she asked.
    ‘Well, I got enough hints,’ he said.
    ‘No you didn’t,’ she said, ‘and not even a card with it.’ She sulked a bit. If she looked too happy he might take the money back. Happiness was the one thing he could not abide.
    ‘What use is a card?’ he said.
    ‘I may be sentimental, but don’t forget I’m a woman.’ she said. The three-piece suite was hers and she could hardly contain herself with excitement.
    After dinner he went out and got a card which had ‘To my dear wife’ on the outside.
    ‘I suppose I have a lot of the schoolgirl in me,’ she said, putting it on the mantelshelf. She was doing everything to humour him. They discussed what shirt he’d wear on the outing and she said she’d make sandwiches in case he got peckish on the journey. They were having lunch, of course, in Brighton.
    ‘Don’t fall for any young girl in a bathing-suit,’ she said.
    ‘Is that what you think I’ll be doing?’ he said.
    ‘Well, who knows? A handsome man, fancy free.’
    That pleased him. He offered to share some of his beer. That night she couldn’t very well refuse him his rights, but it was her friend’s body she imagined that circumferenced her own.
    Next day when Mrs Captain Hagerty was shopping, Mrs Farley took the opportunity to telephone the furniture shop. She arranged to call in Saturday to pay the balance on the suite and asked if they could deliver it the same morning. The man