The Temptation of Jack Orkney: Collected Stories Volume Two. Doris Lessing

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ it – with her legs apart and her arms folded. She contemplated me.

      I went to the Rineiris’ house.’

      ‘Oh. Did you?’

      ‘They seemed to miss you.’

      She said nothing.

      I saw the cat too.’

      ‘Oh. Oh, I suppose you and Betty discussed it?’ This was with a small unfriendly smile.

      ‘Well, Judith, you must see we were likely to?’

      She gave this her consideration and said: ‘I don’t understand why people discuss other people. Oh – I’m not criticizing you. But I don’t see why you are so interested. I don’t understand human behaviour and I’m not particularly interested.’

      ‘I think you should write to the Rineiris.’

      ‘I wrote and thanked them, of course.’

      ‘I don’t mean that.’

      ‘You and Betty have worked it out?’

      ‘Yes, we talked about it. We thought we should talk to you, so you should write to the Rineiris.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘For one thing, they are both very fond of you.’

      ‘Fond,’ she said smiling.

      ‘Judith, I’ve never in my life felt such an atmosphere of being let down.’

      Judith considered this. ‘When something happens that shows one there is really a complete gulf in understanding, what is there to say?’

      ‘It could scarcely have been a complete gulf in understanding. I suppose you are going to say we are being interfering?’

      Judith showed distaste. ‘That is a very stupid word. And it’s a stupid idea. No one can interfere with me if I don’t let them. No, it’s that I don’t understand people. I don’t understand why you or Betty should care. Or why the Rineiris should, for that matter,’ she added with the small tight smile.

      ‘Judith!’

      ‘If you’ve behaved stupidly, there’s no point in going on. You put an end to it.’

      ‘What happened? Was it the cat?’

      Yes, I suppose so. But it’s not important.’ She looked at me, saw my ironical face, and said: ‘The cat was too young to have kittens. That is all there was to it.’

      ‘Have it your way. But that is obviously not all there is to it.’

      ‘What upset me is that I don’t understand at all why I was so upset then.’

      ‘What happened? Or don’t you want to talk about it?’

      ‘I don’t give a damn whether I talk about it or not. You really do say the most extraordinary things, you and Betty. If you want to know, I’ll tell you. What does it matter?’

      I would like to know, of course.’

      ‘Of course!’ she said. ‘In your place I wouldn’t care. Well, I think the essence of the thing was that I must have had the wrong attitude to that cat. Cats are supposed to be independent. They are supposed to go off by themselves to have their kittens. This one didn’t. It was climbing up on to my bed all one night and crying for attention. I don’t like cats on my bed. In the morning I saw she was in pain. I stayed with her all that day. Then Luigi – he’s the brother, you know.’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Did Betty mention him? Luigi came up to say it was time I went for a swim. He said the cat should look after itself. I blame myself very much. That’s what happens when you submerge yourself in somebody else.’

      Her look at me was now defiant; and her body showed both defensiveness and aggression. ‘Yes. It’s true. I’ve always been afraid of it. And in the last few weeks I’ve behaved badly. It’s because I let it happen.’

      ‘Well, go on.’

      ‘I left the cat and swam. It was late, so it was only for a few minutes. When I came out of the sea the cat had followed me and had had a kitten on the beach. That little beast Michele – the son, you know? – well, he always teased the poor thing, and now he had frightened her off the kitten. It was dead, though. He held it up by the tail and waved it at me as I came out of the sea. I told him to bury it. He scooped two inches of sand away and pushed the kitten in – on the beach, where people are all day. So I buried it properly. He had run off. He was chasing the poor cat. She was terrified and running up the town. I ran too. I caught Michele and I was so angry I hit him. I don’t believe in hitting children. I’ve been feeling beastly about it ever since.’

      ‘You were angry.’

      ‘It’s no excuse. I would never have believed myself capable of hitting a child. I hit him very hard. He went off crying. The poor cat had got under a big lorry parked in the square. Then she screamed. And then a most remarkable thing happened. She screamed just once, and all at once cats just materialized. One minute there was just one cat, lying under a lorry, and the next, dozens of cats. They sat in a big circle around the lorry, all quite still, and watched my poor cat.’

      ‘Rather moving,’ I said.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘There is no evidence one way or the other,” I said in inverted commas, ‘that the cats were there out of concern for a friend in trouble.’

      ‘No,’ she said energetically. ‘There isn’t. It might have been curiosity. Or anything. How do we know? However, I crawled under the lorry. There were two paws sticking out of the cat’s back end. The kitten was the wrong way round. It was stuck. I held the cat down with one hand and pulled the kitten out with the other.’ She held out her long white hands. They were still covered with fading scars and scratches. ‘She bit and yelled, but the kitten was alive. She left the kitten and crawled across the square into the house. Then all the cats got up and walked away. It was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen. They vanished again. One minute they were all there, and then they had vanished. I went after the cat, with the kitten. Poor little thing, it was covered with dust -being wet, don’t you know. The cat was on my bed. There was another kitten coming, but it got stuck too. So when she screamed and screamed I just pulled it out. The kittens began to suck. One kitten was very big. It was a nice fat black kitten. It must have hurt her. But she suddenly bit out – snapped, don’t you know, like a reflex action, at the back of the kitten’s head. It died, just like that. Extraordinary, isn’t it?’ she said, blinking hard, her lips quivering. She was its mother, but she killed it. Then she ran off the bed and went downstairs into the shop under the counter. I called Luigi. You know, he’s Mrs Rineiri’s brother.’

      ‘Yes, I know.’

      ‘He said she was too young, and she was badly frightened and very hurt. He took the alive kitten to her but she got up and walked away. She didn’t want it. Then Luigi told me not to look. But I followed him. He held the kitten by the tail and he banged it against the wall twice. Then he dropped it into the rubbish heap. He moved aside some rubbish with his toe, and put СКАЧАТЬ