A Son Of The Circus

A Son Of The Circus Read Online Free PDF

Book: A Son Of The Circus Read Online Free PDF
Author: John Irving
Tags: Contemporary, Adult
might see the picture better. In Lord Duckworth’s expression there was much charity and tolerance and patience; yet there was something stupefied in his faraway gaze, as if he’d only recently recognized and accepted his own futility. Although Lord Duckworth was broad-shouldered and had a deep chest and he firmly held a sword, there was also a kind of gentle idiot’s resignation at the turned-down corners of his eyes and the drooping ends of his mustache. He was perpetually
almost
the governor of Maharashtra, but never the governor. And the hand that he placed around Lady Duckworth’s girlish waist was clearly a hand that touched her without weight, that held her without strength – if it held her at all.
    Lord D. committed suicide on New Year’s Eve, precisely at the turn of the century. For many more years Lady Duckworth would reveal her breasts, but it was agreed that, as a widow, although she exposed herself more often, she did so halfheartedly. Cynics said that had she lived, and continued to show India her gifts, Lady D. might have thwarted Independence.
    In the photograph that so appealed to Dr Daruwalla, Lady Duckworth’s chin was tilted down, her eyes mischievously gazing up, as if she’d just been caught peering into her own thrilling cleavage and had instantly looked away. Her bosom was a broad, strong shelf supporting her pretty face. Even fully clothed, there was something unrestrained about the woman; her arms hung straight down at her sides, but her fingers were spread wide apart – with her palms presented to the camera, as if for crucifixion – and a wild strand of her allegedly blond hair, which was otherwise held high off her graceful neck, was childishly twisted and coiled like a snake around one of the world’s perfect little ears.
    In future years, her hair turned from blond to gray without losing its thick body or its deep luster; her breasts, despite being so often and so long exposed, never sagged. Dr Daruwalla was a happily married man; however, he would have admitted – even to his dear wife – that he was in love with Lady Duckworth, for he’d fallen in love with her photographs and with her story when he was a child.
    But it could have a lugubrious effect on the doctor –if he spent too much time in the dance hall, reviewing the photographs of Members Past. Most of the Members Past were deceased; as the circus people said of their dead, they had fallen without a net. (Of the living, the expression was reversed. Whenever Dr Daruwalla inquired after Vinod’s health – the doctor never failed to ask about the dwarf’s wife, too – Vinod would always reply, ‘We are still falling in the net.’)
    Of Lady Duckworth – at least, from her photographs – Farrokh would say that her breasts were still falling in the net; possibly they were immortal.

Mr Lai Has Missed the Net

    And then, suddenly, a small and seemingly unimportant incident distracted Dr Daruwalla from his entrancement with Lady Duckworth’s bosom. The doctor would need to be in touch with his subconsious to remember this, for it was only a slight disturbance from the dining room that drew his attention. A crow, with something shiny seized in its beak, had swept in from the open veranda and had landed rakishly on the broad, oar-shaped blade of one of the ceiling fans. The bird precariously tilted the fan, but it continued to ride the blade around and around, shitting in a consistently circular form – on the floor, on a portion of one tablecloth and on a salad plate, just missing a fork. A waiter flapped a napkin and the crow took flight again, raucously cawing as it escaped through the veranda and rose above the golf course that stood shimmering in the noon sun. Whatever had been in its beak was gone, perhaps swallowed. First the waiters and bus-boys rushed to change the befouled tablecloth and place setting, although it was still early for lunch; then a sweeper was summoned to mop the floor.
    Owing to his
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