Campari for Breakfast Read Online Free PDF Page A

I know I shouldn’t tell you this, hirsute, I cannot hide it, for a glimpse of you will linger gentle on my mind all day.’
    ‘Excellent Sue,’ said Aunt Coral, ‘really excellent, well done. Two questions though. One, obviously, who is your secret sweetheart? I’m sure we’re all dying to know, and two, what do you mean by “hirsute”?’
    ‘My secret sweetheart is just someone I made up,’ I said, ‘and what I mean by hirsute is “nevertheless”, of course.’
    ‘But hirsute doesn’t mean nevertheless,’ said Delia, ‘it means hairy.’
    My mind raced back to all the occasions when I had misused the word, with a terrifying awareness of my stupidity. But then it quickly seized on the positive thought that the group had set me to rights.
    At the same time my head was also swimming with Icarus. I’d just said I’d made him up, when of course he is more than real. But now I was wondering: what if it was the other way round? What if what I made up became real? Now that would be interesting. I jotted down a private fantasy, while the Admiral and Delia offered their work. Here it is transcribed:
    The Wounds of Love
    By Sue Bowl
It was January the 27 th and we were sitting as usual in the drawing room after dinner, when suddenly the Admiral came running into the room.
‘It’s Icarus Fry. Come quickly!’ he shouted.
‘What has happened?’ said Aunt Coral and Delia as they ran into the hall.
‘I knocked him off his bike,’ said the Admiral.
So we took Icarus up to a West Wing bedroom and the Admiral went for the Doctor. It was very late. Aunt Coral and Delia fell asleep in their chairs immediately, with their heads lolling. But I watched over Icarus as he lay wounded and cradled him in my arms. I could have stayed like that for ever, but he awoke and became arouselled. Lost in the warmth of my cleeverage, he began to gently stir. How I wish that the Doctor had never come.
    ‘Well, my secret sweetheart is Marlon Brando,’ said Delia, bringing me back to the present. ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover,’ she said.
    Much later on after Group I was laying in bed in the dark, making figures out of the furniture, when I was startled by the familiar tap of a sensitive hand at my door. Aunt Coral slipped into my room, tweed skirt brushing against her good tights, making my bedcover erupt with electric shocks as she sat on my bed with a crackle. She inspected my face for signs of life, so I pretended to be asleep, which I do when I don’t feel like chatting. I had committed to the charade, so I couldn’t change my mind when, through my shuddering lashes, I noticed she was holding some papers and had on her special glasses which magnified her eyes like an owl’s.
    After a while she left me, closing the door behind her, in expert and silent control of its usual heavy clunk. I wonder what she wanted?

The Commonplace Book of Coral Garden: Volume 1
    Green Place, Sept 29 1930
(Age eight)
    Writing
    I decided to start usimg Mother’s old typewriter for my momthly mews letter to the relatives. The omly fly im the oimtmemt is that it has mo letter before M. Mother was mot calm about this and told me mot to write to Umcle Meal.
    Pepsi
    We went for a walk today, Cameo was in her pushchair and I was leading Terry and Ross. We went to Donal Brown’s kiosk in the park and Mother bought us a can of Pepsi each, which we drank with two straws!
    Housekeeping
    Mrs Morris (our housekeeper) is going down the garden to be with the fairies according to Mother. This is because it so happens that at the present we have four maids working here, two upstairs and two down, and all four are called Mary. Mother is convinced that Mrs Morris chose them deliberately, that she only employs girls called Mary. But this is not true, they are known as Mary because Mother can’t remember anyone’s name.
    Father
    I was in the Drawing Room with Father as usual before bedtime, in the middle of doing my sums. He sets me work every night