Eloquent Silence Read Online Free PDF

inebriation, he liked to settle down with his spectacles on the top of his head and snore for a while in his favorite armchair. With his mouth wide open and his dentures in a mug of water beside him on the occasional table, the liver spots on the top of his head were visible for all to see in passing, should they so desire.
    Inclined to be a selfish, flawed kind of person, Old Jerry was a likable, sporting kind of chap with a weather-beaten face. It was garnished with facial hair in the style of some two decades previously and a red, bulbous nose of huge proportions. Spare of build and long-boned, he was well known at the Perishing Plains Golf Club for his long and accurate swing, among other things. Some of the golfers referred to him behind his back as ‘Old Jerry Longshanks, ladies’ man personified.’
    As well, there was his amazing capacity to hold down more beer than just about any other golfer in the club. He got a lot of mileage out of this as it was cause for many a round to be shouted for him simply to see how far he could go and then drive home to his brood out on the open and desolate Perishing Plains South Road.
    Many desperate widows who needed a male to help them through their declining years  admired his prowess on the course. However, his heart belonged to Emma Voss who was down on her luck financially, so had to be employed to keep her children as best she could. She could not afford the luxury of playing sport as every red cent had to go towards the maintenance of her family.
    Into this complicated and discombobulated milieu came a young woman named Sally, a well-cared for, gently-reared girl who was barely more than a child herself. Totally submissive to housekeeper Tootsie’s bidding, intimidated as she was by Tootsie’s overbearing size and style, she was reacting exactly as Tootsie wished her to, in almost mortal fear and trembling.
    Even though Tootsie never declared open warfare on Sally, her tone was flat and unpleasant when she spoke to the girl, as Sally was illegitimate, which caused her to be not of the ilk of People Like Us. When she smiled at Sally it was with clenched teeth, a faint and rather wistful smile that told the girl she had little right to be breathing the air of the highly-esteemed von Hildebrand family. Should she speak to the girl it was with the minimal parting of her rosy red lips and little or no eye contact. Sally knew her stocks were not high and that her place on the totem pole was precarious, at best.
    Undoubtedly, Tootsie did not approve of Sally and showed this in every possible way. She spoke to her as though from a great height, demonstrating her disapproval without comment by coming along behind her to sweep the floor again, clean the bath again, hang the washing the opposite way up. All these efforts, (perhaps covert enough to distress the girl), were aimed at showing Sally how useless she was. Sally was mortified and wished Tootsie would go to Hell in a hand-basket. Tootsie was not leaving the farm in a hand-basket or not, until she was good and ready. However, riveting as these facts may be, this is not really Sally’s story at all, as you will soon discover for yourself.
    Unfortunately, the girl, Sally, had ‘got herself into trouble’ during the long nights she and Phillip had spent alone together, waiting for Old Jerry to come and collect the young man. At least during this time of Phillip’s courting Sally, Old Jerry had eventually gone home each night, knowing Phillip was waiting until all hours for him.
    All and sundry in Sally’s home had long gone to bed when the two teenagers were left to their own devices into the wee, small hours. This was while Old Jerry was doing his courting of the good lady in the flat behind the Dry Cleaner’s, and failing to come and collect his son. Much petting occurred, although in those times it was not known by the American expression and was merely described in the broader term of cuddling.
    Sally’s mother dared