Sex and Stravinsky Read Online Free PDF Page B

usual, at least in respect of the bus. The old bus in the Abingdon Road is a smashing place for two young childless people to live. Every morning early Caroline wheels her tall Dutch bike along the stepping-stone path and proceeds to the Woodstock Road, where she catches a bus to her school. Three times a week, Josh takes the nausea-inducing Oxford-to-London coach from Gloucester Green to Baker Street, in order to use the libraries, or to attend and sometimes give seminars. And Josh is lucky because, just as his research funding is being threatened by the decline of the rand against sterling, he submits his thesis and lands a job in the drama department at Bristol University; a manageable commuter distance from the old red bus. This time he buys a season ticket and commutes by high-speed train.
     
    Four years into their marriage; four years during which she’s watched several of her same-age friends have children – Caroline, having kept it nobly to herself, is still harbouring longings to have a baby. She has sustained her family through her sister’s last years at high school plus two out of three years of higher education. So maybe the time has come? Janet, having been turned down for law school, will soon have completed a teacher-training course and will then be eligible for work. So Zoe is born, a dainty, easy baby with Josh’s chestnut curls, whose existence provides Caroline with yet another outlet for her creative talents, because, for all her parents’ pared-down income, Zoe is always beautifully attired.
    Her jumble-sale Babygro suits have been dyed dark plum, or bottle green, or chocolate brown. Zoe has a quilted toggle jacket made from scraps of Liberty lawn and another made from the edging strips of a large Madras-check tablecloth. She spends her first months sleeping in an antique wooden cradle, rescued from the council dump – Caroline having first padded the interior with sheep’s wool gathered from the farmer’s fences, and covered the padding with sky-blue pleated silk.
    Josh finds he loves to take care of Zoe on his stay-at-home days and sometimes, during her first twelve months, he takes her with him on the train to Bristol in a sling across his chest, and with a Moses basket in tow so that she can sleep through meetings and lectures, which she always reliably does.
    They have even started saving to buy that little terraced house.
    ‘It’s all going to work out fine,’ Caroline says, on the occasion of Zoe’s first birthday, as they munch on celebratory slices of home-made almond cake. ‘You realise that Janet graduates next month? Then, as soon as she can get a job, it’ll make for one less dependant. And with Mum and Janet living together, they can share the household expenses. Plus my sister and I can start to share the cost of Mum’s personal needs.’
    Caroline has moved on from the small private school to become head of history in a somewhat challenging city comprehensive. It’s a job that makes greater demands on her, but it earns her the extra money to place Zoe in the crèche run by her old college.
    ‘We’ve done it, Josh!’ she says. ‘We’ve very nearly done it! Say, one of these days – like in about a year – I could take a cut in salary and see about working part-time. Then we could have another baby. And, I mean – well – the bus is lovely, but it could be that we should try now for a proper house. I mean go for it right away, before they get even more expensive.’
    Caroline, alas, has spoken too soon, since Janet duly graduates, but, after teaching for three days in a leafy suburban school, has seen fit to pack it in. The information is relayed to them via another of the matriarch’s letters.
     
    Dear Caroline
    This is to let you know that your sister has had to give up teaching. The children of today are so badly behaved there is no respect and Janet can’t be expected to cope with all the rudeness and noise. As you will appreciate she is much too frail when