Silver Wedding Read Online Free PDF

And then the emptiness and ache would begin.
    The girl was anxious not to lose the call in case it might be a job for Joe.
    'Hang on, I'll write down your name if you like, won't be a jiff, just let me get up, should be up anyway.. . Let's see, there's some kind of a desk over here by the window, no it's a dressing table ... but there's an eyebrow pencil or something. Right, what's the name?'
    Anna felt the bile bitter in her throat. In her bed, lying under the beautiful expensive bedspread she had bought last Christmas was a naked girl who was now going to carry the phone across to the simple table where Anna's makeup stood.
    'Does the phone stretch all right?' Anna heard herself asking. The girl laughed. 'Yes it does, actually.'
    'Good. Well, put it down for a moment on the chair, the pink chair, and reach up on to the mantelpiece, good, and you'll find a spiral-backed pad with a pencil attached by a string.'
    'Hey?' The girl was surprised but not uneasy.
    Anna continued, 'Good, put back the eye pencil, it's kohl anyway, it wouldn't write well. Now just put down for Joe: "Anna rang. Anna Doyle. No message."'
    'Sure he can't ring you back?' A hint of anxiety had crept into the voice of yet another woman who was going to spend weeks, months, even years of her life trying to please Joe Ashe, say the right thing, not risk losing him.
    'No, no, I'm with my parents at the moment. In fact I'll be staying here the night. Could you tell him that?'
    'Does he know where to find you?'
    'Yes, but there's no need to ring me, I'll catch up on him another time.'
    When she had hung up she stood holding on to the table for support. She remembered telling them that the hall was the very worst place to have a telephone. It was cold, it was too public, it was uncomfortable. Now she blessed them for having taken no notice of her.
    She stood for a few moments but her thoughts would not be gathered, they ran and scurried like mice around her head. Finally when she thought she had at least recovered the power of speech she went back into the room where her mother and father sat.
    They who had never known the kind of love she knew nor kind of hurt. She said that if it wouldn't put them out she'd to stay the night, then they'd have all the time in the work discuss the plans.
    'You don't have to ask can you stay the night in your home,' her mother said, pleased and fussing. Til put a hot-wa I bottle in the bed just in case, the rooms are all there for you, I that any of you ever come and stay in them.'
    'Well, I'd love to tonight.' Anna's smile was nailed firmly I her face.
    They had got to the actual numbers that should be invited when Joe rang. She went to the phone calmly.
    'She's gone,' he said.
    'Has she?' Her voice was detached.
    'Yes. It wasn't important.'
    'No. No.'
    'No need for you to stay over and make a big scene anc meaning of life confrontation.'
    'Oh no, none of that.'
    He was nonplussed.
    'So what are you going to do?' he asked.
    'Stay here, as I told your friend.'
    'But not for ever?'
    'Of course not, just tonight.'
    'Then tomorrow night after work. . . you'll be home?'
    'Yes indeed, and you'll be packed.'
    'Anna,> don't be so dramatic.'
    'Absolutely not, calmness itself. Stay there tonight of course, no, for heaven's sake there's no need to go immediately. Just tomorrow evening. Right?'
    'Stop this, Anna, I love you, you love me, I'm not lying to you.'
    'And neither am I to you, Joe, about tomorrow night. Truly.'
    She hung up.
    When he called back ten minutes later, she answered the phone herself.
    'Please don't be tiresome, Joe. That's a great word of yours . . tiresome. You hate when people press you on things and ask you about things that concern them, tiresome you call it. Maybe I'm learning from you.'
    'We have to talk
    'Tomorrow after work. After my work that is, you don't have any work, do you? We can talk then for a bit like about where I'm to send your mail, and there won't be any answering machine messages so you'd better