Beginner's Greek A Novel by James Collins

Author:James Collins
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 0316021563
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2008-02-13T08:00:00+00:00

7

When Charlotte happened to be in Paris and the season was right, she usually went down to her father and stepmother’s house, and after her conference she was once again going to pay a visit, a prospect that Julia looked forward to not exactly with dread, but without much enthusiasm. Charlotte had always tended to drive Julia crazy, and now that she was making a special effort to show that she was standing by Julia as her friend, that she was not a narrow-minded prig, this tendency had become more marked. Also, as much as her troubles beset her, Julia had been able at least to forget them occasionally while she was here, so far from the Land of Dick; Charlotte’s presence would make them inescapable. But, of course, when Charlotte called, Julia responded with good cheer. Charlotte would stay for two days.

M. Gorotiaga fetched Charlotte from the train station. She was exhausted. In fact, she had never been so exhausted in her life (except for all the other times she had arrived at the house after a conference). Practically before Julia had even led her across the threshold, Charlotte had retailed various crises. The Quebecois delegates had been insulted when they discovered that they had been assigned an all-U.S. TV package at the hotel. “Comment? Vous croyez que nous sommes venus à Paris pour regarder les sitcoms américains en anglais?” In Montreal, you see, they are dubbed. At the reception for the jazz symposium and concert, the Andorrans, who hadn’t even signed up, ate all the food; the representative from the French government, a Parisian, repeatedly told delegates that he couldn’t understand a word they were saying. Charlotte collapsed in a big chair in the sitting room. Julia asked Mme. Gorotiaga to bring some tea, and when she did so, Charlotte told her, “This will do me a world of good,” and then roused herself to ask Mme. Gorotiaga lots of questions about herself and M. Gorotiaga and her children, the son in Spain, the daughter with all the babies. This was routine, and Charlotte always spoke in admirably idiomatic French. These conversations made Mme. Gorotiaga uncomfortable, though. She stood stiffly and nodded and said, “Oui, madame,” and “Ça va bien avec lui.” Julia looked over Charlotte’s attire, boots that looked like sausages and a sort of gypsy dress with lots of layers. Her hair was dirty.

After tea Charlotte had a rest. Then, at dinner, she was subdued, nervous, and preoccupied. Uncharacteristically quiet, she answered Julia’s questions with monosyllables. She tore at the skin on her thumb with the nail of her index finger, and she gulped down wine. Now, after their meal, the two women had moved to the sitting room and were eating cheese and Charlotte was drinking more wine. If she had been alone, Julia would have sat by the fire and allowed herself to melt into a state of sated, pregnant stupefaction. Tonight, though, she was alert, for Charlotte had begun talking about her personal

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.