So here we are, where no one is out on the street before 9:30 in the morning or after 9:30 at night, save a handful of teenagers who smoke outside the pizza place. One thing a bungalow in Peacehaven does not do is remind you of the world’s busyness. I think, in part, he’d had more than enough of being reminded of his old beats, his old busyness. But Tom was determined to retire to a quieter, smaller, supposedly safer place. I thought it an awful idea, just as you would have done. I’ve given this bedroom to you, and have arranged your bed so you may see the glimpse of the sea as much as you like. I know you want these things before your finger reaches the picture, but I let you point anyway, because it is better for you to be independent. You can’t articulate the words, but you can gesture toward your desires: drink, lavatory, sandwich. When I say on paper, I mean pointing at flashcards. Your speech is almost destroyed, and even though you are here in my house, we communicate on paper. Talking, the doctors say, is vital if you are to recover. And I have been instructed to keep talking to you. When I am finished, I plan to read this account to you, Patrick, because you can’t answer back anymore.
This is a confession of sorts, and it’s worth getting the details correct. What I mean to do is this: write it all down, so I can get it right. You’ve always hated melodrama, and I don’t want to upset you now, not in the state you’re in, not at what may be the end of your life. I considered starting with these words: I no longer want to kill you-because I really don’t-but then decided you would think this far too melodramatic. My Policeman was the 2012 Brighton City Read and an Irish Times Book of the Year. Her second novel The Good Plain Cook, published in 2008, was serialized on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime and was chosen as one of Time Out’s books of the year. Robert's first novel The Pools was published in 2007 and won a Jerwood/Arvon Young Writers’ Award. The following is excerpted from Bethan Robert's newly reissued novel, My Policeman, soon to be a major motion picture.
0 kommentar(er)
