Читать книгу Isobel and Emile - Alan Reed - Страница 9

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Isobel is standing on the platform of the train station.

The train is gone. The people who got off the train are gone. There is no one here. The woman inside the station is knitting. She is making a sweater. Isobel is alone on the platform.

She is standing at the edge of the platform. She is holding her hands together in front of her. She wants there to be something to look at.

The train is gone. There is nothing to look at.

She is standing at the edge of the platform. It is where she was standing to watch the train go. She stays at the edge of the platform and then she walks away from it.

There is a bench on the platform. She goes to the bench. She sits down on the bench on the platform. She sits with her hands together in her lap. She squeezes her hands together. She does it so hard that her knuckles turn white.

She does not know that her knuckles have turned white. She does not know what to do.

The woman inside the station puts her knitting down. She gets out of the booth she sits in. She has her purse in her hands.

The woman comes out onto the platform.

She sees Isobel. Isobel is sitting on the bench. She does not say anything to Isobel. She walks to the end of the platform.

She reaches into her purse. She takes out a pack of cigarettes. She takes out a cigarette. She puts it to her mouth. She takes a book of matches out of her purse. She lights her cigarette with a match.

She holds the cigarette in her hand and she blows smoke out of her mouth. She looks at Isobel sitting on the bench. Isobel can feel her looking at her.

The woman narrows her eyes.

She finishes smoking her cigarette. She takes a stick of gum out of her purse. She puts it into her mouth.

She goes back inside the station. She walks slowly. She is very fat. Inside the station a radio comes on. There is music playing on the radio. Isobel hears it from where she is sitting on the platform.

Isobel stands up. She stands by the bench for a moment. She does not move. She stands still. It is like she is deciding what she is going to do.

She goes inside the station.

There is a snack machine inside the station. She goes to the snack machine. The woman is here. She is sitting in her booth. She is knitting.

Isobel looks at the woman sitting in the booth as she goes to the snack machine.

Isobel takes some coins out of her pocket. She counts them in her hand. She counts them and then she looks at the snack machine.

The woman behind the pane of glass stops knitting. She looks at Isobel.

Isobel counts the coins in her hand again. She looks at the snack machine again. She makes a decision. She puts some of the coins into it. She presses a button on the front of the machine.

Gears turn inside the machine. It gives her a snack. Isobel looks at the woman behind the pane of glass. The woman is looking at her.

Isobel scowls. She wants to scowl at the woman but she does not. She looks at the ground. She goes back onto the platform.

There is the bench on the platform. She goes to the bench and she sits down on the bench. She eats her snack. While she is eating her snack a train comes. It stops beside the other platform. Isobel stops eating her snack. She looks at the train.

Things happen on the other platform. She cannot see what happens on the other platform. The train is between her and the other platform.

She looks at the train until it leaves.

When the train leaves there is no one left on the other platform. She looks down at her hands. She is holding her snack in her hands.

She starts to eat her snack again.

Someone comes onto the platform. He is pulling a suitcase behind him.

He sees Isobel sitting on the bench. Isobel looks at him. She stops chewing and she looks at him. There is still some of her snack in her mouth.

Isobel is sitting on the only bench on the platform. He does not sit down on the bench. Isobel finishes eating her snack.

She looks at the empty wrapper in her hand. She closes one hand around it. She puts her hands in her lap.

She looks at the man on the platform. He is wearing a cap. He does not sit on the bench. There is room for him to sit on the bench but he does not sit on the bench.

He adjusts his cap. He stands on the platform. Isobel looks at her hands in her lap. The radio in the station is playing music. Her knuckles are white again. She sees that her knuckles are white. She does not want her knuckles to be white.

She stands up. She goes to the end of the platform. She wants to be able to see the trains that have left. She cannot see the trains that have left. They are too far away. She looks back at the bench. Her knuckles are white again. There are tears in her eyes. She looks down.

She is standing where the woman was smoking a cigarette. The butt of her cigarette is still smoking. Isobel scowls.

She does not know why she is still here.

She walks into the station. There are washrooms inside the station. There is a washroom for men and there is a washroom for women. She goes into the washroom for women. There is a sink by the door of the washroom. Behind the sink there are two stalls.

She goes into one of the stalls. She closes the door. She does not lock it. She does not think to lock it. She puts the cover of the toilet down. She sits on the toilet.

She drops her head into her hands. She grabs hold of her hair.

She does not know what else to do.

The radio in the station is playing music. The woman in the station hums the tune while it plays. She is sitting behind her pane of glass. She is still knitting.

Isobel is sitting on a toilet with her head in her hands.

She lifts her head. She stands up. She opens the door to the stall. The washroom is empty. She goes to stand in front of the sink. She looks at herself in the mirror.

She scowls. She hates that there is nothing else to do.

She takes some paper towels from beside the sink. She wipes at her eyes. She throws the paper towels into the garbage.

She goes out of the washroom. She goes out of the station. The woman behind the pane of glass watches her. Isobel scowls at her. She knows that she should not. She does not care. She scowls at her and she walks out of the train station.

Outside the train station there is the road that leads to the train station. Isobel stands on the road. She could walk back down the road. It would take her to the town. She does not want to go back to the town.

The train station is behind her. There are the tracks leading away from it. There is the road. There is nowhere else to go.

She walks down the road.

Isobel is standing in front of the grocery store.

She is back in the town. She walked down the main street of the town and now she is standing in front of the grocery store.

There is a sign in the window of the grocery store. It says that the grocery store is closed.

It is late. She does not know where else to go. She tries to open the door.

It is locked.

She is standing in front of the grocery store on the main street of the town. She is not supposed to have a key to the door. She takes the key from her pocket. She opens the door. She goes inside the store.

It is dark inside. She is not supposed to be here. She does not turn on the lights.

She is hungry.

There are vegetables in a basket in front of her. She takes some of the vegetables. She is not sure what the vegetables are. She cannot see them. She walks further into the store. She takes other things out of baskets and off the shelves. She holds them in her arms. She walks to the back of the store. There is a door there. It goes to the room at the back of the store.

The door is not locked. She opens it.

There are no windows in this room. It is too dark to see. Isobel takes a breath. She knows that there are things on the floor of this room. She is not sure where they are. She puts one hand out in front of her. She is holding the food she took in her other arm.

She steps into the room.

Her foot hits something. It hurts. She bites her lip. There are crates scattered around. She knows that there are stairs in this room. They go to the rooms that are above the grocery store.

She takes another step. She is going to where the stairs are.

Her feet hit other things. She stumbles. She drops some of the food she took. She cannot see where it dropped. She does not stop to look for it.

She reaches the bottom of the stairs. She puts her hand on the banister. She goes up the stairs.

One of her hands is on the banister beside the stairs. The other is holding the food she took. At the top of the stairs there is a room. It is not really a room. It is more like an attic. She goes to the top of the stairs. There is a door. She opens the door. She is in the room.

There is a window in one of the walls. There is a curtain over it. The curtain is flimsy. A bit of light from the alley comes through it.

Isobel can see a bed. It is against one wall of the room. She can see a sink on one of the other walls. There is a mirror on the wall over it.

She goes to the middle of the room. There is a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. She cannot see it but she knows it is there. She stands under the light bulb. She reaches up. She pulls on the string hanging from it.

The light bulb turns on.

The bed against the wall is a small bed. There is a bare mattress on the bed frame. It is the bed she woke up in this morning. The plain white sheets are gone. There is not supposed to be anyone here. The sheets have been put away.

Isobel sits down on the floor. The floor is made of planks of wood. She puts the food she took on the floor. She eats some of the food. She uses her hands.

When she is done eating she stands up again. She goes over to the sink. She washes her face. There is not a towel hanging by the sink. There had been a towel there this morning. It has been put away too.

She wants to feel at home here.

She scowls. She has to use her dress to dry her face.

She walks to the middle of the room. She pulls on the string hanging from the light bulb again. The light bulb turns off.

She lies down on the mattress.

She wants to believe she has come home. She is lying on a bare mattress. There are no sheets and no blankets. She is still wearing her dress.

She has not come home.

There is a truck in the alley behind the store. Its engine is running. It is morning. Isobel is lying on the bed. She had been asleep. Now she is awake. The sound of the truck woke her.

She rubs at her eyes. She sits up in the bed. It was cold during the night. She had no blankets. She did not sleep well. Her body is stiff. She is still tired. She stands up. She rubs at her eyes again.

She goes over to the sink. She looks at herself in the mirror. She looks like she just got out of bed. She tries to make her hair look nicer. She pushes at it. It does not make her hair look nicer. She looks like she just got out of bed.

She grits her teeth.

She wants to look nicer.

She turns the water on. She washes her face. She dries her face on her dress again.

She looks at herself in the mirror. She tries to not scowl. She takes a breath. She opens the door and she goes out of the room.

She is above the grocery store. In the room at the back of the grocery store there are two men. They are carrying crates. There are crates in the truck behind the grocery store. The men are carrying the crates from the truck into the store.

Isobel comes down the stairs. She goes into the room at the back of the store. She stands there.

The two men see her.

They look at her.

One of the men says: ‘Isobel.’ He stops. He says: ‘What are you doing here?’

Isobel pulls her hands through her hair. She does not scowl. She lets out a breath.

She says: ‘Good morning, Mr. Koch.’

Isobel is sitting on a chair.

She is sitting with her hands between her legs. She is nervous. She is fidgeting because she is nervous. She is trying not to fidget but she cannot keep herself from fidgeting.

Mr. Koch is standing in front of her. He is holding two cups of coffee.

He gives Isobel one of the cups of coffee.

Mr. Koch is the owner of the grocery store. This is his office. It is a small room at the back of the grocery store.

There is a desk in the office. There is a desk and a machine for making coffee and a chair behind the desk and the chair Isobel is sitting in.

Mr. Koch sits down behind his desk. He grunts when he sits down. Isobel is sitting in front of his desk.Mr. Koch looks at her. She is holding her cup of coffee with both hands.

Mr. Koch makes a noise in his throat.

He takes a cigarette from the pack of cigarettes on his desk. His hair is grey. He is not young. He was thin when he was young. Now he is not. He is fat.

He puts the cigarette to his mouth. He lights it. Smoke comes out of his mouth.

Isobel does not look at Mr. Koch. She holds her cup of coffee in her lap. She uses both hands. She should look at Mr. Koch but she looks into her cup of coffee instead.

She lifts her cup of coffee to her mouth. She takes a sip from it.

Mr. Koch puts his cigarette to his mouth. He coughs. He looks at Isobel. He says: ‘What are you doing here?’

Isobel says: ‘I could work for you.’ She does not look up. Her hair falls into her face. She does not move her hair out of her face. She feels safer with her hair in her face.

Mr. Koch does not hear what she said.He says: ‘Excuse me?’

Isobel looks into her cup of coffee. There are ripples on the surface of the coffee. Her cup is shaking. Her cup is shaking because her hands are shaking. She tries to hold her hands still.

Isobel says: ‘I could work for you.’

Mr. Koch shakes his head.He makes a noise in his throat. He puts his hand to his mouth. He coughs.

Isobel does not say anything.

Mr. Koch puts his cigarette to his mouth. He draws on it. He takes his cigarette away from his mouth. Smoke comes out of his mouth.

It is a small room. It does not have a window.

Mr. Koch says: ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ He shakes his head again. He says: ‘You’re too young.’

Isobel does not look at him.

He says: ‘Isobel, go back to your family.’

Isobel says: ‘No.’

She says: ‘I don’t want to.’ She says: ‘I could work for you.’

Mr. Koch grumbles. He says: ‘You are too young for that.’

She says: ‘No.’

Mr. Koch says: ‘What will happen when your mother finds you here?’

Isobel’s shoulders sink. She looks into her cup of coffee.

Mr. Koch says: ‘What would I say to her?’

Isobel does not look up. She looks into her cup of coffee and she says: ‘No.’ She says it softly. She is trying to keep her hands still. She does not want her cup of coffee to shake.

Her cup of coffee is shaking.

Mr. Koch is looking at her. She knows that Mr. Koch is looking at her. She does not look at him. She wants more of her hair to fall into her face.

She should move her hair so it is not in her face. She should look at Mr. Koch.

She raises a hand to her hair. It is thick and almost black.

She wants more of her hair to fall into her face. She grabs a handful of it.

Mr. Koch looks at her hand move. He puts his cigarette to his mouth. He draws on it. He takes his cigarette away from his mouth.

Isobel does not say anything.

Mr. Koch says: ‘What would I say to her?’ Smoke comes out of his mouth.

He coughs. It is a wet cough.

Isobel does not say anything. One of her hands is in her hair. She pulls it.

Mr. Koch makes more noises in his throat. He puts his cigarette to his mouth. He draws deeply on it. It makes him cough.

He shakes his head.

He stops coughing. He says: ‘It is impossible.’

Isobel pulls her hair over her face. She has to look at Mr. Koch. She knows she has to look at Mr. Koch. She cannot pull her hair over her face. She is pulling her hair over her face.

She moves her hand so it is pushing at her hair. She pushes her hair onto the top of her head.

She is still looking into her cup of coffee. She is holding it with one hand. Her other hand is holding on to her hair.

She has to look up. She is pale. Her eyes are open too wide. She is grinding her teeth together.

Mr. Koch sees her hands moving her hair. He drinks from his cup of coffee. He makes a noise in his throat.

Mr. Koch says: ‘What would you do?’

Isobel stops pushing at her hair. She does not understand. If she looked at him she would understand. She does not look at him. She cannot look at him. She is afraid.

She says: ‘What?’ It is a whisper.

Mr. Koch says: ‘If you worked for me. What would you do?’

She lets go of her hair. It falls into her face. She still does not look at Mr. Koch. Mr. Koch is looking at her. Under her dress, she is sweating. He puts his cigarette to his mouth. Isobel looks into her cup of coffee.

She does not say anything. Her shoulders drop.

Mr. Koch takes his cigarette from his mouth. He says: ‘What would you do?’

Isobel says: ‘I don’t know.’

Mr. Koch blows smoke into the room. He coughs.

He says: ‘You see?’

He puts his cigarette to his mouth. He is still coughing. He draws on his cigarette.

He says: ‘It is not possible.’

Mr. Koch says: ‘It is not possible.’ He says: ‘And that is that.’

He puts out his cigarette. There is an ashtray on his desk. It is filled with cigarette butts. He starts to stand.

Isobel says: ‘No.’

She looks at Mr. Koch. It hurts her. She looks at him.

She says: ‘No.’

She says: ‘I could work for you.’

Mr Koch says: ‘Isobel.’ He says: ‘Be reasonable.’

He says: ‘Go back to your family. What you’ve done doesn’t matter. They will take you back. They are your family.’

Isobel says: ‘No.’

Mr. Koch looks at Isobel. He says: ‘You cannot ask me to do this.’

Isobel’s coffee spills. She can feel it through her dress. It is hot. She does not breathe.

Isobel says: ‘I could work for you.’

Mr. Koch looks at Isobel. Her mouth is trembling. She is going to cry. She is not going to cry. She will not. Her eyes are hard.

Mr. Koch is not well. He is old. He makes noises in his throat. He coughs.

He drinks from his cup of coffee. Isobel looks at him. Mr. Koch grumbles.

He says: ‘It is not a simple thing you are asking.’

Isobel says: ‘I could work for you.’

Mr. Koch sighs. He shakes his head. He coughs into his hand.

Mr. Koch says: ‘There are crates in the back.’

He stands up. He is old. He stands up slowly. It is getting harder for him to stand up. He is old and he weighs too much. He starts to move towards the door.

He says: ‘You could help me unpack them.’