Читать книгу King - Tanya Chapman - Страница 8

Some people understand that life is supposed to be fun and some people don’t. Eventually the ones who don’t understand just get mean about it.

Like the time I was writing a cheque in the grocery store and the cashier asked my name because I was new in town, and I told her it was Hazel, and she said, ‘Your driver’s licence doesn’t say Hazel.’ I told her that I was finished with the other name, so now it’s Hazel. Then, when I was leaving, she said goodbye and called me by my old name, real loud and with a nasty snarl in her voice. I had already written my legal name on the cheque so everything was legit. There was no reason for it. Just this ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ idea that you’re not allowed to change things around and make things better for yourself.

I know King understands, though. He understands in the most complete way. And when I figured that out, I knew I loved him for good.

Sissy introduced me to King. She knocked on my trailer door two days after I moved in and invited me over for a beer. I spent the whole afternoon listening to her voice. King and Spiney came home from the shop where they work together and the four of us talked, played cards and had a darn good time. Pretty soon it was a ritual.

A couple of weeks later I invited King over for dinner. Sissy gave me the idea when she told me that King was living in the shop where he worked. I figured that a home-cooked dinner might be a pretty good evening for us. I needed to give him a chance to tell me that he liked me – it was obvious already.

Sissy came over that day to cook for me. I can’t cook a thing except Kraft Dinner and grilled cheese, but King didn’t know that back then. While Sissy was cooking, I decided that the trailer needed a bit of decorating, so I got out my collection of Christmas lights. The first week I was in town I got a job at the thrift shop. They were throwing out this huge box of lights – apparently, no one buys used Christmas lights. I hung up my whole collection – some on the front door, then on the whole front of the trailer. I just couldn’t stop. King was coming over.

It was the best dinner. We went through three bottles of red wine and sat and talked all night. There was a lot of laughing and a lot of telling silly stories and making fun of one another. I almost forgot about the lights, but then I jumped up, so quickly it made my drunken head spin, and I grabbed King and led him out the front door.

I made him stand in the middle of the lawn with his eyes closed while I ran and plugged in the lights.

‘Ta da!’

He almost fell over, he was so blown away at the sight. I went and stood beside him and looked. We stood for a while just staring. The whole trailer kind of glowed, like one of those super-coloured cartoons about nuclear reaction. So many colours all on top of each other and shining away in the warm night. Then King took my hand and put it on his chest, over his heart. ‘Thanks, Hazel,’ he said.

And there I was, standing in the hazy, many-coloured night feeling the beat of King’s heart.

And that was it. We knew from then on that we understood each other, and we’ve never talked about it since. It’s not really something you can say out loud anyway.