On The Yankee Station_ Stories Part 7

Then one afternoon he was lounging in a hatchway a few feet from the Crusader's arming bay. Pfitz was talking to Lee Otis as the mechanic checked a faulty shackle on a napalm canister. Lydecker strained to catch his words.

"... Yeah, there just ain't nothing to beat this jelly, man. It's gonna win us the woah. s.h.i.+t, I can remember the original stuff. It wasn't so hot. If the d.i.n.ks were quick enough they could sc.r.a.pe it off. So the scientists come up with a good idea. They started adding polystyrene-yeah, polystyrene. h.e.l.l, man, now it sticks better 'n s.h.i.+t to a blanket." He chortled. Lee Otis's eyes were glazed with boredom but Pfitz carried on, unaware in his enthusiasm. "Trouble was, if the d.i.n.ks were fast enough and jumped underwater, it stopped burning. So some wise guy adds white phosphorus to the mix, and-get this, boy-now it can burn underwater underwater." He reached down and patted the nose cone of the canister. "That thing on okay, now?"

Crouched in his hatchway, Lydecker waited and watched until Pfitz hauled his bulky body into the narrow c.o.c.kpit of the Crusader. He tasted acid bile in his throat, his fretting hands picked unconsciously at his olive green jacket and a slight s.h.i.+vering ran through his wasted body. It was clear now. Beyond doubt. He couldn't understand why he had waited so long. Pfitz was the guilty one. For that girl's sake, Pfitz had to suffer too.

It didn't take Lydecker long to work out the technicalities of his revenge. The next day he was back on the catapult crew, silent and withdrawn, waiting for his time. In the evenings, with a rubber-based glue bought from the PX, and with sand from the fire buckets, and spare bolts and shards of metal from the machine rooms, he packed the beer can Pfitz had thrown at him with this glutinous hard-setting amalgam until it weighed heavy in his hand, a bright solid cylinder. To his fixated mind it had seemed only right that the beer can should be the agent of Pfitz's destruction. There was a kind of macabre symmetry in the way events were turning out that he found deeply satisfying.

Patiently, Lydecker studied the mission rotas and the catapult launch schedules, waiting for the day when Pfitz was to be first in line.

It was a bright, windy afternoon that day on the Yankee Station. The mission was close support on some hostile ville on the Cambodian border. Pfitz was in a good mood. He had just heard that he was getting a new Phantom the day after tomorrow. First in the flight, he was towed into position on the catapult and waited with his canopy up for the Chester B Chester B. to get up steam and turn into the wind. He saw the rescue helicopters take off and a.s.sume their positions a hundred yards out from the sides of the carrier. Pfitz looked at the catapult crew hunched against the rush of wind with their thick goggles and macrocephalic helmets. He saw the thin figure of that s.h.i.+thead Lydecker staring up at him, the wire launch bridle dangling from his hand. Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He began to feel uncomfortable at the insistent way Lydecker was looking at him. He seemed to remember seeing too much of the little creep around lately. He'd have to kick his b.u.t.t in when he got back, get the s...o...b.. to keep his distance. He hauled down his canopy as he heard the crackle of instructions in his earphones preparing him for takeoff and the Rose Train's thirty-fifth mission. As he ran through the final c.o.c.kpit checks he noticed the hunched, beetling figure of Lydecker scuttling up to the nose wheel to secure the catapult bridle. As he moved out of his vision, Pfitz reflected that he'd never really taught the little s.h.i.+t a proper lesson; he should have had him transferred right away.

Lydecker paused for a moment at the nose of the Crusader, out of Pfitz's line of sight, buffeted by the rush of wind. For an instant he rested his gloved hand on the side of the plane and felt it shuddering from the power of its engine. His ear-m.u.f.fles dampened all noise to a muted seash.e.l.l roar. Then he crouched down and fitted both ends of the cables to the shackles on the nose wheel, looping the middle over the protruding shark's fin of the towing block. He knelt at the front of the plane for a second as if in supplication. And then, making sure his body obscured the view of the catapult officer, he swiftly withdrew the heavy beer can from his jacket and slotted it neatly into the recessed track, like a stubby bolt in a crossbow, just in front of the towing block.

Pfitz should have an unimpeded, normal takeoff until the towing block reached the end of the catapult track. Then there would be a slight but vital check to the momentum imparted by the tons of steam pressure driving the block, as it obliterated the solid can, jamming its clear run to the end of the track. It would be a slight, almost unnoticeable impediment but, Lydecker had calculated, a crucial one.

Lydecker ran back to his station and waved okay to the catapult officer, who barely acknowledged Lydecker's signal. It was just one launch among hundreds he had supervised, another routine mission. Nothing would happen. You were remote on the Yankee Station, the battles were elsewhere, over the horizon. n.o.body attacked you and you never saw the people you atomized, shattered and burned.

Lydecker saw Pfitz lock into full afterburn. The catapult officer swept his arm forward. The seaman across the deck punched the black rubber b.u.t.ton on the console and the catapult's release sent the Crusader blasting down the track.

Only Lydecker observed the tiny explosion as the towing block ploughed through the can, grinding it into the end of the track. A minute, inconsequential impact. But the effect on Pfitz's Crusader was dramatic. Instead of being thrown up at an angle into the skies, the plane was flung down a shallow slope into the sea some two hundred yards in front and to the left of the carrier. It was over in a couple of seconds. With a huge gout of spray, the Crusader was flipped into the sea, salt water flooding into the gaping intake, the screaming jets plunging the fully loaded aircraft deep under the surface.

There were shouts of alarm from the deck, but everything happened too quickly. Within moments they pa.s.sed the spot where Pfitz had gone down; bubbling crazy water, a slick of oil, and men claimed to see the pale shape of the Crusader slipping ever deeper beneath the green surface of the sea.

Pfitz never came up and there was no further trace of the plane. The end of the catapult was found to be slightly warped and scarred, and the accident was put down to yet another malfunction. The day's mission was aborted while the mechanism was taken apart.

Lydecker stood on the edge of the deck and looked out to where the rescue helicopters futilely hovered above the oil slick. Groups of men stood about and talked of the accident. Lydecker's heart was racing and his eyes were bright. Pfitz and his napalm somewhere at the bottom of the South China Sea. He felt good. No, he felt magnificent. He wanted to bite the stars.

Histoire Vache

"So you are still a virgin," Pierre-Etienne said triumphantly, stubbing out his cigarette.

It had to come out, Eric thought. They had been talking earnestly about s.e.x all afternoon. Under cross-examination Eric had mentioned an older girl-cousin called Jean and suggestively introduced the notion of a seaside holiday and a sand dune picnic a deux a deux. He had tried to keep the details vague, but conversations of this sort remorselessly turned towards the specific and Pierre-Etienne and Momo (Maurice) had been unsparing in their search for the truth. They had really pinned him down this time. Yes or no, they demanded; did you or didn't you?

"I don't believe it," Momo said. "You never?"

Eric shook his head, trying to smile away his blush. They were sitting at a cafe in the main square of Villers-Bocage. It was market day and the place was full of livestock and people. Momentarily Eric's attention was distracted by the sight of a red-faced farmer in the typical knee-length Normandy blouson, energetically tugging on the tail of a cow as if he were trying to wrench it out by the roots. Eric winced.

He looked back at his two companions. Pierre-Etienne was the same age as he; last Easter he'd spent two weeks in England at Eric's home. Momo was Pierre-Etienne's brother, a little older-nearly seventeen-plump and trying to grow a moustache. Eric didn't like him that much; his air of amused tolerance towards the two younger boys was extremely irritating. Momo had a girlfriend of sorts, Eric knew, but he'd never seen Pierre-Etienne with one.

Eric sipped his Diabolo-menthe Diabolo-menthe. He adored the chill green drink, clear and clinking with ice cubes. It was the best thing about France, he decided. He'd never learn the language, he was sure, and as far as he was concerned it wasn't worth the last two weeks of his summer holiday. Pierre-Etienne's father was the director of the Villers-Bocage abattoir, and as a result of his job the family ate meat for every meal; every sort and cut imaginable: pork, veal, beef, kidneys, heart, brains, revolting spongy tripe, lamb, oxtails, trotters, fatty purple sausages, all of it pink and undercooked and oozing with blood. Eric was returning directly to school in three days and he sometimes found himself longing for shepherd's pie or a thick Bisto stew.

"But surely you're one-a virgin-too?" he said to Pierre-Etienne in half-hearted counter-attack.

"Of course not." Pierre-Etienne looked offended.

"But you don't have a girl-friend," Eric said. "How could you?"

"No," Momo said, "he don't have a girl-friend, but he has Marguerite."

"And who's she?"

Marguerite Grosjean shouted goodbye to her mother and eased her bulk into her tiny 2-CV. As usual her mother didn't reply. Marguerite lit her fifth Gauloise of the day. She sat for a moment in her car. It was only half past five and Villers-Bocage was just ten minutes away through early morning mist. She puffed on her cigarette and scratched her thigh. Her mother leaned out of the upstairs window and shouted at her. It was just a noise. Her mother ran out to the car screaming abuse. Marguerite flipped down the window. Arcs of spittle from her mother's mouth spattered on the gla.s.s. Marguerite let it go on a few seconds. It was like this every morning. Then she started the engine and drove off, leaving the small dishevelled figure, still shaking with rage, alone in the yard.

She arrived at the abattoir a little early so she went to the nearby bar and ordered a cafe-calva cafe-calva. The waiter brought her the drink. He was new to the cafe. He smiled and said good morning but Marguerite appeared not to notice him. He found this somewhat unusual, as he had taken her against the wall at the back of the cafe only three nights ago when she came off night s.h.i.+ft. He said good morning again but she didn't reply. He shrugged his shoulders and walked off, but he kept the tab. It wasn't much but it was something. One of the butchers who worked in the abattoir had told him about Marguerite and all the butchers, farm-hands, meat packers and lorry drivers. You just need to ask, the man had said, that's all, a simple request, and he had tapped his temple with a forefinger. The waiter had met her on her way back from the toilet. The butcher had been right.

He thought of asking her again, just now, to see if it was really true, but the clear morning light was unkind to the fat woman so he went on wiping the tables.

Eric, Pierre-Etienne and Momo stood at the back of the abattoir looking over a wall at the stream of departing workers from the morning s.h.i.+ft.

"Which one is she?" Eric asked.

"That one there, the big one, going in the car."

Eric saw lots of cars and quite a few large women.

"Which car?" he asked.

"That one," Momo said, pointing to an old 2-CV being driven away. Eric couldn't really see the driver, just a white face and black hair.

He felt a thump of excited pressure in his chest. "What do I have to do?" he asked.

"You just go and tell her what you want," Pierre-Etienne said.

"Is that all all? Just ask?"

"Yes, it's all."

"But why does she do it? Do...do I have to pay her or anything?"

The two French boys laughed delightedly. "No, no," Momo said. "She do it for nothing. She likes it."

"Oh," said Eric knowledgeably, "a nympho. But are you sure? You're not lying? She does it just like that?"

"Everybody is going to Marguerite," Momo said with emphasis. "We "We have gone." have gone."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. Did you?" you?" Eric asked Pierre-Etienne. Eric asked Pierre-Etienne.

"Of course," he replied. "I have been three times. It is easy."

"G.o.d," said Eric quietly. The ease of the whole venture astonished him. It really was going to happen. "But I still don't understand why why. What for? Why does she do it?"

Marguerite parked her car at the back of the abattoir near the packed cattle pens full of grunting and s.h.i.+fting beasts. As she walked into the room where she worked the familiar pungent ammoniacal smell of guts and excrement tickled her nostrils. She took her plastic overall off the peg and b.u.t.toned it tightly across her ma.s.sive chest. She stepped into her gumboots and pulled the white cap over her wiry black hair, just beginning to be streaked with grey.

She heard the men arrive, the jokes and the early morning banter. A few stepped in for a moment and said h.e.l.lo. She stood looking at the huge stainless-steel basins. She leant back against the mangle. She wasn't thinking about anything, just waiting for Marcel to wheel in the first tub of s.h.i.+vering, gelid, brown and purple guts.

Then she heard the familiar sound of the slaughter begin. The compressed-air phut phut of the humane killer as the retractable six-inch spike was driven into the animal's skull. The clang as the side of the pen fell away to let the beast tumble down the concrete incline, the rattle of its hooves on the cement. Then there was the whirr of the hoist as the carca.s.s was lifted up by a rear leg and almost simultaneously the splash as the blood poured from twin slits made in the throat. It took barely a minute for the skin to be removed before the buzzing circular saw carved down the length of the suspended body, opening it wide. The first today was a cow; she recognised the second splash-this time of milk-as the udder was halved by the whining blade. Then there was the slithering, slopping waterfall as the insides fell out. The moan of the overhead rails-as the carca.s.s was swung down the line to the butchers and the cavernous refrigerating plant-was punctuated by the thumps and splas.h.i.+ngs of the second animal being killed. of the humane killer as the retractable six-inch spike was driven into the animal's skull. The clang as the side of the pen fell away to let the beast tumble down the concrete incline, the rattle of its hooves on the cement. Then there was the whirr of the hoist as the carca.s.s was lifted up by a rear leg and almost simultaneously the splash as the blood poured from twin slits made in the throat. It took barely a minute for the skin to be removed before the buzzing circular saw carved down the length of the suspended body, opening it wide. The first today was a cow; she recognised the second splash-this time of milk-as the udder was halved by the whining blade. Then there was the slithering, slopping waterfall as the insides fell out. The moan of the overhead rails-as the carca.s.s was swung down the line to the butchers and the cavernous refrigerating plant-was punctuated by the thumps and splas.h.i.+ngs of the second animal being killed.

Eight cows later, Marcel wheeled in the first of the buckets. He was simple and had a harelip. He never spoke much. He turned on the hoses and water sprays and plunged his bare hands into the gelatinous ma.s.s of entrails and heaved great piles into the br.i.m.m.i.n.g sinks. There were arm-length rubber gloves for this purpose but Marcel maintained that they only made his job harder.

Marguerite stood above the overflowing steaming basins and quickly sorted the larger pieces of offal from the long strings of intestines. She flung the stomachs onto a recessed tray which Marcel later took through to the tripe room. Her overalls were soon covered by a green slime of blood and feculence. She took a bucket of the washed viscera over to the mangle and forced an end of gut between the rollers. She grunted slightly as she turned the handle to run them through. Green and purple efflux plopped and spouted from the other end, splas.h.i.+ng onto her boots and the floor, where it was hosed into the drains by Marcel.

Pale emptied ropes of intestine were collected in a zinc bucket on the other side of the mangle. Marguerite gave them a final wash-through with a high-pressure hose to remove all remaining particles before Marcel took them to be prepared for tripe. She worked on this way until lunchtime, pausing occasionally to smoke a cigarette or take a drink from a bottle of Calvados she kept on a window ledge.

That night Eric lay in bed thinking about the next day. It was all arranged for lunchtime. Apparently Marguerite always ate lunch in her car. Momo was going to write a note for him to give to her. That was all he had to do.

Eric wondered what it would be like. What it would feel like. He wondered what Morton and Haines would say when he told them back at school. Was it going to be any different from when he did it himself? He slipped his hand into his pyjama trousers and touched himself, ran his fingers over his neat bush of pubic hair. He couldn't imagine it at all. It seemed so easy. What if something went wrong?

The three boys were waiting at the back of the abattoir by eleven o'clock. Eric kept clearing his throat, and his palms were wet with perspiration even though it was a cool morning. Momo had written out the brief note; he was being especially nice that day.

"What is it I have to say?" Eric asked for the tenth time.

"Just say, 'Vous etes Madame Marguerite?' and give her the note." and give her the note."

"Vous etes Madame Marguerite?"

"Good," Momo said. "Tres bien," "Tres bien," and handed him the piece of paper. Eric unfolded it. Momo had printed in block letters " and handed him the piece of paper. Eric unfolded it. Momo had printed in block letters "JE VOUDRAIS TE SAUTER GROSSE TRUIE."

"What does it mean?" Eric asked Pierre-Etienne.

"It means: 'I want to make love with you, you lovely woman.'"

Eric frowned. "Are you sure? I always thought sauter sauter meant to jump." meant to jump."

"Oh, it's an expression you can use," Pierre-Etienne said quickly, glancing at Momo, who added, "It's a more agreeable way to say it."

"Ah. I see. Okay."

When Marguerite appeared, Eric was surprised at how big she was. When she climbed into her car it tossed on its springs like a boat in a storm. At once a blind funk seized him and he felt convinced that he wouldn't be able to go through with it. But Momo and Pierre-Etienne were urging him on relentlessly, as if they were aware of the weight of self-doubt building up in his mind. The consequences of backing out at this stage were too severe to be contemplated; the immense agonies of shame and abuse that would have to be endured. It was too late for second thoughts now. In any case he felt strangely cus.h.i.+oned from events and embarra.s.sment by the barrier of language; it was like watching yourself on a home movie. Besides, if she swore at him or called the police he just wouldn't understand, and anyway, he was going home tomorrow.

However, as he crunched across the gravel of the carpark he felt very lonely and exposed. He looked back at Pierre-Etienne and Momo, who eagerly waved him on. They had made it sound like the most natural thing in the world, something any youth in Villers-Bocage did as a matter of course-an easy initiation. There had been disparaging remarks about the effeminate, gelded sissies who balked at the opportunity. "Ils sont vraiment les gonzesses, les tantouzes." "Ils sont vraiment les gonzesses, les tantouzes." Eric asked what they were. Eric asked what they were. "Les pedes, h.o.m.os.e.xuels," "Les pedes, h.o.m.os.e.xuels," plump Momo said, his voice hoa.r.s.e with disdain. Now as he walked across the car-park he felt the gaze of the two boys at his back like a goad. plump Momo said, his voice hoa.r.s.e with disdain. Now as he walked across the car-park he felt the gaze of the two boys at his back like a goad.

Marguerite sat in the pa.s.senger seat of her small car, which listed heavily. She had finished her sandwich. Eric looked at her forearm, which rested on the sill. It was very white, white as a fridge, and large and soft. There was a dark shadow of hairs running down it. Her fingernails were rimmed with what looked like brown ink.

Eric cleared his throat. "etes-vous Madame Marguerite?" "etes-vous Madame Marguerite?" he asked, holding out the note. he asked, holding out the note.

"etes-vous Madame Marguerite?"

Marguerite looked round. The boy was standing against the light and at first she couldn't really see him. She took the note he was holding but he didn't go away. She opened it up and read the message. She felt her face grow hot with anger and her mouth tightened. To her surprise the boy remained standing; she had expected to see him scampering off, laughing delightedly at his filthy joke. But he was not even smiling; he seemed a little nervous.

Marguerite opened the door of the car and got out. She folded her arms across her bosom and glared at the boy. He was tall and slender with straight blond hair that fell across his forehead. His face was awkward and uneven with adolescence, as if he'd borrowed some features from a larger person. He had small pink spots at the corners of his mouth and on his chin.

"Ah, bon," she said, her anger making her voice tremble. she said, her anger making her voice tremble. "Tu veux m'sauter" "Tu veux m'sauter"

"Um...ah, pardon?" pardon?" the boy said. the boy said.

She heard his accent. Her anger began to fade. It never lasted long anyway. The joke was on him. "Anglais?" "Anglais?" she asked. she asked.

He nodded. Marguerite looked round for his friends, the ones who had played the joke, but she couldn't see anyone. She flourished the note.

"C'est ordurier ca" But he didn't understand her. His quick smile was nervous and uncertain and she suddenly felt sorry for him. She breathed out slowly and looked at him again. The anger had barely rippled the placid lake of her total indifference. She seldom let her mind contribute anything to the flow of experience. It had only brought her anguish and difficulty. So now she pa.s.sively received the sensations it threw at her. She had no doubts and she had no complaints. But he didn't understand her. His quick smile was nervous and uncertain and she suddenly felt sorry for him. She breathed out slowly and looked at him again. The anger had barely rippled the placid lake of her total indifference. She seldom let her mind contribute anything to the flow of experience. It had only brought her anguish and difficulty. So now she pa.s.sively received the sensations it threw at her. She had no doubts and she had no complaints.

"Okay," she said and beckoned him to follow. She led him out of the car-park and round a corner to a cl.u.s.ter of outbuildings, garages and store-rooms. She opened a wooden door at the back of a garage and showed him in. On the wall a shelf of sunlight from a high window illuminated some old packing-cases and cardboard boxes. In the corner was a bed of sorts: a mattress and a blanket. There were a grimy sink and a table and a chair. Some newspapers and magazines lay on the table. The room was used by the security guards; somewhere to go if the rain was heavy, a place for an undisturbed smoke and a chat, somewhere to take Marguerite.

She came up behind the boy, who was looking round him uncomfortably. She touched his hair; it was very clean and s.h.i.+ny. He was surprised and glanced round quickly, automatically raising a hand to the back of his head. Marguerite smiled at him, enjoying his youth and his reticence.

"Vas y," she said, pointing to the mattress. The boy started to unb.u.t.ton his s.h.i.+rt and slipped it off his shoulders. He kicked off his shoes. Marguerite was surprised; no man had ever bothered to undress for her before-at the most, trousers were lowered to the knees-and she removed only what was essential. she said, pointing to the mattress. The boy started to unb.u.t.ton his s.h.i.+rt and slipped it off his shoulders. He kicked off his shoes. Marguerite was surprised; no man had ever bothered to undress for her before-at the most, trousers were lowered to the knees-and she removed only what was essential.

The boy stood there in his underpants, uneasy in the intensity of her gaze. With a start she realised he was waiting for her to undress. She looked at his hairless body, the slim legs, the shadows of his ribs, the lean jut of his pelvis, and he seemed to her almost painfully beautiful. As she fumbled with the b.u.t.tons on her dress she felt a strange thick sensation in her throat, and for a brief moment the utter grief of her life cut like a razor and her eyes spangled with tears.

Eric lay still in Marguerite's arms. She was holding him tight, running her hands up and down his body, muttering soft phrases that he couldn't understand. Eric was aware of an unfamiliar tiredness, and now that it was all over he longed to be away from this small room and this large white woman with her curious smell. At the beginning he had been numbed and filled with nervousness when she had taken off her clothes and lain down beside him on the mattress. What struck him was not the heavy flat b.r.e.a.s.t.s with their stark brown nipples, the bushy armpits or the overhanging belly, but the shocking nude whiteness of the woman. She was so white she was almost grey, as he remembered his arm had once been when it was removed from a plaster cast.

The brief, unsatisfactory coupling was completed within seconds, or so it seemed to Eric, who now ran through his past sensations like a clerk at a filing cabinet, seeking for something that was memorable, that retained traces of excitement. She had kissed his face and rolled him on top of her, manipulating and pus.h.i.+ng him around like a worker he'd once seen operating a die stamper. But now it was over, she just seemed to want to hold him and Eric didn't know what to do. And there was the smell. At first he thought it came from the mattress but then he realised it rose from her skin, a thin acidic smell, almost organic and living.

Eric was confused about his role; it had not been like the books he'd read or the stories he'd heard. He had been pa.s.sive, merely fulfilling a function. He hadn't felt anything. Once, when waiting for the school train, Haines had pointed to a group of women in black overalls who were carrying long brushes and heading up the platform towards the sidings. The women who cleaned the carriages, Haines said, were notorious. They'd do it for ten bob, anywhere, with anyone.

Tentatively Eric brought his hand up from the mattress and touched Marguerite's breast. The nipple was coa.r.s.e and thick like a small brown raspberry. His palm cautiously inched up the slack bulge of her breast. He gently touched the nipple and let his fingers trickle over it. As he touched it she said something and hugged him close to her with a strength he found surprising, so that he felt in a moment of panic that the viscid-white flesh might envelop him, lapping round his body like mud. She reached down for him, her other hand pressing his face into her neck, and he could smell her; he could feel it filling his lungs like water.

With a wriggle he broke free and sat up. He pointed to his watch. "I have to go," he said, and quickly pulled on his clothes. Marguerite, alone on the mattress and suddenly aware of her nakedness, covered herself with her dress.

Eric crouched in the corner tying up his shoelaces, his face hot with embarra.s.sment, unable to say a word, the silence heavy in the air like a threat. From the corner of his eye he saw her leg, the purple-veined thigh with its furze of dark hairs, and he felt his top lip twitch with distaste. He went over to her, carefully avoiding her gaze and breathing through his mouth.

Marguerite was very quiet. Eric reached into his pocket and withdrew two ten-franc notes. "Here." He held them out. "Merci," he added, feeling foolish. But she just curled his fingers back round them and pushed his hand away. For a moment his hand with the notes seemed to hover disconnectedly between them. Suddenly Eric wished she had taken the money. It would have been better.

"Well, goodbye," he said. "Au revoir." "Au revoir."

Outside, the air felt washed and fragrant. Eric took deep breaths and tried to lift the mood he sensed was descending on him as inevitably as night....

The afternoon sun beat down on him. It was that curious pause in the year: high summer slipping into autumn. Things started to decay then: wars began; dogs went mad. The green of the trees and the gra.s.s looked tired, old and tramped-on.

"How was it?" Pierre-Etienne asked when Eric caught up with them.

"Fantastic," Eric lied automatically.

"You were a long time," Momo said.

"Was I? Oh, well, you know how it is."

"Did you...really?" Pierre-Etienne asked.

Eric looked at him curiously. "Yes. It went just like you said." He s.h.i.+vered. "She's big. Huge...you know." He weighed two mammoth b.r.e.a.s.t.s in front of him.

Pierre-Etienne and Momo looked on with ill-concealed amazement. Eric said, "Elle pue," "Elle pue," and they both laughed uneasily. He touched his back pocket and heard the crinkle of notes. He turned and walked away from the abattoir back towards the market-place. Pierre-Etienne and Momo followed behind, deep in conversation. and they both laughed uneasily. He touched his back pocket and heard the crinkle of notes. He turned and walked away from the abattoir back towards the market-place. Pierre-Etienne and Momo followed behind, deep in conversation.

"Come on," Eric shouted, "I'll buy you a Diabolo-menthe." Diabolo-menthe."