Read Bleak City for Free Online

was blue-eyed, not the blue that changes, but clear and intense. She was taller than Marjorie and her daughters, something Alice had inherited from her mother’s side of the family. Alice sat down on the sofa across from where Marjorie was sitting. Andrew asked if they wanted something to drink and went off to fill their requests.
    ‘I remember when you were a little girl,’ she told Alice. The girl seemed surprised. ‘You came here with your father, and I took you down to the stream and showed you the butterflies.’
    Alice looked out towards the back of the garden, confused. ‘I think I do,’ she said. ‘Would they be there now?’
    ‘It’s the wrong time of year,’ Marjorie said. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of more family, but soon after, Marjorie saw Alice walking towards the stream, looking up into the trees.
    They weren’t able to speak again until later in the afternoon, once most of the family had left and those who remained were cleaning up in the kitchen. Alice had brought Marjorie a cup of tea and was sitting across from her once again, sipping at a cup of coffee.
    ‘They’re a bit unnerving,’ Marjorie said. ‘This lot.’
    Alice started to protest, but Marjorie cut her off.
    ‘Don’t worry about what they think of you,’ Marjorie said. ‘Their world is rugby and building, and a woman doing an engineering degree, well they don’t know how to handle that.’
    Alice laughed. ‘Engineering’s not so different from building.’
    ‘It’s the woman part they’re uncomfortable with. As innovative as this family prides itself on being with regard to building, they’re in the dark ages when it comes to women.’
    ‘It’s different from my mum’s family,’ Alice said. ‘They’re so proud of having a girl doing engineering.’
    ‘That must be a lot of pressure,’ Marjorie said, peering at Alice, daring her to brush away the scrutiny.
    Alice met her gaze and seemed to drop her guard. ‘Sometimes it is,’ she admitted. ‘But they’re really supportive, almost too supportive sometimes and I wish they’d just let me help them with the cooking.’
    ‘That’s a better reaction than I had when I said I wanted to go to nursing school,’ Marjorie said, smiling. ‘My father said what was the point, I was just going to get married and have babies.’
    ‘Did you?’ Alice said, then laughed nervously. ‘Because obviously... I mean, did you go to nursing school?’
    ‘I did,’ Marjorie said. ‘I was a nurse in the war, until Suzanne was born. It was rare for a woman to keep on working after she was married back then, but during the war, it was all hands on deck.’
    Marjorie made sure to invite Alice to come around any time. The girl’s company was a refreshing change, she seemed able to talk to people of different ages, unlike Marjorie’s other great-grandchildren, who mostly seemed bored, anxious to get away from family gatherings as quickly as possible.
    Later that night, Marjorie was alone in the house, which had been tidied within an inch of its life by her daughters and daughter-in-law. All very dutiful women, always asking if she was all right, making sure there was nothing she needed to do for herself, she could just relax and enjoy her twilight years. They actually used that term, ‘twilight years’, as though death was simply a dimming of light, a fading into nothing. Bill had died suddenly, away from their sight, so they didn’t really know the truth of it, that death is messy and ugly, and the common habit of romanticising death is all that protects those who encounter it from insanity.
    From where Marjorie was sitting, she saw clouds coming over the hills from the south, piling up, then rapidly moving towards the city, bringing with them a wind that tore at the magnolia bush outside the window. The sky darkened with cloud, and she could see the rain like a veil, coming down on the hills and on the houses between her and them. Soon rain started to pick