Read The Evil Seed for Free Online Page B

memories, to allow more than a momentary easing of the
tension.
    ‘You mean … Was she a
patient?’
    Joe tutted. ‘Honestly, I
knew how you’d react. There’s nothing wrong with it, you know, one person in
three has a breakdown at some time or other. Your mother told me that you were
pretty close to it yourself, when you went through that bad patch of yours, so
don’t try to make it sound as if she—’
    ‘Don’t be silly. That
wasn’t what I meant. What I meant was …’ Searching for the right words. ‘How
is she?’
    Joe’s answer sounded a
little cold; Alice wondered whether she had overstepped the mark. After all,
what claim on Joe’s private life could she have now?
    ‘It’s not that I don’t
want to tell you, Al,’ he said, ‘but after all, it’s Ginny’s private life we’re
talking about here. I don’t think I should have the right to tell people about
her private life without asking her first, and I’m not sure how much she wants
people to know about what happened to her. I only told you about Fulbourn so
that you’d know to be careful of what you say and how you talk to her. She’s
still very vulnerable, you know.’
    So am I, thought Alice,
but let it pass.
    ‘Al? You don’t mind, do
you?’
    Alice said: ‘I don’t
mind.’
    ‘Good.’ The relief in
his voice was apparent. ‘Besides, she’s fine. You’d never think her life had
been touched by so much crap. She’s only eighteen, you know, she’s got
everything to live for. You’ll love her, Al. Everyone loves her.’
    He broke off for a
moment, laughed quietly to himself. ‘I think this is it, Al. You know, the
L-word. It’s funny, isn’t it? I never used to think that I’d feel this way; I
thought that there was only room in my life for the music, playing and grafting
and getting bottled off stage, and all in-the hope that the graft would pay
off. And in a funny way, it has. If I hadn’t played the Sluice, I wouldn’t have
met Ginny. God knows what she was doing in the Sluice in the first place. But
ever since then she’s been bringing me luck. Everything’s been looking up for me.’
    Alice was silent for a
long time. She hated the idea. More than hated it. Not because she loved Joe
any more, but because it was all wrong. It wasn’t like Joe to talk like this.
Joe only cared for himself and his music and his ambitions; Joe was charming,
likeable, amusing, but underneath, he was unscrupulously selfish. He didn’t
put himself out for anyone, didn’t really consider what other people might be
feeling …he was usually too much involved with his own enthusiasms.
And he never mentioned what he called the L-word — she had thought he never
would.
    But Joe was a friend …
had been, anyway, and she had behaved badly, as she always did when a good
friendship went the bad way into intimacy. Maybe this was her chance to make up
for that. And more than that, she was conscious of a desire to see him again,
to talk to him, to remake their old, comfortable companionship. When he had
laughed with her, laughed with the good laughter of old times recalled and
recaptured, she had felt warmed, and had known that it was the friendship she
missed coming back, and that she would do what she could to keep it, even if it
meant putting up Joe’s girl. She gave an unwilling laugh.
    ‘Sounds good to me,’ she
said. ‘Who knows? Maybe I’ll like having her here. I can even put you up too,
if you like. I’d be glad to have you both.’
    As she spoke the words,
they were almost true. The last of the old resentment melted, and Alice felt an
easy warmth for this girl Ginny, whom she had never met. It was so good to feel
the rift beginning to close at last, as if the sourness and emptiness had been
there all this time, half-felt but in disguise, touching everything with cold … Alice realized that Joe was talking.
    ‘We could meet at your
place, if that’s all right,’ he was saying. ‘We’ll have tea or something, then
we’ll go and