Read The Lost Souls' Reunion for Free Online Page A

shoes on and your mouth shut and we’ll all be happy.’
    The stairs were no longer grey and uncovered – they were carpeted with a plush pile that cushioned the well-heeled from the world and made their coming and going noiseless.
    Carmel did everything but wash Constance and feed her. Since neither could cook they were often seen in Soho cafés, Carmel lighting Constance’s cigarettes, playing with the pearl lighter, passing her hand through the hot and single flame until Constance grew impatient and snatched it from her. Then nothing to do but listen to Constance’s endless talk of the same things.
    â€˜I’m earning more than I would in any show, Carmel. Most showgirls do what I do for nothing but a dinner and a bottle. By the time I start withering I’ll have enough put by not to worry.’
    â€˜I’d like to go home then,’ Carmel whispered.
    â€˜What’s home got for us? A priest to tell us where we went wrong and a town to talk about us? If they don’t pity you they’ll hate you, Carmel. No, we’re done with that and that’s done with us.’
    Constance and Carmel had spent many nights like this. Now one was thirty and the other nineteen. It still rankled with Constance that Carmel had never once thanked her.
    Carmel was younger than her mistress, but not as well decked out. She dressed in Constance cast-offs as before she had dressed in Noreen’s. A dress of her own was a world and a dream away.
    That was not what she was thinking when she felt a pair of eyes on her, brown eyes with long fringed lashes. Eyes of the man who might have been my father.
    Gomez was at another table, drinking strong black coffee, waiting for his shift at the restaurant to begin. He was a dishwasher who insisted on being a paying customer before he put his apron on. That was his pride. A pride I inherited, if it is his blood in me.
    Carmel was thinking about putting her hand over Constance’s endlessly moving mouth. But this time Carmel felt the eyes and the eyes said: ‘Look at me.’
    When she did she was lost, for she recognized the look and felt she had returned home in it. It was only later, when things were different, that she realized. The eyes that Gomez had cast on her had been those of Joseph Moriarty, an expression in them that stood for a hatred of the world and all those in it who had stood against him.
    Gomez came across to their table and introduced himself. Carmel’s face came alive and something in Constance’s heart said they had met with the end.
    *   *   *
    Carmel, now, could have all that she had not had before. She stood in the dress shop, afraid to touch anything.
    â€˜You have to look, to try on, otherwise no point,’ Gomez said impatiently.
    She had always accompanied Constance into dress shops, had never been the one to choose. Now colours and fabrics and styles surrounded her. The clothes called out, ‘Choose me!’
    And since she thought she would never have another chance to choose she chewed her lip and could not decide.
    â€˜OK, I help.’ Gomez walked through the rails and took up five dresses, held them against her milky skin and sighed.
    â€˜Such a woman. My woman will be beautiful in these.’
    He ran his hands over her to judge a size he already knew. It was a Monday morning and the shop was deserted. A bored assistant came across to them to see if they wanted anything.
    â€˜No help,’ Gomez dismissed her with a look that was long.
    The assistant put the counter between them and did not appear bored any more. She looked at the door, hoping and waiting for other customers to come in.
    â€˜Carmen, change now into these.’ Gomez had taken to calling her Carmen.
    He held up three, all blue, and he gave them to her and she had not chosen any of them.
    In the empty changing room Carmel looked in the mirror and saw nothing but the midnight blue satin she was covered