The Writer Read Online Free Page A

high-pitched warble.
    The family’s elderly maid
had been paid the same wage for the last twenty years and that was
still more than she should have been getting. She pushed a wobbly
cart into the large dining room and got one of the wheels stuck on
a rug, as she seemed to do at least once a week. No one was allowed
to help her free the wheel and sometimes she became so flustered
that she would start swearing at it, with obscure phrases that made
little sense. She said she was from Romania but never gave a
straight answer when asked exactly what part.
    The first course of the
evening was a light milky soup that Simona liked to call Crab
Surprise, mostly no one had ever been able to detect any kind of
fish in it. Sophie remembered that it was far better than the
Oyster Surprise, where the oysters were actually dumplings drowned
in Soya sauce, and Simona would fight anyone who questioned
it.
    “Splendid,” said Susan in
her typically regal manner, sitting at her customary place at the
head of the table. She liked to talk in a formal way, but only when
guests were present for the family dinner, and she expected all the
dinner guests to display equally perfect manners. “And well timed,
Simona.”
    “Sophie, we have a friend,”
said Kerry or Jerry. “Taylor is his name, and it’s his
birthday.”
    “Tomorrow, he means,” added
the other twin.
    “How nice for him,” Sophie
said to them, wondering why they were telling her about their
friend. She did not know what was worse, that they were telling her
about a boy their age for no reason, or that he was her age and
they wanted to hook her up.
    “Kerry, be polite and wait
for Simona to finish serving,” Susan instructed and they all
watched in silence as the maid placed a small bowl in front of
them, filled to the brim, with her weak and shaky hands, each time
letting some of it spill out.
    “We’re planning a surprise
party for him,” Kerry or Jerry continued when Simona finished and
began to wheel the cart back to the kitchen.
    “We need as many people as
we can get,” said the other.
    “We were wondering if you
would like to attend,” said the first.
    “I take it you will also be
inviting your sister, Jerry?” Susan asked.
    Sophie detected a sigh from
Rebecca that she guessed was more that they could now identify
which twin was which.
    “We have already invited
Rebecca,” said Jerry.
    “Did you accept?” Susan
asked her daughter.
    “I have accepted, mother,”
she answered.
    “The new boarder will be
there too,” said Kerry.
    “Are you sure?” Sophie asked
him, surprised that they would ask a grown man to attend a child’s
birthday party.
    “He has known about it for
weeks,” he said.
    “Has he been here for
weeks?” Sophie asked Susan. “I thought he was a recent
tenant.”
    “Yes, I thought he was still
a newbie too,” Susan admitted. “Days can so easily turn into weeks,
and before you know it months have gone by. I’m not sure when he
arrived. I will have to check the signing-in book. Which I shall
not be doing during the course of the family meal.”
    “Is he a friend of your
friend Taylor?” Sophie asked Jerry.
    “He has never met Taylor, as
far as we know,” he said. “It would be weird if he has.”
    “He’s there because we told
him the whole town will be there,” said Kerry.
    “And he’d look out of place
not being there,” said Jerry. “That’s what we told him.”
    “He sounds an intriguing
person, from what I’ve heard of him,” said Sophie.
    “And you would be right,
dear,” said Susan.
    “Don’t listen to them,
Sophie,” Rebecca said as she rolled her eyes. “You aren’t missing a
thing. He’s dull as .”
    “Oh, no, Rebecca,” said
Susan, now slightly losing her formality, “I think Sophie will find
him a very interesting character. And Jerry, you did exaggerate too
much in saying the entire town will be present at your friend’s
party. I for one will not be in attendance, and I know others