The Unguarded House

First}.. thlished r9r7 Set in ten point Bas\ •rville one point leaded and J*i(ltedl i.n Great Britain b.JI Taylor Garnett Evans- & Co . .k!d Watrord, H�rifordshire WHEN his mother !lift the electric fa n running at pight, it kept him awake, although the rubber blades made only a very slight noise: a flapping whirr and sometimes a click wben the curtains �t C'\j-lght in tie blades. Then Mother got up, swearing softly to he�lf, pulled the curtains out of the fa n and pinned them between the doors of the bookcase. Mother's bedside lamp ll!.d a green silk shade-a watery gree'n, flecked with yellow-and the glass of red wine standing on the night-table looked as though � were ink, a dark slow pois� which Mother drank in small sips. Sh�ead and smoked and occasionally took a sip of wine. Lying as still as a mouse, so that she would pa)lno attention to him, he watched her through half-closed lids and fo llowed the cigarette smoke as it rose to the fa n: white and grey layers of smoke which were sucked up, absorbed and spewed out by the soft green rubbe�b.la:tts. The fa n was nearly as large as those in th6\�i.uehouses; it had a peaceful drone and cleansed the air in the room within a few minutes. Then Mother pressed the button on the wall near her bed, not fa r fr om where hung the picture of Father-a young, smiling man with a pipe in his mouth, fa r too young to be the fa ther of an eleven-year-old boy. Father was as young as Luigi in the ice-cream parlour; as young as the nervous little new school-teacher; fa r younger than Mother, 'who was1as old as the other boys' mothers. Ye� Father was a smiling y�•Jth \Vho fo r the past few weeks had also appeared in •his dreams, looking quite different from the picture-a tragic, huddled figure sitting on inky black blots, as on a cloud, without a fa ce, and yet weeping as one w�ad already been waif� millionlyears in a uniform with�t �adges of rank or nftdals, a stranger who liad st:ddenly broxe• int�t> his dreams, completely t different\ om what :ta would have lil ed him to be. • • The· m' thing was to keel' stiV11 harc!�.l·� breathe, not to 5 open his eyes, for then he could recognize by the noises in the house how late· it was; if no sound came from Glum, it w�s half-past elevc:n� if nothing could be heard of Alqert, it �� eleven. But usually he could still hear Glum's hFavy, peayful tread in t�1� room overhead or Albert in the next. room, whistling softly �t his work, and Bolda oltep came, downstairs at a late hour to c�:it herself something irl th� kit�hen. Slouching steps, an abruptly suitched-on light, and yet she usually ran into, Grand mother whose deep voice boomed"out in the parlour: "Well, you greedy s»at, what are you doing here in th� middle of the night fumbling ab�ut, brewing yourself some more of your muck?" And Bolda woul"d laugh and say in her shrill voice: "Yes, you withered old bitch-I'm still hungry.Is it any copcern of yours?" Another shrill laugh from Boida and a dull expressive "D"lh!" of disgMt from Grandmother. But often they only whispered together and from time to time he would hear laughter-Bolda's 'ltrill laugh, a sinister laugh from Grandmother. But Glum, pacing up and down �pstairs, would be reading his strange books: Dogma and Moral Theology. Punctually a' ten he put out the Jight and went into the bathroom for a wash-a rush of water and a bang as he lit the gas under the geyser then Glum returned to his room, put out the light and knelt by his bedside to pray. He always knew when Glum sank heavily to his knees and, if all were quiet in the ost..e, rooms, he could hear his muttering. For a long time Glum murmured up therr.,in the dark and when, at last, he stood up and the steel springs0of the mattress squeaked, it was exactly half-past eleven. Everyone in the house-apart from Glum and Albert-had disorderly habits: Bolda might still come down to the kitchen after midnight to brew an infusion of hop leaves which she carried in a brown paper cornet, and Grandmother often went into the kitchen at night, long after the clock had struck one, • made herself a whole plate of beef sandwiches and returnedto her room with a bottle of red wine under her arm. I:i. the middle o£. the night, too, she might suddenly realize that her cigarette case wL,�mpty-a pretty pale L!ue porcelain cigarette case which held tv.� packets of twenty. 1· :en she would wander rof,nd the house, grumbling softly q. hq.s�lf, looking for cigarettes: slouch irt�1 gigantic Grandmother, with the bright corn-co?'Jred hair and rosy cheeks, ,,.nl firstto Alltert, for he was they.1y one who 6 smoked the brand of cigarettes she liked. Glum smoked a pipe and Grandmother did not like Mother's brand-'�weak women's "tr/ih" or "it makes. me feel ill when :r.see thJ.t yellow straw }llUol '-while Bolda never had any except a few <:rumpled, -< . spotted Egyptians which she kept in her cupboard and•gave to the postman or the elecVicity Ipa�-cigarettes which arC!used Grandmother's irony: "Th.ey l'iOk Is if you'd fished tliem �t of the holy-water stoup and dried them, you old slut. Nt«J.'s cigar ettes-bah�" And sometimes there were no cigarettes in the house at all and thert Uncle Albert had to get dressed in the middle of the night and drive in.to town to buy some. Or Albert and Grandmother produced their fifty pfennig· and one-mark pieces and Albeit had to go to the automatic rnachine. But G�nd�ther was never satisfied with ten or twenty cigarettes. It had to be a packet of fifty. Bright red packets with the wm8s: TOMAHAWK, PURE VIRGINIA. l:.dng, snow-white, very strong cigarettes. "They must be quite fresh, my dear boy." And shei kissed Albert in the corridor lVhen he came back and murmured: "Ah.if you weren't here, my boy, if you weren't here. No son could be better to me." Then at last she went to her bedroom, ate her thick white bread, well-buttered meat sandwiches, drank her wine and smoked. Albert was ne:slt�t,as orderly as Glum. From eleven o'clock on�s no sound came from Uncle Albert and anything that happened in the house after eleven could be attributed to the women-Grandmother, Bolda or Mother. Mother seldom got up, but she read late into the night and puffed away at very flat cigarettes from a yellow packet marked M0SCHEE-PURE TURKISH TOBACCO and very occasionally she took a sip of wine and turned on the fan every hour to pump the smoke out of the Toom. But�-fother often went out, or brought visitors home, and then he was carried over to sleep in Uncle Albeh's room. He hated these visit� although he liked sleeping in Uncle Albert's room. The visitors came so late-two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning, sometimes -,e,And then Uncle An.. slipped c.'way in the morning anl there was no one t�JJ have breakfast with him before he wen ,Jo �hool. Glum and Bolda had alreac.'w left the hjuse, Mother slc!pt· until ten o'clock aQc) Grandmothe;, never gut up before ele�s;n. 7 Although he always resolved to remain awake, he usually fe ll asleep just after the fan had been turned off. But when Mother read very late,\he woke up twice and three time!rt. partic\l�rly when Glum 'had forgotten "to oil the fan. Then it grated pK1 the first turns, crackled its way slowly up to speed before settling do�n to � monotonous hunt; but the,.first squeaks woke him up wit!t a st�rt and he saw Mothta!" lying in the same position as betore�n raised elbows, reading, a cigarette in her ,left hand, and the wine in the glass had riot decreased. Sometimes Mother read the Bible or he saw the small browllleather missal in her hand, an!, for reasons which. were not clear to him, he felt ashamed, tried' to go to sleep or coughed to catch her attention, for it was late and everyone else in the house 'Yas asleep. Mother immediately jumped up when•he coughed and came Cl'¥er to' his b�. She laid a hand on his forehead, kissed him on the cheek, and said quietly: "Do you need· anything,dear?" "No,I'm all right," he would say, without openinl!" his eves. "I'll put the light out now." "No-go on reading." "Are you.-eally feeling all right:' You don't seem to have a temperature." "No, I'm quite all right, really. " When she pulled the blanket up to his throat, he was amazed how soft her hand was. She went back .t<) PP.:l, switched off the light, letting the fan run in the dark until the air was �uite fresh, and, while the fan was still humming, she askld.

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