Paradise [Draft 1]

Chapter 10: 2 Samuel (12358)

Chapter 10: 2 Samuel (12358)

Samuel was in his kitchen, looking through all his cupboards. He had laid in enough food to last him through until New Year, but Des had arrived the night before with all her worldly possessions packed into two suitcases.

'I'll go to the shop for you tomorrow, man,' she said from her horizontal position on the sofa. She was flicking through the TV channels with the old patched up remote control. Edna was lying on her stomach.

'Don't do that,' he warned from the kitchen. 'You can't be coming and going. Not with the muta right outside. If they catch you here, they'll send you to Brick Town. And me too.'

Des kissed her teeth, but she knew he was right. She was running a risk every time she spent the night in the home of an unmarried man.

'I can't stand the hostel any longer,' she griped. 'They sent round a Purity Unit three times in the last week. They looking for Amalekites and the Dagon Worshipers. Any woman on her monthly liable to be taken up. Anyone with a fassy batty get taken up. They always poking at us, poking at our bits and our battys. You hear me? I can't be having me bits poked at all the time!'

'They not allowed to do that anymore,' said Samuel as he came back through and sat down in his chair. 'You should tell the church.'

'I should tell the church? You tell the church!' She snapped her fingers at him, then said, 'you got enough food then? When you working next?'

'I don't know,' he admitted. 'It all over the place. I don't know when I'm working one day to the next.'

He came over and sat beside her on the sofa, shifting her legs up such that the cat was disturbed. Edna sauntered into the kitchen as if that had been her plan all along. Samuel made to take the remote control from Des, but she snatched it away from him.

'How can you watch this rubbish?' he asked, pointing at the TV.

'What man? It's just the news. You don't want to know what's going on?'

'There is nothing true in any of it.'

'They say they be angels flying over that bit of left over Egypt. Look, they have a picture of an angel!'

The newscaster was talking over a some still images of what an average viewer might consider to be an angel -a tall muscular man dressed in a long white robe, wielding a sword as he flew through the air on white wings.

'I don't think they look like that,' he muttered.

'I know that, it's just a picture. You don't think I read the bible? I know what they look like. You think you so clever?'

Samuel shut his eyes and leaned back his head. He didn't want to get drawn into another long argument with Desdemona, his unwanted houseguest.

'OK, anyway. We've enough food for now. I'll go to the shops when we need to. You just need to stay here.'

Des kissed her teeth and changed the channel. 'I stay here, yes sir! Yes, sir, I happy to do what the big man tell me,' she muttered loudly enough for him to hear.

After a few of days, Samuel realised that the problems with having Desdemona in his flat were legion. She would cook for him, but she was, at best, an average chef. She was too out of sorts to do any cleaning, or even to clean up after herself and she could not be relied on to stay indoors when he was out at work. She was a liability and upset the equilibrium in the flat and in Samuel's life. It was manageable when she came to stay one night, two at the most, but anything more than that and she became a bother. She did more talking than he was used to too. He preferred his slow-moving, soothing conversations with Edna, who never answered back or started arguments. Des was always asking for his opinions on things so she could find something to disagree on.