Anusia Battersby
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
At baggage claim, the ghost pouts, as she reminds it patiently that they won't be going immediately to the theatre, since the living must unfortunately do such tedious things as eat and sleep.
The ghost comments that it forgets sometimes that Violet is among them, and she replies that yes, she does too.
She accepts, however, the Cadbury snack bar offered by the paternal-looking man, who heaves her bag off the travelator.
She wants to say Simon.
"'Welcome back to Blighty,' he says dryly, with a wink."
She lets the pieces melt on her tongue, in the back of a black cab, and concentrates on how her body heat is enough to set the molecules thawing, spreading, coating, running.
And there are roses.
Violet's mother greets her cross-armed at the door, all red lip and cashmere.
She tells her absently to remove her shoes, glancing over her shoulder, and Violet bristles, one shoe already off.
The ghost mimes picking it up and launching it at her mother's head, and Violet's face relaxes into an unseen smirk.
The carpets are cream and familiar, and the dining table is glass and not.
She knows better than to drop her bag onto it, but her mother still exclaims in alarm when she gets too close.
Violet places it on the floor pointedly, and finally her mother sighs and opens her arms for a hug.
Three silver bracelets clang on her wrist like church bells, and as they embrace stiffly, one gets tangled in Violet's hair.
Her mother picks the strands off gingerly and rolls them into a ball in her palm with a French manicured fingertip.