Free The Furnished Room by Laura Del-Rivo

At least it might be cool there. This heat’s exhausting.’ In the open air she looked even more pale and drawn than she had done in the café. As they started to walk, she said: ‘It’s a pity you don’t know Bob and George. They’re terrific people. Absolutely terrific. They kept us all in fits.’
    â€˜Don’t you get bored, always being with other people and never having any time by yourself?’
    â€˜Heavens, no. I can’t stand being alone. It’s when I’m alone that I’m bored. I share a flat with Katey because I get the jitters if I’m on my own for more than five minutes.’ She took his hand, and demanded: ‘What washed Polar white?’
    It was their ITV game. He said: ‘One of the detergents?
    Bliz or Swiz or something.’
    â€˜Snow.’
    â€˜Oh yes, Snow.’
    â€˜What makes you lyrical, lovable you?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜Sweet Song Shampoo. They have that ad about her being a social outcast; then she uses Sweet Song and a millionaire marries her because she is lyrical and lovable.’
    Beckett thought, then asked: ‘What do the family jump for?’
    â€˜Joy! The scrumpy, scrunchy, mm-m-mm breakfast food.’
    â€˜Oh, you’re too clever for me. You know them all.’
    â€˜Sure. Friends wouldn’t come to Mary’s house until she switched to...?’
    â€˜No?’
    â€˜Fairy Godmother fabrics for curtains and loose covers.’
    Beckett said: ‘I thought it was going to be that one where visitors shun her house because the lavatory smells.’
    â€˜No, no. You mean the one where the tin of Kleenlav appears to her in a dream.’
    Later, he told her about his conversation with Gash.
    She said: ‘He sounds insane to me.’
    â€˜So everybody says. But insanity isn’t an absolute state. You are only insane in relation to the majority of people. For instance, we all hallucinate in our sleep; we call it dreaming. Everybody does it, it’s normal, so we can dream and still be considered sane. But if we hallucinate when we’re awake, we’re in a minority and considered mad.’
    Bored, Ilsa said: ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right.’
    â€˜It infuriates me when a sane man is defined as one who is perfectly adjusted to society. Suppose the society stinks? Is he supposed to adjust to it then?’
    She said smartly: ‘Better disinfect it with Kleenlav.’
    Then she caught his arm. ‘A tobacconist! Wait for me, will you? I must get some cigarettes.’
    Waiting for her, he continued to think of Gash. Living as a hermit must produce some extreme mental state, even if it’s only extreme boredom. Extremes. The human mind under stress, driven to its limits. Like testing an aeroplane under extreme climatic conditions. Normality is uninteresting. I am obsessed by the possibility of extremes.
    He walked up and down past the shop window. I do nothing. I am not happy. I am not even particularly unhappy. I am empty. I do nothing. I merely kill time. Killing time is humanity’s greatest sin. Boredom means not being in a state of grace.
    They took the Tube at Tottenham Court Road. On the next seat was a mother and small child. The child tottered down the gangway on fat, unsteady legs, clutching at his cotton trousers.
    The mother said: ‘Barry... now don’t you be a nuisance.’
    The child staggered towards them, his plump starfish hand outstretched.
    Ilsa said without interest: ‘Cute kid.’
    Beckett suddenly knew how she would be in ten years’ time. She would no longer be a flame burning itself out. The sharp bone structure of her face would be blurred by softening flesh, and her slim body would have thickened. This hard-drinking, hard-living, desperately young