Chapter 6 Chapter Six

They finally got home, though two hours later than planned.Gareth was busy in the studio, and Ruth thought it was a good thing that he didn't come out to the car to say hello to them.It was an improvement if he devoted himself fully to his work, and she didn't feel at all that he didn't come out because he didn't want to see Polly. "Go in, it's unlocked," said Ruth to Polly and the children. "Anna will show you the way." Her daughter led them down from the herb garden to the front door. "Be careful of the steps." Anna turned her head and said responsibly, "There are a lot of steps."

Ruth unhooked Flossie's baby chair and clasped the chair's handles under her arms.She picked up several jugs of bottled milk and followed the others towards the house.She bought it from a night-time auto repair shop on the road outside the village. "Very nice," said Polly.She stood under the vaulted roof of the kitchen, looking very small. "It must have cost a lot of money." "It's a badly run-down house that's actually pretty cheap," said Ruth, busily setting the table.She was a little annoyed that Gareth hadn't prepared anything in the kitchen. "But we made it up with blood, sweat and tears."

"It looks very pretty now." Polly curled up in a big battered armchair in the corner of the kitchen, watching Ruth go about her business. "very perfect." How could that sound like criticism, Ruth thought. "We can't be perfect," Polly continued, "Christos is always distracted by other things. He can never focus on one thing. So we are always in the project-in-progress-paint Brushes thrown in the kitchen sink, wires dangling from the ceiling. Never ending. Oh God." Polly leaned back in her chair and put her hands over her eyes.Ruth walked over and put her arms around her.

"Toot, toot!" The children rushed past them.Anna and the two boys chased each other in circles on the first floor—from the hall to the living room, from the living room to the study, from the study to the kitchen, and then from the kitchen to the hall, fighting non-stop.The design of this part of the house has become the most attractive place for children. "Well, they got used to it pretty quickly," said Polly, wiping her eyes. "Oh, be quiet, y'all!" Rose got up to fetch a drink for Polly and herself.Yannis ran up to her panting. "Ruth, can we stay here forever?" He pressed his sweaty face to hers, "I like it here!"

"Stay as long as you want," Ruth said, giving him a warm hug. "Yannis, come quickly, I'll show you my doll. I still have a few kung fu actors." Anna grabbed Yannis' hand and pulled him away.Nico was nine years old and showed little enthusiasm for dolls, but followed them up the stairs anyway. "Oh, my children are very happy," said Polly, holding her glass in her dry, cold hand. "She has done well, your daughter. We may be here for a long time, and we may not be here again." until you stand on your own.” Ruth began to cut the bread. "What are you going to do about the money, Polly? I mean," she added, noticing the twinkle in Polly's eyes, "it's not that we want anything from you. You're our guests and we love you, You can stay here as long as you want." She laughed, "I always say that! Because that's what I mean."

Polly hugged her knees to her chest, making herself look even smaller in the armchair. "The thing that surprised me the most about what happened to Christos was--besides, of course, the fact that he was dead--that he took out some insurance in the month before he died. Life insurance, you know? " "Huh?" said Ruth.It never occurred to her that the man who lived only in the moment would do so. "I know. If something happens — it doesn't matter if it happens to any of us — he's going to make sure that the one who survives and the kids are okay, at least financially, for at least a year or two. It's not What wealth, but it gives me a buffer. Well, once the insurance company pays, there's no problem. The Greek bureaucracy is horrible. Oh, forget it. I hate talking about money." She took a sip from her glass Drank it dry, and Ruth drank it too. "Of course, if the house is sold, we can get some money."

"Have you sold the house?" "His sister wants it. She hates Athens and wants to come back to the island. The family relationships in Greece are ridiculous and suffocating and she wants me to give it to her for free. The island is as attractive as hell to them Persephone Queen of the Underworld. Same. I wonder if my sons will grow up to be like them." "So you must go?" "Oh yes. Must go." "But what about Christos' mother? Doesn't she miss these children?" Polly sighed. "She did mention it once or twice. Living in a family like that is like living in a vise. We'd better come out. After we're settled, she could come here to see us anyway, it's not the end of the world. Besides, she has to take care of Elena's children now. Can you believe it, his sister Elena has five sons. No, I won't go back, and I won't even take a look."

Polly got up and wandered about the kitchen.She stopped in front of the stove and stroked a piece of iron in front of the stove. "Oh, it's an Agar furnace. Very nice." Gareth didn't come out until Ruth rang the dinner bell.Handbelling the whole family out to dinner has always been a joke for those in the know—"call all the beauties from the furthest corners around the house," Gareth once said.But under Polly's long gaze, Ruth felt that the ringing of the bell was a bit artificial. As she brought the stew to the table, she looked at Polly who was already seated on the table, waiting to be served.Polly scanned the room as if thinking of something.

Polly's mind was never at rest, and like Ruth, the character that had appeared in her childhood was now more pronounced and more stable.Polly had always been a wild, restless pixie, while Ruth felt a little dull, more contented, a teenage girl, and Polly liked to run outside.Ruth wondered what a woman in her mid-thirties, maybe even approaching forty, would look like. She went back to the counter to make a salad, and Gareth leaned over to hug Polly. "Glad to see you, Polly," he said, hugging her tightly. "I don't know how to express my regret. Christos is a good man."

"He's really a good guy." She looked up at him. "How I wish I could meet him." Gareth picked up the drink, sat down, and continued, "It's hard to imagine that the last time I saw him was five years ago." "He came to England alone," said Polly, looking at her glass. "right." "We were not very well," said Polly. "Yes, he did." "But it got better," she looked up, tears welling in her eyes, "it got better, Gareth." Gareth reached out and grabbed her hand. "It was all right, Polly. I know."

Ruth tried to refrain from interfering in this exchange, and she was touched by Gareth's enthusiasm for Polly.She figured he'd realized that he'd been petty in his reaction to her coming to live here.Of course, he did realize how much Polly meant to Ruth. To be fair, Gareth also worked hard to restore his relationship with Polly early on.Polly might be right, she took Gareth's best friend away, so Gareth hated himself.Ruth's theory was simpler: she thought it was because Polly had pissed him off.After all, Polly's character is not acceptable to everyone. At the time, in order to bridge the gap between Gareth and Polly, Ruth had arranged for them to meet in a pub in Hammersmith.She told each of them separately that this was an opportunity to clarify the gap that stood between them. After all, these two were the two people she loved most in the world (three, if you count Kristos, though she tried not to count him), and their mutual hatred was too much for her to bear. Ruth lives in Gareth in Elephant and Castle. The original text is Elephant and Castle, a street name in London.Watching a Pulp Fiction video while drinking in his apartment.When Gareth came back at eleven o'clock, he was a little drunker than Ruth, smelling of beer and the wild. "How?" she asked. "Ah. I'm glad to be home," he said. So much for bridging the barriers.From then on, he seemed to dislike Polly even more.Ruth's plan failed, and the two never spoke again.And now, in their kitchen, Gareth held Polly's hand and comforted her. He really wants to be a good husband. "Where did the kids go?" Gareth let go of his hand suddenly and tapped on the table, breaking the silence. "Gareth is so excited to see Nico and Yannis whenever he sees them," Ruth said as she brought over the salad. Something a little more violent." "That's right, Anna's personality is that of a real girl." Gareth smiled. "I did my best against gender stereotyping," Ruth interjected, "I bought her toy cars, I bought balls, I bought books with naughty girls as the protagonists, and I was at the tailgate market in the car park. The stuff is on sale in the boot. Find her the damn 'Kung Fu actor' toy. It's no use, pink is alluring to her." "I think Ruth should change the concept of feminism. In the process of forming a person's character, in addition to environmental factors, there are also innate factors." Gareth said to Polly, then stood up and walked to the bottom of the stairs, "Children guys!" he yelled, "come down!" The children thundered down the stairs at Gareth's voice. "We're making so much noise that we can't hear the bell," Ana said breathlessly. "Nico, Yannis, this is my dad, Gareth." The two boys stood on either side of Anna, suddenly a little shy in front of this tower-like man. Gareth crouched in front of them. "Hello, children," he said softly. "He's fun when he's not working," Anna said, rolling her eyes. "Hey, miss, don't say that often," Gareth said, scooping up Ana from the ground, swinging her up like a swing, over his shoulders, and then doing another round, a complicated play that always It made Anna scream and laugh. "Let me! Let me! Let me try!" Yannis shouted. "Okay kid, now it's your turn," Gareth said, doing the same trick again. Soon, all three kids—even Nico begging to swing for a while—are collapsing on the floor, giggling.There seems to be a new energy in the whole kitchen. "Hey, you all come over to dinner." Ruth had to shout for them to hear. "I think we'd better listen to the lady," Gareth said, pulling Nico and Yanis off the ground. In his jumper, sheepskin slippers, and baggy corduroy trousers, Gareth looked like a debonair giant to the two children.Nico and Yanis are so young, Ruth thought, that if they had been born in England they would probably have been assigned social workers.She looked at her man and smiled.He welcomes them in his den. Gareth made Ana and the boys take their seats, kissed Ruth, and sat down. "You've got a lot to do with cooking for so many people, Ruth," he said.Polly laughed. She was anorexic and hypersensitive to her body shape and what she ate.Gareth has this gift for relaxing. Gareth had told Ruth that he had learned this since he was a baby and put into the hands of strangers. "John and Pam must have liked you right away. They needed you so badly," Ruth replied at the time. "Then why did they lie to me?" he said.That's the end of the conversation.Ruth was speechless. They sat at the long oak table, and Ruth served up the beef stew that had been stewed since dawn. There was hardly any sound except the chewing of the boys.It's like they haven't eaten in weeks. Ruth counted, and Polly put only two forks of food into her mouth, and spent the rest of the time doing the old trick of pushing food around on the plate: making people think they were eating when they were not. "What are those?" Yannis started to wander around the room after wolfing down his food, studying it carefully.Normally, Ruth would tell the kids to wait until everyone had eaten before leaving the table, but she decided to make an exception tonight. "It's my egg." Anna said after eating a mouthful of food in her mouth, "Take it off if you like." "Hey, let me help you," Gareth said, standing up and taking the basket off the cupboard. "It's getting heavier." Yannis handed Anna a basket of bare stone eggs, then hastily pushed away his plate and tableware next to Anna, and Anna laid out the stone eggs one by one in the vacated space. "Be careful, Yannis." Ruth quickly grabbed the wine glass that was almost knocked over by the pushed ceramic plate.She watched with interest as her carefully arranged table was turned into a mess. "This," Anna picked up a shiny green stone egg the size of a real egg from the basket, and handed it to Yanis. "Papa brought it back from China." "Let me see!" Nico stood up and snatched the egg from his brother. "Ouch!" Yannis yelled. "It's okay, Yannis." Anna said, taking out a larger turtle-colored egg from the basket and handing it to Yannis. "Here you go—look, this is my favorite. Dad brought me back from Japan when I was four." "And this one?" Nico asked, picking up a bare stone egg the size of an ostrich egg from the basket. "The biggest one is onyx, a semi-precious stone. Dad bought it from Singapore." "Does your father buy you an egg every time he goes?" Yannis asked. "Yes. I have sixteen. He hasn't been out in a long time, though, and I still want it." Ana looked at Gareth. "So you want me to go out?" Gareth laughed. "No! No, Dad, that's not what I mean. I want an egg, but I don't want you to go out." "Oh, well, that's about the same. I thought you wanted me to go out." Then, he pretended to be relieved and continued to eat. "Anyone else want braised meat?" Ruth asked, wanting to change the subject.She was surprised that Gareth hadn't been more tactful to the two fatherless children.However, Nico and Yannis didn't seem to notice either.They all looked very cheerful.Polly may be right—they may not have noticed that their lives have changed.A month when you're young can feel like a lifetime. "What's your school in Karpathos like?" Anna asked Nico, carefully putting the eggs back into the basket. "Very small," said Nico. "There are only twenty-three children in the whole school, all in one classroom." "How is your teacher?" "It's fine," Nico said. "Great!" Yannis said. "Are all the classes in Greek?" "yes." "It's not like my school," Anna said.She went to the primary school in the village, which is just a short walk across the field behind the house. "There are more people in each class than there are in your entire school." "Are we going to school there, Mom?" Yannis asked, walking over to sit next to Polly. "What?" said Polly.She kept wandering while the children were talking. "Are we going to Anna's school?" "I suppose so," said Polly. "I haven't really thought about it." "I've already told the principal." Ruth said as she cleared the table, "There are still one or two places in the first and fourth grades, you should be able to go. You should go there tomorrow, I think you have to fill some seats for the board of directors." watch or something." "Don't be in a hurry," said Polly, pouring herself another glass of wine. "Yeah, don't worry about it at all," Ruth said. "Gareth, I'm going to get the pudding. Can you clear the table?" Gareth stood up and put the basket of stone eggs back on the cupboard. "You guys come to my school!" Anna jingled her cutlery together. "It's great! You're like my brother, or like Mom and Polly when they were in school." "Just like we were back then." Polly crossed the room, met Ruth's eyes, and smiled. Ruth refrained from letting her eyes fixate on Polly, and she thought she detected something a little more complicated than pure nostalgia.Confused, Ruth turned sharply and went to make custard. "Tell me," said Gareth, as the children scrambled upstairs, filling their tummies with custard apple pie, "how long are you going to stay with us, Polly?" The red wine was placed on the table, and she sat down opposite her and leaned on the chair. "I'll take my coat and go." Polly smiled with her mouth cocked. "You know he doesn't mean that," said Ruth, pouring another glass of wine for each of them. "Right?" She turned to Gareth. "Of course not." Gareth said, looking at Polly, "I just wanted to know if you had any plans." "No plans." Polly leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. "It's still early..." Ruth said. "Yes, it's early days," said Polly, "but there will certainly be plans, and I'll let you know when they do." Ruth reached across and took Polly's hand.She hoped this would calm her down a bit.They had had a good deal of wine, and they were a little tipsy, and she didn't want anything to disturb Polly's first evening, and besides, so far so good. Polly's hand felt like a dry stick under Ruth's warm fingertips.Ruth understood what Polly was doing.This shell, this apparent insouciance, is all armor.That's what scared women do.Not everyone was like that, only Polly.Only her Polly could.Here and now, Ruth decided to do everything in her power to bring Polly back to life and vitality. Polly needs her help. Ruth, though not yet accustomed to the dominant role she played in their life with Polly, could not help feeling excited, even a little comforted.In the years since their separation, she's used to running her own little world.She never thought that she would go back to the past, back to the time when they lived together. Flossie had been sleeping so soundly after the long trip that Ruth had almost forgotten she was still in the baby chair in the living room.But soon enough, she reasserted her presence, crying so loudly that she nearly knocked off the newly installed ceiling and shattered the triple-paned windows. Ruth squeezed Polly's hand vigorously, drank her wine in one gulp, found a book, and prepared to take some time to give the poor child a good breastfeeding.This feeding was the last of the night and was to feed so Flossy could get six hours of sleep.Ruth knew that she should really consider giving her solid food, but she was a little resistant to the idea.She feels a little guilty about drinking so much, but she thinks it helps the baby sleep more deeply. "We're going upstairs," Ruth called to Gareth and Polly. "We don't want to get Flossie too excited." Her other idea of ​​doing this was to leave them both upstairs alone It might be a good move, without her in the middle, giving the two of them a chance to relax and be with each other for a while.She knew she was just trying to smooth things out, but walking away and letting Gareth and Polly go their own way was also a sign of maturity. Ruth smiled to herself as she carried Flossie upstairs.At least she didn't have to worry about Gareth being pulled away by Polly the way most men were.Apart from her complete trust in him, his former dislike for Polly would never allow him to be attracted to her, and she knew that not even a few wild horses could draw him to her. Up to Ruth and Gareth's bedroom, Flossie whimpered and sucked like a hungry little beast.Ruth wanted to read, but her eyes were always fixed on the same paragraph, her vision blurred, she couldn't read a word, and her mind kept thinking of the way Polly looked at her at dinner and what it meant. Ruth is hiding a few things she's done in the past.She has to.Only Polly, who had been sworn to secrecy, knew.Is there any danger in that look? She closed her eyes and tried her best not to recall the past, the days when she was chased and beaten by her father.As a teenager, she had a knack for challenging her father's radical approach.Most of the time, she managed to escape, then locked herself in the bathroom, waiting for her father to calm down.But sometimes before she could run away, her father would catch her and rain his fists down on her. At this time, she would scream loudly until her father stopped screaming when he was worried that the tenants would hear him. up. She was sixteen the last time something like this happened, and, thank God, Polly was there.Ruth's news to her father was so bad that her father would have killed her if she had been alone. "You slut," her father said through gritted teeth.He grabbed Ruth by the hair and, with a clenched fist, punched her in the stomach. Although Polly was thin, she rushed towards him and stopped his falling fist with her body. "No," she yelled.The loudness of the voice shocked him very much.He fell silent. Polly was standing right in front of him, and she spit in his face.Ruth was still curled up on the sofa, covering her head with her arms, watching the scene dumbfounded. Her father turned and ran to the British Regency period between 1811 and 1820, when George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, later George IV, was appointed his deputy as Regent.The front hall where his family lived on the ground floor of the tall and dark hotel was built, and it was thrown directly into the arms of his selectively blind wife. Her parents sold the family hotel after complaining that they could no longer hold up in Brighton.They moved to her mother's hometown in Scotland, a small place just north of Edinburgh.They didn't take their daughter with them, and if they would, she wouldn't have gone. Ruth would be at a loss without Polly.Polly's mother was in the hospital, and Ruth moved into their apartment.Polly took care of everything for Ruth and solved all her problems.Yes, without Polly, she would not be where she is today. Ruth finished feeding Flossie, carried her to her little room, and put her in the crib.Flossie lay on her back, her eyes closed, her arms outstretched, and she appeared to be in a deep sleep. The gesture reminded Ruth of a bad association: the car accident she had witnessed earlier.She had forgotten.She closed her eyes and thought of her family.One wrong step, and the whole game is lost.Everything is so fragile. She touched Flossie's cheek.After a while, Flossie murmured something softly and smacked her lips a few times, telling Ruth that she was alive and letting her go away. She went downstairs and went back to the kitchen.Polly sank into the armchair again, staring unblinkingly at the fire, with a glass of whiskey in her hand.The dishes hadn't been cleaned, and Gareth had gone somewhere.