Klara and the Sun(18)

‘God. Still not right.’

‘But they look great, Ricky.’

Josie was standing surprisingly close to Rick, not actually touching him, but with hands raised just behind his back and left shoulder.

‘What those two need is a complete recalibration.’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it right. Hey, Ricky, you’re remembering about Tuesday, right?’

‘I’m remembering it. But look, Josie, I didn’t say I was coming.’

‘Oh come on! You agreed!’

‘Like hell I agreed. Anyway, I don’t think your guests will be so pleased.’

‘I’m hosting, so I can invite who I like. And Mom will be great about it. Come on, Rick, we’ve been through this enough. If we’re serious about the plan, we need to do stuff like this together. You’ve got to be able to handle it just as well as me. And why should I have to face that crowd alone?’



‘You won’t be alone. You’ve got your AF now.’

The last two birds had come down. He touched his remote and they all went into sleep mode on the grass.

‘Oh God, I haven’t even introduced you! Rick, this is Klara.’

Rick went on concentrating on his remote and didn’t look my way. ‘You said you’d never get an AF,’ he said.

‘That was a while ago.’

‘You said you’d never get one.’

‘Well, I changed my mind, okay? Anyway, Klara’s not any AF. Hey, Klara, say something to Rick.’

‘You said you’d never get one.’

‘Come on, Rick! We don’t do everything we said when we were small. Why shouldn’t I have an AF?’

She had by now both hands on Rick’s left shoulder, resting her weight there as if trying to make him less tall and the two of them the same height. But Rick seemed not to mind her nearness – in fact he seemed to think it normal – and the idea occurred to me that perhaps, in his own way, this boy was as important to Josie as was the Mother; and that his aims and mine might in some ways be almost parallel, and that I should observe him carefully to understand how he belonged within the pattern of Josie’s life.

‘It’s very nice to meet Rick,’ I said. ‘I wonder if he lives in that neighbor house. It’s strange, but I hadn’t noticed such a house before.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, still not looking directly at me. ‘That’s where I live. My mum and me.’

We then all turned to the view of the houses, and for the first time, I was really able to look at the exterior of Josie’s house. It was slightly smaller, and its roof’s edges a little sharper, but otherwise much as I’d estimated from the inside. The walls had been constructed from carefully overlapping boards which had all been painted a near-white. The house itself was three separate boxes that connected into a single complex shape. Rick’s house was smaller, and not just because it was further away. It too had been built from wooden planks, but its structure was more simple – a single box, taller than it was wide, standing in the grass.



‘I think Rick and Josie must have grown up side by side,’ I said to Rick. ‘Just like your houses.’

He shrugged. ‘Yeah. Side by side.’

‘I think Rick’s accent is English.’

‘Just a little perhaps.’

‘I’m happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.’

‘Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.’

‘Okay enough now!’ Melania Housekeeper’s voice shouted from the foot of the mound.

‘Coming!’ Josie yelled back. Then she said to Rick: ‘Look, Ricky, I’m not going to enjoy this meeting any more than you. I need you there. You have to come.’

Rick was concentrating again on his remote, and the birds rose together into the air. Josie watched them, both her hands still on his shoulder, so that the two of them formed a single shape against the sky.

‘Okay hurry up!’ Melania Housekeeper shouted. ‘Wind too strong! You want die up there or what?’

‘Okay, coming!’ Then Josie said quietly to Rick: ‘Tuesday lunchtime, okay?’

‘Okay.’

‘Good boy, Ricky. You’ve promised now. And Klara’s a witness.’



Taking her hands from his shoulder, she stepped away. Then grasping my arm, she began to lead us down off the mound.

We descended a different slope from the one we’d climbed, which I saw would bring us down just in front of Josie’s house. Its gradient was steeper, and down below, Melania Housekeeper began to protest, then giving up, hurried around the mound to meet us. As we came down through the cut grass, I glanced back and saw Rick’s figure, once more a silhouette against the sky. He wasn’t looking our way, but up at his birds hovering in the grayness.

After we returned to the house, and Josie had put away her padded jacket, Melania Housekeeper made her a yogurt drink, and the two of us sat together at the Island while she sipped it through a straw.

‘Can’t believe that’s the first time you’ve been outside,’ she said. ‘So what did you think?’

‘I liked it very much. The wind, the acoustics, everything was so interesting.’ Then I added: ‘And of course it was wonderful to meet Rick.’