Innocence

‘Try turning up on time.’ I flick a forkful of rice at her.

‘No heckling! I’m on a roll! Now, how can we do this? What we need is an event…something sophisticated, sexy…something where we can all dress up and look fabulous!’

‘You’re blocking the television.’ Imo waves her out of the way. ‘I like George Michael.’

Robbie shakes her head. ‘What is it with you and gay men?’

‘Oh, no! I’m not buying that for one second! That’s definitely one guy who’s straight!’

‘He’s a babe,’ I agree, drenching my rice in soy sauce.

Robbie freezes. ‘I’ve got it! We’ll throw a dinner party!’

‘Do you think it makes any difference that none of us can cook?’ Imo turns to me. ‘Sauce, please.’

Robbie does a little pirouette, the contents of her drink splashing over the sides of her glass. ‘Leave it all to me! Why do you girls always think so small? Don’t you understand? We have the power to be anyone or anything we want! The chance to change our whole lives in the blink of an eye! Anything is possible! Nothing can defeat the House of Chekhov! We will go to Moscow, I tell you! We will!’

I pass the soy sauce to Imo. ‘From Russia with love.’

Robbie drapes herself into one of the large leather chairs, sighing with satisfaction at the perfection of her own plan. ‘You know,’ she muses, unfazed by the fact that we’re not really paying any attention to her, ‘I can’t wait to be famous. I really can’t. I just know I’m going to be good at it.’ And she leans back, her face a picture of contentment and easy, unruffled anticipation.

‘Don’t you love the word naughty?’ she continues, swilling her drink around like character in a Noël Coward play. ‘I mean, the way the English use it? Even the way they say the word naughty is naughty’

Imo and I are transfixed by Duran Duran’s latest video in a way that prevents anything more than just shallow breathing.

‘Well, I love it,’ Robbie whispers, half to us, but mostly to herself. ‘I can’t think of anything more exciting than to be poised on the brink of committing acts of great daring and huge potential naughtiness.’

I’m late. It’s quarter past nine already and I’m still not out of the door. For the fifteenth time I examine myself in the full-length mirror of my wardrobe and attempt to readjust the little scrap of pale pink and blue silk Bunny gave me for my birthday. I try to tweak it with the same quick, sharp flick of the wrist I’ve seen Bunny and Ally use so many times to great effect, but the result is unpromising. I look like an airline hostess. For Air Kazakhstan.

I don’t wear scarves; I never have. So why am I wasting precious time today playing with one that, until ten minutes ago, was firmly (if discreetly) headed for Oxfam?

I’ve lost my books. My room, normally a haven of cleanliness and order, has suddenly erupted into a full-blown mess. I can’t find my papers. I tried to change my handbag to something slightly smaller and chicer, and now have a purse I can’t close, exploding with a selection of strange objects—mentholated breath mints, coloured pens, boxes of half-eaten raisins for Alex…The bed has all but disappeared; covered with piles of rejected clothes, the floor with unread sections of the Sunday Times; I stub my toe on one of Alex’s transformer toys (a bright red superhero which morphs into insect/vehicle) and hop around, clutching it and swearing, and then realize my tights have run…

And I’m forced to conclude that there is no point to having extra time. I’m one of the women who don’t know what to do with it anymore. In fact, the whole day runs much more smoothly if I have no time to think, feel, or deviate in any way from my set routine. Women’s magazines are always pontificating about the emotional rewards of luxurious baths, long walks, stolen hours spent reading or meditating or just being, whatever that may be. But what they don’t allow for are women like me, who simply panic if given an extra twenty minutes in the morning; whose fragile balance of identity can no longer negotiate a world filled with unanticipated freedom in any form without transforming it immediately into an obstacle course of right and wrong choices.

All because Ally took Alex to school today.

Enough. The twenty minutes are long gone now and I’m late again anyway. Part of me is relieved to default to my normal panic stations mode. And as I tear the silk scarf off my neck, fling the contents of the cute handbag back into the enormous canvas holdall that’s normally welded to my arm and shove my feet into a pair of black, stretchy pull-on boots which cover all sorts of leg-wear disasters and have for years and probably will for years to come, I feel the comforting rush of adrenalin through my veins. Better the chaos you know.

I force myself to leave my bedroom, averting my eyes to the mayhem I’m leaving behind (there’s no time, there’s no time, the voice chants over and over in my head) and head downstairs, throwing myself down each flight of steps as quickly as possible. When I reach the bottom, I stop abruptly.

Is that cigarette smoke? Thick, heavy, unmistakable, emanating from the drawing room?

I push open the tall double doors. It’s empty; radiant with sunlight. I’d forgotten that it caught the morning sun or that it was so pleasant; so elegant and inviting. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen it in anything but darkness.

But still the smell persists.

I move around the radius of the room.

Next to the marble fireplace, a Louis-Quatorze chair and a small round table sit, basking in a square of warm light. The chair bears the imprint of a curled figure on its seat and one of Bunny’s treasured collection of Halcyon Days enamel boxes is open; a small pile of ashes cooling in the lid.

‘It’s bad for you, you know’

I spin round. Piotr is standing in the doorway. He’s just woken up, his dark hair looks particularly Byronic, his beard unshaven. He’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt but his feet are bare.

‘It isn’t me,’ I assure him quickly. (There’s no way of saying that without sounding instantly guilty.) Tilting the ashes out into the palm of my hand, I replace the lid. ‘I don’t know who it is. None of us smokes.’

He digs his hands into his jeans pockets. ‘It’s OK.’ He grins; his eyes are almost amber in the daylight. ‘I won’t tell your dreadful secret.’

‘No, but it really wasn’t me!’ I insist. ‘I don’t smoke. Ever!’

He raises an eyebrow. ‘And yet you’re holding a handful of ashes.’

I pause. There’s that strange feeling again, the same sudden rush of transparency I had last night. ‘I found them,’ I say, avoiding his gaze.

‘I see.’ He stretches his long arms above his head, turning to run his fingers gently through the crystals of the hallway chandelier. A thousand rainbows appear.

‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ I follow him out. This is too unfair and irritating. ‘Do you honestly think I secretly sneak ciggies in Bunny’s front room, flick the ashes into one of her precious porcelain trinkets and then lie about it when I’m in danger of getting caught?’

He tilts his head. ‘Why not?’

‘Why not?’ I sound like a parrot. ‘Why not? Because it’s…because it’s naughty!’

I flinch. I can’t believe I’ve just used that word in adult conversation.

Apparently, neither can he. ‘You’re a funny woman!’ He laughs, rocking back on his heels. ‘I haven’t met anyone like you in a long time!’

I don’t even want to know what this means.

‘I really don’t smoke,’ I add dejectedly but it only makes him laugh harder.

‘I’m making tea,’ he says at last, rubbing his eyes and pulling himself together. ‘Black tea. With sugar.’

Is this an invitation?

‘You do drink tea, don’t you? Or’—he can barely contain himself—‘I could just put it out on the table and then turn my back and if it should happen to go missing…’

He’s off again.

‘I’m late,’ I say, not moving; not quite sure what to do with the ashes in my hand. ‘I should’ve left ten minutes ago…and will you please stop laughing at me!’ This seems to be a trend today.

The phone rings.

He holds his hands up. ‘OK! OK!’

It rings again.

‘Excuse me.’ I stride purposefully across the hall to where the phone sits on a narrow table. ‘Hello?’