Doris Lessing - Love, Again

She, Sarah — that is, the Sarah of today — had not spoken these words. Some long ago Sarah had said them. It was getting harder every second to stand there between Stephen's hands and sustain that long close examination. She felt ashamed, and her face burned.

'You are talking like the kind of woman you seem determined not to be — to seem to be.'

'What kind of woman?'

'A love woman,' he said. 'A woman who takes her stand on love.'

'Well,' said she, attempting humour again, but with no success, 'I do seem to remember something of the kind.' And was about to walk away from the situation, when he tightened his grip on her elbows.

'Wait, you always run away.'

'But it was all a long time ago… All right, then, I'll try. Do you remember Julie's journals — yes I know you don't like them. When she was writing about her master printer, she said, And there will inevitably come that night when I know it is not me, Julie, he is holding in his arms, but the wife of the chemist or thefarmer's daughter who brought the eggs that afternoon. I'd rather die. And of course, she did.' Her voice was full of defiance. 'Immature — that's what our Julie was. A mature woman knows that if her husband chooses to fancy the chemist's wife or the girl who is driving the Express delivery cart, and fucks them in her stead, well, it's just one of those things.'

'And vice versa, I think.' He smiled. 'The husband knows he is holding in his arms the stable boy, because his wife is?'

'That's your — his affair.'

'Well, well, well,' he said, full of sardonic relish. He let her go. And as they walked on, while the essences of flower and leaf meandered past their faces, 'And that marriage of yours? I really am curious. That little way of yours, all passion spent, amuse yourself, my children, while I benevolently look on.' This was not spiteful, or even resentful: he laughed, a bark of sceptical laughter, but gave her the look of a friend.

Sarah fought to become that Sarah who was able benevolently to look on.

'It lasted ten years. Then he died.' Now she believed that the younger Sarah had taken herself off, back into some dark corner. 'I don't look back on my pursuit of love after that with much admiration for myself. I was so immature, you see. I was never prepared to settle for the sensible — you know, a widow with two young children should look for a father for her children.'

He snorted a kind of amusement. Then, 'A real romantic. Who would have thought it? Well, actually, yes, I did, I really did.'

'And I am walking on a lovely afternoon with a man who is besotted, may I use that word? — with a phantom.'

'She is no phantom,' he said gravely.

In front of them the shrubs were thinning: an open space was imminent, showing through the branches.

She heard herself sigh, and he sighed too.

'Sarah! Do you imagine I don't know how all this sounds? I am not so mad that… give me some credit.' They stood on the edge of a vast lawn, glimmering a strong green in yellow light. 'For a time I believed I was possessed. I even considered going off to be exorcised — but for that kind of thing to work, surely you have to believe in it? But I'm afraid I don't believe that some Tom, Dick, or Harry of a priest can deal with… Someone no better than I am? Nonsense. And then I began to do a lot of reading, and I found that Julie is that side of myself that was never allowed to live. The Jungians have a word for it. My anima. What's in a word? It seems to me all that kind of thing amounts to — well, not much more than the pleasures of definition. Why is a word like that useful when you are experiencing…? All I know is that if she walked towards me now I wouldn't be in the least surprised.'

The great lawn, as flat as a lake, was backed by beeches, chestnuts, and oaks; and some shrubs that were all in flower, pink, white, and yellow, although well grown themselves, were made so small by the trees they seemed like flowers in a border. In the middle of the green expanse was a wooden stage, about three feet in height. There the musicians and singers would be tomorrow. A few wooden chairs idled on the grass: apparently this was an audience that liked to stroll about while it listened. Slowly the two approached the little stage, which was like a flat rock in still water. This place, this stage, this lawn, was a vast O framed by trees, green heights around flat green. Now the two were circling the stage. On the far side of it was a poster of Julie, or rather of Julie's drawing of herself as an Arab girl, a transparent veil across the lower part of her face, her eyes black and — yes, the word haunting would do. Stephen came to a standstill. He made a small sound — a protest. 'Elizabeth didn't say she was using this one,' he said. It was not the picture on the other posters. 'What's wrong with it?' she asked. He did not reply. He was staring helplessly, as at an accident, or a catastrophe. He was pale. Sarah put her hand into his arm and moved him away. He walked stiffly, even stumbled. He turned his face to her, and Sarah almost let out that laugh which says, 'You are doing it well, congratulations.' Nothing that he had said, nothing she had thought about him — and she believed she had been prepared to dive deep into his wells of fantasy — had prepared her for what she saw. His face was pulled into that mask that illustrates Tragedy — the other side of Comedy; the theatrical stereotypes. She was standing still, staring at him. Her heart beat. Foreboding. Fear — yes, it was that. Yes, she had seen his face wretched; she had said to herself the sanitized sets of words we use in this time of ours, which has banished this kind of thing, has decided it is all an affair of horoscopes, or 'ghosts', and that if they squeak and gibber, then they are comic rather than not. She had never even begun to imagine what she was seeing now, the haunted tragic face with the dragged-down mouth that seemed as if an invisible hand held it, a mouth all suffering. She was shocked as if she had opened a door by mistake and seen something like a murder or an act of torture, or a woman in an extreme of grief, sitting rocking, clutching at her hair with both hands, then raking her nails across her breasts, where the blood runs down.

He's ill, she thought. She thought, That's grief. What I am looking at — that's grief. She felt ashamed to be a witness of it and turned her face away, thinking, I've never, ever, felt anything like that.

Now he remembered she was there, and he turned his own face away and said, his voice rough, 'You see, you have no idea at all, Sarah. You simply don't understand… well, why should you? I hope you never will.'

At supper that night there were seven people. The informal meal was taken in a room that had a hatch through into the kitchen, and it had been cooked and served by a pleasant motherly sort of woman not unlike an auburn-haired blue- eyed sheepdog. This was Norah Daniels, a housekeeper, or something of that sort, and she sat at the table with Stephen and Elizabeth and Sarah and the three boys, James, about twelve, George, ten or so, and Edward, seven. These children were beautifully behaved, in a style imposed on them by their parents: a light impersonal affection, and it was joky, for there was a lot of banter of the kind Sarah remembered from her school days. It was mostly Norah who played this game. Stephen was silent. He claimed he had a headache and they must forgive him. Not ask too much of him was what he meant and what they all heard. It was evident that this was a message heard often in this family, from him, and from Elizabeth, because she was so very busy. She kept saying she was, and that was why she had not done a variety of things she had promised — ring up a friend's mother, write a letter about a visit, buy new cricket balls. But she would do all these things tomorrow. The three boys, fair, slight, blue- eyed, angelic-looking children, watched the adults' faces carefully for signals. This was their habit. This was their necessity. They had been taught never to ask too much. Only Norah was outside this pattern, for she smiled special smiles at each of them, helped them to food in an indulgent way, remembered personal tastes, gave Edward, the smallest one, an extra helping of pudding, kissed him warmly, with a hug, and then excused herself, her own meal finished, saying she had things to do. At once the boys asked permission to leave the table, and they slid away into a warm dusk. For a time their high clear voices could be heard from the garden. Soon music sounded from the top of the house — some pop group. Elizabeth remarked that it was time the boys were asleep, and departed, but only briefly, to make sure they were in bed.