Read The View from Mount Dog Online
Authors: James Hamilton-Paterson
The View from Mount Dog (27 page)
Awkwardly he stood on the shore in an expectant knot of fisher-folk.
‘Delicious,’ one of them said.
‘Delicious indeed. Do have some.’ Ingeniously he offered the plastic pitcher to the group at large, hoping to strike some vein of hospitality which custom would forbid them to refuse. They smiled charmingly and nodded their negation, leaving him standing helplessly on a beach in fading light holding two litres of unthinkable substance for which he had paid, was paying, would always pay.
‘Thank you,’ said one, ‘but we’ve already eaten. We’re full now.’
‘Yes, full now,’ came the voices with an inclusive, excluding certitude of those whose lives are righteously governed by
properly observed rituals. ‘It’s night now.’
And the moon soared up like a bouncing singalong ball preparing to take humanity through one more of its best-loved choruses.
This ebook edition first published in 2014
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© James Hamilton-Paterson, 1986
The right of James Hamilton-Paterson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–31756–1