In an hour or so the evening would have settled down, with George in his chair by the fire and someone maybe calling up about bridge. If she left right away she could stay out in the air for twenty minutes or so, before it turned into night outside, before she had to start thinking about reading a mystery, making George’s hot chocolate, going to bed, before the night started being tomorrow morning, with breakfast and dusting and the telephone.
She sat through George’s second glass of milk, watching him finally lift his napkin to wipe his mouth carefully under the moustache. “Think I’ll run out for a few minutes,” she said.
“For heaven’s sake, what for?” George swung around in his chair to see the window. “On a night like this, for heaven’s sake?”
“I want to get a few things. Cigarettes.”
George picked up the empty cigarette package on the table and looked at it disdainfully. “Ought to give it up,” he said. “I feel a hundred percent better.”
“I want to get some coffee for breakfast, too.”
“Weighed myself in the gym today,” George said as he left the dinette to get into the living room. “Gained three pounds since I gave up smoking.”
“Good for you,” Vivien said, stacking the coffee cups on top of the other dishes in the sink. She could do them when she came back and tonight, because she was going out for a few minutes, she would darn George’s black socks. She stopped in the hall closet to pick up her coat, so that she could go into the living room with it on. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and crossed the room to kiss him.
This story is from the Issue 62, 2020 edition of The Strand Magazine.
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This story is from the Issue 62, 2020 edition of The Strand Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
INTERVIEW Laurie R. King
CREATING new works based on an iconic fictional character who’s been around for over a century can be a minefield for an author.
ADVENTURE ON A BAD NIGHT
BEFORE dinner was quite finished Vivien began wanting to get outdoors, into the air she hadn’t seen since afternoon.
THE EDINBURGH BANKERS
“MR. Holmes, I’m not asking for myself. It’s for the livelihood of the rest of us.”
The Adventure of the Home Office Baby
FOLLOWING the occasion of my marriage, and relocation with Mary to our newlywed home in the Paddington district, only a few blocks east of the great station itself, I was able to continue building my new practice while still finding time to assist Sherlock Holmes in a number of investigations.
KEVIN OF THE DEAD
PEOPLE often say to me, “Kevin, what’s it like being undead and all that?” And I say, “It’s a job, you know?” You get up at sunset, brush off the dirt and slugs, climb out of the box, and off you go into the night looking for some poor unfortunate to siphon a pint from.
AUNT NELLIE'S DIARY
MANY contemporary readers know Louisa May Alcott only as the author of the classic Little Women, the much-beloved story of the March sisters’ journey from childhood innocence to mature womanhood.
INTERVIEW John Grisham
FOR the last thirty years, the term legal thriller has been synonymous with John Grisham. Credited with single-handedly popularizing the genre, he has inspired scores of other authors and, in the process, has become both a commercial and critical success.
The Dowser's Discovery
“IF you don’t mind, sir,” said old Fiedler as he finished pouring our coffee, “I’d like to go into the village this morning with the others. It’s market day.”
THE AMIABLE FLEAS
IN May 1954, more than fifteen years after writing Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck rented a house for himself and his family a stones-throw from the Champs-Elysées in Paris.
INTERVIEW Don Winslow
EVER since Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett revolutionized the crime novel with hardboiled heroes, gritty settings, and moral complexity, countless authors have tried to carry the torch.
