Books of Blood (15 page)

     
The vestibule was no longer dark. Candles were burning, it seemed hundreds of them, in every corner, on every edge. But then his head was swimming, his eyesight blurred with concussion. It could have been a single candle, multiplied by senses that could no longer be trusted to tell the truth.

      He stood in the middle of the arena of the vestibule, not quite knowing how he could be standing, for his legs felt numb and useless beneath him. At the periphery of his vision, beyond the light of the candles, he could hear people talking. No, not really talking. They weren’t proper words. They were nonsense sounds, made by people who may or may not have been there.

      Then he heard the grunt, the low, asthmatic grunt of the sow, and straight ahead she emerged from the swimming light of the candles. She was bright and beautiful no longer. Her flanks were charred, her beady eyes withered, her snout somehow twisted out of true. She hobbled towards him very slowly, and very slowly the figure astride her became apparent. It was Tommy Lacey of course, naked as the day he was born, his body as pink and as hairless as one of her farrow, his face as innocent of human feeling. His eyes were now her eyes, as he guided the great sow by her ears. And the noise of the sow, the snaffling sound, was not out of the pig’s mouth, but out of his. His was the voice of the pig.

      Redman said his name, quietly. Not Lacey, but Tommy. The boy seemed not to hear. Only then, as the pig and her rider approached, did Redman register why he hadn’t fallen on his face.

      There was a rope around his neck.

      Even as he thought the thought, the noose tightened, and he was hauled off his feet into the air.

      No pain, but a terrible horror, worse, so much worse than pain, opened in him, a gorge of loss and regret, and all he was sank away into it.

     
Below him, the sow and the boy had come to a halt, beneath his jangling feet. The boy, still grunting, had climbed off the pig and was squatting down beside the beast. Through the greying air Redman could see the curve of the boy’s spine, the flawless skin of his back. He saw too the knotted rope that protruded from between his pale buttocks, the end frayed. For all the world like the tail of a pig.

      The sow put its head up, though its eyes were beyond seeing.

      He liked to think that she suffered, and would suffer now until she died. It was almost sufficient, to think of that. Then the sow’s mouth opened, and she spoke. He wasn’t certain how the words came, but they came. A boy’s voice, lilting.

      ‘This is the state of the beast,’ it said, ‘to eat and be eaten.’

      Then the sow smiled, and Redman felt, though he had believed himself numb, the first shock of pain as Lacey’s teeth bit off a piece from his foot, and the boy clambered, snorting, up his saviour’s body to kiss out his life.

SEX, DEATH AND

STAR SHINE

      DIANE RAN HER scented fingers through the two days’ growth of ginger stubble on Terry’s chin.

      ‘I love it,’ she said, ‘Even the grey bits.’

      She loved everything about him, or at least that’s what she claimed.

      When he kissed her: I love it.

      When he undressed her: I love it.

      When he slid his briefs off: I love it, I love it, I love it.

      She’d go down on him with such unalloyed enthusiasm, all he could do was watch the top of her ash-blonde head bobbing at his groin, and hope to God nobody chanced to walk into the dressing-room. She was a married woman, after all, even if she was an actress. He had a wife himself, somewhere. This tête-à-tête would make some juicy copy for one of the local rags, and here he was trying to garner a reputation as a serious-minded director; no gimmicks, no gossip; just art.

      Then, even thoughts of ambition would be dissolved on her tongue, as she played havoc with his nerve-endings. She wasn’t much of an actress, but by God she was quite

a performer. Faultless technique; immaculate timing: she knew either by instinct or by rehearsal just when to pick up the rhythm and bring the whole scene to a satisfying conclusion

When she’d finished milking the moment dry, he almost wanted to applaud.

      The whole cast of Calloway’s production of Twelfth Night knew about the affair, of course. There’d be the occasional snide comment passed if actress and director were both late for rehearsals, or if she arrived looking full, and he flushed. He tried to persuade her to control the cat-with-the-cream look that crept over her face, but she just wasn’t that good a deceiver. Which was rich, considering her profession.

      But then La Duvall, as Edward insisted on calling her, didn’t need to be a great player, she was famous. So what if she spoke Shakespeare like it was Hiawatha, dum de dum de dum de dum? So what if her grasp of psychology was dubious, her logic faulty, her projection inadequate? So what if she had as much sense of poetry as she did propriety? She was a star, and that meant business.

      There was no taking that away from her: her name was money. The Elysium Theatre publicity announced her claim to fame in three inch Roman Bold, black on yellow:

      ‘Diane Duvall: star of The Love Child.’

      The Love Child. Possibly the worst soap opera to cavort across the screens of the nation in the history of that genre, two solid hours a week of under-written characters and mind-numbing dialogue, as a result of which it consistently drew high ratings, and its performers became, almost overnight, brilliant stars in television’s rhinestone heaven. Glittering there, the brightest of the bright, was Diane Duvall.

      Maybe she wasn’t born to play the classics, but Jesus was she good box-office. And in this day and age, with theatres

deserted, all that mattered was the number of punters on seats.

      Calloway had resigned himself to the fact that this would not be the definitive Twelfth Night, but if the production were successful, and with Diane in the role of Viola it had every chance, and it might open a few doors to him in the West End. Besides, working with the ever-adoring, ever-demanding Miss D. Duvall had its compensations.

      Galloway pulled up his serge trousers, and looked down at her. She was giving him that winsome smile of hers, the one she used in the letter scene. Expression Five in the Duvall repertoire, somewhere between Virginal and Motherly.

      He acknowledged the smile with one from his own stock, a small, loving look that passed for genuine at a yard’s distance.

      Then he consulted his watch.

      ‘God, we’re late, sweetie.’

      She licked her lips. Did she really like the taste that much?

‘I’d better fix my hair,’ she said, standing up and glancing in the long mirror beside the shower.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Are you OK?’

      ‘Couldn’t be better,’ he replied. He kissed her lightly on the nose and left her to her teasing.

      On his way to the stage he ducked into the Men’s Dressing Room to adjust his clothing, and dowse his burning cheeks with cold water. Sex always induced a giveaway mottling on his face and upper chest. Bending to splash water on himself Galloway studied his features critically in the mirror over the sink. After thirty-six years of holding the signs of age at bay, he was beginning to look the part. He was no more the juvenile lead. There was an indisputable puffiness beneath his eyes, which was

nothing to do with sleeplessness and there were lines too, on his forehead, and round his mouth. He didn’t look the wunderkind any longer; the secrets of his debauchery were written all over his face. The excess of sex, booze and ambition, the frustration of aspiring and just missing the main chance so many times. What would he look like now, he thought bitterly, if he’d been content to be some unenterprising nobody working in a minor rep, guaranteed a house of ten aficionados every night, and devoted to Brecht? Face as smooth as a baby’s bottom probably, most of the people in the socially-committed theatre had that look. Vacant and content, poor cows.

      ‘Well, you pays your money and you takes your choice,’ he told himself. He took one last look at the haggard cherub in the mirror, reflecting that, crow’s feet or not, women still couldn’t resist him, and went out to face the trials and tribulations of Act III.

      On stage there was a heated debate in progress. The carpenter, his name was Jake, had built two hedges for Olivia’s garden. They still had to be covered with leaves, but they looked quite impressive, running the depth of the stage to the cyclorama, where the rest of the garden would be painted. None of this symbolic stuff. A garden was a garden: green grass, blue sky. That’s the way the audience liked it North of Birmingham, and Terry had some sympathy for their plain tastes.

      ‘Terry, love.’

      Eddie Cunningham had him by the hand and elbow, escorting him into the fray.

      ‘What’s the problem?’

      ‘Terry, love, you cannot be serious about these fucking (it came trippingly off the tongue: fucking) hedges. Tell Uncle Eddie you’re not serious before I throw a fit.’ Eddie pointed towards the offending hedges. ‘I mean look at them.’ As he spoke a thin plume of spittle fizzed in the air.

     
‘What’s the problem?’ Terry asked again.

      ‘Problem? Blocking, love, blocking. Think about it. We’ve rehearsed this whole scene with me bobbing up and down like a March hare. Up right, down left — but it doesn’t work if I haven’t got access round the back. And look! These fucking things are flush with the backdrop.’

      ‘Well they have to be, for the illusion, Eddie.’

      ‘I can’t get round though, Terry. You must see my point.’

      He appealed to the few others on stage: the carpenters, two technicians, three actors.

      ‘I mean — there’s just not enough time.’

      ‘Eddie, we’ll re-block.’

      ‘Oh.’

      That took the wind out of his sails.

      ‘No?’

      ‘Urn.’

      ‘I mean it seems easiest, doesn’t it?’

      ‘Yes… I just liked…

      ‘I know.’

      ‘Well. Needs must. What about the croquet?’

      ‘We’ll cut that too.’

      ‘All that business with the croquet mallets? The bawdy stuff?’

      ‘It’ll all have to go. I’m sorry, I haven’t thought this through. I wasn’t thinking straight.’

      Eddie flounced.

      ‘That’s all you ever do, love, think straight…‘

      Titters. Terry let it pass. Eddie had a genuine point of criticism; he had failed to consider the problems of the hedge-design.

      ‘I’m sorry about the business; but there’s no way we can accommodate it.’

      ‘You won’t be cutting anybody else’s business, I’m sure,’ said Eddie. He threw a glance over Galloway’s

shoulder at Diane, then headed for the dressing-room. Exit enraged actor, stage left. Calloway made no attempt to stop him. It would have worsened the situation considerably to spoil his departure. He just breathed out a quiet ‘oh Jesus’, and dragged a wide hand down over his face. That was the fatal flaw of this profession: actors.

      ‘Will somebody fetch him back?’ he said.

      Silence.

      ‘Where’s Ryan?’

      The Stage Manager showed his bespectacled face over the offending hedge.

      ‘Sorry?’

      ‘Ryan, love — will you please take a cup of coffee to Eddie and coax him back into the bosom of the family?’

      Ryan pulled a face that said: you offended him, you fetch him.

      But Galloway had passed this particular buck before: he was a past master at it. He just stared at Ryan, defying him to contradict his request, until the other man dropped his eyes and nodded his acquiescence.

      ‘Sure,’ he said glumly.

      ‘Good man.’

      Ryan cast him an accusatory look, and disappeared in pursuit of Ed Cunningham.

      ‘No show without Belch,’ said Galloway, trying to warm up the atmosphere a little. Someone grunted: and the small half-circle of onlookers began to disperse. Show over.

      ‘OK, OK,’ said Galloway, picking up the pieces, ‘let’s get to work. We’ll run through from the top of the scene. Diane, are you ready?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘OK. Shall we run it?’

      He turned away from Olivia’s garden and the waiting actors just to gather his thoughts. Only the stage working lights were on, the auditorium was in darkness. It yawned at him insolently, row upon row of empty seats, defying

him to entertain them. Ah, the loneliness of the long-distance director. There were days in this business when the thought of life as an accountant seemed a consummation devoutly to be wished, to paraphrase the Prince of Denmark.

      In the Gods of the Elysium, somebody moved. Galloway looked up from his doubts and stared through the swarthy air. Had Eddie taken residence on the very back row? No, surely not. For one thing, he hadn’t had time to get all the way up there.

      ‘Eddie?’ Galloway ventured, capping his hand over his eyes. ‘Is that you?’

      He could just make the figure out. No, not a figure, figures. Two people, edging their way along the back row, making for the exit. Whoever it was, it certainly wasn’t Eddie.

      ‘That isn’t Eddie, is it?’ said Galloway, turning back into the fake garden.

      ‘No,’ someone replied.

      It was Eddie speaking. He was back on stage, leaning on one of the hedges, cigarette clamped between his lips.

      ‘Eddie. .

      ‘It’s all right,’ said the actor good-humouredly, ‘don’t grovel. I can’t bear to see a pretty man grovel.’

      ‘We’ll see if we can slot the mallet-business in somewhere,’ said Calloway, eager to be conciliatory.

      Eddie shook his head, and flicked ash off his cigarette.

      ‘No need.’

      ‘Really —‘

      ‘It didn’t work too well anyhow.’

      The Grand Circle door creaked a little as it closed behind the visitors. Galloway didn’t bother to look round. They’d gone, whoever they were.

      ‘There was somebody in the house this afternoon.’