Page 95 of Rhymes with Metaphor
Reg’s heart stopped for a moment.He felt a burst of joy, followed by crashing guilt.
He had been on the receiving end of declarations of love before, usually when it wasn’t mutual and he’d done nothing to invite it.He couldn’t make either claim now.It was disconcerting to feel the weight of what was at stake when he’d spent weeks and months thinking, This is pleasant.I hope it continues.He’d been unfair and irresponsible, like the woman who’d surrendered an owlet to the wildlife centre after allowing it to imprint on her.
Reg had stopped walking, and Joel stopped too.He was smiling, puzzled, but sincere.He blinked, and Reg’s own words,cariad, cariad, cariad, flashed at him, like a reproach.
Chapter 23: The Dog Days
Ten days before theywere due to fly home, Joel mused to Reg that he wished they could be completely alone together.Bethan had been a discreet but constant presence.Reg found himself unable to deny Joel’s request.So, he sent Bethan on an all-expenses-paid holiday to Italy, Spain, and Portugal, not to return until the day after they’d left.
After they had seen her off and she’d hugged Joel and admonished Reg to look after the little one, Reg said to Joel.“What do you want to do?”
“I want to get drunk,” said Joel emphatically.“Really drunk.”
Reg ransacked the pantry and found a bottle of schnapps, a caddy of schnapps spoons, and a tin of smoked eel.He laid these out on the kitchen table.“If you’re going to get drunk, you should do so in the most civilized possible way.”
Reg demonstrated how to eat a piece of eel with his fingers and chase it with a ladle full of schnapps.
Joel ate a piece of eel and made a face.
“Keep trying,” said Reg.“It’s an acquired taste.”
“How many did you have to eat before you liked it?”
“I was born with acquired taste,” said Reg.
Joel persisted and finished half the tin of eel and a large quantity of schnapps.
Normally, Reg would have joined him imbibing schnapps—if he was with Martin, he certainly would have—but he felt responsible for Joel and cut himself off after a single ladleful.
Joel grew progressively impulsive and loud, slapping the table after each spoonful.Then he tired of the schnapps and wandered the kitchen.He found a bottle of Buckfast in the pantry and brandished it at Reg.
“I wouldn’t—” said Reg, but Joel had already necked the bottle.
Joel immediately looked like he was going to vomit.Then, he swallowed, grimaced, belched, and blinked several times.“I didn’t like that, Reg.”
“I’m not surprised.”
