After lunch Rob decided that he had better walk off the booze and strolled over to the Botanical Gardens. He bought a coffee from the stall at the entrance and went into the Kibble Palace greenhouse. Rob walked over to the pond near the entrance to look at the giant goldfish. A mother was standing holding her young daughter as she peered over the railing into the water.
“What age must they be to get to that size?” said Rob.
The woman smiled but didn’t answer. Rob continued into the main part of the greenhouse. A tramp was sitting on one of the benches.
“Beautiful flowers,” said the tramp pointing at a banana tree.
Christ, thought Rob, having a sudden moment of realisation. That woman probably thinks I’m some kind of down and out too. Rob cupped his hands and breathed out. He could smell the booze and thought about how he looked. He had just thrown some clothes on and hadn’t bothered to even fix his hair or wash.
“It’s a banana tree,” he replied at last, deciding not to jump to any conclusions of his own.
“Who are you,” said the tramp. “Jacques fucking Cousteau?”
“Jacques Cousteau was not a botanist. He was a marine biologist.”
“Fuck off,” said the tramp.
Rob was about to answer when he noticed the woman and child had entered the main section and were walking towards them. She stopped, hesitating. Rob smiled at her, and watched as she turned round and left.
“You know what,” said Rob, turning his attention back to the tramp, “It’s fair enough you coming in here to get out of the cold, but not when you start scaring other people away!”
“Fuck off,” repeated the tramp.
Rob decided he’d had enough and turned to walk away.
“That’s right, run!” the tramp mumbled after him.
A park keeper appeared from the entrance. “Right, both of you out!” he shouted.
Rob shook his head in disbelief. As he walked back past the pond, he saw the woman and child standing to one side, presumably waiting for the greenhouse to be cleared of drunks and mad people before she ventured back in. I’m not like that other guy, he wanted to tell her. I’ve just been to Omni for lunch. The booze you can smell is Cab Sav. Rob smiled at the thought of it and started to laugh. The woman pulled back and frowned.
Rob thought about his drinking as he walked home. He had been the only one to take a drink at lunch. Jack was heading back to his restaurant to oversee the final fittings and Scott was presenting a football highlights show later that evening. Rob, on the other hand was hanging out. Yeah, he was drinking too much, but it was just because he was between projects. He rarely got really drunk and he enjoyed the feeling of being slightly inebriated. He would, however, need to start a new project soon. He had been drifting for too long now.
When he got home Rob looked out his boxes of graphic novels.
Lisa didn’t like them being on the bookcase, so he kept them in a cardboard boxes in the hall cupboard. He searched through the boxes till he came across Orpheus Jones. It was written by a local guy, Frank McCusker. Rob had met him a few times. They had expressed admiration for each others work, as people do, but Rob meant it and he got the feeling that Frank did too. He certainly knew a lot about the band and their albums. As far as Rob was concerned Orpheus Jones was Frank’s best work. It was like all good graphic novels, both derivative and original. It was the story of a character, Orpheus, whose girlfriend, Izzi, is killed in an explosion on the London Underground. His girlfriend’s body was never recovered and Orpheus comes to believe she is still alive within or below the underground. It was the mythical story of Orpheus mixed with Japanese style storytelling and recent political events. It was the story of someone who wants to recover the past. It was like all Frank’s work, tragic, funny, deep and silly all at once. Rob loved it.
He made a pot of coffee and took it through to the media room. He sat back on his lazy boy chair and lost himself in the book. A perfect afternoon lay ahead.
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