Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published by Viking 1993
First published in Penguin Books 1994
This edition published 2008
1

Copyright Pat Barker, 1993
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

978-0-14-190644-7

For David

It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

R. L. Stevenson

In formal beds beside the Serpentine, early tulips stood in tight-lipped rows. Billy Prior spent several moments setting up an enfilade, then, releasing his companions arm, seized an imaginary machine-gun and blasted the heads off the whole bloody lot of them.

Myra stared in amazement. You barmy bugger.

He shook his head sadly. Five months in a loony bin last year.

Go on.

She didnt believe him, of course. Smiling, he came back and offered her his arm. They had been wandering along beside the lake for an hour, but now the afternoon was waning. A coppery light, more like autumn than spring, slanted across the grass, turning the thorned twigs of rose bushes into strips of live electric filament that glowed, reddish, in the dusk.

Prior, always self-conscious, was aware of approving glances following them as they passed. They made a romantic picture, he supposed. The girl, young and pretty, clinging to the arm of a man in uniform, a man, moreover, wearing a greatcoat so grotesquely stained and battered it had obviously seen a good deal of active service. As indeed it had, and was about to see more, if only he could persuade the silly bitch to lie on it.

Youre cold, he said tenderly, unbuttoning the greatcoat. Put your hand in here. You know, wed be warmer under the trees. Wed be out of the wind.

She paused, doubtfully, for by the lake it was still light, whereas the avenue of trees he was pointing to smoked darkness. All right, she said at last.

They set off across the grass, their shadows stretching ahead of them, black, attenuated figures that reached the trees and began to climb before they were anywhere near. In the darkness they leant against the trunk of one of the trees and started to kiss. After a while she moaned, and her thighs slackened, and he pressed her back against the fissured bark. His open greatcoat shielded them both. Her hands slid round him, underneath his tunic, and grasped his buttocks, pulling him hard against her. She was tugging at his waistband and buttons and he helped her unfasten them, giving her free play with his cock and balls. His hands were slowly inching up her skirt. Already hed found the place where the rough stockings gave way to smooth skin. Shall we lie down?

Her hands came up to form a barrier. What, in this?

Youll be warm enough.

I bloody wont. Im nithered now. To emphasize the point she pressed her hands into her armpits and rocked herself.

All right, he said, his voice hardening. Lets go back to the flat. Hed wanted to avoid doing that, because he knew his landlady would be in, and watching.

She didnt look at him. No, I think Id better be getting back.

Ill take you.

No, Id rather say goodbye here, if you dont mind. Me mother-in-law lives five doors down.

You were keen enough the other night.

Myra smiled placatingly. Look, I had a woman come nosying round. The voluntary police, you know? They can come into your house, or anything, they dont have to ask. And this ones a right old cow. I knew her before the war. She was all for womens rights. I says, What about my rights? Arent I a woman? But theres no point arguing with em. They can get your money stopped. And anyway it isnt right, is it? With Eddie at the Front?

Prior said in a clipped, authoritative voice, He was at the Front on Friday night. He heard the note of self-righteousness, and saw himself, fumbling with the fly buttons of middle-class morality. Good God, no . Hed rather tie a knot in it than have to live with that image. Come on, he said. Ill walk you to the station.