'Tête à Tête' is the sixth part of Cilla McQueen's Serial, which is being published on this blog in small sections every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The preceding chapters were: 1. Higgs 2. Hotdog 3. Birdie 4. Inflation 5. Pleochroic Next week we begin chapter 7 - 'Nanoflowers'.
Tête à Tête
Doris was transfixed by the bushfires.
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When they were over she went into the kitchen to check the meat. It had shrunk. She hoped Walter was not a vegan.
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Rinsing two glasses, she imagined herself incinerated by roaring flames as tall as a hillside.
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As tall as a tidal wave. She would have to stock up against disaster. The tsunami pamphlet insisted on an escape route.
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The quickest way up the hill would be through the gorse up the back. She should cut a track. Roly might be able to obtain an electric chainsaw.
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She remembered Edwin on the day he found out about Roger, blossom flying everywhere. He wore on his head a handkerchief knotted at the corners and wielded the chainsaw with awkward violence.
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Matchsticks, said Edwin at last with satisfaction. No more apple pie.
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He pulled off the handkerchief and wiped his face. Extinct.
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She pressed one flower between two sheets of tissue paper and put it away in the dictionary. Nevermore, she whispered.
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Never mind, here’s Walter with his pinot, right on time.
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When she opened the door he held out a bunch of pink hydrangeas. Voilà, Madame. Picked them myself. From Digby’s? she asked doubtfully.
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He followed her into the kitchen. There was smoke in the air. Are we having a barbecue?
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Just the roast, Doris apologised, turning the oven off. She could still see the victims. Negatives of a giant nuclear snapshot.
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Walter pulled two crystal glasses from his coat pocket and rummaged with the other hand. Gruyère in here somewhere. Corkscrew?
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Humming off-key he leaned against the bench, watching her while she set the table. I am quite an afficionado of haute cuisine, he said, especially Nigella Lawson.
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Doris was pleased she had bought a baguette. Nearly ready, she said, I want to make the îles flottantes.
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A specialty of mine, he offered, Allow me to show you how I break the eggs.
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One hand cracking, he poured the yolk from shell to shell. Look, when I hit the rim at this angle I achieve a perfect equatorial division.
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Snowy peaks, pale gold sea, the islands like foam, dawn mist.
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He poured another pinot. Ah, Dostoyevsky, he intoned, raising his glass, “We are like two abstract creatures in a balloon who have met to speak the truth.”
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Firefighters at gorse fire, Silverstream, [Ca 1 September 1980]
Reference number: Dom/1980/0902/01/08-F
Independent Order of Rechabites Friendly Society :No. 86 District. New Zealand Central. [Christ the Good Shepherd. Calendar]. 1908.
Reference number: Eph-D-ALCOHOL-Temperance-1908-01
Eagles Nest Geyser, Wairakei
Reference number: 1/1-020257-G
Paul Cinquevalli
Reference number: 1/1-007889-G
Sawn logs, Northland
Reference number: 1/1-006269-G
Makara farmer Royce Brown spraying gorse
Reference number: EP/1980/0169/19-F
Men drinking a toast, and bicycle
Reference number: 1/2-026145-G
The Queen Curasow. 1856
Reference number: A-198-038
An older woman (possibly Laura Godber) partially obscured behind an apple tree, Circa 1940s
Reference number: APG-1988-1/2-G
Dosimeter
Reference number: 114/274/04-G
Display of decorative items
Reference number: PA1-q-041-frontispiece
Match box showing size of meat ration
Reference number: 114/261/13-G
Photograph of a certificate in anatomy, physiology, surgery and disection gained by surgeon John Dorset, 1829
Reference number: 1/2-012587-F
Men competing in an egg and spoon race
Reference number: 1/2-017774-G
Peter Fraser and the Minister of Supply, with wheat research experts, inspecting loaves of bread
Reference number: 1/2-C-004756-F
Ngaire Dawn Porter, June 1957
Reference number: 1/2-177247-F
New Zealand soldiers at an educational cooking class in Mulheim, Germany, 1919
Reference number: 1/1-002123-G
Egg
Reference number: 114/282/11-G
Louis Auguste de Sainson, Vue de l'ile Tikopia
Reference number: B-052a-018
New private boxes at Chief Post Office, Wellington
Reference number: 114/339/13-G
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