BooksBarbecue
Back Nothing to See Save as PDF
Chapters (57)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Dedication2
  5. 1994
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 2006
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. 35
  42. 36
  43. 37
  44. 2018
  45. 38
  46. 39
  47. 40
  48. 41
  49. 42
  50. 43
  51. 44
  52. 45
  53. 46
  54. 47
  55. 48
  56. 49
  57. Acknowledgements

Also, they thought the long sleeves made them look smaller and, really, all they ever wanted was to be smaller. Smaller in the body. Smaller in the world. They wanted to take up less space. Cutting their wrists would make them take up less room. If the shop wasn’t busy, or the speaker at the meeting wasn’t interesting, they would look off into the distance and imagine shrinking and shrinking and suddenly just not being there anymore. Not being anywhere. Just being gone, but not in any big way that would make people angry, just in a way that made people feel like they had misplaced them. That maybe people might say to each other in a few weeks, ‘Do you remember Greta and Peggy?’ and the other person would say, ‘Hm. Were they the blonde ones?’ and the first person would say, ‘I don’t know.’ And the other one would say, ‘Oh, you mean Michelle and Marsha, or Debra and Britney. There’s no Greta and Peggy,’ and the first person would say, ‘Oh, right.’

It would be good to have never been in the first place. That’s what it all came down to. And seeing as how that wasn’t possible, it would be nice just to be forgotten.

14

14

Everyone was meeting at six at the flat. Greta and Peggy got there first because they finished work earlier than Heidi and Dell because Dorrit closed up the shop. Greta and Peggy were hungry again. There were some Weet-Bix left and Peggy cut them in half and put butter on them.

‘Know what would make these good,’ Greta said with her mouth full.

‘Honey,’ Peggy and Greta said at the same time. They added it to the shopping list someone had written and left on the table.

Dell and Heidi got home and got changed. Dell had brought a calculator from work.

‘Is that okay?’ Peggy asked. Was it stealing if you just borrowed it?

‘She asked,’ Heidi shouted from the bedroom.

‘I asked,’ Dell said. It was a revolutionary idea.

‘What if they’d said no?’ Greta asked, her mouth still claggy after the dry Weet-Bix.

Dell shrugged. ‘I guess we would have just had to do it in our head.’

Greta and Peggy nodded slowly.

‘Does anyone know how much any of this stuff costs?’ Heidi asked, looking at the shopping list.

No one did.

‘We have a pamphlet.’ Peggy went to the rubbish bin and pulled out a pamphlet from the supermarket.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Heidi. ‘How much do we have to spend?’

‘Eighty dollars,’ Dell said.

They all nodded.

‘Okay.’ Heidi looked at the list. ‘Are there things here we absolutely have to have?’ They were all standing around the list now and looking at it.

‘Yeah.’ Peggy nodded.