FICTION
HAND ON THE SHOULDER
by Ian McEwan
first published in The New Yorker, April 30, 2012
A PRECIS : ON THE SHOULDER
by Jan Galligan ...forty years ago, in my final year at Cambridge, I was recruited by the British security services. Tony Canning. When we were introduced, he shook my hand and held on to it lingeringly, I thought. He was in his early fifties. "You've quite a talent, my dear. Are you going into journalism?" My affaair with Tony Canning lasted a few months. For all his grim teamaking(1), Tony fancied himself in the kitchen. Some evenings, we took a picnic into the woods, with a bottle of white wine wrapped in a crisp tea towel(2), wineglasses(3) in a cedarwood container, and a flask of coffee. ...though Tony was in good shape for his age, I was a little put out the first time to see what fifty-four years could to to a body... I was twenty-one. The cottage was the only place we saw each other. Cambridge was too much of a village; Tony was too well known there. I was being groomed for my first interview with the intelligence service, which was to take place at the end of September. That year, 1972, was just the beginning. I knew I had an interview coming up, but it never crossed my mind to wonder why Tony took such trouble over me. Of course, the situation couldn't last, and it all came apart during a stormy half hour by a busy main road, two days before I was due at my interview in London. At dawn, I took a bath and made myself fragrant. By seven, I was ready. He got there around ten-fifteen. We drove ten miles or so, and he wouldn't speak to me. The lay-by(4) was a couple of hundred yards long. A fine place to end an affair. "Serena, how could you be so stupid?" I did feel stupid. "You know where this all has to lead, don't you?" Tony was expecting a scene. Why should I tolerate that? "Tony, stop pretending that you don't know the truth." How ridiculous. Of course he wasn't pretending. Then he was gone, and it was over. ...I never saw him again. (1) used twice in the original story. Compounded word, Britishism(5). (2) used once. Uncompounded.
(3) used once. Britishism
(4) used once. Britishism (5) List_of_British_words_not_widely_used_in_the_United_States
Jan Galligan
75Grand/Sur
Santa Olaya, PR
http://cinefestsanjuan.posterous.com [cine blog]
http://about.me/JanGalligan [about me]