Nitty Nora, her eyesight buggered, sits in Silvio’s
after shopping, idly stirring tea without sugar. A
biscuit balanced on her saucer. Decent eyesight
was essential for finding nits in the hair of little
children. She had a special comb with a wooden
handle and widened tines made from metal, but
in a majority of cases she used her finger ends
to examine their partings, and there they were,
the little buggers. It had been a job with satisfaction.
A life worth living.
The local health authority, releasing her reluctantly,
said she could be proud of herself. Her contribution.
Richard Gere, the actor from Hollywood in America,
has just settled himself into the chair opposite. He’s
in Hyde on location. A film called Yanks, directed
by John Schlesinger, who also made Midnight Cowboy.
Sunday Bloody Sunday. A commercial
for the Conservative Party. John Major’s roots.
A Kind of Loving, based on the Barstow novel.
Richard says, Hi. How’s it going?
Nora doesn’t recognise him. She began the book
but she didn’t take to it. Tiny writing. Vic Brown,
trapped into a marriage with small-minded Ingrid
and harangued by her monstrous mother. Set, as
you’d expect, in Yorkshire. Present-tense narration.
If only they would let her, Richard’s hair
is the sort of place she might have found something.
.
Steven Taylor