The walnut-stain tan — he believed now that it was a tan — of her face and neck would most likely continue into her cleavage, which would be deep, crepey-skinned, odorous and hot. He had that to think of, as he dialled the number that he had already written down. That and the practical sensuality of her cat’s tongue. Her gemstone eyes.
FIONA WAS IN her room but not in bed. She was sitting by the open window, wearing a seasonable but oddly short and bright dress. Through the window came a heady, warm blast of lilacs in bloom and the spring manure spread over the fields.
She had a book open in her lap.
She said, “Look at this beautiful book I found, it’s about Iceland. You wouldn’t think they’d leave valuable books lying around in the rooms. The people staying here are not necessarily honest. And I think they’ve got the clothes mixed up. I never wear yellow.”
“Fiona…,” he said.
“You’ve been gone a long time. Are we all checked out now?”
“Fiona, I’ve brought a surprise for you. Do you remember Aubrey?”
She stared at him for a moment, as if waves of wind had come beating into her face. Into her face, into her head, pulling everything to rags.
“Names elude me,” she said harshly.
Then the look passed away as she retrieved, with an effort, some bantering grace. She set the book down carefully and stood up and lifted her arms to put them around him. Her skin or her breath gave off a faint new smell, a smell that seemed to him like that of the stems of cut flowers left too long in their water.
“I’m happy to see you,” she said, and pulled his earlobes.
“You could have just driven away,” she said. “Just driven away without a care in the world and forsook me. Forsooken me. Forsaken.”
He kept his face against her white hair, her pink scalp, her sweetly shaped skull. He said, Not a chance.
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by Alice Munro
Introduction copyright © 2006 by Margaret Atwood
First published in the U.S. in the Everyman’s Library by Alfred A. Knopf, 2006
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher — or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency — is an infringement of the copyright law.
The stories in this collection originally appeared in the following works published by
Alfred A. Knopf:
The Beggar Maid, copyright © 1977, 1978 by Alice Munro
The Moons of Jupiter, copyright © 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 by Alice Munro
The Progress of Love, copyright © 1985, 1986 by Alice Munro
Friend of My Youth, copyright © 1990 by Alice Munro
Open Secrets, copyright © 1994 by Alice Munro
The Love of a Good Woman, copyright © 1998 by Alice Munro
Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Courtship, Marriage, copyright © 2001 by Alice Munro
Runaway, copyright © 2004 by Alice Munro
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Munro, Alice, 1931–
Alice Munro’s best : a selection of stories.
eISBN: 978-1-55199-393-5
I. Title.
PS8576.U57A6 2008 C813′.54 C2008-900944-4
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
This book was produced using ancient-forest friendly papers.
McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
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