HILLS ABSYNTH SKIN

Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine.’ ‘I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.’ Because I don’t care about me.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I don’t care about me.’ ‘Well, I care about you.’ ‘Oh, yes. You know how I get when I worry.’ ‘If I do it you won’t ever worry?’ ‘I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.’ ‘ Then I’ll do it.

I love it now but I just can’t think about it. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?’ ‘ I’ll love it. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to.’ ‘And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?’ ‘I love you now. But I know it’s perfectly simple.’ ‘And you really want to?’ ‘I think it’s the best thing to do. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. ‘And afterwards they were all so happy.’ ‘Well,’ the man said, ‘if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I’ve known lots of people that have done it.’ ‘So have I,’ said the girl. ‘ And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy.’ ‘I know we will. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.’ The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads. Just like we were before.’ ‘What makes you think so?’ ‘That’s the only thing that bothers us. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.’ ‘Then what will we do afterwards?’ ‘We’ll be fine afterwards. ‘I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. It’s just to let the air in.’ The girl did not say anything. ‘ It’s not really an operation at all.’ The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. ‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig ,’ the man said. ‘The beer’s nice and cool,’ the man said.

HILLS ABSYNTH SKIN

I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.’ ‘Should we have another drink?’ ‘All right.’ The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table. ‘They don’t really look like white elephants. The girl looked across at the hills.‘They’re lovely hills,’ she said. That’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks?’ ‘I guess so.’ Wasn’t that bright?’ ‘That was bright.’ ‘I wanted to try this new drink. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. I was having a fine time.’ ‘Well, let’s try and have a fine time.’ ‘All right. ’ ‘Oh, cut it out.’ ‘You started it,’ the girl said. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe. ‘That’s the way with everything.’ ‘Yes,’ said the girl. ‘Yes, with water.’ ‘It tastes like liquorice,’ the girl said and put the glass down. ‘Is it good with water?’ ‘It’s all right.’ ‘You want them with water?’ asked the woman. ‘Four reales.’ ‘We want two Anis del Toro.’ ‘With water?’ ‘Do you want it with water?’ ‘I don’t know,’ the girl said. It’s a drink.’ ‘Could we try it?’ The man called ‘Listen’ through the curtain. ‘They’ve painted something on it,’ she said. ‘Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.’ The girl looked at the bead curtain. ‘No, you wouldn’t have.’ ‘I might have,’ the man said. ‘I’ve never seen one,’ the man drank his beer. ‘They look like white elephants ,’ she said. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. Two big ones.’ The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. ‘Big ones?’ a woman asked from the doorway. ‘Let’s drink beer.’ ‘Dos cervezas,’ the man said into the curtain. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.

Hills absynth