[The more Sally speaks, the more confused - and concerned - Arthur grows.
He manages to fit a cigarette between his lips and light it, his bandaged hands shaking a bit at the effort. He watches her closely. The way she keeps using a plural, as though someone else had been with her...
What in the world is going on? She sounds as potty a pack of pixies! Her emotions are clearly earnest, but....
They make no sense.
None of it makes any sense.
All he can do at first is stare at her, agog. She may as well have just told him that she'd grown wings and flown over the rainbow to Oz. That would make about as much sense, really.
He'd been in her flat. He'd been inside of it, at least once. He knows he was there at least once. There had been no daughter. There couldn't be a daughter! No one in Wellington Wells could have children. Even ignoring that they were all malnourished bundles of various health problems, he was rather certain they'd all been sterilized by Joy. And of course. Well.
It just wasn't possible.
And he finds it hard to believe Joy (or Joy withdrawal) could cause this much confusion in memories. The explanations were few. Sally was deranged, had hit her head terribly, she was sick....or the tiny, slimmest possibility there was some sort of truth to what she's saying.
Just enough for her to get confused.]
That's....Sally, that's impossible. No one in Wellington has babies, you know that. We can't.
no subject
He manages to fit a cigarette between his lips and light it, his bandaged hands shaking a bit at the effort. He watches her closely. The way she keeps using a plural, as though someone else had been with her...
What in the world is going on? She sounds as potty a pack of pixies! Her emotions are clearly earnest, but....
They make no sense.
None of it makes any sense.
All he can do at first is stare at her, agog. She may as well have just told him that she'd grown wings and flown over the rainbow to Oz. That would make about as much sense, really.
He'd been in her flat. He'd been inside of it, at least once. He knows he was there at least once. There had been no daughter. There couldn't be a daughter! No one in Wellington Wells could have children. Even ignoring that they were all malnourished bundles of various health problems, he was rather certain they'd all been sterilized by Joy. And of course. Well.
It just wasn't possible.
And he finds it hard to believe Joy (or Joy withdrawal) could cause this much confusion in memories. The explanations were few. Sally was deranged, had hit her head terribly, she was sick....or the tiny, slimmest possibility there was some sort of truth to what she's saying.
Just enough for her to get confused.]
That's....Sally, that's impossible. No one in Wellington has babies, you know that. We can't.
[He does his best to keep his voice gentle.]