One Day by David Nicholls EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Authors: David Nicholls
- Language: English
- Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction
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The Future
FRIDAY 15 JULY 1988
Rankeillor Street, Edinburgh
‘I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,’ she said.
‘You know, actually change something.’
‘What, like “change the world”, you mean?’
‘Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.’
They lay in silence for a moment, bodies curled around each other in the
single bed, then both began to laugh in low, predawn voices. ‘Can’t believe
I just said that,’ she groaned. ‘Sounds a bit corny, doesn’t it?’
‘A bit corny.’
‘I’m trying to be inspiring! I’m trying to lift your grubby soul for the
great adventure that lies ahead of you.’ She turned to face him. ‘Not that
you need it. I expect you’ve got your future nicely mapped out, ta very
much. Probably got a little flow-chart somewhere or something.’
‘Hardly.’
‘So what’re you going to do then? What’s the great plan?’
‘Well, my parents are going to pick up my stuff, dump it at theirs, then
I’ll spend a couple of days in their flat in London, see some friends. Then
France—’
‘Very nice—’
‘Then China maybe, see what that’s all about, then maybe onto India,
travel around there for a bit—’
‘Travelling,’ she sighed. ‘So predictable.’
‘What’s wrong with travelling?’
‘Avoiding reality more like.’
‘I think reality is over-rated,’ he said in the hope that this might come
across as dark and charismatic.
She sniffed. ‘S’alright, I suppose, for those who can afford it. Why not
just say “I’m going on holiday for two years”? It’s the same thing.’
‘Because travel broadens the mind,’ he said, rising onto one elbow and
kissing her.
‘Oh I think you’re probably a bit too broad-minded as it is,’ she said,
turning her face away, for the moment at least. They settled again on the
pillow. ‘Anyway, I didn’t mean what are you doing next month, I meant the
future-future, when you’re, I don’t know . . .’ She paused, as if conjuring up
some fantastical idea, like a fifth dimension. ‘ . . . Forty or something. What
do you want to be when you’re forty?’
‘Forty?’ He too seemed to be struggling with the concept. ‘Don’t know.
Am I allowed to say “rich”?’
‘Just so, so shallow.’
‘Alright then, “famous”.’ He began to nuzzle at her neck. ‘Bit morbid,
this, isn’t it?’
‘It’s not morbid, it’s . . . exciting.’
‘“Exciting!”’ He was imitating her voice now, her soft Yorkshire accent,
trying to make her sound daft. She got this a lot, posh boys doing funny
voices, as if there was something unusual and quaint about an accent, and
not for the first time she felt a reassuring shiver of dislike for him. She
shrugged herself away until her back was pressed against the cool of the
wall.
‘Yes, exciting. We’re meant to be excited, aren’t we? All those
possibilities. It’s like the Vice-Chancellor said, “the doors of opportunity
flung wide . . .”’
‘“Yours are the names in tomorrow’s newspapers . . .”’
‘Not very likely.’
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