2023/04/23

My friend and I had a wonderful holiday, dining in four-star restaurants and drinking Loire wines, free, happy and not encumbered by love. I sent Antonia postcards of Chambon and Chenonceaux and bought her wine and truffles with my friend's money. But I heard nothing from her. We were moving too fast and she was a painfully slow writer. For her, all self-expression, save music, came only with diffficulty.
Sated with scenery and cloyed with cream sauces, I arrived back in London at the end of August. It was after two a.m., on a warm, damp night when I turned the key in the lock e tiptoed into the dark hall.

MARY FLANAGAN, UK, in Bad Girls, 1984

Eu e o meu amigo passámos umas férias maravilhosas, a jantar em restaurantes de quatro estrelas e a beber vinhos do Loire, livres, felizes e sem as confusões do amor. Enviei a Antonia postais de Chambon e Chenonceaux e comprei-lhe vinho e trufas com o dinheiro do meu amigo. Mas não tive notícias. Movimentávamo-nos depressa e ela, a escrever, era aflitivamente lenta. À excepção da música, só dificilmente conseguia expressar-se.
Saciada de mudanças de cenário e cansada de molho de natas, voltei a Londres no final de Agosto. Passava das duas da manhã, numa noite quente e húmida, quando dei a volta à chave e entrei em bicos de pés no corredor às escuras.