What are you doing Anna
Replying to your question
Are you writing again
Yes
What are you writing about
Us
No I will leave that to you
My fiction is about freedom and the erosion of freedoms
Anna are you worried about Penelope
Yes
Here bed has not been slept in
I know
Do you think that she was the assassin
I hope not
Outlaw is very quiet
He is almost grieving
I have been watching television and they have shown the moment of the actual assassination
The assassin was rather slight like Penelope but she had black hair unlike Penelope
She might have been wearing a wig
That is a possibility
I do hope she is okay
Why could she not work in the local shop or be a super model is not a job for a girl
The fascists had been in power for twenty-three months and if anything the oppression was getting worse
Rebels were being executed in public and their remains were left to rot as a warning to others
Friends betrayed friends brothers brothers fathers sons
I was a rebel an ordinary rebel I kept the party line and was anonymous but not so that it would be noted
My pathetic job was to sell the party newspaper in the streets and to report back if I saw suspicious things
I did file reports but they were so petty that they were soon ignored and I was treated as such
But in reality I was leading a double existence as I was fronting Number 23 which was a fragmented group
Of four hundred and ninety-six members in cells of no more than six I was number twenty-eight
Our aim was to ensure that the fascists would fail by ensuring that their communications were
Is that all
Yes
It is a bit like 1984
I agree
It has been done before
I know
So what is your angle
I do not have an angle
You must have an angle
Angles do not exists in my fictions
If I was writing your fiction my angle would be
That all the rebels owned toy shops and were time travellers like Viola
Angles are just the perversions of straight lines
Straight lines are to be admired
Time does not possess angles
Time exists that is all
Then we would all live in flat houses
There are plenty of angles here in The Green House
As well as flat circles you are going to tell me
Anna what is the title of the book that you are reading
Infierno
That is Spanish for Hell
Do you read Spanish
No
Then why are you reading a Spanish language book
Because I can speak Spanish
You never told me that
Why not
Because Anna you never asked me
It is like if you asked me whether I could make a Lemon Cake
I would say yes but I would not tell you that I can make Strawberry Cakes as well
Anna you are splitting hairs
No I am not
If you asked me what cakes could I make then I would have included Strawberry Cakes as well as others
But you if your question was singular and its subject was about Lemon Cakes then my answer would be precise
You seem preoccupied by the book
I am
Why
Because it is incredibly haunting and horrific at the same time
That sounds like something Outlaw would read
It is too raw even for Outlaw
But it is incredibly beautiful
It is set in Argentina in the 1970s and is about a fisherman named Antonio and a girl named Doris
That is not a very Spanish name
Possibly
I suppose that my initial reaction is false as I am sure if I went to Argentina then I would find girls called Doris
What is the Spanish for Doris
Doris
May I continue
I am yours
Doris and her mother who is also named Doris run a shop in a coastal town that sells buttons and nothing else
It is called La Tienda de Botones
Antonia is deeply in love with Doris as she is the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen
She has raven hair and raven eyes and an almost shimmering olive skin
Rather like The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
In a way yes
But she does not return his love as she is aware of her own beauty
Antonia is aware of this so loves here from afar
But he has a guilty secret as he watches her swim naked in the sea after church on Sundays
She swims from a beach that is covered by the tide from Monday to Saturdays
This carries on a a couple of years until one day he is delayed
When he reaches the beach Doris is nowhere to be seen
This distresses him as he feels like something tragic has happened
Which it has as in the hour before his arrival
Doris had drowned after being caught in a rip
He soon finds her pristine body on the white sands
How sad
But instead of alerting the authorities he fucks her
He fucks the corpse
Yes
That is a bit gross
Hell is the title of the story
You are not going to tell me that Antonio was into fucking dead girls
Well yes and no
But his motives are very pure and this what makes the book so haunting
He reasons that if he impregnates Doris then their child will be born in Heaven and that she will not be alone for eternity
It is his final gift to her
This is getting weird Anna
Does it get even more strange
Not really if anything it becomes quite realistic
In what way
Antonio is discovered by the priest just after he has fucked Doris’s corpse
Obviously the priest takes a dim view of this and alerts the local cops who it turn refer it to the military
Antonio is badly beaten and is sentenced to be shot for his crime
On the day before his execution an angel visits Antonio’s final cell and offers him poison so that he might be spared the firing squad
Not much of a choice is it
It is his only choice
Even if he does not make a choice then he has made a choice
What happens
Antonio takes the poison
And then
Nothing
Nothing
He finds himself in a void
Is that the Hell of the title
No
Why you are slowly leaving me Anna
Because Antonio begins to think of Doris and his child
That is God’s gift to him
He thinks of a beautiful field on a beautiful day
Doris and his son who she has named Antonio
Are sitting under a shady tree
Anna are you saying it is rather like an invisible painting where you reveal as much as I you want to
Yes although this invisible painting is infinite it exists in Antonio’s head
That is how Heaven works
Who wrote this amazing story
I did
You
Yes
You should get it published
It is published
Here in the UK
I do not think that there is a large market for these stories in the UK
Possibly
You are a natural Anna
Where do you find these stories
If I knew that I would not write them
Anna is that your phone ringing
Where is it
Behind the cushion
It was Outlaw
We need to be at an address in Ramsgate within the hour
It is Penelope
Is she okay
She has been shot
Is it serious
Not really but she will have to keep a low profile
Hence Ramsgate
There are people after her
She is in deep shit this time
A fascist leader is full of holes
They are rather fucked off with her
What about the body
The girl with the dark hair
That was Doris
Doris
Yes Doris
I will be outside in two minutes
Meet me there Anna
Anna why we driving towards Dover
Because we being tailed
But Outlaw said that we should be in Ramsgate within the hour
I know
Anna
Yes
Who is Saul Green