{"id":1003,"date":"2021-05-24T17:45:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T17:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.org\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2021-05-24T17:45:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T17:45:29","slug":"pink-by-zusana-storrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=1003","title":{"rendered":"Pink by Zusana Storrier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pink by Zusana Storrier. Read by Kenny Boyle by Pitlochry Festival Theatre\" width=\"1200\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1043202769&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;maxwidth=1200\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lockdown came the day after we got the keys. So, we were stuck in a pink house. We weren\u2019t allowed to travel five miles let alone hoof it to Inverness for a tin of paint. You\u2019re going to say on-line, but on-line was out of the question. Where we live? They pile on seventy quid a time for <em>remote location<\/em> and anyway the DIY stores all sprouted delivery queues running into weeks or even months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jenna came down one morning and said she couldn\u2019t stand it anymore (we\u2019d been in the place eight days by then). \u2018I hate pink,\u2019 she said, and I nodded. \u2018No,\u2019 she said, \u2018I mean I <em>really<\/em> hate pink.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was &#8211; it is &#8211; a very pink house. The folk before us had gone off to a home or something (aye, I know) and I think they\u2019d last had the decorators in in 1985. To be fair, they\u2019d not stinted themselves, it was top-quality stuff, plenty of life left in it all, too much life left in it, all of it pink. Carpets, curtains, the walls, inside and out. Pink stucco, pink kitchen units and pink worktops. The pink toilet seat was hard-going in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Well,\u2019 I said, \u2018we\u2019re going to have to get used to it for the duration.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018I can\u2019t,\u2019 said Jenna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now my wife is an ingenious woman, her wits are second to none, especially when she\u2019s put to it. Within the week a delivery man was tip-toeing up the drive and a slim packet was tickled through the letterbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She let me choose, \u2018Blue or yellow?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I took the blue. I don\u2019t mind purple. I\u2019ll never forget the joy of sliding the lenses in and seeing our house not-pink. It was gloriously un-pink, resplendently un-rosy, magnificently mauve. I went up to stare at the toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I came back down a cobalt Jenna was cavorting round the sitting room making <em>whee-ee<\/em> sounds. We she finally sat down on the carpet, flipping her legs into the lotus position, she shouted, \u2018it\u2019s not pink, it\u2019s not pink at all Gerry. You know what it is?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Orange?\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018It\u2019s bloody beautiful, that\u2019s what it is.\u2019 Her laughter was a bit manic right enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We got the hang of slipping the lenses in while still in bed. Over breakfast I would look into her eyes, which viewed through my lenses and hers were sapphires. \u2018God, you\u2019re beautiful,\u2019 I said once, and she didn\u2019t demur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It went downhill after the crispies were tidied away though. I got caught up with the news &#8211; BBC, STV, Sky, Euronews, RT, Al Jeezera &#8211; I\u2019d find myself in a loop of blue TV screens and only broke out of it to go onto bluer Twitter or Facebook. It was all terrible news and terrifying speculation. So many people were dying, more and more, they were saying half a million would be taken out in Britain alone, scrawny men and stone-faced women like cerulean reapers were telling us this all day long. At the same time Jenna would be dancing about or singing or arranging jugs of green daffodils on any free surface in her golden world. I snapped when she started reciting German romantic poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Stop it,\u2019 I said to her. \u2018just stop it. We\u2019re all going to die and you\u2019re galloping around like it\u2019s <em>The Sound of <\/em>fucking<em> Music<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018What\u2019s wrong with you?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Jesus, what do you think Jen?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018I think you\u2019re watching too much stuff on screens Gerry.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Have you seen the number of folk who are pegging out?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018People die. Especially old people. It\u2019s sad but you wouldn\u2019t be able to squeeze kids in otherwise.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018How can you say that?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She shrugged. \u2018Higher Biology.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I looked hard at her then, my face must have been ugly with disgust, but as I was chrysanthemum-coloured she didn\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It got to the ridiculous stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wagged my blue finger at her beaming face. \u2018The young are dying too Jenna.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Think it\u2019s less than a dozen under 50.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018And that\u2019s alright?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Well, drugs, car-crashes, cancer, suicide, thousands and thousands every year, take your pick.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018You\u2019re callous.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018You don\u2019t normally give a fig about them,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another time it was the thousands who were losing their jobs, and their homes and relationships and their minds that was eating me up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018They\u2019ll get retrained and buy new houses, and they\u2019ll give them pills or something. People are resilient.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018The economy\u2019s broken Jenna, education\u2019s ruined. Generations of young people have nothing ahead of them.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018They didn\u2019t think lockdown through very well then, did they?\u2019 She was wearing a beach dress she\u2019d bought for our honeymoon and had a sun hat on, in the dining room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018But what else can they do against a plague?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018They could be brainier &#8211; scientists are often have quite narrow intelligence. And politicians are always corrupt. But things will probably change for the better. And it\u2019s a pretty mild as plagues go, isn\u2019t it?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That did it. That night as she slept, a smile riding her face from ear to ear, I reached over and fished her lenses out of their glass. Two tiny citrine circles ran round and round the pink pan in a furl of water. My blue lenses had disappeared by the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, we were back to a pink house. And you know, there are worse colours than pink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Zusana Storrier.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover a quirky and charming tale about the lockdown, a terrible colour scheme and a novel way of dealing with it. Written by Zusana Storrier and read by Kenny Boyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[32,97,22,96,49,95],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-charming","tag-colour","tag-nethergate-writers","tag-orginal","tag-pitlochry-festival-theatre","tag-quirky"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}