I Built No Schools in Kenya
Page 34
Walt – whether he knows it or not – has come a long way since I left him in early 2012.
Ruby visited Kenya again in early 2018, as part of a circus group tour. She had dinner one night with Marguerite, at the same Italian restaurant Chris and I had joined her at, where Marguerite filled her in on all the dramas of the intervening years, including that Fiona had taken her to court – and lost – in an attempt to gain sole control of Walt’s care and estate. Afterwards, they went back to the house for a nightcap.
Ruby sent me a video of the hula-hoop performance she put on for the Smyths in their living room. It’s a bizarre piece of footage. The fire is going, a new dog lies on the Persian rug, the fake wireless is playing the jazz cabaret tune Ruby’s choreography was set to.
Marguerite, now eighty, is on the rosewood lattice settee, filming Ruby’s dance with her iPad. Walt – nearly ninety – sits beside her in a wheelchair, with a blanket over his knees, no longer able to speak, but smiling and laughing and clapping at the Or-stray-lyan girl in rainbow-striped tights cavorting around his parquetry floor.
And beside him is Louis – his black, Kenyan, live-in carer.
A Vintage Australia book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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First published by Vintage Australia in 2019
Copyright © Kirsten Drysdale 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, modified, stored or distributed in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd or its authorised licensees.
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ISBN 9780857988553
Cover design and images by Alex Ross © Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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