to know. Glancing at Kurt first, then Daniel and James she begins her story, with a small degree of pride.
“This old house is built over a gold mine with a dubious local history.” She looks around at us all, “its bad legend and hooey mythology, all fiction, a fabrication to keep people away from the gold.”
“We know that already.” Says Daniel, clearly frustrated and a little cross a being kept waiting for an explanation from his Mother. Perhaps they don't get on?
His father looks at him, unmistakably disappointed at the interruption, clearly he’s been alone far too long. “A passed down narrative of sheer fantasy,” adds Graham with a glare at Daniel, “to be kept alive to protect what laid down here.” Graham takes over telling the story now he’s on a roll. They overlap and finish each other’s sentences, it’s quite cute actually.
“We decided to use this to our advantage, the perfect place to keep a secret lab, is somewhere nobody will already dare to go.” Says Barbara taking a mouthful of water from a cup, “it's perfect.” Yes, I decide, this is the perfect secret lair for a bond villain, and can't stop myself wondering where the fluffy white cat is. Then I check myself, I don’t think the Pearce senior’s would like pets, they'd get fluff all over the divans, it’s then I decide I don’t care much for them in that case. Besides, where would you install the flap all the way down here?
Barbara is agitating the pan of pad-tai stir-fry, and swirling it around with a huge clear spoon, the smells are making me hungry. Bean sprouts, onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, yellow peppers, a dash of soy and noodles steaming in another pan. Doesn't take much more than the smell of food to make me feel instantly better, suspect it won't last though eh? We have Perspex clear tumblers set out for us, tall cylinders containing water. Neoprene white round coasters sit on the table ready for the meal. The cutlery is clear nylon, long pointed handles, moulded and very strong. We all take a sip of the cool water, it tastes so fresh.
Pointing with a tumbler of water Barbara adds, “that’s what we're doing down here,” taking another sip of water then toasting the air with it, “water.” With that Barbara tosses the steaming hot noodles to the pan and stirs it all up to perfection. Yum.
“There’s a short supply of clean water out here, and after discovering the underground stream we decided to pipe it to the surface for drinking water and to irrigate the villages. We began simply in our own garden, after a complex filtering process to remove all the lead poisons and impurities, it can now be drunk, and that’s what you're drinking now.” We all look at the beakers in our hands instinctively, and put them down, just in case.
It's perfectly safe,” and Graham drains his cup to the bottom.” With a laugh.
“We're ready for the next phase in our development,” explains Barbara, “increasing the pipeline to one village as a trial, then the plan is to pipe it all over the region.” She has the monomaniacal expression of a Bond villain, someone so wrapped up in her own plans and Chanel no.5. Everything else is secondary, and futile because life interferes with plans, and so do people. Obviously sons aren't immune to that lifestyle choice either. Suddenly I vow not to groan at my Mums requests for our appearances, she loves us, which is very clear. These boys? Poor buggers.
In my mind I picture her sitting in a padded swing chair with wing armrests stroking a fluffy white cat, but something tells me she wouldn’t like cats, its then I decide I probably don’t like her.
“We'll be giving drinking water to people, livestock and animals, and irrigation water for crops, they’ve never had this before.” I am deciding whether I believe her or not, glance at Daniels rapt face I decide I will, for now, she did mention animals.
“Once the water is successfully in place,” she looks to me with an expression of someone trying to gain access to my thoughts, “the remote villages should prosper and we can help them develop into healthy places to live.” Graham pours himself more water from a giant glass pitcher standing central on the table. Barbara brings over hot bowls of noodles to everyone and we eat, so hungry, we barely say a word all meal. Slurping sauce from around our