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I see his smile leave his face as she grabs
The Aeneid
on the way
back up.
Genetics works both ways
, he often tells me sagely. It certainly does.
‘
David stands the picture next to our family photo on his bedside
table. He thanks me for the party before sinking to sleep. I feel
Darwin’s gaze in the dark.
‘
‘The Infinite Rise of Augustus?’ Charlotte asks me sceptically. She
towers over me, having inherited her height frommy husband.
‘Hey, I don’t agree with him. I just edit these papers, I don’t write
them.’
‘Well, whichever professor it is this time, he needs to come up
with a less cheesy title. You have a Classics degree Mum; you should
write a paper rebutting him!’
I snort. ‘Love, who would accept a paper fromme? Getting things
published is your father’s job.’
Thank goodness she missed the resentment.
‘
When David gets home we’re all in the kitchen, dancing to the
Weather Girls. Well, Rachel and I are dancing. Charlotte leans on
the doorway, rolling her eyes. I scream out the lyrics, twisting around,
with my hands in the air, grasping a wooden spoon I am using to stir
the curry. I wear a shocking pink tunic and bangles that jingle crudely.
I hear the lock click and David’s there, looking at us silently.
I stop immediately, and return to the curry. He doesn’t join in,
just walks away slowly, past Charlotte.
‘See? Even Dad thinks you’re a daggy dancer, Mum.’
She’s probably right.
‘
David picks at his curry, the food he loves most in the world. Instead
of eating, he tells me all about Nadia, how she has an apartment in
Rome over this really fancy restaurant, how she lives on a houseboat
in London, how she’s fromMaine but doesn’t like to talk about it.
Then he goes on to tell me:
1. All about a particular deviation in one of the fish’s chromosomes
that the whole lab got excited about
2. How ‘Nature’ magazine wants him to do another piece
3. How he has a whole new string of conferences to go to.
The Theory Of
Evolution
12