A Roman short story
Downtrodden, impoverished and frumpy — in her own eyes at least — Mary Mackenzie finds herself in Rome with the latest in a long line of abusive ‘employers’. The elderly Mr Carstairs ‘works in art’ and has taken her to a painting exhibition, one that turned out to be rather more shocking than she expected.
Now she finds herself in Babington’s Tea Rooms getting a lecture from Mr Carstairs on the history of the painting concerned, and her own inadequacies. After which she will be expected, once more, to perform her ‘duties’, ones she finds distinctly distasteful.
But is the worm about to turn?
Judith and the Holy Ferns is a 9000-word short story set in Rome but without any of the customary cast from the Costa books. It’s a two-hander mainly, Mary and Mr Carstairs with one unusual added guest towards the end. Those of us with longish writing careers often end up with pieces like this, ideas that, in this case, hark back to my old love of Roald Dahl (in his adult stories) and Robert Aickman. Slightly odd tales with curious resolutions that don’t quite resolve.
A part of me wonders if this might be the beginning of a Costa story, one in which my familiar team take up the challenge Mary and Mr Carstairs leave hanging in the air at the end of this tale.
One day perhaps… for now it is just Judith and the Holy Ferns, a short story available only on Kindle.