Peripheral Vision Read Free

her fingertips, run her tongue along his perfect white teeth. She felt the heat in her face and pushed herself up from the table.
    â€˜I’ll find some ice,’ she said. ‘I think there’s a tray in the fridge in the shed.’
    By the time she got back with the ice cubes melting in the tray, Shaun and Azza were sitting at one end of the laminex table with the half-empty pizza boxes in front of them, while Pran perched on a chair in the opposite corner of the room near the stove.
    â€˜He doesn’t eat meat,’ Shaun said through a mouthful of pizza.
    â€˜But I am most grateful for you offering it to me.’ Pran was holding his glass at chest height. When he raised it in a salute to the men, Marly saw that one of them had filled it with whisky. The Indian was so slim that half the amount would probably knock him out.
    â€˜Here, let me fix that up for you.’ She emptied most of the whisky into another glass, then filled his glass to the brim with water and ice before handing it back. ‘This should cool you down a bit.’
    â€˜You are very kind.’ He lifted the glass to his lips and sipped at it.
    Marly watched closely. The whisky was the cheapest you could buy. She couldn’t drink it without drowning it in Coke. But the man’s angelic face didn’t flinch.
    â€˜I see you have a plasma television.’ Pran nodded toward the screen, which was visible through the doorway into the lounge. It was a fifty-inch model Shaun had bought when they got the government bonus last year.
    â€˜Brilliant for watching the footy.’ Azza directed his words to Marly, as if he couldn’t bear to speak to the Indian. ‘Right, mate?’ He said this to Shaun.
    â€˜That’s why I bought it.’ Shaun reached for the pizza box and passed the second-last piece to Marly before taking the last one, rolling it into a tube and stuffing it whole into his mouth.
    Marly took a bite and chewed on the salty, meaty, oily slice. She loved pizza. Sometimes eating was almost as good as sex, like now, with the capricciosa sitting warm in her belly and a mouthful of fizzy sweet beer to wash it down. That Indian guy didn’t know what he was missing.
    â€˜They say that next year all the football will be on pay television.’ Pran took another delicate sip of the whisky and water. This time Marly thought she saw his jaw clench as he swallowed.
    â€˜Got it.’ Shaun pulled a roll of paper towels from the bench behind him. He tore off four sheets and passed the roll to Azza before wiping his mouth and hands and tossing the used towels at the bin in the corner. ‘You’re here to sell us Foxtel, right?’
    â€˜No, sir.’
    â€˜That other one, then. Optus, or Star, or whatever it is.’
    â€˜Sir, I am not here to sell you a single thing.’
    â€˜Fuck, he’s really starting to piss me off now.’ Azza spoke to the ceiling.
    â€˜Your name is Azza, I believe you said? Where are you from, sir?’ Pran seemed unperturbed. He swivelled a little on his seat to face Azza.
    â€˜I’m from Thomastown, mate.’ Azza had gone quite still.
    â€˜And your family? They are from Thomastown too?’
    â€˜They’re from Lebanon. Not that it’s any of your fucking business.’
    Pran nodded and took another sip of the whisky.
    â€˜So come on, give us your spiel.’ Shaun rocked back on his chair and rested his thonged feet on the edge of the kitchen table like he was getting ready to hear a story.
    â€˜I have no spiel. All I have for you is a free offer. No obligations, no payments, no commitments.’
    â€˜Go on.’ Shaun was enjoying himself. Marly remembered the time he got the Mormons in and toyed with them for an hour and a half. She’d been drinking that night and so had he, and the evening was blurry – but the Mormons had never pressed charges, even though she’d found a piece of tooth in the glass on the