The Portobello Road

The character finds a photograph and remembers this: Skinny, Kathleen and George
were in a haystack. Needle stuck himself a needle in his thumb. They agreed that the
needle betokened good luck. Thats how he got his name.
Needle saw Kathleen walking on the Portobello road (it was crowded with marketers).
She had a wealthy look. But age was starting to affect her.
She was with here husband, a huge man with beard. Needle said hello to him and he
was surprised. He told Kathleen about that. She could not see her. She knew needle was
dead. Kathleen was catholic and sometimes has a mass said for needles soul.
Needle said he died 5 years ago, but he had some things to do in this world. Things that
her executor cannot do. She took time off on Sundays, holidays and Saturdays
mornings.
When they had finished their education they went to London. John Skinner went to
study archeology, George to join his uncles tobacco farm and Kathleen to stay with her
rich connections and to work in the hat shop one of them owned. Needle went to
London to write about life.
George said he the group of friends to keep in touch when he was about to go to Africa.
Needle was a drifter and she managed herself well. She taught in a private school in
Kensington. Then she wrote speeches for industrialists. Then she was engaged to skinny
but a small legacy made her change her mind. Even though she went to Africa through
skinny. There she was a sort of secretary for a party of researchers of mines. George was
a farmer in Africa. Kathleen told them to tell George that she was busy at the shop.
George lived with a half-caste woman (matilda catholic). He had not many friends and
that fact did not help. G. treated her as a servant. She was pregnant and g. did not
consider that.
Needle was fed up of being a camp follower and decided to be more independent. She
wrote for a local weekly and was able to live on that. There was a war. George was
jealous of skinny. G. did not care about his son. Kathleen wrote usually to needle but
she told her not to tell George.
Needle realized that being incapable of reproducing life in some perfect form made her
secret venom, which skinny received. G. said that needles free life was good. Needle
thought George was more free because of his rich uncle. G. said that his uncle had had
enough. G. admitted being married to matilda but that was just because he needed a
woman. N. was horrored. G. said he would leave her and the country. M. wont divorce.
There was a settlement top keep her quiet about her association with George. M Matilda
greedy bitch. G. told skinny to keep it a secret. N. returned to England before the war.
After the war Skinny returned to his studies and N. thought that after that she would
marry him. She was interested in him because he could take her to the Mesopotamia.
Before S. final exam he got ill. K. told N. she was lucky not to be married with him
because she would have caught the illness he had. N. did not think of herself as a lucky
person. N. made a living with book reviews, publicity, and speeches about literature, art
and life. Skinny was ill for 2 years. Kathleen and N. became close friends. K. told N.to
marry him.
In the last year of N. life, George came to visit K. in her shop. She was surprised
because they had not heard of him for ten years.

N. was leaving for Scotland the next day and did not see George until her date of death
was close. G. was usually going to K. shop. He felt useful doing that. According to K.
G. was different.
K. had invited G. to dinner at her aunts house. N. was invited too. N. and G. met when
they where fetching some milk. G. accused N. of playing with Skinny. He also said that
they did not treat him well in Rhodesia. G, said he would marry K. N. said that was
bigamy. N. said that if K. wanted to marry him she would tell her about matilde. G.
killed her by stuffing hay into her mouth.
The haystack murder was one of the notorious crimes of that year. The papers said
Needle is found: in haystack!. The inspector asked george if he had stopped to talk to
needle but he said he was in a hurry.
There was hay in every mans jacket, the byre-mans hands were even stronger than
Georges and the wrist marks werent enough clear because of the clothes needle was
wearing so N. murderer walked free.
N. kept on visiting the PR. G. was taken to nursing home for seeing needle. He escaped
and gave himself up. Kathleen devoted to take care of him at home. G. kept on saying
he wanted to go to PR. After that Skinny persuaded him to emigrate to Canada.