(Untitled)

[patriotqueen]

They had picked something up to eat and had eaten it at the cave. Two plates and two empty wine glasses were evidence of the fact. What had been in the glasses, by the by, was a novel and rather peculiar sort of wine

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[over_and_dunne]

Willie Dunne had finished the Tolstoy. He was immensely proud of the achievement, but a little sad at the same time, he'd been reading the book since he arrived on the island. It had been a comforting constant amongst all the upheavals of those six months. And now he needed something new to fill in that gap.

Mr Burgess had told him to try Marx. Mr Burgess had also said that he had a copy of it in his cave that Willie was free to borrow. So Willie stoodd by the cave, near but not too near he hoped, and waited until Mr Blunt walked out to come in. He stood next to the dozing man for a moment before finally coughing politely and nudging his shoulder. "Mr Burgess?"

[patriotqueen]

It took a moment before Guy opened his eyes, looked sideways to Willie and then to Anthony - or rather, to where Anthony would have been had he not left. "Changing of the guard?" He asked with a still half-asleep grin.

[over_and_dunne]

Willie looked around awkwardly, not quite getting the joke, but he was used to it by now. He got very few of Mr Burgess' jokes and comments. He shook his head. "No. I came by to get a book, if that's all right with you."

[patriotqueen]

"I said come by whenever." And that he had assumed not to be woken had been naive on his behalf. This was Willie, after all.

He sat up a bit straighter and nodded to the make-shift shelves, to no place in particular somewhere in the mess of books that was Guy's bookcase.

[over_and_dunne]

Willie nodded and went over to the books, kneeling down to begin methodically sorting through them for any by a man named Marx. It couldn't be that hard after all.

[patriotqueen]

It could be quite hard, thought, since there was no order. But the methodic manner of searching might help. Guy looked at him, amused, but then said "remember the titles. You can always pick something else if you find Marx a bit... boring."

[over_and_dunne]

"All right then," Willie said, not looking up from his searching, but nodding anyway. "Do you have any suggestions?"

[patriotqueen]

And so Guy suggested. "I've always quite liked Austen. Forster is good. Wodehouse is quite funny, you might even laugh."

[over_and_dunne]

He nodded once again, showing that he fully intended to take Guy's suggestions into consideration. "Do you have anything Irish?" Willie asked suddenly, not quite knowing why he did so.

[patriotqueen]

Guy looked at Willie, and nodded. "James Joyce, I believe. And Oscar Wilde, bottom shelf. Great novelist."

[over_and_dunne]

"I remember hearing about him. Oscar Wilde. I think my father mentioned him." And with nothing complimentary to say about him at all.

[patriotqueen]

"I take it your old man didn't consider him the pride of his nation?" Guy asked skeptically.

[over_and_dunne]

Willie shook his head. "Not at all. But my father's nation is Britain, not Ireland."

[patriotqueen]

Guy nodded. "Well, Wilde moved to Britain, and - to later shock and horror - married a British woman."

[over_and_dunne]

"Really? My father still didn't like him though." Willie had been too young to truly care at the time.

[patriotqueen]

"He wasn't the only unamused father," Guy commented, with some amusement in his voice.