Unwanted Companion – flash fiction

There it is! In the corner of my eye, a purple hippopotamus with blue ears, except it’s tiny – kitten size. I’m sure this isn’t normal. I stop in the middle of my shopping, close my eyes and take a deep breath in and out.

Last night it was singing, like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, on my kitchen work top. I was in the hallway, passed the kitchen on my way to bed. I decided to ignore it and turned the lights off.

The day before, I caught it using my toothbrush. It made no sense. Hippos only have four teeth. I suppose they still need to clean them but with my toothbrush.

It’s been following me around for weeks. Not a day goes by without it lounging in my chair, sleeping in my sofa, playing peak-a-boo behind my laptop. 

I open my eyes, look down the Tesco aisle – Pasta and Rice. I need spaghetti. No hippo. Where has the purple little thing got to now? You close your eyes for one second and the bloody thing wanders off. ‘Good riddance!’ I think as I walk down the aisle, pick up a pack of durum spaghetti.

There it is again, doing samba steps down the aisle, all innocent.

Tulip Fever – Deborah Moggach

This is one of the stories where I saw the film version before reading the book. I liked the film, obviously, why else read the book too. There were some significant differences between the film and the book, giving the book both a positive and a negative impression. 

Sophia has married Cornelis and now lives in a big merchant’s house in Amsterdam. She is very attached to her husband after he has saved her family from poverty but there are other signs that perhaps her feelings for him don’t stretch further. Cornelis adores his wife but even he occasionally questions if he bought her when he offered her family a better life when she agreed to marry him. Their maid dreams of one day living as mistress of the big house together with her fishmonger sweetheart. Enter a young, talented artist who has been commissioned to paint the married couple. It’s the seventeenth-century and the rich city of Amsterdam is mad for tulip bulbs. 

The main issue I had with this book was the introductory quotes to each chapter. Most of them, to me, didn’t fill their function of adding something to the chapter, whether foreshadowing or to give context. Eventually I found them irritating.  

In all other aspects I liked this story very much. It’s told from the perspective of different characters so that you can get various views of the same event. There was a significant difference to the fishmonger’s story and I really liked the book version. On the other hand, in the film, I love Tom Hollander’s portrayal of Dr. Sorgh, the doctor that is called in to help with Sophia’s pregnancy. That character didn’t come to life in the same way in the book. I really enjoyed the description of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. It’s not a place I have read about that much in the past. Girl with a Pearl Earing is the book that comes to mind in a similar setting, but I like this setting. Amsterdam at that time was an interesting place. 

I recommend reading Tulip Fever or watching the film, or why not do both.