China is renowned for its exquisite silk, so naturally, a visit to the Silk Spinning Factory is part of today’s tour.
After that, we will be heading downtown to an unspecified location where we’re getting a boat ride, walk through a typical Chinese shopping experience, and coffee at a coffee shop that is doubling as the meeting place, after we soak up the local atmosphere.
The problem with that is that if the entire collective trip a deal tourists take this route then the savvy shopkeepers will jack up their prices tenfold because we’re tourists with money. It’ll be interesting to see how expensive everything is.
So…
Before we reach the silk factory, we are told that Suzhou is the main silk area of China, and we will be visiting a nearly 100 years old, Suzhou No 1 Silk Mill, established in 1926. Suzhou has a 4,700-year history of making silk products. It is located at No. 94, Nanmen Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Then we arrive at the Silk Factory, another government-owned establishment with a castiron guarantee of quality and satisfaction.
The look and feel of the doona cover certainly backs up that claim
And the colors and variety is amazing (as is the cost of those exquisite sets)
We get to see the silk cocoon stretched beyond imagination, and see how the silk thread is extracted, then off to the showroom for the sales pitch.
It isn’t a hard sell, and the sheets, doonas, pillows, and pillowcases, are reasonably priced, and come with their own suitcase (for free) so you can take them with you, or free shipping, by slow boat, if you prefer not to take the goods with you.
We opt for the second choice, as there’s no room left in our baggage after packing the Chinese Medicine.
How many of us have skeletons in the closet that we know nothing about? The skeletons we know about generally stay there, but those we do not, well, they have a habit of coming out of left field when we least expect it.
In this case, when you see your photo on a TV screen with the accompanying text that says you are wanted by every law enforcement agency in Europe, you’re in a state of shock, only to be compounded by those same police, armed and menacing, kicking the door down.
I’d been thinking about this premise for a while after I discovered my mother had a boyfriend before she married my father, a boyfriend who was, by all accounts, the man who was the love of her life.
Then, in terms of coming up with an idea for a story, what if she had a child by him that we didn’t know about, which might mean I had a half brother or sister I knew nothing about. It’s not an uncommon occurrence from what I’ve been researching.
There are many ways of putting a spin on this story.
Then, in the back of my mind, I remembered a story an acquaintance at work was once telling us over morning tea, that a friend of a friend had a mother who had a twin sister and that each of the sisters had a son by the same father, without each knowing of the father’s actions, both growing up without the other having any knowledge of their half brother, only to meet by accident on the other side of the world.
It was an encounter that in the scheme of things might never have happened, and each would have remained oblivious of the other.
For one sister, the relationship was over before she discovered she was pregnant, and therefore had not told the man he was a father. It was no surprise the relationship foundered when she discovered he was also having a relationship with her sister, a discovery that caused her to cut all ties with both of them and never speak to either from that day.
It’s a story with more twists and turns than a country lane!
Now that I’ve gone through the story and made quite a few changes, it’s time to look at the story
…
Jack exchanged a look with the shopkeeper, who in return gave him a slight shrug as if to say he ‘we tried and failed’.
And she was clearly scared of something, and it looked to him like it might be the shopkeeper. He had no idea what happened before he burst into the shop, but from the tenseness in the air, it had nothing to do with the boy on the floor.
He could see the girl was not strung out on drugs, in fact, she did not like a user at all. If she had been, Jack was positive they’d both be on the floor, dead, or almost dead.
Another rumour just came back to him, this was apparently not the first time the store had been robbed, but by the time the police arrived, the would-be robbers were gone.
What was different this time?
Was it the fact the girl was just the unfortunate partner of a boy who was on drugs and had found herself in a dangerous position, one that couldn’t be dealt with or explained away to the advantage of the shopkeeper?
Beth, his wife, had told him she didn’t like nor trust the shopkeeper and that her friend in the same apartment block had told her he had been seen selling drugs to youths who hung around just before he closed. She had warned him it would not be safe, but he had ignored her.
It was a bit late to tell her she might be right.
He took a half step towards the door, judging the distance and time it would take to open the door and get out.
Too far, and he would be too slow, and his reward for running would be a bullet in the back.
Perhaps another half step when she wasn’t looking.
China is renowned for its exquisite silk, so naturally, a visit to the Silk Spinning Factory is part of today’s tour.
After that, we will be heading downtown to an unspecified location where we’re getting a boat ride, walk through a typical Chinese shopping experience, and coffee at a coffee shop that is doubling as the meeting place, after we soak up the local atmosphere.
The problem with that is that if the entire collective trip a deal tourists take this route then the savvy shopkeepers will jack up their prices tenfold because we’re tourists with money. It’ll be interesting to see how expensive everything is.
So…
Before we reach the silk factory, we are told that Suzhou is the main silk area of China, and we will be visiting a nearly 100 years old, Suzhou No 1 Silk Mill, established in 1926. Suzhou has a 4,700-year history of making silk products. It is located at No. 94, Nanmen Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Then we arrive at the Silk Factory, another government-owned establishment with a castiron guarantee of quality and satisfaction.
The look and feel of the doona cover certainly backs up that claim
And the colors and variety is amazing (as is the cost of those exquisite sets)
We get to see the silk cocoon stretched beyond imagination, and see how the silk thread is extracted, then off to the showroom for the sales pitch.
It isn’t a hard sell, and the sheets, doonas, pillows, and pillowcases, are reasonably priced, and come with their own suitcase (for free) so you can take them with you, or free shipping, by slow boat, if you prefer not to take the goods with you.
We opt for the second choice, as there’s no room left in our baggage after packing the Chinese Medicine.
Every time I close my eyes, I see something different.
I’d like to think the cinema of my dreams is playing a double feature but it’s a bit like a comedy cartoon night on Fox.
But these dreams are nothing to laugh about.
Once again there’s a new installment of an old feature, and we’re back on the treasure hunt.
…
Nadia reappears
…
There was no fanfare when I walked out of the hospital lobby and out into the cool afternoon. After the heat, we were due some rain, and looking up to the sky, it was imminent.
I hadn’t organized a ride and was hoping to get a taxi. It was probably the wrong time of the day. Standing in the curb, I noticed a black SUV pulling into the drive-through, distinguishable by the reflective windows. FBI or the state’s equivalent?
It stopped in front of me, and I stepped back, expecting a couple of Feds to get out. Instead, the passenger door window opened and I could see a woman at the wheels.
When she turned to lookat me, I recognized the face instantly. Nadia.
“Get in.”
No hello, how are you, beg your pardon.
I climbed in, and we were moving almost before I shut the door. The forward momentum did that.
“Is there a reason for this cloak and dagger approach? It’s good to see you, and all that, by the way.”
“I’m trying to keep under the radar. The sheriff seems to think I know more than I told them, which was nothing. I hope you did the same.”
“What would be the point? Alex and your brother took control of the narrative, days before we were found.”
“They did. Deceitful lying little…”
It was clear that just talking about them made her extremely angry, so I figured I should change the subject.
“When are you going back to Italy?”
It didn’t take long to realize she was heading towards The Grove, and we were not far from the Mall. I wondered if there was still a hold on the demolition.
“Soon. I have a few jobs to attend to before then.”
I was going to ask what jobs, but then decided I was better off not knowing.
“How did you know I was leaving the hospital?”
“I called, pretending to be your mother. She seems to spend a lot of time with Benderby.”
A sidelong glance at the girl I hardly knew, to say it was odd that she was interested in what my mother was doing was an understatement. I thought I had some understanding of the girl I’d come to like a lit more than I should, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“Does it matter?”
“You can see what Benderby is doing, can’t you?”
“Take me out of the equation, of course. Shiny new promotion and all, at work. She’s going to be disappointed all round I guess when I leave town.”
“You thought about going to Italy with me?”
“Anywhere but here. I don’t think Boggs’s death has sunk in yet. Mad as he might have been he didn’t deserve what he got.”
“You don’t believe he slipped and fell?”
“Nor does Charlene.”
“Charlene is naive.”
Charlene still believed the world wasn’t a corrupt place, and that the law was the same for everyone. The job was going to destroy her in the end.
“Or she might just find a way to bring Alex and Vince down, that is if you still think Vince needs to be taught the error of his ways. I didn’t think he would have the temerity to attach his own sister.”
“Neither did I, but my suspicion there was something wrong with him mentally was right. He crossed a line, Sam, and in my book, you cried that line, you don’t come back.”
Instead of heading straight on, where I thought she was heading for her beachside shack, we took the side road to the mall and the rear carpark.
The whole site was abandoned now, with the demolition halted. Even the security guards had abandoned the place, their demountable office closed, and in darkness.
She parked the car some distance from the side door we used on our last visit, behind the overgrown tree line that separated the staff carpark from the customer’s. The question was, what were we doing there.
As they say, the silence was deafening.
I didn’t know what to think. After everything that happened in such a short space of time, my head was still reeling.
I guess I should have been pleased that I worked put where the treasure once was and that we had solved the mysterious disappearances of Boggs senior and Ormiston. I wanted to tell the respective families, but given the threat of both Alex and Vince, and no doubt Benderby himself, made it difficult.
There was also the possibility no one would believe me since the evidence had been removed.
And there was no doubt the near-death experience had crystallized my desire to change my life, and definitely get away from this place which now seemed more like a prison than a home.
Then, there was Nadia.
I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams actually being in the same room as Nadia, let alone stealing a kiss. Just a touch of hands had the effect of sending an electric charge through me, and the thought of doing anything else almost made me weak at the knees.
I wondered if she had any idea of the effect she had on me.
A stolen glance showed her sitting relaxed, eyes closed, the hint of a smile on her face. What was she thinking?
A few seconds later I felt her hand touch mine, and it was like getting an electric shock. Almost instinctively our fingers intertwined. She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at me.
“I had a lot of time, back in the cave, to think about stuff I never really thought about before. You think you have all the time in the world, but the truth is, you don’t. Everything can be taken away from you in an instant, and all those things you said you’d do one day, never happen.”
“All part of the near-death experience. It got me thinking too. Everything I was going to do, one day. And for a little while there, I honestly believed I’d wasted my whole life.”
“It’s funny, or rather not funny, what you think was important, and really isn’t. We shared something nearly everyone else won’t or could, Sam.”
She held up her hand in mine. “Like this. A month ago, this would not have happened, you and I, not a possibility. I was too wrapped up in who and what I was, that overdose of self-importance and ego, when the reality was I am nothing more than just another speck on the landscape.”
“You’re more than that, Nadia.”
“To you, yes. To everyone else, no. I was brought up to believe the family was everything, but, in the end, it counted for nothing.” She sighed. “To them, I’ll be nothing but a girl. I can’t tell how disappointed I was, or repeat what I said to my father, or that which I now refuse to call my mother.”
I wondered what I could say that would make her feel better, but there was nothing in my word armory.
“If it’s any consolation, I want to go to Italy with you, and explore the possibilities.”
She smiled. “Summers are magic, you wake up, the early morning sun caressing warmth on your body, the tactile feel of the person lying next to you. It’s hard not to imagine those feelings coursing through you.”
Did that mean she had a boyfriend back in Italy? My have must have expressed my thoughts.
“You are the one in my thoughts, Sam. It’s you there beside me and has been since getting out of the cave. I know you feel the same about me.”
My heart missed a beat, or three. I could see us there, together, bodies entwined.
“Now hold that thought. We have one last job to do, and I think you’ll appreciate it.”
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped breathing and let out a long breath. If it were up to me, I’d be on the next plane to Rome.
Instead, it looked like we were going to make a final visit to the mall.
John Pennington’s life is in the doldrums. Looking for new opportunities, and prevaricating about getting married, the only joy on the horizon was an upcoming visit to his grandmother in Sorrento, Italy.
Suddenly he is left at the check-in counter with a message on his phone telling him the marriage is off, and the relationship is over.
If only he hadn’t promised a friend he would do a favour for him in Rome.
At the first stop, Geneva, he has a chance encounter with Zoe, an intriguing woman who captures his imagination from the moment she boards the Savoire, and his life ventures into uncharted territory in more ways than one.
That ‘favour’ for his friend suddenly becomes a life-changing event, and when Zoe, the woman who he knows is too good to be true, reappears, danger and death follow.
Shot at, lied to, seduced, and drawn into a world where nothing is what it seems, John is dragged into an adrenaline-charged undertaking, where he may have been wiser to stay with the ‘devil you know’ rather than opt for the ‘devil you don’t’.
This story has been ongoing since I was seventeen, and just to let you know, I’m 71 this year.
Yes, it’s taken a long time to get it done.
Why, you might ask.
Well, I never gave it much interest because I started writing it after a small incident when I was 17, and working as a book packer for a book distributor in Melbourne
At the end of my first year, at Christmas, the employer had a Christmas party, and that year, it was at a venue in St Kilda.
I wasn’t going to go because at that age, I was an ordinary boy who was very introverted and basically scared of his own shadow and terrified by girls.
Back then, I would cross the street to avoid them
Also, other members of the staff in the shipping department were rough and ready types who were not backwards in telling me what happened, and being naive, perhaps they knew I’d be either shocked or intrigued.
I was both adamant I wasn’t coming and then got roped in on a dare.
Damn!
So, back then, in the early 70s, people looked the other way when it came to drinking, and of course, Dutch courage always takes away the concerns, especially when normally you wouldn’t do half the stuff you wouldn’t in a million years
I made it to the end, not as drunk and stupid as I thought I might be, and St Kilda being a salacious place if you knew where to look, my new friends decided to give me a surprise.
It didn’t take long to realise these men were ‘men about town’ as they kept saying, and we went on an odyssey. Yes, those backstreet brothels where one could, I was told, have anything they could imagine.
Let me tell you, large quantities of alcohol and imagination were a very bad mix.
So, the odyssey in ‘The things we do’ was based on that, and then the encounter with Diana. Well, let’s just say I learned a great deal about girls that night.
Firstly, not all girls are nasty and spiteful, which seemed to be the case whenever I met one. There was a way to approach, greet, talk to, and behave.
It was also true that I could have had anything I wanted, but I decided what was in my imagination could stay there. She was amused that all I wanted was to talk, but it was my money, and I could spend it how I liked.
And like any 17-year-old naive fool, I fell in love with her and had all these foolish notions. Months later, I went back, but she had moved on, to where no one was saying or knew.
Needless to say, I was heartbroken and had to get over that first loss, which, like any 17-year-old, was like the end of the world.
But it was the best hour I’d ever spent in my life and would remain so until I met the woman I have been married to for the last 48 years.
As Henry, he was in part based on a rebel, the son of rich parents who despised them and their wealth, and he used to regale anyone who would listen about how they had messed up his life
If only I’d come from such a background!
And yes, I was only a run away from climbing up the stairs to get on board a ship, acting as a purser.
I worked for a shipping company and they gave their junior staff members an opportunity to spend a year at sea working as a purser on a cargo ship that sailed between Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart in Australia.
One of the other junior staff members’ turn came, and I would visit him on board when he would tell me stories about life on board, the officers, the crew, and other events. These stories, which sounded incredible to someone so impressionable, were a delight to hear.
Alas, by that time, I had tired of office work and moved on to be a tradesman at the place where my father worked.
It proved to be the right move, as that is where I met my wife. Diana had been right; love would find me when I least expected it.
It was the first time in almost a week that I made the short walk to the cafe alone. It was early, and the chill of the morning was still in the air. In summer, it was the best time of the day. When Susan came with me, it was usually much later, when the day was much warmer and less tolerable.
On the morning of the third day of her visit, Susan said she was missing the hustle and bustle of London, and by the end of the fourth she said, in not so many words, she was over being away from ‘civilisation’. This was a side of her I had not seen before, and it surprised me.
She hadn’t complained, but it was making her irritable. The Susan that morning was vastly different to the Susan on the first day. So much, I thought, for her wanting to ‘reconnect’, the word she had used as the reason for coming to Greve unannounced.
It was also the first morning I had time to reflect on her visit and what my feelings were towards her. It was the reason I’d come to Greve: to soak up the peace and quiet and think about what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
I sat in my usual corner. Maria, one of two waitresses, came out, stopped, and there was no mistaking the relief in her manner. There was an air of tension between Susan and Maria I didn’t understand, and it seemed to emanate from Susan rather than the other way around. I could understand her attitude if it was towards Alisha, but not Maria. All she did was serve coffee and cake.
When Maria recovered from the momentary surprise, she said, smiling, “You are by yourself?” She gave a quick glance in the direction of my villa, just to be sure.
“I am this morning. I’m afraid the heat, for one who is not used to it, can be quite debilitating. I’m also afraid it has had a bad effect on her manners, for which I apologise. I cannot explain why she has been so rude to you.”
“You do not have to apologise for her, David, but it is of no consequence to me. I have had a lot worse. I think she is simply jealous.”
It had crossed my mind, but there was no reason for her to be. “Why?”
“She is a woman, I am a woman, she thinks because you and I are friends, there is something between us.”
It made sense, even if it was not true. “Perhaps if I explained…”
Maria shook her head. “If there is a hole in the boat, you should not keep bailing but try to plug the hole. My grandfather had many expressions, David. If I may give you one piece of advice, as much as it is none of my business, you need to make your feelings known, and if they are not as they once were, and I think they are not, you need to tell her. Before she goes home.”
Interesting advice. Not only a purveyor of excellent coffee, but Maria was also a psychiatrist who had astutely worked out my dilemma. What was that expression, ‘not just a pretty face’?
“Is she leaving soon?” I asked, thinking Maria knew more about Susan’s movements than I did.
“You would disappoint me if you had not suspected as much. Susan was having coffee and talking to someone in her office on a cell phone. It was an intense conversation. I should not eavesdrop, but she said being here was like being stuck in hell. It is a pity she does not share your love for our little piece of paradise, is it not?”
“It is indeed. And you’re right. She said she didn’t have a phone, but I know she has one. She just doesn’t value the idea of getting away from the office. Perhaps her role doesn’t afford her that luxury.”
And perhaps Alisha was right about Maria, that I should be more careful. She had liked Maria the moment she saw her. We had sat at this very table, the first day I arrived. I would have travelled alone, but Prendergast, my old boss, liked to know where ex-employees of the Department were, and what they were doing.
She sighed. “I am glad I am just a waitress. Your usual coffee and cake?”
“Yes, please.”
Several months had passed since we had rescued Susan from her despotic father; she had recovered faster than we had thought, and settled into her role as the new Lady Featherington, though she preferred not to use that title, but go by the name of Lady Susan Cheney.
I didn’t get to be a Lord, or have any title, not that I was expecting one. What I had expected was that Susan, once she found her footing as head of what seemed to be a commercial empire, would not have time for details like husbands, particularly when our agreement made before the wedding gave either of us the right to end it.
There was a moment when I visited her recovering in the hospital, where I was going to give her the out, but I didn’t, and she had not invoked it. We were still married, just not living together.
This visit was one where she wanted to ‘reconnect’ as she called it, and invite me to come home with her. She saw no reason why we could not resume our relationship, conveniently forgetting she indirectly had me arrested for her murder, charges both her mother and Lucy vigorously pursued, and had the clone not returned to save me, I might still be in jail.
It was not something I would forgive or forget any time soon.
There were other reasons why I was reluctant to stay with her, like forgetting small details, an irregularity in her character I found odd. She looked the same, she sounded the same, she basically acted the same, but my mind was telling me something was not right. It was not the Susan I first met, even allowing for the ordeal she had been subjected to.
But, despite those misgivings, there was no question in my mind that I still loved her, and her clandestine arrival had brought back all those feelings. But as the days passed, I began to get the impression my feelings were one-sided and she was just going through the motions.
Which brought me to the last argument, earlier, where I said if I went with her, it would be business meetings, social obligations, and quite simply her ‘celebrity’ status that would keep us apart. I reminded her that I had said from the outset I didn’t like the idea of being in the spotlight, and when I reiterated it, she simply brushed it off as just part of the job, adding rather strangely that I always looked good in a suit. The flippancy of that comment was the last straw, and I left before I said something I would regret.
I knew I was not a priority. Maybe somewhere inside me, I had wanted to be a priority, and I was disappointed when I was not.
And finally, there was Alisha. Susan, at the height of the argument, had intimated she believed I had an affair with her, but that elephant was always in the room whenever Alisha was around. It was no surprise when I learned Susan had asked Prendergast to reassign her to other duties.
At least I knew what my feelings for Alisha were, and there were times when I had to remember she was persona non grata. Perhaps that was why Susan had her banished, but, again, a small detail; jealousy was not one of Susan’s traits when I first knew her.
Perhaps it was time to set Susan free.
When I swung around to look in the direction of the lane where my villa was, I saw Susan. She was formally dressed, not in her ‘tourist’ clothes, which she had bought from one of the local clothing stores. We had fun that day, shopping for clothes, a chore I’d always hated. It had been followed by a leisurely lunch, lots of wine and soul searching.
It was the reason why I sat in this corner; old habits die hard. I could see trouble coming from all directions, not that Susan was trouble or at least I hoped not, but it allowed me the time to watch her walking towards the cafe in what appeared to be short, angry steps; perhaps the culmination of the heat wave and our last argument.
She glared at me as she sat, dropping her bag beside her on the ground, where I could see the cell phone sitting on top. She followed my glance down, and then she looked unrepentant back at me.
Maria came back at the exact moment she was going to speak. I noticed Maria hesitate for a second when she saw Susan, then put her smile in place to deliver my coffee.
Neither spoke nor looked at each other. I said, “Susan will have what I’m having, thanks.”
Maria nodded and left.
“Now,” I said, leaning back in my seat, “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation as to why you didn’t tell me about the phone, but that first time you disappeared, I’d guessed you needed to keep in touch with your business interests. I thought it somewhat unwisethat you should come out when the board of one of your companies was trying to remove you, because of what was it, an unexplained absence? All you had to do was tell me there were problems and you needed to remain at home to resolve them.”
My comment elicited a sideways look, with a touch of surprise.
“It was unfortunate timing on their behalf, and I didn’t want you to think everything else was more important than us. There were issues before I came, and I thought the people at home would be able to manage without me for at least a week, but I was wrong.”
“Why come at all. A phone call would have sufficed.”
“I had to see you, talk to you. At least we have had a chance to do that. I’m sorry about yesterday. I once told you I would not become my mother, but I’m afraid I sounded just like her. I misjudged just how much this role would affect me, and truly, I’m sorry.”
An apology was the last thing I expected.
“You have a lot of work to do catching up after being away, and of course, in replacing your mother and gaining the requisite respect as the new Lady Featherington. I think it would be for the best if I were not another distraction. We have plenty of time to reacquaint ourselves when you get past all these teething issues.”
“You’re not coming with me?” She sounded disappointed.
“I think it would be for the best if I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“It should come as no surprise to you that I’ve been keeping an eye on your progress. You are so much better doing your job without me. I told your mother once that when the time came I would not like the responsibilities of being your husband. Now that I have seen what it could possibly entail, I like it even less. You might also want to reconsider our arrangement, after all, we only had a marriage of convenience, and now that those obligations have been fulfilled, we both have the option of terminating it. I won’t make things difficult for you if that’s what you want.”
It was yet another anomaly, I thought; she should look distressed, and I would raise the matter of that arrangement. Perhaps she had forgotten the finer points. I, on the other hand, had always known we would not last forever. The perplexed expression, to me, was a sign she might have forgotten.
Then, her expression changed. “Is that what you want?”
“I wasn’t madly in love with you when we made that arrangement, so it was easy to agree to your terms, but inexplicably, since then, my feelings for you changed, and I would be sad if we parted ways. But the truth is, I can’t see how this is going to work.”
“In saying that, do you think I don’t care for you?”
That was exactly what I was thinking, but I wasn’t going to voice that opinion out loud. “You spent a lot of time finding new ways to make my life miserable, Susan. You and that wretched friend of yours, Lucy. While your attitude improved after we were married, that was because you were going to use me when you went to see your father, and then almost let me go to prison for your murder.”
“I had nothing to do with that, other than to leave, and I didn’t agree with Lucy that you should be made responsible for my disappearance. I cannot be held responsible for the actions of my mother. She hated you; Lucy didn’t understand you, and Millie told me I was stupid for not loving you in return, and she was right. Why do you think I gave you such a hard time? You made it impossible not to fall in love with you, and it nearly changed my mind about everything I’d been planning so meticulously. But perhaps there was a more subliminal reason why I did because after I left, I wanted to believe, if anything went wrong, you would come and find me.”
“How could you possibly know that I’d even consider doing something like that, given what you knew about me?”
“Prendergast made a passing comment when my mother asked him about you; he told us you were very good at finding people and even better at fixing problems.”
“And yet here we are, one argument away from ending it.”
I could see Maria hovering, waiting for the right moment to deliver her coffee, then go back and find Gianna, the café owner, instead. Gianna was more abrupt and, for that reason, was rarely seen serving the customers. Today, she was particularly cantankerous, banging the cake dish on the table and frowning at Susan before returning to her kitchen. Gianna didn’t like Susan either.
Behind me, I heard a car stop, and when she looked up, I knew it was for her. She had arrived with nothing, and she was leaving with nothing.
She stood. “Last chance.”
“Forever?”
She hesitated and then shook away the look of annoyance on her face. “Of course not. I wanted you to come back with me so we could continue working on our relationship. I agree there are problems, but it’s nothing we can’t resolve if we try.”
I had been trying. “It’s too soon for both of us, Susan. I need to be able to trust you, and given the circumstances, and all that water under the bridge, I’m not sure if I can yet.”
She frowned at me. “As you wish.” She took an envelope out of her bag and put it on the table. “When you are ready, it’s an open ticket home. Please make it sooner rather than later. Despite what you think of me, I have missed you, and I have no intention of ending it between us.”
That said, she glared at me for a minute, shook her head, then walked to the car. I watched her get in and the car drive slowly away.
Now that I’ve gone through the story and made quite a few changes, it’s time to look at the story
…
It had been another long day at the office for Officer Margaret O’Donnell, or, out in the streets, coping with people who either didn’t know or didn’t care about the law.
People who couldn’t cross the road where there were crossings and lights to protect them, silly girls shoplifting on a dare, and boys who thought they were men and could walk on water.
The one they scraped off the road would never get to grow up, and his mother, well, she was not doing another call on a family to give them bad news for a while. Someone else could deal with the problem next time.
That was her day.
So far.
At the end of the day, she was glad to be getting home, putting her feet up, and forgetting about everything until the next morning when it would start all over again.
Coming around that last corner, the home stretch she called it, she was directly opposite the corner shop, usually closed at this hour of the night.
It was not. The lights were still on.
She looked at her watch and saw it was ten minutes to midnight and long past closing time. She looked through the window, but from the other side of the street, she could only see three heads and little else.
Damn, she thought, I’m going to have to check it out.
She was aware of the rumours, from her co-residents and also her colleagues down at the station, rumours she hoped were not true.
Every time I close my eyes, I see something different.
I’d like to think the cinema of my dreams is playing a double feature but it’s a bit like a comedy cartoon night on Fox.
But these dreams are nothing to laugh about.
Once again there’s a new installment of an old feature, and we’re back on the treasure hunt.
…
I’m leaving town and not looking back
…
Three days later, after Nadia had disappeared, I was cleared to leave the hospital, almost fully restored.
It had been a strange three days, time enough to considerwhat happened to Nadia, and in the end, I had to conclude that she needed to get away from everyone and everything.
I wanted to believe she was back in Italy; among people she could trust. That notion of living a simple life in the vineyard that she proposed was now more appealing than going back to my old life working for the Benderby’s. There was no doubt in my mind that I would never be going back to that warehouse, or anything else to do with the Benderby’s.
Three days to finally come to the painful conclusion that I had done nothing with my life, and staying in town, it would just be more of the same, only lonelier now that Boggs had gone. Not even the prospect of seeing Nadia made it any better, not that she was going to stay longer than she had to.
Boggs’s mother finally came to visit me, and, when I saw her, I had the awful feeling she was going to blame me. Perhaps I had already blamed myself because it was me who took him there, and if I had not, he would still be alive.
Nor did I believe he died in a fall, he was too good a climber for that to happen. Alex or Vince must have found him and silenced him the only way they knew. He hadn’t deserved that, but, then, neither had we, but I guess when you try to keep a secret, it was the only way to ensure silence.
I knew the secret, and it was a question of how long I would survive before I was next on the list. Alex would never believe I could keep it to myself, and I had been safe in the hospital, but now I was leaving, it was only a matter of time before he made a move.
That gave me the impetus to make a decision that was in my best interests, to leave and never come back. That meant leaving my mother too, as hard as it would be, and for reasons she would never understand.
I told her that the day before.
She visited twice a day, and each time I tried to find the courage to tell her of my decision, and each time it was not possible. She was too happy that I was alive and making plans for the future, coming to the conclusion that life was too short, and putting things off until another day might mean they may never happen.
It was the same conclusion I’d come to, but with different ideas as to what it was I should not put off.
It took until the day before my discharge and made easier with her news of a proposal from Benderby. Both had been cool to the idea of taking their relationship to the next level, but now it seemed he had a change of heart.
My devious mind found another reason, and it was not because he cared about her. It was more to do with silencing me, and her, putting us under his ‘protection’. It told me he knew about his son’s involvement, and it would be interesting to see what he did about Alex. My guess: nothing.
And was it wrong of me to hope Nadia would drive a stake into Alex’s heart?
She had just finished telling me about the second piece of news, my promotion, being in charge of the warehouse, rather than just being a clerk, a job I suspected normal people would have to wait years to attain. It cemented my suspicions of his motive.
“That’s Alex’s domain,” I said. “What’s he going to do? The last thing I need is him being resentful.”
“He’s going to be your stepbrother, Sam, and we’re hoping the two of you will play nice.”
“Did Alex get the memo?”
“It doesn’t sound to me like he will be the problem “
It was a recipe for disaster. And surprising that she should take Benderby’s side. My mother seemed to have forgotten all those years of angst at school, and the fact Alex was little better than a bully. I guess, after the years of struggling after my father left us, she had to look out for herself.
It was my cue.
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I can look after myself.”
“I have no doubt you can. But you have to get along with others, Sam.”
“I will. But it won’t be here. When they finally let me go, I’m leaving town. There are just too many bad memories here now.”
I thought, while she was still wrapped up in the romance with Benderby, she’d just nod and move on.
Wrong.
She was genuinely upset with my decision. “Are you leaving with that dreadful girl?”
“She is not a dreadful girl. If that’s what Benderby is saying, he’s wrong. I got to know her, those days in the cave when hope was fading. That’s where you find the real person. But, no, I’m not. I don’t know where she is. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. By the way, Alex treated her very badly when she was his girlfriend, and back in school.”
“She would say that being a Cossatino.”
“And I’m sure the Benderby’s have nothing nice to say about them. Irrespective of the Benderby’s and the Cossatino’s hatred for each other, they are more the reason to leave rather than stay. But, more importantly, when time was running out in that cave, I realized all the things I hadn’t done, and why. I’ve wasted opportunities and years of my life and lost a very good friend, who, if I’m to be judged one day, let down terribly. That alone makes it impossible to stay here.”
“There’s a lot of good you can do here, Sam. And all of the Boggs spent too much of their time going after that non-existent pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You can’t feel sorry for them, father and son alike.”
Given what I knew, her admission was probably parroting the same sentiments as everyone else, and it was a fruitless search only in the fact that the treasure had been removed. I had no doubt it had been there once and moved, or discovered many years before. Boggs’s father had found the resting place and would have found the treasure. Ormiston had too. But would I tell anyone the truth, probably not?
But when I should have let it go, I didn’t. “There’s so much you don’t know, that no one knows and probably never will. You are entitled to your own opinion, I’m entitled to mine, and we’ll agree to disagree. All the more reason to leave, because all it’s going to do is upset me every time someone mentions Boggs or the treasure.”
She stood. I could see her ‘I don’t want to hear this’ face, and knew she’d long stopped listening to me. As far as she was concerned, I would come around in the end. There was no point arguing, I was just going to leave and worry about the consequences later.
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 