Chapter 6 Death Warmed Up
She wasn't coming. Suddenly the trip seemed worthless. All that petrol. All that time driving. All that agonising over what to say to her. He wondered why he'd put himself through it all. It was just like it always was between him and Susie – crap. Nothing ever worked out between them, no matter how hard they tried. Why should now be any different?
The look on Alex's face said it all. He had tried to get Susie to come, with everything he had. He knew Jonesy would want her there. And he hadn't understood her blatant dismissal of his invitation. He'd pondered it for days afterward, and it still got to him how he couldn't figure out her tone of voice. It was lucky Jonesy hadn't been the one to ask her to come.
Evan sat himself down on a table by the pool table and glumly watched the players as they chatted amongst themselves and jeered each other across the felt. This wasn't how he imagined the trip panning out at all. He had thought perhaps he and Suse could sit down, catch up, and maybe make amends for what had gone wrong in the past, and try and figure out a way to live with the way things had turned out. But now she wasn't even coming, and he was going to miss that chance.
Alex sat down beside Evan and placed a beer in front of him in a weak effort to cheer him up. It didn't help, and Alex and Evan sat glumly at the table, avoiding Rhiannon and her icy stares and waiting for the rest of the crew to show up…if they even would. Because, hey, Susie wasn't coming…who was to say everyone else was definitely coming too?
Amy trundled out the door early on December 22, her bag in her hand and her sunglasses on the top of her head. As she jogged down the stairs she realised how eager she was being. Mt Thomas was waiting, and suddenly she couldn't wait to get there. Grinning for the first time in weeks, she jogged across the carpark at the back of her block of flats and opened the boot quickly, throwing her bag inside before slamming down the hood. Racing around to the drivers side door, she was pumped, and jiggled the keys on the ignition, keen to get going. Maybe she could make it to Mt Thomas for lunch…
Nothing. Frowning, Amy turned the key again. But not even a burble. She tried a third time, and when she got the same result again, a colourful rainbow of expletives left her mouth as she slapped the steering wheel with her hand, frustrated. She leaned back for a moment, and closed her eyes as she rested her head against the back of her seat. A set back…that was all she needed, especially when she was so eager to get away from Melbourne. She sighed and pulled out her mobile phone from the depths of her pocket and dialled the RACV.
She tried not to sound annoyed as she spoke to the operator and told them where she was located. It wasn't their fault. But it was not easy keeping a kind voice on when she was told the wait could be up to 2 hours. "Two hours!" she exclaimed into the mouth piece as the sun bore down on her through the windscreen.
"I'm sorry," the operator sounded genuinely sympathetic. "It's Christmas…everybody's on the road. And everybody's breaking down." Amy sighed heavily and rubbed at her forehead. "There will be someone in your area soon. But that's the best guarantee I can give you."
"OK," she replied. "Thanks," she said numbly before hanging up. She leaned forward and rested her head against the steering wheel, all the excitement of five minutes ago now all gone from her thoughts. Was this a curse? A sign that maybe she really should stay in Melbourne over Christmas? She threw her phone onto the seat beside her and watched, annoyed, as it fell down and onto the floor, hidden almost entirely underneath the glove box. She rolled her eyes at it and went to open the door, deciding to enjoy the sunshine that was blessing Melbourne so strongly that day, when the phone actually rang faintly from down on the floor of her car.
Heaving herself over the two seats, she reached down, stretching to grab the phone off the sandy floor of the passenger seat. She caught it on what was probably the last ring. "Hello?" she answered begrudgingly, stepping out of the car fully this time, and sitting down on the curb in the early morning sunshine. She shaded her eyes with her hand and heard Evan on the other end of the line.
"Are you on the road yet?" he asked, the reception crackly and departed between their mobiles.
"No," she sighed again in reply. "I think I've got a flat battery…I'm waiting for the RACV," she rested her elbows on her knees as she spoke into the phone. "Where are you?" she asked, out of pure curiousity. She didn't see or hear much of Evan nowadays.
"In the office," he replied, with the same sort of sigh. "I've got heaps to do before I can leave." He sounded sad at the thought and Amy realised he must be as eager to get away as she was. Maybe they needed holidays more than they both realised.
Kelly walked into the bar just after seven thirty. She scanned her eyes around and immediately spotted Jonesy and Alex crying into their beers over by the dartboard. As sad as they looked, she was ecstatic to see them, and bounced over in her usual fashion, a grin erupting quickly over her face. "My boys!" she greeted them, patting them on the backs and jolting them out of their depressive states. They turned their heads up to her and gave her bleak stares. She returned the looks with raised eyebrows. "Wow, you two are full of festive spirit aren't you?" she teased them, sitting down and joining them at their table, snatching Jonesy's beer out of her hand and taking a swig for herself. It was a move so Kelly that the two men couldn't help but crack a smile. If anyone could light up a room, it was Sunshine Kelly. She finally got them out of their bad moods as she chatted incessantly about the upcoming break and how happy she was to be back in Mt Thomas.
Evan nodded happily, trying to forget about Susie. "It's been too long Kel!" he agreed, ordering her a beer as a welcome present. They sat happily and drank for a good half an hour, allowing their sombre mood to slowly lift away from the group, aided of course, by the alcohol they were consuming. But Alex held back somewhat more than his friends, and Kelly noticed this with a touch of interest. She watched his eyes drift around the bar, as if expecting to see something or someone else, but quickly flitting away whenever he cast his eyes over Rhiannon, who sat bored in a chair by the dart board, talking on her mobile phone like a city yuppie.
Kelly leant across the table and gave Alex a gentle slap across the face to bring his attention away from his prickly wife and back to their table of slightly sombre Christmas celebrations. "Hey Kirby!" she teased. "Mind back on the job!" she grinned, enjoying taking the piss out of her former colleague. He shook his head in a daze and looked back at her, trying to collect his bearings. Evan and Kelly watched him fumble around embarrassingly and chuckled behind their hands. Whilst Rhiannon wasn't at the same table as them they felt free to bitch about her, and tried to rescue Alex from brooding over the poor state of his marriage.
"Sorry?" he asked, as dazed as ever. He picked up his beer and drank it thirstily, trying to hide behind it almost.
"So, who else is coming Alex?" Kelly asked, still chuckling at the poor state he was in.
Alex looked at her like he hadn't heard her for just the briefest of moments, and then answered whilst Evan slipped back into his dark mood over Susie instantly, having just been reminded again that she wasn't coming. "Oh, pretty much everyone," he replied, smiling at last. Just the thought of almost everyone of his old crew being back together again immediately made him feel better. "Suse can't make it, and neither can Matt of course, and I haven't heard back from Joss so…" he trailed off, looking at Kelly for an answer on the Joss mystery.
Just like Evan, with the mention of a name from the past Kelly suddenly slipped under the weather, although she tried her darndest not to show it. Instead she bought up the topic of Susie, unaware it was the last thing Evan wanted to talk about. Luckily, a distraction walked into the room just as Alex went to explain Susie's absence, and Kelly looked up, and smiled widely at who she saw there.
Tom felt a little anxious as he strolled along the footpath in the direction of the Imperial. What was he doing? What was he getting himself into? He no longer had power over these people. They no longer looked up to him. He would only embarrass himself showing up to Kirby's gathering. He stopped by the park and considered turning around and going back home. He could easily skip the occasion and sit and read the paper and have a drink on his own. But then he got a whiff of the summer air and realised how long it had been since he had actually been out walking – any time of day – and how good it felt to be treading the pavement. So he continued and just 10 minutes later was at the door to the Imperial, having already seen Jones's truck as he walked through the carpark. So at least one of his old kids was there. He and Evan had butted heads quite often in their last few years of working together, but despite this, Tom looked forward to seeing him, and walked confidently into the public bar.
As he entered through the heavy purple curtain that separated the foyer from Chris Riley's bar, the first thing that caught his eye was his little blonde bit of sunshine. She sat at a table with Kirby and Jones and noticed him the moment he stepped into the room. She flashed a big smile at him of course, in true Kelly style, and it made him want to approach the table and confront those who used to think of him as their leader.
"BOSS!" Kelly screeched, immediately getting up from the table, nearly knocking over her chair in the process, and giving him a tight squeeze. She was always a hugger…and he liked that about her. He gave Kelly a kiss on the cheek, determined to be at leats half the person he once was. The person he knew others fondly remembered and reminisced about, because he simply wasn't like that anymore.
I know that when you look at me
There's so much you don't see
"How are you Kelly?" he smiled down at her as they sat down at the table with Alex and Evan and Chris bought over a fresh tray of drinks. Kelly babbled on and on about how she was and how good it was to see him and have him there tonight in answer, as Alex and Evan continued to cry into their beers so to speak. It didn't take long for Tom to comment on it – he just couldn't help it.
"Well, aren't you two the picture of happiness tonight?" he chuckled, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his chair as he mocked them playfully. "You look like death warmed up."
The looks he received in reply to the comments made him not take it any further. His sixth sense sensed it was a tense issue, and he and Kelly silently agreed not to mention it anymore. Instead they proceeded to cheerfully banter on about what direction their lives had taken them in since they had prematurely split three long years ago. There was a lot to tell, but the four of them only shared the good stories – Kelly didn't mention David, Alex didn't mention Rhiannon and Evan didn't mention Homicide (or Susie). And Tom didn't mention much of anything – what was there to tell? But he happily listened to his kids stories and they all travelled a bit back in time as they waited and waited for Amy to arrive. She was well late, and the later it got, the more they all looked at the clock.