‘Lucy!’
‘Hello stranger,’ said Lucy’s voice.
‘Great to hear your voice.’
‘Really?’ she said.
‘Of course,’ Geoffrey replied.
‘Not too eager?’ she said. ‘What’s up?’
Can she see me now? Of course I’m eager. And anxious.
‘Do I sound eager?’ he said.
‘Enough to put a smile on my face.’
‘Do you need a smile?’
‘No, I have one,’ she said.
‘Then you’re sounding eager,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Well ain’t we a pair.’
Geoffrey grinned.
‘I like that,’ he said.
He pushed open a door into a courtyard and strode to a low stone wall. A helicopter buzzed overhead.
‘Where are you?’ said Lucy. ‘The sound has just changed.’
‘I’m at the Art Gallery. I’ve just stepped outside so we can talk.’
‘Art gallery? On Friday morning? Is this a corporate thing or don’t you actually work?’
‘No,’ said Geoffrey. ‘There was an interesting lecture I wanted to see. I’ve taken the day off. I’ll start back on Monday.’
‘Have you been back since the accident?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I had some stuff to deal with.’
There was a pause.
‘You okay?’ said Lucy.
Geoffrey took a breath in.
‘Yeah, all good.’
‘All good.’
‘Yep.’
‘Happy days.’
‘Yep.’
‘Deal done and all that. That’s how you corporate types speak, isn’t it? The lingo of the lads?”
‘How’re the dugongs?’ Geoffrey said.
‘Fabulous. I’ve had a great time here. The sea is so shiny, and the sky bright. It’s a fantastic place.’
‘And did you get done what you hoped to?’
‘We did,’ said Lucy. ‘We had fun, in the sun, got sunburnt, joked, solved the world’s problems, and counted loads of dugongs.’
‘Good numbers?’
‘Yep. They’re up on last year our team leader said. And more than might be expected of a difference the people doing the counting.’
‘So, statistically significant.’
‘To use auditor speak.’
‘Hey, I’m the accountant, but we’re a-counting the dugongs,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Oh très drol, monsieur le smartypants.’
‘I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s the diff between a manatee and a dugong?’
‘Is this a riddle or a question?’
‘A question. You’ve heard my jokes.’
‘Well then, there are a few, but the main two are dugongs are always salt water creatures, while manatees often enter fresh water estuaries. And dugong tails are fluked, like a whale, but a manatee has more of a paddle like a beaver, if you know what a beaver tail looks like and no jokes there please.’
‘Not even about the man you tease?’ said Geoffrey.
‘The what?’ said Lucy.
‘Man you tease, manatees,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Yes I got it,’ said Lucy, and chuckled, then added. ‘I like you.’
Geoffrey pumped his fist and mouthed an ecstatic ‘Yes!’
‘I like you,’ he said.
‘Are you alone?’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you just shout ‘yes’ under your breath?’
‘Are you sure you’re still on the other side of the country?’
‘I knew it, you did!’ said Lucy.
‘Yep, I did, and I’m proud,’ said Geoffrey.
‘I bet you pumped your fist too.’
Geoffrey stood up and looked around at the sagging figs, the sloping lawns and lines of bots moored in the bay.
‘Where are you?’ he said.
‘In Exmouth, getting ready to leave for Perth and then the red eye back to Sydney.’
‘Sure? Cos you just read everything I did.’
‘Course I did. You’re standing up now, aren’t you, looking around in case I jump out from behind that big fig over there.’
‘What colour shirt am I wearing?’ said Geoffrey
‘One that shows off your eyes.’
‘And what one would that be?’
‘The one I buy for you when we go shopping together,’ she said. “You can sit down again if you want. I’m still over here, packing my bags.’
He sat down again and said,
‘So, six-thirty tomorrow morning?’
‘You remembered!’ said Lucy. ‘Wil you be there to pick me up?’
‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
‘Have you been thinking about me this last week?’
“I’ve thought of little else,’ Geoffrey.
And that’s no lie, it’s just what I’ve been thinking is how to see you.
‘Wow,’ said Lucy.
‘And you too?’ said Geoffrey.
‘Besides the dugongs, yes.’
He smiled and felt the day was warm as love.
‘You may fist pump again,’ said Lucy.
‘I know it’s only been a fortnight and you’ve been away for half of it, and we’ve only had one proper date when I was blinded and, well maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder, but I really enjoyed the time we had and the talks on the phone and yes, I really like you,’ said Geoffrey, and added, ‘a lot.’
Who-ee, that was a bit of a speech. She’ll probably have a real go at me now.
‘Ditto,’ she said. ‘I’ve missed you. I wish you were here. I loved our date and when you stayed over. That’s really why I came to the funeral, to tell you that before I left. I knew it wasn’t the right time but there was none other, so I came anyway, in case the opportunity arose.’
‘Thank you,’ said Geoffrey. ‘You were very kind that day. I really appreciated it.’
‘My pleasure.’
He leant back a bit on the stone and looked at the sky.
Now’s the time, buddy. Now you have to tell her. Do it now, or forever lose face.
He took a deep breath.
‘Lucy,’ he said.
‘That’s my name,’ she said. ‘Does that mean anything?’
‘How much time do we have to talk?’
‘Loads, we don’t leave til the afternoon. What’s up? Should I be worried?’
‘I need to tell you something. Something about me,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Sounds ominous.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m not married or cheating on you,’ he said. ‘That’s all above board.’
‘So, what, you’re a European Count worth squillions? Or you’re a spy for the CIA? Or do you some sort of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on?’ said Lucy.
‘Thanks for starting with the positives,’ said Geoffrey. ‘But it’s more the latter.’
‘The Jekyll and Hyde thing?’
‘Look,’ said Geoffrey, ‘like I said, I think you’re wonderful and you’ve got so much going on for you, and I’ve never fallen for anyone before, not really anyway, but I think I’m … well, I’d love to spend a whole lot more time with you, but I want to make sure it’s all clear between us and I am fully honest with you.’
‘You haven’t been honest?’ said Lucy. ‘About what?’
‘This is hard to explain, but I’m going to tell you, and let you sort it out in your head and I’ll fully understand if you don’t want to have anything more to do with me.’
‘What is it?’ she said. ‘Tell me.’
‘And there you are when I am being confusing your voice is caring and open. God you’re fantastic, which I why I want to make sure everything is right and clear between us.’
The phone was quiet.
‘You still there?’ said Geoffrey.
‘Here, and very intrigued,’ said Lucy, ‘and not a little bit concerned.’
So Geoffrey told her about his visions. What happened on the night of Slabs’ accident, the things he saw in the onlookers and how he had avoided looking at her, and going home on the bus and checking himself out, and Dave and the new lamp he had bought and how helpful Dave had been with the ICU experiment and the old hobo who died in the back lane and then Andrea the psychiatrist who was thirty kilometres away and then was there on the ground in cycling nicks at Rose Bay, so you can’t beat your fate. And he’d wanted to tell Lucy this but she said she didn’t want to know and he wanted to honour her wishes, so he’d faked eye surgery to have dinner with her and kept in the dark all night, and then how he’d sought a solution in the Spooks Exhibition and chanting and how Dave had tried to thwart fate by committing suicide down the coast, which was when he had the other accident with the police officer and so he’d taken time off work because he didn’t want to see his colleagues dead but now he thought he’d found a way out which was why the lecture at the art gallery was so promising and here he was spelling it all out for her to know.
He waited. The phone was silent. He was scared to provoke her into responding. He could hear her breathing.
He sat and looked at the bay and the harbour and let the warmth of the day infiltrate his body. He had said it. It was now all out. A risk, but the only thing to do. He had slipped his mooring and sailed into unknown waters. His safety was in her hands.
‘So,’ she said eventually, ‘you’ve only seen my face in the pub, before your friend’s accident.’
He sprang up, anxious to make every word count.
‘Your image is etched on my memory,’ he said. “You were like the Mona Lisa, but with red hair.’
And that is how you shoot yourself in the foot.
‘You’ll understand if I say I’m stunned,’ she said.
‘Of course.’
‘I thought you were being silly when you brought it up on the phone.’
‘I know.’
‘I mean, it’s a totally new one.’
Sure is.
‘I’ve had men tell me they are wealthy when they’re not, single when they’re not, all sorts of things about themselves, but this is a first.’
Geoffrey was about to say something but she continued, ‘You say you can enter another realm, time travel.’
‘It doesn’t feel that way. I just look and see.’
‘So you’re a kind of peripheral visionary.’
‘I suppose that’s one way of describing it.’
‘And you still want me to love you.’
Bull’s eye. Yes yes yes and yes again.
‘Yes,’ said Geoffrey.
‘That was a funny dinner,’ she said. ‘I did wonder. Dad told me that you didn’t need such a palaver over blepharitis.’
‘Sorry about that.’
‘The thing is, why would you make it up? It’s so weird. It’s not something any normal person would make up.’
Oh that’s not good.
‘But you don’t come across as abnormal, or psycho in any way,’ she said.
Good, good.
‘But as they say, it’s always the ones you least expect.’
No not good.
‘Don’t you see how weird it is?’
‘I sure do,’ said Geoffrey. I’ve been reeling all fortnight. But I wanted to -’
‘Yeah, I get it. And thank you, I suppose.’
Well, I tried.
‘On the other hand, if what you say is true, then it’s a world first, and what a thing to explore.’
Good again, fingers crossed.
‘Tell me, what would you do in my situation? Supposing I had come to you with this story and said I want you to love me. What would you do?’
‘Honestly?’ said Geoffrey.
‘You’re the one being honest,’ she said.
‘I’d probably run a mile,’ said Geoffrey. ‘Unless there was good reason to believe it.’
‘But there’s not, is there? Not from my end.’
‘That’s why I went to Dave. I thought I was going batty, and we did tests and the whole psychiatrist thing, god it was miserable.’
‘Can I ring Dave about this?’
‘I’ll text you his number.’
‘Can you do it now, while we talk?’
‘Sure,’ said Geoffrey, and he opened his phone contacts. ‘I’ve sent you his card.’
‘Anybody else know?’ said Lucy.
‘We agreed he’d tell his wife. She was anxious about him, and rang me to go look for him.’
‘You did a good job on me,’ she said. ‘You softened me up nicely, by making me confess how much I wanted you, then whammo, I get this tale.’
‘As I said,’ said Geoffrey, ‘if it is too much, I will understand.’
‘The thing is, whether you were softening me up or not, I was missing you, and everything I’d seen and done with you was enticing and exciting and yes, I was falling in love with you, or at least enjoying the possibility of falling in love with you and then you hit me with this. Do you have anything else you need to tell me?’
‘No, said Geoffrey. ‘This is big enough for us all.’
‘Okay, I like you, a lot, but you come with a supernatural sidekick, and you need to know if I’ll stick around.’
Jesus, she goes straight to the point.
‘In a nutshell,’ he said.
‘Okay, soldier, this is the certainty I can give you. I’m going to speak to Dave and get his story. And I’ll soon figure out if you’ve been conspiring with him, so don’t let on. And if that matches, you can pick me up at the airport. And if you see me on my deathbed, I still don’t want to know, even if it’s bad, but you’ll walk away and never see me again. But if you are getting it under control as you say you are, and see me only as I am, alive and living, then I’ll give it a go, providing of course that we have as much fun as we had in the last week. But without the accidents. Or the blindfolds. Deal?’
‘Deal.’
‘Alright sweet cheeks. I want a lover without an eye patch, looking deep into my eyes and smiling and making love. Deal?’
‘Deal.’
‘See you at six-thirty in Australia’s worst airport.’
‘I’ll be there.’
‘And I should say, no real promises. I’ll be pondering this all night and will have fifty million more questions tomorrow. Luckily it’s the red eye, so I wasn’t going to get much sleep anyway.’
‘Okay,’ said Geoffrey.
‘And another thing,’ said Lucy.
‘Yes?’
‘I do like you, a lot. You’ve just shaken me, but I do like you.’
‘Thanks for listening to me,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Hugs and kisses oddly weird man,’ said Lucy, and she hung up.
Geoffrey leaned back and breathed in. It had gone as well as he could have hoped. What he said was true: if she’d come at him with that tale he’d have run a mile. Yet here she was still willing to give it a go. Dave would tell her everything. She just had to cope with the immensity of it, and hopefully she’d stick around.
He looked at his phone. They’d been talking for three hours. He’d missed his appointment with Dave.
That could turn out well. Dave would understand that I’ve been talking with Lucy, and Dave would explain he understood why, and tell her what we’d done together.
I have today and early tomorrow morning to practice the Mona Lisa method and make sure I can see Lucy the way she wants to be seen. Alive.
* * * * *
Photo by Michael c/- Unsplash.
