The Cult of Following, Book Two

by Barbara Jaques

  *

  The walk was slower than Percy was used to, though since the day was very hot and humid, the pace suited. Ordinarily, Percy still found himself striding on while all around locals walked at a more reserved pace. Today he blended in.

  ‘So you walk here often, you said?’ Verity asked.

  Percy nodded.

  ‘So does Norm. Most mornings.’

  ‘I know.’

  A silence followed, and Percy suspected she was about to question him regarding some Norm related offence. She didn’t. Instead they walked for a while talking about nothing in particular, until they turned onto the Rain Forest boardwalk.

  ‘I like this part,’ Verity said, looking around as if she had never been there before. ‘It’s quiet, isn’t it?’

  ‘Usually. I first met your husband here, and that dog of yours. She nearly killed me.’

  ‘And how did a soft-in-the-head labradoodle nearly kill a grown man?’

  ‘By tripping me up.’

  ‘She should have been on her lead.’

  ‘She was. It was like a bloody tripwire’

  ‘Oh dear. Lucky you didn’t break anything.’

  They walked a little way until they reached a point where the boardwalk unloaded back onto a regular path. This side of the gardens was always quiet, Percy had discovered. It was an area with no public entrance to demand eye-catching species, and there was no formality to it. The trees appeared to grow freely amongst low undergrowth. If no one official was around, which rarely there was, it was a good place to explore nature, off the path. He set off.

  ‘Hey, where are you going? There might be snakes in there.’

  ‘Maybe. We’ll go slowly, give them time to move.’

  ‘And what about the dog?’ Verity remained where she was, though Cocoa was keen to follow.

  ‘She’ll be fine. Come on,’ Percy encouraged. ‘Where’s your sense of adventure, Vee?’

  He watched as she looked up and down the path, and back to where they had come along the boardwalk. ‘So the confident Misses Sullivan is not as confident as she seems?’

  ‘It’s not that, it’s more I am hoping someone will save me from having to walk in there with these on.’ She put a foot forward, revealing neatly painted silver toenails and a delicate sandal covered in what looked like polished gem stones.

  ‘Why did you come for a walk wearing those?’ Percy scowled. ‘You were never going to get very far in a pair of sandals, Vee. Why didn’t you wear proper shoes? Why do people even bother with those things? They let grit in, for a start.’

  ‘They are very comfortable, actually,’ she said brusquely. ‘And in coming to the Botanic Gardens with its lovely footpaths, I hadn’t planned to go trekking off into the wilds.’

  ‘You’ll just have to manage,’ Percy said.

  ‘Why? What are we looking for?’

  ‘I dunno. Stuff. Lizards, beetles, all sorts. Birds. Bees, maybe. Come on.’ He walked back to her and reached out a hand. Cocoa jumped up at it. Verity told her off.

  ‘What about my feet? I’ll be eaten alive.’

  ‘Then walk right behind me. And don’t stand still for too long.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Big biting ants.’

  ‘If I see a bloody ant I’m stamping on it.’

  ‘Come on,’ Percy offered his hand again, and was pleased when she took it.

  18. WHEN THE BLANKET IS LONG ENOUGH

  Hester shook her head but did not speak, thin lips tightly sealed. Four declared disciples of Percy as Prophet were sitting together. Two believed, one privately thought it was fun to play along, the other had secretly orchestrated the whole thing. They were sitting as they often did, in the comfortable chairs and sofas on Hester’s beautiful old veranda.

  Trudy was speaking on Hester’s behalf. ‘I am sure Hester won’t mind me telling you that Girlie is leaving when her contract finishes next month. It’s not good news. Utterly ungrateful is what it is.’

  ‘Girlie? Your maid? Leaving?’ Norm was shocked. ‘Why?’

  All had believed Girlie would be there for the duration, part of the family, or at the very least, part of the furniture.

  With the hiss of an ego still deflating, Hester whispered something. Her eyes followed the movements of her own fingers as they repeatedly folded and refolded a long crease in her skirt.

  Trudy again took it upon herself to speak on her friend’s behalf, ‘The fact is, Hester gave Girlie a large bonus.’

  ‘Enough to go home?’ Norm asked.

  ‘Enough to go home,’ confirmed Trudy.

  ‘Quite enough,’ muttered Hester, still folding.

  Norm smiled. ‘That was kind.’

  ‘Enough to go home, and some!’ Trudy huffed. ‘And after all that Hester has done for that woman. I think it is terribly ungrateful myself. You don’t just leave someone in the lurch like that, someone you’ve known for so long. It was so ungrateful!’

  ‘Yes, you’ve already said.’ Norm’s smile dropped a little, as he placidly observed the incredulity of others. Hester was shaking her head, dismay obvious. ‘Hester,’ he began, reasonably, ‘it is a wonderful thing you have done. If Girlie can go back to her family with enough money to give them all a proper start in life, which I assume is what you have given her, then that can only be a good thing. You can see that, can’t you?’

  Trudy repeated her own feelings on the subject.

  Norm frowned, an unusual expression for him. Much of his attractiveness lay in the good nature that his face conveyed. He meant the frown.

  She reacted. ‘Why scowl at me? Hester has been like a mother to her, decent notice is what she should have given, time for her to train someone to take her place.’

  ‘The contract dictates the end. It’s hardly worth the fuss of signing a new one and then cancelling it, as far as I can see. And you can’t have two helpers employed at the same time, anyway. It’s against the law. I think you need a special reason to have more than one person wait on you hand and foot.’

  ‘Norman!’ Hester hissed.

  ‘It’s not you being taken advantage of, is it Norm?’ Trudy railed.

  He lost patience. ‘Trudy! Why should Girlie stay here forever, away from her family when she finally has a chance to go home?’ He said it harshly, surprising his friends, who knew only of his mild manner. ‘She’s not taking advantage of Hester any more than she is entitled to, in the circumstances. Hester generously gave her the advantage. I can’t see the problem.’

  ‘Then maybe you should try finding a new maid sometime.’

  ‘And maybe you should take a trip to Manila, Trudy, and see what it’s like there for yourself?’

  Hester raised her eyes from the distraction of her own fiddling fingers, and in a single glance fired Norm the geriatric equivalent of cobra venom.

  Target hit, Norm returned to his usual placatory tone. ‘Of course it is hard when anyone leaves, I mean, anyone we have history with and have relied upon. I know you were very fond of her, Hester.’

  ‘I still am,’ Hester whispered, dully, ‘and I can hardly stand in her way. What sort of person would that make me? But I feel very cross about it. And it is so soon. So soon.’

  ‘But what did you expect, giving her the bonus when her contract was due?’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking.’

  ‘Her husband looks after that side of things,’ Trudy added.

  Norm smiled, ‘Even so, it’s the right thing.’

  Trudy almost managed to raise an eyebrow. ‘I’ll ask around and see if anyone knows of someone looking to transfer.’

  The old woman was quick to respond, ‘I don’t want a transfer maid. They are always trouble. And I don’t want someone new, either. I want someone whose employer is leaving, someone good. Someone exactly like Girlie. I want Girlie.’

  At that moment, looking happier than she ever had, the subject of their conversation appeared from the house with a tray of drinks. Everyone accepted the offering with far mor
e gratitude than was usual, in an effort to compensate for what had been an immediate and rather obvious silence.

  ‘I saw Percy yesterday,’ announced Meera, who had been listening without comment. The domestic troubles of a spoiled and ancient expat were not something of interest. ‘I asked him if he would attend one of our meetings.’

  Three jaws dropped.

  ‘He said no.’

  ‘He’s not very happy with us,’ Norm said.

  Trudy threw half a glass of white wine into her mouth, as if someone might confiscate it. ‘He and I had a nice talk at Haw Par Villa, actually. I don’t think he’s quite as cross as you believe, Norm.’

  ‘Joyann says he’s livid.’

  ‘Joyann is a trouble maker,’ Hester said.

  ‘Joyann?’ Again agitated, Norm could feel himself rising to challenge this statement.

  Hester shot him down with another look.