Deity

by deity

‘Honey what are you up to today?’ Nikki asks Billy as she pops a few things in her bag at the kitchen bench.

  ‘Not goin’ anywhere’ he replies abruptly from the couch where he sits in his boxers, remote control in hand and eyes blankly fixed on the TV.

  ‘Why don’t you call Jas?’

  She can only hear a mumbled reply.

  ‘Well I’m going for a coffee with Jemma.’

  ‘Mmm, have a good time, I’ll be here when you get back’

  ‘Honey, you can’t mope around here all day.’ She sits upon the couch and puts her arm around him. ‘What happened with Jas? With your planing?’

  He shrugs to turn from her gaze. ‘Don’t worry about it. You go have a good time with what’s-her-name’

  ‘But I do worry. Why won’t you tell me about it? It must have been important if you’re not even talking to Jas. He called again yesterday, why aren’t you returning his calls’

  ‘Hadn’t you better go? You don’t wanna keep your friend waiting and besides this is too complex to talk about with you half out the door’

  ‘Her name’s Jemma.’ She replies, trying to keep her tone even. But she knows she is not entirely successful,

  ‘Remember I was telling you about her yesterday, she’s in the police force.’ She pauses for a response but none is forthcoming. ‘You can’t hide from this forever, what are you gonna spend the rest of your life huddled in here’

  ‘Could be worse’

  She leaves with a slam of the door. He can be so infuriating sometimes, so stubborn. All of a sudden he doesn’t want to leave the house. Just a week ago he was never here. It’s very strange…he has never acted this weirdly before, at least not so much. She thinks of what he had told her; about his meditating and ‘planing’ as he called it. She believed him then but now she isn’t so sure. All this strange behaviour…his moodiness and now he doesn’t wanna talk about it? When he first spoke of it in the park, well, she’d never seen him so vocal, she couldn’t have shut him up if she tried and now he is the complete opposite. What is he involved in?

  She knows one thing though, she thinks as she turns onto the street where she is meeting Jemma, this whole situation could make one hell of a film. The possibilities are almost endless- a love story across dimensions, astrally heightened senses and emotions clasped as one in the passionate union of man and woman. Or an astral witness to a crime who must right an injustice- MMM should be careful, Disney had sequelled the life out of Invisible Man but anyway there’s definitely some scope here. Nikki sees Jemma at a table by the window, she looks different somehow Nikki thinks as she waves, but how? Uh-huh, she isn’t wearing her police uniform.

  ‘Hi, I barely recognized you without the uniform, love your dress is it new?’

  Jemma couldn’t help but smile from her friends compliment; she loved wearing summery dresses whenever she could, any item as different as possible from the unflattering, cumbersome police uniform she wore every day to work. She returns the greeting and begins telling Nikki about the cute little shop she found the outfit in. She hopes they get on better this time, she really wants to be friends again with Nikki. To still be in touch with the University parties, lifestyle and mindset, far away from the world of work and office politics that is invading more and more of her time and space.

  The conversation moves to Billy and Nikki’s relationship - they’d been together for three years, living together for almost six months and Jemma could tell from the sparkle in her friends’ eyes that she was in love.

  And soon moves on to old long-lost friends from their time together at University. Karen; a pretty girl who they both knew but neither was particularly fond of had apparently gone out with Professor Delaney for a while! It was after they had all completed the second year class he lectured, neither of them could imagine a more embarrassing scenario, he was well over forty – double her age!

  Then there was Brad a hot guy from one of their first year classes apparently had some job at a big bank with a six figure salary that sent his ego on a similarly expansive trajectory. Jemma recalled that Nikki was seeing Brad briefly at some stage, maybe that influenced her opinion of him, would she have thought like that before she joined the police? Probably. Nikki, was so headstrong- it was the major cause of their last argument and her subsequent early departure but she liked Jemma’s new dress and after only a few months with the police Jemma had quickly found that company who appreciated these things was all too rare.

  Nikki’s voice takes on a softer, more sincere tone from talking of Brad and his ego and asks of the area where they are sitting now, the cause of their previous argument. Jemma apologises and tells her of the suspicious death and fire. How the case had been closed by her senior officers but she couldn’t help look into it further and it was these details which Nikki had seen at the cafe last time. She admitted that part of the reason she had spent extra time investigating this was because she hadn’t seen much else of interest in her time at the force but she genuinely didn’t believe that that was the only reason this case had caught her attention.

  Nikki is entranced by the story, she immediately thinks of Billy, his confession and subsequent behaviour... her mind races jumbling these new details with the files she saw and those of her boyfriend. Off on a tangent of her mind she is no longer concentrating to what Jemma is saying. Could he be caught up in some fanatical, doomsday cult bent upon his destruction. What should she do? He is in danger, this astral planing stuff is probably just part of the cult’s indoctrination... Her head continues along this spiral of death and destruction as she blurts out,

  ‘Could it be a cult?’

  ‘Shit, that sounds like it!’ Jemma responds in surprise. It matches the bizarre evidence from the forensics, the missing persons, she thinks to herself before asking her friend, ‘Hey how’d you know?’

  But Nikki is still caught up in her own imagination, Peta is involved somehow, the meeting she organized for Billy, they used to catch up all the time and now Peta no longer has much time for her. Billy won’t say any more of what they’re doing, and he’s distant and moody all the time. He definitely has heaps less time for her now.

  ‘Nikki? What made you think of that?’ Jemma asks again. The question registers with Nikki this time but she is flustered and still doesn’t answer instead she gets up rushing out an apology and a goodbye. She dumps some change on the table as she gathers her bag and leaves.

  Jemma fiddles with her coffee, alone at the table, her mind spinning like the coins her friend has just dumped before her. A cult she had said, it answered many of the mysteries Jemma had been struggling with here. But how had Nikki known? What else did she know? Where was she rushing off to now?

  Jemma also pops some coins on the table leaving her coffee as she pursues Nikki who had just exited. Jemma continues to think of all the evidence she has in light of Nikki’s Cult theory as she moves toward the door when the cashier interrupts her, inquiring what she ordered, where she sat and who had paid, Jemma explains and is soon on her way but she can't see her friend anywhere on the busy city street. She is left dodging pedestrians thinking;

  'How does Nikki know more about her investigation than she does? Let alone the entire police force? She must be involved? But, how?'

  'There were dozens of leasees for the building where the fire happened, no-one had looked into any of them because the fire was determined to be unsuspicious. She still had the details on file somewhere, it couldn't hurt to ask a few questions' she thought when she caught herself she was heading toward the office – and it was her day off! 'No, as interesting as Nikki's theory was it would have to wait until she was back on shift before she investigated it' she told herself as she turned around.

  Her mind turned back to her friend, 'How was she involved?' 'How else could she know so much about a police matter?'