Caught Inside

by Mandi Greenwood

  Archie sat down on the old swing and set it rocking back and forth so violently it was in danger of collapsing. 'Jee-zuz!' He put his hands over his ears. 'This thing needs some oil.'

  Cate gave him a dazed look.

  'I thought it was some kind of creepy monster you know,' he told her. 'I heard this squeaking and had all sorts of images in my head. Never would have guessed it was one of these.'

  She watched him, her spirits lifting in spite of everything. She found a tissue in her pocket and blew her nose.

  He continued to swing. 'Have you ever noticed how these things always look comfortable until you sit on them?' he asked her.

  'I can't say I have.'

  'My Uncle Harry has one,' he informed her. 'It's a medieval torture device. When I was little I got my pinkie finger jammed between the frame and the swinging bit.' He showed her his pinkie. 'Look. It's still crooked.' He scowled. 'It bloody hurt!'

  She managed to plant her bottom on the swing while it was moving and took hold of his pinkie. She kissed it and he smiled angelically at her. Then he wriggled around trying to find a softer spot on the cracked vinyl seat and everything creaked and shook.

  'What a pile of poop,' he muttered. 'Seriously!'

  Cate grinned. This whole scene was just so Archie.

  'What?' He spread his hands. 'It's not my fault. It's obviously a weakness in the design.' He leaned down and wriggled the screws holding the metal legs together. 'I'm surprised it's still standing. God knows how long it's been here. I'm thinking maybe 1976. I reckon you can't even buy these in the shops anymore. I mean, that swirly pattern on the… what would you call it… roof thingy is hideous.' He glared up at it.

  'Canopy,' she suggested helpfully.

  'Yeah, canopy. That's the word.' He scrutinized the canopy; it's frilly edge fraying badly. 'Most definitely ugly.'

  'Archie?'

  'Mm?'

  'Thank you.'

  'Don't mention it snookie bum.'

  'I hope he doesn't ring Troy,' Cate worried. 'If they all come here we'll have to call the police.'

  'Nah, don't worry about it,' Archie said flapping his hand. 'Drew will tell them that he kicked my arse and dumped you. That's how he rolls.'

  Cate nodded. He was right. She felt sorry about Drew, but more than that she felt free. She felt like she could be herself again.

  The night stretched out around them and the sound of cicadas chirping filled the air. They could hear the closing credits of Toy Story coming from the telly in the recreation room.

  'Funny old Archie,' she murmured.

  'Tragic old Archie,' he amended.

  'Why do you say that?' Her hair had fallen across one eye and he reached out and pushed it aside.

  'Because in my dreams,' he told her. 'We're married with three kids. However, believe it or not, I do have some self-respect so there won't be a problem. I'm not going to ask something of you that you can't do, so we're just going to carry on as we were before Drew.'

  'Oh, Arch.'

  'It's seriously cool.'

  'I'm just so …' she began. She wrung her hands together. 'I don't know what to tell you.'

  'Like I said, it's cool.' He smiled at her. 'We're friends, yeah?'

  'The best!'

  'It's good enough for me,' he replied. It wasn't and they both knew it, but it would do for now. 'Besides,' he said, pulling a face. 'Last thing I want to be is your rebound victim! God!' He shuddered violently and they both grinned.

  'What were their names?' she asked. 'Our three kids.'

  'Ting-Ting, Wing-Wang, and Bob,' he said without hesitation.

  They laughed together for a while and then they fell into a pleasant silence. Archie swung the swing soothingly and its persistent creaking became comforting.

  'Wanna try and stay awake all night?' he challenged her all of a sudden.

  'Yep,' she agreed. 'First to fall asleep has to wear my old ballet tutu for a whole day.'

  'You're on.' They shook on it.

  It was just after lunch the next day and it was time to go home. Archie picked up Chandra's backpack and hung it on one shoulder. His own backpack was on his other shoulder.

  'Thanks, man,' said Chandra gratefully.

  'No problemo,' said Archie. 'Got to help the cripple.'

  'You're so sensitive.'

  'I know, right?'

  They strolled around to the front of the property where Archie's dad's car was parked and Chandra stopped to look back at the house. 'We were only here for two nights,' he said. 'But it seems like longer, don't you think? So much has happened.'

  'Feels like a lifetime,' Archie agreed. He was feeling triumphant. Cate had nodded off around four-thirty so she'd be wearing her tutu on a day of his choosing in the not-too-distant future. 'The whole Willa business happened weeks ago, right?' he said.

  Chandra grunted and looked down at his hands. 'I wish,' he muttered. 'Because then these would be healed.'

  Archie opened the boot of the car and tossed their bags in, and then the two of them leaned companionably side by side against the rear bumper. 'Yep, that sucks big time,' he said sympathetically.

  Chandra held his bandaged hands up in front of him. 'So long as I don't knock them against anything, they're fine. I rolled on one of them in my sleep last night though.' He grimaced. 'That hurt.'

  'Thank goodness for Mrs Biddy's bottomless pit of codeine,' Archie remarked and Chandra nodded adamantly.

  'Amen,' he said.

  Archie crossed his arms on his chest and happily turned his face up to the sun.

  'You look very pleased with yourself,' Chandra observed. 'Wanna' spill?'

  'Drew left in a tizz last night,' Archie said. 'He and Cate broke up.'

  'Really?'

  'Yep. You didn't see him go?'

  'No,' Chandra shook his head and tried to remember the last time he'd seen Drew. 'I didn't see him all afternoon,' he said. 'So, you and Cate …?'

  'Nah,' Archie shook his head. 'I was just there for her, you know. We're mates.'

  Chandra studied him carefully.

  'What?' Archie shrugged. 'We are.'

  'I know,' Chandra said gently. 'Love her to bits, right?'

  Archie smiled at him. 'Right.'

  What's Normal?

  Neve was glad to see the first real signs of spring. Even though she'd passed patches of snow on her way to the park, the sun had a warm, gentle quality about it.

  She walked carefully down the stony path through the little glen that she'd privately dubbed Dingle's Dell … she wasn't quite sure why … maybe it was some subliminal memory from her infancy, long since forgotten. Her foot slipped off the stones and into the mud beside the path, making her swear. The Doc Marten's on her feet had been a gift from Sammy at Christmas time and they were the nicest thing she'd ever owned. Now one of them was caked in a thick coat of sludgy grime.

  At the bottom of the path she came out of the trees and found herself in the rose garden. Most of the beds were still plain dirt with dry looking skeletons of rose bushes in them, but she knew they'd be a mass of colour in a month or so.

  This little park was in the heart of Manchester's poorest district but you wouldn't know it. It was like an oasis in a desert of poverty. If she used her imagination, Neve could pretend this was a botanical garden somewhere pretty. Especially if she put her hands over her ears to block out the traffic noise from beyond Dingle's Dell.

  She sat on a park bench and picking up a convenient stick, she attempted to scrape the mud off her boot. It was useless so she tossed the stick away and leaned back to enjoy the sunshine instead.

  Things weren't great but they'd been much worse. Neve was an optimist, despite everything, and it paid to keep things in perspective.

  She thought about how she'd lost another job … this time at a twenty-four hour petrol station … and about how cross Darren had been when he found out. Sammy, fighting in her corner as usual, calmed Darren down. She knew Sammy worried about her like a dad and she loved hi
m for it.

  What the hell was she going to do now? There had to be more to life than this otherwise what was the point of it all? She felt like she was going in circles but never getting anywhere. Sammy's was the first real home she'd lived in, but it still wasn't her home. Something was missing.

  The night before she'd had a dream she hadn't had for years … not since all the crap when she'd been forced to leave her mum's house … but lately she was having it again. She associated the dream with bad times. Did it mean she must leave Sammy and move on?

  She was little in the dream, maybe seven or eight years old, and she was playing on a beach. This in itself was odd because Neve had never been to a beach in her whole life. There was soft, white sand, and cliffs, and rocks with those little pools in them, full of shells and crabs. A woman was sitting nearby. She was young and pretty with long white hair the same colour as Neve's. She was laughing and clapping her hands as she watched her play. Both the woman and the beach made Neve feel safe and loved.

  What did it all mean? Neve stared at the dormant roses and chewed her lip as she pondered, deep in thought.

  The sudden sound of rowdy laughter and harsh swearing jerked her back to reality. A gang of hoods came into the park, taking turns to swig from a bottle as they meandered along.

  Neve sighed. Well, that spoilt the tranquillity, didn't it?

  They noticed her of course, sitting there alone on the bench, and they immediately started yelling offers of sex and general terms of abuse at her. The mating call of the native male gangsta thug she thought as she got up to go.

  Their profanities followed her but they fell on deaf ears. Neve had learned long ago to block out things she didn't want to hear.

  Aisley, Cate and Freya went to visit Willa in the hospital in Salbury. She was in a private room at the end of a long hallway and she was sitting up when they walked in. There were vases of flowers on every available surface and because it was evening, the bedside lamp cast a yellow circle of restful light across the high hospital bed.

  Willa was in plaster and there were big dark circles under her eyes. She looked awful and as the girls watched, a tear rolled down her face.

  'Is someone speaking to you?' Freya asked. 'You know, like a counsellor or something? You've had a pretty traumatic experience.'

  'They keep offering, but I don't want to talk about it,' Willa replied. 'My parents think I should talk to someone too.' She shrugged her good shoulder. 'I think I know better than anyone else how I feel, and I feel okay.' Another tear rolled down her cheek, making a liar out of her.

  'But you're not okay,' Cate said from her spot at the end of the bed.

  'I'll get over it,' said Willa obstinately. 'I'm feeling sad because I'm in pain, that's all.'

  Aisley gave it a go. 'Sometimes it just helps to talk things through.'

  'Like I said, I'm okay.' Willa looked out the dark window. 'Why does everyone keep telling me what I need?'

  Aisley watched as Freya opened her mouth to speak then abruptly shut it again. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

  'Do you know what my mum asked me this morning?' Willa demanded making Aisley jump. 'She wanted to know if I'd ever cut myself. If I'd ever harmed myself, was how she put it. Can you believe she actually asked me that?'

  There was another awkward silence. Aisley gathered together every ounce of courage she had. 'Well … have you?' she asked.

  Willa gaped at her and Aisley stared back, determined not to back down.

  'No,' said Willa finally. 'I haven't. Have you?'

  'No. But I'd be lying if I said I'd never thought about it.'

  Silence fell yet again and Cate tried to break it this time by prattling on about all about the things they'd done on Sunday at the house. She tried to make it sound as funny as she could, but it fell on deaf ears. Eventually, she gave up.

  'Has Stewart been in much?' Aisley asked.

  Willa shook her head. 'He wants to, but I told him to stay away. I mean, what's the point? I'm no good for him and he deserves better. Besides, it's not like we're … dating, or anything, anymore.'

  'He still cares about you, though,' Freya said.

  'I know, but I wrecked every chance we had. I get that now.'

  'Willa…' Aisley didn't know what else to say.

  'I annoy him because he can't understand me.' Willa shifted a little in her bed. 'I don't blame him. I can't understand me either.'

  'Give him a chance to, then,' Aisley suggested quietly. 'Give us all a chance to.'

  'You know what they say,' Cate piped up chirpily. 'A problem shared is a problem…'

  Willa cut her off. 'There's no problem. I'm just being a drama queen.'

  This was doing Aisley's head in. She couldn't bear this negativity. It solved nothing. She grasped Willa's hand and squeezed it warmly.

  'You'll get to go home soon,' she told her holding her gaze. 'Before you know it, everything will be normal again.'

  'What's normal?'

  'Back to the way it used to be,' Aisley insisted. 'You'll see.'

  'I dunno.' Willa shook her head. 'I can't remember when I felt normal, Aisley.'

  As they stared into each other's eyes, Aisley could almost see the battle going on within but Willa said nothing else.

  Soon after that it was time to leave but all the way home in the back of Cate's mum's car, Aisley could hardly concentrate on the conversation the others were having. She stared out the dark window and saw her own worried reflection looking back at her. All she could think about was the look of despair on Willa's face when she'd asked what normal was.

  Storm of Tears

  The second week of the school holidays passed much too quickly. The days that were left seemed to melt into one another and evaporate.

  Aisley and Chandra spent most of their time together. They went to the movies, explored the botanical gardens and lazed on the beach. They spent endless hours lounging on his bed, listening to music and making out. They huddled close together in her window seat as he told her story after story about Costa Rica. After six long months apart, it didn't really matter what they were doing, so long as they were doing it together.

  His hands began to heal and he was able to lose the white mittens and downgrade to simple wound dressings on his palms. The wound dressings still made life tricky, and he bitched about surfing being off the cards but at least he could hold his own cup again.

  Archie and Cate slipped easily back into their pre-Drew status. Both their affection and their antagonism towards each other stepped up a notch. Whenever together, they spent half their time falling about laughing, and the other half bickering fiercely.

  Drew sent Cate one single text.

  Can't believe you've done this to me. I thought we really had something special going. I'm a mess and it's all your fault.

  Two days after she got the text, Cate saw him outside the Duke of York pub with Troy and several others. Drew had his arm around Hannah Cooper, a girl from the year below them at school. Cate crossed the road so they wouldn't see her as she walked by. She didn't know whether to feel heartbroken or relieved. So, he was a mess, was he? Funny way to show it.

  Aisley heard from Stewart that Willa had come home from hospital. Stewart told her Willa still wouldn't see him and he asked Aisley to go with him.

  'Maybe if you're there too, she'll talk to me,' he said. 'I feel like I've got to get this business sorted out.'

  But Aisley begged off. She didn't want to be the interfering one, the one who makes a mountain out of a molehill. Her instincts told her something was desperately wrong with Willa but she kept those thoughts to herself and it seemed safer to just butt out.

  The days blended rapidly into one another and then just like that, it was the night before school. Aisley got out her textbooks and put her head down. She had a science assessment first thing in the morning and she hadn't studied at all. She had meant to, but somehow it just hadn't happened.

  'Relax,' Chandra told her on the phone. 'It
's no biggie.'

  'Easy for you to say! You're not doing it.'

  'I'm doing it next week,' he replied. 'One of the perks of being out of the country for half a year. You get extensions for everything, whether you need them or not.'

  'And you don't need them,' she grumbled. 'But some of us have to use our brain cells.'

  'You have sexy brain cells.'

  'Thank you, but that's beside the point.'

  'Want me to pop over,' he offered. 'I'd be happy to, um… tutor you?

  'Tempting,' she smiled into the phone. 'But no thanks.'

  'Aw, why not?'

  'Because I want to get a mark other than zero.'

  He tut-tutted. 'There she goes, doubting me again.'

  'No,' she said. 'Not you. Just your, um… tutoring methods. I've gotta go. I'll see you in class okay?'

  'Okay. Sweet dreams.'

  'You too.' She hung up and turned her mind to her science revision.

  Chandra held celebrity status for the first few days of term. He was the returned adventurer and everybody wanted to know what Costa Rica was like. But after a week had gone by and everything was back to normal, there came the predictable day when he didn't turn up for school. Anyone with half a brain only had to look at the size of the waves to guess where he probably was.

  Aisley was sitting in their usual place outside the art centre at lunch when Freya and Lucan arrived.

  'No Chandra?' Lucan asked, sitting on the bottom step. 'Missed him in PE.'

  Aisley unwrapped her sushi. 'Three guesses,' she said, pretending she didn't care.

  'Is Chandra ditching?' Archie bounced into the middle of their discussion. 'Didn't see him in English.'

  'Oh for god sake,' Aisley said, rolling her eyes. 'Stop asking me! I'm not his mum.' She felt like it was something she had to remind people of too often.

  'I didn't think he did that sort of thing anymore,' Freya mused, digging her lunch out of her bag.

  'Can't change a leopard's spots,' Aisley said, shortly. Her appetite fled and she put her sushi down.