When Simone and Delia brought the serving dishes to the dining table, they found that Lee was seated in his usual place, at the head of the table, and that he had placed Teale at the other end, facing him. Sasha had taken the seat immediately to Teale’s left. Simone quickly took the seat between Lee and Sasha, so as not to be next to Teale. She did not trust herself, or him, to keep their hands to themselves, if seated so close together. Delia took one of the two vacant seats on the other side, next to Teale. While Simone was dishing up the food from the serving dishes, Teale’s eyes never left her. She was conscious of his eyes upon her without having to look directly at him, and it made her feel uneasy. She silently wished he would begin to show more discretion.
With the food served, Simone felt some lessening of the tension as Teale, in common with the rest of the diners, directed more attention to the eating of the meal. Sasha continued her efforts to engage Teale in conversation, with some slight success. She spoke about her involvement in Brodie’s documentary, and of her intention to pursue a university course in film and television, while working part time with him. Simone felt that Teale’s interest in that topic was more polite than profound.
“Have there been any more developments regarding the attack on Brodie’s sister?” Teale asked, of nobody in particular.
“Not that we’re aware of,” responded Sasha. “It’s a bit scary. I try to make sure I’m never alone.”
“What about you, Delia?” enquired Teale, politely making an effort to draw her into the conversation in which she had shown little interest to date.
“I’ve got my capsicum spray, and my whistle, in case he bobs up around me, but I doubt that,” she replied, rather off-handedly.
When an awkward silence fell over the group, Lee took the opportunity to open up, with Teale, about the legal issues that were concerning him in relation to his humanitarian project. That was a topic which seemed to excite Teale’s interest, at least to some degree, and he and Lee continued to discuss it, on and off, during the remainder of the meal’s main course.
When Simone began to clear away the dishes after the completion of that course, she was surprised when Sasha rose to assist her. After she had followed her mother into the kitchen, she said to her, in a hoarse whisper, “Fuck, Mum! This is bloody boring. Are you sure he’s not gay? I don’t think he’s even looked at me once, and he doesn’t seem much interested in anything I have to say.”
“Well, I can’t help that. You invited him.”
“I’d prefer to be out with Brodie. At least he’s enthusiastic about what we’re doing, and always has something new and interesting to say or do. I hope he finds Teale’s ex as boring as he is, when he meets her for coffee later in the week.”
“Here, take these in,” said Simone, handing her daughter some sweet dishes to take to the dining room. As Sasha disappeared from the kitchen, Simone could not help but smile, quietly, to herself, at her daughter’s perception of Teale. If only she knew how exciting and stimulating he can be when aroused, she thought. But she was secretly pleased that she found him boring, first because it quelled the spark of jealousy she had earlier felt, and, secondly, because it diminished the possibility of complications arising for her, and her family, from the development of any relationship between her lover and her daughter.
When Simone returned to the dining room, she found that Delia was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Delia?” she asked.
“She just received a call on her mobile and raced into the TV room, without a word,” replied Lee.
Those words were hardly out of his mouth when Delia returned to the dining room. Her face was ghostly white, her eyes glazed, and her manner clearly agitated.
“What’s up, Delia?” asked Simone, in a strained and clearly anxious voice.
“Anita’s dead. I can’t believe it… She’s just… I mean, they just found her… She killed herself!” she said, after a long pause, her voice full of shock and disbelief. “I just received the call – it’s all over the TV news. I just can’t believe it! I rang her mobile, and her mother answered it. She’s hysterical. And… It was horrible. She said it’s all my fault – that I’ve been an evil influence on Anita!!”
With that, tears began to stream down her cheeks, she began to sway, and she seemed about to collapse. Teale jumped up quickly, grabbed her, and lowered her gently to the floor, where her eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out. Simone sprang to her side, where she began to gently slap her face repeatedly, and massage her hands, while calling out, “Delia! Delia!” over and over. Lee remained glued to his chair in shock.
“Quick, Lee,” shouted Simone. “Ring next door and see if Gai’s home. She’s a nurse, and will know what to do for Delia. If she’s not there, ring an ambulance.”
Given a specific task, Lee responded quickly, and hurried into an adjoining room to call the Twidale residence.
In the meantime, Sasha began to rail against Anita’s parents, in defence of her sister.
“How dare they! How dare those pious bastards blame my sister! If anyone’s to blame, it’s them, with their goddamn ridiculous sanctimonious attitude.”
“Shush, Sasha,” urged Simone. “They’ve just lost their daughter! To suicide! You can’t expect them to react rationally. What Delia needs, right now, is our calm support and attention, not hysteria.”
Sasha quickly quietened and kneeled beside her mother, where she leaned over the supine figure of her sister, peering anxiously into her face. At that point, Delia’s eyelids began to flutter, and she soon opened her eyes to look about her, from face to face, with a vacant stare. That stare quickly turned into a look of horrified realization, as memory of the news she had just heard began to flood back to her. She then threw her arms around her mother’s neck, and began to cry, in deep, raking sobs of anguish. Simone cradled her bereft daughter in her arms, and rocked her back and forth, like a troubled child.
Teale took in this dramatic tableau of mother and daughters, and awkwardly bent over Delia to give her a re-assuring pat on the shoulder. He felt his mere presence at this moment was somehow intrusive.
By this time, Lee had returned to the room, and was looking anxiously at his wife and daughter. “Gai is on her way over,” he said, with a hint of relief in his voice.
No sooner had he said that than the doorbell rang, and he hurried to answer it. It was Gai, accompanied by Brodie, both of whom followed Lee back to the dining room. Simone and Sasha were still comforting Delia, while Teale looked on, feeling useless, and uncertain as to how he should behave in the midst of this unexpected family crisis.
As Gai bent to examine the now fully conscious but still distressed Delia, Sasha again launched into a tirade against Anita’s parents. Brodie gently drew her aside, and shepherded her into an adjoining room, where he spoke quietly to her and managed to settle her down.
After a brief examination, and a few quiet words to Delia, Gai helped her to her feet, and then to a chair.
“I think you’ve just fainted from the emotional stress,” she said, before proceeding to take her blood pressure with a digital monitor she had brought with her.
“Your blood pressure is OK. I think you should lie down for a while, and if you don’t feel fully recovered soon, then we might need to call an ambulance for you.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to lie down for a bit. Daddy, can you help me to my room, please?” asked Delia, in a little girl voice.
“Of course, darling,” responded Lee, with a lump in his throat. Putting an arm around his daughter’s shoulders, he assisted her from her chair towards the stairs.
“I’ll come with you, if you don’t mind, just to keep an eye on you for a while,” said Gai, extending her elbow for additional support, which Delia gratefully accepted.
Simone anxiously watched her daughter being escorted, slowly, towards the stairs to her room. When her eyes fell on Teale, she gave him a half apologetic and half confused look.
“I think I
should go home, now,” he said, softly. “Your family needs you.”
“Yes, thank you, Teale,” she replied, as, with tears beginning to run down her cheeks, she escorted him towards the door.
When she opened the door for him, Teale paused and, taking a handkerchief from his pocket, gently wiped the tears from her face. Then, he kissed her, lightly, on the forehead, and gave her hand a secretive squeeze, saying, “I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you and Delia are.”
Closing the door behind him, Simone hurried up the stairs to be with her deeply troubled daughter.
When he arrived back at the Braithwaite residence, Teale poured himself a large bourbon from his uncle’s ample supply, before throwing himself into a comfortable chair to contemplate the events of the dramatic evening.
Having witnessed the interaction between Simone and her family during a crisis, he now had a better understanding of why she felt the need to end their relationship. What he had just seen was something beyond his experience. He had seen his lover in a completely different context, one that revealed to him a whole new layer of her personality and of her world. And it was a world that seemed totally foreign to him. At the same time, his feelings towards her had been deepened by his witnessing her instinctive maternal response to her daughter’s needs, and her capacity to move quickly and effectively to meet those needs. To his observation, however, there had been little real communication or depth of rapport between Simone and Lee. That gave him some insight into her motivation for her affair with him, and some hope that she might yet choose to continue it despite her stated intention to the contrary. He felt that, despite her efforts to hide it, the chemistry between them remained too strong to be denied, and he remained determined to try to persuade her, not just to continue their affair, but to take their relationship to a new and more permanent level.
With those thoughts, he shuffled across to Howard’s liquor cabinet and poured himself another drink, which he took with him to the guest bedroom where he would spend a lonely, restless night.
CHAPTER 17
The ringing telephone drew Simone from Delia’s bedroom, where she had been consoling her distraught daughter, still trying to come to terms with the awful news from the previous night.
“Hello, Simone Boothby speaking,” she answered.
“John Chandler, Anita’s father here,” came the clipped reply, with just a hint of a catch in the voice at the enunciation of his late daughter’s name. “My grieving wife and I have just been going through a few of Anita’s things, trying to make sense of all this. We found some disgusting cards from that deviate daughter of yours. We’ll thank you to make sure that she doesn’t show her face at our dear Anita’s funeral service. It was her fault. Your daughter’s fault. And we hold her personally responsible for Anita’s death. What was she thinking? What reason could there be for filling her head with all her evil perversions? And confusing such a sweet, such an innocent child. And you! You should have exercised greater control. She’s your daughter. If you had, she may not have ventured down the wicked path of degradation, and down which she led our poor Anita.”
“Excuse me!” fumed Simone, when she had recovered sufficiently from the shock of this man’s vitriolic tirade to give voice to her own feelings.
“Don’t you dare lecture me on parenting. Even if you were aware of Anita’s depression, which I doubt very much, you obviously didn’t know the reason for it, because she was too scared to tell you. Were you even aware that she was being cyber-bullied?”
“What nonsense. Cyber-bullying? Utter clap-trap!”
“I suggest you learn something about the real world, and look in your own backyard, before you start throwing mud at me or at my daughter. Who is, by the way, absolutely devastated by what’s happened! Good-bye!” responded Simone, before slamming the receiver down in his ear.
As soon as she had done that, she regretted it. She felt she should have been less judgmental and more tolerant of a father who was obviously reacting in grief and shock to the sudden loss of his daughter. But, before she had time to consider her reaction further, she heard Delia’s plaintive voice behind her.
“Mum? Was that Anita’s mum or dad? What were they saying about me?”
“It was her father,” replied Simone. “He said they had found some ‘disgusting’ cards from you to Anita amongst her things, and that they don’t want you to come to her funeral,” she added, throwing her arms protectively around her daughter.
“Oh, Mum!” cried Delia, bursting into tears again. “They would just be the birthday and Valentine’s Day cards I sent her, telling her how much I love her.”
“I know, darling. Come on,” replied Simone, as she gently led Delia back to her bedroom, where the two lay down together on her bed. Simone cradled her weeping daughter in her arms, and gently stroked her hair, trying to soothe away the hurt she was obviously feeling. More than ever she knew that her decision to give up Teale was the right one, as her daughter’s need for her now was greater than it had been for a long time.
Eventually, Delia’s sobbing abated, and she drifted off to sleep in her mother’s arms, partly under the influence of the mild sedative that Lee had left for her, and which she had taken just before the phone call from Anita’s father.
When she was satisfied that Delia was in a sound sleep, Simone gently extricated herself from her embrace, and quietly rose from the bed. After studying her daughter’s face for any signs of her awakening, and finding none, she slowly left the room and headed towards her own room. She felt a little relieved that, despite Delia’s initial objections, Lee had arranged for her to attend grief counselling with a professional associate the following afternoon.
Upon reaching the door to her bedroom, she heard her mobile phone ringing from its position on her bedside table. When she answered it, a well modulated female voice enquired, “Is that Simone?”
“Yes – speaking,” she responded.
“Simone, this is Megan Browne, speaking. I’m Teale’s ex girlfriend. We met briefly at the Braithwaites’ party.”
“Yes?” replied Simone, puzzled by this unexpected call.
“I want to meet you, to talk, as soon as possible.”
After a long pause, during which her mind was racing, Simone responded, uncertainly, “Ah – Megan – ah – this is – ah – a bit unexpected. I’m just not sure when I could see you.”
“I could meet you somewhere near your workplace, at any time convenient to you. It’s fairly urgent,” she persisted.
“I’m actually having a few days off work, at the moment. My younger daughter needs some attention from me,” replied Simone, stalling for time. Then, as her curiosity overcame her reservations, she added, “Come to think of it, I have to drop her off for an appointment in the city, tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps we could meet briefly, over a cup of coffee while she’s at her session.”
“Whereabouts? What time is her appointment?” asked Megan.
“Three. At the Killeen Medical Centre” replied Simone.
“I know the place. They have a nice coffee shop there. I’ll re-schedule my appointments, and meet you there about, let’s say, three fifteen?”
“OK – see you then,” replied Simone, closing her phone with a sigh of relief, but a puzzled expression on her face.
The next afternoon, as she drove Delia towards the city for her counselling appointment, Simone was apprehensive, but also extremely curious, about her prospective meeting with Megan. Her apprehension arose because it was obvious that Megan knew about her relationship with Teale, and Simone wondered at her motives for seeking her out. Was she out to do something vindictive to her because she blamed her for their break-up? Or, was she just curious to know what Simone’s intentions were as regards Teale, in order to assess her own prospects of reconciling with him? These and other intriguing questions were still coursing through her mind as she waited, with an obviously anxious Delia, in the waiting room of the counsellor, Barbara. She had told Simone, when she ra
ng to confirm the appointment made by Lee, that her initial interview would be with Delia, alone, but that she might wish to consult with her, and/or Lee, after that first meeting.
Almost exactly on three o’clock, Barbara came out to the waiting room to introduce herself to Delia, and to take her into the consulting room. She gave Simone a reassuring smile, and a slight squeeze of her hand, as the two exchanged greetings, before telling her that Delia would be ready to leave in about an hour.
On entering the coffee shop at the medical centre, Simone looked anxiously around for Megan, unsure whether she would recognize her, after their very brief meeting at the Braithwaite party. However, when she saw her sitting alone at a table in a quiet corner of the shop, recognition was instantaneous. How could she think she could have forgotten such an outstanding young beauty? Approaching her table, she could not help but wonder, in amazement, how Teale could have chosen to abandon a relationship with this lovely creature in favour of an uncertain affair with her, an almost middle-aged mother of two adult children.
Megan gave her a nod of acknowledgement as she neared the table, and motioned her to take the seat opposite her. They eyed each other off, for a moment, without speaking, as a waitress handed them each a menu. Both quickly ordered coffee only, and as the waitress departed, they resumed their mutual appraisal.
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