Twice Lucky

by Mardi Alexander

  “So what does David do now?”

  Mac let go of the straw and pulled her hands from the table and clenched them in her lap. Mac shook her head and said, softly, “Nothing.”

  Sarah waited, a question in her expression.

  “David died when he was twelve. There was a car accident. Mum and Dad and I were all okay, but David…” Mac blew out a soft breath and smiled weakly. She resumed stirring her juice. “So that’s why I was a bit rusty on the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve signed.”

  Sarah gently placed her hand on top of Mac’s. “I’m really sorry to hear about your brother.”

  Mac met Sarah’s eyes. Mac’s eyes glistened with the fullness of unshed tears at the sudden onset of the memory. Sarah’s heart ached on behalf of the teenage Mac, who had lost her only sibling.

  Mac pulled her hand away to nervously tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Sorry. I don’t usually tell people that story.”

  Sarah recognized that Mac needed a bit of space to recover. “It must have been a bit confronting then, meeting Thomas and signing again, after all those years.”

  Mac took a sip of her juice. “It was, a bit. But I was surprised at how much I remembered. And Thomas is such a nice boy. That made it easier in the end.”

  Sarah noticed Mac was still stirring her drink, but in a gentler, calmer way.

  “Thomas reminded me a bit of David, when he was younger. So keen to take everything in.” Mac stopped stirring and her hand rested on the table. She looked up at Sarah. “I had a moment, when I first realized that Thomas was deaf, when the memories of David came flooding back. I thought for a minute I couldn’t do it, that it was too much.”

  Sarah once again placed her hand over Mac’s on the table. This time Mac didn’t pull away. Sarah used her thumb to gently caress the back of Mac’s hand. “What changed your mind?”

  Mac smiled at Sarah. “I saw the love for Thomas in your eyes, and Jean’s. It helped me to see Thomas, and not David. I saw the questions in his eyes, and I knew in my heart how to talk to him, with my hands.”

  Mac was crying, but she was smiling too at the memories of her brother, and Sarah hoped they were healing tears. Sarah recognized the significance and the weight of the emotional moment.

  Mac continued, “I’m pleased you told me that the weekend was a positive thing for Thomas. Looking back, it was for me too. I took Thomas’s lead and stopped thinking and just laid myself open to the experience.” Mac laughed softly as she brushed away the errant tears. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but he helped me to visit a part of my past in a way that didn’t leave me feeling sad.” She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders as a happy peaceful look settled on her face. “So I’m the one who should be thanking you for bringing Thomas to the refuge. You tell Thomas, he can come and build paths with me any time he likes.”

  Sarah laughed at that.

  They both looked down at their joined hands. Mac frowned slightly. “You’re welcome to say no, but I was wondering if you were doing anything on Saturday night.”

  Sarah’s mind went blank. Was she on duty? Was she on nights or days?

  Mac stiffened and pulled her hand away, then looked back down at the juice, anywhere except Sarah’s eyes.

  Sarah realized that she had taken too long to reply, and she could see Mac getting nervous. Say something you idiot! “What did you have in mind?”

  Mac shrugged. “Oh, well it’s not much. I was having Maree and Terri over for dinner and wondered if you wanted to come. For dinner. On Saturday. But if you’re busy, that’s okay. You’re probably working and—”

  Sarah gently cut her off. “I would love to come. What time?”

  Mac opened and shut her mouth. “Six be okay?”

  Sarah smiled. “Six would be fine. What can I bring?”

  “Just yourself. It’s nothing fancy, just a relaxed dinner.”

  “It sounds wonderful.”

  Mac wrote her address on a piece of paper. Sarah didn’t know if she was rostered on that weekend or not, but either way she would have a look and see. If she was rostered on, there was plenty of time to organize a swap with someone. She was the one who usually accommodated other people’s shift swaps, so she felt confident that she could pull in the favour without too much trouble at all.

  *

  The rest of the inspections went equally as well for Mac. She’d had a good last session at the hospital with the facilities maintenance staff. They had identified the local in-house things to fix, and together they had worked out a replacement and upgrade plan for the sprinkler systems for some of the older parts of the hospital, like the laundry and the pathology labs. They also looked at some of the suggestions that came from talking with other sections of the hospital, and between Mac and the maintenance crew, they felt that they could be accommodated fairly easily and still ensure that they were compliant with the safety standards. Mac finished the day feeling positive with what had been achieved by all involved.

  The next two days saw Mac give a fire safety session to a college cooking class in town and the annual fire inspections at one of the town’s retirement villages. Mac popped in early to the station on the Friday to put some finishing touches on the inspection reports she had done during the week and left them with the chief to look over. She decided the rest of the day could be hers.

  Mac drove home, changed into her comfy workshop uniform, and headed to the shed. She wore an old wool jumper, a pair of stained work pants with pockets everywhere conceivable, and an old soft T-shirt whose cotton was so fine and smooth from use that it felt like she wasn’t wearing anything at all. The stunning workshop ensemble was finished with an old pair of oil- and paint-stained work boots.

  Whenever Mac was in her shed, time ceased to exist. The shed was her cocoon. Once Mac walked inside and shut the door, the outside world was left behind. Here, in the inner sanctum of the workshop, lived her true raw essence. The shed was the private part that no one saw. Not even Maree or Terri had seen inside the workshop. It was a place to which only she and what she created bore witness.

  Life, money, work, circumstance—all were irrelevant. When the wood spoke to Mac, her mind and her hands moved as one in a language all their own. Some days there was no conversation of creativity, only silence. Other days, it was like the wood and Mac were raging a battle against each other as each element was determined to go in an opposite way to the other. Mostly though, it just was.

  The workshop was a sacred place and just being in it was like a living meditation. It soothed Mac’s soul, cleansing and restoring her balance. Sometimes Mac didn’t work in the shed. She just came in, sat on the stool, looked out the window, and enjoyed a cup of tea in the silence. The smells of wood, the shavings, and the order of things in the shed soothed her ruffled feathers, enveloped her with its very essence, making Mac purr on the inside with restored contentment.

  During the course of the week, when Mac had been at the refuge, she had taken some more photos. These additional images had been printed and were now added to the original set along the wall. Mac sat on her stool with a cup of tea lightly clasped in both hands. She was studying the pictures, noting the angles and the perspectives of the curves on several of the shots. By the time she had finished her tea, she had a plan of approach in her mind. She put the mug and stool to one side and set a block of blond wood in the clamp on the bench top. Crossing the room, she opened cupboards and racks, collecting chisels, hammers, a rotary tool, carving knives, and a small bow saw, laying the equipment out on the side arm of the bench in readiness. She looked again at the wood, glanced at the pictures, and back to the wood, which she readjusted slightly in the clamp. A smile stole over her face as the excitement of her plan cracked open a tiny valve to her internal creative adrenaline pump. Her hands and fingers tingled in anticipation as she reached behind her ear for her carpenter’s pencil and began to sketch an outline of a figure onto the wood.

  When Mac was in the shed, only he
r fire pager and the call of nature could shatter her process. Several hours later, it was the latter that grabbed Mac’s attention. She stood up straight and stretched her back, glancing over to the clock on the wall. It had just gone on two in the afternoon, and she decided she might as well have a break and grab a bite to eat. She had reached a stage in the work where she was happy to stop. Sometimes, when things were flowing freely, it paid to keep going rather than lose the creative groove, but other times, like today, Mac had a confident picture of what she wanted and where it was going. She knew she could pick up right where she left off after a break. She walked in the back door of the house, humming to herself. She was reaching into the fridge just as the phone rang. Closing the door with an outstretched leg, Mac picked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Mac, it’s Sarah.”

  Mac’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Hello.” She smiled at the unexpected surprise of hearing Sarah’s voice.

  “I tried the station but they said you’d gone home. I tried earlier but you must have been out. I hope you don’t mind that I called you at home.”

  Mac didn’t mind in the least. “No, I don’t mind. Sorry I didn’t hear you, I was out the back. What’s up?”

  “Oh, nothing bad, I just wanted to know if I could bring something tomorrow night. I know you said not to, but I was wondering if maybe I could bring some wine. But then I thought, I didn’t know if you liked red or white, or if in fact you even liked wine. Maybe you’d like something else?”

  Mac chuckled at Sarah’s nervous verbal dribble. Adorable. “Yes, I like wine, and if you would like to bring some, then that would be lovely.”

  “Red or white?”

  “Either would be fine. The dish will be spicy, so maybe a white? Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t think to ask, do you like spicy food?”

  “Love it.” Mac could hear the smile in Sarah’s voice over the phone. “White it is, then.”

  “That sounds great. How’s your day going?”

  “Steady. Nothing too weird or wonderful, which is always nice. How about yours? What have you been up to? You said you were out the back.”

  “Yeah, just pottering around and playing in the shed, doing bits and pieces. I’ve just come inside to grab a bite to eat before heading back out again.”

  “Oh, right then, I won’t keep you. It was just a quick call to say hi and to ask about the wine.”

  “That’s okay. I’m glad you called.”

  “Me too. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow. Bye.”

  “Bye, Mac.”

  Mac put the phone back in its cradle. Up until now, she’d tried not to think too much about having Sarah over for dinner, but now, having stopped and thought about it, the first hint of butterflies were restlessly making themselves known in the pit of her stomach. Just a gentle flutter, nothing too overwhelming. At least Terri and Maree would be at the dinner, which would help. Shaking her head, Mac decided to put the thoughts aside as she quickly made a salad wrap and headed back out to the shed. Here her thoughts narrowed, focusing down to the piece of wood in front of her. She sat on the stool looking at what she had done that morning while she ate the wrap. As soon as she had finished, she wiped her hands on her pants, picked up her tools, and resumed work on the piece. The shape was coming together nicely, and as she continued to refine the curves and the features, time disappeared.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sarah hadn’t managed to get the whole weekend off, but she wrangled a shift deal: she doubled Friday and into Saturday morning, and Don and Claudia picked up the remainder of Saturday and all of Sunday. She wouldn’t have to be back until Monday morning at seven.

  As Saturday was Thomas’s birthday, she made arrangements with Jean to collect Henry the kitten after shift and meet up at Jean’s for a birthday lunch with her and Thomas. That would still leave her plenty of time to go home for a nap before getting ready to go to Mac’s for dinner.

  Saturday morning dragged slower than a billy cart with two flat tyres, but finally Don came in to tag team her, allowing her to clock off and head to the refuge. As she pulled into the car park, her pulse quickened. She wondered if Mac would be there this morning. Even though Sarah would see her tonight, she was hoping to perhaps run into her and say hello.

  Sarah got out of the car holding a carry basket to collect the kitten and its things. The previous weekend, Maree had suggested they drop off a blanket and a soft toy so that the kitten could sleep on both during the week, placing its scent on them, so when the kitten was picked up to go to his new home, the blanket and toy would go with it. That way, on his first night in a new, strange environment, the kitten would have something warm and familiar.

  She walked into the office, tripping the door buzzer. She didn’t have long to wait before Maree came out to greet her.

  She kissed Sarah lightly on the cheek. “Hey there, lovely to see you again.”

  “Hi, Maree, good to see you too.”

  “So, today’s the big day for Thomas and Henry?”

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to see his face when he sees the kitten. I’m not sure who’s going to get the biggest kick out of all of this, Thomas, Jean, or me. Even though it’s a surprise for Thomas, I think Jean and I are excited enough for him.”

  Maree laughed and pointed to the door. “Well, let’s not delay it any longer. Let’s make it happen for both little men. What say we get the official paperwork out of the road first and then we pick up Henry?”

  “Lead on.”

  After finishing the office part, together they walked outside towards the cat and kitten house along the new path. Sarah and Maree both glanced down when they crossed the piece where everyone’s initials were etched in the concrete. “That was a good team effort wasn’t it?” Sarah said.

  “It certainly was,” agreed Maree.

  As they approached the door Sarah turned to ask, “Is Mac here today?”

  Maree held the door open for Sarah to walk through. “No, she rang last night and said she wouldn’t be in today or tomorrow as she had some things she needed to do.”

  Sarah felt a twinge of disappointment, even though it would only be a matter of hours until she’d see Mac.

  They pulled up outside Henry’s cage. Maree opened the door. “Here we are. You ready, little man? Your Aunt Sarah is here to take you to your new home.” Maree reached in and grabbed the blanket, lining the carry basket Sarah had brought. Next she placed the soft teddy into the basket, and lastly some toy mice that he’d been playing with. Finally, the little man himself was picked up, given a last cuddle and a kiss on the top of his head, and put in to the basket. “You are one lucky man, Henry. There’s a little boy waiting for you, and I suspect you two are going to be the best of friends.”

  Sarah and Maree exchanged waves as Sarah backed out of the car park to head towards Jean and Thomas’s house. She had texted Jean to let her know she was on her way. They had prearranged that Jean would take Thomas outside while Sarah snuck the kitten inside into Thomas’s bedroom. She would then go back out to the car and pretend she had just arrived.

  The plan worked like clockwork. Sarah had put the kitten on Thomas’s bed and was back out at the front door when Thomas opened the door to greet her. Sarah signed, “Happy birthday,” picked him up, and gave him a big hug and kiss.

  Thomas held her hand and dragged her inside to the kitchen where Jean was making lunch. Thomas was so excited, he kept signing, “She’s here! She’s here! Now can we open my presents?”

  Both women laughed.

  “Yes,” signed Jean with a big smile on her face. “Now we can open the presents.”

  Thomas raced to the lounge room, sat on the floor, and waited to be presented with his gifts. In no time at all he’d unwrapped a new action figure, a video game, some socks, fancy new runners, and some Star Wars Lego. All too soon all the wrapped presents had been opened. All that was left was a plain white envelope with his name on it. Thomas opened the e
nvelope. In it was a note. Thomas read it a couple of times and looked up puzzled, showing the note to his mother and aunt.

  What has five letters, and needs a best friend? Go to the napkin drawer for your next clue.

  Thomas held his hands up, signing, “What’s this?”

  Jean signed back, “You better do what the note says and find the next clue.”

  Thomas went to the drawer in question, opened it, and found another envelope with a note in it:

  I’m now the youngest in the family. Will you look after me please? For your next clue, go to the linen cupboard.

  Thomas read the note twice after showing it to his mum and Sarah, and then ran to the cupboard. Here, on the bottom shelf, was another envelope. Thomas tore it open. Sarah struggled to hold a deadpan expression as she read the note Thomas shared:

  Sneak quietly into your bedroom to receive the reward of your birthday puzzle.

  Thomas looked again at Jean and Sarah. They shrugged their shoulders and Jean signed, “Go on, start sneaking.”

  And so sneak he did, down the last of the hallway and into his bedroom. Jean and Sarah followed him and saw his face light up, first in disbelief and then in pure joy, as he saw Henry curled up in his carry basket, looking up at him. He ran to the carry basket, then froze, ran back first to Jean and then to Sarah to give them each an enormous hug, before returning to the bed and slowly, gently lifting Henry out to cradle him in his arms.

  Sarah had her arm around Jean, whose smile was tempered with happy tears gliding down her cheeks. Sarah pulled Jean in for a hug. “I think you nailed it, Mum. I would say that is the picture of the best-ever birthday present.”

  Jean sniffed and hugged her back. “I think you’re right.”

  Both adults went out to finish lunch preparations, leaving Thomas and the kitten to themselves for a while. They sat at the breakfast bar and exchanged pleasantries about their week. Jean took a deep breath and turned to Sarah. “I have a meeting with the solicitors and a detective on Tuesday after I drop Thomas off to school. They want to go over a few details from the last time we saw Richard. They think they might have an idea where he is, but they want to make sure they have all the details right.”