Selling the Drama

by Theresa Smith

  "Sounds lovely darling. Let's have shortbread as well."

  "Let's." Charlotte rolled her eyes on her way up to the kitchen. She was probably going to be parenting a baby and a fully grown woman at the same time at this rate.

  "Are you insane yet?" Jenna's laugh chased her words down the line and Charlotte could not help but smile at them.

  "Just about. But work is good. Regional stations are very different to city ones. I'm doing a broader range of journalism up here. It's great."

  "Awesome. You'll have your own show one day, breakfast with Charlotte, or something like that. Have you heard from Toby?"

  "He sends me an email every day."

  "How romantic," Jenna cooed into the phone. "Love letters, electronic, but still, thoughtful."

  "They aren't love letters. They're way too short for that."

  "Oh. What does he say then?"

  "He says, 'how are you?' to which I reply, 'good', and then that's about it until the next day." Charlotte was not exaggerating the brevity of their correspondence; it varied slightly a couple of days ago when Toby mentioned his upcoming final exams, with her then mentioning in reply that she had a twenty week scan, coincidently, to occur at around the same time.

  "Well, at least he's trying. And by trying, I mean…what do I mean Charlotte? Come on, you know what I mean," Jenna teased.

  "Yes," Charlotte replied dryly. "By trying, you mean trying. I know. How is Chad?"

  "He's alright. He had a bit of a bad seizure the other day. He hit his head as he went down. Not too good given that a knock to the head is what caused the initial damage to his brain in the first place." Jenna sighed before continuing. "The doctor at the hospital thinks he needs to increase his medication to try and minimise the occurrence of the seizures. Chad has only been taking the barest of doses."

  "Why?"

  "Because he can't get it up if he takes more."

  "Oh. I see."

  "Yes. It's a dilemma."

  "Did he talk to the doctor about that? There might be ways to work around it."

  "Of course he didn't talk about it to the doctor! That would be the logical thing to do. No, he just agreed to take the higher dose and has then ignored the recommendation every day since." Jenna sighed again. "I worry about him all the time. What if he dies when I'm not there?"

  A shaft of sympathy cut through Charlotte at the sound of Jenna's angst and the accompanying mental image of what she feared. "You need to get him to talk to the doctor about his concerns. Have you told him how worried you are?"

  "No."

  "Well, you should. He might think differently if he knows how worried you are. He just wants to make you happy," Charlotte offered. In the week Charlotte had spent staying with them, Chad's desire to make Jenna happy was most evident. It dictated everything he did and was his sole focus from the moment he woke up until the time he went to sleep at night. Charlotte would not be surprised if she were to find out that Chad slept with one eye open all night just to ensure he did not miss anything Jenna might possibly need throughout the night. His devotion to Jenna had made Charlotte so happy for her aunt, yet so sad for herself. She highly doubted Chad would greet the news of a pregnancy with a demand for an abortion. "Look, just talk it out with him. Trust me, it's the best thing for you to do right now."

  "I know, I know. I will. How is the bump?"

  "Getting bigger and moving around a little bit." Charlotte placed her hand over the swell of her stomach, now expanding each day it would seem by the way her clothes were no longer fitting.

  "How does that feel? The movement?" Jenna's voice was predictably wistful.

  "It feels amazing. Because I know what it is. It's incredible."

  "I bet. Chad and I are all set to come up in the week before the baby is due. I don't want to risk missing a thing."

  "Oh, goody. Then we can all be one big happy family under the same roof. You know I can't put Mum into a cupboard for a whole week, don't you?"

  Jenna laughed. "Don't worry about Iris and me. Last time I visited, we only had ten fights. She likes Chad and was putting on her best side for him."

  "Mum has a best side?" Charlotte asked, sarcasm dripping from her tone. "Maybe you could express post Chad up here for a bit then, because he must have taken that side away with him when you left last time."

  "Oh, boo, hoo." Jenna was entirely without sympathy. "Out of the two of us, you've always had the better deal. Suck it up. I've got to go."

  "Alright. Talk to Chad."

  "Be nice to your mother."

  "Mind your own business."

  "Snap."

  "Crackle, pop. Love you."

  "And I you, dearest niece."

  On the morning of the first anniversary of Royce's disappearance, Charlotte woke to the sound of a saw.

  A chainsaw.

  In their backyard.

  Launching herself out of bed and racing to the back veranda, Charlotte could see her mother down by the fruit trees, her large straw hat on her head, and safety glasses in place on her face, wielding the chainsaw with an alarming degree of efficiency as she sliced off branches one by one, stripping back the trees to their trunks. Only. By the time Charlotte made it down to the little grove that had been her father's pride and joy, the grapefruit and mandarin trees were both a thing of the past, with the tangelo half way to hell.

  Waving her arms madly to get her mother's attention, yet still maintaining a good distance for safety purposes, Charlotte started yelling the minute Iris killed the chainsaw motor. "What are you doing?!"

  Iris strode up to Charlotte, chainsaw still in hand. "Decimating the grove. Did it look like I could possibly be doing something else?" She wiped at her forehead with the sleeve of her denim shirt, sweat dripping off her in the morning heat.

  "Why? Why would you destroy all of these beautiful fruit trees?" Charlotte reached down and picked up a grapefruit, ripe and ready, from amongst the tangle of branches and leaves now strewn about the lawn. She cradled it against her protectively, earning a caustic look from Iris.

  "You don't even like grapefruit!"

  "That's not the point! I like mandarins! Why are you doing this?"

  "Because they were his." Iris started up the chainsaw again, revving the motor as she strode back to the mandarin tree to recommence her massacre.

  Charlotte leant down and picked up a few more grapefruit, although why was a good question, because Iris was quite right in pointing out that Charlotte did not even like the fruit. It just seemed like a stab at her dad to not even try and salvage a few. Charlotte went back into the house and emerged moments later with some garbage bags in hand, following her mother's trail of destruction through the little grove, bagging up fruit as she went, tears streaming down her face all the while.

  Toby stared down at the photo in his hand, the grainy image barely distinguishable, yet entirely obvious at the same time. What an incredible sight. The beauty of that little shape. It was stunning. And doing things to him that he could not have possibly anticipated. Checking the post mark on the envelope, he could see Charlotte had sent it to him on the same day she had gone to have the scan done. Pulling out the piece of notepaper she had included in the envelope, he reread her neat cursive writing.

  Everything looks good and is the way it should be. I didn't ask if we're having a boy or a girl, preferring to wait and see. I figured you probably didn't care either way.

  It was no less than what he deserved, but it still hurt like hell to read. Shoving it all into his pocket, he got up off the bench and entered the room where he was to undertake his final exam for his law degree. It was a bittersweet day.

  It had been a particularly gruelling day at work and Charlotte was longing for nothing more than a hot shower and a cup of tea with an entire packet of shortbread fingers on the side. They had become a little vice to her of late. Totally controllable of course. She could stop eating them at any time, if she wanted to that is, which at present, she did not.

  She cam
e to a dead stop in the doorway of her bedroom, not fully believing what was spread out before her. "Mum!" she bellowed. "Mum!"

  "What is it?" Iris said, walking calmly up the hall to stand beside her.

  Charlotte turned to face her mother, disbelief meeting serene. "Where is my bedroom?"

  Iris pointed to the ceiling. "Upstairs darling. I swapped us. You'll need more space when the baby comes and I don't want to be up there anymore. Your room is fine for me, it has a bathroom attached and a nice view of the pool. It's perfect."

  Charlotte turned back to her room, which was now not her room, with despair. "You moved all my stuff?"

  "Yes. I didn't want this to be a bother for you."

  Turning back to her mother, Charlotte gazed upon her face with concern. "Mum, you know you're being weird, right? First the trees, now this." Charlotte gestured through the door to make her point.

  Iris nodded. "Yes, I know. But I'm slowly letting it go, so I promise that the weirdness will be whittled away to nothing by the time your baby arrives. But you'll have to humour me for just a little bit longer as I have some fishing rods to dismantle and some very well organised nuts, bolts, and nails to mix up."

  Charlotte reached out and cupped her mother's face, sadness welling forth. She stroked the soft cheek with her thumb, catching the tear that had escaped from her mother's eye.

  "Mum, he's not coming back." As much as it pained Charlotte to acknowledge this, it was futile to keep hoping. He had been gone without a trace for a year. He would have been back by now if he was going to return.

  Iris smiled softly. "Hope springs eternal. You never know, Charlotte. One day he might just turn up out of the blue. And I'd hate for him to think I hadn't thought of him while he was gone." She pulled away from Charlotte then and slipped back down the hall.

  Charlotte looked back once more at her former room before turning on her heel and heading upstairs to her new abode. It was all set up for her, complete with a pretty white cot and matching change table in the corner.

  "Oh Mum," Charlotte whispered, sadness and excitement intermingling at the sight of it.

  "So, this is your idea of a great sacrifice?" Ellie stood before him, a sneer on her face. "You're so noble." She fluttered her hand over her chest with an exaggerated air.

  "You know you actually weren't invited today? Jake and I are quite able to pack and load this stuff up ourselves." Toby wished Ellie's phone would ring with an emergency at work, or that a bolt of lightning might just randomly pierce through the ceiling and knock her for six. Because putting up with her for the entire fucking day? Hell, that lightning could strike him and he would be happier than enduring her wrath.

  "Play nice, children," Jake warned from across the room.

  "Only for you, honey," Ellie replied, in a sweet bull shitting voice while glaring daggers at Toby. "I'll pack Charlotte's stuff," she hissed at him, picking up a box on her way out of the room.

  Toby waited until she had gone before calling over to Jake, "She'd better not tell Charlotte what I'm doing."

  "Nah, she's good for it."

  "How can you be so sure?" Toby did not trust Ellie to keep his counsel about anything. The girl was a snake waiting to strike. He had always had a weird feeling about her; turns out instinct was a powerful thing. The irony of course was that she could probably say the same thing about him.

  Jake looked over at him. "Did you catch that new chunky gold bracelet hanging from her wrist? I am not above buying her silence."

  Toby shook his head at that and fell into a rhythm of packing. He was lucky with Jake. Things could have gone very sour between them, given Jake's status as Charlotte's best friend's fiancé, not to mention his quite dramatic defence of her in the wake of Toby's monumental stuff up. And they probably would have, if left up to Toby to salvage. But Jake was loyal to the end, and he was around within a week of slamming Toby and near on choking him, bitching about money and some douche at the academy as though nothing at all had gone down between them. Toby was so grateful to not be on the outs with every single human being he knew, that it took him all of five seconds to roll with it and move right on.

  "So, this is it, hey? Leave behind the big smoke and the potential big bucks for provincial life?" Jake yanked on the tape and stuck the top of the box down firmly before moving on to start another one.

  "I'll need to come back for six weeks next year to do my Advocacy course for the bar, but other than that, yeah, all over down here. I've got two weeks off before I start as a Judge's Associate." Toby gestured to Jake for the roll of tape, his own box now full. Jake lobbed it to him.

  "Justice in the far north." Jake looked over at him with a grin. "Guess it's the tropics for both of us," he remarked casually.

  Toby glanced up. "What?"

  "I got Innisfail. I start next month." Jake's face was split wide with a grin. "Seems like we're all going home."

  "That's fantastic! I'm so happy for you, I know you wanted to get closer to home." Toby was pleased for Jake, if not a little for himself as well. Knowing Jake would be within driving distance was a real boost for Toby in his current state of indecision.

  Ellie chose that moment to make her appearance back in the living room. "Don't be too excited, it also means I'm close enough to keep tabs on you and that makes my turn around time for kicking your arse all the more quicker if you mess with my Charlotte in any way I consider inappropriate, fuck stick."

  "Ellie," Jake warned. "You promised."

  "I promised to keep my mouth shut to Charlotte about him moving up there uninvited. If you wanted me to be nice to him as well then you should have bought me the matching necklace to this bracelet. Live and learn, Jake baby." Ellie reached over and snatched the roll of tape from Toby's hands.

  "Extortion is against the law," he told her with a smirk, knowing better than to goad her, yet unable to help himself.

  She glared at him. "So is abortion." She flipped him her middle finger before turning to saunter out of the room.

  "Bada-bing," Jake added with a shake of his head. "Shit, she's beautiful," he muttered as an afterthought.

  Toby declined to make any response to that, thinking he would gladly take a slit throat over a day with Ellie when it was next offered.

  Swimming had become her thing, a form of exercise, a form of relaxation, a form of getting a break from her mother. There were several perks attached. Charlotte also figured that with twenty laps twice a day, she might make up for all those packets of shortbread fingers she was demolishing at every opportunity. Swimming was the only time she allowed herself to think of Toby. To dwell on what had happened between them. To sometimes regret leaving him, while at other times to feel resigned that it was the only thing she could have really done.

  They had only been apart for six weeks, yet with her body changing rapidly as the baby grew within her, it seemed like so much longer. She had not heard from him at all since mailing him the ultrasound photo, even his daily email had ceased, and she supposed that was probably her fault given the note she had included in with the picture. She had been unable to help herself though. Getting the scan done alone had been like a physical blow; lying there, looking at the image of their baby on the screen without him there to hold her hand and marvel over what they had created. He was more than one thousand kilometres away, and while she accepted responsibility for that, even if she had stayed in Brisbane with him, she could not help but think she would have still been lying looking at that screen alone. Because he did not want what was pictured there. Nothing appeared to have changed on that score. And as each week passed by with nothing more than his stupid little 'how are you' emails, nothing looked as though it ever was going to change.

  Charlotte emerged from the depths, breaking the surface near the stairs. She climbed out of the pool, water streaming off her, adjusting her bikini top which seemed to have a mind of its own about where it wanted to sit on her body. She looked down at her belly as the baby shifted around inside of her, evidence o
f the movement clear on the surface of her skin. Laughing, she patted the area where there was the most kicking. "Are you swimming too?" She talked to her belly constantly now, having read about how a baby can recognise its mother's voice from inside the womb. Raising her head as she stepped down onto the path, she was met with the sight of Toby standing by the pool gate, her towel hooked loosely over his arm. She paused as he grinned at her.

  "That bikini is way too small."

  Charlotte blushed as he checked her out from head to toe and then back up again.

  "I love it," he said, with a heartbreaking grin spreading over his face.

  Walking forward, she took her towel from him and wrapped it around her body tightly. "What are you doing here?"

  "Making a choice." Pushing off the pool fence, he turned and walked off towards the house, calling over his shoulder, "I hear we've got the upstairs now. Sweet."

  As the back door slammed behind him, Charlotte realised she had been completely duped by her mother with regards to the bedroom swapping.

  Iris stepped out from the yard shed, her wide straw hat wedged firmly onto her head. She picked up her gardening bucket and sauntered towards Charlotte. "Good swim, darling?"

  "You led me to believe you didn't want the upstairs anymore because Dad was no longer here."

  "Darling, what are you suggesting?"

  Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Toby is here."

  "Yes, I let him in. He looks well."

  "I didn't look at him."

  "I'm sure you didn't. I have gardening to do, was there anything else you needed?"

  "Some consideration, but with none of that forthcoming, I guess you're good to go." Charlotte brushed past her mother, bristling at the sound of her laughter tinkling through the yard.