by Sheila Agnew
‘Your Honour,’ he wheedled, ‘I am requesting a continuation of the stay-away order.’
Eurdes could be clearly heard asking, ‘The man, the one who looks like rat, what he say?
‘Trying to keeping Scott and Evie apart,’ answered someone else.
The crowd began to chant, BOO, BOO, BOO. The Judge banged on his desk rather hopelessly with his glasses case. His face turned so purple, I thought he might be about to have a heart attack or a mini-stroke, at the very least.
When the crowd finally quieted down, the judge said, ‘That’s it! I can’t conduct a trial in these circumstances. EVERYONE OUT except for the parties in the case and their lawyers.’
Almost everyone in the crowd seemed to take that as their cue to consult their neighbors about what the Judge meant.
Michael stood up and tried to speak, but nobody could hear him. Pushing aside Mr Tully’s restraining arm, he climbed up on his chair and faced the Judge.
His voice rang out clearly.
‘That won’t be necessary Your Honour. I had a visit at my hotel over the weekend from a young man who helped me realise that I’m doing the wrong thing. I guess I wanted so badly to be part of my daughter’s life, to try and make up for the thirteen years I wasn’t there for her or her mother, that I allowed myself to be convinced that this lawsuit was the right thing to do.’
Turning his face away from the Judge, Michael looked directly at me.
‘Evie, I’m sorry. This is stopping right now. All of it. I am withdrawing my petition.’
‘What’s the man standing on the chair saying? I can’t hear a thing,’ complained Mr Fannelli loudly.
‘HE’S GIVING UP. WE’VE WON,’ said somebody else, ‘THREE CHEERS FOR EVIE AND SCOTT!’
The judge rose to his feet, ‘Anyone cheering will be taken away to jail for contempt,’ he said, ‘and I don’t advise anyone to test me on that.’
Mr Tully waved his arms in the air to attract the Judge’s attention.
‘Your Honour, I respectfully request an adjournment so I can speak to my client. He’s clearly been intimidated by this mob! We are in a court of law!’
‘Sit down, Mr Tully,’ snapped the judge, ‘I’m not senile. I don’t need you to tell me where I am.’
‘But, Judge,’ whined Mr Tully in his nasally voice, ‘You cannot allow this court to be ruled by the mob!’
‘Mr Tully,’ said the judge, ‘this is a court established by a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Who do I see before me? THE PEOPLE! That’s right, the people! All through the weekend, I have been inundated with affidavits from witnesses testifying to Dr Brooks’ good character. They came by email, they came by fax, they even hand delivered them to my home in the middle of the night. It will probably take my clerk a year to sort through them and file them all. And, I have to say; I’ve never received affidavits written in screenplay format before. That was a first.’
I glanced over at Greg and he beamed with pride.
‘Thank you,’ I mouthed.
The judge cleared his throat nosily.
‘I am convinced that there was no improper conduct on Dr Brooks’ part. As to the two young people behind the false allegations and whoever put them up to it, it will be up to Dr Brooks and Evie to decide if they wish to pursue that with the police.
Mr Tully, your client has withdrawn his petition. There is no case before me. Custody of Evangeline Carey Brooks remains with her uncle, Dr Scott Brooks. I suggest everyone leave my courtroom now before I change my mind.’
Chapter 34
It’s all over now. I can officially live with Scott forever or at least, until I go to college. Things around here are more normal than they have been in a very long time.
Scott’s like he used to be, laughing and kidding around all the time, not staring unseeing into space like a zombie. Next week is the last week of school and I’ll be free for the whole summer to help out in the clinic. We’re going to spend two whole weeks in July at Highland Lake. Sweet. Lorcan’s coming home in a few days and I’m looking forward to seeing him.
I should be the happiest, least angsty girl in the universe and I am, I am, but I’m also not. I don’t know why. I feel a bit weird as if I haven’t eaten in a whole day. I’ve been hiding out in my room for much of the weekend, thinking about Mum a lot. I can’t find a single song that suits my mood. Every song seems faintly accusing, like I’ve done something wrong, not a lot wrong, but a little.
I glance at Mom’s locked box sitting as always on the top shelf; waiting for the day I turn sixteen and can open it and find out what Mum has to tell me. Scott doesn’t believe for a second that I haven’t peeked into it. Greg and Kylie thought I should open it during the custody trial. But I didn’t. I’ve never opened it. I’d like to think that was because I respected Mum’s wishes about my waiting until I’m sixteen. But I’m not nearly that much of a decent person. I didn’t open it because I didn’t want to. When someone’s dead, they’re gone, with nothing left to say. While I have this box, a part of Mum is still alive; she still has something left to say to me. I want to hold on to that.
And, I don’t need to open a box to find out what Mum would think about Michael turning up. She would say that he made a mistake and I should forgive him because he was only a scared teenager when I was born. But I’m not Mum. I’m not nearly as good a person. Oh, I can forgive Michael for abandoning me. But I can’t forgive him for abandoning her.
Mum wouldn’t want me to shut Michael out. I’m sure of that and I think that’s why I feel bad. ‘It never hurts to talk,’ she used to say. I don’t agree with that. Sometimes, it does hurt to talk. But not talking also hurts in a weird way.
I pull down Scott’s iPad from my shelf and begin to type an email:
Hi Michael,
This is Evie. I know you’re back in Australia now and I wanted to say thank you for dropping the custody case. It was really cool when you stood up on your chair the way you did. Rob told us that you had no idea about Mr Tully’s plans for using Camille and Coltan to lie about Scott.
I’m sorry for saying that I wished you were dead. I didn’t mean it. I was just so angry. I’m glad you’re alive and I think it’s really great that you are a music producer and you can sing and play the guitar. I can’t sing a note and I’m not being falsely modest about that. I suppose this isn’t the most appropriate time to ask you about helping my friend Kylie with becoming a celebrity, ha, ha. Seriously, that was a joke!
I saw a photograph of your wife, Emily, in the court papers. She looks nice and I bet she’s glad to have you back home.
Mum would be happy that you came to find me. She always believed that you would. I think you should know that.
I’m sorry I didn’t try and listen to you when you first came here, before all the court stuff happened.
If it’s ok with you, maybe we could email each other now and then if you’re not too busy.
Evie
I hit send before I can change my mind. I feel better, but still a little uneasy.
Chapter 35
It came to me a few days ago, when I was in the shower trying to remember if I had already put the conditioner in my hair or not. I realised what was still bugging me. Coltan. Why had he done it? Why did he hate me so much?
Camille – that was easy. She’d never liked me and she was jealous because I was going out with Lorcan and she might even have been jealous that somebody actually bothered to try and get custody of me. Nobody was fighting for her. It wasn’t hard to forgive her. I almost felt sorry for her. Being popular at school was so important to her and lots of the kids at school didn’t even speak to her anymore. Scott and I decided that was punishment enough for her and we weren’t going to complain to the police about her perjury. We wanted to do something about Leela’s involvement, but were hampered by our lack of proof. Some West Coast publisher stepped in and took that problem off our hands by offering Leela a book contract for her silly cooking book for divorc
ed dads.
Leela’s face is now plastered on billboards all over town. Joanna heard her give an interview on the radio and she said that she was moving to LA to present some new TV show where she cooks alongside divorced celebrities. Wow, sounds fascinating. Not.
None of us could figure out what Coltan’s motivation was although Greg suggested that maybe he was the one that loosened the girth on my saddle. I had an idea that Finn might know. He’s pretty sharp about why people act the way they do. I went to his Dad’s apartment to see him. I owed him a thank-you anyway. He hadn’t been in court on the day we won, but it was pretty obvious that he was the ‘young man’ that stuck his nose in my business by visiting Michael at his hotel. It is super annoying to have to thank someone when you didn’t want their help in the first place, so I’d been putting it off.
Finn’s dad opened the door.
‘Hi, Dr Winters,’ I said politely, ‘is Finn here?’
‘Finn,’ Dr Winters called out smoothly, ‘the Irish girl is here to see you.’
He said it the same way you’d say, ‘There’s a bag of garbage at the door.’
I’ve met Dr Winters heaps of times and he never bothers with my name.
‘Thank you, how kind,’ I said in my poshest accent.
Dr Winters shot me a quizzical look. I smiled innocently back at him.
‘I’m going to my home office,’ he said.
Do you want my permission, I thought cheekily. But what I said was ‘Ok, bye,’
Finn strolled into the hallway, looking super surprised.
‘Greg’s not here, Evie. He’s at the Young Filmmaker’s Club.’
‘I know,’ I said, ‘I came here to see you.’
‘Do you need some help with math?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I wanted to talk to you.’
Finn didn’t look pleased. He didn’t seem welcoming at all.
‘It’ll only take a minute,’ I said, gritting my teeth.
‘Ok,’ he said and I followed him into the living room, which was filled with hundreds of books.
I had to take some books off a chair before I could sit down.
Finn didn’t sit. He paced up and down the carpet in front of me. So rude, I thought.
‘Um, I never thanked you for going over to Michael’s hotel that time and persuading him to drop the case.’
‘That’s ok, I didn’t really say much. I think Michael had pretty much already decided to stop the madness.’
‘Oh,’ I said.
‘Don’t freak out, but Michael seems like a pretty good guy,’ said Finn.
‘I’m not going to freak out,’ I said, ‘but although I’m grateful, you shouldn’t have done it. You shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Michael. You’re not my big brother. I don’t need you to sort out my life.’
‘I didn’t do it for you,’ said Finn. ‘I did it to keep you here in New York, not thousands of miles away in Australia.’
‘Why?’ I asked curiously.
There was a silence. I felt like I could close my eyes and recall exactly every tiny detail in the room, what Finn was wearing, what I wore, the titles of the books, the colours of the pictures, Dr Winter’s cherished netsuke collection carefully arranged in the glass case, the little tortoise out in front.
‘I guess it’s for Greg’s sake because we’re friends,’ I said.
There was a silence again. Finn is much more comfortable with silence than I am. He didn’t seem inclined to say anything. If I were Finn, I would have offered me a soda. I couldn’t offer him a soda. It wasn’t my apartment.
I stood up. ‘Umm, one other thing. I thought you might know why Coltan lied?’
Finn looked startled. ‘What makes you think I’d know what goes in Coltan’s head?’
I shrugged. ‘Forget it. It was just a gut feeling. See you round,’ and I headed for the door.
‘Wait,’ he said.
I turned around.
‘It was because of me. Coltan was like, in love with me or something.’
‘What?’ I said. But my mind was moving faster than my mouth. I thought of Coltan helping to look for Dr Pepper. I remembered thinking what does Coltan want from Finn. NOTHING. He didn’t want anything from Finn. He wanted … Finn.
Finn turned slightly red.
He tried to joke. ‘Are you saying I’m not good-looking enough for Coltan to be interested in?’
‘I didn’t know Coltan was gay,’ I said matter-of-factly.
‘Nor did I,’ said Finn.
‘So, your girlfriend’s twin brother had the hots for you. That’s like a bad sitcom. Oh my God, does Tamara know?’
‘No, nobody knows but you, me … and Coltan. That’s the way it’s going to stay. Tamara loves Coltan. She suspects that he’s gay but she doesn’t know that he was um, into me. I don’t want her to know. It would freak her out. She—’
But I cut him off. I wasn’t in the mood to hear about great Tamara is. I know that already.
‘I frowned. ‘So Coltan told you he liked you and I’m guessing that didn’t go well. What has that got to do with me? Why would that make him hate me?’
I stared at Finn, who looked even more uncomfortable … and so very distant. Unreachable. I suddenly felt sorry for Coltan. I’m not sure that anyone could really reach Finn, not Tamara, not even Greg, nobody.
Finn stared back at me. He didn’t move. He just stood there watching me. Finally, he spoke, and when he did, it was in a light-hearted, jokey tone.
‘Coltan was crazy jealous of you because he somehow got it into his head that I like you. Go figure.’
I stared at him. He picked up a book from the side-table and began flipping through it. ‘Crazy,’ he said.
Seriously, could he be more insulting, I thought.
‘Crazy,’ I agreed angrily. ‘I wouldn’t touch you with a barge pole.’
‘With a what?’ he asked, looking bewildered.
‘A BARGE POLE … it’s an Irish expression … obviously from back in the day when travelling by barge was a common method of transport … just forget it. I have to go.’
This time, I really did walk through the door and out the corridor towards the front door as quickly as possible without actually running.
‘Evie,’ he called, coming after me.
‘Don’t stress it,’ I called back, ‘I’m not going to tell anyone about Coltan.’
‘I know you won’t,’ he said.
‘I have to go. Lorcan’s back from Hong Kong. He’s waiting for me.’
Finn stepped back.
‘Have fun,’ he said coolly.
‘We will,’ I snapped and I left.
Chapter 36
I think I got Scott the best birthday present of his life. I secretly had his Harley fixed. I had lots of help, mainly from Scott’s best friend, Jake, who knows a thing or two about bikes. Kylie also helped by going with me to the Diamond District so I could sell the almost-a-carat diamond earrings Mum left me – to pay for the cost of fixing the bike. When I told Kylie my plan at first, she was horrified.
‘So let me see if I’ve got this straight?’ she said slowly, ‘you want to flog your dead Mom’s earrings, the only jewellery she left you.’
‘Correct,’ I said calmly.
‘And I thought I wasn’t the sentimental type,’ said Kylie.
I giggled. ‘You’re not! And nor was Mum – not about stuff like chips of rock that come out of the ground. She left the earrings to me to do whatever I wanted with them and I want to do something really special for Scott.’
‘You have such thick hair, nobody ever sees your ears anyway,’ said Kylie, ‘but you can’t sell them in the Diamond District, that’s for tourists. You’ll get a bad deal there.’
‘Not if I have you with me,’ I said.
Kylie’s eyes gleamed. She loves to bargain.
‘Okay, on one condition.’
‘Name it,’ I said.
‘You don’t open your mouth. Not one word. Leave it to me!’
> I laughed. Kylie knows I’m hopeless at bargaining.
‘I promise,’ I said.
The Diamond District was disappointing. I thought it would resemble a jewellery fantasyland. But it was a very ordinary, fairly run-down neighborhood, a few blocks south of Radio City Music Hall. There were thousands of jewellery booths and stores. None of them were flashy. They looked more like the ninety-nine cents stores you see in strip malls in New Jersey. By the end of the day, my feet were sore from trailing Kylie from store to store as she sussed out the best possible deal, especially because Kylie had insisted that we wear high heels, oversized dark sunglasses and siren red lipstick. The pain in my feet was worth it because Scott was so overwhelmed with joy when I wheeled out his Harley that he couldn’t speak.
We had his birthday brunch at our local diner. It rained all morning. Wow, when it rains in New York, it really, really rains. We had the big table close to the door and every time someone entered the diner, we all got sprayed with raindrops. Our pancakes got a bit soggy, but they get soggy with the syrup anyway. Joanna couldn’t come to brunch because she had to accompany Jeffrey to some important meeting downtown in the new WTC 7 building.
After brunch, Scott’s birthday guests went home and Scott and I dashed through the puddles, him holding his trench coat over both of us, which was a real sacrifice because it’s his best one and he doesn’t usually take it outside when it’s raining. As we reached the door of the clinic, I said, ‘Brunch was perfect, except of course for Joanna not being there.’
Scott stood there with rivulets of rain sliding down his face and looked at me as if I had just announced that there was peace in the Middle East. Maybe, not quite like that, maybe more like, I’d said they’d invented a banana that tasted like banana cheesecake. He ran his hands through his sopping hair, laughed manically and began to run up the block. I stared after him.
‘Come on,’ he yelled, ‘we need to get a cab,’ and I ran after him.
‘Where are we going?’ I yelled.