High Potential

by Ber Carroll

  Her thoughts very nearly vocalised themselves. She picked her plate back up and walked away before she said something she would regret.

  Isabelle was in the queue for hot food.

  ‘Sit with me,’ Katie whispered in her ear before continuing on to an empty table.

  Isabelle followed a short while later. ‘No friends, Katie?’ she asked, smiling.

  ‘Feel as if I’ve been in the wars.’ Katie grimaced. ‘Neil just had a go.’

  Isabelle buttered her bread. ‘Something tells me you’re not in Jim’s good books either.’

  Katie shrugged as if she didn’t care. ‘There was nothing I could do to avoid it – my cause is more worthy than his and I had to fight for it.’

  Isabelle chewed a mouthful before saying, ‘I think this programme is hard enough without shooting each other down.’

  ‘I didn’t shoot him down,’ Katie objected.

  ‘That’s not how it sounded to me,’ said Isabelle in her gentle way.

  Katie mulled it over as she ate her salad. Maybe Isabelle was right, maybe she had been a bit harsh.

  Jim was sitting a few tables away in a clear line of view. She tried to catch his eye. Smile an apology. But he refused to look her way. Carole was sitting next to him. Her cheeks flushed; she looked more animated than she had all week. They were talking intensely and their closeness made Katie feel irrationally jealous.

  ‘Have you noticed how Carole seems to specialise in deep one-on-one conversations?’ she muttered, half to herself. Her cheeks coloured a little when she realised how catty she sounded.

  Isabelle made a purring sound. ‘Maybe she’s a soccer fan and they’re talking about their mutual love of the sport.’

  Some others joined their table, and there was no further opportunity to discuss Jim or Carole. The conversation was superficial, mainly about the wonderful facilities of the resort and the drive back home. Katie contributed to the discussion but still kept a close eye on Jim. Not once did he look her way.

  About a half hour later, Brent clinked a spoon against his wineglass and an expectant silence fell over the white-clothed tables. He stood up and put on his most pompous expression.

  ‘This first week in your eight-month-long journey is about to draw to a close. There is just one further item to which we must attend – the overseas postings. I’m sure the suspense is killing you all so I’ll make no further delay in announcing your individual assignments.’ He took a sheet of paper from his shirt pocket, his voice inexpressive as he read its contents. ‘David, you’re off to Edinburgh. Carole, it’s Singapore for you. Katie – Dublin. Jim – Auckland. Isabelle – Barcelona. Oliver – New York. You’ll fly four weeks from today. Expect an orientation email from your new boss sometime over the next week.’

  Katie was in a daze as she watched him sit down.

  Dublin, she thought. Of all cities!

  ‘Pleased?’ asked Isabelle.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, her thoughts still going nineteen to the dozen.

  It must be fate. Surely Mum and Dad will go to Ireland now that I’ll be there too?

  ‘How about you, Isabelle? Barcelona’s meant to be a great city.’

  Isabelle’s dark eyes were excited. ‘Barcelona is almost as good as being sent to Colombia. It’ll be so nice to be able to speak Spanish.’

  ‘Do you think everybody is happy?’ asked Katie, doing a quick check around the room. They all looked quite pleased. All but Jim who was staring ahead, his mouth in a rigid line. Carole looked slightly uncomfortable by his side.

  I suppose he got the short straw, thought Katie. Auckland is the closest to home.

  Then suddenly it seemed that everybody was ready to leave. Napkins dabbed against mouths and chairs scraped back on the varnished floor. Katie looked at her watch: 2 pm, still a decent chunk of billing time left in the day, even after the two-hour drive back to the city. She had a lot of catching up to do.

  She pushed her own chair back from the table. ‘See you next week, Isabelle. Let’s try to break away for lunch some day.’

  They exchanged a kiss on the cheek before Katie turned to go. She headed towards Jim’s table, determined to catch him, to explain. But she was too late. The seat next to Carole was empty. He was already gone.

  Chapter 11

  ‘Mum, when can we go to Ireland on our holidays?’

  Rose, sewing one of Stephen’s football jerseys, finished her stitch before replying.

  ‘We don’t have that kind of money, love.’

  ‘Casey Ryan is going to Ireland on an aeroplane – she’s going to be away from school for a whole month.’

  Rose seemed rather uninterested. ‘Her family must be very wealthy,’ was all she said.

  ‘No, they’re poorer than us.’

  Rose looked up with a bemused smile. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘They rent their house,’ Katie shrugged. ‘They don’t own it like us. So they must be poorer, right?’

  Rose was struck dumb by her daughter’s simple but indisputable logic. Katie saw her silence as acquiescence and became even more persuasive.

  ‘If we can’t afford an aeroplane, then why don’t we take the boat there?’

  Rose shot the suggestion straight down. ‘The boat takes weeks, your father would be off work for too long. I told you, we don’t have that kind of money.’

  ‘Does that mean we’ll never have the money to go to Ireland?’ Katie pouted.

  ‘I didn’t say that, child.’ Rose sighed and went back to her sewing. But they both knew that was exactly what she was saying.

  Chapter 12

  ‘I have an announcement to make,’ said Katie as soon as Rose sat down at the dinner table.

  ‘You’re back with Geoff?’ Rose looked worried at the prospect.

  ‘I’m not that stupid, Mum.’

  ‘You’re pregnant!’ was Stephen’s guess.

  Rose took the bait and became sheet white. ‘You’re not, are you?’

  ‘Don’t be so gullible, Mum,’ said Katie, rolling her eyes to heaven. ‘I’ve found out where my overseas assignment will be.’

  ‘Where?’ asked Frankie, his fork suspended midair.

  ‘Dublin.’

  Even Stephen looked stunned.

  ‘Did you ask for it deliberately?’ asked Rose weakly.

  Katie shrugged. ‘I could have been sent anywhere – New York, Barcelona, Singapore. But, for some reason, Brent is sending me to Dublin.’

  Stephen opened his mouth to say something but Katie stared him into silence. She didn’t want to apply any more pressure about the tickets to Ireland. Once Rose and Frankie had time to think it through, she was sure that they would decide of their own accord to come and visit her in Dublin.

  Everybody started to eat, but in a slow, distracted kind of way. A few minutes later Rose said, ‘That fellow on the course . . . Jim, you said . . . is he from Dublin?’

  ‘Yes.’ Katie felt a hint of colour hit her cheeks at the unexpected mention of Jim’s name.

  ‘I suppose he’ll give you some phone numbers . . . so that you’ll know somebody . . .’

  He might have if he was talking to me, thought Katie. She hated being on bad terms with him. Hated having to wait until Monday before she could apologise.

  She decided it was time to move the conversation away from Dublin and Jim Donnelly.

  ‘So,’ she drawled, looking across at her brother, ‘tell us about this new girlfriend of yours.’

  As soon as Katie returned to the office it became evident that Neil was determined to extract his pound of flesh before she left for Dublin. He piled the work on, deaf to her protests. Claudine’s absence became more noticeable with each passing day, with things that had previously run like clockwork starting to unravel at the seams. The temp filling the position didn’t have anywhere near Claudine’s efficiency and couldn’t juggle the conflicting demands of her bosses. More than once, Katie had to talk her out of quitting.

  Despite being busy, Katie
still kept an eye out for Jim, but there was no sign of him on the floor and his office was empty whenever she passed by. Her apology burning a hole in her chest, she eventually asked one of the other litigation lawyers where he was.

  ‘He’s gone to Auckland. A New Zealand food distributor is suing their Australian supplier. Jim’s gone over to try and mediate.’

  Katie realised it was no coincidence that Brent had chosen Auckland for Jim. It looked as though there was a ready-made job for him over there and it couldn’t wait the four weeks until his assignment was due to start.

  As the week went on, she became more engrossed in her work and stopped daydreaming about Jim. Late on Saturday evening, she put her work temporarily to one side so she could make a start on the fun-machine project. Brent had given his begrudging go-ahead; after all, the money wasn’t coming from the firm’s pockets. Isabelle’s training proposal had also been given the nod of approval. The other proposals were works in progress.

  Katie needed to distribute a company-wide communication before the monthly pay run. She deliberated on the wording for over an hour. She eventually realised that Claudine’s photos would be far more powerful than anything she could write.

  She chose three of the best: a young girl with an oxygen mask, a bald-headed boy, and Ethan, smiling bravely. Once she had arranged the photos, the caption came easily. Seen any good movies lately?

  Katie called up the company-wide address list and pressed the SEND button. Happy with her work, she opened a bottle of chardonnay.

  Glass in one hand, remote control in the other, she flicked through the TV channels and ignored the gnawing loneliness that was starting to make its presence felt now that she didn’t have anything substantial to distract her. She always missed Geoff most at the weekends. At the start the loneliness had been so bad that she’d go as far as dialling his number. There were so many good things about him – why did his addiction to gambling have to win out? But she would force herself to remember the humiliation of selling their house to pay the debts, and the ‘new start’ in the apartment that had all too quickly been ruined by the nights he’d come home thousands of dollars down, contrite but still hopelessly out of control. Then, more often than not crying, Katie would delete Geoff’s number and phone Annie instead. Annie would pour a glass of wine at her end and they would talk about Geoff and Zack until they both felt better.

  Katie hadn’t cried for months now. But the lonesomeness, although much diminished, was still there. Her eyes glanced to her laptop, open on the coffee table, to check the time: 10 pm, far too late to call Annie, who went to bed early in order to get as much sleep as possible before Zack’s nocturnal theatrics.

  Katie sipped her wine and continued to gaze absently at the laptop. A string of automatic ‘out of office’ messages were at the top of her inbox. But one message stood out. It wasn’t an automatic message; someone else was working this late on Saturday night. She quickly snapped out of her daze when she saw who the message was from.

  Hi Katie,

  Count me in for the salary deduction. Sorry about my sour grapes (bad pun, I know) at the Hunter. I’ve since realised that you were perfectly right and this is a much worthier cause.

  Jim

  She set her glass down and typed a response.

  No – I should be sorry. I got carried away – one of my many faults.

  It took only a few moments before his reply came through.

  When I’m back in town, let’s go for a drink and put it behind us.

  A date! Well, sort of. No specific details of when or where but a clear intention. She kept her answer simple.

  You’re on.

  There were no more emails, but she was crazily happy for the rest of the weekend. She refused to dwell on the fact that he had not yet answered her question about his girlfriend. Jim wasn’t a two-timer. She was almost sure of it.

  ‘Hey, mate,’ Katie greeted Ethan with a grin, ‘you’ve grown since I last saw you!’

  ‘Have I?’ he asked, stretching his neck.

  ‘Must be the delicious food they’re giving you in here.’

  Ethan stuck his tongue out, making it clear that he didn’t think much of the hospital dinners.

  ‘Is everything okay, Katie?’ asked Claudine quietly. She looked pale and drawn; the last few weeks had obviously taken their toll. ‘Shouldn’t you be at work?’

  Katie smiled. ‘I sneaked out because I have some fabulous news.’

  Claudine frowned, as was her natural inclination. ‘Is it something to do with those photos I took?’

  ‘It certainly is,’ Katie declared, sitting down on the hard plastic visitor’s seat, ‘and that passing comment you made about those fun machines. The good news is that very soon every kid in this ward will have one.’

  Katie had come straight from the payroll manager’s office. The professional staff of MFJ had risen splendidly to the occasion, with a total of fifty-three thousand dollars collected.

  Claudine’s mouth dropped open. ‘How did you do that?’

  Katie shrugged. ‘Let’s say I did a little fundraising at work.’

  Claudine was still struggling to believe it. ‘But it must have cost . . .’ she paused to do some mental calculations, ‘thousands of dollars.’

  ‘See, Mum,’ said Ethan, his dark eyes shining, ‘not all the people you work with are horrible.’

  The fun machines were delivered to the ward over the weekend. Katie knew she didn’t have to be there but couldn’t keep away. She walked up and down the ward, like a junkie getting her high from the happiness of the kids.

  ‘Why don’t you go home for a few hours, Claudine,’ she said in the afternoon. ‘I can stay here with Ethan.’

  Claudine became flustered at the suggestion. ‘No . . . no . . . you’ve done more than enough.’

  ‘I’m at a loose end today,’ said Katie persuasively. ‘You’d be doing me a favour.’

  In truth, she had loads of things to organise before her departure for Dublin, but it all seemed trivial next to the upheaval in Claudine’s life.

  Ethan added his reassurances and Claudine eventually relented.

  Katie played a computer game with Ethan, which she fairly and squarely lost.

  ‘You were lucky, that’s all,’ she said. ‘Best out of three.’

  He wasn’t lucky, he was really good, and she also lost the next two games.

  ‘Right! You’re the victor. You get to choose the next “fun” thing from the machine.’

  ‘Let’s listen to music.’

  His hands deft, he pressed the buttons, scrolled down and pressed more buttons.

  ‘I can’t believe you know how to work it already . . .’

  ‘It’s easy.’

  ‘Remind me to offer you a job when you’re eighteen.’

  He giggled. The music came on.

  ‘Katie . . .’

  ‘Yes . . .’

  ‘I didn’t mean you yesterday when I said that Mum worked with horrible people.’

  It was obvious that his off-the-cuff comment had got him into trouble with his mother.

  ‘That’s okay,’ she said and resisted the temptation to ask specifically whom he had meant.

  ‘I’m glad my mum’s got some time off – she’s here all the time. She doesn’t realise that I’d be okay on my own every now and then. I’m nearly eight, you know.’

  ‘Mothers can be a little overprotective,’ explained Katie. ‘It’s only because they love us so much.’

  ‘Yes. And I’m all Mum has,’ he sighed, sounding much older than his years.

  ‘How about your grandparents?’ asked Katie. ‘Don’t they come and sit with you?’

  ‘I don’t have any grandparents.’ His voice had a thread of uncertainty. He was clearly at an age when he was starting to question the status quo. ‘It’s just me and Mum.’

  ‘Have you got your passport?’ asked Rose for the umpteenth time.

  Katie saw Stephen smirking as she answered, ‘Yes, Mum. It
hasn’t gone missing in the last ten minutes.’

  Her sarcasm was lost on Rose, who continued to fuss. ‘Did that fellow give you phone numbers? People you can call when you get there?’

  ‘You mean Jim?’ asked Katie with as much casualness as she could fake.

  ‘How many other Irishmen do you know?’ was Rose’s terse reply.

  ‘Take it easy, Mum.’ Katie put a calming hand on her mother’s arm. ‘No, Jim didn’t give me any numbers. He’s been in New Zealand these last few weeks.’

  She was pleased to hear that the disappointment she felt inside wasn’t at all evident in her voice. Jim had emailed last week to say he would be staying on in Auckland.

  We’ll have to take a raincheck on that drink, he had written.

  No worries, she had responded, as if it didn’t bother her in the slightest. See you in October.

  He hadn’t offered any contact numbers for Dublin and she hadn’t asked.

  ‘What about your car?’ asked Frankie. ‘Do you want me to go round and start it up every now and then?’

  She shook her head. ‘I’ve given it to Annie while I’m away.’

  Annie’s husband needed their car for work and she’d often commented that the days would be shorter if she could strap Zack in his car seat and drive somewhere. She’d been delighted when Katie suggested that she take the Audi.

  Katie slung her cabin bag over her shoulder. ‘I’m going to go through – I want to get some duty free.’ She kissed Stephen’s cheek. ‘Be good to that phantom girlfriend of yours.’

  Despite the family pressure, the new girl in his life had yet to make an appearance.

  ‘And you take it easy on those Irishmen,’ he quipped.

  Frankie stepped up to give her a hug. ‘Take care of yourself, love. We’ll miss you . . .’

  Frankie and Rose had still made no commitment to go to Ireland and, resisting her natural instincts, Katie hadn’t pushed. She was sure that they would eventually come round to the idea.

  She turned to embrace her mother.

  ‘You will come back, won’t you?’ Rose whispered in her ear.