Sex, Lies and Bonsai
Page 27
But it is not an apparition, it is him. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I walk towards him. I punch him on the arm. Just like that. This is how far I have come.
He turns and his face lights up like a hundred million suns have caught on fire.
Mine does the same. We stand there smiling at each other. I don’t know what to say.
‘I can’t believe you were about to go to Tokyo without saying goodbye,’ says Jay.
He’s right. It is totally unbelievable. ‘I don’t know, when you weren’t there. I thought…’
‘Well, you thought wrong.’
They are calling my flight now. Jay puts his hands on my shoulders. He leans forward, presses his forehead against mine. We back apart, touch our hands palm to palm, pressing them together. I want to store this moment in my brain forever.
‘I’ll be here when you get back,’ says Jay.
‘So will I.’
Jay smiles. ‘Well, if you’re here and I’m here, I guess we’ll see each other then.’
‘I guess so.’ There is so much more I want to say but I know I’ll never find the words. I wonder if leaving now is the worst mistake of my life. But if that’s the case, I’ll have to live with it, because right now I’m practising letting go.
‘I think you’re good for me, Edie.’
He’s jumped in with just the right words again. I smile. ‘And you for me.’ This is true. I feel lighter than I have for years.
‘So, bye,’ he says.
‘Bye.’
My flight is called again. ‘I have to go.’ I start to back away. Then I remember something. ‘Hey, I saw my fisherman.’
‘Did you talk to him?’
I shake my head. ‘I threw him back.’
Jay smiles. ‘Well done.’
I blurt it out before I can change my mind. ‘You should see Ben again. You don’t need to lose a friend as well as a girlfriend.’
Jay clenches his jaw. ‘You don’t—’
‘No, listen. When Mum died, I didn’t cry. I was angry. I’ve held onto that anger for years. I didn’t know how incredible it would feel to let it go.’
Jay looks into my eyes.
‘You did that for me,’ I say. ‘You listened.’
Flight 529…
Jay half smiles. ‘Maybe I will.’
I take another step backwards, but Jay reaches out, grasps my wrist.
‘I hear there’s a pretty good rock scene in Tokyo.’
I stare into his face, my heart skipping a few beats. ‘I guess there is.’
‘I wouldn’t mind checking it out.’ He squeezes my hand. ‘If I wouldn’t be cramping your style too much.’
A laugh bubbles out of me. ‘Do I look like someone with style?’
Jay looks me up and down. ‘You have a certain writerly finesse about you. At a quick inspection I would say it seems fairly robust and not easily cramped.’
‘In that case, okay. Let’s do Tokyo.’
‘Harajuku nightclubs, baby. You and me.’ He twines his fingers through mine.
Behind Jay’s back I am surprised to see Tim still lurking in the departures area — his flight must be delayed. He gives me a thumbs-up and a wink. I am fulfilling his expectations.
Can all passengers on flight 529 to Tokyo proceed through customs as your flight is about to commence boarding.
‘That’s you,’ says Jay. ‘Go.’ He releases my hand with a flourish.
I shuffle towards customs, then stop. Look back at him. He is still watching me. ‘I forgot to ask. How did you go? With the record guy.’
He holds out his hand, thumb up.
‘No way.’ I run back and punch his shoulder again. Hard this time.
He winces.
‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. You got a record deal?’
He nods, smiles, shrugs, rubs his shoulder.
‘You’re a rockstar.’
‘Maybe one day.’
‘No. You are. You really are. Why didn’t you tell me?’
He laughs. ‘You know how we rockstars are. Mysterious.’
‘I am so going to start stalking you now.’
‘I’m counting on it, Edie.’ He flicks his hair out of his eyes, gives me an impish look. ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
‘But you won’t want someone like me hanging around. Not now you’re a rockstar. I’ll bring down your cool.’
Jay laughs. ‘Cool? I am the opposite of cool. That’s why I wear black. I don’t need to think about colour coordination. You should have seen me before I figured that out.’
‘What about the eyebrow ring?’
Jay shrugs. ‘I got it done when I was sixteen. I’d probably get rid of it, but…’
‘It’s rockstar, right?’
‘Hey, you’ve got to make some effort. It’s like being an air hostess and keeping your hair nice.’
‘Or being a newsreader and getting botox.’
‘Yep; my public expects it.’
Flight 529. Your flight is boarding.
‘So, bye.’
‘Bye.’ We stand there, looking at each other, saying nothing, but it is not the Bermuda Triangle. It is the Sea of Tranquillity and I am finding it hard to leave its balmy waters.
There is a miaow and we both look down.
‘Hey, it’s Kafka,’ I say.
Jay bends down, picks up the cat and tucks it inside his jumper. ‘No cats allowed in here, mate. He seems to have taken a liking to me. He jumped in the car.’
‘You know what this means, don’t you?’
Jay smiles. ‘Rockstar?’
‘You’ve got the seal of endorsement.’
Jay hugs me awkwardly, the cat between us, then pushes me towards the barrier. ‘Don’t miss your flight.’
I join the queue, holding on to my boarding pass, letting go of everything else, lost in a crowd of Japanese and Australians.
Then I am out in the sun, on the tarmac. I turn as I reach the stairs to the plane. I can see Jay inside the terminal, leaning on the glass. He presses his hand to the window, fingers spread. I hold mine up in a matching sign . Then I climb the stairs.
Epilogue
Somewhere in Tokyo
Edaline adjusts the sash on her cotton kimono, admiring her black-painted toenails in the Japanese clogs. Her long, red hair is twisted up on top of her head and secured with two chopsticks. Her pale face is even paler with the white powder she has delicately applied to her cheekbones, her neck, her chest. Tonight she is meeting Jason.
Her heart flutters like a fan in the hand of a geisha. They have only been lovers once but the memory glows like the eyes of a ninja behind his mask.
It is cold outside. Snow is falling on the mountains two hours’ drive away. Maybe she will take him to the Emperor’s Palace.
They will buy hot coffee in a can from the vending machine, find a hiding place among the ruins to roll the cans along each other’s stomachs, press cold noses together, blow steam in each other’s faces, kick dried leaves in the air as they run along the cobbled paths.
Maybe they will catch the subway to Shibuya, the busiest intersection in the world, join the throngs under flashing lights, feed each other hot noodles with their chopsticks.
Maybe the talk will dart between them like fireflies as they down sake in a Tokyo keyhole bar. They will hold hands as white gloves push them on a peak-hour train, press against each other as they go through a tunnel, get high on the chemistry arcing between them.
Maybe they will go to the mountains, lie naked in a hot spring while snowflakes settle on their flushed skin. He will hold a parasol over her head, kiss her hot, wet lips and slide his hand along her burning thigh.
She will meet him at the airport.
He will come back to her room.
He will pull the chopsticks from her hair, let it fall over her shoulders.
He will unwind the sash from her waist, slide the slippers from her feet…
This much she thinks she knows, the rest sh
e can imagine.
Acknowledgments
I would like to give a very big thank you to my writing group — Helen Burns, Jane Meredith, Jessie Cole and Jane Camens. You keep me going back to the keyboard.
Thank you to Peter Bishop, formerly of the Varuna Writers Centre, who provided valuable feedback on this book. The Northern Rivers Writers Centre has also helped in many ways. Particular thanks to Siboney Duff and Sarah Ma.
A special thank you to Anna Valdinger at HarperCollins for steering Sex, Lies and Bonsai through to publication, for coming up with the title and for giving me such a beautiful cover — it was love at first sight. Jane Finemore, Anne Reilly and Mel Maxwell at HarperCollins, Jody Lee, Cathie Tasker and my agent, Sophie Hamley, have also been a great support and help.
To all the readers who sent me messages about Liar Bird — thank you so much. It was such an unexpected pleasure to get your feedback. A big thank you to my family — Simon, Tim and John — I couldn’t do it without your continuing support and love.
And if there is anyone I have omitted to mention — thank you too. I hope you already know how much I value you.
About the Author
Lisa Walker is an award-winning short story writer. Her play Baddest Backpackers aired on ABC Radio National in 2008. She has worked as a wilderness guide and environmental communicator. She writes, surfs and works in community relations on the far north coast of New South Wales. Her first novel, Liar Bird, was published in 2012. Sex, Lies and Bonsai is her second novel.
www.lisawalker.com.au
Liar Bird
LISA WALKER
Can a cityslicker fall for a wildlife ranger?
PR whizz Cassandra Daley isn’t afraid of using all the dirty tricks of the trade to spin a story her way. A glamorous cityslicker, she has never given much thought to wildlife until she humiliatingly loses a PR war with a potoroo.
Sacked and disgraced, she flees the city for an anonymous bolt-hole. But small-town Beechville has other plans for her.
Feral pigs, a snake in the dunny, a philosopher frog and a town with a secret — could things get worse? Add one man who has the sexiest way with maps she’s ever seen and they soon do. Her best friend Jessica thinks she’s been brainwashed by some kind of rural cult, and Jessica could be right. Can Cassandra reinvent herself or will she always be a liar bird?
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2013
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Lisa Walker 2013
The right of Lisa Walker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Author: Walker, Lisa.
Title: Sex, lies and bonsai / Lisa Walker.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9413 7 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 9679 3 (epub)
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover design by Natalie Winter