New Cardiff

by Charles Webb

  ‘They do wedding receptions here.’

  He stopped and they got out of the car, then stood looking over toward the pool.

  The married couple was standing at the far end next to a multitiered cake on a table, while a photographer crouched in front of them, his bulb flashing as they fed each other a piece of cake. ‘Is that a custom here?’ Colin said, as the guests applauded and cheered. ‘Mutual cake feeding?’

  ‘They want us to have some,’ Mandy said.

  Someone was holding up two pieces of cake on small paper plates and looking over at them.

  ‘We never did have dessert tonight.’

  They walked across the parking lot to the pool and the guest handed the cake over the top of the low fence to them. ‘Thank you,’ Colin said, taking his, ‘be sure and give our congratulations to the couple.’

  ‘I’ll get you some champagne.’ The guest turned and walked back among the others.

  Mandy picked up a tiny plastic fork from the edge of her plate and cut a little piece. ‘Pretty nice of them,’ she said, raising it to her mouth.

  ‘Very nice of them.’ Colin took a bite of his.

  ‘Lemon,’ Mandy said.

  ‘Lemon cake?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘I think you’re right.’

  They ate another few bites.

  ‘Good,’ Mandy said.

  Colin nodded. ‘Moist.’

  ‘I noticed that—it does taste moist.’

  By the time the guest returned they’d finished the cake, and they handed the paper plates back to him over the fence as he gave them their champagne glasses.

  ‘You really shouldn’t be doing this,’ Colin said, as he took his.

  ‘They want you to share in their joy,’ the guest said. ‘I told them you wished them well.’

  ‘Yes we do.’

  Mandy took a swallow of her champagne.

  ‘Are the two of you from England?’

  ‘He is. I’m from New Cardiff.’

  When they returned to the room, Mandy was the first to go in. ‘The message light’s flashing,’ she said, walking toward the phone on the bedside table. ‘I’ll see what it is.’

  ‘I know what it is.’ Colin came in and closed the door. ‘They want me to pay.’

  ‘You haven’t paid yet?’ Mandy said, putting her hand on the phone.

  ‘For tonight I have. But they like people to pay in advance this time of year because it’s so busy.’

  She looked down at the blinking light. ‘You’re sure that’s it?’

  ‘It happened before.’

  ‘Don’t pay before you have to.’ She removed her hand from the phone. ‘It sounds like they’re getting greedy.’ She continued looking down at the flashing red light. ‘How do you turn this thing off.’

  ‘They have to do it from the office.’

  She reached toward the phone again.

  ‘But let me worry about it in the morning,’ Colin said, walking into the bathroom. ‘Just leave it for now.’

  ‘It’s annoying.’

  ‘Cover it up.’

  ‘With what.’

  He turned the water on in the sink. ‘Anything.’

  She watched it blink a few more times, then pulled out the drawer in the table. It was empty except for a Bible. She removed it, opened it in the middle and placed it upside down over the telephone.

  Part II

  9

  When the knock came on his door the next morning Colin had just finished his shower. ‘One second,’ he called from the bathroom. Quickly he dried off his back and legs, wrapping the large towel tightly around his waist and tucking it in as he went through the doorway to his room and to his trousers draped over the chair. He removed some notes from his wallet and carried them to the door, opening it and raising the money up toward Vera.

  She was standing holding her bag, and except for her eyes once moving to glance past him into the room she remained looking back at him quietly, without changing her expression. ‘Hello,’ she said finally.

  Very slowly he lowered the money.

  ‘Colin, it’s not going to be smooth. There’s no use pretending anything either of us can say will prevent this from being the most awkward moment we’ve ever had.’

  ‘Vera,’ he whispered, after another few seconds had passed.

  This time she looked past him and at several different places in his room before turning her eyes back to Colin’s. ‘So. I’ll just jump in. I’ll just …’ She moved her bag to her other hand. ‘Jeremy. He’s the one who told me you were here. He said you rang him at the end of last week. I guess you asked him to tell your parents where you were—and I can understand perfectly why you didn’t have him notify me, but he knew how worried I was so he …’

  Colin looked toward the office. Behind the desk Joanie was leaning slightly to the side to see out the window.

  ‘By the way, Jeremy did mention he’s giving you a show in the spring—of the drawings you’re doing here—so at least something positive’s coming out of all this.’ Vera glanced back at the office as Joanie stepped quickly out of sight. ‘And it doesn’t make this any easier to be spied on by your extremely odd managers.’ She turned so she could get between Colin and the side of the doorway and go into the room. ‘What is wrong with those two people?’

  Colin watched as she walked over to stand by the unmade bed.

  ‘Do you know?’

  For a long time he stood looking at her in silence.

  ‘Please talk, Colin.’

  ‘Roger Pelham,’ he said.

  She nodded. ‘Roger Pelham,’ she repeated.

  ‘Where is he.’

  ‘We do need to talk about Roger.’

  ‘Is he here?’

  ‘Well that seems a little self-evident.’

  ‘In America.’

  ‘Will you close the door so I can tell you?’

  Colin closed the door.

  ‘No,’ she said.

  ‘He’s not in America.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well where is he.’

  She glanced around the room. ‘No ashtrays, obviously.’ She walked to the chair, removed his trousers from its seat and put them over its arm. ‘The first thing we should do is just stand back from our emotions. That’s what you always say. And that’s what we should do now.’

  ‘Are you married to Roger Pelham?’

  ‘I want to answer that in full,’ she said, ‘that’s why I’m here.’

  ‘In full.’

  ‘Colin,’ she said, seating herself, ‘I have absolutely nothing to say in my defence. I’ve behaved disgracefully and I’m prepared to accept society’s judgement.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean.’

  ‘What it means, Colin.’

  He looked down at a pillow resting in the centre of the bed. ‘Did you do something to him? Something terrible?’

  ‘Like kill him? Not exactly.’ She opened her bag, removed a pack of cigarettes but then returned it and snapped the bag shut again.

  ‘You didn’t exactly kill him.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Buried him alive? What.’

  ‘Colin, have you had breakfast yet.’

  ‘Breakfast.’

  ‘I’ll get us breakfast. It’s the least I can do.’

  ‘What did you do to the man.’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Stand him up?’

  ‘I’m a little afraid to tell you,’ she said. ‘I didn’t expect the red carpet treatment over here, but I did think the fact that I’ve travelled five thousand miles to say sorry might soften your heart toward me enough so you could at least sit down while I told you.’

  ‘Say sorry?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I’ve come to apologise.’

  ‘For putting me through what you did.’

  She nodded.

  ‘Then backing out of the wedding?’

  ‘Not exactly.’

  ‘Vera, don’t keep saying
that.’

  ‘I didn’t back out of the wedding.’

  ‘He did then.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well there’s you and there’s him, that pretty much exhausts the possibilities.’

  After a few moments had passed Vera touched the end of one of her fingers to her tongue and bent forward to rub at a small spot on the toe of her shoe. ‘There was never a Roger Pelham,’ she said, removing the spot.

  ‘Never what?’

  ‘Courage, Vera.’ She looked up at the ceiling. ‘The moment is here. The one you’ve been dreading night and day. The one that’s been keeping you awake for a week. The one that even a flight across the Atlantic with two movies and five Marie Claires couldn’t put out of your mind. Courage.’

  ‘Vera.’

  She kept her eyes fixed on a point above his head. ‘I deserve it, Colin. Don’t hold back.’

  ‘Could you look at me please, Vera?’

  She waited a moment, then lowered her eyes.

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Well I mean I’m sure there are hundreds of Roger Pelhams walking around. Thousands no doubt, including in America and the other English-speaking countries.’

  ‘But none that you know?’

  ‘No.’

  He stood for a long time holding the money at his side and looking at her, then he turned his eyes down to the carpet and finally up to her again.

  ‘Has it registered yet,’ she said.

  ‘No Roger Pelhams that you know.’

  ‘You haven’t quite got it yet. Let’s see.’ She spent several moments clearing her throat. ‘I’ll have to plunge straight in. First of all, I am not going to try and put it down to Alicia.’ She held up her hand. ‘It will seem as though I am. But I’m not. Yes, it was all her idea. Yes, she kept prodding me forward when I wasn’t sure—which I never was, right from the beginning. You’re going to think I’m trying to shift the blame because I point out that she was the mastermind behind it all, but I’m not trying to shift it.’ Vera placed her hand on her chest. ‘At the end of the day, I am responsible for the whole sordid thing. If I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be here now. Would I.’

  Slowly Colin sat down on the bed. ‘Oh God, Vera.’

  ‘Just because Alicia was the one who thought up the invitation, and went down and had it printed up, and took it to the post office and mailed it, does not absolve me. And I fully realise that.’

  Colin picked up the pillow from beside him and put it on his lap. ‘A joke,’ he said.

  ‘Not exactly.’

  ‘Vera,’ he said, holding up his hand in her direction but not looking at her.

  ‘All right, yes. It was a joke.’ She nodded. ‘But let’s look more deeply here at who the joke was on. Now we both know how jealous Alicia is of our relationship. We’ve said that many times.’

  ‘A joke.’

  ‘Please let me finish, Colin.’

  ‘A joke,’ he said again, shaking his head and looking down at the pillow.

  ‘So what has happened here,’ she said, ‘is that in that jealous little brain of hers, Alicia came up with this prank to try and torpedo your and my relationship. And stupid trusting big sister that I am, I took the whole thing at face value and went along thinking you and I would have a good laugh when it was all over, never imagining …’

  Colin put his finger up to his lips. ‘Vera.’

  ‘Yes, Colin, what.’

  ‘Shhh.’

  ‘Right,’ she said, nodding. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘How did you get here,’ he said.

  ‘I flew.’

  ‘No. Here.’ He pointed down at the rug.

  ‘Your motel? I drove here.’

  ‘In what.’

  ‘I rented a cat,’ she said, ‘yesterday when I got in.’

  ‘At the airport?’

  ‘JFK.’

  ‘And drove up to New Cardiff.’

  She nodded.

  ‘How was it,’ he said. ‘How was the drive.’

  ‘Beautiful. Incredible colours of the leaves.’

  ‘Are you staying locally?’ Colin said.

  Vera got up from her chair. ‘Yes I am.’ She removed a small card from her bag and carried it over to Colin. ‘This is my motel.’

  Without looking at it he took it and set it down on the bed.

  ‘The Cardiff Arms,’ she said, walking back toward her chair. ‘A pretentious name, but slightly less sterile than most things American. They’ve made a little waterfall out the back you listen to as you’re falling—‘

  ‘Vera?’

  ‘Yes, Colin.’

  ‘Don’t sit down again.’

  She stopped in front of the chair. It was quiet a few moments, then she turned around. ‘Colin.’

  ‘Just go, Vera.’ He pointed toward the door. ‘Please.’

  ‘Colin,’ she said, ‘if you could have seen me after you disappeared.’

  ‘Vera.’ He continued holding his arm out and pointing at the door.

  ‘First one day went by with no word. Then the second. On the third day I literally fell apart, Colin. Literally. I just started calling people. Anybody and everybody I could think of to ask if they’d heard anything.’

  ‘Vera.’

  ‘I reached a point where I was so frantic I didn’t even know what I was doing. Calling people back I’d just called five minutes before. All hours of the night and day. By the time I was through the whole city was frantic. And I have to say, in Alicia’s defence, once it sunk in to her the consequences of what we’d done she was just as desperate as I was.’

  ‘That’s touching, Vera, but please go now.’

  ‘And when we found out you were all right … when Jeremy rang up and told us where you were—God, Colin, the relief. The two of us fell into each other’s arms and wept for ten minutes. And you know what it would take to get Alicia and me to fall into each other’s arms.’

  ‘Could you hand me my trousers, Vera.’

  ‘Your trousers.’

  ‘On the arm of the chair.’

  She removed them from the chair and carried them quickly over to him.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, taking them. He stood up, loosening the towel around his waist and letting it fall to the carpet, then stepped into the trousers, pulling them up and buckling his belt.

  ‘Where are your underpants.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘It’s none of my business, I just wondered why you didn’t have any underpants on.’

  ‘I was in a rush leaving the flat. Excuse me.’ He walked past her and into the bathroom.

  She followed him as far as the doorway, watching him take a shirt from a hook on the wall and put it on. ‘Are you going out or something?’

  ‘I might.’

  ‘Well where.’

  He went over to the sink, removed a comb from his back pocket and began combing his hair.

  ‘I know you like to walk when you need to think. Is that what you’re doing? Going for a walk so you can think?’

  He glanced at her reflection in the mirror as he finished combing his hair. Then he returned the comb to his pocket. ‘Excuse me, Vera.’ He walked past her and into the next room, going to the corner where his shoes and socks were on the rug.

  Vera didn’t turn when he went past her but continued to stand where she was, looking into the bathroom and at a red portable hair dryer resting on the white porcelain lid on the tank of the toilet. Finally she walked over to it, studied it a few moments, then reached down to pick it up. ‘Colin?’ she called after holding it a few seconds. She looked over toward the door when he didn’t answer, then walked to the open doorway just as Colin was removing his sketch pad and art supply case from the top of the bureau. ‘Colin?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She held out: the hair dryer.

  ‘What do you want.’

  ‘Does this belong to the motel?’

  He looked at the object in her hand, then back at her. ‘It’s a hair dryer
.’

  ‘I know what it is, Colin. You don’t use them, and I just wondered if the motel provides them for its guests.’

  Colin walked across the room to the door and opened it.

  ‘Colin.’

  He stopped part way out the door. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Can’t you just answer a simple question?’

  He studied the hair dryer a few more moments. ‘A simple one I could,’ he said finally, ‘but not that one.’ He carried his sketch pad and case out past the Battlefield Inn sign, turned and started walking along the side of the highway.

  10

  When Colin got to Shining Shores it was lunchtime. He didn’t go up to the front entrance, but walked across the gravel car park and around to the side of the main building, glancing in through a kitchen window where Mandy was transferring dirty dishes out of a cart and into a sink.

  ‘Colin,’ she said, looking over as he opened the door and stepped inside.

  ‘Mandy.’

  ‘I didn’t expect you.’

  He closed the door.

  ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You came to draw Mr West.’

  ‘That’s one thing.’ He put his sketch pad and case on the table in the centre of the room. ‘And there’s something else.’

  ‘What’s that.’

  He walked to her and took her hands, standing a moment and looking at her before speaking. ‘The light on the telephone last night,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t about paying.’

  ‘What was it about.’

  ‘Nothing’s going to change between us, Mandy. I came out here right away, before doing anything else, to show you that nothing’s going to be different now.’

  ‘Colin, why are you being so dramatic’

  ‘Vera’s here.’

  She looked back at him without answering.

  ‘In New Cardiff,’ he said.

  It was quiet for a few seconds as she continued to look at him.

  Colin let go of her hands, reached into the cart and removed several dirty dishes from it to put in the sink. ‘Keep working, Mandy. I don’t want to give this event more importance than it deserves.’

  ‘Vera’s here?’

  ‘She got in yesterday and came to the motel while we were out.’

  ‘You’ve talked to her?’

  ‘I’ve just come from talking to her.’