Dreaming of Amelia (43 page)

Emily:
Well, after the exam I was exhausted and I was thinking of going to the Blue Danish to recover, and I was calling out to Lyd but she couldn't hear me, and I was texting Cass at the same time because her exams had finished and I was missing her and I thought she could come and meet us too.

Mr Botherit:
Okay. And — can you get to something relevant, Em?

Emily:
I am an extremely relevant girl as I think you know but I am understandably distressed at the moment. So, I'm calling Lyd, and texting Cass, and out of the corner of my eye I see Toby walking out the front gate of the school. And behind him was Riley.

That made me stop texting because I knew that Toby had been having a thing with Amelia and I'd just found out about
Riley's violent past the night before, when you called my mum, Mrs A, and so when I saw Riley following Toby, I was frightened for Toby's life, so —

Several people speak at once:
What is she talking about/Can someone tell her to slow down?/Did she just say that
Toby
was ‘having a thing' with
Amelia?

Emily:
Yes.

Jacob Mazzerati:
Toby
has been dating Amelia?

Constance Milligan:
Could somebody remind me who Toby is? And tell this girl to speak
slowly
.

Jacob Mazzerati:
Toby is my son, Constance.

Emily:
Okay. And he and Amelia had a secret romance, but nobody knew except me. And then Riley found out because I told him in a letter. I didn't tell him it was Toby, just that something was going on.

However, at this point in time, after the exam yesterday, I began to think that maybe Riley
did
know it was Toby, because he was walking towards Toby with very intentional footsteps.

Mr Botherit:
Let me get this clear. You recently wrote a letter to Riley telling him Amelia was cheating on him?

Emily:
Kind of. Anyway, Riley was walking towards Toby and I was in extreme trepidation, but then I saw Lydia stop Riley, to speak to him.

Constance Milligan:
And now we have Lydia?! It's too much!

Mr Botherit:
We just heard from Lydia, Constance. She was right here — sitting in that seat.

Constance Milligan
(frostily)
:
I am perfectly aware of who Lydia is, thank you. I was just having a little trouble keeping up —

Emily:
Anyhow, Toby continued out the gate and got away safely while Lydia talked to Riley, so I was relieved. Only then I realised that Lyd and Riley were walking towards the carpark. I was petrified. They got into Lyd's car so I dropped to my
hands and knees and crawled across the gravel to my own car, ready to follow.

Constance Milligan:
Did she just say she dropped to her hands and knees and crawled across the gravel? Whatever is the matter with this girl?

Mr Botherit:
Emily, why were you petrified?

Emily:
Because of the thing between Riley and Lyd. Did I mention that Riley and Lydia had a thing?

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Toby:
After the exam I went to the heritage park.

Mr Botherit:
Why?

Toby:
Well, I've gotta start by saying what my exam was about. It was about this convict named Tom, who was living in this stone barracks that his friend Phillip C built, and Tom's girl Maggie was back in Ireland, and —

Constance Milligan:
Slow down, fellow! Now, Maggie. Who's that? She's the one we just spoke to? The girl who also talked too fast?

Mr Botherit:
No, Constance. That was Emily. I think Toby might be referring to imaginary people.

Toby:
Not imaginary, historical. Anyhow, the story ends with Tom's best friend dead, and same with most of his buddies, and Tom himself half-dead and starving, and then he ends up fully dead right by the old stone barracks where he used to live. Never got to see his Maggie again. It's just your basic happy story of everything going to hell.

Mr Botherit:
You've cheered me up, anyway.

Toby:
Sorry, Mr B, but that's my point — I wrote the story out for my exam, and while I was writing, it was like someone else gradually took over. Like Tom was there writing it for me, and I just let him, or maybe I
became
him some of the time, and I
realise that doesn't make sense so you can get that expression off your face, Dad, but I've gotta say,
something
was going on, cos I never wrote so much in an exam in all my life.

Jacob Mazzerati:
Expression? This is just admiration, Tobes. Never heard so much sense in all my life.

Toby:
Anyhow, so, after the exam I decided to go to the heritage park — that's where Tom used to live. I don't know why, but maybe there was still a bit of Tom inside me and he wanted to head back? Or maybe I just wanted to say thanks for his help.

Mr Botherit:
Wasn't there a thunderstorm threatening? You went to the park in a storm, to say thanks to — to the ghost of Tom?

Toby:
Tom would have done the same for me.

EVIDENCE OF LYDIA JAACKSON-OBERMAN

Mr Botherit:
Okay, Lydia, you should know that Riley has told us the nature of your conversation with him after the exam so we just want to make sure you have the same version.

Lydia
(a faint, distant smile)
:
Nice try.

Mr Botherit:
All right,
after
the conversation, what happened?

Lydia:
Riley asked me to drive him somewhere.

Mr Botherit:
Where?

Lydia:
I have no idea.
[
Long pause
]

Mr Botherit:
Maybe someone else should ask the questions.

Mr Garcia:
Let's get Emily back.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
Anyhow, I was terrified because I had just found out about Riley's violent past, and it seemed to me to be a very
dangerous combination, a violent person in a car with his secret lover. What if Lyd ended the romance while they were driving? Violent people always strike again.

Riley got in the car with Lydia, and he was looking ferocious.

And so I followed.

I stayed a couple of cars behind so they wouldn't notice me. It was early afternoon but stormily dark. There were distant, ominous sounds of thunder which seemed to me to echo my own terror.

We drove for about ten minutes. The rain had just started — it was really pouring — when I saw Lyd's car stop outside a house. I pulled over a short distance away. My heart was beating like horses' hooves.

The passenger door opened and Riley got out.

It was raining so hard that water splashed into his hair and down his face. He walked towards the house.

Lydia's car stayed where it was.

Nothing happened.

I sat in my car while the rain clattered on my car roof and crashed against my windows.

I wondered whose house that was — and then a terrible thought occurred to me.

What if it was Toby's house?

What if Riley had decided that, instead of following Toby out of the school gates, he should drive to Toby's house and wait for him there? Like a trap.

I knew Lydia would not sit in her car and let this happen, but maybe he had tricked her?

I got out and started to run. My shoes were instantly soaked through. The rain was like an angry, moving shower with excellent water pressure.

I reached Lyd's car and saw her sitting at the wheel with her eyes closed.

I ran down the driveway and stopped. There was a horseshoe knocker and I was reaching up to bang it, when the door suddenly opened.

Riley came out.

He hardly glanced at me.

His shirt was rumpled, and he was still dripping from the rain. His face looked calm.

He walked up the driveway, and stopped at the side of Lydia's car.

I turned back to the open door before me.

A man was lying in the hallway. He was covered in blood.

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Toby:
So I walked to the heritage park. It's only ten minutes from the school. I went up the path to the spot where the barracks used to be. Sat down on the grass and said, ‘'Tsup, Tom?' It started raining right that moment. I'll be honest with you, people. I felt like a right fool.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
Maybe not covered in blood. But there
was
blood, and a lot of it. Mostly in the area below the man's nose, across his mouth, down his chin, and dripping onto his shirt. His eyes were closed. He was lying in a very peculiar way, with his legs kind of tangled around sideways.

He was a man I'd never seen before, and yet I knew I had to save his life.

I did not know how to save a life, and had no access to the internet to find out. Therefore, I'm sorry to say, my primary emotion was annoyance.

I crouched down to see if he was breathing. I knew this was important, to life.

I put my ear very close to his nose. At first, all I could hear was the rain outside — but then? I can't tell you how happy I was to hear that tiny airy sound. This strange, grown-up man with whiskers and blood all over his chin was breathing. And therefore, I didn't have to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation.

My phone was in the car, but I could see a wall phone just inside the door. I stepped over the breathing man and called an ambulance. I have never dialled triple 0 before so I was nervous, but then I found I couldn't concentrate on the conversation because I suddenly realised the amazement around me. That place was
trashed
. Bookshelves tipped over. A table upside down, with one leg snapped in half. An open magazine with a muddy footprint tearing a page in half. Two holes in the wall right beside me.

The scary thing was, it was like the fight was still happening. I was in the room with it.
Things were still moving
.A bottle of tomato sauce was slowly rolling across a coffee table. The shadow of a light shade swayed back and forth across the floor. A desk chair was lying on its side, and the wheels were spinning. There was a THUNK and I saw that a block of cheese had fallen to the floor — from where? I don't know. I screamed. And then a piece of plaster slowly crumbled from the hole beside me — I screamed louder, hung up the phone, and got out of there.

I had to jump over the man to get to the front porch, and I looked up just in time to see Lydia's car speed away.

I almost screamed a third time, but then I saw her — Lydia — standing at the top of the driveway in the rain. She waited until I reached her, then walked towards my car. I guess she'd noticed it.

She got into my car and told me she had a message to get to Amelia right away.

‘Okay,' I said. ‘Amelia's place.' And I stepped on the gas.

Lydia put her seatbelt on, and closed her eyes.

EVIDENCE OF LYDIA JAACKSON-OBERMAN

Mr Botherit:
Lydia, let me get this straight. You waited outside a stranger's house for Riley, then he came out and asked for your car?

Lydia:
Yes.

Mr Botherit:
So you just got out of your car and gave him the keys?

Lydia:
Right.

[
Long pause
]

Mr Botherit
(sighing)
:
And he asked you to pass on a message for Amelia?

Lydia:
Yes.

Mr Botherit:
I suppose it would be pointless for me to ask what the message was.

Lydia:
Right.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
It was difficult driving. My socks were extremely soggy. And the rain turned the windscreen into one big blur. The wipers were going so fast they were like annoying puppies.

Also, I realised we didn't know where Amelia lived. And no phone number for her. She never had a mobile.

So I was driving along at high speed, leaning forward, trying to see through the blur, all without having a clue where I was going.

Then I got a flash of inspiration.

I remembered Toby had given a secret note to Amelia earlier that day. Maybe the note was telling Amelia to meet him after the exam? Maybe they were meeting now?

The place I'd seen them meeting once before was the heritage park.

It seemed unlikely in this rain but it was all I had.

I skidded around a corner and the tyres sent water spraying.

I did not crash.

Just as I was speeding up that small laneway — the one that leads to the back gate of the heritage park — well, suddenly Lydia's eyes opened wide. She peered through her window, and then she opened the door. We were still moving fast, so I shouted and braked at the same time, but she was jumping — she was jumping from the speeding car. She hit the road running, and kept on running into the park.