Haunted Ever After (16 page)

‘Don’t worry, Sal. I’ll give this a wash and dry it under the hand dryer,’ said Mel. ‘I’ve had to clean worse things before.’ Her voice was followed by the sound of running water.

‘Thanks Mel.’

‘Right, ready Georgie?’ asked Ty. ‘On the count of three, pull; and Sally? Breathe out as much as possible to flatten your chest.’

‘Yep, that’s what…’ I trailed off when I realised I was about to tell them that’s what Red had suggested. ‘…that’s what I thought might help.’

I took a breath in and held it.

‘One, two, three!’

I breathed out and as Georgie’s hands gripped my armpits and pulled, Ty’s hands held firmly onto the sides of my hips and pushed me forwards. And as though I was being born again through the birth canal, my torso was free and the rest of me slipped out easily. Lorena clapped as I scrambled to my feet, shaking my hands violently and making a mad dash for the sink to wash my hands and feet. When my hands were reasonably clean, albeit without the protection of sanitiser, I stretched my foot up and over the sink and under the running water. I lathered soap all over it, while Mel dried my shoe under the hand dryer.

‘Yuck, yuck, yuck!’ I said, washing as fast as I could.

Lorena disappeared for a moment then returned with my handbag, holding up my hand sanitiser. ‘You were right, I guess this did come in handy.’ I dried my foot and she squirted some onto my hand so I could rub it into my foot.

‘Thanks Lorena, and thanks guys.’ I glanced around. ‘I thought I’d never get out.’

In my haste to cleanse myself I hadn’t noticed that Ty had climbed back over to the other cubicle and back into the bathroom, and was now washing his hands.

‘How did the door handle break, anyway?’ he asked.

I glanced at Red, who looked guilty, and said, ‘It was just a bit wonky, and when I tried to unlock it, it came right off.’

‘I’ll have a word to Sam — he owns the pub — tell him it’s probably time for a few upgrades in here.’

‘Yes, that would be much appreciated, not that I think I’ll risk using this bathroom anytime again in the near future.’

With my shoe now back on my foot and my shoulder supporting my handbag (which would need a thorough clean due to cross contamination), we walked out of the bathroom. Finally.

‘Where did you suddenly appear from anyway?’ I asked Ty. He had a habit of doing that. But it
was
a small town.

‘Just popped in for a drink after dinner. Cody’s fast asleep back home. Got up too early this morning with all the excitement about performing at the festival.’

‘Yeah, Ty’s going to join us for a bit, aren’t you, Ty?’ Mel said.

‘I won’t say no.’

‘You guys go back to the table, I’ll just make a quick phone call.’

I missed Greg. I needed to hear his voice, to settle my nerves and remind myself that he was my loving, caring, and faithful fiancé.

‘Hello?’ he answered on the third ring. A faint sound of someone coughing could be heard in the background.

‘Hi Greg.’

‘Sal? How are you? Is everything alright?’ The background cough returned, a feminine-sounding cough.

‘Yes, everything’s fine, I just missed you. How’s your buck’s weekend?’

‘Oh, it’s fine too. Great. How’s yours?’ After he spoke I heard a woman’s voice ask for a drink. He must be in a bar with his mates, like me. Except there wasn’t the usual background noise.

‘Um, pretty good. Lots of fun, you know Lorena, she sure knows how to plan a party.’ I chuckled. ‘Where are you?’

‘I’m out to dinner with the guys,’ he said softly.

‘I guess they’re all filling their mouths with food.’

‘Huh?’

‘It’s quiet. Your mates are usually pretty rowdy.’

‘Oh, oh yes. A couple have gone over to the bar, the rest are eating.’ More feminine throat clearing, then the sound of someone saying, ‘Your water, madam.’

Greg’s voice was different. Distant. Reserved. Maybe it was just what Red had said clouding my judgement. Making me anticipate a problem when there wasn’t one.

‘Anyway, I must get going, but thanks for calling, I’ll see you on Monday,’ he said. And without his usual ‘honey’ or ‘sweetheart’ addition. It was as though I was a business associate and he was confirming a meeting.

‘Okay then, say hi to the guys for me.’

‘I will.’

‘And Greg?’

‘Yes?’

‘I love you.’

There was a pause, then: ‘Same to you.’

I hung up, and was left with an awful, hollow feeling that something was not right. He always said ‘I love you too’ whenever I said it first. He never said ‘same to you’, that was what you said to someone who wished you a good day. Was it just that he was in front of his mates and didn’t want to be seen getting all mushy and romantic?

I stood still on the spot for a while, trying to make sense of our stilted conversation and Red’s outrageous accusations that, despite my not believing her, had cast a slight shadow of concern in my mind.

‘I’ll be at the guest house when you’re ready to talk,’ Red said, and before I had a chance to meet her eyes she’d disappeared.

I put the phone back in my bag and returned to the table, suddenly not feeling like any dessert or conversation.

‘I’m having sticky date pudding, what are you having Sal?’ Mel asked.

‘Actually, I think I might head back to the house, if you don’t mind?’

‘Are you okay?’ Lorena asked.

‘Yeah yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit tired, and the whole getting stuck thing was a bit of an ordeal. But you guys stay here and have dessert, don’t let me cut the night short.’

‘But you can’t walk back by yourself,’ said Georgie. ‘Do you want me to walk with you?’

‘No, I’ll be right, it’s not far, and I have my panic alert thingy on my key ring.’

Ty stood from his chair at the end of our table. ‘I’ll walk you back,’ he said.

‘Oh, I don’t want to disrupt your Saturday night.’

‘No disruption. I should probably get back home anyway, now that I’ve had my drink and done my civic duty of rescuing maidens in distress from faulty toilet cubicles.’ He winked.

‘Good idea, go with Ty, Sal.’ Georgie said. ‘And text me when you’re back inside.’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Mel. ‘We’ll see you when we’ve finished stuffing our faces.’

I smiled and walked out of the pub, and at the bottom of the steps Ty held out his hand for me to grasp it. ‘Your chariot awaits.’

I eyed his hand and remembered the shoe-rescuing mission. ‘Here,’ I said, pulling the hand sanitiser out of my bag and handing it to him.

‘Flexible, amusing,
and
hygienic,’ he stated. ‘You’re just full of surprises.’ He rubbed the liquid over his hands, returned the bottle to me, then held out his hand again to encourage me off the steps.

This time I took it.

The cool night air engulfed us as we walked up the road towards the guest house. I pulled my jacket a little tighter around my collar.

‘You seem a little unhappy for someone who’s getting married in a week,’ he said.

‘It’s just been an eventful day,’ I replied. ‘I’m fine.’

Well, I wasn’t, really. My safe, secure, predictable life seemed to be slowly unravelling, and I didn’t know what was real now and what wasn’t. I hadn’t believed in ghosts until now, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind that Greg could cheat, and I still didn’t know if I believed it. I looked at Ty with curiosity. ‘You’re a man,’ I said, watching the way he walked with confidence and calmness.

‘Intelligent observation.’

‘I mean, you’re a man, so you might be able to help me with something.’

He raised his eyebrows.

‘Is it just in a man’s nature to want to stray, to not tie themselves down with one woman?’

‘You’re asking me if all men are cheats?’

‘I guess so. I mean, not that they all would, but is it really possible for a man to be happy with one woman, forever?’

‘I can only speak for myself, but yes, it is possible. Sure, men are naturally wired to seek out a mate,
multiple
mates, but that doesn’t mean they have to act on their impulses.’

‘So it comes down to a choice. It’s not just an uncontrollable urge that can’t be denied?’

‘Of course it’s a choice. No matter how strong someone’s desire is, the mind is always stronger. What’s brought this on? Getting cold feet about the wedding?’

I eyed my feet. ‘Well, my left foot is particularly cold.’ I smiled, and he did too. ‘No, I’m not, but it’s just something someone said, something I heard, that’s…’ I ran my hand over my ponytail. ‘Oh, why am I telling you this?’

‘Because I’m here and I’m listening?’

I smiled again, and stopped on the side of the road. ‘It’s possible my fiancé, Greg, is having an affair.’

Ty’s eyes bulged. ‘What? Are you sure?’

‘No, and I never would have thought it could be possible, but when I spoke to him just now, it was different, weird, and kind of fit in with what someone said about him.’

Ty shook his head. ‘Well if he is, he’s a damn fool.’ He encouraged me to keep walking. ‘I take it you haven’t confronted him about it?’

‘No, no way.’

‘But with only one week till the wedding, it’s probably best to sort it out sooner rather than later.’

‘Tell me about it.’ I sighed. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t be dumping all this on you. I haven’t even discussed it with my friends.’

‘It’s no problem. But like I said, better sort the whole thing out as soon as you can. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding. And if not, then boy, what a mistake he’s made.’

Ty’s gaze remained straight ahead, and I watched the side of his face, the dark shadows from the night sculpting his jaw, the protrusion of his Adam’s apple, and his strong, confident posture, and I realised he was paying me a compliment and not just speaking generally about infidelity being a mistake.

‘Thanks for walking me back,’ I said.

‘Ah,’ he flicked his hand. ‘Walking nice ladies home, rescuing them from toilets, performing some light entertainment, all in a day’s work.’

‘So does Cody, is he, can he…’

‘Are you trying to ask me how independent he is?’

‘Yeah.’

‘He’s better now he’s a bit older. Before, I had to be with him all the time, but now he’s learnt more skills he can do things for himself. He has his own phone he can call me with too, though he can’t hear too well so he texts me instead. His writing is quite good, on a screen that is, not by hand. He knows not to leave the house by himself without someone knowing where he is. He’s a great kid. A challenge sometimes, but great.’

‘And your parents?’

‘They died several years ago. Dad had a heart attack while driving. Unfortunately they both didn’t make it.’ He lowered his head and kicked a pebble.

‘Oh gosh, Ty, I’m so sorry.’ My hand found its way to his back for a brief moment.

‘We manage. It was a big shock, and Cody didn’t cope too well in the beginning. But we’ve made a new life for ourselves and things are looking up.’

‘Do you get any help with Cody?’

‘My neighbours are great, they keep an eye on him when I’m out working, invite him over for movie nights…they’re hard of hearing themselves so it becomes a big subtitle-fest at their place!’

‘Oh yes, my parents are the same. The TV is on either too loud or the subtitles take up half the screen.’

We shared a laugh.

‘Where did you learn to dance the way you do?’

‘Mostly taught myself from music videos, went to a few classes, and after a while I started getting gigs as a background dancer for singers and performers. I’d travel to the city regularly to do shows. At one stage I thought I might even head to the states and try my luck in the music industry doing music videos and stuff. But then the accident happened. Things changed, I had to change. Being there for Cody became number one priority.’

‘Wow. You’ve done so well. I’m sure your parents would be incredibly proud of you.’ If I was saying this a couple of weeks ago it would have simply been meant as a nice thing to say, but now, I think I actually believed it. Maybe those who died were still ‘around’, watching their loved ones and guiding them from beyond.

‘Thanks, hopefully they are, wherever they are.’ He glanced up at the sky and held out his hands.

I decided to take the opportunity to ask him something. ‘Do you believe that there’s something after all this. Afterlife?’

Ty twisted his lips. ‘I was never really sure, but after they died, I don’t know… Something changed. A feeling, a sense that somehow they were still with me.’

I smiled, even though Ty’s focus was straight ahead and it was dark. I didn’t feel so out of place, so weird, for what I’d experienced with Red. Not that I was going to tell him about her. ‘That’s nice. I have a feeling they are too. Still with you.’

Ty turned to face me. ‘I have a feeling you’re very good at your job. You’re really great with all this serious stuff. You know what to say to make people feel better.’

‘Well thank you. I’m much better with this stuff than I am with all the social, party-type conversation and fun.’

‘Oh, I don’t know about that. You did pretty well at Twister and that Pin the Thingy game.’ He elbowed me in the ribs.

‘You’re just being nice. And I’m sorry you had to witness all that ridiculousness.’

‘Don’t apologise. This is turning into one of the most entertaining weekends I’ve had in a long time.’ He grinned, and I knew he was thinking of the various embarrassments I’d endured. ‘Though I’m sorry I bit your head off at the supermarket when you ran over my foot. I know it was an accident.’

For some reason I wished I could tell him about Red. Wished I could release this secret that had been overtaking my mind.

Guess what? I saw a ghost!

Hey, you know how you were wondering whether people live on after death? Well, surprise, they do!

Ty, I’d like you to meet Red. You can’t see her of course, but I assure you, she’s there
.

If only I could.

But despite his apparent openness to the other side he’d still probably think I was a little nuts.

‘That’s okay, I’m sorry for running over your foot in the first place. And for the awkwardness later that night at the house. You really did put on a good show, I must say.’ I was glad it was dark because I was probably blushing.