Max Arena (48 page)

If Sally had
been allowed to stand up and rail at Max, she would have, but the
queen of day time television does no such thing, so seeking
guidance and support, she looked across at her stage producer, who
immediately signalled back that she had to run with it. Sally’s
return glare to the producer promised imminent discomfort, but she
had to give in. Turning back to Max, she plucked up all her depths
of professionalism and fashioned the most radiating, flawless and
completely disingenuous smile. A weaker man would have flinched,
but it bounced off Max like a bug off a windshield.

‘Please, go on,
Max?’ she oozed. ‘What is this observation of your’s?’

‘Well,’ Max
said, leaning back in his chair, ‘five months ago when all this
first started and that big, ugly alien popped up on the screen and
threatened everyone, fear took over. Everywhere. I could see it. I
could hear it and I could absolutely
feel
it. It was rampant
and you didn’t need to be a good observer to know that fear was
king back then.’

‘And now?’
Sally expertly cut-in. ‘Five months on, what do you observe
now?’

‘Hope.’

Sally arched an
eyebrow. ‘Hope? How can that be when we all know that big, ugly
alien is still out there planning to kill us all?’

‘Sure, he’s
still out there and yes, he’s still coming for us, but five months
on, we’re not living in fear any more. Hope has taken over and my
proof is in what I see, hear and feel.’

‘And what
exactly
do you see, hear and feel?’

‘I see wars on
hold. I see people trying to live normal lives. I see crime rates
lower than before all this started. I hear new songs of hope and
joy on the radio. I hear people being interviewed all over the
world, encouraging others to get out of hiding and celebrate life.
I even hear studio audiences laughing at my bad jokes.’

The audience
cheered and clapped on cue.

Sally forced
out a small smile. ‘So what do you
feel
, Max? Do you
feel
hope around you?’

‘More than
anything. Every time I lace up these orange shoes and run around in
front of a crowd, it’s viral. The air is thick with it. If I had a
butterfly net, I could catch it all day. I can even feel it right
now. Right here. This audience is not sitting here in fear. They’re
pumped. They’re up for whatever comes next. They’re not waiting for
some big, dumb alien to come down and wipe us out, are you?’ Max
said, turning to the audience. The crowd burst into action. Cheers,
whoops and applause burst out.

Max and Sally
patiently waited for the crowd to settle down, even though it took
some time. As the noise dissipated, Max took in Sally’s expression
and noted it had softened. The crinkles at the corners of her eyes
had gone and the firmness of her jaw had eased. She sat silently
watching the audience beyond the cameras, her eyes taking it all
in. When the crowd finally fell quiet, Sally did not re-engage.
Instead she sat looking beyond the bright lights and out into
space. Max ventured gently in.

‘Sally, I know
you can feel it too, can’t you?’ he asked.

Sally broke
from her reverie and looked directly at Max. The facade was gone.
It had broken and melted away. Just like that. No longer did the
queen of day time television sit across from Max. Sally was just
another human on the planet, living in the same moment and the same
world as everyone else.

‘I
can
feel it,’ she said quietly.

‘And now,’ Max
added, ‘do you want me to share with you the rare deep thinking
that I’ve done and tell you
why
I think hope has replaced
fear?’

Sally
nodded.

Max leaned
forward and over a billion television screens filled with a
close-up of Maximilian Augustus Dyson.

‘Five months
ago when we were first threatened, fear set in because we all
retreated from the threat. We hid. We pulled back into ourselves.
We ran away from the danger and ultimately, we all wound up alone.
Not literally, although in many cases yes, but figuratively.
Families pulled in and hid away. Individuals with nowhere to go,
isolated themselves. We stopped going outside. We stopped trusting
each other. We didn’t even talk to each other and by all of us
hiding away, we allowed fear to take control and rule our lives.
Then that fear drove many people to strike out and hurt others and
that ramped the fear up even higher. We self-escalated and every
day, we notched the fear level up again and again. We were all,
each of us alone and under the control of fear.’

‘And then you
came out and gave us something to hope for,’ Sally not so much
asked, but just said.

‘Well, sure I
was part of the catalyst to change, but you know what,’ Max said,
‘I didn’t make hope. People don’t make hope. It’s an emotion, so
it’s always there. Hope is always there inside people, it just has
to have the courage to come out and while fear was ruling the
roost, there was no way hope was coming out to play. So, sure, I
gave hope a little bit of a leg up, but hope performs best when it
has company, when it has friends. When
one
person hopes, it
helps another person start to hope and then like any good virus, it
becomes contagious and before you know it, hope is everywhere,
fuelling itself and that’s what happened over the last few months.
Our hope found its courage and it beat fear down.
We
found
hope and
we
beat fear down. We did it,
together
and
that’s
why I say, the most important story in the world
right now is all about us.
All of us
. We’ve stood up. We’ve
said enough of this fear crap. We’re not going to hide in some hole
and wait for whatever happens next. We’re going to get up and face
it and live life while we can. This story is about the entire human
race living in hope. That’s what this story is about and inside
that story there’s a lesson to be learnt.’

Sally tilted
her head. ‘A lesson? What lesson?’

‘Alone, we will
lose. Alone we are powerless. Alone we will destroy ourselves and
each other and by the time the aliens turn up, we’ll have already
killed ourselves, but together, we have real power. If we’re going
to beat this alien thug and his armies, we can only do it together.
Our real strength is in finding each other, standing next to each
other and supporting each other. No one has to live in fear because
if we all face this as one, we can do anything we want and that
goes for me too. I’m no one on my own, but with my family and those
that I care about by my side, together we’re a force to be reckoned
with and then there’s the support all of you give me. The hope you
instil in me is overwhelming. I may not be superman, but bloody
hell, some days I sure feel like it. I have learned over the last
few months I need all of you, just as much as you need me. The
lesson in all this is, alone we lose, but together...together we
win
.’

Max rammed the
last word out through gritted teeth, his clenched fist pumping the
air. Instantly, the crowd ripped the air apart. It was like all the
herds of Africa had rumbled into the studio at once. Even if Max
had wanted to talk, it was pointless. Every single person in the
audience was up and jumping or stamping their feet or clapping
their hands red raw. Pandemonium reigned and then the Team Max
anthem sounded and the noise levels escalated even higher with the
overhead clapping and foot stomping.

Meanwhile, up
on stage, Sally just stared at Max, all semblance of her television
personality completely gone. Even her make-up looked dulled down.
She was now just simply Sally and then she slowly got to her feet
and took a step forward to stand in front of Max. He looked up at
her and then she put her arms out wide. For a long moment, Max sat
and looked up at her like a child beholding his mother and then,
slowly, he too stood up and accepted Sally’s gentle, but firm
embrace. Max hugged her in return like he would his own children.
It was warm, genuine and honestly felt really good. Despite the
rioting crowd and the fact he could not see Sally’s face, Max knew
she was crying and that made him feel even better because he knew
they were cleansing tears of joy. Max smiled probably one of the
widest and happiest smiles he had ever felt and hugged Sally even
harder.

9pm, 1st December (later that night). The Pain of
a Good Man

The mansion’s
formal living room ebbed and flowed with a tide of casual
conversation and good natured cheer. As the crowd grew more and
more comfortable, the volume of laughter steadily rose and the
clink of glassware became more frequent. Christmas spirit gripped
the island and for tonight at least, most thoughts turned away from
the arena to find welcome respite in the festive season.

Prominently
placed in front of one of the expansive windows overlooking the
north lawn where Max and Kris trained, stood the Christmas tree,
the angel crowning its peak looking down on the gathering, its
glitter encrusted halo flecking the ceiling with blinking
starlight.

Silver trays of
Christmas cake, candy canes and rum balls adorned the sideboards
and side tables, while the coffee table had become the serve
yourself bar with various forms of spirits lined up next to a broad
bank of glass tumblers. Beside the tumblers stood a metal ice tub,
accommodating glistening bottles of genuine French champagne, while
nestled in amongst it all was a large, glass bowl of punch, the
sweet, orange-coloured cocktail brimming with large chunks of fresh
citrus fruit.

Dinner had come
and gone and many of the residents and workers in the household had
now convened to toast the beginning of the Christmas season. Most
people clustered inside the living room where the air conditioning
held the sultry evening heat at bay, while out on the balcony there
stood a single person.

Prime Minister
Joseph Tollsen leaned silently against the railing, looking back
into the room over the open threshold, his hands in his pockets and
his wooden pipe stuck between his lips. It was hard to tell from a
distance, but up close, a gentle curling of the corners of his
mouth could be seen, the unconscious smile matching the warmth he
felt in his heart.

Inside, Joe
could see Millie and Jason playing at the feet of the Christmas
tree, scouring the presents for any with their names on them.
Helping them were a handful of other children also staying on the
estate as sons and daughters of some of the support staff. Max and
Elsa were talking to Millie and Jason’s teacher, while over the
back, Kris was sharing a drink with several of the kitchen
staff.

The entire
household had never been called together like this before and Joe
was a little surprised to see just how many people were needed to
make this operation work. Again, another reminder that teamwork is
the key. None of them could do this on their own. A memory flashed
through Joe’s mind as he recalled Max on the Sally Sainsbury show
earlier in the day and his soliloquy, ‘Alone we lose, but together
we win.’ Joe’s smile widened a little more and he nodded to
himself.

Joe then
noticed the crowd part as another figure entered the fray. It could
only be one person and as the parting of the crowd lined up with
his perspective, Joe found Abdullah gliding towards him.

‘
As salam
alaykum
, Joseph,’ Abdullah said stopping in front of him and
bowing slightly, ‘and season’s greetings to you also.’

Joe removed the
pipe from his mouth and extended his hand, which Abdullah accepted
with both of his.

‘And the best
of the season to you also, Your Highness,’ Joe replied. ‘I would
wish you many things right now, but I shall restrain myself to just
one wish in this instance. May we all have peace?’

Abdullah
straightened and nodded. ‘Yes. May we all find peace, my dear
friend?’

‘Can I seek you
out a beverage?’ Joe asked.

‘No thank you.
However, I may attempt some of your Christmas cake a little
later.’

‘My advice is
first check with the kitchen staff, which tray has the alcohol free
recipe. The piece I just had would absolutely not have been to your
liking.’

‘I shall. Thank
you,’ Abdullah replied, stepping forward and next to the Prime
Minister to rest both hands on the railing as he looked over the
distant palms to the star-rich sky. ‘I notice your pipe has become
a more frequent companion in recent months. Does it still provide
as much solace as always?’

Joe looked down
at his pipe in his hand and turned it over, the rich grain of the
wood shining in the hazy light.

‘Yes it does’
Joe said. ‘This pipe is as much a part of my life as any person and
even though I have refrained from lighting a fire in it for four
years now, I do still enjoy the feel and smell of it at close
quarters. As you know, I went through my darkest days with the
support of this old piece of wood and it has never let me down.
Even now as I continue to starve it of sustenance, it fills me with
comfort. Even now as we stare down the end of the world.’

Abdullah turned
and looked at Joseph, enjoying the sight of his close friend lost
in the sight and detail of his most prized possession.

‘It gladdens me
to see you happy at this time, Joseph,’ Abdullah said. ‘You have
worked tirelessly to corral and coordinate our political colleagues
over these last few months and I must say, we have all been
rewarded with wonderful success. In particular, your efforts at the
United Nations Council this last month has been nothing short of
magnificent. Our European counterparts are certainly struggling to
remain united, but you have convinced them that hope lies in unity
rather than isolation.’

Joe unlocked
his gaze from his pipe and turned also to look out over the
darkened edge. ‘It is an age-old message and truth, Abdullah. True
strength lies in unity. Weakness is spawned from isolation.
However, it occurred to me this afternoon that while I
and
you
I might add, have worked tirelessly to hammer home that
truth, we should have just wheeled Max into the council. His
performance today was astonishing.’