Ryan tossed it over his shoulder.
As he drove off, Maddie’s hand was once again caressing his thigh.
*
Nel shifted on the hard wooden pew and tried to refocus on Geoff’s speech, but she was rattled by the memory.She thought of Sophie.Was she here too?
‘So thank you, Rob,’ Geoff went on, ‘for your wonderful conversation, your offbeat sense of humour, your listening ear, your wise counsel, and your unwavering support and friendship over the years.I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone here when I say … thank you.’He looked at the coffin.‘Godspeed, Rob.’He lowered his head and walked back to his seat.
Nel was desperate to look back at Ryan—to see if she was imagining the smirk and whether Sophie was by his side—but she didn’t dare.Lauren was reading now.Nel zoned in on the words of the poem, trying to think of her father instead of Ryan Warner.
‘Death is nothing at all,’ Lauren read.‘It does not count.I have only slipped away into the next room.Nothing has happened.’
Nel felt a rush of heat in her body.Death isnothing at all?Tell that to Faye and Geoff.Maddie wasn’t in thenext room, she was gone, and now Nel’s father was gone too.She thought about what Lauren had said, that she’d made herself into a fugitive.It wasn’t true.She’d done nothing to deserve the hand she was dealt.She’d had no choice but to leave, and now she was basically a stranger.
She turned around again and looked at Ryan.She could see a lock of blonde hair by his side, but if it was Sophie, her face was obscured by a large man sitting in front.Ryan’s eyes met Nel’s again.This time she stared him down, pinning him with her glare until everything but his dark eyes was a blur.Until he looked away.
‘All is well.Nothing is hurt, nothing is lost,’ Lauren read.‘One brief moment and all will be as it was before.How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!’
Nel bristled at the idiotic sentiment as Lauren walked solemnly back to her seat.
After a final blessing, the priest asked the family to come forward to escort the coffin from the church.Nel walked by her mother’s side, behind the coffin, eyes down as they made their way up the aisle.
She squinted in the glare as they stepped outside and stood to one side, watching the mourners spilling from the church doors onto the steps.She scanned for Ryan but couldn’t see him, thank god.She was bracing herself for the inevitable encounters with people from her past when a familiar face appeared.
‘Hey there, old friend,’ Jimmy said, dark eyes shining.
Tears welled in her eyes as he pulled her into a hug, her face pressed against the collar of his jacket.
‘You did good, sweetheart,’ he said when they parted.‘That was tough.’
She nodded, looking at him through tears.He’d changed since she’d last seen him, but that must be over a decade ago, she realised now, when their paths had crossed in Sydney.He seemed taller, although maybe it was actually that he was broader, more solid.His curls were just as she remembered them, but his easy smile was now on the tanned face of a man, rather than a boy.
‘I got you something,’ he said, putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out a Caramello Koala.He’d first given her one the day after she ran from history and hid in the toilets.When she’d arrived in class, wishing she was invisible, he’d slipped the chocolate onto her desk.
She took the small yellow packet, shaking her head.‘Please tell me you’re coming to the wake?’
‘Wouldn’t miss it.’
She exhaled.It would be bearable if he was there.Just.
Nearby, an undertaker spoke to Lauren, pointing to his watch.Nel looked back at Jimmy.‘It’s just the family going to the burial, so I’ll see you there soon.’
The priest shuffled forward as the coffin was lowered into the ground.Behind him, the sea was a cold grey.Nel shivered, crossing her arms tightly against the bracing wind.Lauren, who stood beside her in a full-length puffer, gave Nel’s woefully inadequate leather jacket a withering look, then she took off her woollen scarf and passed it to her.Nel took it gratefully, wrapping it twice around her neck so that it covered her chin.
‘In the name of God, the merciful Father, we commit the body of Robert John Foley to the peace of the grave.’
They threw handfuls of dirt onto the coffin as a kookaburra laughed raucously in a gum tree overhead.
Chapter 14
Nel pulled into an empty space at the surf club car park and cut the engine, but she and Cath just sat there, motionless.The ocean churned, the colour of steel, under a heavy sky.Cath stared out to sea, but Nel suspected she wasn’t seeing it at all.
An elderly couple walked across the car park towards the building, their bodies bent into the wind.Nel had seen the man at the clinic the day before.His long white hair, which had been carefully combed over his bald crown the previous day, was standing up like a sail, caught by a strong gust of wind.
She looked back at her mother.‘You okay, Mum?’
Cath gave her a resolute nod as Lauren appeared at her window and opened the door.
