‘Please.Do it for your dad.’Cath’s eyes shone.‘He spent thirty years building that practice.’
Nel sighed.‘I just … If I’m honest, Mum, I don’t know that I can handle it.The rumours will start again the minute people know I’m back here.I can cope with that for a week, but …’
‘For god’s sake, Nel!’Cath snapped.‘Sixteen years have passed.People have moved on!’
‘Sixteen years is like six months in a place like this.’
‘Rubbish!’Cath shook her head as though she’d never heard such nonsense.‘Will you at least stay until I can get a locum?’
Nel covered her face with her hands.Every instinct told her to go, to get out of here as soon as possible, but how could she say no?
Cath’s tone softened.‘It might be good for you.I know you’ve never got over what happened to Maddie.Maybe this is your chance to come to terms with the past and let it go.’A long silence.‘Please?’There was an awful vulnerability in her mum’s voice.
‘I’ll stay for a couple of weeks,’ Nel said, ‘until you can get a locum.’
But it wasn’t the answer her mother wanted.‘That’s better than nothing, I suppose,’ she muttered, getting up to leave.When she reached the door, she looked back at Nel.‘You know, Geoff and Faye weren’t the only ones who lost a daughter.’
She turned away and closed the door behind her.
Nel exhaled and lay back.Guilt sat heavily in her stomach.Was her mum right?Had people moved on?Time was so strange.Sixteen years was both a lifetime and a heartbeat.
It was weird, being back in this room.Unsettling.The past felt too close.Nel looked around, trying to find the source of heruneasiness.Her eyes landed on the needlepoint.Home Sweet Home!God.Sweet wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind.She lifted it off the wall and stashed it in the wardrobe, but she didn’t feel any better.
A strange sensation came over her.The sense that she wasn’t completely alone.It was as though the ghosts of her younger selves were here too.All of them.She pictured herself at five, tucked up under her Buzz Lightyear quilt cover, and then at ten, mesmerised by the glow-in-the-dark stars she’d begged her dad to stick to the ceiling.She could just make out the places where the plaster had chipped when they were removed, years later.Her eyes moved over the walls, picturing the posters that had adorned them.She and Maddie would lie right here, side by side, admiring Robert Pattinson’s brooding eyes and Zac Efron’s rippling abs, debating who was hotter.
Memories of Maddie rushed to the surface, thick and fast, jostling for her attention.She’d spent years tamping them down, locking them away, but now that she was back, it was as though they’d been unlocked.Nel put a hand on her forehead and rolled onto her side, staring at the empty space on the floor where Maddie would sleep on an air mattress.They would talk for half the night, until Cath would lose her patience and threaten to separate them.Nel lifted her hand, looking at the lines on her palm.
*
‘Give me your hand,’ Maddie said.‘I’ll read your future.’
Nel didn’t believe in crap like that, but she extended her hand anyway.
Maddie studied the lines, running her long fingers over Nel’s outstretched palm.‘That’s interesting.’She frowned and raised one eyebrow.Ever the performer.
‘What?’Nel said, rolling her eyes.
‘Are you sure you want to know?’Maddie’s tone was low, ominous.
Nel laughed and snatched her hand back.‘You have no idea what you’re doing!’
Maddie pretended to be hurt.‘I do so!My auntie taught me.’She had been obsessed with all sorts of weird stuff since her aunt had visited in the school holidays.
Nel gave a nonchalant shrug, but she was a little curious.‘All right, what does it say then?’
‘You have no fate line.’
‘What does that mean?’Nel asked, humouring her.It meant nothing.Obviously.
‘It means your life won’t be controlled by fate.You’ll choose your own path.’
‘Well, I don’t believe in fate, so I guess that makes sense,’ Nel said.‘Do you have one?’
‘Yes.’Maddie unfurled her own hand and ran her finger over the deep line that ran from the base of her palm all the way to her fingers.‘Mine’s strong.Auntie Jess said there’s something big in store for me.’She looked back at Nel’s palm and traced the deep crease across the middle.‘This is your head line.See how deep it is?’
‘Yes.’
‘That means you’re very smart and focused.’
