Truly Madly Guilty(90)

The day of the barbeque

Tiffany registered the sudden, eerie, whisper-quietness of her neighbourhood. The police and the paramedics and the helicopter had all left. Sunday night in the suburbs. Time for homework and ironing and 60 Minutes.

It was dark now. The streetlights were on. They stood in the front yard. Tiffany was about to drive Clementine to the hospital. She had her car keys ready in the palm of her hand. Only one parent had been allowed to go in the helicopter with Ruby and Sam had gone, which meant Clementine had to get to the hospital on her own.

‘I’ll drive myself,’ said Clementine now. She must have been running fingers through her hair, because it stood out in a mad halo around her head, like she’d had an electric shock.

‘No, you won’t. You’re probably over the limit anyway,’ said Tiffany.

‘Haven’t you been drinking?’ said Clementine.

‘I only had one light beer,’ said Tiffany.

‘Oh,’ said Clementine. She chewed her lip and Tiffany saw that she’d drawn blood. ‘Right.’

The plan was for Oliver and Erika to take care of Holly, just Oliver really, because Erika was clearly not quite right, although she’d finally stopped shaking.

‘I’ll get these two ladies onto the couch with a DVD and some popcorn,’ said Oliver. The poor man was still in wet clothes himself.

Clementine suddenly threw her arms so violently around Oliver she nearly knocked him off balance. ‘I haven’t even said thank you,’ she said into his chest. ‘I haven’t even thanked you both.’ Her voice was so full of raw emotion it was almost painful to hear.

She reached an arm out to Erika, to hug her too, but Erika stepped away. ‘Fix your hair, Clementine,’ she said. She smoothed down the strands of hair around Clementine’s face with both hands. ‘You’ll scare Ruby. You look like a witch.’

‘Thanks,’ said Clementine with a shaky breath. ‘Right.’

She bent down to Holly’s height. ‘You be a good girl for Erika and Oliver, okay? And, um, you might get to stay with Grandma tonight!’

‘Hooray!’ said Holly. She stopped. ‘And Ruby too?’

‘I think it will be just you tonight, Holly,’ said Clementine. She looked up at the sky where the helicopter had just disappeared and pulled her cardigan tighter around her. Holly stared up at her mother and her lower lip trembled.

‘Let’s go, Holly,’ said Oliver, taking her hand. He looked at Tiffany. ‘Er. Thank you for your hospitality, Tiffany. Vid.’

Vid slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Mate.’

Oliver hurried Holly off down the driveway, telling her about the movie they were about to see.

‘You’ll call us?’ Erika put her hand on Clementine’s arm, and Tiffany could see that this was her version of a hug. Her sister Karen was exactly the same.

‘I can’t believe she’s in that helicopter right now.’ Clementine stared at the sky. ‘I should have been the one to go with her, not Sam. I don’t know why I let him go – what if, what if …’

‘Snap out of it,’ said Erika. ‘Who cares who went in the helicopter? She’s sedated. She won’t even remember it. Off you go. Do I need to slap you across the face?’

‘What?’ Clementine blinked. ‘No!’

‘So call us, okay?’ said Erika.

‘Of course I’ll call you,’ said Clementine snippily.

They really were like sisters.

As Erika followed Oliver and Holly down the driveway, in bare feet, her wet shoes in her hand, Vid came from inside with Tiffany’s wallet, followed by Dakota.

‘Well. So. We hope little Ruby is all good, back to her little monkey self in no time. I’m sure she will be,’ said Vid to Clementine. ‘You have private health cover, right? Tell them you want the best doctors. No trainees.’

Poor Vid. He didn’t shine at times like these. Tiffany could see the tension in his shoulders, as if he were squaring up for a fight. It was like his entire body resisted negative emotion.

Clementine studied Vid. Her face twisted with some unreadable emotion.

‘Yes,’ she said formally. ‘Thank you.’ She looked at Tiffany. ‘Can we –’

‘Of course,’ said Tiffany. She pointed the remote on her key ring at the garage door to open it, and as she did she saw Dakota bravely open her mouth and start to say something to Clementine, but Clementine walked straight past Dakota, her eyes on the car, clearly desperate to get to the hospital as fast as she could.





chapter fifty-six



‘I’m just going to pop over next door for a moment,’ said Erika to Oliver when she got home. ‘My psychologist thinks the best way to get my memory back is to “return to the scene of the crime”, so to speak.’

‘There was no crime,’ said Oliver thickly. He was up and dressed and sucking on a cough lolly.

‘It’s a figure of speech,’ said Erika. ‘That’s why I said, so to speak.’

‘I don’t think Vid and Tiffany are home at the moment,’ said Oliver. ‘I saw their car leave as you were coming in.’

‘I know. I saw it too. I’d actually rather go over when they’re not there,’ said Erika. ‘Less distracting.’