Absolution(38)

“Okay, yeah. I’ll call you later.”

“I hope he’s gone,” he said, as they made their way to the door. “I gave him plenty of reason to. I just hope he did the right thing this time. She doesn’t need this crap.”

“I agree.”

“You know we’re gonna have to clean up his mess again if he has gone.”

Maggie bit her lip, frowning. “Yeah. I know.”





CHAPTER 7




“It has been said ‘time heals all wounds’. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.”

- Rose Kennedy




Callum drove slowly down the street, checking the rear-view mirror. If he’d been a religious man, he would’ve prayed. As he approached Tom’s house, he almost forgot to breathe. The neighbour’s tree obscured his view of the driveway from this angle, but as he got closer, he saw Jack’s car was still there.

“Damn it!”

He debated whether or not he should pull over and talk to him again, but recklessly he jammed his foot down on the accelerator instead. He roared past, head down, eyes fixed on the suburban street once more. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he pulled up to the intersection at the end of the street.

“Now what?” he mumbled to himself, glancing in the rear-view mirror once more.

The silence was deafening.



The little diner was busy. Ally glanced around, there in body but not in spirit. The peace of mind she’d craved when she’d decided to go and talk to Jack still eluded her. Her mood seemed to see-saw between relief that they had been able to talk alone finally, to confusion at what he had to say. Smack in the middle of that war of emotions was the almost maternal need to protect him – from Callum’s anger, from the guilt he seemed determined to shoulder, from everything. It was a heady mix.

She found herself reflecting on the complexity of the universe during the hours before dawn. After the accident, everything was different. Every day was a challenge and once the dust began to settle, she realised how far-reaching the consequences of what happened really were. Jack left. Callum spent almost every waking moment with her, and if he wasn’t there, Maggie or Tom were. Callum and Jane broke up. Callum sold his beloved van. She couldn’t help but feel responsible.

The only way she could control things was to try and minimise the negative effect she was having on the lives of everyone she loved. She stopped venting her frustrations and began internalising them instead.

She understood why everyone seemed determined to keep her and Jack apart, but it wasn’t helping. She needed to talk to him, and she needed him to answer her – properly, with words that made sense to her, not the half-hearted, vague explanations he had offered the other day. The only thing she took away from that conversation was that he shouldered an insane amount of guilt over the accident. She needed more. What happened to him over the past four years? Where did he go? She was determined to get answers. Anything had to be better than not knowing.

“Hey, you gonna eat that cake or not?”

“Help yourself, I’m not really hungry.”

She slid her plate across the table. Glancing casually sideways, the quiet chatter at the next table over stopped momentarily. Guilty looks accompanied the silence and anger bubbled up from inside of her. She tried to ignore it, watching as Maggie helped herself to her slice of cake. The chatter started up again in hushed, exaggerated whispers. She heard Jack’s name and she turned her attention back to the window, trying to block it out.

The street outside was busy with people going about their daily routine. Cars pulled in and out of the parking lot outside the diner. An elderly man walked his dog across the street. A mother scolded a toddler with bouncing blonde curls, holding onto her hand tightly as she scanned the busy street for a safe time to cross.

“Okay, that’s enough. Speak.”

Ally still scanned the street outside. “I hate this.”

“What?”

“This,” Ally said, tearing herself away from the window. She leaned forward, frowning as her gaze encompassed the crowded diner. “The gossiping, the idle chit-chat. Can’t they just leave it alone for once?”

Maggie pushed the plate away and dabbed her lips lightly with the paper napkin, balling it up and throwing it onto the plate with the remnants of the cake.