Alex hurried down Beth’s front steps. At the bottom she stopped. The video had taken much longer than expected and the sun had already set, casting the close into darkness. James had fed and bathed the boys but his last text had sounded a little testy. Should she cut across the pristine lawn, perfect as a putting green, or take the carefully positioned pavers that Beth had laid out specifically to stop her precious grass from being trashed? In another life, Alex would have loved to be the kind of house-proud person that cared about every blade of grass, every peel of paint, every inch of rust.
But in this life she didn’t have time.
Removing her heeled sandals, Alex tiptoed across the grass and thought through all she still needed to do.
Firstly, she needed to double-check her socials accounts and make doubly sure that all references to the alleged food poisoning had been explained and responded to. What an epic fail! How could she have been so naive? Baby-brain, clearly.
Secondly, she wanted to nut out a detailed plan of attack for Cara to make sure she got that house. It was the least she could do after nearly ruining the poor woman’s business. Even though it had taken hours to film, the video had at least gone well. Cara and Beth had even been able to make a little joke out of the gastro palaver, in the midst of cooking a mouth-watering Moroccan tagine.
Now across the lawn and onto the nature strip, Alex’s guilt eased a little. The narrow grassy patch was public land and as such Alex felt no shame in walking freely across it. She picked up the pace.
‘Oh shit. What’s that?’
It was a person, that much was clear. A smallish, crying person that Alex had nearly trodden on in her haste to get home.
She leant down and squinted.
‘Talia, what are you doing out here? Are you hiding? I nearly stepped on you.’
The girl got up quickly and wiped her nose with her sleeve, keeping her eyes downcast so that Alex couldn’t quite see into them.
‘Sorry … I … I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ll go now. Bye.’ Talia turned her back on Alex, her shoulders hunched but heaving erratically.
‘Wait. You’re crying. What’s wrong?’ Alex caught up to her and touched her arm. ‘Is there anything I can do?’
The teenager faced her and moonlight glinted off the passage of tears down her face. She’d obviously been crying for quite some time.
‘Mum won’t let me go to the movies with my friends,’ she blurted out. ‘At my last school she was always telling me to make more friends and be more friendly and get my head out of the books, and now, at this new school, I’m doing that and she won’t let me go anywhere.’
‘Did she say why?’ Alex folded her arms.
‘Just that, with the move and everything, we’ve had to spend a lot of money and she says we can’t afford unnecessary extras at the moment.’ Talia used air quotes around the words. ‘But she still has her gym membership, so I guess that’s a necessary extra.’
Alex’s heart twinged. How many times, as a teenager, had she missed friends’ parties because she either had a shift at Macca’s or her parents couldn’t afford the kind of gift or outfit that would allow her to hold her head up with pride? She knew that feeling, but she’d been able to survive it because her parents were always first to make a sacrifice. Yes, Alex had missed a fair few parties but her parents never went to any. She touched Talia’s shoulder. ‘I completely get where you’re coming from and it sounds really shit.’ She paused, trying to remember the things that had helped her at the same age. Not sympathy, that was for sure. But practical help. ‘You know, I meant what I said about babysitting for the boys. Maybe I could talk to your mum again, and that might be a way you can earn your own money.’
‘You’d do that for me?’ The girl’s eyes were round with hope.
‘Of course I would. We are neighbours after all, and I did nearly tread on you. It’s the least I can do.’ She gave what she thought was a reassuring smile, but even in the gloom of the evening she could see the girl was still unsure. ‘Unless you don’t want to babysit, of course,’ she added. ‘The boys can be a handful.’
‘It’s not that,’ Talia started. ‘It’s just … I need to tell you something … About your guinea pig. What really happened to her … You’ve been so nice to me and now I feel really bad about it all.’
Alex took a step back. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It was all my fault,’ she burst out. The streetlight accentuated the shadows on the girl’s face. Half in light. The other half in dark. She wiped at fresh tears that Alex couldn’t quite see. ‘When we arrived, Mum told me that if I wanted to go outside, I had to put Banjo in the cat cage because he’d run through the front door, and, anyway, she asked me to check the letterbox and I opened the door without thinking.’ She swallowed hard. ‘He went straight through my legs and bolted into your garden and a few seconds later he came back with your guinea pig in his mouth.’ The girl shifted her weight like she needed a wee. ‘It was awful, and I ran in to tell Mum but she said I shouldn’t do anything because it would make a bad first impression and you’d hate us, and we could just make it look like Henny wandered into our garden when she didn’t at all.’ Talia buried her face in her hands.
‘So when you came over to offer us help to find Henny, you knew all along she was dead.’
‘Yes,’ wailed Talia. ‘Mum told me not to go, but I wanted you to find her as quickly as possible.’
Alex gulped at the huge ball of pity stuck in her throat. She could have been angry at the child but she wasn’t. She’d never liked the guinea pig that much anyway. Talia, on the other hand … She seemed completely traumatised by the death. But she was only a kid and kids made mistakes. As for Charlie, she definitely should have known better than to make her daughter lie. If Alex was angry at anyone, it was her.
‘Look, Talia, I appreciate you telling me what happened.’ She put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. ‘But you’re not to blame. If Henny was in her hutch like she should have been, then none of this would have happened. It’s as much our fault for not keeping her safe as it is yours. Actually, it’s probably more mine than anyone’s. I knew the boys had left her outside but I was running too late for work to find her.’ Alex squeezed. ‘At least your mistake was entirely accidental.’
‘I should have told you the truth,’ the girl said miserably.
‘You have now, and that’s what matters.’
From: The Primal Guy
Subject: Taking Risks
Dear Prime-Ribs,
Okay, so all the lefty-ladies out there will want to have my balls for breakfast when I say this but I’m gonna say it straight out anyway – men are better at taking risks than women.
There, I said it, and before you hunt me down with your pitchforks, you better hear me out. I got science behind me. Evolutionary science actually. It’s kind of undeniable. The men went out and risked their lives to spear the bison, while the women stayed in the cave to keep the home fires burning.
I mean, look at me. I’m here, on this mind-bending trip, taking risks, making new moves, but it’s all about keeping food on the table (not bread though, right, the carbs!) while Mrs Primal Guy is keeping the home fires burning.
But change is a-comin’. Yes sir. I feel it in the wind. Women are getting out there. Sisters are doing it for themselves. They’re putting food on their own tables, partly ’cause they want to, and partly because their Neanderthal men-folk have let the side down.
Here’s the thing, though. What hasn’t changed are the genes. The ladies just aren’t programmed to take the leaps that men are, so they’re always gonna be a step behind. That’s if you obey your genes. You don’t actually have to, you know.
So – here’s my challenge. To any of the dudettes who read these words of wisdom – I want you to hear this. Take that risk. Run at it. Leap. Jump. Get the biggest air on it that you can.
It’s the only way to touch the stars.
Peace out,
Ryan Devine (AKA the Primal Guy)
PS 20% discount on our 10 day detox teas for WOMEN ONLY this week. Okay, so maybe we can’t actually verify if you’re a woman or not in our online check-out. But there’s this thing called Karma, and she can be a bitch if you lie!