‘Graham’s going to get such a great surprise,’ said Beth. ‘He’s going to totally love his present.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I think it might actually be the best present in the history of the world.’
It was a few days later, and Beth and I were on our way to Graham’s place with Jim and my mum. Mum was carrying a huge chocolate cake, Jim had a plate of chicken wraps, I had a bottle of lemonade and Beth was carrying the best present ever – the drawing of Graham that Jeanie had given us, now looking all fancy in a cool wooden frame.
‘That’s a great present, girls’ said Jim. ‘But you haven’t forgotten Graham’s little … oddity, have you?’
‘Graham’s odd in lots of ways,’ said Beth. ‘That’s why we love him so much.’
‘True,’ said Jim. ‘But I’m just trying to prepare you for the fact that he probably won’t hang that picture on his wall – and I wouldn’t like you to be disappointed, after all your trouble.’
‘Beth and I thought about that,’ I said. ‘But something makes us think that Graham will really, really like this present – and if he doesn’t want to hang it up on the wall, that’s OK too. The frame has a stand, so he can keep it on the table instead.’
‘That drawing is so lovely,’ said Mum. ‘And it’s exactly like the old photographs I’ve seen of Graham when he was little. But where exactly did you girls get it?’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘We—’
‘We found it folded up in the pages of an ancient old book,’ said Beth, smiling her best smile at Mum – the smile that always makes Mum forget to ask any more awkward questions.
‘Well I have to say it’s very thoughtful of you both,’ said Mum. ‘I’m sure Graham will love it. Now let’s walk a bit faster, I think this chocolate might be melting.’
* * *
Graham’s house isn’t all that big, and it seemed like there were a million people packed inside. There were people in the kitchen and the living room and the hall. There were people sitting on the stairs, and even a few in the front garden. There were old people and young people and in-between people. I could hear about ten different languages. Some of Graham’s guests looked like they were dressed up for the fanciest party ever, but others looked like they were headed to the beach. At the top of the stairs a man in a turban was playing a tune on what looked like a snake-charmer’s pipe.
Mum and Jim took the food and lemonade into the kitchen. I could hear people admiring the chocolate cake, and Mum did that thing she always does – ‘Oh, it’s nothing special,’ she said. ‘I just threw it together – and now I’m embarrassed I even brought it.’
Beth and I rolled our eyes and went into the living room.
‘OMG!’ said Beth. ‘Just OMG!’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘There’s so many people here – but you’re not surprised, are you? Graham’s such a—’
‘I’m not talking about the people,’ she said. ‘Look!’
And that’s when I noticed. The walls of Graham’s living room were covered with all kinds of weird and wonderful pictures. There were photographs from his albums, brightly-coloured abstract paintings that looked like things a toddler could draw, and posters of rock bands I’d never even heard of. Graham had gone from having no pictures at all – to having so many it looked like there had been an explosion in an art shop.
‘OMG!’ I said. ‘What’s happened here? It’s like … I don’t even know what it’s like.’
‘We’ve got to find Graham,’ said Beth. ‘We need to know what’s going on here.’
I knew what she was thinking. We all love Graham for his eccentric ways, but now … had he actually gone and lost it completely?
Was this all our fault?
Beth and I had only been trying to help our friend, but maybe the whole trip to 1969 was a huge big mistake?
* * *
In the end we found Graham in the back garden, just finishing a chat with two women from the refugee support centre. They were talking about stuff that sounded really important, which was also really boring. Beth and I smiled and nodded for a bit, until the women decided to go back inside. ‘I heard there’s a wonderful chocolate cake,’ we heard one of them saying as they got to the kitchen door.
Beth and I hugged Graham. ‘Happy birthday,’ we said together.
‘I guess you’re twenty-one again,’ I said. ‘Like every single grown-up we know.’
‘Not at all,’ said Graham. ‘I’m seventy years old and proud of it. It took a lot of hard work to get where I am, and I’m definitely not going to lie about it now that I’ve made it this far.’
I knew we might only have a few minutes of Graham to ourselves, so I got straight to the point.
‘Can we ask you something, Graham?’ I said.
‘Of course you can. I am always ready to answer your questions,’ he said, making me wonder if he was really a proper, paid-up member of the grown-ups club. Wasn’t he supposed to make excuses and promise to talk to us later?
‘Well, Beth and I … we’ve always wondered why you never had any pictures on your walls,’ I said.
‘And now that we’ve seen your walls today,’ said Beth. ‘Molly and I are wondering what’s suddenly changed? How did you go from no pictures to a million pictures overnight?’
‘That’s actually two questions,’ said Graham, smiling. ‘But it’s my birthday today, and I’m in a good mood – so I’m going to answer both of them.’
‘You’re always in a good mood,’ I said. ‘Well, nearly always, anyway. Will you answer my question first?’
‘Well,’ said Graham. ‘Firstly, I’m surprised you actually noticed the lack of wall decorations in my home.’
I giggled. ‘Everyone noticed – but I guess we were all too polite to say anything.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Graham. ‘Sometimes I wonder if people can be too polite. Anyway, in answer to your question, the reason for my picture-free state is Jeanie.’
‘Jeanie?’ Beth and I said the word together.
‘Yes,’ said Graham. ‘You see, as you both know, I’ve spent most of my life filled with guilt because of Jeanie’s blindness – and what I thought was my part in causing it. That has affected me in many, many ways. So whenever I found a beautiful picture, my first thought was that Jeanie would never be able to see or to enjoy it.’
‘That’s so sweet,’ said Beth. ‘And so sad.’
‘Maybe part of me even dreamed that one day Jeanie would visit my home,’ said Graham. ‘And if she did, I wanted to know that she would be able to enjoy it as much as I did. I made sure that all the nice things in my home could be experienced by touch or smell or sound or taste.’
‘And that’s why you never hung up any pictures,’ I said. ‘Even though you have heaps of ornaments – that Jeanie could feel with her hands.’
‘Exactly,’ said Graham.
‘And now everything’s changed,’ said Beth. ‘Now you know that Jeanie’s blindness isn’t your fault – you’ve turned your walls into, er … very colourful surfaces.’
‘Well,’ said Graham. ‘You’re half right. But there’s more to it than what you say. You see, after meeting Jeanie, I realised that even if I were guilty of hurting her, even then she wouldn’t have wanted me to change my life because of that. She would have wanted me to enjoy everything – even things she could never experience again. Now I remember exactly how warm and generous that girl was – and I understand that I’ve been rather foolish.’
‘You’re so not a fool, said Beth, hugging him.
‘Thank you, Beth,’ said Graham. ‘It might not surprise you girls to hear that I’ve been thinking a lot about Jeanie over the past few days – and I’ve come to understand a few things.’
‘Like what?’ I asked.
‘Well,’ said Graham. ‘I wish I’d never lost her, but it’s too late to change that now. Regret is useless. So I’ve been thinking more about the ways in which Jeanie changed my life. Losing her was hard, but it showed me how fleeting happiness can be. It showed me that I should grab life with both hands, and enjoy every single second of it. Thanks to Jeanie, I’ve had some wonderful experiences – and I like to think I’ve got a few adventures left in me too.’
‘Yay!’ I said. ‘We need you to go back to China to pick up some more of that blooming tea – I so want more of that totally delicious vanilla and lemon one.’
‘And there’s something else too,’ said Graham. ‘I think that knowing Jeanie has made me more accepting of others.’
‘How do you mean?’ asked Beth.
‘Well, Jeanie came from a very strict, narrow-minded family. When she was very young, she believed her parents’ prejudiced views of other people, but as she grew towards her teens, she pulled away from that kind of thinking. She had a wonderful, refreshing openness to people. I like to think that …’
‘Judging by your party guests, I think Jeanie might have passed that on to you all right,’ I said, as I looked back to the house, where a homeless man, two kids, and the manager of the local bank were starting a conga line.
‘Oh,’ said Beth. ‘Speaking of parties, we nearly forgot to give you your present.’
‘You know your presence is present enough for me,’ said Graham. ‘But since you seem to have something wrapped up in that divine green and pink paper …?’
We handed over the parcel and Graham ripped the paper off like an excited little kid. Then he held the picture and looked at it for a very long time. A few tears appeared at the corner of his eyes, and I hoped they were happy tears. Finally he wiped his eyes and gave us a huge smile.
‘You wonderful, wonderful girls,’ he said. ‘I’m presuming you got this from Jeanie, and I’m not sure I even want to know what kind of story you told her first.’
‘Oh,’ said Beth. ‘We just told her the truth. We said we knew someone who’d be very happy to see it – and I think maybe we were right.’
‘You were so very right,’ said Graham. ‘I’ll find a space on my wall and I’m going to hang this where I can see it every single day.’
‘So it doesn’t make you sad?’ I asked.
‘Absolutely not,’ said Graham. ‘I know I’ll never see Jeanie again, but I’m a lucky man that I knew her once – and she will always be part of my life. Now why don’t we go inside? I think it’s time we showed those young people how to do The Twist.’
* * *
That evening, Mum and Jim said Beth and I could go out for an hour before bed.
‘Where’ll we go? I said as we went out the front door.
‘We could go for milkshakes?’ suggested Beth.
‘That’s a great—’ Then I stopped. ‘Actually there’s something I want to do more than getting milkshakes.’
‘Yess!’ said Beth when I told her. ‘Let’s do that.’
So we went to the park and climbed up to the monument twenty times, and twenty times we rolled to the bottom of the hill, and we laughed till we cried, and some of the cool kids from our class saw us and we didn’t even care.
