Chapter Seven

The Next Doors

 

 

A YELLOW SCHOOL bus dropped Cara back at the entrance of Dream Ranches every day at five. On the afternoons that Lea took her car to the mall, she drove by the school and collected her daughter. The low white building that housed the classrooms sat in a perfect oblong of brilliant green lawn, surrounded by acres of beige rock and dust.

Cara stood waiting beneath a flat-topped acacia tree, whispering conspiratorially into her phone. Her pale skin had darkened to a permanent soft brown tan, her hair lightening to dirty blond, and regular immersion in seawater had thickened it. Ever since she had been small, she’d rubbed the knuckle of her thumb against her chin when she was stressed. Out here she had suddenly dropped the habit. Her new physicality had become readily apparent, and—shock of shocks—she had started using the school gym most mornings. Perhaps this was what she had needed all along.

‘You have to get a haircut,’ Lea said, pushing open the car door. ‘You’re starting to look like a surfer-chick.’

Cara got in. ‘I’m not going to catch a wave around here. The sea’s like glass.’

‘There’s surf at the Hilton Beach.’

‘It’s mechanical, it’s not the same. Can we take Norah with us?’ She pointed to a girl hanging back by the bushes. ‘She just needs to get to the Arabia Mall.’

‘Hi,’ said Lea, checking her rear-view mirror, ‘I’m Cara’s mother, Lea.’

Norah shot back a salute, two middle fingers from her eyebrow ring, but remained silent. She wore a black woollen cap and heavy black jeans, despite the heat, and went back to checking her emails.

‘Norah lives next door to us,’ said Cara. ‘She’s been away with her folks in America.’

‘I’m looking forward to meeting your family, Norah,’ said Lea.

‘Yeah.’ Norah continued texting, and didn’t look up again until they reached the underground car park at the mall. The girls climbed out.

‘Well,’ said Lea, ‘it was nice meeting you.’ But Norah had already gone, loping toward the elevator bank with Cara in her wake. ‘Bye, then,’ she said to herself. So Norah’s the cool new pal she can’t tear herself away from, she thought. I guess they find more to talk about when I’m not there.

The next morning at 11:00am on the dot, Lea opened her front door to a tall, burnished blonde in her mid-forties, too studiedly thin, with a turned-up nose and a smile that revealed a palisade of artificially whitened teeth.

‘I hear you met my oldest daughter yesterday,’ she said, stepping inside without waiting to be invited, ‘We’re the Next Doors. I’m Colette Larvin. I thought I should drop by and apologise for her. Not that I suppose she said anything.’

‘She was probably shy,’ Lea suggested, as Lastri once more scurried off to begin the mid-morning ritual of setting out coffee and cake.

Colette recognized the remark as politeness and waved it aside. ‘You couldn’t shut her up when she was small. Then she hit her teen years and turned into a deaf-mute. Occasionally I manage to starve her into conversation. Stopping her privileges works too. Sometimes I hide her laptop charger.’

‘Mine’s the same.’

‘Seems like they’re already great friends. What are you doing here?’

‘Oh, I’m—what do they call it?—trailing…’

‘Trailing spouse. Me too. Ben is one of the DWG planners. He specialises in electronics, how to fit them into buildings. I think he’s going to be working with your husband. Something about marble—ring any bells?’

‘Believe me, I’ve heard all about it.’

Colette flopped down onto the couch. ‘We’re so sorry we missed your arrival. I’d have been here with the welcome wagon. We were visiting my family in Columbus. But don’t worry, you’ll hear us now we’re back. Rachel’s a little deaf and tends to shout. Don’t mention it, though, because she’s convinced nobody notices.’

‘Rachel’s your other daughter?’

‘No, That’s Abbi. Rachel is my mother-in-law. She insisted on coming out with us to look after the children, but she hates the sun.’

‘So the company paid for all five of you to come here?’

Colette laughed. ‘They must value Ben’s ability to get the job done. He’s putting in crazy hours, shedding weight, going grey, stressed to the max, although weirdly he’s looking kind of hot these days. If this keeps up I’ll be pestering him for sex.’

‘It seems like they have a pretty big responsibility.’

‘Tell me about it. Dream World starts losing around seven million dollars each day it goes past the opening deadline.’

Lastri’s strong coffee and Arabic cakes appeared, set out in their usual place. Lea checked her watch and noticed that she was setting it out at exactly the same time every morning. Clearly the neighbours knew how the system worked and arrived accordingly, subconsciously controlled by their maids and gardeners.

‘I’m glad Cara and Norah have hooked up,’ said Colette. ‘Norah runs her computer club most weeknights. We don’t see her much—Abbi’s the homebody— but at least I can be sure she’s not getting into trouble now.’

‘Why, did she have a habit of getting into trouble?’

‘You’re kidding. We had her on Ritalin for years. We were both out at work and it got too tricky raising children without pharmaceutical help.’

Lea wasn’t sure about putting children on medication. It reminded her of Victorians dosing their babies with laudanum. She changed the subject. ‘So you’ve been here for a while?’

Colette helped herself to a miniscule sliver of cake. ‘Two years, nine months and counting. Ben’s on an open-ended contract.’

‘So you’ll stay after the opening.’

‘If everything goes well and the consortium decides to go ahead with the DWG project in Athens we may stay with them, depending on the girls’ schooling. I told Ben I won’t do Africa, no matter how much they promise to sort out their power supply. Things have been a little strained here since the bombs.’

‘There were bombs?’

‘Didn’t they tell you? Only a couple exploded, they were just low-level pipe-bombs, but no warning was given. Protest groups have to give warning call signs. One of the site foremen found them by the reservoir.’

‘Who do you think put them there?’

‘The cops arrested some Indian workers on the site. It’s convenient for everyone. They’re always upset about working conditions.’ She set down her cup and glanced back at Lastri, lowering her voice. ‘How are you getting along with your maid?’

‘I’m not used to this kind of thing,’ Lea admitted. ‘It feels weird having her around all the time. I don’t need any help running the place. It’s not like anything gets dirty.’

‘You say that now, but you’ll come to depend on her,’ said Colette. ‘You should be careful what you say when they’re in the room. I heard that some of them report back to the police. There’s a rule around here; what happens in the compound stays in the compound.’

‘Why? What’s likely to happen?’

‘A few months back, there was supposedly an attempt by Muslim extremists to radicalise the area, and security was tightened. I mean, we all heard about it but nobody saw anything first-hand. And the maids—suddenly half of them disappeared and were replaced. These new girls just turned up on Monday morning and nobody said a word. It’s like we weren’t supposed to have noticed. You hear some pretty odd things and never get to find out if they’re true.’

‘Milo was regaling me with his fund of horror stories yesterday.’

Colette sat back sharply. ‘Oh, we all talk too much, and a lot of it’s just gossip. Actually it’s kind of zen here, a blank slate you can write what you like on. Listen, did you get yourself a drinking licence?’

‘No, do I need one?’

‘Ex-pats need an alcohol licence to drink, even at home. The police don’t check, but you should get one just in case. Sometimes we do booze-runs to Sharjah and the cops wait to issue us with tickets on the way back.’

‘You mean they know what’s going on?’

‘Sure, it’s all just a big game to remind us that we’re only guests. Speaking of booze, I came over to tell you we’re throwing a welcome bash for you on Saturday. I hope the date’s okay? We’re using your arrival as an excuse for a party. If Ben can get off work he’ll fire up the barbecue. He likes to do it himself. A man is at his happiest when he’s poking a fire with a stick. Rachel and I will do the invitations, and the maids can handle the catering. You have to agree you’ll be there. It’ll be too hot if we leave it until next month.’

‘That’s great,’ said Lea, ‘We’d love to come.’

‘I’m sure we’re going to be good friends.’ Colette rose to leave. ‘People will want to tell you things. Don’t believe everything you hear. I have to get back. It’s cookery class this afternoon. I always look forward to it. Has anyone enrolled you in the Pastry Club?’