I FINALLY CAME TO THE END OF MY STORY and I looked at Spencer and Ana. “What happened next?” Spencer asked and Ana nodded.
“Dr. Carroll fulfilled Amelia’s prophecy and became a revered hero in prison. D.T.O.T. became a cult movement with thousands of fans all over the world. He got a life sentence, but he still managed to have a weekly reality TV show and he published another three books about D.T.O.T. in action; case studies which he conducted in the prison to support his hypothesis. Prison inmates became compliant, helpful, and charitable, and Dr. Carroll was soon appointed as a representative on the board of directors.”
“You know, I do remember reading about him, the loony tune,” Spencer said. “As far as I know, he’s still going strong.”
I nodded. “He is. His wife and children recovered and left the country to go and live in New Mexico. Mrs. Carroll never remarried and became a recluse, supported financially by the Foundation of Psychiatrists of North America. Jason’s a wildlife conservationist, while Bella is a chartered accountant for a legal firm in New York.”
“And what about Henry?” Spencer asked.
“He’s still publishing poetry. He left his mansion in Rosedale and moved in with Ethel and Megan,” I said. “That was where I saw him when I went to visit Amelia. Ethel got her good health back and she carried on playing bingo and took up lawn bowling. Megan cut down on her bodybuilding and became a yoga instructor instead, and when I saw her, she had stopped smoking and she wasn’t orange anymore.”
“What about Mike and Amelia?” Ana asked. “Did they stay together?”
I shook my head. “Mike realized that he and Amelia didn’t have much in common and he went back to Jane who was very forgiving after everything he had gone through with Dr. Carroll. Mike and Amelia stayed in touch and she told me that Mike was so relieved to have his normal, safe life returned to him that he never had a problem speaking in public again. She said that Mike joked that more than a few people had remarked that it was hard to shut him up, so Dr. Carroll had been right about that. Amelia wasn’t broken-hearted that he went back to Jane. I think she was quite relieved actually.”
“And the other members of the group?” Spencer asked.
“Amelia told me that Whitney came clean to her husband about her affairs with Alexei and Joanne and not only did he forgive her, he suggested they tried swinging and it worked so well that Whitney never had another day of depression. David went to Vancouver and started a new life and married a woman with two small boys and he is very happy. But not everybody had a happy ending. Persephone’s anxiety got worse until she was admitted as an inpatient and she’s still in hospital. And, oh the horror, Ainsley’s worse fears came true and her finger was cut off and her wedding and engagement rings were stolen. She was on honeymoon in Africa and she came out of it kind of okay but she has refused to wear jewellery ever again, and she won’t ever leave Canada again for a holiday either.”
“What a bunch!” Spencer commented, grinning. “And the big Russian with anger-management issues? I liked him.”
“Shannon and Alexei hit it off and they got married. Shannon never came to grips with her claustrophobia, but Alexei did stop fighting the world and having sex with random women. Joanne met a human-rights lawyer who liked world travel and Siamese cats, and they were still together the last time I saw Amelia.”
“And what about Amelia?” Ana asked. “What happened to her?”
“She finished her thesis and got her doctorate in literary metaphorical comparisons between historical figures and classical playwrights.”
“She couldn’t have been too dim-witted,” Ana commented and I nodded.
“She was a clever girl, she just wasn’t as up-there as Henry. I left university before she did and we lost touch but I heard she went to France after she graduated, to visit the village where Joan of Arc was born. I should try to get in touch with her again, see what she’s up to. My bet is that she will have done everything she ever wanted to, in exactly the way she wanted to. Well, nearly, anyway.”
“Speaking of nearly,” Spencer said, getting up and smoothing his trousers. “It’s nearly time for our meeting. Let’s go and knock this one out the ballpark, no nearlys about it.”
We followed him out into the freezing rain of the dark November day, and I suddenly had a vision of Amelia. She was wearing a thin yellow cotton summer dress and she was soaked to the bone, running along the stormy beachfront with the waves crashing wild and high against the rocks. Coal-black clouds swirled up above like swallow murmurations, and in her hand she held a bunch of jostling red helium balloons, while a giant golden retriever bounded along beside her. Amelia was smiling from ear to ear.