Jerome was not in his room. A quick search of the house found him sat on a swing chair on the back porch and deep in conversation with an attractive man with short, black hair, an olive complexion, and a short growth of stubble. Emily watched them for a moment before the thud of the closing door alerted them to her presence.
“I was beginning to think you’d made a break for it,” Emily said to Jerome, the faintest of smiles teasing her lips.
Jerome sat up. His eyes snapped from Emily to the man beside him.
“Hello, I’m Daniel,” the man said in a distinctively European accent. He got up and offered Emily his hand.
“Emily Swanson, pleased to meet you.” She smiled politely, watching as Jerome hopped off the swing seat to join them. “You decided to leave your room then?”
Daniel looked from one to the other. “You two know each other?”
“Oh yes, Emily was the one who dragged me along on this godforsaken trip,” Jerome replied. “But now that you’ve kindly given me a little tour, I’ll admit that perhaps I’ve been a little too quick to judge. The view is quite something, isn’t it Emily?”
“Yes, it is,” Emily replied, noting that Jerome’s gaze was fixed on Daniel rather than the surrounding landscape. “I’ve just been for a walk in the forest. It’s beautiful.”
“This is your first time here?” Daniel’s dark eyes reflected Emily’s features.
She nodded.
“Mine too. I’m hoping a few days out of the city will help reset my stress levels. It’s been a very long time since I took a break.”
“Being a social worker must be exhausting.”
Daniel’s mouth hung open in surprise.
“I was just speaking with Melody,” Emily blurted, her face blushing. “She seems to know a lot about the other guests.”
“Ah, that will teach me to break the rules and talk about work. Imagine if Pamela found out. I’m sure I would be forced to do a walk of shame all the way back to my bike.”
“A motorbike?” Jerome asked, his eyes brightening.
“I’m not a fan of cars.” Daniel turned to Emily. “But yes, being a social worker brings a lot of stress. We get a bad reputation, but all these government cuts aren’t making it easy for anyone. Every day, we see more and more cases coming in. People have no money, no job, their debts are spiralling out of control. Everyone has their breaking point. And even though we don’t have the funding or the resources to deal with them all, the papers say that when a parent hurts their child, it’s our fault that we weren’t there to prevent it.” He paused, his eyebrows knitting together. The brightness Emily had first seen momentarily darkened. “But there I go talking about work again. I’m sorry.”
“I think what you do is very brave,” Emily said. Her thoughts flew back to Phillip. A social worker had been involved with his family until his parents had convinced the system that all was well again. It wasn’t long after that Phillip had shown up to school, unwashed and in last week’s uniform, with a lead-like dullness in his eyes.
“I don’t get all this digital detox crap,” Jerome suddenly said. “My phone is my stress relief, so why take it away from me? Besides, what if I get a call for an audition? I could be missing out on a career-making role.”
“I think not being glued to your phone for a couple of days will be good for you,” Emily said.
Daniel rubbed a hand against his stubble. “I have to agree. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology—look at all the things we can do now that thirty years ago were just science fiction. I can pick up my phone and make a video call to my parents who are two thousand kilometres away in Palermo. If I have a question I just jump on the internet and there’s my answer in less than a second. It’s breathtaking. But the downside is that it’s addictive. We’re all so worried about how many ‘likes’ our latest update will get—but real life doesn’t work that way. Where will we be in even five years? Will we have forgotten how to talk to each other? I’m afraid we’ll become as emotionless as the technology we’re plugged into.”
“I know plenty of people who were like that long before social media came along,” Jerome said.
Emily moved forwards and placed her hands on the porch railings. She watched a pair of birds hop from one treetop to the next. Above the house, the sun shimmered in golden waves. Voices floated on the air, drifting in from the front of the house. Emily cocked her head and heard snippets of Pamela’s welcome speech.
“Looks like the final guest has arrived,” Daniel said. “Perhaps we should say hello.”
Jerome nodded in agreement.
“I think I might take a nap,” Emily said. The knot of anxiety in her chest would not loosen.
Jerome cocked his head. He waited for Daniel to step off the porch, then he said, “But you never nap. You can’t.”
He was right, of course. But while Emily was here, it made sense to at least try. Even if right now, her anxiety laughed at the idea.
“There’s a first time for everything,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “Who knows, by the end of the weekend you might be looking at a whole new me.”