Authors: Christopher George
Mum was waiting for me in the kitchen. She’d already made herself a bowl of cereal and had left the box and the milk on the counter for me.
“Were you on the phone to your girlfriend before?” Mum pressed.
“Yeah, were you listening in on my calls again? You promised you’d stop doing that!” I grumbled.
I’d already come to the conclusion that she hadn’t heard what we were saying – if she had heard the conversation, I doubted that would be the question that she’d open with.
“I wasn’t listening, just heard you as I walked past,” Mum protested. “Although I must say I like Tina, she seems good for you – a stable influence. I heard that she’s going to do Medicine at Melbourne University.”
“Um, actually it’s not Tina. We broke up,” I grunted as I sat at the table.
“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that,” Mum commented.
“It’s okay,” I replied, “just wasn’t meant to be.”
“So who’s the new girl then?”
“Her name is Renee,” I replied.
“…And?”
“I like her,” I replied, not in the mood for an interrogation.
“Do I get to meet her?”
“It’s a little soon for that.” I shrugged.
“Does she go to your school?”
“No, she lives in the city,” I replied.
“Oh,” Mum replied simply.
“I’m going to go see her tonight.”
“Really?”
“Is that a problem?”.
“Well, no, but your father is away this weekend, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s an awfully long way to come back here afterwards.”
“I was planning on sleeping there.”
“Oh,” Mum mumbled, obviously flustered. There was several seconds of silence before Mum followed up with, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Either that or I’ll come back here on the late train,” I replied to mollify her.
I had no intention of coming back here if I could help it.
“If you need to, you can always call me and I’ll come get you.”
“No.” I yawned as I stretched, pushing myself away from the table. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“It’s no trouble,” she assured me.
I moved to the bench and began to give my bowl a cursory scrub before putting it in the dishwasher. There’s nothing like the apparent task of manual labour for delaying the answering of a question.
“We’ll see,” I eventually replied.
“I’d really be more comfortable that way,” Mum insisted.
“I am eighteen, you know,” I snapped.
“Yes, and I’m still your mother, so you’ll do as I say,” Mum replied calmly.
“Sure, fine – whatever you say,” I answered.
I slammed the bowl into the dishwasher and not-so-graciously stormed off into my room. I can’t say that at this point I wasn’t excited, the thrill of hunting down and vanquishing someone who had wronged me pumped through my veins. I finally understood the desire that burned within the comic book heroes. However, this passed with time, and excitement gave way to doubt, doubt gave way to fear and fear gave way to despair.
It wasn’t until I was on the train that evening that I fully realised the extent of what we were planning. If Vin proved intractable or too strong, someone could get hurt, maybe even killed. The thought gave me visible shakes and made me sick to my stomach. Could I kill someone if I had to? Could I take someone’s life? Could I end someone? Intentionally?
As blasé as I was about the topic on the phone this morning, now that it was actually happening I was having doubts. If it came down to his life or mine – I still wasn’t sure I could go through with it. Would you kill to save your life or the lives of those you loved?
No.
The simple fact was that I didn’t believe that I could. I could sacrifice myself to save those I loved, but that was a coward’s way out. In the cold light of day I just don’t think I could consciously and with full understanding of the consequence of my actions take a life. I just wasn’t built that way and I didn’t believe in the story archetypes of the hero and villain facing down at dawn – with only one man walking away.
I just don’t think life is like that. Life is not a storybook and not subject to the conventions of narrative device. The truth of the matter was that under examination I wasn’t sure I could cause death and this led to an unfortunate realisation. Vin obviously could, he’d already done it. This meant that I was at a very real disadvantage and there was nothing I could do about it.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I completely missed my station. It wasn’t a big deal though as I simply took a connecting tram from a little further down the line. I arrived at Renee’s a little late, but that was okay because I’d called ahead to let her know.
Renee looked dishevelled when she answered the door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you have a passport?” Renee cryptically asked, ignoring my question.
“Um, yeah… why?” I replied, a little confused.
“I called my grandfather. He wants me on the next plane out of here.”
“Maybe you should go?” I suggested. The words tore me up on the way out of me. I didn’t want her to go because I instinctively knew that should she go I’d never see her again.
She would never return to Melbourne and I’d lose her.
“I can follow later, once school is finished.”
“I’m not leaving, not without you,” Renee replied.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“If I leave you here, Vin will most certainly try to find out where I’ve gone through you.”
Well, that wasn’t the grand romantic statement I’d been hoping for, but at least it showed she cared right?
“Besides, I’m pretty sure I’d miss you,” Renee continued with a smirk. “Well at least a little bit. Don’t think I didn’t notice your expression before – that’s one hell of a puppy dog eyes look you’ve got going there.”
I chuckled as I pulled Renee into an embrace.
“So what are we going to do?”
“Well, my grandfather wasn’t happy about my decision, but he eventually agreed.”
“Okay,” I prompted, unsure of where this was going.
“We’re going to go on a trip.”
“How long for?”
“We probably won’t return,” Renee replied simply.
“I can’t do that!” I exclaimed, “I’ve got friends and family here – I can’t just disappear!”
“You can if you don’t want them mixed up in this,” Renee replied. “I know from experience that Vin isn’t above using your loved ones to get to you.”
“When?” I replied bleakly.
“As soon as possible, once you’ve finished your last exams,” Renee continued.
“After my exams? Why not just go now?” I asked. I didn’t care one way or the other about exams.
“I’ve fucked up your life enough without ruining your education as well,” Renee snapped harshly. “Besides, it will take Vin some time to track down where we’ve gone. We should have more than enough time.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure how she was planning to elude Vin for that long, but she seemed confident. There would be no argument with her. I was kind of glad actually, this gave me enough time to try to figure out how to say goodbye to my friends and family.
“How long until your exams? Four weeks, yeah?” Renee asked.
“Yeah, about that.”
“Okay, that’s not too bad. First, we’re going to stop coming into the city. In fact we’re going to avoid going out in public as much as we can. I’m going to get a hotel out near you so I can keep an eye on you. Secondly we’re not going to use any mana until we leave.”
“He’s tracking us because we’re using mana?” I asked.
“Probably,” Renee replied dryly. “It’s what I would do.”
“Okay, that’s not too difficult.” I nodded, not thinking of the implications of this.
“Speak for yourself,” Renee disagreed curtly. “I get the shakes and a headache that makes the flu look mild by comparison.”
I’d forgotten about that, withdrawals from mana use weren’t pretty. I’d already gone through that once and wasn’t looking forward to going through it again.
“With any luck, by the time he’s tracked us down, we’ll be long gone. He won’t use an Awareness blast for fear of tipping us off.”
“I’m not sure about this,” I murmured.
“I warned you when you pursued a relationship with me that there would be costs,” Renee replied, her voice going cold.
“I know, but I wasn’t prepared for anything like this,” I replied.
“Are you saying that you don’t want this?”
“You’re asking me to give up everything here, my whole life,” I retorted.
“Are you saying that you don’t want this?” Renee repeated, her voice almost going to a whisper.
“No, I definitely want this,” I replied, moving to pull her into my arms.
“What about you?” I murmured, stroking her hair. “Won’t you miss your life here?”
Renee sighed and whispered, “No, not really, there never really was anything for me here… well, except for you.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“I know, that’s why there’s nothing here I’ll miss,” Renee continued.
With those simple words, my mind was made up – I’d give up everything: my friends, my family, my whole life. I’d throw it all away and follow Renee. I had no idea where we were even going – but that didn’t matter. I would be with her and she would be mine.
I often wonder in hindsight how our lives would have worked out had our plan come to pass. But alas, plans made in haste are often cast astray by the hand of the fate. And to be honest, I think the fates hate me.
Giving Renee my passport had proved to be more complicated than I’d originally expected. When I had handed my passport over to her she passed it immediately back. It was due to expire very early next year. I hadn’t noticed this small fact.
I would need to get it renewed.
It was fortunate that I was now eighteen and didn’t need parental approval for renewal. This meant that it was simply a matter of getting the other required forms of identification. I’d always known where my birth certificate was kept so that wasn’t too difficult to obtain. I already had the other required forms of ID.
Things were falling into place. One thing I hadn’t counted on, however, was that because I needed the passport relatively quickly I’d have to go into the city to the Passport Office. This meant that I would need to skip school on the following Monday to go into the city to sort out the paperwork. I could then have the passport mailed to me.
Renee had provided me with a post office box number to have the passport sent to. I couldn’t risk my parents wondering why I was having a passport sent to my home address. The process turned out to be a lot easier than expected and it was shortly before lunch time on Monday that I walked out of the application office with the forms filled out and my new passport on its way.
I called Renee to let her know that things were progressing well as I made my way back to school. I wandered into the school yard about half way through lunchtime. I’d already told Tony and Garry that I was ducking out of school, though I had neglected to give them a reason.
“All sorted?” Tony called as I ambled up to our usual lunch spot.
“Sorted?” I asked as I threw myself down onto one of the park benches.
“Yeah, whatever it was you needed to sort out this morning,” Tony replied.
“Yeah.” I nodded nonchalantly.
“What were you doing?” Sarah asked.
“Sorting out a passport,” I replied.
“Are you travelling somewhere?” Garry asked.
“Well, obviously… dumbass,” Sarah cut him off. “Where are you going?”
“I’m visiting Renee’s folks.”
Well, so far I hadn’t lied to them. I just hadn’t mentioned that I wouldn’t be coming back. I felt terrible for even this small deception. I had no idea how I was going to tell my mother.
Renee had counselled just upping and leaving, but I was beginning to suspect that Renee didn’t really like the soft touch when it came to dealing with family. This wasn’t really surprising considering – but her advice wasn’t that helpful.
“That’ll be nice.” Sarah murmured, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. She knew me too well and knew without a doubt that there was something that I wasn’t telling her. I could tell from Tony’s silence and the expression on his face that he knew something was up too.
“Yeah,” I replied weakly. Fortunately for me neither Sarah nor Tony chose to pursue the matter with the others around.
Tina was looking at me a little strangely, though I suppose hearing that your old boyfriend was going on a holiday to meet the parents of his new girlfriend so quickly would put anyone out of sorts. It wasn’t until the school bell went and everyone made their way back to the locker bay that Sarah and Tony cornered me.
“Okay, buddy,” Sarah hissed, poking me in the chest, “what’s really going on? The truth this time.”
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. I’d expected her to try to talk to me about it, but I didn’t expect an outright demand. What else did Sarah know? How much did she know? Had Tony finally ratted me out after all? I turned to look at Tony’s face, trying to see any hint of betrayal in his features. The look on my face must have given me away because Sarah immediately turned to look apprehensively at Tony.
“I didn’t tell her,” Tony replied simply and I believed him.
“Tell me what?” Sarah exclaimed.
“But you should,” Tony continued.
“One of you had better tell me what’s going on soon.” Sarah turned to face Tony.
It wasn’t immediately obvious whom she was angrier at, if it was me or her boyfriend who had been keeping secrets from her. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell Sarah or not. Renee had made it quite clear that she didn’t want anyone knowing and telling Sarah could expose her to danger from Vin. He had proved that he wasn’t above threatening friends to achieve his goals. All these were good reasons not to tell her. In the end though it came down to one simple truth, she was my friend and she deserved to know. The final reason which was perhaps the most compelling was that I didn’t want her to come looking for me after I disappeared with Renee.
“Okay, I’ll tell her,” I declared, “but not now, not here.”
“You’re sure?” Tony replied with a quizzical expression.
“Yeah, if I can’t trust Sarah, then I can’t trust anyone.”
“Thanks, man,” Tony replied. I hadn’t realised it up until now, but keeping this from Sarah must have been placing a lot of strain on them.
“After school, meet me by the oval. Then I’ll tell you everything.”
“Okay,” Sarah replied, a look of confusion on her face. This clearly this hadn’t gone the way she’d expected. I wasn’t sure exactly how much I was going to tell her, but it was worth it just to see the look on her face now.
Halfway through the next period we had a call come over the speakers calling for a special assembly for senior level students. I assumed that it had something to do with the upcoming exams. This assumption was wrong – very wrong.
When we arrived at the senior common rooms, there were several police officers standing with the teachers. Our head of level introduced the policemen to us and indicated that they were there to give a lecture on how we should conduct our Muck Up Day.
Muck Up Day is a silly tradition where the final year students are given free range of the school grounds before they go into exams. The tradition usually led to running water fights, occasional egg throwing and general mayhem. The school usually looked upon this with controlled tolerance until last year when a whole bay of lockers were removed from the locker bay and formed into a recreation of Stonehenge. The resulting mess had been unoriginally dubbed ‘Locker Henge’ by the school society.
It had actually caused quite a lot of disruption, as it wasn’t immediately easy to tell whose locker was whose. I remembered being highly amused at the whole affair. Although my locker had been one of the one’s used it hadn’t really affected me that much as I didn’t really use my locker anyway. I assumed that this assembly was simply a show of force by the school in an attempt to curtail any more unorthodox pranks. Again, my assumption was dead wrong. I hadn’t noticed during the assembly but the second police man was taking notes and looking at faces. They were looking for someone.
By the time the policeman’s speech ended, I’d already planned on several places I could lodge lockers where they’d have no idea how we’d got them there. It’s possible that I may have missed the point of his speech somewhat. The students began to file out from the assembly room after being dismissed. Tony and I made our way to the door.
“Mr Wills, if we may have a moment of your time,” Mr Saunders voice boomed across the hall.
Both Tony and I stopped and turned to see Mr Saunders standing off to one side with the two police officers.
“I’ll wait here,” Tony declared.
“No, you go on.” I nodded to Tony. “I’ll catch up.”
“Perhaps, Mr Ward, you should go to class. As tragic as it is to break up the greatest comedy duo since Huey and Lewis, I think we can manage without you,” Mr Saunders instructed dryly.
“Sir, that’s one dude! He sang a bunch of songs in the ‘80s,” Tony declared.
“Well done, Mr Ward, but everyone knows that – that’s old news,” Mr Saunders replied dryly.
“That was very nearly a joke, sir!” Tony drawled.
“Tony!”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go away.”
“Tony likes his ‘80s rock,” I said as Mr Saunders led me into one of the study rooms.
The two policemen remained behind, obviously conversing with each other.
“Clearly,” Mr Saunders replied. The policemen hadn’t entered the room yet.
“Devon, I’m not sure what the police want with you and quite frankly I’m a little surprised. I never picked you for the troublesome type.”
“The police want to talk to me?”
Saunders just nodded. “Just answer their questions honestly and everything will be okay,” he advised. “I’ll just go see if they’re ready for you.”
“Okay, sir,” I was actually kind of glad he was there, which was a first for me.
Something wasn’t right here.
When the policemen arrived into the room they were all business. The more senior of the two placed a picture on the table and looked at me. Mr Saunders placed himself behind me leaning against the wall. I had no idea what he was still doing here.
The photo on the table was a picture of Vin.
“Do you know who this man is?” the policeman opened.
I shook my head, but it must have been obvious that I was lying as I saw the policeman’s eyes narrow with suspicion. He looked at his partner who shrugged.
“Fine,” he continued with poor grace as he stomped over to the chair and sat down, putting a manila folder on the table between us.
“Mr Wills is it?” he confirmed, double checking on the page in front of him.
“Yes,” I replied. My mind was racing. I had no idea what I was going to tell them. I obviously couldn’t tell them the whole truth.
“Where were you last Friday?”
“School, sir,” I replied straight faced as my stomach tied itself in knots.
“Friday evening?” he amended sternly.
“With friends,” I replied simply.
“Did visiting these friends involve using the train at all?”
“They’re in the city, yeah,” I replied.
I wasn’t prepared to overtly lie to the police yet, but I obviously couldn’t tell them everything. I just wasn’t sure what I could tell them and what I couldn’t. I resolved to tell them as much of the truth as I was able. This was exactly the situation that Renee had warned me about.
“What time did you take the train?” the officer questioned.
“Late afternoon, straight after school,” I replied easily.
“And did you return that evening?”
“Yes.”
“At what time was this?”
“I don’t know, it was rather late.”
“I get the feeling that you’re not being as cooperative as you could be,” the policeman warned as his voice went a little frosty.
Before I could answer his partner pulled a second photo from the manila folder and swung it around to face me. It was another photo of Vin; however, in this photo you could just make out my profile in the background. It wasn’t the best photo, but it didn’t take too much imagination to figure out the other figure in the photo was me.
“Is this you?” he snapped, pointing at my face in the photo.
“I think so, I’m not sure,” I stammered, hoping that there were no better photos of the event. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this one.
“It’s from the security footage of one of the Glen Waverley night trains,” the officer informed me.
“Are you planning on arresting Devon?” Mr Saunders cut in immediately, preventing me from saying anything.
“Well, no,” the officer stated, “we’re actually more interested in the other person in the other photo.” It was at this point that his partner leaned forward and spun Vin’s photo around to face me.
“You know who he is,” he declared. “I can see it from your face.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I really don’t know who he is,” I lied. “He was on my train, and just went nuts and started breaking things.”
“I got off at the next station, after he started going berserk,” I finished lamely. This was kind of true.
“There was extensive damage to the carriage,” the officer prompted.
“Once he started smashing windows I decided to leave,” I replied.
“Did he have a weapon or something that he was smashing the windows with?” the partner asked. I was beginning to hate that partner.
“I didn’t see one. To be honest I didn’t really want to get that close,” I replied.
“Fair enough,” the first officer commented. “Understandable.” The second interjected.
“And he just let you go?” the second officer pressed. “Only it looks like he’s talking to you in this photo.”
“He was talking to me,” I replied. “I wasn’t really listening though, I thought he was drunk and I was trying to ignore him.”
The policeman nodded and took some notes in his book.
“Then he just went berserk and started smashing things. I decided to leave the train shortly after that.”
Again the policeman took notes in his infernal notebook. In the action movies they never seem to show you how difficult it is to lie to the police. The plucky action hero always has the right lines and dialogue. It was much harder in real life.
“He was involved in an altercation with one of the train line security patrols at Mount Waverley Station, but you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“No, I got off before there,” I replied.
“They were quite badly hurt,” the officer continued. “Hospitalised. One may never walk again.”
He continued as if reading the phrase from his notebook. I sat in silence as the ramifications of this hit me. This was my fault. I had stirred him up. I was the one he was after. He had only taken his ire out on those guards when I fled. I had even hoped that the security guards had picked him up. I’d just never imagined that this would happen. I chose to say nothing. After all there was nothing I could say.
“You have no comments to make regarding that?” the second officer pressed.
“I wasn’t there!” I protested loudly. “I never saw any security guards!”