The Unexpected Life of Carnegie Lane (14 page)

Minutes become hours and hours pass slowly until the moment you are waiting for happens exactly as it should. It was 4.20 pm in the afternoon when the phone call came. Carnegie had been nervously expecting it for over an hour, yet she was grateful that it gave her an extra hour up her sleeve to get ready. She breathed in deeply, it felt like it was totally out of the blue even though she was pacing the lounge room waiting. Her heat began to beat a little faster as she picked up the phone and answered it.

The kids were home from school and none the wiser. The twins, who still moped about the house, unable to get over the tragedy of their current lives, didn’t ask any questions when their mother asked them to baby sit for her. She had dinner prepared for all of them and she tried to corner Connor long enough to threaten him to leave his little sister alone. The grin on his face told her it wasn’t a threat that would work it was a bribe, so as she walked out the door, Connor walked into his room with the joy of knowing one night of good behavior was about to get him a new x-box game.

Carnegie got in her car and drove to the bottle shop. She’d said she would come armed with a bottle of red wine, hoping to ease her nerves more than anything. Nate Bowman, for the last five months had been a fictional character, hidden behind the words on a computer screen and an occasional voice via telephone.

This was about to bring him to life for her. She wasn’t star struck by any means, Carnegie had had her own fare share of that when she played host to the bands of her peers in the 80’s. Something here was different. There was a connection, an understanding of sorts. He understood why she wrote the story she did. It mattered to him and in the process, she mattered too, enough for him to be here in the first place.

Tye Markem had followed Nate Bowman all the way to Bargara, just outside of Bundaberg. He had keenly watched as he went inside the hotel and not return.

Impatiently he waited outside and unseen until the driver left. Twenty minutes after Nate checked in, Tye had done the same. He was now back in the lobby of the hotel, enjoying a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Concealed under that paper was his camera with a distance lens attached. He had it positioned so that it had clear view of the reception desk. It seemed ages before there was movement. Tye watched as Carnegie approached the desk, his finger ready to pounce on top of his camera.

“Hi, my name is Carnegie Lane; I’m here to meet with Nate Bowman.” She said politely to the lady behind the desk.

“Yes, he is expecting you, top floor to your left. I’ll phone him now and let him know you’re on your way.”

“Thank you.” She replied, feeling a little more nervous than she had been a moment ago.

Carnegie turned and looked around, long enough for Tye to get a succession of good shots. She looked over at him innocently unaware of his actions. She smiled at him as she made her way to the lifts. He smiled back. She had just smiled for the camera, one of the nicest things you could do for a photographer in his situation was exactly that.

He waited for the lift doors to close, then he quickly finished off his coffee and made his way back to his room, concealing at all times his camera from view of any staff. Once inside he quickly downloaded the photos onto his computer. He attached them to an email for Richard. His message was short, although it was sweet enough.

Her name is Carnegie Lane.

Carnegie stood at his door. She didn’t knock, she just looked at it, wondering if she should knock, or turn and run. Then the door opened and standing in front of her was the living embodiment of that perfect poster hanging on her daughters’ wall. She smiled a little looking for the first word to come out of her mouth.

“Well…are you coming in? I don’t bite.” He said and broke the ice for her. He was used to it. At least she didn’t start screaming.

“Yep, I am.” She said. ‘
Wish you would bite, I could live with the scars
…’ She thought as she walked through to the lounge room. The unrestricted view of the beach from his room was amazing.

“That view is great… How was your flight?” She asked casually, attempting to take it all in her stride.

“Long but worth it, it’s nice here. This is the first time in a long time I’ve been somewhere without a crowd. The only other place I get that is at Kats in London.”

He walked over and stood beside her. Both of them watching as the first of the afternoon shadows appeared across the ocean, dimming it slightly, as if it were being operated by a switch.

“Thanks for coming Carnegie.” He said gently.

He was studying her carefully. Everything about her was just as he suspected. She looked different from her photo although not unrecognizably so. In real life, she looked softer.

“It’s a pleasure to be here, as for thanking someone, I can’t begin to thank you for what you are doing and for your support. Oh talking about support… I have something for you.”

Carnegie reached down into her bag and brought out a typed manuscript. She also put the bottle of wine on the table, hoping he would open it soon.

“Wow.” He said with awe as he picked up the manuscript, holding it in his hand like a precious document. “
Impossible Things
…I love this story
so
much.”

He ran his hand gently over the title, reading the dedication to the song again. It really was a lovely set of words.

“You know, I sang this song for you at one of my concerts, the night after I read this.” It all came back to him strongly, all the emotions he felt.

“Really? Thanks, I love that song. I love that band!” Carnegie said genuinely, chuffed at the idea he had dedicated a song to her, let alone a Cure song.

“What made you write it? What gave you the idea?” he asked, changing her thinking a little from the direction it was heading.

“Well, it’s strange how it happened.” Carnegie sat down, choosing her words on this carefully. “I dreamt it. Sort of…I saw an accident, and a guy running to a girl, trying to save her I guess, trying to fix her… But she died.”

Carnegie was thinking about the devastation she felt at the time, unable to wake up, yet feeling so horribly sad for both of them. Then she continued.

“He didn’t give up though, he found another way to be with her. That I guess is what the story eventually became. The ability to wish for impossible things. By wishing enough you can make them possible.”

“And…the girl in the story, Taylor? How did you find the name?”

“She told me her name. I know how that sounds, although it’s the truth.” Carnegie looked at him when she said that. He was looking deep into her eyes.

There was silence between them for a moment. He was searching her, looking for an answer to something he had no question to ask. The name Taylor in his life had been significant once. He recognized there was no possible way she could have known that. It was just a strange coincidence.

He walked over to the window and stared at the ocean. Carnegie was behind him sitting on the lounge, summing up his perfection. He had perfect skin, he was perfectly groomed. She felt insignificant to him in a million ways. Yet, she stayed. Curious as to why he wanted her here.

Nate turned around and grabbed two wine glasses.

“You hungry?” He asked as he handed her a room service menu. “I’ll order something if you like, there is a tapas in there that looks good, if you’re into it.”

He handed Carnegie a glass of wine. She sipped it… appreciating the fact she just spent $35.00 on that bottle. Usually, when she bought herself a bottle of red, it was a $5.00 brandless skin, so spending this much, was a treat.

“That’s a great drop, where is that one from?” He asked, appreciating the flavor of the Merlot.

“Margaret River in Western Australia. Nice wine from there.” She took another sip.

“Well, I’m really pleased you’re here Carnegie Lane. I think you are a star, and one day soon, you’re going to know it too.” Nate clinked his glass to hers as he sat back down next to her. She already had her feet up on the coffee table, he did the same.

She smiled and clinked back. “I hope I do alright. I have fallen in love with my characters you know… so it’s for them I hope I do well.”

“Oh it’s good. Your characters are believable in an unbelievable situation. Strangely though, I don’t think it’s impossible, what you have written. It’s oddly calming to think it possible.”

“It would be nice to think so. Writing the book was therapy for me. For so long I was a wife and a mother, then suddenly, I was no longer a wife, I was left with being an inadequate mother. I became half of what I was at the time, which in reality was only a 10th of who I am.”

Carnegie was staring out at the ocean again. Watching the last of the sun cling to the water, like hands held by another hanging over a cliff, pleading not to let them go.

“So what is it you want Carnegie. What are you looking for?” Nate had a good point. She hadn’t allowed herself to ask the question.

“I’m looking for me, I’m looking for who I was becoming when I stopped everything to become someone else. There is a moment that I made a choice and walked left instead of right at a crossroads. I want to explore the other option, the right option… the creative option.”

“Well, if that’s what you wanted to do, you’ve certainly made a great start.”

He felt comfortable in her presence. He could feel she was nervous, but he knew it wouldn’t take her long now, she would settle down.

“Tapas will do fine.” She said, still watching the water.

“Tapas it is.” He picked up the phone and called reception.

It didn’t take long for her to settle in and become truly comfortable in his company. Hard to say if it was the wine, or him, yet time passed as if it had never begun. Carnegie and Nate found a million things in common. They talked about TV Shows, movies, dreams, music, childhood fears and strange things they used to do.

They found common ground in the sadness of the state of the world, wanting to make a difference. Nate told her about his charities, how he helped people and animals. Carnegie told him about her kids, and what it was like to raise them. He explained the emotion of being on stage, performing to so many people. She told him about her pain and sense of rejection, having been so close to it a long time ago, and now being unrecognizable to all the bands that she supported. How the sense of loss never took away from her belief in the music, and she was happy for them.

The hours flew by and they were oblivious to the world outside of that room. Carnegie had found the sounding pole to her life, and Nate had found a friend. They laughed together and shared the spark of a moment that came from remembering something. He would close his eyes when she described to him what it was like to hold a baby in your arms for the first time. She would close her eyes as he described singing a song he wrote to five thousand people.

He lived what she had always wanted, and she lived, part of what he sacrificed in order to have it. It was two in the morning, when they finished off the second bottle of wine. They were, by this time, lying on the bed watching Star Trek on TV. Somewhere in the middle of the show, between a panicked Dr Spock and a time warp, they fell asleep. Entwined in an innocent embrace, neither wanting more from the other and yet, neither prepared to let go.

Nate Bowman, for the first time in a long time, had in his arms a woman who held no expectation of him what so ever. She wasn’t a beauty queen, she wasn’t a movie star and she had no family fortune that tied her to the crowd. She was real, and she was special. He held onto every second as if they were the most precious things in the world.

The seconds became minutes and minutes became hours. At 6 am her phone rang. Nate was still asleep. She answered it as quietly as she could. It was Sienna, wanting her breakfast and wondering where she was. Writing a note, and nursing a partial headache she slipped out of the room. She had a grin from ear to ear. It was the best night she had had in nearly twenty years. Even though she had some explaining to do at home, nothing mattered enough to ruin her moment, nothing happened, and no promises were made. She recognized what Nate needed was someone to talk to, someone uncomplicated. It was exactly what she had been looking for. Together, in their differences, they were perfect.

So today, was a great day. Today she let go of a tragedy in her life just a little and allowed herself to believe she was worthy.

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, Carnegie Lane, mother of four, idol to inanimate objects, and almost Author, had an unlikely… new best friend. And it felt great.