The Unexpected Life of Carnegie Lane (9 page)

Come to Bundaberg!

Rochelle Johnson

42 Blackdown Lane

Bundaberg. Australia

He cringed a little. Now he knew exactly what had happened. Carnegie’s girls had his email and had most likely gone to school and told the student body they had his personal contact. He got up, and walked into his room. Katalie had been looking through the movie selection and watched the look on his face. She knew something had gone wrong.

“What’s up?” she asked genuinely.

Nate didn’t want to tell her this one. He wanted to work it out without involving her, since Carnegie was her client, and in a million ways, he shouldn’t have initiated contact without his sisters’ permission, one that she would never have allowed.

“It’s ok. I just need to fix something.” He answered as he closed the door.

Nate called his personal receptionist and told her to close the email and make a new one. In the mean time, he needed to let Carnegie know what had happened. Not so she could punish the girls, just to warn her of possible repercussions on her end. The email was closed and girls could be nasty. He didn’t check the time difference, in fact, he almost forgot there was one. He dialed Carnegies number and waited for someone to pick up. Hoping it was her.

Australia was eight hours ahead of Berlin. It was only 8pm when he called her, and luckily for him she answered.

“Hello?” she questioned, wondering who would call her from where the number was “unavailable.”

“Hi Carnegie…it’s Nate.” He said, not in a harsh way, just in a flat tone.

“Oh Hi! How are you?”

“I’m great, still in Berlin.”

“Must be nice to travel as much as you do.” Carnegie had always dreamed of exotic locations, so far, Paddington had been the extent of it, except for a couple of trips to Thailand when she was first married.

‘Yeah it’s fun, although I would like something normal, just for a while.”

They bantered on a bit and he congratulated her on her book being accepted. He didn’t want to do this, although he had to.

“Carnegie…I’m actually calling for another reason. Hope you’re sitting down.”

“Yeah, I am actually, what’s going on?” Poor girl had no clue what was coming.

“Well, it seems that your daughter, Olivia I think, got hold of my email, and has distributed it around the school. I have had to close that email. It’s been compromised.”

There was silence between them. Carnegie felt terrible.

“I’m so… sorry.” Was about all she could get out. She had no idea what to say.

“It’s OK. It happens, I just need to warn you about a couple of things that go on in situations like this. Some of my fans are relentless. It’s not my intention that they be this way, they just are. Your girls have given them an address that will go back, showing that it is inactive. They are about to be condemned for this, I’ve seen it. Now I don’t blame them, they didn’t know and I hadn’t gone so far as warning you about the protection and security of my details, in fact, it completely slipped my mind. So don’t get angry, I’ll send you the new email when I have it, just explain it to them gently. Hopefully they won’t suffer for long.”

Carnegie was lost for words. She understood how it could become an issue, although, it was Bundaberg, how could it possibly get
that
bad.

“Again, I’m so sorry Nate, I don’t know how they even got to my email in the first place.”

“Hey, look on the bright side. At least I had a good reason to call you.” He was trying to cheer her up. He knew she must be extremely embarrassed right now.

“Yeah thanks… This is one of the happiest “
Kill Joy
” moments of my life.” She laughed, it was just her bizarre sense of humor that took over. Nate laughed too. He liked it. He liked her. And he was hoping that none of this was going to cause her drama.

“I’ll call you soon Carnegie, or I’ll email you my new details. And again… Don’t worry too much about it, it will blow over.”

“Thanks Nate, I appreciate your understanding.”

“It’s all good. Have a great day.” He replied and hung up the phone. Then he thought about it and decided…it must be night there.

He looked up, not expecting to see his door open, and definitely not expecting to see his sister standing in the door way.

“Explain that one.” She said, crossing her arms almost accusingly, as she looked into the guiltiest pair of eyes she had seen in a long time.

“Oh I see, now I have to explain myself to my kid sister. Well I can explain…” he said, defensively although Kat cut him off.

“You want to hope so…” Katalie was mad. This was her client, her baby. Carnegie Lane was her project, not his. And now there was a relationship that allowed him to call her and have a conversation, even before the contracts she sent to establish her very first portfolio client had been returned, before she herself had heard the voice on the end of the phone.

Kat was jealous of this, although what troubled her the most was the fragmented bits of the conversation about her brothers stolen email address. She wanted to establish this writer on the credibility of what had been written, not on the credibility of her already proven brother. The truth was if he ate a certain brand of chewing gum and was photographed with the wrapper, within a week the sales would be boosted by thousands.

He was constantly given things from phones, cars, clothes, you name it he got it, so that they would sell just on the fact he had one. Well, not this book. Before there was even a connection between her brother and Carnegie Lane, Katalie Bowman was going to prove to the world that she was a credible literary agent, able to find and promote her clients using her own merits. She never wanted her brother’s fame to assist her. She was way to independent for that.

“You had no right Nate. No right to contact her.”

“It isn’t about that Kat…and remember, if it wasn’t for me, that manuscript would still be in the back of your car. You forgot about it.” He replied defensively.

“If it wasn’t for you, that manuscript would never have
been
in the back of my car. Nate! Don’t contact my client. This is my first solo portfolio and the last thing I want is for you to get in the middle of it. Let me see if I can sell this thing without your interference. OK!” Her hands were on her hips. She was standing her ground. He was standing now, and they were staring at each other.

“Oh…so just because I decided to make a friend who happens to be your client, means I can’t have that friend anymore? Is that what you’re saying?’ Nate was attempting to defend his action.

“Can’t you find a different friend? Not like you don’t have a smorgasbord of choice.”

“No… I like her. I like the way she thinks. I’m not ditching her because you’ve decided I have to. You’re my sister Kat, not my keeper.”

“Fine…you do what you have to. But I’m warning you Nate…If you stuff this up for me, I will never forgive you. Do you understand that? I have put up with more than you even know being your sister. Nate, I love you to death, but just this once I want to rise above your shadow and be ME! I’m sick of being Katalie-Nate-Bowman’s -little - sister as if that was my name.” She turned and grabbed her jacket, walking quickly to the door. She needed a walk to clear her head. She didn’t come here with the intention to argue. She couldn’t even remember the last time they had.

Their voices had definitely been raised. Enough for the poor waiter who was delivering room service to wonder if he should knock or not. In the kitchen they were drawing straws to see who would be the delivery person for Nate Bowman in the first place. All he was wondering was, if it was a good time to ask for an autograph or not.

When he saw the look on Katalies’ face as she opened the door, he decided not. She let him in, and he set up the table with the food and coffee that had been ordered with 2 shots of wheatgrass. Then he quickly left, not wanting to be a party to this conversation. Katalie was right behind him and headed to the elevator as well.

Nate walked out of his room just after the waiter left. Although it smelt great, he’d lost his appetite. He was caught in a dilemma he had never had to face, one between his intense need to continue exploring his friendship with Carnegie, and the one to keep away, remaining loyal to his sisters wishes.

He had met thousands of people in his time, although none of them understood him for who he was. Somehow he had daydreamed himself into the belief that maybe Carnegie could be a new friend. One that had no expectations of him, one that didn’t even know who he was when he contacted her. In Nate’s mind those attributes were a clear bonus to begin with. It’s funny to think that Nate Bowman’s day dreams were of friends that liked him for him, not for his music. When most of the world daydreamed that they knew him for that very reason.

She had the potential, his newfound stranger, to be a genuine friend. He loved her writing, and her sense of grounded humor, although most importantly, he loved his sister too. He lay back on the lounge and covered his eyes with his arm, hoping to avoid the daylight. Today had been great, for a while. Now, it was a disaster.

Well…Things weren’t exactly a bundle of joy at the home of Carnegie Lane right at that moment either. After she got off the phone, she went to the room of her daughters, who were, by now, receiving a thousand texts from girls who were getting returned mail error messages from the infamous email address of Nate Bowman.

Between the hours of 3pm and 7pm, it had managed to go viral and was posted on everyone’s Facebook, and sent out in group texts. The Lane twins had just become the target of an entire school and then some. Now, their numbers were being distributed among the flock and they were calling them liars, wannabe’s and all sorts of strange tales were being told. The ones that knew them now told them they didn’t believe they even spoke to him on the phone, let alone had his email address. Suddenly girls were saying all the nasty things they thought about the twins when they arrived.

The twins were unusually pretty, and particularly well groomed, they were also identical mirror image twins, something that was rare at the best of times. None of it had gone unnoticed at the public high school they now attended. They had left behind all of their friends when they were forced to move by their distraught mother and making new ones had been hard. They were still suffering from absolute culture shock. At least they had each other and in a strange way, they had kept to themselves, unable to explore the road of true friendship with anyone new.

They mainly had acquaintances at their school. This had been their chance to fit in and become someone. In their eyes, they lacked the ability to fit in because they didn’t deserve too. Their life was shit compared to what it had been, all of their world and dreams for the future were gone. Now… because of a stupid email address and a proclamation that wasn’t untrue, just not…the total truth, both of those girls were being drawn and quartered by the cruelest of audiences… Their peers.

Sobian had tears rolling down her cheeks when her mother approached, she was angry, although tears always turned her attack from harsh to suddenly gentle. Olivia was reading the last of her abuse messages and looked up almost apologetically at her mother when she walked in. The emails bouncing meant that by now, their mum would know it had been shut down, and they may have just hurt her too in some way.

“Well?” She began to question, not quite knowing where the sentence would end up. “Been an interesting day, wouldn’t you say girls?” She sat down in one of their bean bags that had a light reflected back on it from a mirror ball on the ceiling. She closed her eyes and waited to hear what they had to say. They couldn’t fix it, neither could she. She just had to allow the aftermath of this unnatural disaster to pave its own course. At least surviving disasters was one thing she had become really good at.

“Mum…we are so sorry.” Olivia began, before she was cut off.

“He isn’t angry, just if you’re wondering. He is worried for both of you. I take it from the tears and the amount of text messages, he was right to worry?” Carnegie opened her eyes and began staring at the ceiling, she didn’t look at either of them.

“Yeah, it’s getting ugly. We just thought… We just wanted…I don’t know…To be special.” Sobian sobbed the word “special” so hard that it was almost inaudible.

Carnegie sat up straight and looked at her girls in horror. Special was exactly what they were.

“Sobi…you’re
already
special. How could you
ever
think you weren’t special?”

“Because of everything… of what happened with Dad… I mean Mum, come on look at us.! Look at our life. Everything we had is gone… Everything.” Sobian was sobbing uncontrollably now. Suddenly all that time of Carnegie’s neglect to the emotions of those daughters, which was not deliberate just self preservation, was coming out in waves the size of small tsunamis. Carnegie was about to hear it all, if she liked it or not. Olivia then picked up the conversation where Sobian had involuntarily left off.

“Do you know where our old class is right now Mum, where all our friends are, the ones we grew up with? They are in London, on their final year excursion. That should have been us. Snow skiing with our friends, trips overseas. Do you know where our excursion is this year Mum? It’s to Rockhampton! An even deeper
hell pit
than this one!” She sobbed a little more along with her sister before she continued to bombard her mother with everything she had until now, been unable to say. Carnegie was silent. She knew her daughters were right.

“We don’t fit in here, we don’t have any real friends here. We don’t even have a life here! We hate this place and always have. And I’m sorry for telling you. I don’t want to hurt you and that’s why we never said anything. We just thought that maybe, somehow, this would be a good thing. That they would be happy for us, and that maybe we would be special and not strange anymore… Just like we used to feel.” They turned to each other and continued to cry in their mirror image embrace.