Chapter 21 #2
Nel laughed, assuming Lauren was being ironic. ‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ was one of their mother’s favourite lines. Lauren shot her a sharp look as Sophie gasped.
‘Is that the right time?’ she asked, pointing to the oven clock.
Lauren nodded and jumped up. ‘I better do the cake!’
‘I didn’t mean to stay so long.’ Sophie rummaged through her bag, flustered. When she found her phone, she murmured, ‘Shit, it was on silent.’
She chewed her lip as she typed something, then put the phone down on the bench. Immediately it flashed with a notification and she typed another message.
‘Everything okay?’ Nel asked.
Sophie looked up. ‘Yeah, I just … I forgot to tell him I was going to stay.’ She looked back at the phone. ‘There’s not much point going home now.’
‘Knock knock,’ a voice called down the hall. A moment later a woman appeared. ‘Hello, I’m Zach’s mum.’
‘Come on in!’ Lauren said.
As the boys shouted happy birthday at Leo, Sophie’s phone flashed again. She moved away to answer the call, listening with a furrowed brow, murmuring responses. ‘Okay … I’m sorry … I know … okay …’
When she ended the call, she took a shaky breath then looked up with a tense smile. She walked around to where Charlie stood and tapped his shoulder, gesturing for him to come.
‘Sorry, we have to get going,’ she said to Lauren.
‘Does Charlie want some cake? I’m serving it now.’
‘It’s okay. We can’t wait.’
‘Let me put some in a napkin for him to take home,’ Lauren insisted.
Sophie gave her an apologetic smile. ‘We have to go, sorry.’ She put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and steered him towards the hallway.
*
‘Thank god that’s over,’ Steve said as he came through the bi-fold doors, holding an overfilled garbage bag.
Nel sat by the fire with Cath—who had arrived as the guests were leaving—surrounded by streamers and stray balloons.
Lauren was upstairs running a bath for Archie.
Steve dumped the bag by the kitchen bench and collapsed into an armchair.
‘Yes,’ Cath said, ‘I’ve never heard of a machine-gun fight at a kids birthday party, but then we only had girls.
I’m not sure what your father would have made of it.
He was always such a pacifist.’ She sighed heavily, her eyes glassy, then she looked around at the mess. ‘I’ll make a start on the clean-up.’
Steve reached for a sad-looking balloon next to his foot. ‘I’ll give you a hand.’ He went to the kitchen and picked up a tea towel as Lauren came down the stairs. ‘Great party, Loz.’
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. ‘Thanks, babe.’ She yawned and pressed his cheek, which was caked with dry mud. It cracked and a piece flaked off. ‘Have you had a look in a mirror?’
‘No, why?’ he asked, pretending to be unaware of the mud.
‘No reason,’ she said, playing along.
Nel smiled. She liked seeing them together. He softened her edges.
Lauren sat down beside Nel and pushed off her trainers. ‘I feel like I’ve been through an actual war,’ she said, rolling her ankles.
They sat quietly for a moment.
‘Do you see much of Sophie Warner?’ Nel asked, keeping her tone light.
Lauren shook her head. ‘Not really.’
‘I thought you would, with the boys being mates. Weren’t you and Sophie friends at school?’
‘Yeah we were, but it sort of fizzled out once we left school. I used to invite her to stuff but she would never come, so I stopped asking. The boys haven’t had much to do with each other until recently when they started playing Minecraft together.
I think she’s a bit …’ She shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.
‘A bit what?’
‘Depressed, I guess.’
Nel frowned, remembering that Viv had said something similar. ‘Why?’
‘Ryan did a fundraising ride for Beyond Blue a while back. He did a big Facebook post about how depression had touched his own family. I don’t know, I just got the sense he was talking about Sophie.
She never goes to anything at school, never volunteers for canteen or reading groups, so our paths rarely cross.
And she always seems sort of … detached. ’
Detached. Nel knew what Lauren meant. It was as though Sophie wasn’t quite present.
Maybe she was depressed. There was no record of anything mental health related on her medical record, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
Plenty of people suffered with anxiety or depression for years without seeking help.
Still, it felt like a convenient narrative for Ryan, if he was isolating her.
Where was the rest of Sophie’s family? Nel had a vague sense that there was a story there, but couldn’t remember the specifics.
‘What happened with her parents?’ she asked. ‘There was a scandal, wasn’t there?’
‘Yeah her mum was kind of wild. Leopard-print everything. Too much makeup. She ran the school canteen, remember? She reconnected with her first boyfriend on Facebook and went back to Adelaide. Poor Mr Kelly. Remember him? He taught geography.’
Nel didn’t do geography, but she had a mental image of a balding man with a thick beard and a permanent frown.
‘They’d only moved here a year or so before the marriage broke up,’ Lauren added. ‘Sophie was with Ryan by then so she stayed here, but her little sister went to Adelaide with her mum.’
‘Is her dad still in town?’
‘Don’t think so.’ Lauren narrowed her eyes. ‘Why are you so interested anyway?’
‘What do you mean?’
She shrugged. ‘You two were talking for ages. What are you doing, becoming best buddies with her? She’s Ryan’s wife. I know what you think of him.’
‘I’m just being friendly. I like her.’
Lauren scoffed. ‘Well, like I said the other day, no one needs you coming back to town and making trouble.’
Nel held her hands up in mock surrender. ‘Okay, okay, bloody hell.’ She looked over at Cath, who was wiping down the island bench. ‘How do you think Mum’s going?’ she asked, keen to change the subject.
‘Hard to say.’ Lauren followed her line of sight. ‘How’s someone meant to be after their husband of forty years dies so suddenly?’
‘It hasn’t hit her yet,’ Nel said, still watching her. ‘Not properly.’
‘Has it hit you?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Nel looked back at her sister. ‘It’s like I know that he’s gone, but I can’t quite believe that he’s gone. Do you know what I mean?’
Lauren nodded.
‘I just … I never thought he’d die so young. I feel …’ Nel’s voice trembled. ‘I don’t know, I feel kind of …’ She paused, trying to make sense of her emotions, put words around them. ‘Ripped off.’
Lauren looked at her. ‘Ripped off?’
Nel nodded. ‘Cheated. Like I’ve had something stolen from me. I thought there would be years and years ahead, and suddenly there’s just … nothing.’
Lauren went to speak, but seemed to decide against it.
‘What?’ Nel said.
She shook her head, eyes glassy. ‘Has it ever occurred to you that that’s how we’ve all felt, ever since you left?’