Room 46 & Short Story Collection Read online

  Clare gave him a little squeeze and then gently pulled away. ‘No, of course not. I was just curious.’

  ‘You always said you would love to have a ride in a helicopter. I mentioned it to one of the pilots ages ago and he finally got around to arranging it for me.’

  ‘And I’ve accused you of not listening to me.’

  ‘Yes, you have. Quite unfairly as it turns out.’

  Clare punched him playfully on the arm. ‘Yeah I know, I’m such a nag.’

  They grinned at each other companionably.

  ‘I didn’t think Liam was doing patrol today,’ Clare said.

  ‘He’s not.’

  ‘Then why is he standing on the balcony of the surf club with binoculars?’

  Matt shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. What part of inconspicuous did Liam not understand?

  ‘Ah you know Liam, maybe he’s whale watching.’

  ‘Isn’t the whale season over?’

  ‘Yeah it is, but sometimes there are stragglers,’ Matt replied tetchily. Where the hell was the helicopter?

  Clare eyed him curiously but didn’t press further.

  ‘Ah, look here comes our ride,’ Matt exclaimed as the chopper came into view. Now the moment was upon him he was hit with some serious adrenaline. Suddenly his heart began to pound so fiercely that he was sure Clare must be able to hear it.

  Helping his fiancée-to-be inside, he gave Liam a surreptitious thumbs up and climbed in after her.

  Matt had instructed the pilot to undertake his normal patrol sweep of the Gold Coast beachfront, finishing with a circle over Point Danger. Liam was ready on the ground to co-ordinate the posters. They had practised it endlessly in his yard and had the timing down to split second precision.

  Clare clutched Matt’s hand excitedly as they lifted off and followed the sweeping coast down towards Surfer’s Paradise. It really was a stunning day and the sight of the rolling surf gleaming in the morning sun was so beautiful that Matt himself got caught up in it, forgetting for just a second the purpose behind the ride. This alone was enough to score him some serious brownie points, never mind the proposal.

  The pilot caught Matt’s eye and raised one eyebrow enquiringly as he swung the helicopter around to head back south. Matt gave an almost imperceptible nod in response. In his opinion all women were ridiculously perceptive, but Clare was even more so. He felt she was several steps ahead of him at every turn. Just once he wanted to totally surprise her.

  The adrenaline kicked back in as they neared Coolangatta. Sneaking a glance at Clare, Matt’s stomach flipped like it used to on the old Thunderbolt rollercoaster at Dreamworld.

  ‘Oh look, there’s Point Danger,’ Clare said, pointing into the distance.

  ‘Great spot,’ the pilot chipped in through his headset.

  Matt and Clare both nodded in agreement before turning to smile at each other. They loved spending time up there, which was precisely why Matt had picked the spot.

  ‘Oh wow,’ Clare said.

  Act cool, Matt told himself before answering in what he hoped was a calm voice. ‘What’s going on down there?’

  Clare shook her head. ‘I’m not sure, but there’s definitely something happening.’

  Matt worked hard to conceal his grin, but he didn’t really need to. Clare was too transfixed with what was happening on the ground.

  ‘Oooooh,’ she murmured, clasping a hand over her mouth.

  Not wanting to be obvious, Matt hadn’t yet looked at the ground. Taking Clare’s hand he squeezed it tight. ‘So, what do you reckon?’

  Clare’s eyes were still on the ground. ‘I honestly don’t know.’

  Matt was back on The Thunderbolt again, but this time he was trapped on the top of the first loop, his feet dangling and his chest compressed hard against the harness. This surely must be one of the worst moments of his life.

  ‘What do you mean you don’t know?’ he rasped.

  Clare still hadn’t looked at him. ‘I mean I can’t work out what’s going on. There’s a big group of kids running around like crazy things, some are holding pieces of paper I think and others seem to have thrown theirs away …’

  ‘WHAT?’ Matt replied, lurching over to Clare’s window and peering out. There was indeed a scene of bedlam on the ground. All fifteen of the children were spread over a twenty metre radius, some huddling together, others weaving in and out of the crowd that had gathered. Many of the pieces of carefully painted cardboard lay discarded on the ground, while others had been picked up by the wind that often hovered over the Point. Matt watched helplessly as a W and the question mark sailed over the edge of the cliff and down into the surf below.

  Slumping back in his seat Matt shook his head in disbelief. What the hell?

  Clare was still wrapped up in the happenings below. ‘You’re never going to believe this Babe, but Liam is down there. He’ll be able to give us all the details. I can’t wait! You know how well Liam can tell a story.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ Matt replied darkly. ‘He’s got a lot of explaining to do.’

  When he awoke from his drunken slumber the next morning Matt was sure he would never eat again. But, as always, by the time lunch rolled around he was in serious need of some grease and Maccas fit the bill. He had also finally gotten hold of Liam and pinned him down to a meeting time, once again in a park – this time at Coolangatta. It seemed that half his social life revolved around parks these days.

  Surprisingly, Liam was already there when he arrived.

  ‘Hey,’ Matt mumbled sourly.

  ‘Hey mate,’ Liam replied, much more upbeat. ‘I’ll grab the food if you like.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Cool. See you over near the swings in a sec,’ Liam replied. ‘Oh and can you keep an eye on the kids for me?’ he added as he disappeared across the road.

  Matt shook his head. Typical Liam. He loved the guy like a brother, but sometimes he could willingly kill him. Spying Anna and Belle playing with Milly he found a spot in the shade and lay down on the grass.

  The tantalising smell of a Big Mac roused him out of a semi-doze about ten minutes later. Struggling to a sitting position, he accepted the brown paper bag from Liam, noticing that Tom was there too.

  ‘Bumped into Tombo in the queue,’ Liam explained, plonking himself down near Matt.

  ‘Yeah I was glad to have an alternative to eating in,’ Tom said, choosing his own patch of grass. ‘It’s just not the same since they shifted. It used to be so awesome to wander into the old place soaking wet with sandy feet and kick back in the outside eating area.’

  ‘I’m hearing ya,’ agreed Liam, unwrapping his Quarter Pounder and giving a wave to the kids.

  Tom peeled the paper off his own Big Mac. ‘Ah Matty, major bummer about yesterday, hey?’

  ‘I’ll say,’ Matt agreed, shooting Liam the filthiest look he could.

  ‘So …?’ Tom enquired, ripping his bag down the side and extracting a handful of fries.

  ‘So, I’m waiting for our buddy Liam here to tell me all,’ replied Matt. ‘How our carefully crafted fool proof plan went to shit.’

  Liam shoved a huge chunk of burger into his mouth and followed it with a swill of Coke. ‘All right, all right,’ he demurred finally, ‘I’ll explain everything.’

  Five minutes later Matt was still unclear about what had gone down. ‘A goanna?’ he asked incredulously.

  ‘Yeah, a goanna,’ Liam replied earnestly.

  ‘I’m still not getting why the goanna was such a problem.’

  ‘Mate, have you ever seen a really big one? They are a little bit scary.’

  ‘Well no, I don’t suppose I have. But couldn’t you just round the kids up, and keep them out of the way until it took off again?’

  ‘Well, you know what they say about hindsight being twenty-twenty. I thought it would be cool for the kids to have a bit of a look at him, you know? But then the goanna went a bit schizo, he came right up to Belle like he was going to run up her leg. So, she
screamed and ran away, then all the kids got a bit excited and started screaming … and then the goanna was kind of trapped in the middle of this circle of hyper kids and it went even more schizo. Then some passers-by got involved and it all kind of snow balled. I honestly tried to round them all up again, but some of them had lost their placards … and I could see you had already been hovering a while …’ Liam glanced nervously over at Matt and shrugged helplessly. ‘I’m really sorry mate. I know how much you wanted to do it right.’

  Matt tried to keep the dour look on his face but couldn’t stop the hint of a smile that broke through. ‘A friggin’ goanna. Of all the stupid, random things that could happen …’

  Tom was the first to let out a peal of laughter. ‘Mate that is gold!’

  ‘It was actually kind of funny,’ Liam ventured, breaking into a grin.

  ‘Not for me!’ Matt snapped, fighting hard to keep a straight face.

  Tom had given up trying to hold his laughter in. ‘Forget the dog eating your homework,’ he chortled, ‘The goanna ruined my proposal!’

  * * * * *

  Having come to accept the humour in the situation Matt smiled resignedly and nodded as the audience guffawed around him.

  ‘Wow,’ Clare said, ‘that’s a very unusual turn of events.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Matt sighed. ‘I seem to attract more than my fair share of them.’

  ‘And did this second failed attempt make your reconsider?’

  ‘Well, yeah, of course. I mean one bout of bad luck could happen to anybody, but two seemed like I was barking up the wrong tree.’

  ‘So you gave up then?’

  Matt shook his head. ‘No I didn’t. As much as I was pretty devoed that I’d stuffed up twice, I still wanted to do it right.’

  ‘By right, you mean perfect?’

  ‘I guess I do – or did.’

  ‘All right then, don’t keep us in suspense, let’s hear what happened next.’

  * * * * *

  Matt’s sister, Elizabeth looked up from the pastry she was rolling out. ‘I reckon neutral ground’s the go,’ she announced.

  His other sister Jill nodded emphatically. ‘Yeah, great idea!’ she agreed, as she sliced up a Granny Smith apple.

  ‘What?’ Matt asked drowsily, adjusting his position on the couch slightly. For such a little guy, his nephew Drew could be heavy when he was asleep. With Clare in Newcastle for yet another speaking engagement he was at a loose end and in need of a decent feed. Given that his mother was away on a trip to New Zealand, he had invited himself over to Elizabeth’s place for Sunday lunch. As it turned out Liz’s husband Scott was at work so Jill tagged along too. Faced with his super inquisitive younger siblings who knew him too well, it hadn’t taken long for the sorry tale to come tumbling out.

  ‘You should propose on neutral ground. Melbourne didn’t work and neither did Coolangatta – maybe it was because there was too much of each of you invested in those places.’

  Matt was still trying to get comfortable. ‘Or maybe it was because my best mate couldn’t control a piece of native fauna.’

  Elizabeth finished filling the apple pie and lay the pastry over the top. ‘Don’t be so hard on Liam – you know his heart’s in the right place,’ she said as she crimped the edges.

  ‘Yeah,’ Jill agreed, ‘he’s a sweetheart.’

  ‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ Matt grumbled.

  Elizabeth put the pie in the oven and waddled over to the recliner. Lowering herself into it she patted her heavily pregnant belly and looked over at her big brother. ‘Don’t give up Matty. You are Clare are great together. Besides that we love her too and we desperately want her as our sister-in-law.’

  ‘Yeah,’ echoed Jill, moving Matt’s feet and plonking down on the end of the couch.

  ‘I reckon Dad would have liked her,’ Matt said.

  The girls nodded their agreement, casting their eyes to the framed photo Elizabeth had on the wall. They still missed him every day.

  ‘Well, speaking of Dad, I know he’d be telling you to give it another go,’ Jill said.

  ‘He definitely would,’ Elizabeth agreed.

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ Matt sighed.

  They all glanced at the TV where a documentary about Australia’s most expensive real estate was screening. Momentarily transfixed by a mansion overlooking Bondi Beach, Jill startled Matt when she suddenly sat up straight and slapped him on the leg. ‘That’s it!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘What’s it?’ Matt scowled, rubbing his stinging flesh.

  ‘Sydney!’

  ‘What about it?’ Elizabeth asked, looking at the TV again.

  ‘It’s right in the middle between Coolangatta and Melbourne and there’s no emotional attachment there for either of you, right?’ she asked Matt.

  ‘No, we’ve never actually been there together.’

  ‘Perfect!’ Jill declared, reaching for her iPhone.

  ‘It is a great idea,’ Elizabeth said, smiling encouragingly at Matt.

  ‘You really think so?’

  ‘Yes,’ Jill reinforced. ‘Leave it to me and Liz and we’ll arrange something super special.’

  Drew woke up then, opening one eye cautiously and stretching lazily. Seeing Matt, he gave him a full faced grin. Matt smiled in return and held up his hand for a high five. ‘Hey Buddy,’ he said, ‘Let’s hope third time’s the charm.’

  * * * * *

  It was a perfect Sydney summer’s day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and although Matt realised it was probably his imagination, it seemed to be a particularly gorgeous shade of blue. As did the water in the harbour. Dozens of boats bobbed on the sparkling surface, while the ferries chugged steadily over their familiar routes. Sydney really was a beautiful city and today she was showing herself in all her glory.

  Matt had to give it to his sisters. They had really come up trumps. Timing the long weekend to coincide with a prestigious conference at the Intercontinental Hotel where Clare was one of the keynote speakers, they had arranged tickets for a sold out theatre production at the Opera House, VIP passes to a red carpet movie premiere at Fox Studios and had somehow got them onto the set of Home and Away (although Clare denied watching it, everybody knew that she did). But getting them their own private area on the observation deck at Centrepoint Tower was the icing on the cake. How they had done it Matt did not know, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  Clare was a little unsure about being in the roped off space. ‘It says it’s for a private function,’ she said, her eyes darting nervously around.

  Matt took her hand and gently dragged her closer to the window. ‘It’s fine. There’s nobody around.’

  ‘Yeah, but …’

  ‘No buts – they’ll tell us to move if they want to.’

  ‘All right, maybe just for a while – it’s amazing to have our own little space isn’t it?’

  ‘Oh yeah, absolutely.’

  ‘This has been such a great trip. I can’t believe all the stuff we’ve done. It’s like a big celebration, but I’m not sure of the occasion.’

  ‘Is that right?’ Matt replied.’

  Clare eyed him curiously. ‘Yes, that’s right.’

  Meeting her gaze Matt tried to look as normal as possible, but was sure his face would give him away. ‘The occasion is that I love you and I wanted you to be totally relaxed before your big speech tomorrow.’

  Clare dropped his hand and planted both palms on her face. ‘Oh man, the speech!’ she murmured. ‘I can’t believe I haven’t practised it once since we’ve been here.’

  ‘You’ll be fine, it’s been good for you to have a break from it. You can go over it tonight.’

  Clare dropped her hands and looked beseechingly at Matt. ‘You really think I can do it?’

  ‘You know you can. Think of all the other speeches you’ve done. You’re a natural.’

  ‘Yeah but this is the big one, it’s a huge audience with heaps of international delegates, not to m
ention it’s a really complex topic.’

  Matt hugged her tight. ‘It doesn’t matter, you’ll still nail it.’

  Clare returned the hug. ‘Well, how lucky am I to have my own personal speechwriter?’

  ‘Very lucky.’

  They stood arm in arm for a moment watching the city bustle beneath them. Matt closed his eyes for a second and surreptitiously took a deep breath. Taking Clare’s hand he tried to decide whether or not to go down on one knee …

  ‘We’ll have to go to the computer room and print it out when we get back,’ Clare said as she gave his hand a little squeeze. ‘Lucky you had it saved on your memory stick.’

  ‘Memory stick?’

  ‘Come on Matt don’t muck around, you know how important this is to me.’

  Matt’s blood turned to ice as he realised what he had done. Running very late for their flight, he had told Clare not to bother going back to her work to pick up her laptop and the printed copy of her speech as he had it saved on his memory stick. And he did. The only problem was the memory stick was in the centre console of Liam’s car, the car he had dropped them off in before heading off to go camping, in an area with no phone reception.

  ‘Oh, shit Clare, I’m so sorry!’ he mumbled. ‘I left it in the car …’

  ‘Yeah right. I’ve fallen for enough of your other pranks not to believe that.’

  Matt hesitated, wondering if he could somehow get a message to Liam …

  Clare studied his face for a second, then took a step back and looked at him, wild eyed. ‘Tell me you’re kidding.’

  ‘I’m such an idiot! I put it in there so I wouldn’t lose it …’

  ‘Matthew they are paying me a huge amount of money to deliver a half hour address tomorrow. You assured me I didn’t need my laptop and now you’ve just casually remembered you didn’t bring the memory stick. I can’t believe you! You’re so irresponsible and lackadaisical! You never take anything seriously!’

  ‘Yeah I do, you know I do! I really am sorry,’ Matt babbled. ‘I’ll rewrite it for you, we’ve got time.’