The Eden Effect (6 page)

Grateful as she was to her parents for their love and care, Natalie knew she had to move out and begin her life as an independent young adult. With Charles' and Vivienne's blessing and with the help of their enormous wealth, Natalie moved into a small, beautiful unit, in the beachside suburb of St Kilda where she began to re-build her life. And that is when she met Martin. In the water, at St Kilda beach. Natalie was sitting on a body-board in the water wearing a bikini, her stumps bare for all to see. After all she has been through, Natalie no longer had any shred of self-consciousness nor fear of anything. The day was a glorious Melbourne summer's day. Not too hot, twenty eight or thirty degrees. Clear blue skies and calm waters. Natalie was with Rita, a local girl who she had befriended. They were chatting about nothing when suddenly her board was up-ended, tipping Natalie backwards into the water. She could swim despite the absence of legs. During her time in rehab she had spent countless hours in the gym building up her arms and core strength. Those powerful arms could propel her through the water at great speed, no need for legs.

As she surfaced from her tumble, she found herself facing a tan, unbelievably handsome man with long blond hair and sparkling green eyes staring at her, a broad smile on his face.

Without thinking she said, ‘You've got beautiful eyes, but they don't go with the rest of you.'

She immediately regretted the remark. She was annoyed with herself. What a stupid and childish thing to say. But the man did not seem to mind.

‘Hi, I'm Martin,' was his reply.

She had no choice but to say, ‘Hi, I'm Natalie.'

After that they both came to the beach every day, accidentally bumping into each other either on the sand or in the water. After a week the meetings were no longer accidental and after two weeks Martin asked her out for dinner. For the next week they saw each other daily. Then Martin announced he was going home. His holiday at the beach was over and he was returning to his home in Eden.

Natalie and Martin kept in touch. He wrote her letters, she replied by email only to realize that Martin did not do emails. There were phone calls but Martin did not own a mobile phone and the landline calls often reached an answering machine.

After three months, Natalie realized that if she wanted to develop her relationship with Martin they would actually have to be in the same town. As Martin could not move, his work was in Eden and as Natalie had no fixed commitment, she sold the St Kilda unit and within another three months had settled into a house in Eden.

‘That's it, Arthur, my story.' Natalie said. ‘What do you say, Arthur?'

‘I think I need another Scotch after that,' was his reply.

‘Help yourself. Just across the hall in the dining room, you'll see the bar. I won't have one, I'm driving.'

Arthur walked over to the bar, which consisted of a two-tier trolley, laden with single malt whiskeys, at least twenty that Arthur could count. He refilled his glass, being careful not to pour too much. He chose Bowman Legend, a good but less expensive whiskey, came back into the lounge and sat down.

After two sips of the whiskey he said, ‘That is quite a story, Natalie. You didn't say when you moved to Eden.'

‘That was three and half years ago,' Natalie replied. ‘Best thing I ever did. You haven't had a chance to get to know Martin. I've already told you, he is one of the good guys. And believe me, his story is worse than mine. But that's for another day and not for me to tell.'

Author looked at his watch. Where had the afternoon gone? It was just before 5pm and he felt that he should go. Natalie saw the time too and said, ‘Come on Arthur, come, I'll drive you home.'

The trip to the dairy was a least within the speed limit. Arthur had realized that Natalie had forgotten to show him her legs, but said nothing. Once they arrived he said his goodbye, opened the door and went inside.

The place was silent. He called out hello several times and receiving no answer, realised that Martin was out and he as own his own. He wasn't sure what he should do. For a moment he thought he could watch the news on TV but of course there wasn't one. Not a radio either. He could have an early dinner but had not bought any food and Martin had not said that he would be providing it. So he would have to eat out. He didn't mind that, except that he had little cash and even with Natalie paying for lunch he did not have enough for dinner. He would have to take out money from the ATM, which he assumed the bank had. He recalled seeing the Bendigo Bank branch on High Street when he went out for lunch.

He headed off to the bank where he withdrew $200. He hoped that would last until Martin paid him. Don's did breakfast and lunch but not dinner. He did not know where else to go so headed for the Red Lion. It had a bistro next to the bar where he had had drinks. He arrived at 5:45pm to find out that dinner started at 6:00pm. He sat at the bar and ordered a light beer. There were a few patrons around but no one that Arthur knew. His new friends from the other night were not there. Over the last few years, Arthur had become used to his own company. No choice really. But he was quite happy to drink on his own and eat on his own. It would be good to have something to read, and looking around he saw a discarded edition of the Eden Star from that morning. He took the paper, moved from the bar to a table and sipped his beer while leafing through the newspaper. He realised he was hungry, looked at his watch and saw it was just after 6pm. He would take the beer and newspaper into the bistro, finish the drink there and order dinner. He was about to stand up when suddenly two men sat themselves in chairs either side of him.

‘Well, who have we here?' One of the men asked. ‘Arthur Fromm, is it? Martin's new boy at the dairy. I'm Gill, and that handsome lad is Roger,' the man continued. ‘We're the Law, just thought we'd check you out and say welcome.'

Arthur was taken aback and did not immediately reply. By the law he assumed they meant the local police. They were not in uniform and Arthur's first impression of them was that they looked like a gay couple. Both had what appeared to be bottle blond hair, neatly cut, the one called Gill had a dark moustache and Roger a goatee beard, also dark. Before Arthur could say anything, Gill began ‘Let me introduce ourselves more formerly, sir. I'm Gill McKinnon, Senior Constable McKinnon, and over there is senior constable Roger Moreland. We are the Eden Policy Force. All of it. And since you will know that soon enough anyway, we are partners in life as well as at work.'

So his first impression was correct, thought Arthur. That's something new, an openly gay couple in the police force.

‘Pleased to meet you,' Arthur said. ‘I'm a little surprised you know who I am. We haven't met, have we?' he added.

‘It is our business to know everything that goes on in Eden.'

This time it was Roger who spoke.

‘As Gill said, we are the law and it is our job to make sure that in Eden, the law is obeyed.'

‘Not always an easy task,' was Gill's contribution.

Arthur began to feel a little uneasy. Was this some sort of police intimidation? Did the two know his background perhaps? It had been in the news for quite a long time. There must have been a look of concern on Arthur's face.

‘Settle down, Arthur. This is just our way of saying hello and welcome,' said Gill. ‘We just wanted to touch base. I think it's most unlikely that we'll have any professional dealings, you and us. You are more mature than some of Martin's previous helpers. We have had trouble one or two of those, let me tell you. But you, Arthur, you look O.K to us. So, hello again and welcome to Eden.'

Arthur felt a sense of relief. The last thing he needed was trouble with the police.

‘Thanks for that Senior Constable. I don't think you'll have any trouble from me.'

Roger replied, ‘that's Roger and Gill. Drop the Senior Constable. You look like a man who is hungry. Come on, let us buy you dinner.'

Roger and Gill stood up, Arthur followed. He did not think it was polite to argue or refuse. The three of them headed into the bistro where they were quickly seated at a table, and within minutes were perusing the menu. For the second time in the one day Arthur was surprised by the menu. Perhaps there was more to this town than met the eye.

‘You're not vegetarian, are you Arthur?' Gill asked. ‘Because if not, I recommend the steak. Marcel, the Chef does a great steak. Known for it all around the district.'

Arthur looked at the steaks on the menu. There were five choices, obviously steak was their specialty. And their prices were nothing like city prices. He ordered the eye fillet, medium rare. It came with Asian greens and hand cut potato chips. Roger and Gill also ordered steak. Roger a T-bone and Gill a porterhouse, both medium rare. Gill ordered a bottle of Heathcote Shiraz. Arthur wondered whether they were trying to impress him for some reason or was this the norm when someone new came to town.

Gill poured them each a generous measure of Shiraz, lifted his glass and said, ‘to you, Arthur. Hope your stay with us is a happy one.'

‘And a long one,' added Roger.

‘Thank you, guys,' Arthur replied. ‘It's only been one day, but so far so good.'

By then the steaks had arrived. Arthur was again surprised that the cutlery was Laguille, the well-known French steak knives. He began to eat his steak, sipping on the Shiraz which Gill topped up. The three of them ate in silence. Arthur realized that the first bottle of Shiraz was empty and quickly was replaced by another bottle which Gill again poured out. They finished eating. Gill had been right. The steak was great. Better than Arthur had had for a long time and at least it's as good as the top steak house in Melbourne. A third bottle of Shiraz then materialized and Arthur had the vague thought that if Eden's entire police force was there, by now affected by alcohol, who was looking after the town. It was not really his concern he thought. He assumed Gill and Roger knew what they were doing.

The wine had certainly affected him and he was only vaguely aware of what the two policemen were saying. The conversation seemed to be directed at him. He heard mention of ‘Law and Order', hardly unexpected from policemen. There were references to unemployed youth, burnouts and drag racing. Breaking and entering and burglary also got a mention. Eden suddenly sounded like the Old Wild West.

‘There is almost no violent crime here Arthur,' said Roger. ‘There hasn't been a murder in over twenty years and hardly any assaults. Oh, the occasional drunk husband whacking his wife, nothing else,' he added.

Arthur assumed that he was supposed to feel reassured.

‘This is a good town, Arthur' said Gill this time.

‘Friendly, largely law abiding, we see to that. Could do with tourism but that's a lost cause. Thank God for Eden Valley and the Donati clan. Without them we'd be stuffed. You'll no doubt run into them around town. I don't know if Martin delivers to them.'

Arthur did not know either. He was so focussed on doing everything right that morning that he did not really pay any attention to the names or addresses of any of the deliveries. Martin stopped the van at the address, Arthur took in the goods and returned to the van.

‘Don't know Gill,' Arthur said. ‘I did not really notice this morning. I'll check tomorrow' he volunteered.

Arthur noticed the time on his watch. 9pm. He would have to leave. He had to get up before 5am. He felt he could not say anything, after all Roger and Gill were taking him out. The third bottle of Shiraz was empty and Arthur hoped that there would not be a fourth. He was not confident of his ability to walk home as it was. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the waiter approaching with the bill. Arthur assumed he had been summonsed. Gill reached for it, pulled out some cash and handed it to the waiter. The three of them stood up. Arthur thanked them for the dinner and company and said that he had a great evening. He felt his speech was slurred but he doubted that Gill and Roger noticed.

They shook hands good-bye and Arthur headed home on foot, making sure to walk as steadily as his brain allowed him to do.

The house was dark when he arrived. He did not call out hello. He went to the bathroom, then to his bedroom, changed into his pyjamas and was fast asleep five minutes after he had arrived home.