Derailed (27 page)

SCARLETT

It’s driving me batty – she’s in our home all day. Ever since the apocalypse, she’s around. Sure, she has become our maid, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids – but her presence is driving me nuts.

And she looks like shit. Her hair is messy and always in a ponytail, her face is makeup free, and her clothes – always sweatpants and baggy tops. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s deliberately making herself look ugly. She doesn’t have to try too hard, considering that she looks like a frump anyway. Sits there like a deflated balloon with red-rimmed eyes, nursing her broken heart and bringing us all down. I can’t take it anymore.

“I want her out,” I say to Bradley.

“That’s never gonna happen,” he says, walking away from me.

I run after him. “This obsession with you – it’s about
winning
, Bradley. You’ve got your five bucks from Ritchie. Let it go. I want our house back.”

“Go fuck yourself,” he snarls.

I’m starting to regret telling Bradley about Rival and Ritchie. Maybe I was a little premature?

RIVAL

“I want you to come with us,” Bradley whispers.

“Bradley, I’ve told you so many times; I don’t want to go on holiday with you and your wife. What is wrong with you? Why do you insist on it?”

“It’s not exactly a
holiday
for me, you know. I have meetings upon meetings before I can even take a break.”

“Well, then…leave the kids with me.”

“No! I want to take them and I want you to come along. The kids will love it.”

“Bradley, I take care of the kids every single day. They will be fine without me for one weekend, okay? Besides, I don’t want to be in a room with your wife if I can help it. She’s toxic.”

He looks away. Apparently he doesn’t want to be alone with her either.

After a few moments of silence, he asks, “So what you gonna do?”

“I’m behind with my tasks at WIN. Guess I’ll use the time to catch up on that. Uninterrupted.”

“WIN!” He bristles at the mere mention of it. 

“It’s charity, Bradley, and it’s the distraction I need.”

After arguing a little more with me, Bradley finally shuts up. But he sulks. I don’t care—as long as he leaves me alone.

With the money raised by Scarlett’s fundraising, WIN has purchased another property to convert into a women’s shelter. This property requires more work than the others, so I allow myself to be rostered on over the long holiday weekend. 

I am the first to arrive on Friday morning, and I get busy on my work right away. Fatima arrives shortly thereafter, and after some small talk, she heads off to catch up on her work. One by one, more volunteers stream in, and soon the place is bustling with activity.

I hear them before I see them – Ritchie’s girls. I hear their angelic laughter as they race into the shelter. Seeing them brings tears to my eyes. I missed them so much.

When they see me, they shriek with delight and rush into my arms. “Rival! We missed you so much.” 

“I missed you guys too,” I say, meaning it. I glance around for Liefie. She’s not going to be happy to see her daughters hugging me.

But to my utter surprise, it isn’t Liefie who enters; it’s Ritchie. At the sight of him, my heart does cartwheels, my cheeks grow hot, my mouth goes dry, and my legs go wobbly. He strides in, tool box in one hand and little Gareth in the other. He doesn’t see me straight away, so I get a good look at him as he walks over and talks to Fatima.

“I’ll probably be done by this arvo,” I hear him say.

“Well, you’ve got your elves here,” Fatima says, motioning to his kids. “They’ll help you finish sooner, I’m sure.”

“Pig, look who we found!” Becky says, holding up my hand.

“Oh, I doubt that,” he says with a chuckle. “If anything, they will –” His words die on his lips when he sees me. He stares so hard, I get really uncomfortable. When I recover from my surprise at seeing him, I give an embarrassed smile and a brief wave. Eventually I get a nod. No smile, no greeting, just a somewhat curt nod. I’ll take it.

RITCHIE

The gods are against me. How else can you explain this? On the twentieth day, one day before I am to rid myself of a habit called Rival, I find myself standing a few feet away from her. It’s surreal to see her in the flesh again. She’s lost weight, her face is scrubbed clean, and she’s dressed in a pair of denim shorts, a black t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers.

It’s a little while before I can compose myself enough to give her a nod. A there’s-no-need-to-be-hostile-toward-each-other-so-here-is-a-causal-but-empty-greeting nod.

Rival does not give me a perfunctory greeting. She smiles and waves.
Smiles
. I was not expecting a smile. I was not expecting one of those smiles that makes her eyes shine and her face light up. How dare she? How dare she think she can
smile
at me after her mammoth betrayal? The nerve she has. And she actually looks happy to see me? How is that? Bloody nerve. 

“
Boet
?”

I tear my eyes away from the woman who caused me so much pain to look at my sister.

“You okay?” Arena whispers.

I blink rapidly at her.
Huh
?

“I thought you’re coming in
tomorrow
.” She stabs at the roster in front of her. “I deliberately scheduled you for tomorrow so that you wouldn’t bump –”

“It’s a’right,” I mutter.

“Why don’t you come back tomorrow? It might be better.”

Involuntarily, my neck turns to look at Rival again. She’s looking directly at me. Our eyes lock for a moment. I break the lock.

“I’ve eh, got a fishing trip with the, eh, guys. Tomorrow.”  Damn Rival for causing my thoughts to desert me. “Can’t break it. Plans have been made. Paid well in advance for the trip.”

“Next week then?” Arena says.

I stare at my sister, who is intent on keeping Rival and me apart.

“I’m just trying to prevent an awkward situation, Ritchie.”

I hold up my hand and take control of the situation. “I can handle it, Arena. Don’t sweat, okay? I can handle it.”

Before she can respond, I get busy installing my thirteen surveillance cameras throughout the premises.

If I ignore Rival, keep out of her way, I can do this. I am strong and in control. There’s no way she’s going to hijack my determination to rid my mind of her.

I work fast and furiously, focusing intently on the work at hand. A four-hour job that I can probably complete in three. Then I’m done with WIN and Rival the traitor.

But every time I look at Rival, I catch her looking at me. I always look away, embarrassed that she caught me looking at her. 

“How long you gonna be,
Boet
?” Arena asks a short while later.

“Three hours, maybe four?”

“Oh.”

“Why? It’s not like you’re paying me by the hour or something.”

She chuckles. “You should be so lucky.”

“Yeah, and it wouldn’t be the first time I wasn’t getting paid for work I’ve done for you.”

“For
Women in Need.
Don’t forget that now,” she says with a glint in her eyes.

“Mm.”

RIVAL

At first, Ritchie concentrates on his work, a sullen look firmly in place, reminding me of little Gareth. But a short while later, I catch him looking at me. The moment our eyes meet, he quickly turns away. That’s okay – he’s still mad at me, I get that. Nearby, his elves try to be helpful, by emptying out his tool box and using the tools as metal Legos.

“Look Pig, we’ve built a gigantic house,” Becky says.

“Awesome!” Ritchie says.

“I break it!” little Gareth says, shoving at the gigantic house. “See?”

“Daddyyyy!” Ally cries. “Tell him to stop!”

“Gareth stop!” Ritchie says. “Build, don’t break.”

“Build, don’t break,” Gareth repeats.

Arena hovers around, offering us nibbles and drinks. I believe she’s around us more as a buffer than anything else.

Around lunch time, Arena rounds us all up. “Time for a sausage sizzle guys. Let’s all take a break and grab some grub.”

I step outside to join everyone and come face to face with Vlad and Liefie. Liefie jerks back when she sees me. Her eyes fly to Ritchie, then back to me.

“Hey there, Rival,” Vlad says and hurries to give me a hug. “It’s good to see you again. How have you been?”

“I’m good, Vlad. Great to see you again too.”

“Where’s your girls?” he asks, swiveling his neck around.

“Oh, they’re gone to Melbourne with their father.”

“Ah.”

“Left the cage door open,” Ritchie pipes from behind us in a sneering voice.

Both Vlad and I jerk to look at him.

He grins. “Kidding!”

Vlad looks at me and shakes his head.
Don’t worry about him.

I nod.

“Would you like a cupcake, Rival?” Arena says.

“Oh, sure,” I say. “You baked it?”

“Don’t you have any
tarts
?” Ritchie pipes. “It’s more her.” He chuckles at his stupid joke.

I glare at him. He wriggles his eyebrows. Arena shoots her brother a warning look.

“What?” Ritchie asks, popping an entire cupcake into his mouth, his eyes shining with mirth.

Liefie is the only one laughing at his antics.

Arena looks at me and murmurs, “Ignore him.”

“Would you like to try some boerewors?” Arena says.

“Eh, no thanks, I’m good,” I say.

“She’s
good
,” Ritchie says. “Meaning, she’s too
good
for boerewors, sis.”

“Ritchie!” Arena barks, glaring at her brother.

“Why don’t you shut up?” I mouth.

Undeterred by my anger, he continues, “When you sleep with the future prime minister, you only want –”

“Ritchie, would you stop this shit!” Arena flares. “What is wrong with you?”

Ritchie merely grins. 

“Fuck off!” I hiss before I storm back inside the premises. I refuse to make everyone around me uncomfortable by publicly fighting with Ritchie, so I decide to leave. Hastily, I gather my stuff and throw it into my bag. 

When I turn around, I almost slam into Ritchie.

“Running away, Mrs. Murdoch? That’s right, do what you always do: run.” He walks two fingers in the air.

“Ritchie, you’re being an arsehole.”

“No, you’re the arsehole here, Rival! You run. All the time. Run! Run! Run!”

“You’re mad at me and you wanna tell me off, Ritchie?”

“As I matter of fact, I do. You walked out on me when things got hot. Walked out on all our…our dreams, abandoned all our visions, our future. Huh?” His voice is filled with hurt and anger. “You’re the deserter, Rival. You!”

“Ritchie, I left because I was trying to save you troub –”

“Bullshit!”

“I did, Ritchie, I did!”

“You bailed, Rival. You bailed because –”

“I loved you, Ritchie, and I saw how you were hurting. Everyone around you was hurting and I had to do
something
.”

“Liar! You just used me to make Bradley jealous. Look at you now.” With his lips curled with contempt, his eyes drag over me. “Looking all so fine. If we were real, how come you’re so together, huh? How come you’re not on a twenty-one day plan?”

I squint at him. “Twenty-one day plan?”

He gives a dismissive wave.

“And
together
?” I point at myself. “Does I look together?”

“Ye…ah. You do, with your slutty shorts, and your tight shirt that shows your tits and your nipples – all screaming screw me!”

Furious, I swing my bag at him, but he fends off the blow.

“Screw me, screw me!” he taunts.

“Fuck you, Ritchie!” I say, feeling close to tears.

“Ritchie!” Bear shouts from the other side of the room. “You need to back off, mate. Now!”

Ritchie ignores Bear.

I try to walk away, but Ritchie blocks my path.

“Ritchie!” Arena shouts as she marches up to her brother and shoves him in the chest. “You stop this nonsense right now!”

He throws his hands up in the air in a motion of surrender. 

She turns to me. “Look, Rival, I’m sorry about this. Come back tomorrow, okay? He’s not here tomorrow, and things will be better.”

I nod and walk away, my vision blurred by my tears.

Arena walks me to the car. “I’m so sorry, Rival,” she says. “My brother…he’s just hurting a lot. He’s sort of lost without you.”

“It’s okay,” I mutter as I start the car.

Then Ritchie walks up to the car. I brace myself for more accusations and insults. But he just looks at me in silence. Doesn’t say anything, just looks at me with eyes full of hurt.

“Go, Rival!” Arena hisses. “Go!”

I don’t drive off. Instead I look at the man I love and say, “I’m not together, Ritchie. I miss you. I miss our home. I miss your kids, I miss…
us
, Ritchie.”

He shakes his head.
Liar
!

“I not lying. I’m struggling without you.”

“You need to go,” Arena whispers to me, grabbing her brother’s arm and trying to tug him away. 

Arena steps back, but Ritchie doesn’t move. I slip the car into reverse and drive off. When I look in my rear view mirror, I see Arena gesticulating wildly at Ritchie, while Ritchie looks at her with arms folded across his chest, a stubborn look on his face. 

RITCHIE

“What the HELL is wrong with you, Ritchie?” My sister snarls.

“Yeah,” Bear says walking toward us. “What’s got into you, Big?”

I scratch the back of my head.
Dunno
.

“Leave him alone,” Liefie says, walking over to me and taking my arm in a protective gesture. “He’s been through a lot.”

“No, he was rude and mean and unfair,” my sister says.

Then Vlad walks over and takes Liefie’s arm.

“What?” Liefie asks.

“Leave them to sort it out,” he mutters. “Don’t get involved.”

“No!” Liefie says, jerking back her arm.