Twelve Days (5 page)

Before John had a chance to say anything, Jamie had his cell phone in his hand and asked while listening to the steady rings, “Any message for her?”

“Give her my love and tell her that her son is a lazy little….”

Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

Jamie held up his hand to stop John midsentence and said into his phone, “Hi, Mum, it’s Jamie. I’m in Margins and was talking to John and had the urge to call.”

John rolled his eyes and walked back out to the counter.

Jamie waited a second then said, “I tried that site, but no luck.”

“Are you sure you can’t ask him for any more details?”

Maggie asked sleepily, because once again her gorgeous son seemed to have forgotten she was no longer in the adjacent suburb and their time zones were half a world apart.

“No chance, Mum, he’s not too good right now.”

“And how are
you
doing, sweetheart? You know I almost suggested you fly over here and spend Christmas with your old mum, but thought you might appreciate your freedom this year. Are you going to spend Christmas with John and David?”

“Yep,” Jamie answered, trying to hide just how much he missed his mum. “We’re going to help at the shelter Christmas Eve….”

“Will you see your young man?” Maggie quickly interrupted and Jamie was sure he could hear her smiling.

“He’s not my young man, Mum, but I’m working on it.”

Maggie laughed down the phone line, knowing that it would take a very strange or very straight man to resist her son’s charms. “Well, I expect to see a photo from you very soon so I can let you know what I think of him. Brian, isn’t it?” she teased.

Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

“Check my Facebook, Mum,” Jamie suggested but very quickly changed his mind. “Or maybe just forget I said that, okay?”

“Things you don’t want your mother to see?”

“Of course not,” Jamie lied. “But that just gave me an idea. Lots of people do the whole social network thing, right?

So how about I….” Jamie stopped short and rapidly changed topic. “Hey, Davey, I’m on the phone to Mum; come and say hi.”

Jamie gave David no option and shoved the phone to his ear.

“Hello, Maggie,” he said quietly and self-consciously.

“Hello, love,” Maggie replied and knew to keep up the chatter so David didn’t have to. “It’s good to hear your voice.

Jamie has been keeping me up-to-date with how you’ve been doing and told me about the pictures you’ve been drawing for the kiddies. I would love to see them. I miss Margins more than I thought I would. Perhaps I should come and visit next year and maybe meet your son? Is he as handsome as you?”

David smiled and said, “More than me.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. You have a lovely Christmas, David, and give my baby a hug from me.”

“Merry Christmas,” David said softly and nodded at Jamie to take the phone back. He walked as far away as he could in the tiny kitchen to give Jamie some privacy to say his farewells to his mother. But as soon as the cell went back into Jamie’s pocket, David moved closer and said, very quietly, “She told me to give you a hug.”

Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

Jamie needed no other invitation and was soon enfolded in David’s arms.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, then sighed before giving David a quick kiss on the cheek. Jamie stepped back and glanced out to where John was checking under the counter to locate an order. “Think you can tolerate a bit of retail therapy with me?”

That was something David definitely did not want to do, but Jamie already had hold of his hand and dragged him out and past the counter, where he said, “I’m taking David out to shop for a few minutes. Be back soon.”

John watched David’s helpless shrug as they exited the door and muttered, “I guess I’ll just do those Christmas orders, will I?” But he was smiling.

“WHAT about this one?” Jamie asked, holding a delicate glass Christmas tree up to the light. “Or maybe that one?”

He picked up an equally fragile-looking snowflake and frowned. David stood with his hands in his pockets and said, “They’re both nice.”

“Yeah,” Jamie muttered and replaced them on the stand. “But they’re not quite right. Nothing I’ve looked at feels right. I’m sorry, Davey. I know I’m being a pain.”

“I understand. You’ll know when you find the right things,” David said as they left the latest of many Christmas decoration stores.

“When I least expect it, right?” Jamie grinned and started them toward the tram stop. “Hey, before we go back, how about I go sit on Santa’s knee and tell him that I want a Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

certain someone for Christmas, or if you’re not up to the embarrassment of that, we could always check out the Myers windows?”

A cloud seemed to pass across David’s face and he shook his head. “Can we go back, please? I need to finish today’s drawing.”

Jamie knew instantly he’d said the wrong thing. “Of course we can. I bet John will be ready to send out a search party, anyway.”

Four Days…

DAVID had retreated to his chair to work on that day’s drawing. He’d started it late the night before, but something wasn’t right; it was too dark, too much clutter, and everything he added seemed to make it worse. David’s fingers smudged over the image, dragging the gray carbon in an ugly smear. He looked from the sketchbook to his fingers.

The lead from the pencil dirtied his fingertips and left the frayed skin at the side of his nail edged with black. The sight made David’s heart thump a little harder and he needed to look away.

A young mother led two small children over to the Christmas tree and pointed to a wooden rocking horse hanging on a low branch. She glanced furtively over her shoulder to check on her husband pushing a selection of books across the counter, and they exchanged a quick smile before she needed another distraction for their children. It Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

was difficult to watch and David returned to dragging his pencil over his drawing.

“Is this today’s?” Jamie asked quietly, knowing that David could be too engrossed in his sketch to have noticed his approach. Actually, engrossed wasn’t the right word, having witnessed the frown lines scarring David’s face and the erratic movements of his pencil.

David stopped. He half covered the image, then sat very still. His eyes remained on the sketchbook so it was only his sudden stillness that acknowledged Jamie’s question.

“You don’t have to do one today if you’re not in the mood,” Jamie suggested and sat slowly on the empty chair next to his friend, while being careful not to spill the two mugs of coffee he’d brought as his pretense for the visit.

“How about you leave the picture for now and have a drink with me? John is being a miserable bastard and I want someone to talk to.”

David glanced at the offered mug, but made no move to take it.

“Come on, Davey,” Jamie insisted gently. “We’re not going back to this are we?”

After a few seconds of indecision, David’s eyes moved up to meet Jamie’s. Their focus changed and the pale eyes saw the young man smiling at him. “Thank you,” he muttered and took the mug a little awkwardly, not quite sure what to do with the pencil still clutched in his fingers.

Without comment, Jamie took the pencil and lifted the sketchbook to place them both on the floor next to David’s boots. “They’re just here,” Jamie pointed out when he saw the almost imperceptible flinch.

Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

The pair sat in silence for several minutes until Jamie said, “They won’t mind, you know?”

A look of confusion crossed David’s features so Jamie continued, “The kids won’t mind if you need to stop.” He smiled, but there was no smile returned.

“I can’t get it right,” David muttered.

“You don’t always have to, Davey; some days things don’t seem to come together like others.”

David nodded, but wasn’t really convinced.

“Can you tell me what’s up today?” Jamie asked, even though he knew it wasn’t just “today.”

“I….” David stopped and took a breath. He needed to slow things down and then answer. Focusing on the dark smudges on his fingers, noticing how they ingrained the swirls of his fingerprints, David said slowly, “I should be with Adam at Christmas, but I can’t.” He looked up to watch the family wander out of the store with the newly purchased books hidden in a plain shopping bag. It was how it should be.

Jamie understood there was little he could say to ease David’s mind, so he simply closed his hand over David’s and gave it a squeeze.

Three days…

DAVID didn’t have his pack on his back, but as soon as he woke, he knew he needed to walk. It had been many months since the need was so urgent, but it ate at him until even Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

John’s gentle touch at the first light of dawn rattled his senses. He’d mumbled half-formed sentences of apology and dragged on the clothes he’d dropped the night before. When he left their bedroom, David didn’t look back, not wanting to witness the pain in John’s eyes while knowing he’d caused it.

At first there was no conscious awareness of his surroundings; for David it was just the physical need to put one foot in front of the other and watch the footpath disappear with each step. When he was finally forced to a stop at a street corner, David’s foot tapped rapidly as he waited to be able to move again, needing the demand on his body to take precedence over the confusion in his mind.

David had walked for over an hour when the ache in his legs finally penetrated the compulsion to move. He slowed down and took in his surroundings for the first time since leaving Margins. David had walked to the business district, where men in suits rushed past as if their lives depended on getting the contents of their briefcases to meetings with other men in suits. David sat on a bench and watched them power away along the path, scowling and barking orders into earpieces. Their world was completely alien to David now, and even though he didn’t understand where he needed to be, it definitely wasn’t with them.

The morning sun shone warm on his shoulders. In the past it might have soothed his mind and muscles, but David only felt its sting on his skin where it irritated and added to his agitation. The heat buzzed in his head as if a fly had become trapped in his skull, short-circuiting all logical connections. David pushed his fingers through his hair, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on everything he’d been Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

taught.
Block it all out. Don’t try to see a big-picture solution.

Small steps.
David knew how to do it, but the fly’s wings just beat faster and the buzzing in his mind overwhelmed any attempt at reasoned thought.

“HELLO, sweetheart,” Barbara said and pulled Jamie into a hug. “Got today off work?”

Jamie returned the hug and explained, “Just the morning. I’ll go back in this afternoon and organize what’s left of the Christmas lay-bys. Plus I think the boss needed some space this morning; David’s out walking and we’re not talking about it.”

“I had a feeling this might happen,” Barbara said. “I could see this building up in him at his last few sessions, but hoped he had enough strategies now to see it through.”

“Too much too soon?” Jamie wondered aloud.

“I think so. It’s sometimes hard to understand how all the good things coming together can be a trigger.” Barbara shook her head and smiled to show that was all she was able to say on that topic. She asked, “So what brings you down here this morning? Or should I say who?”

Jamie almost tried to deny he was there to see Brian, but then grinned and said, “Do you blame me?”

With a playful roll of her eyes, Barbara tipped her head in the direction of the recreation room and winked.

“Thanks,” Jamie whispered, and walked as casually as he could manage into the rec room. It was quite small and had few facilities other than some battered couches and a Twelve Days |
Isabelle Rowan

ping pong table, but the walls had newly built bookcases half-filled with books. A sign pinned to the wall read:
Help
yourself, but please return so others can read.
The growing book collection made Jamie smile and he filed away the thought to tell David his small idea was still blooming.

Brian was at the far side of the room on all fours under a bench.

“Nice view,” Jamie said when he reached him.

Crawling back a little, Brian looked up with a confused frown and asked, “What is?”

Jamie stopped a giggle and said, “Never mind. Is that the new computer? Sorry, dumb question; I’ll try again. Can I help you set up the new computer?”

“Ah, yeah, sure,” Brian grunted as he pulled himself upright and pressed the “on” button. “Everything’s plugged in so it should be ready to go.”

Jamie grabbed a couple of chairs and put them side by side—
very closely
side by side, and together they watched the new computer flash to life and lead them through the initial setup screens. The donated computer was already loaded with a range of software in addition to several other disks, so they fiddled around, first doing time registrations and grinning with each new discovery.