4338.204.2 | Luke Smith | Preparing the Initiation
Plane tickets, a phone call, and some creative licence. I attempt to persuade my brother.
As seen in
Exhausted and drained, I crawled into the bedroom and pulled myself onto the bed. I lay there, face down in the covers, taking deep breaths of soft, pillowy air.
"Shit!" I said softly, squeezing my eyes shut tightly in earnest concentration. Strange images flashed through my tired, addled mind, of cities and faces, most of whom I did not recognise. I reached blindly into the bottom drawer of the bedside table next to me and retrieved my dream journal. There was an entry that desperately needed writing. Realising I was without a pen as I turned to a new page, I stared blankly at the bloody fingerprint on the otherwise clean paper. My mind scrambled to retain even the faintest of memories that were quickly vanishing from my mind.
Before I could even grab a pen, my solitude was interrupted. They've found me. After several attempts, Duke, a small brown and white Shih Tzu jumped onto the bed and made his way toward my face. I didn't have time to move away before an excited and incredibly wet tongue lapped its way across my cheek. Twice.
Laughing nervously, I reached out and scratched the dog's head, accepting the fact that all that remained now of what I swore was a vision were merely fleeting flashes of brilliant cities and a feeling of unbridled expectation. I let out a short sigh.
Henri, the shorter and fatter of the two dogs, whose stumpy legs didn't give him the same ability to jump onto the bed as his brother, stood whinging next to the bedside table, begging to be picked up.
"Oh, Henri, you fat little pup, you," I sighed, reaching down to pick him up. Affectionate in his own way, Henri promptly made his way to the end of the bed, plonked himself down and snorted heavily as he took a deep breath to signify that he was settled.
Duke lay himself down as well, head resting on my stomach.
I twirled the small device around between my fingers, like a gambler mulling over their next move, holding it in front of my face and peering at it with narrowed eyes. It fascinated me. All of that power in such a small and unassuming device.
"Come on, boys," I announced, lightly pushing Duke off my stomach as I sat up. "It's time.”
I waited as the phone rang, almost until the answering machine kicked in, but thankfully, Paul picked up in time. "Hey, stranger," I called down the phone.
"Hey, you," Paul replied. "What's up?"
"You feel like flying to Hobart tomorrow morning?" I asked, ready to tell him he didn't have a choice if he said no.
"I'd love to, but I have work."
"You can do your work from here."
"I suppose. But I can't afford it, especially at this late notice. Besides, I don't have any leave left," argued Paul.
I shook my head in frustration, not sure why I ever thought this conversation would be easy. Closing my eyes, I cast my memories back to my childhood, forcing the images of poor Bobby Cat, laying there stiff and dead on the front lawn. I lost my best friend that sad morning. My eyes began to water. That's better.
I gave a great big sniff. "Paul," I said, putting on my very best sad voice, "I need you… I'm having a few… a few issues."
There was silence as I waited impatiently for a response. But I didn't dare be the one to break it. I could never keep a straight face around my older brother and this moment was no different. If I spoke, I would crack, and the ruse would be up.
But then I heard it. Clearly, acting was not my strong suit. Paul was failing at his desperate attempt to conceal snorts of laughter, which crackled down the phone line.
It was enough to bring my own façade crashing down. "Oh, shut up!" I laughed back, knowing full well how ridiculous my attempt at emotional manipulation had sounded.
I waited for Paul to speak, but it was clearly a very difficult task in between fits of giggling. I shook my head, regretfully, wishing I had given my approach to this conversation a little more thought. I'd left myself wide open to ridicule, a skill my older brother possessed in spades.
Finally, Paul calmed down enough to talk. "So, what are the issues you're having?" he asked, before immediately bursting into new fits of laughter.
"I've already bought you plane tickets," I said, my face tightening as my capacity for silliness began to reach its limit.
Paul was helpless with laughter now, snorting into the phone.
"Paul, I'm serious."
"You? Serious? Yeah, right!"
"For fuck's sake, Paul, would you just focus, please!" I snapped.
"Okay, okay," came the muffled reply.
"I've sent the e-tickets to your phone."
"Oh. I'll… I'll check."
I tapped my fingers on the desk while I waited.
"Yeah. Got it," said Paul, a hint of sobriety finally entering in his voice. "What's going on?"
"It's serious, Paul. Jamie and I are having some major issues and I really need a bit of support right now. You know I don't really have anyone else here."
"I know you don't," said Paul. "But I really can't afford these tickets, or the break from work."
"You don't need to worry about any of it. I'll cover your expenses. And you don't need to worry about paying me back," I offered, knowing that Paul really was short of cash. Jamie and I had paid for Paul to fly over for Christmas several years back. That had set us back a fair bit, too.
"Are you sure we can't just talk about this over the phone?" Paul asked, almost pleading.
"I'm sure," I replied. "It'll only be a couple of days, I promise."
Paul breathed deeply on the other end of the phone.
"Fine," he conceded. "I'll leave Broken Hill in an hour or so and drive to Adelaide."
"Thank you so much," I said, trying to sound as sincere as I possibly could. "I'll see you tomorrow then," I said, before quickly hanging up the phone, giving Paul no opportunity to change his mind.
Turning my attention back to the computer screen, I began to close the many tabs I had opened, a bad habit that I had picked up which made it incredibly difficult to find anything. Before I could close the last tab, an advertisement for a large, rectangular ten-person tent caught my eye. The image of the layout showed two large rooms either side of a spacious living space with an extended front-awning. Several windows complimented the spacious entrance. This is perfect, I thought. It will easily provide enough shelter for the two of them.
I placed an order. As I typed in the delivery details and clicked to pay, a short message popped up offering guaranteed next-day delivery for a small additional fee. Brandishing the credit card in front of me, I typed in the details and confirmed the order. The cursor circled as it was processing the purchase. It was taking too long. I wondered whether it would time out and my heart began to sink.
"Crap!" I said, noticing a small error message in the top right corner of his screen. "Stupid pop-up blockers." I clicked the red exclamation mark and selected the option to enable pop-ups. Almost instantly, a message popped up confirming that the order had been received for immediate processing.
"Oh my God!" I cried to no one in particular, looking down at where Duke lay at my feet. "I can't believe I just spent two thousand dollars on a bloody tent!" I continued to stare at the screen, grinning from ear to ear with a smile so wide I thought I might just burst.
I reached for my phone to call Jamie. It rang for a while and just as I began to think the call would go to answerphone, Jamie answered.
"Hey."
"Hi. Sorry I missed your call before."
"That's okay."
"What did you want? Will you be home soon?"
"Ahh..."
My brow furrowed. I could tell that Jamie was distracted.
"Jamie? You still there?"
"Mr Gangley has had another fall. I'm going to be home late tonight."
"Okay. Any idea what time?"
"No. It's one of those annoying semi-bad but not bad enough to call an ambulance incidents. Don't wait up for me."
"Alright, I won't. Love you."
"Okay. Gotta run. Bye."
I sighed. It had been a long time since Jamie had reciprocated an I love you. I wondered how we had let ourselves drift this far apart. The insanely large tent was on its way, but now I wondered whether I should wait a little longer before telling Jamie about my discovery of Clivilius. With the state of our relationship as it was, I honestly had no idea how he would react. But something made me think that it wouldn't be all that well.
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