‘It means the app is ready for testing,’ Wally explains. ‘I’ve spent the last few weeks coding and I think it’s going to work! With Shout!, it took us five times as long to get to this point, but I’ve been so motivated, and a lot of that is to do with you being in my life. And, so, I wanted to do something special for you.’
Wally smiles at me and, in that instant, it is entirely undeniably clear that I cannot break up with Wally. The fact that I thought I could feels like mere madness.
‘Fern,’ Wally says. ‘What is it?’
‘I have to tell you something,’ I say.
‘Damn,’ Wally says, removing his headphones. ‘I can’t hear you. I think my battery ran out.’
I take off my own headphones and place them on the table. The music upstairs is louder now, and I can hear stomping on the ceiling above.
‘I said . . . I have to tell you something.’
Wally leans forward, his face a mask of concern. ‘What is it?’
I open my mouth. And a bomb goes off, right there in the restaurant.
I drop to the floor. The noise is ear-splitting. I clamber under the table, covering my head with my hands. I’ve barely recovered from the first explosion before there is another. And another. Bizarrely, music continues to play. I search for Wally under the table, gripping his hands as I hear another explosion. I wrap my arms around myself and rock back and forth, waiting for it to end.
‘I’m sorry,’ Wally says, once he’s bundled me outside. ‘I had no idea it was a wedding upstairs.’
I am still shaking so much I can’t stand up straight. The terrifying, smashing noise reverberates in my head.
‘They were smashing plates. It’s customary at Greek weddings. I didn’t think of it.’
Plates. That’s what that deafening noise was? People smashing plates?
‘I’m so sorry.’ Wally looks like he might cry. ‘I thought I’d thought of everything.’
The waitress comes out of the restaurant with paper napkins and a glass of water.
‘Is she all right?’ she says to Wally. ‘Should I call a doctor?’
Wally brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. ‘Do you need a doctor?’
‘No,’ I say.
The waitress nods, and after a minute goes back inside. Wally remains by my side. ‘What can I get you?’ he says. ‘How can I help?’
I take a deep breath and look at him.
‘Can you please call Rose?’
Rose screeches to the curb so fast that Wally and I have to lift our feet from the gutter to avoid getting run over. She gets out and slams the car door, shooting a dark glare at Wally.
‘What the hell happened?’
Wally and I stagger to our feet. I had finally stopped shaking, but I suddenly start again. Rose looks so angry.
‘We went out for dinner,’ I say.
‘In a restaurant? You know you can’t handle that environment.’ She looks at Wally. ‘You know she has sensory processing issues, don’t you? She’s hypersensitive to sound and light and touch.’
‘And smell,’ I add.
She looks back at me, as if seeing me for the first time. ‘What on earth are you wearing?’
‘Goggles. There was no-one else at the restaurant–’
‘Well, evidently there was! Jesus. Fern, let’s just get out of here.’ Rose looks into the restaurant, at the waitress who is having a good gawk at us through the window. ‘Have you paid the bill?’
I look at Wally.
‘Not yet,’ he says. ‘I was . . . distracted. I’ll do it now.’
‘For god’s sake, I’ll do it.’ Rose stalks into the restaurant, unzipping her purse. ‘The last thing we need is for you to be arrested.’
Wally stands up, but by the time he is on his feet she is already gone. He looks at me. ‘I’m so sorry, Fern.’
‘No, I’m sorry.’
He shakes his head. ‘I . . . I had no idea it would be so . . .’
‘Difficult.’
‘Yeah. Difficult.’
There is a brief silence when no cars drive past.
‘Why can’t I just be normal?’ I whisper.
‘You are. It’s everyone else who are weirdos.’
We smile at each other sadly. After a moment, Rose comes out of the restaurant. ‘Say your goodbyes,’ she says, taking me by the arm and putting me into the passenger seat of her car. It feels so different from Wally opening the door to me earlier. Then, I felt like a woman. Now I feel like a child.
As we pull away, Wally gives me a weak smile. I can’t help but smile back. He is still wearing his goggles.
JOURNAL OF ROSE INGRID CASTLE
We drove to the campsite in Daniel’s car, listening to the Traveling Wilburys. Fern and I didn’t know the band, but we picked up the words quickly and it was actually kind of fun, all of us singing along like that. Daniel had sweets in the console that he passed back at intervals to Fern and Billy, who ate them eagerly. He also had cans of Coca-Cola. I still remember him holding out the red can for one of us to grab and Fern and me staring at it. We’d never drunk Coke. It wasn’t just because of my diabetes. Mum said it was full of chemicals that would rot our teeth and give us cancer. But there was Daniel, offering us a can, waggling it impatiently, waiting for one of us to take it.
I could have blamed my blood sugar, but something told me that would be the wrong thing to do. I saw Fern open her mouth to say something – probably that Mum didn’t like us drinking Coke – so I quickly beat her to it.
‘Thank you, Daniel,’ I jumped in, taking the can.
Mum caught my eye and I knew I did good. Different rules for different situations, that was her mantra.
Still, neither of us drank the Coke.
We arrived at the campsite before dark and unpacked in a flurry ‘before we lose the light’. Like the drive, I quite enjoyed it
