Beside the Brook (6 page)

Craig glanced at his watch. “I was just about to head home actually.”

“I thought I might crank up the hot pool.” Tyler smirked. “I thought an old man like you could do with a soak.”

“Make it another night and I’m there. But right now I’m ready to hit the sack. I’ve got a big day planned tomorrow.”

Tyler turned his attention to Kirsten. “What about you, Kirsty? Wanna check out the Jacuzzi?”

Kirsten had to admit she was dying to try the spa pool, but jumping in with Tyler was probably not the best idea in the world. “I haven’t even unpacked my swimsuit yet.” If Craig had been staying then she wouldn’t have hesitated.

“Well, that’s never stopped anyone before.” Tyler winked at Craig. His words were her decision maker. Her forehead crinkled in disapproval. “No, I think I’ll just have an early night. I still have unpacking to do.”

“Party poopers,” Tyler said flippantly. “Oh well, if you change your mind you know where I’ll be.” He flicked his towel over his shoulder and wandered off into the dark. Kirsten said goodnight to Craig then picked her way through the house. The mansion, while beautiful was so huge and quiet, not the little family box she was used to in Christchurch which rattled with activity. The lavishness of it just seemed depressing as darkness fell.
Certainly money did not buy happiness,
Kirsten thought as she stopped on the stairs for a book to read. As she passed Beth’s room she noticed the door was wide open, but its occupant was nowhere to be seen. She wondered briefly where Beth was. They had long since finished coffee in the lounge when Kirsten passed, so she assumed the matriarch had retired for the evening. Maybe she had gone for a walk. It was such a nice evening, and the stars were so much brighter here, away from the smog, showing the way where streetlights normally would. Kirsten guessed it would be much safer walking here at night than in the city as well.

When she got to the third floor her bedroom was stifling hot. She flicked on the light and opened the patio door to allow the cooler night air to circulate into the room. The curtains wafted in and out on the breeze, bringing instant comfort. Kirsten unrolled the electric power cord from around her portable radio and plugged it in, rolling the tuning dial to find a radio station. The reception was fuzzy, but she finally found a semi suitable FM frequency.

She set about unpacking the remainder of her things and it wasn’t long before the room started to feel more like home. After a short while she heard a strange tapping noise above the sound of the music. It was just loud enough to be annoying. Kirsten frowned as she turned down the radio, straining to hear where the sound was coming from. She realised a soft buzzing accompanied the random sequence of the tapping, like something hard hitting canvas. As she stood up from her cross legged position on the floor a large beetle found the gap in the curtains and flew into the room. It was the ugliest thing Kirsten had ever seen, about four centimetres long with curled antennae stretched another two centimetres in front of its head. It had a thick brown body and crustaceous patterned wings. She screamed as it flew into her, its spiked legs clawing her hair as it passed. Not unlike a moth, it had been drawn in by the light, and it flew now, blinded and dazed, around the room. As it hit the wall there was a syrupy clunk, not a soft thud as a moth would make. If it had not given her such a fright Kirsten may have been impressed by such a creature, but now she swatted at it with a shoe and squealed as it dive bombed the carpet, then took to flight once more. Vaguely she heard footsteps on the stairs, the door opened and Jamie burst into the room, his face the picture of concern. When he saw Kirsten flailing in desperation at the invader, he laughed. Kirsten wasn’t sure what to be more shocked about, the hideous beetle or the alien sound of Jamie’s amusement.

Jamie stepped further into the room, and closing the door behind him he switched off the light. For a moment panic gripped Kirsty, for she could no longer see where the

beetle was. But as her eyes adjusted to the darkness once more she realised the horrible insect sounds had ceased. Jamie’s laughter continued as he stepped toward the balcony and pulled back the curtain, his face illuminated by the moonlight.

“Jesus Christ, what is that thing?” Kirsten felt her heart beating wildly in her chest. Jamie reached out his long fingers, plucked the insect off the wall and cocooned it into his hand.

“It’s a Huhu Beetle.” He moved closer to Kirsten but she backed away in haste.

“A what?”

“No
who
.” Jamie grinned. Kirsten blinked back at him in the dark. He seemed like a completely different person to the one she had met earlier in the day. And now he was actually making jokes with her. She couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“I’ve heard of a Huhu grub, but not a beetle.”

Jamie opened his hand and the insect crawled slowly up the sleeve of his shirt. “Well, this is what they look like when they grow up.”

Kirsten shrank back nervously. “God, they’re hideous.” She shivered thinking about those prickly legs crawling on her skin.

“They’re pretty harmless. He’s got a decent set of mandibles, but he’ll only bite when threatened.” Jamie’s hair fell over his eyes, throwing shadows across his face.
A bit like you I expect,
Kirsten thought as she watched him. He looked quite stunning in the pale moonlight with his angular jaw line and the soft shape of his mouth as it curled into dimples.

He walked to the door and threw the Huhu into the air. It hummed away slowly into the night sky. Kirsten pulled the curtain back into her hand and leaned against the door frame as Jamie approached the windows from the outside.

“You should have your shutters closed,” he instructed as he pulled them loose from their restraints. “That way you can have the windows open when the light is on.”

Kirsten was pleased he couldn’t see her cheeks redden. “I didn’t even realise there were shutters.”

Jamie chuckled under his breath. After the conversation earlier she had no doubt he thought her to be a scatterbrain.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Jamie clicked the first shutter into the window frame and walked across to the second. He glanced down at Kirsten, and seeing her expression he added, “That’s nothing against you, just everyone else around here.”

“I’m sorry you weren’t told I was coming,” Kirsten stammered, feeling apologetic for something that should have been none of her concern.

“Yeah, me too. But shit happens doesn’t it?”

Kirsten wasn’t sure what to say.

Jamie came back into the room and as Kirsten straightened up, he closed the door behind them.

“Sarah thinks you’re pretty hot shit anyway.” A small smile crept into the corners of his mouth. “And I have no doubt you’re probably extremely competent. So sending you away would be cutting off my nose to spite my face wouldn’t it?”

Kirsten smiled. “Indeed.”

Jamie opened the bedroom door and light flooded in from the hallway.

“You should be safe from bugs now.” He teased her with another smile. “Just make sure you only open the door at night when the light is out.” He stepped away to the stairs. “Good night, Kirsty.”

“Good night.” Kirsty watched him go. “Jamie?” she asked as he took hold of the banister. He turned and looked at her questioningly. “Thank you.”

There was no reply, he simply turned and disappeared back down the stairs.

* * * *

Kirsten woke late the next morning. It was a little cooler than the day before, and with the sweet night air filtering into her room she had been able to sleep better. After a quick breakfast Beth had some paperwork to go over with her so they adjourned to her office to discuss business. A lesson plan had arrived from the correspondence school, giving Kirsten a good chance to go over what Sarah had been, and would be learning. She took her homework to the patio and sat in a blue striped lounger to study. It was incredibly quiet in the bay, Tyler had taken the boat out to the salmon farm and Jamie had whisked Sarah away to visit friends nearby. Beth had donned a sun hat and disappeared in the back garden to help Craig plant tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Sitting in the heat of the day soon got to be too much, and Kirsten decided to take a break. She rode the lift to the third floor and changed into her bathing suit. The cool clear water of the pool was so refreshing on her skin, the blue painted concrete bottom a reflection of the azure sky. She lay on her back and floated, watching the occasional slow moving cloud cross from one side of the bay to the other. When she had cooled off she took her paperwork and headed to the pool house. It was cooler than the patio; the canvas sun shades across the full length windows blocked the afternoon heat. She stretched on a bench seat in the corner of the room, which was decorated with large calico pillows. The wooden crafted sofa creaked under her weight as she made herself comfortable. Standing up again she lifted the cushion and discovered there were nails missing from one of the wide boards. It looked as though they had been pulled out intentionally. Prying the corner of the plank loose with her fingernail, Kirsty lifted it from its groove. Beneath the boards Kirsten could just make out a rectangle of bulk, set against the dark floorboards a few feet below. She reached in, her arm disappearing all the way until her arm pit and shoulder prohibited her from going further. She felt a flap of soft leather against her fingers and she grasped it tightly, pulling it up through the gap she had made. It was a book, the cover dusty with age and neglect. As she opened the cover the spine creaked in protest, stiff from sitting unopened for so long.

Brook’s Diary.

Kirsten ran her fingers across the words, musing over the handwriting of a woman who had long ago deserted the living.

She wondered why Brook had hidden her diary here, rather than in the confines of her own room. Were there thoughts so secret within that she couldn’t bare the thought of anyone reading them?

Kirsten slipped the diary back into its hiding place, feeling guilty that she had even contemplated reading Brook’s personal thoughts.

If it was Kirsten’s diary she would be mortified to think someone was reading her innermost private thoughts. A diary was a sacred thing, meant for one person only; the author. But now that Brook was dead, didn’t this rightfully belong to Jamie? Wouldn’t her family want to know about it?

Kirsten wondered how it would be received if she were to take this to Jamie now. She didn’t know him well enough yet to gauge what his reaction would be. Maybe when the time was right she could tell him about it. But right now, based on what she knew of Jamie, she didn’t feel right about doing that either. So for now, until she decided what to do about the diary, it would remain her secret. Hers and Brook’s.

“Pack up your things, Sarah. We’re going on a field trip.”

The girl’s face lit up, even though she didn’t know what a field trip was. But it sounded like it would get her out of lessons in the hot classroom, therefore she was as keen as mustard.

Kirsten watched Sarah as she jumped up from the desk, nearly spilling her chair onto the floor behind her. Her hair had been French braided and thin wisps that had escaped floated around her angelic face.

“Where are we going?” Her brown eyes were wide with curiosity.
Oh to be seven again,
Kirsten thought as she helped Sarah put a sweatshirt into her pink Barbie backpack.

“For a drive. It’s Friday and you’ve been good all week, so I think it’s time for some outdoor activity.”

“Yay.” Sarah skipped merrily to the door. “A field trip, a field trip,” she chanted in time to her own steps.

Beth had told Kirsten she could make use of the four wheel drive whenever it was free, and she had yet to take advantage of the offer. She was keen to explore the sound, but had wanted first to get into a routine with Sarah and her schooling. Sarah had proved to be an astute student. She was keen to learn and worked hard for her seven years. She had a wonderful imagination but was limited to what she wrote about because of her confinement to the same people and surroundings day in and day out. She desperately needed more social contact. Kirsten thought her creative writing would blossom if she had more inspiration.

Hence, the motivation for the field trip.

After first telling Craig where they were going, in case anyone came looking for them, they set off in the Toyota. Kirsten had never driven on a shingle road before, much less a road that twisted and turned on what was practically a single lane, rising and falling around each hill like a rickety rollercoaster. She drove slowly, picking her way around the tranquil bays marked with dusty yellow road signs. She soon discovered it was not easy to get lost for the road would on in one direction and there were very few cross roads. Another positive was that oncoming traffic churned up a huge trail of dust, giving Kirsten plenty of time to pull over or slow down.

After nearly an hour they came into a wide sweeping bay which seemed more densely populated than those they had already passed. The road here had been tar sealed in places and a small community hall set back off the road seemed to be the centre of the community. Next to this were tennis courts and three tiny buildings. Kirsten pulled the car over by the side of the road and stared in surprise. It was a school. Children played on a field, set high above the main room on a large flat area. Young girls donned roller blades and zoomed up and down the pathways, while boys kicked a soccer ball and others played a semi coordinated game of basketball at one end of the tennis courts. A large backboard for this purpose had been erected at either end of the courts, the nets hung in disrepair from much use.

“Huh, who would have thought,” Kirsten muttered under her breath. Then to Sarah she said, “I don’t suppose you knew there was a school here?”

Sarah shook her head, but her eyes were fixed on the scene before her as if she had never seen so many children in one place. And of course she hadn’t. Her life was filled with adults and grown up things, with the occasional play date with a girl down the road, thrown in for good measure.