Take a Chance (14 page)

“Good idea,” Jem said, knowing she was unlikely to learn Cherie’s secret. “I know where Jess keeps them and we can bring out the lights, power cords and a ladder on the way back.”

It took them both to carry the ladder out the side garage door and around the house to the marquee, Cherie in Jess’s gumboots which fitted her nicely and Jem rattling around in Jase’s which were several sizes too big, making it awkward for her to walk in.

They soon found they couldn’t hold
the ladder and the torches at the same time so Jem tucked her torch under her arm and Cherie did likewise. As they moved, the end of the torches angled upwards, highlighting their sides of their faces. The moment the marquee door flapped shut they weren’t completely in the dark but with the torches throwing their faces into stark contrasts of light and shadow, the dark would have been more comforting.

Outside,
the trees rustled and creaked and the walls of the marquee rippled in the howling wind. Behind them the door flapped ominously. Jem almost wished one of the children required her presence to give her an excuse to head for the light and warmth.

Cherie was beginning to wish she hadn’t watched
Zombie Apocalypse
last night. The shrieking wind outside the dark tent made her think of the scene where the zombies attacked the survivor’s camp.

As
she set her end of the ladder down, Jem’s torch fell and went out, leaving Cherie’s disembodied face the only visible object in the marquee.

“I can’t see anything Jem,” Cherie said a little nervously.

“Take the torch away from your eyes,” Jem suggested, her voice barely audible above the rain pelting the canvas.

There was
a clunk as Cherie’s end of the ladder hit the ground.

Cherie’s torch
abruptly lowered and she heard a wet sounding thump from somewhere in the tent. With the wind and rain outside it was difficult to determine the direction the sound came from.

“Wh
at was that sound? Where are you?” Cherie asked anxiously.

It was so dark that it would be easy for anyone to get inside and sneak up on them.
Wasn’t it always on a dark and stormy night that axe-wielding maniacs came out to play?

“Jem?”

A low moan coming from nearby made Cherie irrationally think of zombies again and had her backing up reflexively.

“Jem, this isn’t funny,” Cherie said, her voice sounding a combination of cross and scared as she flicked the torchlight across the marquee walls,
seeing no sign of her friend but hearing a further unsettling moan.

In a flash of lightning Cherie saw something out of the corner of her eye moving on the ground towards her.

She stepped back and a hair-raising screech curdled the air behind her.

Cherie dropped the torch and started screaming.

Cherie’s screams died to a whimper as she saw the fallen torch spin around on the wet grass then raise itself in the air. Its beam swung across huge feet then crisscrossed muddy thighs before it was turned on her.

Do
zombies need light or is it to see if I freeze like a possum in headlights?

Cherie briefly wondered how far she would get if she made a run for it.

“Cherie, are you okay?” the zombie asked in Jem’s voice.

“Jem?” she asked shakily.

“Yes, it’s me,” Jem confirmed, in a voice that was too amused for Cherie’s liking.

The torch
flicked across what Cherie now realised were Jase’s large black gumboots then trailed up a muddy torso before illuminating Jem’s muddy face from her jaw line. Cherie’s relief that her friend hadn’t been eaten by zombies turned to annoyance.

“Why didn’t you answer me when I called your name?” she asked, hands on her hips.

“Because I tripped over the ladder in these stupid boots and had the wind knocked out of me,” Jem answered as she swept the beam towards the ladder in search of her torch.

Finding it, she picked it up and switched it back on. She handed back Cherie’s torch.

“Then what made that noise behind me?” Cherie asked.

They both turned their torches to where Cherie had been standing.
Four bedraggled looking ginger paws stood within the limits of the light so they moved the torches upward, highlighting Drongo standing there angrily twitching his tail.

“I think I upset your sister’s cat,” Cherie said.

“He’ll get over it,” Jem said. “Whatever you do don’t mention f-o-o-d.”

Just then the marquee door flapped open. Cherie, still getting over her adrenaline rush jumped back in fright.

Eben entered the tent.

“Are you guys okay?” he asked. “
Jeremy was convinced he heard someone scream.”

“Someone did
but that was a few minutes ago,” Jem said. “What took you so long to get here?”

“Yeah,” Cherie said. “We could’ve been eaten by zombies in the time you took to turn up.”

Eben and Jem just looked at her.

“Just saying,” Cherie said, defensively.

“I had to put my shoes on,” Eben said.

Cherie swept the torch over his sneakers.

“Did you have to lace them?” she asked sweetly.

“No smart arse. I had to empty My Little Ponies out which had mysteriously got jammed inside.”

Jem covered her mouth with a muddy hand to muffle her laughter.

“Since you’re here could you help Cherie set up the lights whi
le I get cleaned up?” she asked when she could speak in a level voice.

“Sure,” Eben
replied easily then saw her clearly as she moved past the path of Cherie’s torch. “What happened to you?”

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t make it as Bigfoot,” Jem said and handed him the torch.

Jem came out a while later
dressed in clean clothes topped with a jersey of Eben’s to find Cherie and Eben arguing.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“He won’t let me check the instruction sheet to make sure everything is connected in the right spots before turning the lights on,” Cherie said crossly.

“It’ll take too long,” Eben complained. “Besides, I’m a guy, doing this sort of thing is built into our DNA. What can go wrong turning on a few lights?”

“Far be it for me to argue with DNA,” Jem said dryly as she faced Cherie. “Just let him do it.”

“Go for it oh Y-chromosomed one,” Cherie said in exasperation and stood back.

Eben flicked the switch on the power board. All the lights briefly flashed on then there was a popping sound. The entire marquee was thrust into darkness as well as half the house.

In the darkness Cherie’s voice rang out clearly.

“Do I get to say I told you so?” she asked.

Fixing the fuse and reconfiguring where the lights were plugged in had taken longer than expected so it was almost midnight when they trudged back into the house. Despite the delay they had managed to lay the plywood flooring, place the gas heaters and transfer tables and stacks of chairs to the marquee before they felt too cold to continue. In favour of warming their numb fingers and chilled limbs they decided to leave the rest of the setting up until tomorrow.

“I think we have
earned a piece of cake,” Jem said as she leaned against the kitchen bench while Eben switched on the kettle beside her.

“
Good idea,” Cherie groaned as she rubbed the small of her back. “Is it just me getting old or does your back ache from carrying things around all night?”

“
My back does ache,” Jem wearily agreed as she pulled out a mixing bowl and a sieve from a cupboard. “I guess it’s because we’re not used to manual labour.”

“Tonight should be worth a week of effort in the gym,” Cherie said as she lowered herself
gingerly onto a bar stool.

“Listen to you two,” Eben said as he set up mugs for hot chocolate and coffee. “Anyone would think you’d been out building the pyramids.”

“As if we could be confused about that,” Jem countered as she borrowed the kettle to pour a little water into the bowl with sifted icing sugar, cocoa and butter. “It’s much warmer over there and you’d be wearing a loin cloth.”

“Sounds a good enough reason to move there to me,” Cherie laughed.

To Jem’s surprise, Eben reddened.

Not noticing,
Cherie looked down at her stocking clad feet. “I wish I’d brought my ugg boots over to wear.”

Eben set
a mug of coffee in front of her which Cherie gratefully wrapped her fingers around to warm them up. Jem made short work of icing what remained of the cake then cut three generous slices off, sat down beside Cherie and handed her a plate.

After making a token protest over the large size of the piece she received, Cherie polished it off in several bites
between discussing what still needed to be done in preparation for the presentation while Eben stood on the opposite site of the breakfast bar and offered ideas when consulted.

Eventually they firmed their plans for the following day and finished their drinks
. Nudging her empty mug away, Cherie looked at her watch and smothered a yawn.

“I’d better go on home as I want to go into work early and finish those brochures. I hope they don’t take too long to do
,” Cherie said as she stuffed her feet back into her stilettos.

“You’ve just reminded me to email some stuff to Mark
,”Jem said as she reluctantly stood up.

“What does he want?” asked Cherie as Jem walked
her to the front door.

“Just some accounts he says he wants to work on,” Jem said and flicked on the outside lights as she opened the front door.

Rain sheeted down and they looked out in dismay.

“You could stay here the night,” Jem offered.

“No. I can’t let a distance of fewer than ten metres in the rain best me,” Cherie said and turned the collar of her rain coat up and decisively snapped open her umbrella which had been left on the porch. “See you tomorrow evening.”

“Bye,” said Jem.

She closed the door and watched through the window until Cherie had got in her car and backed down the drive before turning off the outside lights. Jem walked back to the kitchen to find that Eben had already cleared away their dishes and was no longer present. She backtracked to Jason’s office and wasn’t surprised to see Eben parked in front of two glowing computer screens with games of spider solitaire playing.

“I need to access my work computer
but my laptop is painfully slow,” Jem said. “Do you think Jason would mind if I use one of his?”

Eben spun around in his seat.

“I know he wouldn’t mind at all,” he said.

“Which computer would you like me to use?”

It was a reasonable question seeing as there were five set up in the room.

Eben turned on the computer beside where he sat then took a stack of papers off a desk chair on the other side of the room. He rolled the chair to the desk beside him.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks. I haven’t used one of Jason’s computers before. Are there any passwords I should know?”

“I’ll take care of it for you,” said Eben and set up a log-in for her from one of the screens that had held a game of spider solitaire.

“I didn’t know you could do stuff like that,” Jem commented as she leaned back in her chair and waited.

“You’d be surprised at what I can do,” said Eben.

“I think you are right,” Jem agreed.

A minute or so later Jem had her log-in prompt.

“What’s my password?” she asked, rolling her chair back so she could see Eben better.

“JemlovesEben all as one word.”

“Why would you put that?”

“JemimalustsafterEben’sbody is too long and you might forget the apostrophe,” Eben deadpanned.

Jem laughed despite herself. “You’re very sure of yourself. Perhaps the password should be EbenlovesJem instead.”

“I’ll change it if you want,” Eben offered.

“No. JemlovesEben is fine. Who would ever guess that?” Jem said and rolled her chair forward to get more comfortable access to the keyboard.

“I’m in,” she announced soon after.

About an hour
and a half later she stopped typing and pushed the chair away from the desk.

“I’m all done here,” she said. “I’m off to bed.”

Eben moved the final card to the bottom of a line and the whole suit disappeared with the king appearing at the bottom of the screen.

Congratulations, you won the game!
announced the pop-up box.

Eben flicked off both screens.

“I’m done for the night too.”

Jem got out of her seat and groaned. She put her hands to the small of her back and tried to stretch out the ache.

“Sore back?” Eben asked.

“Yes, I think I overdid it
lugging everything around,” she said.

“Would you like a back massage?”

Jem put her arms down and looked at him.

“If I say yes is that
all
I’m agreeing to?”

Eben grinned.

“You can have as many “extras” as you want.”

Jem put her hands on her hips. It was tempting to turn him down because they both knew where it would lead and she wasn’t interested in bein
g rolled over by this Stone in a one night stand.

However her back really did ache and if she was going to feel possessive of him when he was around other women then she should have a good reason for it.

Nice rationalisation there.

“Let’s see how good you are at massage first,” she said.

“You’ve just given me a great incentive to give you the best massage of your life,” said Eben. “Why don’t you go and have a nice hot shower while I look for something I can use as massage oil?”

“I’ll meet you in the bedroom,” Jem said over her shoulder as she left the office and headed for their room.

Eben wasted no time in going upstairs and rummaging through the cupboards of the master bedroom ensuite. He felt a little guilty about invading Jason and Jess’s privacy but decided it was for a good cause. Coming up empty handed he put everything back in and decided to have a quick shower before checking Aidan’s room. There might be some baby paraphernalia in there and he would use baby moisturiser if that’s all there was. He was a desperate man.

When he got out of the shower he quickly dried himself and wrapped a towel around his waist. He dumped his clothes in the bathroom hamper and left his shoes beside it, planning to get them in the morning.

From the doorway Eben looked into Aidan’s darkened room. A little lump in the bedclothes moved around then stilled. He let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he was holding. No way did he want any of the children waking tonight.

He walked into the room and cut off a cry of pain as his bare foot landed on something sharp. He looked down and saw lego spread all over the floor
.

Just my luck
.

It was something he hadn’t counted on. Eben imagined that Jeremy had talked his little brother into spreading out the lego in here
after they were both supposed to be asleep in the mistaken belief he would be able to get out of picking it up afterwards since it wasn’t in his room.

Gingerly tip-toeing through the lego and wincing at the noise of it crunching against other pieces underfoot he looked for a clear patch of carpet.  Seeing what he thought was a bare area a small distance away he jumped to it.

Upon landing on a surface that was not the floor, his little toe caught in something and he reflexively lifted his foot to free it. Instead, the object was caught under his other foot and resisted being lifted off the floor. His eyes watered in excruciating pain.