The Road to Redemption (22 page)

John had not had any alcohol to drink for a long time and the champagne was quickly going to his head. Graham kept rattling on about how wonderful John was. It felt good to be getting some appreciation and positive encouragement for once, rather than Audry telling him he was an embarrassment to the family.

John must have had about four glasses of Moet and was feeling very light headed when the door intercom went. Graham answered it. There was Gail.

“Hello John,” said Gail, giving him a very friendly hug and kiss on the lips, as if he were a long lost friend.

John studied her closely. He had not taken a lot of notice of her at the last, After Party, when she had been with her mate Cindy. Looking closely, she was about 25, tall and very pretty. Yes quite a stunner thought John and full of life. Quite an extrovert. I can see what Graham sees in her.

The three of them sat down together. Gail was full of beans. She seemed to know all about the property deal and was very much on the ball.

More champagne and lots of laughing and joking followed. For the first time in months John was feeling relaxed and happy. Gail was turning out to be the life of the party.

She put some music on and showed them how she danced in a recent disco commercial she had been doing. She was very sexy and full of fun. She was a good dancer and really knew how to move her body.  John found her dancing to be very seductive as she sidled up to both of them.

John didn’t know quite how it happened but eventually the three of them found themselves naked and in the spa together. Gail was kissing Graham while John sipped his champagne and watched. Next Gail turned towards John,

“Come here John,” she said. “We don’t want to leave you out.”

With that she reached over to him, gently pulled him across towards her and started to kiss him passionately, as he sat beside her. Her lips were soft and her body toned and fit. Meanwhile Graham watched them as he sipped his champagne. The last person John had kissed like that was Alice, but after she had told him off at the wharf that day, he had all but given up hope of ever seeing her again. He didn’t feel the same way about Gail, but she was young, beautiful, warm and passionate and by now the champagne had really started to kick in. Gail moved so that she was now straddling over him and really getting excited.

As they kissed Graham came up behind her and started to kiss Gail on the back of the neck. She turned and responded to him by kissing him back. She was getting really turned on about having two men together, both after her. As she kissed Graham she kept stroking John’s manhood, which had already risen to the occasion. Then she turned back to kissing John, while Graham entered her from behind. She was kissing and stroking John up and down, while Graham was right inside her from behind.

John had never felt false boobs before but even though he knew they were not real, they felt surprisingly good and Gail was certainly enjoying it. She had lovely erect nipples was moving up and down in rhythm with Graham as she stroked John, while he sucked her ample breasts.

Next she turned, sat on John’s lap and put him inside her while Graham in turn licked her breasts and kissed her, as she now stroked him.

This went on and on with Gail alternating between the two of them. The spa was warm and Gail was really enjoying all the attention of two erect males and was wildly turned on. While Graham was taking her from behind and Gail was stroking him, John could take it no longer and came. This seemed to excite the other two and Graham and Gail next came together.

Wow what a night. All three sat back and sipped their champagne, completely satisfied. Gail sat between them with a hand on each of their legs as they took it in turn to put their champagne glasses to her lips. She kept putting her head on one shoulder then the other.

However John could not help comparing what had just happened to his love making with Alice. Yes he had not had sex for a long time and it was very satisfying and he actually liked Gail a lot. But making love with Alice had been different. It had a spiritual quality to it he had never experienced before. With Graham and Gail it was basically getting sexual relief, and while it was warm and satisfying, it did not have any deep and lasting meaning. It was a bit like it had been with his two real estate mates after the Melbourne Cup many years ago.

On the other hand, he had to get Alice out of his head. Her words kept coming back to him “I never want to see you again. Get out of my fucking life.” So he just sat there in the spa, appreciating Gail and Graham for the time being.

Chapter  23  Redemption

Friday afternoon was wearing on. What with his stay in hospital and his “home recovery,” John was thinking maybe he should go back to work next week. But the thought did not please him.

He was more relaxed than he could remember having been in years and was starting to live in the moment more and more.  He was sitting on the front veranda and looking at the grass. Not a sign of the damage he had done to it in his violent rage. He felt totally different now than he had then. How could he have been so off his head? He could even take in the smells of the garden, with the last of the blossoms now falling from the fruit tree in the side garden. The gum tree had deposited its usual load of leaves on the grass, but now rather than messing up his lawn, he saw that they were all different shades of green and orange. They actually gave the grass some character.

His peace was broken, as Audry came out and announced,

“Don’t forget we are going to a barbecue next door tomorrow night. You had better be on your best behaviour John. If anyone asks you, remember you had whiplash.”

“Yeah sure, who will be there?” John asked innocently. Audry listed a whole lot of neighbours names, but didn’t mention Bill and Alice.

“What about Bill and Alice?” he asked.

“I’m not sure about Bill, but Alice certainly won’t be coming.”

“Why’s that?”

“You haven't heard have you John. Alice has left him. It happened while you were in the hospital. Serves him right for marrying that tart in the first place. You saw the way she was dressed, when she came to our place for dinner that night.“

I certainly did, thought John with a warm feeling going through his mind, as Audry continued.

“I’ve also told Claire I don’t want that Susie over here any more. She’s becoming more and more like her mother every day.”

You bitch, thought John. It was now clear why he hadn’t seen Susie around.

He had been taken by surprise and needed to think a bit.

“I’m just going for a walk down the road,” he said in confusion.

“Don’t be long Hon.” She was still calling him Hon after all they had been through. He sort of cringed.

Audry continued, “I want to go down to the supermarket to get a few things and pick up the dry cleaning before they close.”

“OK, “ called out John,  “I won’t be long.”

He turned out of the gate and was soon walking past nosy Jean’s place. She wasn’t in the garden today. Just as well he thought, as he suddenly re-called  saying “Boo” to her, in his drunken rage that night. He paused for a moment. She actually had her garden looking very nice. It was a free flowing garden, not at all over controlled like his perfect garden. He noticed how beautiful her roses were. There were a whole lot of bees buzzing around them doing their business.

He reached the park sat down on a bench, near the garden where he had passed out, during his drunken episode.

So Alice had left Bill. There were a lot of questions. I wonder if he knows about Alice and me? No wonder he hadn’t seen her or Susie around. I wonder if Bill will turn up at the party tomorrow night? Probably not he thought. People in this neighbourhood usually don’t invite unattached people to their houses, although, in this case the neighbours holding the barbecue, had been good friends with Bill and Alice.

He would have loved to go over to see Bill, but that wouldn’t be a good idea. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Bill either, since he had come back from hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but at least a couple of these questions were to be answered the following night. Better get back Audry is waiting.

As they left for the barbecue Audry instructed him,

“Just one or two beers John and remember it was whiplash.”

John didn’t reply.

The usual crowd was at the barbecue but no sign of Bill. They were making the usual suburban conversation and one of them wanted to know what grass John had planted on his front lawn. John told him it was Sir Walter. God these people were boring.

Around 9 o’clock, he went to the laundry, to get another beer out of the tub, where they were being kept on ice. He heard a slurred voice from behind,

“You fucking bastard, it was you all the time.”

There was Bill, beer in hand and it definitely wasn’t his first.

“I treated you as a mate and this is what you do to me, you bastard.”  He staggered nearly falling over.

“Don’t try to deny it.  Alice has told me everything you lying prick. And to think you sat there in my kitchen, drinking my beer, letting me think it was that fucking gym instructor. You would have to be the biggest scum on earth.”

“YOU caused her to have a mental breakdown, you fuckin family breaker. Now she wants a divorce.”

Bill was both angry and almost crying at the same time.

“I’m really sorry mate ....,” John started to say, but before he could finish his sentence, Bill lunged towards him.

“I’ll give you sorry..... you bastard.”

Unfortunately, Bill lost his footing and ended up on the floor.  John tried to help him up.

“Leave me alone you fucking bastard.”

People had heard the noise and came to see what the trouble was.

“Bill’s fallen over. He’s had a bit to drink,” said John.

Bill just stumbled around trying to get up, yelling, “fucking bastard, fucking bastard.”

“I’d better get him home,” said the host, “he looks like he’s had enough.”

John thought he had had enough too and told Audry he was going home.

“What’s wrong with Bill?” she asked.

“He’s drunk,” John replied and started to leave. As he walked out he could still hear Bill saying,

“Fucking bastard,” over and over again, as the host and another guest, helped Bill across the road.

John sat in the lounge room chair. He could really do with a scotch, but there was nothing in the house. About half an hour later, the front door opened and slammed. Audry marched in.

“You had an affair with that tart Alice, didn’t you John, you bastard?” At least she is only calling me a bastard, rather than a fucking bastard, thought John.

“How could you do this to me, its all over the neighbourhood. How am I ever going to show my face again?” And with that she stormed out of the room.

John sat there thinking, he was sober for once. Bill had come in and abused him before he could get the second beer. He was surprisingly rational. Three things were clear, Audry cared more about what the neighbours thought, than anything else, Alice and Bill were getting divorced and Alice had had some sort of a breakdown. No wonder she had yelled at him that day at Tyrone. In fact there had been a lot of people abusing him lately.

For the next week he and Audry hardly spoke to each other. Their marriage was deteriorating and the situation was getting worse by the day. They were sleeping in separate beds.

It was now Friday afternoon, nearly a week after the barbecue and he was sitting on the front veranda, thinking about things. He could understand why Bill had been so abusive and didn’t hold any grudge against him. It was also becoming all too clear to John, why Alice and Bill had split up. Alice was far too sophisticated for Bill. She could be anything she wanted to be, from the sexy seductress at the dinner party, to the smart business woman at his office, to the wild untamed woman by the river.  Bill was underneath it all, a nice bloke who had been badly hurt. But that was all he was ever going to be. He could ever only play one role. The nice yobbo.