CHAPTER 68
“Oh hell, Mike! Really? She must be…”

He stopped abruptly, looking directly at me, slowly collecting his next words.

“I know about your own loss, mate. The two of you must be in much the same head state, or am I wrong?”

“You have it just about right, Neil. We have had a few moments, to be honest. Memories, that sort of thing. Lots of stuff, baggage. Left overs, hang overs from the past”

“But you love her?”

That was definitely not a question I had ever expected to come from a man, but I just nodded, slowly, and he smiled.

“All I need to know, mate. I am looking forward to meeting her”

“A better answer might be that I am slowly finding out how much I love her, and that bit about meeting; that’s what it feels like”

Neil chuckled happily.

“Oh, I know that bit as well, just not quite the same way”

“What do you mean?”

“Alys, mate. She’s well away from that school, and she will be going to the senior place as herself. It’s been amazing. Meeting her, I mean”

“And?”

“I know I came to this a little later than you…”

“Not by much”

“Granted. What it is, though, is I simply cannot see how they ever thought she was a boy. I know about midwives and that, ‘Oh! Willy! You’ve got a son!’, but how did Vic and Nansi miss who she was for so long?”

“I have no idea, but I will admit I was much the same. How is she doing?”

“Ah, home schooling, as the Yanks call it, and she is so far ahead of her age in reading we all have really high hopes for her. Really strong personality she has. She’s young enough for a fresh start, and that’s what matters”

I took another long swallow if my own beer, framing my next question as I did so.

“Any issues, locally?”

“Ah, there have been. There are some right little shits in her old school, or so I am told. Probably just following what their parents say, but she’s not going out unless with adults. Helps round the bunkhouse, or tries to. Thick as thieves with Enfys, of course, but that one’s off in school for much of the day. Folk club’s still a thing for her, though. Regulars are a protective bunch, aren’t they? Especially that Illtyd; heard him tell a few fortunes, I have. Couple of arseholes been barred from the Cow as a result. Mike, how can any sane person see a nine year old kid as a fucking threat? To anyone?”

“No idea at all, mate. Anyway, how long are you here for?”

“I could only squeeze ten days in, mate. Or perhaps squeeze ten days out, of work, that is. Got no idea of what I’m going to do for them”

I thought fast, then dug out my laptop. I thought better, and left it closed.

“Got your driving licence, Neil?”

“Yeah, in my wallet”

“Got a mate here, a customer. Great engineer. He really knows his way around bikes, and he built a Beemer boxer for me. If we can get insurance and shit sorted out, fancy borrowing it and doing some of your own exploring?”

“Bloody hell! That would be superb, mate”

“Well, you’ll meet him tomorrow. I was going to look up the rules, but shit, he knows them backwards”

“Right… and what are you two doing after the wedding?”

“Um… what people normally do?”

“No, you idiot. Honeymoon?”

“Oh! I have sorted out a package, but haven’t told Maz. Flying out to Esperance for a week. I have a hire car booked, and a hotel. Didn’t want to go too far---”

“Mike?”

“Yes?”

“She’s up the duff, isn’t she? Not going too far, wedding a bit quick, bit of an obvious pattern”

I sighed, and nodded.

“Keep schtumm about it, please”

“Then just one question, and an honest answer. You are marrying her for love, not the kid. Is that tight?”

“It is, but the kid is part of it”

In for a pound…

“Bit extra to my story, Neil. My wife. Carolyn. Cause Caro was expecting when…”

Suddenly, it was all too much, and to my shame I found myself crying, and it was Neil who held me till I brought myself back to stability.

“Sorry, Neil”

“What the hell for? Anyway, it’s fitting, I suppose. You, mate, will make a great dad. I envy you”

“What about you, mate?”

He sighed, fishing in the eskie bag for another beer. I pointed to the kitchen.

“I’ve got some more in the fridge, or would you prefer some vino?”

“What you got?”

“Some nice white from Maggie River, and a really nice dry rosé”

“That sounds good. Bottle between us will be okay, I think. Anyway…”

I got the wine and poured us each a glass, and he smiled up at me as I sat back down.

“Mike, I am uncle material, not fathering. I… This is turning into revelation, confession evening, isn’t it”

“Don’t give a monkey’s if you’re gay, Neil. Be a couple of lads at the do tomorrow who are just that, a couple”

He humphed .

“Not that. I suppose I’m straight, if anything. Got called gay a lot when I was… when Massy was still with us. Just not interested any more, at least not so far. Bit of a train spotter, me”

I started to object, and he did his own silencing hand routine.

“No, Mike. I am sort of aspie, Asperger’s. All the social skills of a chimp in a banana shop. Doesn’t mean I can’t care about people. That’s where Alys is a godsend; someone I can uncle properly, someone who needs me. Before you start to argue, I have learned to sort of pass as normal, if you get me. As long as I don’t get too close to people in awkward ways, or ways that would get awkward. Maddy and me, well, we clicked, because both of us hadour own massive issue, so we learned to cope with each other’s, and I can’t really see that happening again. Got my cameras, and my wetsuit”

I made a joke of it, about having a wetsuit in the local weather, and he shook his head again.

“You know what I mean, mate. And this is bloody nice wine. What’s the bird on the label?”

That took me to safer ground, and as I regaled him with the story of Maz And The Winery Label, he started laughing much more naturally, until he was finally losing his battle with sleep, and after hanging up his suit (lightweight; bought specifically for this trip?), I left him to settle down for the night. By the time I had done my own bedtime ablutions, I could hear his snores coming through the closed door.

Up at seven, I had a Full Aussie/English going, along with a pot of tea, and I caught a guilty look from Neil as he looked at the empty bottles still on the coffee table.

“Recycling bin, mate?”

“Just over there, ta. Taxi comes in two hours, so we’ll be moving and shaking”

“Where’s the ferry terminal?”

“Ah, we’re going from Hillary’s, us two and Kul. Rest from Freo—Fremantle. Lot further away. Who did the beers for us last night, by the way?”

“Kul, or more probably his missus”

“Kul’s doing best man, then?”

“Exactly, with Keith being a bit far away”

“Then we neck this lot, and I have a quick shufty at your Beemer before I get changed”

“Do it now; still a little cooking time. Garage keys on the side table under the telly”

“Ta!”

I was just plating up when he returned.

“He’s changed the side stand, I see”

“Yup. Sensible man, as well as a bloody good engineer”

“Well, I like the set-up, so I shall do my best not to talk his ear off”

“Neil?”

“Yes?”

“You buy that suit for this trip?”

“Er, yeah. Just hope if fits”

“Have you not tried it on?”

“Er, no. Got it off the net, express delivery”

The more he spoke, after the previous evening’s confessions, the more I could pick out his neurodivergence. He was so like Alys in that regard: once you saw each of them as who they really were, the more you wondered how you had missed it for so long. I wished I could have met his Maddy, which of course meant another ambush memory of Caro; I fought the last traces of the voices back into their lair. Not today.

In the end, his suit fitted rather better than my own did me, Neil casting envious looks at my hat, but Kul and the taxi were on time and we were soon at Hillary’s, where we found Chad and Vern, both looking very dapper in their own suits. As we climbed out of the car, Chad held a bag out to Neil.

“Rufe sent this for you two. Hope it fits!”

The bag held a neat felt hat, which fitted as well as Neil’s suit, his face lighting up, and after some introductions Chad caught my puzzled expression.

“Thank Maz, mate. She mailed your friends in England---er, Wales. They knew his size; had his hard hat there. Neil, not sensible to go bareheaded here. Sun can be a bit of a bastard”

Onto the boat, more spray than the one from Freo, but the ride was far from rough, and we were shortly walking along the jetty towards a little electric bus for a transfer to the wedding venue at the golf club. I found myself sweating, and Kul noticed.

“Warm day, Mike. Nervous?”

“A bit”

“Don’t be. You’re a lucky man--- oh. Driver? Could you give us a couple of minutes? Okay? Ta!”

He towed me a little distance from the others, turned me to face him and sighed.

“You’re fucking doing it again, aren’t you? Not worthy? I know all about that, because Penny and Keith are my friends, mine, Geeta’s and Dal’s. Not just yours. And my wife has had the same bloody chat with Maz. Time for you to dig your confidence out, okay? You going to let Maz down today?”

I shook my head, and he grinned ferally through his beard.

“No, you’re not, and I don’t just mean today. You two are never, ever going to let each other down, nor disappoint one another either. You are a bloody great catch, Mike, though forget I put it like that, because this Butt doesn’t swing that way. You and Maz, you’re a great team. Don’t stuff this up. Time to get your lives back, my friend. You with me?”

I had to nod.

“Best man, eh? Better man than me, then”

“No I am bloody not. Time to start believing in yourself. If you can do what you do on the rock, you can manage to make one person happy today, as well as yourself. Oh, and all of the others here for you. Ready?”

I could only find one answer to give.

“Yes”

“Okay. Let’s boogie”

I was all but marched back to the little vehicle, and off we set for the golf course. Gina was there under a huge awning they had prepared for us, friends seated in rows to either side, Dal ready with his video kit, and Kul led me to the front to face our celebrant, the view before me the green of a well-watered course. She whispered a welcome, with a little joke about nerves, and a small group of people from ‘our’ folk club waited until Neil had prepared his own photo kit before starting up a rather individual take on the traditional tune.

She was in lilac, rather than white, but that wasn’t important, because she would always be gorgeous, and Kul’s words went from my mind as I realised that she would always be mine, as I would be hers. Gina said other words, and they were nice ones, as well as important, though not as important as our own. Kul had the rings, and as we made our vows, a quokka came into the aisle to see what we were doing.