Return to Sender
by Jennifer Christine
Part 5

I took my car for a spin next day and drove down the coast to visit my parents. When I got to the house, I parked down the street and wondered if I had the temerity to knock on the front door. While I sat pondering, my father and mother drove past me and into the driveway, mum looked quite sick and dad very grim. “What’s going on, Molly?” I connected my earpiece.

“Your wetsuit turned up this morning torn to shreds on the beach at Byron Bay. I put it there, as you probably realise. It gives them some closure, they would have hung on forever waiting for word from you. This way, they know you’re gone.”

“You could have let me know, Molly. That was a bit high handed.”

“Sorry Helen, it was a last minute decision.”

I sat and cried, for ages it seemed, like suddenly I was gone — I’d started to grieve for myself and I knew now, I could never go back. I was about to drive away when someone tapped on my window. I looked across. It was Mr Fowler, mum’s next door neighbour.

“You ok dear?” He suddenly looked at me and said, “Were you a friend of Ian’s? You afraid of stepping on eggshells? Beth will be ok — just you pop in and say hello — she’ll be pleased to see you, Ian didn’t seem to have many friends.” He walked round the car, having decided I wasn’t going to get away, I opened the driver’s window.

“Just drive in the gate and park in front of the garage, they won’t be going out for a while.” He stepped back and admired the car, “nice motor.” He offered.

I forced a smile and said thanks. It was all the impetus I needed and I pulled into the drive. I would go and see M&D.

I waved to Mr Fowler and rang the bell, my heart jumping a bit in my chest.

The door opened almost before I could gather my wits and Dad stood there, “Can I help you miss?”

“Er I .. was a friend of Ian’s, I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am that he’s missing.” I am glad I used missing, I think marking him deceased would have reduced my dad to tears, he looked shaken and fragile — even though he was a doctor and saw death on a regular basis. One never thinks that one will outlive one’s children.
Dad’s face crumpled a bit then he stood up straight and gritted his teeth. “Come in my dear, come in,” beckoning as he spoke.

I walked through the door, I caught dad as he closed the door looking at my car — assessing who I might be. Not a poor student at any rate.

“Come and meet my wife, Beth. BETH! there’s a young lady here, a friend of Ian’s.” He led me through the very familiar house. I looked at the photo of my High School Graduation as I passed.”My names Simon by the way.”

“Oh, I’m Helen, Helen Cartwright.” I plunged in. I felt a total fraud, dad would be sure to realise I was telling lies.

“Very kind of you to drop in, Beth will be pleased to meet you, Ian didn’t have many friends, not that he brought home at any rate.” Dad seemed broken, as if my death had emptied him to a shell.

We walked through to the back deck Mum was standing there looking like a slightly dried apricot. She had a horrible colour sense being a bit colour blind and she was wearing a hideous apricot pant suit with a sort of collarless blouse under it. It looked slumped like it had been soaked and dried on her back. She wasn’t overweight just a little well padded but this affair had put some years on her and she looked shrunken.

She stepped forward and offered her hand, “I’m Beth, Ian’s mother?” The question mark was for me.

“Hello Beth, Dr Hostern. Helen… Cartwright, I was a friend of Ian’s at Uni,” I offered. She didn’t look impressed.

Then her face turned a sort of gray colour and she sat quickly. She covered her face with her hands her shoulders shook with a sob. “They found his wetsuit on the beach this morning.” I heard her mumble through her hands as her shoulders shook, “We hoped he’d just gone off and his board was stolen then abandoned but the suit means he’s gone. It was ripped to shreds — like a big shark had got him…” She heaved again and tears trickled between her fingers.

“Look I won’t stay, I just wanted to say how sorry I was but I’ve come at the wrong time” Dad was hovering behind me. I looked shocked as if I just heard about the wetsuit. I was actually more shocked about the effect it had had.

“No Helen, Beth will gather herself presently, can I get you a drink?” He sort of bent his mouth in a smile of enquiry — it wasn’t attached to his eyes. His eyes were hulks.

“Just a juice or something is fine,” I was caught now, I couldn’t leave until Beth had sucked information out of me. I decided to go for pre-empt.

“Ian and I both enrolled at the same time, we weren’t close but we crossed paths in Uni now and then. Then I heard he’d left and was bumming on the beach at Byron Bay. It wasn’t like him; he was a good student, I …..” I was lost, I had no idea what to say.
“I liked him, he was a nice guy, he didn’t look at you like you were meat like other guys.”
“I was hoping we’d be long term friends, then he was gone.”

Mum was looking at me, with her hands balled in her lap.

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard anyone say about him. Yes, he was like that. He respected people and was a kind boy. He didn’t make friends easily but Debbie a girl he was sharing a course with liked him too. She went out west to that dig that was in the papers a week or two ago.
They didn’t choose him for the next dig and he just disappeared, then we heard…..”

Her voice fell away as what she heard was replayed again in her mind. ‘My boy, my sweet boy is gone’ her head went back in anger and she drew a ragged breath through clenched teeth. “Forgive me, he was my only child.”

I suddenly realised I could help. I thought about Ian and projected nice memories at mum. Mum sniffed and wiped her nose with a tissue that appeared in her hand — how mums do that I’ll never know.
She smiled and looked far away for a moment. “He always said he wanted to be a civil engineer, then all of a sudden he decided to go for archeology — quite suddenly — like a spur of the moment decision — we always wanted him to follow us into medicine, but he hated bodily functions so much” — she giggled softly to herself. “He said he’d rather be a garbo (refuse collector) than a gyno despite the difference in pay.”

“Then he went out to that dig, he was so excited, even though he was only an intern — he just wanted to be there.” Mum continued her recollection. “He went missing one day but he turned up the next day looking no worse for wear — got blinded in a sandstorm or something.”

I suddenly realised that I’d been set up — I wonder how long Molly had been tagging me.
I was going to be a civil engineer, mum was right — Since I was 10 and watched the bridge down the road being built. Suddenly I’d got a bee in my bonnet about being an Archeologist — so I could find that damned button to press. “Excuse me, could I use your loo?” I enquired softly as Dad returned with my drink.

“Oh sure, -just over there, second door, the first is the laundry.” I rose and excused myself.

I closed the door and pulled the shuffle from my blouse, plugged in the earphone and quietly said one word — “Well?”

“You were the only one, the only one and you were only a thousand kilometers away. I just wanted to be active again — it may have been another ten thousand years before another one came forward who was right.” Molly sounded really cut up but I knew she could be a so and so. I said another word “Later”. Flushed the loo and went back to mum and dad.

Mum was looking better and dad was too. They looked resigned and brave. I added some more of both and they both sighed and said almost together, “We’re so glad you came, we feel so much better for having met you.”
I smiled back, “I’m glad I could come; I feel I know you both so well and you have a lovely home. I know Ian must have been a great son, I’m going to miss him heaps but I know I shall remember both of you two when I think of him.” I moved to get up and mum did too — she put her hand on my arm and stopped me.

“Will you come to the memorial service?” We don’t have Ian’s … remains… so it will just be a service at St Cuthbert’s it’s on Friday afternoon at 2pm. Do say you’ll come, it’ll make me so much happier to see you?”

“Of course I’ll be there, thank you so much for inviting me.” We all turned to go mum and dad both gave me hugs and I soothed their minds as they did — it was not going to be as hard for them now. I just wish I could tell them they bore the second Eve of the human race.

I backed out of the drive and waved them goodbye as they stood on the porch. I was almost reduced to tears myself. Only a real anger at the manipulating Molly was stopping me from pressing the button and throwing the shuffle as far away as I could before it operated. Molly couldn’t get me then. And I’d be the only one, like the highlander.

I stopped and plugged in the earpieces again to speak to Molly. “I should abandon you Molly — you’re not very nice — did you treat Welna like this?” I was almost shouting, baying at the moon more like.

“Helen, it’s our destiny, I did all I could to get you in the right place at the right time. It was only when you reached puberty that I found you, I couldn’t let you go after that — I had to get you to the key and get you to press it. I couldn’t get you here any other way.
“You have to take the decision. Every world is the same. It takes a hundred thousand years to integrate a planet and on every world there is only one person every thousand years who can bridge the gap between one level and the next.

Yes there’s a little subterfuge here, but that’s only because Welna went off on a loner and died. There hasn’t been one person in Australia in 40,000 years who could do this until you — I couldn’t wait another 40,000 years — this was it for your planet — you are IT. You are the one, can you not see that?” Molly was pleading with me — hoping I would continue.

“Ok, Molly, don’t get your transistors in a twist. I’m bloody angry, but I’m also really honoured, I didn’t know…. how rare I am. I’m just starting to get an idea of what is going on. I am a little tied down to this era and I have to think of the bigger game. I understand a little better Molly.” I sat staring at the Mercedes emblem on the steering wheel then put the car into gear and drove home.

The memorial service was touching — Debbie and the crew from the dig were there and all my Mum and Dad’s family . I got a big hug from Beth and another from Simon and a friendly nod from Deb and Grace. Ken leered at me and Steven gave me a little bow. Bill was there too and gave me a friendly smile.
Dougie the cook barely glanced my way — odd bugger that he was. Then I realised he was with his boyfriend and that explained a lot, even the bugger bit.

Bill came over after the ceremony, “Gotta say, lady, Ian was a nice boy. Pity he couldn’t be here — he’d have enjoyed it.” He looked at me a bit sideways and smiled his smile. Like he knew a lot more than he was letting on.

I shall have to watch that one I thought. But Bill just turned away and went off to see mum and dad.

After the service Simon came over and asked if he could have my phone number. I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. He laughed a little and said. “That didn’t sound so good did it? What I meant was Beth expressed a wish that you’d come over for dinner sometime and asked me to get your number so she could phone you.”

I smiled in relief. I don’t think I could have taken a pass from my dad. I pulled out a card and gave it to him. I wrote on the back. ‘Beth, anytime, I’ll be right over.’

Simon read it as I wrote it and smiled, “You’re very gracious.” He slipped the card into his wallet and placed it back in his pocket. But not before he extracted one and placed it in my palm. “Same goes for you, Helen.” I did likewise and smiled. I liked my dad!

“Molly, can you sense if there’s someone trying to reach me in my flat if I’m not there?”

“Yes Helen, I can even play answer phone for you if you like.”

“What if there’s a burglar? Can you stop them or slow them down if I’m not there?”

“You can do that yourself, just place a ward on the door and maybe the verandah window.”

“A Ward? Like a witchcraft thing?”

“Well not quite. I’m aware of your apartment, just say what you need and it’ll be in place. I can sense pretty much anything down to about the size of a cockroach.”

“So I could say, if any pass this door without permission, make them jump off the balcony… Sort of thing? You’d do that?”

“Absolutely: but make sure the concierge only gets to suffer nausea until he confesses or you’ll get through a load of them.” Molly laughed.

“Do it for the cockroaches, but not the humans.” I thought for a moment , something wasn’t quite right there. “You’re getting a bit twisted Molly, that’s not very AI is it?”

“Well I think you need to stretch your powers a bit — you’ve not met anyone but the concierge and your parents — oh and the Barista in the coffee shop on the square.”

“Thank you for watching me so closely.”

“My pleasure, I’ve been doing it for years.” She reminded me.
“You start back at uni on Monday don’t forget to get your books today and log on to the uni computer and confirm.”

“Right mum. Uum have you been keeping tabs on my cooking? I thought it would be good if you could beam up a bite now and then, then you could do some analysis and make sure I was well fed up there when I visit.”

I had a think about the curse thing and realised that I could actually accomplish a curse by triggering the person’s own conscience as long as I’d met them — and Molly could do the ones I hadn’t met.

About this point I also had my first period. I likened it to a slight fever and a sort of muzzyness in my system. I decided that I would shut it out of my zone awareness. I made it become a non starter for emotional triggers — I just changed tampons when needed. I wasn’t impressed though — it was a smelly and messy juncture and I’d be having a period every month for the next 250 years…….A worse curse than the apple that the first Eve got. I think the worst was I had ‘come on’ whilst walking about a mile from home and could feel the moistness of the blood seeping into my underwear — I just thank the lord I was wearing a dark skirt and underwear. Molly hadn’t warned me about the likelihood of my impending condition.

This is how mundane life seemed to be until I went back to Uni, suddenly I was immersed in social and educational things and I started to blossom — my two majors took up some portion of my life and I read ahead a lot and did work on what would be a great thesis. ‘How Aboriginal culture affects modern day Australian Beliefs.’
Bill was still haunting me and I truly believed what he said to me at my funeral was a clue. Molly didn’t think so but I felt something else with my fledging powers.

The social side was good and then I met Sean. Then it was very good for about a microsecond .
I invited him back to my apartment one evening after a bit of a social at some girl’s house. He’d been really sweet and I felt very protected. He kissed me when I was not expecting it and my tummy did flips. He was funny and nice looking and tanned. I really liked him and I felt maybe that he could be my first lover. When he got in the car he looked at me then the car and said something timeless. “Wow, I’m going to score with a loaded chick.” I told him to get out and wiped his memory of meeting me.
When his mates asked him how he got on he said he didn’t know what they were talking about. He’d stood at the roadside for an hour trying to work out why he was there. The girl whose party it was laughed about it later and wondered what he’d been taking. I felt doubly blessed if he was a party drug take. I wonder that he didn’t nobble my drink — perhaps he did and it didn’t work.
“Molly, can you do a blood scan on me?”

“Yes, just prick your finger and put a drop on the shuffle — I’ll beam it up and assess it.”

I did so, “Rohypnol.” Molly said after a few seconds. “It’s one of those date rape drugs.
Don’t worry, they won’t affect you, same as alcohol,”

“What happens if I hurt myself, won’t pain killers work?”

“You don’t need them, your system will shut off pain and you’ll heal — very quickly.”
If you break something, just press the shuffle and I’ll beam you up and back, and heal you at the same time. Don’t get cocky though, if you get shot in the head, you’re dead.”
Oh and if you’re falling off a cliff, hit the button BEFORE you reach the bottom, less work to do that way.”

I was fussier after Sean and eventually I fell in with a nice crowd. They were mostly graduates who had a sense of the future (which suited me well) and I started to practice my subtle witchcraft on them. I didn’t want yes men or lackeys, I wanted some folks who had a vision, I supplied a bit of the vision and made it bright enough to tempt them towards it.

A guy called Patrick who was a bit of a Dylan Thomas felt particularly obliged to befriend me — he was a nicely formed guy with a warm smile and soft lips.
My first kiss with him was quite a toe curler, and I felt safe with him nearby — not that I felt particularly threatened even by Yaccuza or Triad figures.

We spent a lot of time together and when I invited him to my bed I felt like I had a winner. I had never dreamed sex was going to be so much fun and so all encompassing. We shared my bed for a while then one day found he was through sharing and wanted more.
(I’m not going to go over the emotional aspect of losing my virginity, because I wasn’t emotionally mature enough to realise what I was doing at that point)

What is it with these guys?
I showed him the door and he actually tried to kick me out!! Said he deserved my flat in compensation for his efforts.

“Patrick, I won’t tell you again, pack up your little backpack and get out of here.” I said after a rather strong session of him demanding I make him a signatory on my account after all I had enough for both of us. Yada yada yada. He actually believed it to, I could tell from his strange emotional responses on the first level ( which I would tag superficial short term) of his thought processes. He’d been brought up to believe men were the leaders and women the servants, his parents should be punished!

“Look Hell, I’ve given you a lot of my time and I think it only right that you should take that into consideration. There are co- habitation laws now that mean I could take you for half of your assets, I’m only asking for the apartment….”

I decided to physically eject him and grabbed his arm flipped his wrist end frog marched him to the lift I threw him in the car and pressed the button. He tried to grab me but I just stepped back and the door closed. I rang down to concierge — who was waiting for him and escorted him out the door — persona non grata. He shouted up to me from the road.

“I’ll get my own back on you, you bitch,” I opened the verandah door and threw his backpack at him which of course didn’t fail to meet expectations or his chest — it knocked him flat on his ass. Not bad from 4 floors up!

I thought carefully for a moment and put a hex on him bothering me my car or mum and dad (why on earth he should bother them, but just to be safe.) The flat already had a Molly awareness hex on it so when he tried to break in the next day, he slipped and broke his wrist on the fire stairs — on the way UP! I saw him being taken away as I arrived.

Molly didn’t say “I told you so,” but she had. But it was a good learning curve