Promises (4 page)

“Cross my heart, hope you die, because I sure don’t want to.”

Ignoring the way his cousin had unashamedly mangled the saying, Jason folded his arms.  “Does Uncle Harris know?”

“I guess so.”

Jason stared at his cousin before dropping his eyes to the can of Coke he’d dropped onto the bench during his coughing fit.  Condensation trickled down the sides to pool around the bottom of the can.

He couldn’t believe it, was trying to digest the information.  His mother was going on a date with a man.  His
mother
.  She hadn’t told him.  Why hadn’t she told him?  And who was this man?  Who the hell had managed to get past her reservation and had her agreeing to go out with him?

“You all right?” Luke queried.

“Hell, Luke, I don’t know.”  Jason shook his head.  “I just…”

His cousin waited quietly.

“I just…”  Jason took a swig of Coke, swallowed, felt the cold, tingling wash of fizzy liquid roll down his throat.  “I mean, after Dad…you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”  Luke’s normally cheerful expression grew darker.  “He was a bastard, no doubt about it.”

“He belted her.”  Jason’s grip tightened on the can of drink.  “Belted her black and blue for years.  Then Brand…”  Fury boiled through him as fresh as though it was just yesterday.  Taking a deep breath, he placed the can back down onto the bench to lean both hands on the pitted top and stretch back on straight arms.  Took another deep breath.  “I never thought she’d go out with another man after all that.”

Luke nodded.

“She’s never shown any inclination to go out. I thought she was finished with that kind of thing.”

“On the bright side, this bloke must be exceptional,” Luke suggested.

Jason shot him a dark glare.  “He better bloody be.”  Abruptly, he pushed upright and yanked the mobile from his pocket.

“Hang on.”  Alarmed, Luke reached out to block the move.  “What’re you doing?  Who’re you calling?”

“Mum.”  Jason yanked the mobile from under his cousin’s hand.

“Is that wise?  I mean, look at you.”

“What?”  Jason scrolled through the contact list.

“You’re pissed off.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You look like you’ve had a mouthful of brussle sprouts.  Now just stop and think about it, okay?”

“I’m not mad at her.”  Pressing the button, Jason put the mobile to his ear and waited.

Luke rolled his eyes.

“I’m just checking in with her, is that okay with you?”

Luke threw his hands up in the air.  “Whatever!”

The phone rang, rang some more, and then his uncle’s voice rumbled,  “You’ve reached Well’s Handyman and Building Services.  Leave a message and we’ll get back to you ASAP.”

Jason hung up.

Swallowing Iced Coffee, Luke peered at him over the rim of the glass.

“No one’s home.”  Jason laid the mobile down.  A nasty thought struck him.  “Shit. Was the date tonight?  Did you get it wrong, you dick?”

“No, the date’s not tonight, you wally.” Luke lowered the glass.  “What if it was?  You going to track her down, embarrass her?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what?”

“I just want to check this man out for myself, meet him.  Make sure he’s good enough for her.”

Luke arched one eyebrow. “And?”

A muscle jumped in Jason’s jaw.  “Let him know if he lays one hand on my mother, I’ll break the bloody thing off and shove it up his arse.”

“Huh.”  Tipping the bottle over his glass, Luke poured out the last of the Iced Coffee.  “One way to make a good impression on who could one day possibly be your new daddy.”

Jason glared at him.

“Hey, I’m just saying.”  Luke grinned.

“Don’t you have a home to go to?”

“I thought I’d sleep here.”

“You thought wrong.”

“Relax.”  Leaning one elbow on the bench, Luke said mildly, “Aunt Lora’s at her craft group tonight, remember?”

Oh yeah, it was Thursday, the evening of the local craft group his mother had joined a couple of years ago.  He couldn’t very well ring her there demanding answers.  In fact, he couldn’t demand answers, his Mum had her own life to lead.  It didn’t mean he wouldn’t go fishing for answers, of course.  After everything she’d been through, they’d been through together, he figured he had a right to see that she remained happy, and that meant meeting her date and checking him out.  Yeah.

Luke drained the last of the Iced Coffee from the glass and placed it beside the empty bottle.  “Got a plan?”

“No plan.”

“Uh huh.”

He figured it was way past time he dropped in to his uncle’s house and visited both Uncle Harris and Mum.  He’d just drop in tomorrow night, say hello, and do a little fishing.  No harm in that.

“By the way,” Luke drawled, “how’d Arnie get on the balcony?”

“No idea,” Jason replied.

~*~

“So how’d Arnie get on the balcony?” Mikki queried.

“No idea.”  Pulling more boxes of cereal out of the large box at her feet, Izzy stacked them on the shelf.

“Was the ladder against the wall?”

“Nope.”

On the other side of the aisle, Mikki placed jars of coffee on the shelf.  “Tree near the balcony?”

“Nope.”

“You know what this means, right?”

“I’ve a feeling you’re going to tell me.”  Ready to be entertained, Izzy grabbed the empty box and with the retractable blade knife, she cut the sticky tape holding the bottom shut.

“It’s the ghost,” Mikki announced.

“The ghost.”

“That house is haunted.”  Pausing with a jar of coffee in each hand, Mikki looked over her shoulder at Izzy.

Folding the box along the creases, Izzy laid it flat on the stack atop the trolley before slicing the next box open.  Extracting more boxes of cereal, she recommenced filling the shelves.  “It’s
rumoured
to be haunted.”

“It is haunted.  Why do you think it’s been bought and sold so many times?”

“Okay, I did wonder about the ghost theory, but maybe it’s just because it’s an old house and falling apart?”

“Because no one stays in it.”

“Because it’s expensive to fix.”

“Because it’s
haunted
.”

Izzy stepped back for a customer to peruse the shelf of cereal.  Mikki fell silent, placing jar after jar of coffee on the shelf.  By the time the customer walked off, she’d started on the packets of tea.

“Now I’m not saying I agree with you.” Izzy recommenced stacking.  “But I have to admit it is weird that Arnie managed to get up on that balcony.  I need to keep a closer eye on him-”

“And you’ll see the ghost that did it.”

“And I’ll find out how he
climbed
up there.”

“He didn’t climb.  What cat can climb onto a second floor balcony without help?”

“One who can scale brickwork.”

Mikki stared at her for several seconds before shaking her head.  “Nope.  Not possible.”

“Very possible.  I’ve seen home videos several times on TV where a cat has scaled brickwork.”

Mikki’s lips pursed.  “Okay, say that’s what he did,
why
would he scale the brickwork?”

“To get on the balcony.”  Izzy laughed as Mikki sighed.

As Izzy stacked the last carton of cereal, her name was called over the intercom to man a cash register.  “Catch you later.”

The register counter she was allocated was empty, but as soon as she pulled the retractable ribbon aside and flicked on the little light above the register desk, a line rapidly appeared as people converged.  She didn’t have time to think more about the puzzle of Arnie while dealing with customers, and by the time she was able to close off the register and go back to restocking shelves she’d forgotten about it.

The day passed busily, and she was relieved when the doors closed leaving only the supermarket’s employees.  In the small locker room, she and Mikki pulled on their jumpers and slid the straps of their shoulder bags over their shoulders.

“How about a pizza?” Mikki suggested.  “My feet are killing me, I’m tired, and I can’t be fagged cooking.”

“Pizza.”  Izzy looked through the doorway at the gloom beyond.  A light drizzle was falling.  “Sounds good.  My place or yours?”

“Yours.”  Mikki’s face brightened.  “I can get a gander at the haunted house.”

“You’ve seen it plenty of times.”

“Yeah, but this is the first time actual ghost activity has been reported.”

Izzy looked warningly at her friend.  “Mik, we’re not going over there.”

“I never said that.  Did I say that?”

“You didn’t have to, it’s written all over your freckly face.”

“Excuse me, the freckles are only on my nose which, according to my mother, makes me look adorable.”  Mikki hoicked the shoulder strap higher on her shoulder.  “Besides, I might only just have a peek at it over your fence.  That’s not going over there, right?”

“You worry me.”

With a snort, Mikki stopped beside her car and slid the key into the lock.  “I’ll pick up the pizza and see you at your house.”

As Izzy pulled into her driveway, she had to admit the big, old, double-storied house next door did look eerie in the dark drizzle.  A dim light shone upstairs, another light through the glass panes of the front door.  The desolate air wasn’t helped by the rain and the neglected ruins of what had once been a thriving garden.

She couldn’t help but wonder who the original owner had been that had decided a double story house was a great idea in a street of small three by ones.  Maybe it was the first house built in the street by an eccentric rich man or something.  Whatever, it didn’t really fit in with the other much smaller, single-story homes.  Then again, none of the houses were new, it was an old street, but nevertheless the double-storied house on its much larger block of land stuck out like a sore thumb.

A very eerie sore thumb.

Shutting the garage door, she looked over again as the front light flooded part of the yard to outline a tall, lean figure.

Jason Dawson, her new neighbour, jumped lightly off the veranda and strode across to the old ute, opening the door and getting inside, the door slamming behind him.  The engine started and he backed out of the driveway onto the road, pulling out into the street and driving away.

Probably had a date.  He was good-looking in a rough, tough way, and it was Friday night.  She had a date, too - with a pizza and her crazy friend.  Could be worse, she thought soberly.  It could be with family.  That’d be hellishly worse.

Don’t think about it
.

Too late.  As she hurried onto the veranda of the house she rented and called her home for the last two years, she couldn’t help but feel a pang.  She should have been in her original home, saving money for her twilight years instead of renting while saving a large deposit for her own home.  She should have been babysitting her nieces, looking after their dog while her sister and brother-in-law were on holiday, spending Christmas and Easter with family.  Instead, she spent it alone.  Chose to, because of the bad blood that was now between them.

“I didn’t cause it.”  She shoved the door openly impatiently.  “Not my fault.”

Flicking on the hallway light, she was greeted by Arnie coming out of the lounge.  He stretched, yawned and started complaining.

“Let me guess.”  She walked into the kitchen with the Siamese yowling behind her the whole way.  “You’re starving to death.”  Sure enough, the bowl was half full of cat biscuits, but she knew what he was waiting for.  “Does His Highness want chicken or tinned salmon?”

Arnie jumped onto the kitchen bench and stared at her.

“I’m not a mind reader, and you’re not doing a very good job of projecting your choice at me.”

He yowled.

“Let’s go for the salmon, especially as I’ve just realised that I forgot to put the chicken out to thaw this morning.  I’m not a good Mum.  Not like…”  Her voice trailed away as she opened the cupboard to retrieve a can of cat food.

It had to be the weather.  She opened the tin, scooped the fish onto Arnie’s saucer and placed it down beside his water dish.  The weather was making her suddenly maudlin.

Leaning back against the bench, she watched Arnie.  Her mother’s cat, her mother’s beloved boy.  Now he belonged to Izzy.  Instead of being swaddled in love all day and having her mother with him kowtowing to his every demand, he only had Izzy.  She loved him, did her best by him, but she had to work for a living.  He’d survived, adjusted, just as they’d both had to adjust to a few shocks.

“It’s just life, eh?”  Picking up her bag, she turned and walked out of the kitchen.  “And I’m an overemotional idiot.  There are worse off than us.”

In the bedroom she placed her bag in the bottom of the wardrobe and hurried into the bathroom, knowing she had time for a quick shower before Mikki arrived with dinner.  A fast dry before pulling on a warm jumper, yanking on a pair of slacks and sliding her feet into slippers.  Feeling more comfortable, she turned the TV on in the lounge, flipped around the channels until she found the channel she was after and grinned.  Mikki wanted ghosts?  She’d give her ghosts.