Thief (13 page)

Chapter 23.

And that's how the adventure ended. We contacted the authorities who confiscated all the drugs and hauled the various members of the fat man's organisation off to jail. The most pleasing aspect of the whole thing was that we were given a monetary reward for our services to the community. With the reward money, we put Martina through Teachers’ Training College and we were all there to cheer her when she graduated. Bella stayed with me and moved into my room. She studied at night school and became a busy secretary for a local firm. She claimed she was totally content and her life was now complete.

I felt sad for poor Kim, however. As sometimes happens, Martina fell in love with a fellow student while she was there. He was quite a pleasant fellow and it was painfully obvious that he worshipped the ground Martina walked on. Kim and I liked him a lot. He was gentle and kind and we both believed he’d be good for her. Kim made light of her loss but I knew that she was emotionally shattered. Martina had come back to our house for a visit– she’d been living on campus – and I suspected immediately that there was going to be a drama. She’d been
crying
– I could see her eyes were red and puffy – and she wouldn’t look either of us in the face. Eventually, in fits and starts, she told us of this man she had met at the college and how they had connected and how she came to love him. Then she broke down and sobbed on Bella’s shoulder and pleaded with Kim not to hate her. She declared that she was pond scum and the worst excuse for a human being on the face of the planet for abandoning Kim, and that she fully understood if no one ever wanted to speak to her again.

I’ve never been prouder of my sister than I was that day. After her initial shock, Kim took Martina into her arms and soothed her self-recriminations with soft, forgiving words. She brushed away Martina’s tears and told her to go and be happy. But after Martina had departed – with a grateful smile – Kim turned to me, buried her face against my chest and wept for a long time. She was alone once again and I knew for certain there was nothing I could tell her that would make the hurt disappear. We could only hope for better days.

END

Sample Chapters from ‘Depression World’

Chapter 1.

Kim and I had begun ‘night walking’. The nights were hot and muggy, prompting our nocturnal excursions. It was Kim's idea actually. My preference was to stay indoors with the air conditioning, but Kim insisted on dragging me outside, all in the name of ‘exercise’.
Exercise
! As if a natural athlete like myself needed something like that!

-
Excuse
me? Did you just apply the words ‘
natural athlete’
to yourself?

- So, what if I did?

- Aren't you worried about being struck down from above for telling outrageous fibs?

- Not in the least. The gods encourage people to tell the truth…… Where are you going?

- As far away from
you
as possible. I don't want to be caught up in the backwash of the lightning bolt.

- Ha, ha! Very funny. Just because you're a masochist and seem to find some sort of perverted delight in running around sweating, doesn't mean that everyone else shares in your weird obsession.

- For heaven’s sake! It was just a late-night
stroll
.

- Correction. A wholly
unnecessary
late-night stroll. Let me continue….

As I said, we were participating in this totally ridiculous, absolutely pointless, utterly unwarranted…….

-
Stop
that!

- Just making a point, my dear.

Anyway, we were strolling around like a pair of burglars, taking in the night air and wondering where everybody else was because the streets were practically deserted. Not a surprise really, because anyone with a
grain
of sense would be inside their houses, enjoying the gratifying benefits of their air conditioning……

- For the
last
time, keep your comments to yourself!

- Don't get your knickers in a twist, sweetie. It makes you all grumpy.

To be fair, these night strolls weren't a
total
disaster. It was sort of fun to be the solitary moving figures in a seemingly abandoned town. The night air wasn’t too unreasonably hot and there wasn't a sound to be heard. Even the local dogs were probably inside their owner’s houses celebrating the
coolness
of the air conditioning…….

- I've
warned
you!

- You’ve got
no
sense of humour, you know that, don't you?

We’d been doing these night sorties for about a week with Kim picking the routes we travelled. I was simply tagging along behind like a well-trained puppy. This time, we were walking side by side across a local bridge that spanned the river running alongside our town. It was one of those old-fashioned humpbacked bridges, quite high above the water, and was built in an era when our forefathers had mistakenly believed that building huge, impressive bridges was a way to put your town on the map. In the end, it worked out that nobody cared
what
sort of bridge you had. Outsiders tended to be more interested in population growth and job opportunities. Go figure.

But back to the story. We were ambling along, minding our own business, when Kim's iron grasp on my arm jerked me to a halt.

“Look at
that
!” she whispered.

“Look at what?” I questioned in confusion, my eyes darting around the scenery, looking for anything unusual.

“There’s someone on the top span of the bridge,” Kim said in a low voice, pointing with her other hand.

I strained my eyes in the darkness and finally perceived a small, hunched blob of shadow crouched on the upper girder on the bridge.

“Is that a
person
?” I whispered back to Kim. “What the devil are they doing up there at
this
time of night?”

“Nothing
good
, I imagine,” she replied. “Stay here. I'm going up for a look.”

Before I could restrain her, Kim was already halfway up the girder. You see,
this
is why I have grey hairs. I'm sure she rushes into these adventures just to annoy me.

- No, I don't. If we waited around for
you
to act, we'd never do anything at all.

- There's nothing wrong with sitting down and
planning
things out carefully before we rush in and get ourselves killed.

- Poppycock! Adventures require instant action, not agreement by committee.

- So you say, Miss ‘
Never Think Things Out Properly
’.

- I do say, Mister ‘
Stall For Time Until The Adventure Goes Away
’.

- We’re never going to agree on this one, are we?

Kim reached the anonymous figure and carefully edged closer. From where I was standing, I could barely make out either figure in the darkness. I heard vague whispers of sounds as the two of them talked but, no matter how much I strained my hearing abilities, I couldn’t make out any coherent words. Finally, after about ten minutes, one of the shadows detached from the blackness and slid back down the girder – that particular shadow turning itself into my knight errant sister. The second unrecognizable blob of dimness followed soon after, resolving itself into a young man of average height and moderate good looks.

Kim made the introductions. “Paul, this is Craig. Craig…my brother, Paul.” I shook hands with our mysterious acquaintance, noticing that he didn’t appear at all happy to see me. In fact, his whole bearing radiated a profound misery and overall depression.

“So, Craig,” I enquired curiously, “can I ask what were you doing on top of the bridge in the middle all the night?”

Kim broke in, before Craig could answer my question. “Craig has a few………ah,
problems
that he needs to work out.”

“Don't
mother
me,” Craig lectured her with some asperity. “I'm quite capable of answering my
own
questions, thank you.” He turned to me with a hostile glare. “Not that it's any of
your
business,” he began,” but I was on top of the bridge trying to decide whether I should throw myself off or not. I’ve been fairly depressed lately.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I'd nearly come to a decision when Little Miss Interference here,” indicating Kim, with a wave of his hand, “decided to lend a helping hand and break my train of thought.”

“All I did was talk to you,” Kim protested.

“Well, who
asked
you to?” Craig questioned her. “Do I go around poking my nose into
your
affairs? What right do you have to interfere with me? All I want is for everybody to leave me alone!”

“That suits me
fine
!” Kim snapped, angrily. “Go
jump
off the bridge, for all I care! And the
sooner
the better!”

“Everyone
calm
down!” I soothed. “This isn't getting us anywhere. How about we all go back to our place for a cup of coffee?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Kim agreed. “We’re all a little uptight. Coming, Craig?”

“I suppose so,” he reluctantly complied. “The whole night is ruined anyway.” He hesitated and then added, “Thanks.”

“Think nothing of it,” Kim said, sarcastically.

I began to retrace my path back to our house. “You have anger issues, you know,” Craig told Kim as he followed me.

“I
don't
have anger issues!” Kim replied, her voice rising. “Ask anyone! Paul, do I have anger issues?”

I coughed, putting a hand over my mouth. “Of course not, sweetie,” I confirmed, unconvincingly. “You're as calm as the ocean itself.”

“There, you
see
!” Kim declared dramatically. “I'm as calm as the ocean.”

“The ocean isn't calm,” Craig pointed out, very undiplomatically. “Where do you think waterspouts and tornadoes come from?”

Kim stared at him in a menacing way and then transferred that stare to me. She inhaled sharply and asked in a low voice, “Are you both saying that I can't control my temper?”

“No, of course not,” I hastened to reassure her. “I mean, the ocean is
mainly
calm, at least ninety-nine percent of the time. Granted, there’s the
occasional
disturbance, but that's extremely rare and never lasts very long.”

Kim stood still, mentally weighing up my implied apology. Grudgingly, she nodded acceptance and spun around to face Craig. “Well?” she asked sharply. “Do
you
still think I have an anger problem?”

“Of course you do,” he alleged, with insane courage. “Anyone can see that. You're displaying it right
now
.”

I physically cringed. Craig was either the bravest man who ever lived, or the most oblivious human being alive. Either way, he probably wouldn't be in the land of the living for very much longer.

“
What
did you just say?” Kim asked, in disbelief.

“It's obvious,” Craig continued, tactlessly. “I've studied psychology extensively, you know, trying to discover the cause of my own depression, and I've read a lot about anger. For instance,” he lectured, waving his finger under Kim's nose, “I think you have unresolved issues with your lack of attractiveness.”

“With my……..lack of……..
attractiveness
?” Kim's voice spiked in a breathless squeak of unadulterated offence.

I shut my eyes, expecting instant mayhem.

“It all adds up,” Craig continued eagerly. Obviously, lecturing
other
people on their faults seemed to make him forget about his
own
problems.
Or his own
safety
, I thought to myself. Kim wasn't a vain person by any means, but she
did
look after herself in a physical sense. There was no doubt she was beautiful. Everyone, myself included, believed it. “Yes,” Craig went on, mercifully ignorant of the storm building around him, and displaying a breathtaking recklessness I couldn’t believe, “your inability to attract a sexual companion may very well have led to your present difficulty of managing your rage.”

Speechless, Kim stared at him, her mouth open in incredulity. Finally she spluttered, “Why, of
all
the……! How could you
possibly
…….? How
dare
you say…….?” She stopped trying to form a full sentence, her mental facilities obviously imploding under the strain of the many layered insults. Craig simply stood there, a self-satisfied smile on his face, like a puppy that has just wrecked the living room but sits there wagging its tail as if it had just done something marvellous.

Normally, under this sort of extreme provocation, I would have seen Kim explode into violent reaction, but I was amazed to behold her simply standing there, although she was quivering with fury, clenching and unclenching her fists. It crossed my mind that perhaps in trying to prove that she
didn't
have a temper was the sole restraint that was preventing her from
losing
it.

Finally, she took several deep breaths, and resumed control of herself. “Let's keep going, shall we?” she advised, gritting her teeth.

“Yes, let's,” I agreed with alacrity. “It's not far now.”