Tom Houghton (41 page)

The mobile phone trilled in her handbag. Through her tears, she saw that it was Kathy. She answered but couldn't talk through her sobs.

‘Maggie, it's me. Where are you?'

‘I . . . I'm . . .' She was sobbing hysterically.

‘Where are you?' Kathy repeated. ‘You've been gone forever, let me come to you. Are you –?'

‘In a toilet somewhere in this ridiculous building. Come?' How helpless she felt.

A few minutes later, she heard Kathy's voice in the toilets. Maggie cautiously got to her feet and unlocked the cubicle door. The two women hugged, crying together, the scent of Kathy's perfume and the warmth of her arms was calming.

‘What am I going to do, Kathy? What on earth am I going to do now?'

Kathy sighed. Looking into her tear-streaked face, she said simply, ‘No one knows what to do when this happens, Maggie.'

‘Stupid Marcus,' Maggie said. ‘I was going to go first. He was supposed to nurse me through.'

Kathy hugged her again. ‘I'm here for you, sweetheart. Every step of the way.' She put her arm gently behind Maggie's back and guided her to the exit. The afternoon sun was blinding.

‘However you found me, thank you.' Maggie wiped away her tears. ‘I didn't know how I was ever going to get off that toilet.'

‘I've called my neighbour, she'll get the kids for me. I think there's a bar up the road. How about a drink?' Kathy knew of no other remedy.

‘Yes, I think so. I need something to steady me.'

Over drinks, Maggie managed to draw her unhinged emotions back within. She felt embarrassed to have been so overt in front of Kathy but losing Marcus was like losing a part of her self. How do you explain what forty years of taking someone for granted amounted to? She couldn't recall ever once fighting with him, but for that matter she couldn't recall the last time she had found him endearing either. They'd grown distant in recent years, Maggie and Marcus were more like brother and sister, a family bond adhering one to the other. If Kathy were to ask her there and then how she felt, Maggie would have simply said, ‘hollow'. It wasn't in reference to Marcus' death, but a description of what Maggie amounted to as a person.

It didn't surprise Maggie that neither Patrick nor Isabel answered their mobiles when she called them yet again. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't entirely ignorant of technology and knew without doubt that both children would be screening her calls, or perhaps Isabel's phone was off. Maggie never could quite work out the time difference. She chose not to leave another message for either, thinking she would try Patrick's home number later in the day when he might be home from work.

They sat in silence, mostly. Kathy was drinking too quickly and it was not until the fourth or fifth Scotch that either of them found the energy to speak.

‘You can come stay with us if you'd like.'

‘I might.'

‘Should we call relatives?'

‘Not right now.'

‘Or Marcus' work?'

‘Would you mind?'

‘Of course not. I'll go outside.' Kathy couldn't explain Marcus' death while Maggie sat there listening.

Maggie sat there taking in the sounds around her, the sounds she would have expected from an old man's pub such as this. Oh, there was so much to do. What were the mechanics of death? The car, the hospital, the will, the funeral, the calls, the wake . . . the list was mind-boggling. Maggie ordered two more Scotches though she was struggling to hold the previous ones down.

Kathy returned with tears in her eyes. They were contagious; though neither woman sobbed, both their faces were wet. Maggie knew what dealing with death could do to a person and she knew that with each new death, past ones reared their ugly heads.

•  •  •

She woke to a spinning room. It took her a few moments to comprehend where she was. Leroy was at her feet, snoring. Ugh, she felt very ill. What would Marcus say? She turned to look at the dull glow of her bedside clock. It was past eleven o'clock. How could she end up like this? She racked her brain. Glimpses of Kathy helping her into bed. Leroy snuggling up to her. Maggie crying. Crying? Hospital.

Marcus' lifeless face. Marcus is dead.

She quickly ran from the bed to the toilet and began vomiting. Scotch, she could tell. She couldn't stop the vomiting, or the tears that stung her eyes. When was the last time she'd vomited from alcohol poisoning? How could she have got so drunk in the face of Marcus' death? Well, that was just it. She didn't have to be strong for anybody.

These are the books and articles that inspired me in the writing of
Tom Houghton
.

Berg, A. Scott,
Kate Remembered: Katharine Hepburn A Personal Biography
, Pocket Books 2003

Hepburn, Katharine.
Me: Stories of My Life
, Viking 1991

Mann, Wiliam, J.,
Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn
, Picador 2007

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur's_Court

‘Mystery in Suicide of Surgeon's Son', The New York Times, April 4, 1921,
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00614FC3C5D14738DDDAD0894DC405B818EF1D3

‘Katharine Hepburn's Secret Torment',
Sunday Express
, June 10, 2010,
http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/180146/Katharine-Hepburn-s-secret-torment

Cedar Hill Cemetery website:
cedarhillcemetery.org

I am indebted to Janet Frame's
An Angel At My Table
and Jane Campion's screen adaptation of the same for the scene in which Spencer insists his father gave him money to buy the sweets at school.

1. How does the relationship between Hanna and the adult Tom set the tone for all of Tom's adult relationships? Does Hanna serve more as an enabler or as an inhibitor of Tom's behaviour?

2. Explore the concept of gender within the novel, from the perspective of the young Tom, young Katharine Hepburn and adult Tom's role of Martha in
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

3. Why does adult Tom work to sabotage his relationships with both Damon and Eddie?

4. Consider the relationship between Tom and Lana. Why is their adult relationship so different from the one young Tom has with his mother?

5. What role does Spencer play in the novel? Is it inevitable that strain develops between the two boys? Why, or why not?

6. Author Todd Alexander has referenced a William Wordsworth quote, ‘The Child is father of the Man', from his poem ‘My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold', which Alexander saw as one of his guiding tenets in writing the novel. Why do you think this quote has significance?

7. Discuss the affinity that young Tom develops with the life and death of Thomas Houghton Hepburn.

8. 
Tom Houghton
could be summarised as exploring the themes of acceptance and rejection. How many characters in the novel can you see these themes applying to?

9. In many respects, Mal could have been young Tom's conduit for leading a less troubled life. At the end of the childhood scenes, has Tom embraced this possibility?

10. At the close of the novel, what realisations has adult Tom come to regarding the life of Thomas Houghton Hepburn?

TODD ALEXANDER
has been writing for over twenty years. His work has been published in magazines and periodicals, and his first novel,
Pictures of Us
, was published in 2006. Todd's second book,
How to Buy and Sell on eBay.com.au – The Official Pocket Guide
, has sold in excess of 30,000 copies, and he went on to publish five further titles on internet retailing.

Todd has six years' experience as a bookseller and head office buyer and spent twelve years working at eBay. He lives in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales with his partner (and cat, pigs, chooks and ducks) where they run a boutique vineyard and accommodation business, Block Eight. A graduate of Macquarie University, Todd has degrees in Modern Literature and Law.

According to the website
ancestry.com.au
, Todd is a ninth cousin of Katharine Hepburn.

SIMON & SCHUSTER

simonandschuster.com.au

authors.simonandschuster.com.au/Todd-Alexander

Also by Todd Alexander

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Pictures of Us

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How to Use eBay and PayPal

How to Make Money on eBay

Why Pay Retail?

Get Your Business Online . . . Now!

Every Day Internet at Every Age

The New eBay

Check 100: Tips for a Successful eBay Business

Tom Houghton
is a work of fiction. While historical figures are depicted in this book, their thoughts, dreams and other aspects of their character are creations of the author's imagination.

TOM HOUGHTON

First published in Australia in 2015 by

Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited

Suite 19A, Level 1, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062

A CBS Company

Sydney New York London Toronto New Delhi

Visit our website at
www.simonandschuster.com.au

© Todd Alexander 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: Alexander, Todd, author.

Title: Tom Houghton/Todd Alexander.

ISBN: 9781925184556 (paperback)

  9781925184563 (ebook)

Subjects: Actors – Fiction.

  Imitation – Fiction.

Dewey Number: A823.4

Cover design: Christabella Designs

Cover image: vicgmyr/Shutterstock

Author photograph © Leonard Clifford

Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia