Bo looks at Solomon. ‘Oh my God,’ she whispers.
Solomon looks at the connecting door. The light from the bathroom is illuminating the otherwise dark room. Though the door on their side is still closed, Laura must have opened her own connecting door and is listening at their door.
‘Oh my God,’ Bo repeats, getting off Solomon and pulling the bedclothes around her protectively.
‘She can’t see you,’ he says.
‘Sssh.’
Solomon’s heart pounds, as if he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t be. Even if Laura can’t see them, he’s sure she can hear them.
‘I don’t care, that’s sick.’
‘It’s not sick.’
‘For fuck sake, Solomon,’ she hisses, disgusted with him.
They listen out but there’s no further sound.
‘What are you doing?’ she hisses, watching him get out of bed.
He goes to the connecting door and pushes his ear to the cold wood. He imagines Laura right on the other side, doing the same thing. Her first night away from her cottage, perhaps they were wrong to leave her alone for a few hours. He hopes she’s okay.
‘Well?’ she asks, as he gets back into bed.
‘Nothing.’
‘What if she’s nuts, Sol?’ she whispers.
‘She’s not nuts.’
‘Like crazy psycho-killer nuts.’
‘She’s not.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I don’t … it was your idea to bring her here.’
‘That’s helpful.’
He sighs. ‘Can’t we at least finish?’
‘No. That’s freaked me right out.’
Solomon sighs, rests his arms behind his head and stares, feeling wide awake, at the ceiling. Bo lies on top of him, her leg across his body, so he can’t even finish himself off, while she sleeps. Fully awake now, and unsatisfied.
He throws the covers off and moves so that Bo will get off him.
‘If you’re going to wank in the toilet, you better be quiet or the Lyrebird will be repeating your every sound for the next two weeks on camera,’ Bo warns, sleepily.
He rolls his eyes and gets back into bed, the mood completely killed.
At some stage he falls asleep listening to the sound of Laura listening to him.
9
Solomon wakes in the morning to an empty bed. The connecting door is open a fraction. He sits up and gets his bearings. He hears Bo’s voice drifting out to him. Gentle but organisational.
‘Joe has agreed that we can have access to the cottage for today so that we can film you there. We can see you go about your day, what you do, how you live, that kind of thing. And then I’ll ask you a few questions about how you see the future, what you’d like to do with your life. So maybe think about those kinds of things.’
Silence.
‘Do you have these answers now?’
Silence.
Solomon gets out of bed and pads naked across the room to the door. He peeks through the crack in the door and sees them, Laura sitting on the bed, the back of Bo’s head.
‘Okay, that’s okay, you don’t have to answer my questions now. But you do understand what we’re planning?’
‘I understand.’
‘We’ll film today and tomorrow, break for the weekend, and then return on Monday. Is that okay with you?’
‘I’m going to be with Solomon in Galway at the weekend.’
‘Yes.’
Awkward silence.
‘Last night, Laura …’
Silence.
Solomon closes his eyes and cringes, wishing Bo would just let it go. It was the first night in ten years that Laura had slept in a different bed, a different room. Everything was different. Bo’s sounds had been new for Laura, mimicking them was her way of understanding, that was all, he wishes Bo could get that and leave it.
‘Em, last night I heard you make a sound. While I was in bed.’
Laura makes the sound again, an exact replica of Bo’s pleasured moans, as if she had recorded it and was playing it from her voice box.
Solomon bites his lip, tries not to laugh.
‘Yes. That.’ Bo is mortified.
‘You want that in your film?’
Solomon peeks through the crack again, to get a look at Laura, he noticed the change in the tone of her voice. It’s playful. She’s playing with Bo. Bo, on the other hand, misses it.
‘No!’ she says, laughing nervously. ‘You see that, what you heard, was private, a private moment between me and …’ Bo pauses, not wanting to mention Solomon.
‘Sol,’ Laura says, repeating the name exactly as Bo does. It’s Bo’s voice coming from Laura’s mouth.
‘Jesus. Yes.’
‘Solomon’s your boyfriend?’
‘Yes.’
Solomon swallows, his heart pounding once again.
‘Is that … okay?’ Bo asks.
‘Okay for who?’
‘For you. Okay with you,’ Bo replies, confused.