Erika and Oliver were walking around the block near her mother’s house. The moment she’d remembered what had happened, she’d wanted to share it with Oliver and she certainly didn’t want Sylvia to overhear, so she’d insisted Oliver go for a walk with her.
‘Yes,’ said Erika. ‘And no one ever thanked him. I don’t think I even looked up again at his window.’ They walked by a young husband and wife pushing a baby in a stroller and Erika shot them a dismissive flick of a smile to let them know there was really no need to comment upon the weather and how great it was that the rain had finally stopped.
‘He would have seen that we got her out,’ said Oliver.
‘I hope so,’ said Erika. ‘But no one ever told him that Ruby was okay. No one ever went over and said thank you. He must have thought that was rude. He always thought everyone had such bad manners and he would have died thinking that was pretty much conclusive.’
‘I guess he could have come over and asked us,’ said Oliver. ‘If he was worried.’
They both jumped over a glistening brown puddle that took up most of the footpath.
‘It took me a while to work out that it was Ruby,’ said Erika. Her mouth felt momentarily full of marbles. ‘I thought it was an old coat floating in the fountain, and I was just staring at it. I had this illogical, weird idea that Harry wanted me to clean up the fountain. Ruby was drowning while I stared right at her.’
Oliver said nothing for a moment before he spoke. ‘I always felt bad that when it happened I was hiding out in the bathroom, just looking at myself in the mirror,’ he said. ‘I think we’ve all got something to feel bad about that afternoon.’
‘Except for Harry,’ said Erika.
‘Except for Harry,’ agreed Oliver.
A middle-aged woman in unflattering ‘active wear’ came bouncing past. ‘Isn’t it lovely to see the sun again!’ she said rapturously, and she slowed down as if she wanted to discuss the sun further.
‘It’s fantastic!’ agreed Oliver, he and Erika both upping their pace by unspoken agreement. ‘Have a nice day!’
‘Do you think I should tell someone?’ said Erika. ‘About what I remembered?’ Now that she had the facts straight in her head, she felt an overwhelming desire to set the record straight, to submit an amended report to the authorities.
‘Well, I don’t see who you would tell,’ said Oliver. ‘Or how it would help.’
‘I could tell Clementine,’ said Erika, although she had absolutely no intention of doing that.
‘No,’ said Oliver. ‘You can’t tell Clementine. You know you can’t.’ They had completed the block now and were nearing her mother’s house.
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ sighed Erika.
‘What?’ said Oliver.
‘She’s actually in the skip bin now.’
chapter eighty-two
It had stopped raining. Finally! At last! Dakota could hardly believe it. Everything about her whole life and the whole world felt entirely different.
‘This is going to be so much fun,’ said Dakota’s mum as they opened the front door and stepped onto the front veranda.
‘I don’t see why we can’t drive there,’ said Dakota’s dad for about the millionth time. ‘Why do we have to walk through the streets to get there? Like homeless people.’
‘Because we’re so lucky to have a beautiful walk less than ten minutes away from our front door!’ said her mum. She was holding Barney’s leash while Barney jumped about snapping at the air, trying to catch an invisible fly.
Her mum was ‘practising gratitude’ lately. (Her dad said she would get over it soon, hopefully.) She had a special jar called a ‘happiness jar’. You were meant to write down your happy memories on pieces of paper and then put them in the jar and then on New Year’s Eve you went through the jar and realised all your blessings, or something. It was October so they had to get their skates on and collect a lot of happy family memories.
‘But we are also lucky to have a Lexus,’ pointed out her dad. ‘We shouldn’t take our Lexus for granted.’
Her mum had discovered that there was a beautiful bushwalk through a national park in their very own neighbourhood. Only a short walk away! This was a very big deal for some reason. It was like having a window seat. Apparently Erika and Oliver from next door did this walk ‘all the time’ and they were amazed that Dakota’s mum didn’t even know that it existed, and her mum had felt embarrassed by this, or so she said, although she probably hadn’t, because Erika and Oliver were nice geeky people and nobody felt embarrassed in front of nice geeky people. That’s why they were relaxing to be around.
‘Maybe I’ll meet you girls there,’ said her father. ‘I have some errands to run after. Important errands, you know.’
‘No way,’ said her mother. ‘Move it, move it. Jeez Louise.’