Daylight Saving (13 page)

“Daniel, this is Mr. Evans, who’s the community, um . . .”

The man intervened. “I’m the community welfare officer for Leisure World. You can call me Greg,” he said. He held out his hand, which I shook. I recognized his tone of voice and his “I-don’t-patronize-young-adults” handshake from all the counselors at school.

“Right,” I said. “Community welfare. God. What
is
this place?”

He smiled. “Sports and leisure are an important part of child welfare, but we don’t want to neglect the other issues,” he said.

“So what’s the problem here, Greg?” Dad said, doing his best to be good-natured.

“Let me explain. Do sit down, Daniel.”

“I’m fine standing,” I said. Nobody tells me to sit down in my own living area. Besides, I thought he might see the gash on my leg when my tracksuit bottoms rode up.

“OK. Daniel. Mr. Lever. Two days ago, one of the lifeguards from the Tropical Dome reported that a boy had been seen swimming with fairly serious and uncovered wounds. A Leisure World guest had complained that there was blood in the water, which is obviously unhygienic.”

I thought of Ryan and hoped he wasn’t the lifeguard in question.

“We later identified the boy as you,” Mr. Evans said.

“Look,” said Dad. “He’s a youngster. He’s been hanging around with some pals here, and they’ve been roughhousing. It’s perfectly natural behavior for lads to get into scraps.”

“Is that your version, Daniel?” Mr. Evans said.

I nodded. “Roughhousing, like he said.”

“You realize the importance of pool hygiene, I’m sure. But what’s more important to us is that you — as our guest — are OK. Physically and mentally.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him mentally,” Dad said.

“There are top-notch first-aid facilities and fully qualified doctors here,” Mr. Evans said. “There are also people like me, whom you can talk to in confidence about any injuries you’ve sustained. And how you sustained them. Do you understand?”

“Is that all?” Dad said.

“Mr. Lever, I’d like Daniel to answer, please,” said Mr. Evans.

“Is that all?” I said.

“Actually, no. There’s something else.” He pulled a DVD out of his leather satchel. “May I?” he asked, kneeling down in front of the TV.

I thought it might be some instructional film about “How to Cope with Stress” or “Ten Facts about Depression,” both of which I had seen already. But as soon as I saw the black-and-white picture and the date and time in the corner, I knew I was done for. It was the security video from the shopping center.

“After a strange encounter at Sports Soccer yesterday, a security surveillance officer brought this footage to my attention.”

We watched in silence as I trotted through the mall, chatting happily away to the blank space next to me. Groups of people (I hadn’t even seen at the time) looked back at me and pointed. A woman diverted her pram away from my mad ramblings.

The camera angle switched and the time jumped forward as I took my two cups of tea round the corner into the alcove. My back was to the camera, and I was throwing my arms out and laughing. I saw myself turn to look across the mall and saw the terrified look on my face. I looked at the TV, trying to pick out the man, but I couldn’t see him. Suddenly, in the video, there was tea all over the floor and I was running. I put my arm out to the side, and then I disappeared from the screen.

In the living area, I could feel Evans watching me. The footage was on a loop, and after a few seconds it began again with me chattering away to nobody. Mr. Evans paused the DVD, with me laughing in the center of the screen, completely alone. It was a compelling case for insanity. I was pretty convinced myself.

It took some courage for me to turn and look at Dad. He was still staring at the screen.
This is going to be bad,
I thought.
I’m in serious trouble. This is the sort of behavior we’d come on holiday to avoid.
I prepared to be outraged. “Get out,” Dad said.

“What?” I shouted.

“Not you. Him.
Mr. Evans.
”

“Pardon?” said Mr. Evans.

“Very simple instruction,” Dad said. “Get your scrawny arse outta my cabin.”

“Mr. Lever. I came here with the utmost concern for your son. It’s clear that his behavior is quite troubling, and I’m trying to —”

Dad stood up from his seat very quickly, and Mr. Evans flinched. “All these bloody cameras,” Dad said. “Of course you catch the lad doing something weird. Same for anyone. If I watched
you
all day,
Greg,
I think I’d find that you might be doing the odd strange thing, too. Like watching videos of young boys and seeing what they’re up to in the swimming pool.”

“Now, Mr. Lever —”

Dad made a faint gesture toward Mr. Evans’s chair, and the man stood hastily and started making his way toward the door. “I must say, Mr. Lever, I do think you’ll be hearing from us again. This is not the way to treat —”

“Bugger off out of my house. I mean cabin. Or whatever the hell it is.”

Mr. Evans skipped out of the door a half second before Dad slammed it. Dad put his hands on his hips and then turned around.

“Daniel,” he said.

“What?” I said.

“That kind of thing. Talking to thin air. It’s not right, really.”

“Oh, come on,” I said.

“But I do it now and again, too. Just try and be aware,” he said.

I shook my head. I was actually grateful to him. It was an unusual feeling, and it was taking some time to get used to.

“And if you want to talk to someone, you can talk to me,” he said.

I snorted.

“I promise I won’t listen,” he said.

I stopped myself from laughing. “All right,” he said, unzipping his tracksuit top. “I’m going to get changed, and then I’m off to play a bit of golf with Gavin. Do you fancy it?”

“No. I’m going to call Mum.”

“I’d almost forgotten about her,” Dad said. He sighed and stared through to the kitchen area and his plant. “I don’t know what’s wrong with those tomatoes. It’s as if they’re shrinking.”

I shrugged.

“Oh, yeah, Daniel, I meant to say. Chrissy wants to take you out for some lunch later,” Dad said. “She’s going to come round about one. I said you probably wouldn’t be on the golf course.”

“It’s like you can see the future,” I said.

Mum was on her lunch break. Since moving south, she’d started working again, doing temporary jobs as a paralegal secretary.

“Your dad always wanted to go to Leisure World. I saw him looking at the brochure once, but I think he was frightened that I’d beat him at tennis,” Mum said on the phone. “What’s it like?”

“It’s like a prison camp. We’re prisoners of fun.”

“Prisoners of fun,” Mum said, and laughed. She was always telling people how funny I was. They were usually disappointed. “There must be lots of youngsters there, in the holidays.”

“The odd one or two. In fact, most of them are
very
odd.”

“Oh, dear,” she said. “I didn’t really think it’d be your type of thing, but I can’t get your dad to answer my calls. Is he behaving himself?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. He hasn’t had a drink since we got here,” I said.

I could hear him putting cans of cider in his golf bag.

“That’s good,” she said. “What about you? You still teetotal?”

“Yeah. I’ve lost a couple of pounds, I think.”

“You don’t need to be worrying about that,” she said. “You’re a beautiful boy.”

I smiled. That kind of compliment from Mum used to make me wince. Not so much now.

“Speaking of beauty,” Mum asked, “aren’t you having a holiday romance?”

“Who told you that?” I said.

“Ah, so it’s true! I was just shooting in the dark, but I’ve caught you out.”

There was an awkward silence as we both realized that I — without meaning to — had once caught her out, too.

“So,” she said.
“
What’s her name?”

“I’ll tell you if you don’t do that voice,” I said.

“I’m sorry. I’m serious. No teasing, I promise.”

“Lexi. Alexandria.”

“Ah, like the city.”

“What?”

“Alexandria is a city in Egypt. It was famous, in antiquity, for its lighthouse.”

“Lighthouse?”

“The Alexandria Lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Danny. A huge beacon off the coast. Back then, it was the biggest man-made structure in the world and used these massive mirrors to guide ships into the harbor. Or if you were an enemy, its beam could set your vessel on fire.”

“Sounds like Lexi,” I said.

“Which bit?”

“All of it.”

Mum laughed. “Ah, Danny. You’re a hoot.”

“She likes history, too.”

“Does she, now?”

“She thinks history is a circle that is destined to keep happening because of idiot men doing stupid things.” That certainly made a lot more sense to me now. I thought of the man in the shopping center and of her watch ticking backward.

“Danny, she sounds absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Well, I don’t really know when that will be,” I said. I was close to tears, because she’d never meet Lexi. Very few people would. Mum thought I meant something else, of course.

“Oh, Danny, I know, love. Your auntie Jen is helping me look for a place, but I’m finding it difficult. Especially when your dad won’t speak to me. As soon as I get somewhere to live back up there, you can come and stay with me. That’s if you want to.”

I sniffed. The wound in my side was stinging. I felt dizzy. I could hear Dad hoisting his golf bag and picking up his keys. “Mum, I’ve got to go. Do you have a message for Dad?”

She sighed. “No,” she said. “I love you, Danny.”

“You, too, Mum.”

I put the phone down and peeled my T-shirt away from the sticky blood seeping out of the Band-Aid.

“I’m off, then, Daniel,” said Dad. “Don’t forget your lunch appointment with whatsit next door.”

“That was Mum,” I said.

“I know. You said.”

“Did you want to speak to her? I could call back,” I said.

“No. No way.”

He picked up his golf shoes and opened the door.

“Dad,” I said.

“What?”

“She says she misses you,” I said.

He stopped in his tracks. Then he shook his head slightly and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Chrissy took me to one of the chain restaurants for a pizza. I watched her hands working the tongs under the lights of the salad buffet, while I got stuck into the all-you-can-eat deep crust. “All you can eat” is a dangerous challenge for me. She smiled when we met back at the table.

“Your dad told me what happened,” she said.

I took out a pen and began to doodle on my napkin. “What did he tell you?” I said. “It was probably a lie or an exaggeration.”

“I don’t think so. He was pretty calm about it. He said you found your mum with another man, and that he then forced you to confess.”

I opened my mouth spontaneously to argue, but then stopped. “That’s about right, actually,” I said. I kept doodling, to keep myself calm.

“That must have been very difficult,” Chrissy said.

“What? Ruining my family? It was easy. I didn’t even have to try.” I thought of Lexi, of what she’d made me say. “It wasn’t my fault,” I muttered.

“No. It wasn’t. But it’s still pretty traumatizing.”

The beets on her plate had turned the mayonnaise pink. She didn’t seem to be hungry. I was. I scoffed down a slice of meat feast and started on the pepperoni. Lexi had told me that a greater body mass helps you float and makes you a better swimmer.

“Did Dad put you up to this? Did he send you to talk to me?” I said.

“Yes,” Chrissy said. She pushed back her graying hair, and the bracelets rattled at her bony wrist. “He thinks you might need some help.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a young boy on holiday in a sports complex, and you seem desperately unhappy.”

“I don’t like sports,” I said.

“I’ve seen you play volleyball, Daniel. I know you’re not a sports fan.”

“Hey,” I said. But I laughed, which was uncomfortable. The gouge in my side was pulsing. I put my hand there. Chrissy noticed.

“Like I said before,” Chrissy said, “our lives are written on our bodies. And this is not just about your dislike for sports. There’s something else going on, isn’t there?”