In Another Life (28 page)

“Ooh, do you want a coffee?” Carol sprang up when she realised that Sebastian was the only one in the room without a fresh hot drink.

“I’m not sure I’ve got time.”

“Oh, you have, Marie always takes forever in the bath,” Carol smiled, playing for time. The longer they procrastinated the more snow could fall and the less likely it became that Marie would be leaving for London.

Sebastian deliberated for a moment and then nodded.

“Okay then, thanks.”

As Carol headed off towards the kitchen the comments the doctor had made circled around his mind.

“Do you think Marie is okay in the bath?” he asked both Carol and Bill. “I mean, its okay that she’s alone?”

“Yeah, she can get in and out on her own now no problem,” Carol shouted to be heard over the boiling of the kettle.

“It’s just that the doctor suggested we shouldn’t leave her alone,” Sebastian explained.

“We can’t be with her every second of the day,” Bill replied as his most recent bout of laughter subsided. He was thoroughly enjoying what he was watching.

“She has to feel like she’s getting some independence back,” he added.

“Besides, she loves having a bath,” Carol shouted from the kitchen. “Just leave her be for a bit. You can smother her once you’re back in London.”

“Okay,” Sebastian sat in the spare chair in the lounge and tried to focus on the show on the television which was delighting Bill but he couldn’t concentrate. Something didn’t feel right he just wasn’t sure what it was.

*

Marie watched the bath tub slowly fill up. The chrome taps, now dulled and tarnished released a torrent of hot and cold water with a surge of sound as the clear liquid splashed in to the vast space of the tub.

Faded blue tiles lined the bath, some adorned in an image of a sea horse or a scallop shell. Tiles that had once been tasteful had been eroded by time and now looked tired and out of date. But Marie had always felt a fondness for the tiles. As a little girl she’d pretend she was a mermaid in the bathroom and that the sea horse and the scallop shells were relics of her life beneath the sea. A life she could only reconnect with each time she took a bath. A smile pulled on her lips as she recalled those happier times.

Idly Marie let her one hand droop down in to the water to monitor the temperate. She didn’t want to be cold. An array of brightly coloured bottles of bubble bath tried to engage her as they stood in a rainbow row against the wall.

Each brightly coloured liquid boasted its own scent; there was lavender, orange, lime and vanilla but Marie ignored all of them and the renewing qualities they claimed to possess on their labels. She wouldn’t be needing sweetly scented bubbles in her bath.

When the bath tub was just over half way full Marie turned off both taps as securely as she could since the cold tap insisted of continually dripping no matter how many times her father called the plumber out to fix the problem.

Shedding her night clothes Marie descended in to the waiting water. The heat immediately enveloped her body causing her skin to redden.

The sudden warmth was pleasant against her sore legs. She lay down in the bath and extended her legs, savouring the sensation. Since she was relatively short she could comfortably stretch out in the tub with little restriction.

Wiggling her toes she enjoyed the simple pleasure of just being in the bath. Leaning back she submerged her head briefly so that her entire body was coated by the warm water. Resurfacing she exhaled as her hair dripped heavily down her back and in to her eyes. She wished she could linger longer in the warm water but she was already running out of time.

Scanning the various toiletries scattered around the bath she quickly located the item she sought. Stretching out she drew it to her and closed her eyes, picturing what needed to happen. It was a technique she’d been taught in school and often employed in real life.

“Visualise what you want to happen,” her physical education teacher had once told her one rainy July afternoon towards the end of term.

“Visualise it in your mind and make it so.” That had been the summer Marie had successfully vaulted over the gymnastics horse for the first time. She’d felt so proud as she landed on the bright blue crash mat that she thought she might burst.

Before her run up she’d imagined how it would play out. How she’d jump up on the spring board, push her body forward, place her palms upon the waiting horse and then push herself off for a dismount. Standing there, looking down at the spring board and behind it the impossibly high gymnastic horse she was certain that her teacher was demanding the impossible of her.

But she stood there in her gym clothes, her hair high in a ponytail and took a deep breath imaging how it would all play out and then she had run as fast as she could up towards that spring board and it had all worked beautifully.

So as Marie lay in the bath tub of warm water she imagined what needed to happen. Then, opening her eyes slightly she took the lady razor in her hands and pulled it apart, removing the silver blade.

*

Sebastian paced relentlessly across the small space of the living room, unable to settle. He kept alternating his focus between the window outside and the ceiling above.

The snow kept falling and appeared to have started to stick as outside the whole world was turning white.

Carol and Bill sat side by side on the sofa engrossed in the television, enjoying the brief respite from their constant worries over Marie.

“How long has she been up there?” Sebastian asked nervously, checking his designer watch.

“Not long,” Carol answered. “Just relax, let her have some time to herself.”

Sebastian paused and looked upwards at the ceiling on which Christmas streamers had been tacked corner to corner. The sound of running water had stopped almost ten minutes ago, the pipes around the house were now quiet and still.

“The doctor said we should keep a constant eye on her.”

“Let her bath,” Bill objected as though Sebastian were suggesting robbing her of some basic human right, which in a way, he was.

More minutes trickled by like hours and still Marie didn’t resurface. Sebastian was growing increasingly nervous and tense as he strained to hear the sound of water being released from the bath tub positioned above them.

“I should probably just check on her,” he decided, looking to Bill and Carol for approval.

“Give her another minute,” Carol advised. “Then check in on her, see if she needs a hand getting out though she won’t thank you for it.”

*

Marie scratched the small silver blade against the tip of one of her fingers and it drew blood but it wasn’t as sharp as she’d have liked.

She studied it, turning it over in the limited light of the bathroom. She remembered the first time she’d used a wet razor to shave her legs. She’d been fourteen and it was at a sleepover at her friend Katy’s house. Katy insisted that Marie needed to grow up and start shaving like all the other girls did so Marie wet her legs in Katy’s kitchen sink and pulled the razor up them as instructed.

When Marie returned home the following day her legs were littered with small scratches and Carol had been horrified. She pretended she was angry that Marie had hurt herself but deep down she was just pained to see that her beloved little girl was growing up and blossoming in to a woman.

Marie pushed the memory about Katy’s light blue kitchen sink and the first razor she held away and instead thought of the man in the navy coat.

“You know, you just haven’t realised that you possess the knowledge yet. But you need to hurry up, your people need you.”

His hurried words echoed in the recesses of her mind. She remembered how desolate Azriel had been the last time she had returned it to with endless darkness covering what had once been the site of sumptuous golden houses and elaborate water fountains and fields of rich, emerald green grass.

The man in the navy coat had said that he had to get back as he left. Did he return to Azriel through casting his physical shell beneath an oncoming train? Marie was certain that he had. She was certain that finally she had found a way back to her beloved kingdom.

Only hours remained until Azriel would be gone forever. Taking a sharp intake of breath Marie held the razor against the inside of her left wrist and pressed down as hard as she could and drew it back.

The pain of breaking her skin and artery made her gasp so she lowered her mouth in to the water to stifle any screams. She had to force the small razor to complete the cut, grinding her teeth together as she pushed through the pain. The water around her immediately began to turn crimson as blood started gushing out of the fresh wound. Before she lost consciousness Marie repeated the action on her right wrist. This time she screamed as she tore open her flesh, the sound muffled by the water and causing bubbles to ripple out around her.

The water continued to darken as it became mixed with her crimson blood. The original heat from the water had dulled and she shivered slightly as she lay there. Once the taps had silenced Marie could clearly hear the drone of the television beneath her but now that sound became more distant, more removed as her vision started to blur.

Her eyelids turned to lead and she suddenly felt impossibly tired, as though she just wanted to sleep forever more.

Leaning back she released the razor and let it sink to the bottom of the bath tub. The deed was done. Soon she would awaken back in Azriel and take her rightful place upon its throne.

*

Carol and Bill remained absorbed in the panel show they were watching. A number of comedians were making festive jokes. Bill was laughing loudly at every wise crack and Carol kept dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“I love that guy,” Bill pointed at a middle aged over weight comedian. “He gets me every time.

“He’s very funny,” Carol agreed, leaning fondly towards her husband.

“I love that joke he tells about the electrician and how he gets turned on!”

“Oh yes,” Carol cackled freely. “That’s a good one. He always tells good jokes.”

A fresh eruption broke out from the pair as yet another joke was relayed by the panel.

Sebastian felt removed from both their revelry and the television show. All he could think about was Marie. He checked his watch. It had now been forty minutes since she went to have a bath and he’d not heard a sound from the bathroom overhead. Surely she couldn’t have sat in the water for that long? Perhaps she was stuck and couldn’t get out? But then why hadn’t she called out for help?

Plagued by indecision he continued to pace. If he went up there too early she’d resent him and possibly refuse to return to London and they’d miss their all important appointment with Dr Colton. He needed to keep Marie happy. If forty five minutes alone in the bath was what she wanted then that’s what he’d give her. Only five minutes remained and then he could run upstairs, help her dress and finally depart for London before the snow had chance to grab hold and block them in.

As he moved across the carpeted floor he dwelled on what Marie had said prior to her bath. How she had thanked him, how she had said that she loved him. She had been so sweet then, so sincere. It was a glimmer of the Marie he was trying so desperately to save.

“I love you.”

He savoured how it had felt to hear her say those words to him. It had been so long since she’d said it and truly meant it but in that moment he saw the sincerity reflected in her eyes and he knew that she felt as deeply for him as he did for her.

But there was more to it than that. Sebastian replayed the words, her actions, in his mind, scrutinizing every detail. Something was off.