The Gospel According to Luke (24 page)

‘I know what I'm saying. I'm saying that you are a hypocrite. That you pretend to be saved and as soon as you found a girl willing to spread her legs for you –'

Greg slammed his fist into Luke's nose. Luke stumbled backward, hit the back of his knees on the bed and stumbled forward again, right into the path of Greg's follow-up punch.

Luke touched his face; it felt squishy and wet. He cackled, howled, choked on blood and mucus. He swung out weakly and his knuckles made contact with Greg's cheekbone. The wound on his hand reopened, and at the same instant, Greg brought his knee up into his stomach. Luke swung out again, blindly, clumsily and hit something, but the something moved on impact and he fell forward. Opening his eyes, he saw the floorboards flying towards him.

Honey was in the kitchen making up an ice pack when she heard banging on the front doors. They kept them locked on Sundays because there were no groups or meetings on, but somebody obviously did not know this. Honey swore under her breath, hurriedly finished packing the ice into the tea towel and then jogged out to tell whoever the hell it was that God was not in the house.

‘Honey, hi,' Aggie said. ‘I heard you'd moved in. How are you?'

Honey stared. Aggie looked even worse than usual; her face was red and puffy, and her hair was all over the place. She had black bags under her eyes and her lips were all chapped and flaky.

‘Okay, if I come in?'

Honey bit her lip. ‘Um, we're kind of closed on Sundays.'

‘Yeah, I know. I just want to see Luke. Is he in?'

‘He's been with you!' Honey looked down at the ice pack in her hand. ‘What did you do to him?'

Tears leaked from Aggie's eyes. ‘Is he okay?'

‘You better come through.'

‘Shit! Oh, Luke!' Aggie ran into the room and threw herself to the ground, lifting Luke's head onto her lap and stroking his bloody face. ‘Oh, sweetie, what happened to you?'

Luke gurgled, rolled his eyes around, then closed them.

‘You did this?' Aggie asked Greg who sat on Honey's bed, his head in his hands.

‘He was out of control. I had to.'

‘You had to knock him unconscious? You had to break his nose?'

Honey sat beside Greg and took his hand. ‘Leave him alone. It wasn't his fault.'

‘Sweetie? Luke, baby, can you hear me?' Aggie patted his cheek. ‘I can't believe what you did to him. Jesus, Greg, it's
Luke
.'

‘I can't believe what
you
did to him,' Honey said.

Aggie stopped patting Luke's face. She stared hard at Honey. ‘What does that mean?'

‘You screwed him.'

Aggie opened her mouth. Closed it. Made a dismissive sound through her teeth and returned her attention to Luke. ‘Come on, my love, I'll take you home.'

‘He is home,' Greg said.

Aggie ignored him. ‘I'll get you all cleaned up. Give you a nice bath, tuck you up into bed. Hey, sweetie? Sound good?'

Luke coughed. A clump of bloody phlegm landed on Aggie's arm. She just wiped it on her jeans and then used her shirt sleeve to clean around Luke's mouth. Luke gurgled and coughed and his eyes fluttered open.

‘Aggie?'

‘I'm here, baby. How's your nose?'

‘It's . . .' Luke raised his head off Aggie's lap and winced. ‘Where's Greg?'

Greg cleared his throat. ‘Luke?'

Luke pushed Aggie's hands away and sat up, cradling his head. ‘You're fired.'

‘Hey!' Honey stamped her foot. ‘You can't fire him! You're not even the boss, anymore. Kenny's the boss.'

‘Leave it, Honey.' Greg patted her hand.

‘They fired you?' Aggie asked.

‘Just suspended, until an enquiry can be held,' Greg said.

‘The allegations are true. I'm fucked.'

‘Luke!'

‘Well, I am. Fucked because I got fucked, right?' He laughed the crazy laugh from before.

‘You better get him out of here,' Honey said to
Aggie. ‘Before someone sees him.'

Aggie nodded. ‘Let me take you home, sweetie.'

‘His home is
here
.' Greg stood up.

‘Yeah, well, I don't trust you to take care of him, funnily enough.'

‘And I should trust you? This is all your fault.'

Aggie leapt to her feet. She towered over Greg. ‘Is it?'

Greg did not back down. He looked her right in the eye, even though that meant he had to crane his neck. ‘You should know better.'

Aggie nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I suppose I should.' She turned and looked down at Luke. ‘Luke, do you want to come with me now?' Luke didn't answer. Aggie put her hands under his arms and dragged him to his feet. ‘I don't think I'm welcome here,' she said, as she led Luke out. ‘But I'd appreciate it if one of you would come across and see me tomorrow. Help me work out what to do with him?'

‘Sure,' Honey said. Greg was back on the bed, hiding his face. She stood in the doorway watching until Aggie and Luke had disappeared out of the side gate. Then she locked the door, went to the bathroom, washed her face, brushed her teeth and fixed her hair. When she came out, Greg was crying.

‘Stop it.'

He looked at her through wet fingers. ‘Sorry. Not very manly, is it?'

Honey held out her hand. ‘Let's clean you up.'

She led him to the bathroom, and he sat on the toilet and let her wash his face and hands. There was a bit of blood on the knuckles of his right hand, and when he saw it his eyes filled with tears, but Honey held up her finger like a stern schoolteacher and he pressed his lips together and got himself under control.

‘Okay, so here's what I'm thinking.' Honey rinsed the face cloth under the hot water tap. ‘Luke has gone crazy because he did the thing he said he'd never do. He didn't know how much it would change everything. The whole world and everyone in it looks different, and he feels as though he's just seeing things properly for the first time. He doesn't like what he sees. He wants to go back to not knowing, but he can't; that's his punishment. He has to see the world as it really is forever now.' She squeezed out the cloth and hung it over the tap. ‘What do you think?'

‘I think you're really smart. How'd you figure that out?'

‘It's biblical. Eating the fruit of knowledge, and all that. Geez, you'd think I was the bloody pastor.' Honey took Greg's hands, pulled him off the toilet and led him back to her bedroom. They lay together on the bed, right back where they had been before Luke interrupted them.

‘Since you're so clever,' Greg said, ‘maybe you can tell me why I got so angry.'

‘Oh, that's easy. You got angry because your illusions were shattered. He was your role model and you
saw that he could fuck up just as badly as the rest of us. You freaked.'

‘You're good at this.'

‘So what you'll probably do next is act out in some way.'

‘Really. And how am I going to do that?'

‘You're going to revert to the behaviour he helped you stop.'

Greg lifted her head with one arm, and rolled on to his side. He looked into her eyes. ‘You're wrong about that.'

‘I don't think so.'

‘I'm going to go to my room, and sleep off this pain in my hand. Then I'm going to go and talk to –'

Honey kissed him. He gasped and covered his mouth with his hand. Lightning-quick she leant in and kissed his right ear, then darted back to his lips just as he moved his hand away. He gave a little moan of protest but then took her face between his hands and kissed her hard. It was only when she started unbuttoning his shirt that he pulled away and said ‘No!'

She lunged for him again and this time she got his shirt all the way off before he pushed her away. ‘Stop, please.' He moved to the far edge of the bed, grabbing the pillow and placing it on his lap. ‘Just, give me a second.' He was breathing hard. His eyes were closed and his lips moved in silent prayer.

Honey lifted her dress over her head and removed her bra. ‘Greg?'

Greg opened his eyes, moaned and closed them again. ‘Put your clothes back on.'

‘I thought you liked me.'

‘I do, Honey. I like you a whole lot, which is why I'm not gonna do this to you. So be a good girl and cover up.'

Honey threw her dress over her head. ‘Covered. Open your eyes, please?'

He did. He smiled and touched her cheek. ‘You're beautiful, but I'm not going to take advantage of you.'

‘You wouldn't be, I swear.'

‘It's not happening, Honey.'

Honey lunged for his crotch, snatching the pillow away before he could stop her. He went to get up but Honey straddled him, pushing him onto his back and opening his fly. ‘I want you to fuck me.'

Greg took hold of Honey's hands, holding them up over his stomach so she couldn't touch him. ‘Don't talk like that. I don't like it, and it won't make me change my mind. I'm not stupid, Honey. You're hurt and you're scared, but this isn't going to fix anything. It'll just make things worse.'

‘Stop playing hard to get.'

‘I
am
hard to get, and you should be too. Our bodies belong to Jesus Christ and shouldn't be used for –'

‘My body belongs to me.' Honey pulled her hands free. She lifted her dress over her head, ignoring his cries of protest. ‘Look at me, Greg, please. At least look at me when you say you don't want me.'

He opened his eyes. Honey sat very still, watching as his eyes flickered over her, the wrinkles around them becoming more pronounced with each passing second. He never let his eyes rest; they darted from breast to hip to stomach to breast to throat to face. He blinked rapidly and licked his lips. He placed his hands on her stomach. ‘You are so precious, Honey. I wish you realised how very, very special you are. Your baby is very lucky to have you.'

Honey ripped his hands from her stomach and rolled off him, landing face down on the bed beside him. She sobbed hard into the mattress.

Greg buttoned his shirt and looked down at her. ‘I have to go, service is in twenty minutes. You'll be okay?'

‘Sure. I'm sorry.'

‘Don't be. It's been a tough day.' He finished getting dressed and then bent to kiss her lightly on the lips. ‘I'll tell the others you're sick. They'll understand.'

‘Thanks.' Honey got up and dressed and waited until she was sure everyone would be gone to the service, and then she packed her things. It didn't take long.

Aggie and Luke had to wait for almost an hour at casualty. During this time, Luke did not respond to Aggie's presence, except to sit where she told him to sit and stand when she told him to stand. If she tried to touch him, he pulled away; when she asked him questions he stared at the floor or the wall or his hands. She kept talking anyway. ‘This is a good hospital,' she told him, ‘I used to work here. Not here in casualty, but in the next building over. In rehab.'

Luke looked at her for the first time. ‘This is where he works.'

‘Who?'

‘Your lover.'

‘Luke,
you're
my lover. Right, sweetie?' She pressed her hand to his cheek but he turned from her, with a derisive grunt.

They were called in then. Luke would not tell the doctor how he'd hurt himself and Aggie could only shrug. Nineteen stitches were needed in his hands, but his nose was only swollen, not broken, and his top lip required only two stitches. The doctor gave Aggie an icepack and a small bottle of codeine as they were leaving. ‘Don't give him any of these until he sobers up,' he said.

‘He thinks I'm drunk!' Luke laughed loudly. ‘No, no, doctor. I don't drink. That's one thing I never do.'

The doctor gave Aggie a sympathetic smile. ‘Whatever he's on, wait until it wears off.'

On the trip home, Luke lay back on the fully reclined seat, with the ice on his nose. ‘You must be disappointed,' he said. ‘Coming out here and not seeing your lover. Maybe we should have asked for him. Requested the services of the incomparable Dr Keating. I wouldn't have minded, really, I mean, at least I could have seen him properly. It's impossible to tell what he really looks like from that picture; it's grainy and his face is, well, shall we say,
obscured
?'

‘What picture? I don't understand what you're talking about.'

Luke snorted. ‘Evidence, Aggie. You didn't clean up after yourself. You left tracks.'

‘Of what? Jesus, Luke!'

He laughed, sat up, switched the radio off, lay down again. ‘
This is the way of an adulterous woman. She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done nothing wrong
.”'

Aggie swung the car into her driveway. ‘Firstly, Luke, don't quote fucking Bible verses at me.' She turned off the ignition and pulled the icepack off his face. ‘Secondly,
adulterous
? Do you actually know the meaning of that word?'

‘Do you?' He got out of the car and stalked up to her front door.

Inside, he ignored her offer of food or drink and went straight to the study. While she watched over his shoulder, he switched on her computer and opened her internet connection. She asked him what he thought he was doing, but he ignored that question too.

On the screen in front of her, the words
Justice for the Unborn
had appeared, and below them, a gruesome picture Aggie recognised from the placards outside the clinic. ‘What are you –?'

‘Wait.' Luke scrolled down, clicking on links too fast for Aggie to see where he was going. ‘Look.'

Aggie squinted at the screen, then laughed as the photo came into focus. ‘Hah, there's Mum! She'd be thrilled about this. She's a publicity whore, you know?'

Luke looked up at her. ‘You're not upset by this?'

‘Not really. They can delve as deep into my life as they want, I have nothing to hide, nothing to be
ashamed of. I've had worse from this lot. At least they haven't shot me yet.'