The Road to Redemption (12 page)

While he was doing this, Graham had moved in on the two models and was chatting them up. Francis saw this and decided to play along with John.

“Come, I want to show you something.”

She led him into the bedroom, grabbed him and started to kiss him. In the past John would have been totally involved, but not tonight. He kissed her back but there was no real feeling in it. Just a mistress who was losing control of her man and seeking comfort elsewhere. For the first time it occurred to John that Francis was losing her power over Graham and he actually felt a bit sad for her. Mistresses are much easier to get rid of, than wives.

He gave Francis a hug, but it was more a friendly hug than a sexual one. There was no real passion there. Not like there had been with Alice.

“You OK?” he inquired.

“Sure,” said Francis. But John could tell she was bluffing.

He looked at Francis with the harsh light from the living room, shining into the bedroom. The lines of age were starting to clearly show on her face, with the light shining on her sideways. She was on the way out and Graham was chasing new younger versions.

They came out of the bedroom to find everyone had left, except the bartender, Graham and the two girls. The bartender was washing up the glasses, while Graham and the two girls, were already semi naked and getting into the spa on the balcony.

Francis took one look and saw red. She grabbed a half finished glass of beer from the bar, marched over and poured it over Graham’s head, then stormed off into the bedroom and slammed the door.

Graham didn’t seem all that perturbed. Gail was giggling in the spa beside him. She had won the battle of the tarts.

“Don’t worry about that John, she will get over it. Come and join us in the spa. Bring a couple of drinks over will you?”

But John had, had enough. He was not interested in two tarts with hair extensions and false boobs, plus he was sick of being treated like a servant all night. Also he was feeling a sorry for Francis and Graham’s callous attitude towards her.

“No I have to go,” said John. “But I’ll get you a couple of drinks.”

Graham was busy with the two girls and didn’t seem to mind if John stayed or went.

John went over to the bar.

“Give us two red bull’s and vodka for the girls, will you Harry?”

Harry had been the regular bartender at these functions for years. He knew about all the goings on.

“On second thought, make that doubles will you? Give Graham, whatever he is drinking. Make that a double too.”

Harry looked at John puzzled.

“I’m going home Harry, that should finish them off. They will all be too pissed to do anything much.”

Harry just smiled.

Going down in the lift John thought about Graham’s situation. Sure he had it all but there were rules, even with mistresses. Graham was being very hard on Francis. Her options for the future were closing, as she aged. Graham was already moving on to the next younger conquest, or in this case two younger conquests.

It occurred to John that in the past he would not have been too worried about this. He would probably have been in the spa with them by now. But since his affair with Alice something had changed.  At his point he didn’t know just what, but something had definitely changed.

Chapter 13 A Drink with Bill

John had been thinking about it. Yes, his business associate, Graham had it all, but was he really happy? All the time he had to be on his guard, so his wife would not find out about his other life. John didn’t have to be too careful. Audry never went to the city, she was busy looking after the kids and going to tennis. Anyway, he only went to Graham’s functions occasionally. It wasn’t like he was supporting a penthouse and mistress full time, paying all the bills etc. Also, Graham’s mistress and the other women who attended the functions, all had a hard edge to them. They all seemed to be on the make. There were no deep feelings involved. It was all, get what you can.

His affair with Alice had been something totally different. There was something new here. Something he had never known existed. All he knew at this point, was that deep emotions were involved. Yes, there was much to ponder.

It was Saturday morning. Four weeks had passed since the night of the dinner party.  John was poking around in the garden aimlessly with no particular objective. It was looking more unkempt than it used to. His head was numb from a few too many scotches the night before, when he heard a mower going across the street and looked up to see Bill, cutting the nature strip outside his and Alice’s home. Bill saw him, stopped the mower and beckoned him over.

“Uh oh” thought John what could this mean? What does Bill want? The thoughts were racing through his mind. Perhaps he would see Alice. Perhaps Bill knows about their affair. Yes, that’s it, he must know about the affair, because she said they had an open marriage and told each other everything. Yes that’s it

He nervously started across the road. Bill's greeting was surprisingly warm if a trifle subdued.

“Come in and have a beer mate,” he went on, “I haven’t seen you since the dinner party.”

They sat down at the breakfast table and Bill handed him a beer.

John hadn’t noticed before, how much of a yobbo Bill was. Perhaps that's what they had always shared in common, their working class upbringing. But Bill was still ending everything with the word “mate”. John had stopped doing this years ago, ever since he started dating Audry and needed to relate in “higher circles”. In fact it would be hard to pick John’s working class origins from the way he dressed and spoke these days. However it was not hard to pick Bill’s origins. Whenever John was talking with Bill he reverted to putting the ‘mate’ word in again. It made Bill feel more comfortable.

Come to think about it, as well as not knowing much about Alice until just recently, he really didn’t know much about Bill either. There had been a rumour going around that Bill wasn’t Susie’s real father, although John had considered this to be just an urban myth. In the past he had been so interested in looking at Alice that he hadn’t given Bill much attention. Looking at him closely now, he could see Bill was tall and thin and had a rather big nose, which made his face seem pointy. Also, he didn’t have Susie's olive skin tone. Susie looked far more like her mother. So perhaps there could be some truth in the rumour.

Bill had grown up in an inner city suburb not far from John, but they had never met until they had come to live across the road from each other. Unlike John, who had caring parents, Bill’s parents had not been happy. They had fought constantly and his father was a drunk who used to beat up his mother. That was why he tried to carry on with the mateship “mate” thing. He had been deprived as a kid and wanted to be loved. In a way Alice had felt sorry for him and married him to give her child some respectability. Even though she was a free spirit, Alice was well aware of the stigma society can place on a bastard child, even today in a changing world. She wanted to make sure Susie didn’t have any hang-ups. When she married Bill she had made him agree that they could have an open marriage. So it was more what she wanted rather than Bill. In fact they were mismatched in many ways. She wanted freedom, while due to his bad upbringing, Bill craved security.

Also, what John didn’t know was that Bill had met Alice while he was working at the University. At the time he had a job selling the benefits of the university to overseas students, but he was not a student himself, just a salesman. On the other hand Alice was an Arts student and had achieved one of the top passes in the State. She was very bright academically. Whereas Bill was a good salesman, with good people skills, he was pretty ordinary academically.

When Alice had finished her degree, Bill and her had gone to live on a commune in northern NSW. She was an activist against logging of the old growth forests. It was very free and open in the commune and It could well be that Susie was not Bill’s daughter, however no blood test had ever been done.

Another rumour was that they were not married but this was not true. A Marriage Celebrant had married them in the forest with the rest of the commune in attendance. After they left the commune Bill had got a number of sales jobs and finally worked his way up to Sales Manager, with the sporting goods company. Alice had a job at the University arranging conferences and looking after visiting professors and other important dignitaries. That is why she had the money to buy expensive Gucci handbags and other luxuries; she liked to indulge in from time to time.

However they were now sitting in Bill and Alice’s kitchen and Bill was wanting to talk.

Alice was nowhere to be seen,

“Where’s Alice?” John could not help himself from blurting out, as Bill handed him a beer at the breakfast table.

“Well that's just it mate.”

“ We’ve always got on pretty well you and I haven’t we mate?” There was that word “mate” again. He paused but didn’t really need a response, 

“You see, you know after the dinner party at your place,” he was struggling for words.

“ Yes,” said John gingerly.

“Well you know I said I was going to Brisbane the following week?”

“Yes.”

“Well it wasn’t quite what it seemed, mate. You see I took my secretary with me. We were having a bit of an affair at the time. Its over now,” he quickly added,

“She was only very young.”

John just sat there. Bill was confessing to him. It wasn’t all what he had been expecting

“Alice knew about it. But you see when I came back she acted strangely. I just don’t know what happened, but she said she was going to her parents place because her father was sick. I just don’t know mate. Maybe it was about my secretary?”

So this is why he hadn’t seen Alice power walking.

It seemed to be confession time and John could hear himself suddenly saying,

“You know about Alice and me don’t you?”

“Oh yeah that mate. I’ve got to tell you before we came to your place that night Alice told me she thought you were a bit of an upstart and was going to tease you by dressing sexy. I believe you had a pash in the kitchen. So that's OK mate, that’s not what is worrying me.”

He paused and looked up to double check, “that is all there was to it wasn’t there mate?”

“Of course mate, “ John lied through his teeth, “that's all there was.”

“Yeah, I thought so. It could have been that guy at the gym. Alice was having an affair with him. But I didn’t think it was that serious.” He was searching for answers.

“She is still at her parent’s place and won’t take my calls.”

John was only half listening to him now. It seemed Alice hadn’t told Bill about their affair only about the kiss. This is not the impression he had got from her with her parting comment  “that's your problem.”

Why hadn’t she told Bill?

“I don’t know what to do mate. This has never happened before. Yeah it must be that guy from the gym,” Bill concluded, “or the secretary,” he added.

John tried to act casually

“Where do her parents live?”

“Oh, at a little place called Tyrone. It’s about 50k out of town. They have a few acres there.”

John couldn’t push any further and knew if he asked what Alice’s maiden name was, Bill would want to know why.

“Well look mate, it will probably work out OK, may-be she just needs a break.” He tried to comfort Bill.

“I hope so,” said Bill

As John walked back across the road there was just one question. Why hadn’t Alice told Bill? He had to know, it was killing him.

Chapter 14  A Trip To Tyrone