Either way the Fiesta appeared to spell trouble.
I finished with the sheets and turned all the lamps out bar one. I slid into bed and pulled a quilt up around my face. The level felt too quiet for me to sleep, so I played some XX on a new iPod and stared at the display chest opposite. I was almost asleep when I realised it was Sunday and I hadnât given Lizzy a With Regret card.
I lay still and considered whether the dayâs events rendered this acceptable. I sighed, knowing that if anything they probably made the card routine even more important.
I dragged myself out of the beautiful warmth and pulled on my favourite grey hoodie and some jeans. Not wanting to clunk around the centre and wake up the others, I went for some quiet loafers. Then I took the Maglite over to the giftware section to find a card.
I had given Lizzy some truly terrible cards over the weeks.
Life gets in the way â Iâll make it next time.
Or
The dog ate my homework ⦠you know the deal.
Bordering on delirium, I wasnât too fussy this time. I went for a card with an illustrated bird flying through agrey urban landscape on the front, with the destination of a solitary birdbath on the back. Inside it said,
Good luck in your new oasis, my apologies that I couldnât make a splash.
It didnât make a lot of sense but I wrote inside, sealed it up and set off to Dymocks.
Lizzy was in her bed reading
Burning for Revenge
from the John Marsden teen series. She dipped the cover at the soft shuffle of my approach and looked at her watch.
âCutting it fine, Nox,â she said.
âYeah,â I replied and passed her the card.
She opened it and smirked briefly at the contents. I sat on a sofa beside the bed and wrapped myself in a blanket.
âYou okay?â she asked.
âYeah. Bit creeped out,â I replied. âYou?â
âNot really,â she said.
âSerious?â
âI bet the normal demographic for Fiesta owners in Perth is like, female, nineteen to twenty-six,â she replied.
I smiled a little.
âYou think thereâs been a car-full of ladies shopping in Miss Shop all this time?â I asked.
âMost likely,â she said.
âWow, they must be shy,â I said.
âShy is fine,â said Lizzy.
Usually we could go on talking crap like this for a while. Tonight it felt a little forced.
âHow is Taylor?â I asked, more seriously.
âNo idea,â she replied.
âDo you really think thereâs somebody else in here with us?â I asked.
âGod, I donât know,â she answered.
We sat in silence for a while.
âI was thinking about last time we played here in Perth. At that old arts centre,â she said.
âIn Fremantle. I was there,â I said. âYou guys totally ignored me.â
âWeâre famous. Of course we did,â said Lizzy.
âAnyway, we were so pumped about hanging out in the place before the show. Itâs like this tiny castle, yeah. They pretty much gave us an entire wing to ourselves. I remember sitting in this big room after sound check, drinking a beer and looking up at the awesome ceilings. And Taylor was just wandering through the halls, looking at peopleâs art projects. Nobody around.â
I nodded.
âThen we googled and found out the place was built as an insane asylum where they locked people up anddished out shock therapy and shit like that. Both of us got creeped out and spent the rest of the pre-show in a van out the front.â
Lizzy looked at me.
âNothing changed in the place except what we knew about it,â she said. âI donât want that to happen here. Iâm not going to let a fucking Ford Fiesta creep me out of the only good stuff about being alive and living in a mall.â
Her eyes were fierce and they were posing me a question. Maybe not a question, but a challenge. The idea of not meeting it scared the hell out of me.
7
Life in
I finished with the sheets and turned all the lamps out bar one. I slid into bed and pulled a quilt up around my face. The level felt too quiet for me to sleep, so I played some XX on a new iPod and stared at the display chest opposite. I was almost asleep when I realised it was Sunday and I hadnât given Lizzy a With Regret card.
I lay still and considered whether the dayâs events rendered this acceptable. I sighed, knowing that if anything they probably made the card routine even more important.
I dragged myself out of the beautiful warmth and pulled on my favourite grey hoodie and some jeans. Not wanting to clunk around the centre and wake up the others, I went for some quiet loafers. Then I took the Maglite over to the giftware section to find a card.
I had given Lizzy some truly terrible cards over the weeks.
Life gets in the way â Iâll make it next time.
Or
The dog ate my homework ⦠you know the deal.
Bordering on delirium, I wasnât too fussy this time. I went for a card with an illustrated bird flying through agrey urban landscape on the front, with the destination of a solitary birdbath on the back. Inside it said,
Good luck in your new oasis, my apologies that I couldnât make a splash.
It didnât make a lot of sense but I wrote inside, sealed it up and set off to Dymocks.
Lizzy was in her bed reading
Burning for Revenge
from the John Marsden teen series. She dipped the cover at the soft shuffle of my approach and looked at her watch.
âCutting it fine, Nox,â she said.
âYeah,â I replied and passed her the card.
She opened it and smirked briefly at the contents. I sat on a sofa beside the bed and wrapped myself in a blanket.
âYou okay?â she asked.
âYeah. Bit creeped out,â I replied. âYou?â
âNot really,â she said.
âSerious?â
âI bet the normal demographic for Fiesta owners in Perth is like, female, nineteen to twenty-six,â she replied.
I smiled a little.
âYou think thereâs been a car-full of ladies shopping in Miss Shop all this time?â I asked.
âMost likely,â she said.
âWow, they must be shy,â I said.
âShy is fine,â said Lizzy.
Usually we could go on talking crap like this for a while. Tonight it felt a little forced.
âHow is Taylor?â I asked, more seriously.
âNo idea,â she replied.
âDo you really think thereâs somebody else in here with us?â I asked.
âGod, I donât know,â she answered.
We sat in silence for a while.
âI was thinking about last time we played here in Perth. At that old arts centre,â she said.
âIn Fremantle. I was there,â I said. âYou guys totally ignored me.â
âWeâre famous. Of course we did,â said Lizzy.
âAnyway, we were so pumped about hanging out in the place before the show. Itâs like this tiny castle, yeah. They pretty much gave us an entire wing to ourselves. I remember sitting in this big room after sound check, drinking a beer and looking up at the awesome ceilings. And Taylor was just wandering through the halls, looking at peopleâs art projects. Nobody around.â
I nodded.
âThen we googled and found out the place was built as an insane asylum where they locked people up anddished out shock therapy and shit like that. Both of us got creeped out and spent the rest of the pre-show in a van out the front.â
Lizzy looked at me.
âNothing changed in the place except what we knew about it,â she said. âI donât want that to happen here. Iâm not going to let a fucking Ford Fiesta creep me out of the only good stuff about being alive and living in a mall.â
Her eyes were fierce and they were posing me a question. Maybe not a question, but a challenge. The idea of not meeting it scared the hell out of me.
7
Life in
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