Zo

by Leanne Owens

  Andrew laughed, ‘I assure you, despite what Ally claims, I have left those years long behind. And I’m glad to have left them. I’m happy to watch the girls do this, but it’s not for me. Or Peter.’

  ‘Challenge accepted,’ Ally snorted softly, knowing exactly how to prove him wrong. ‘Lynette! Sandy! Crank it up a notch so we can get these freeloaders moving. Is this Peter’s house – or is it a church house or gin house?’

  ‘Nooo!’ wailed Peter, protesting what he knew was about to happen.

  ‘Don’t you dare,’ warned Andrew, his face stern.

  ‘Hit it, girls,’ Ally grinned at them both, holding out a hand to each of them as Lynette blasted Nutbush City Limits through the speakers.

  Peter and Andrew may have worn comically dismayed expressions as Ally dragged them onto the tiled floor to stand beside Sandy and Lynette, but once the introduction had played and the dance music started, their perfectly synchronised moves kicked in. To the amusement of Marcus and Nick, the five friends fell into the dance routine without an error from any of them.

  Half way through, Andrew and Lynette invited Marcus and Nick to join them. Tossing away their reservations, the two men stepped on to the dance floor with the others to run through the Nutbush steps, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, but enjoying every second.

  When the music stopped, Peter quickly unplugged the speakers and put on Sandy’s first movie. He knew the girls would be happy to dance another dozen songs before settling, and he was keen to sit and relax. They took up their positions on the chairs and sofas, and Sandy gave them a running commentary about the movie that kept them chuckling for the entire two and a half hours of the confusing film.

  ‘Do you really have any idea what it was about?’ Ally asked her when the credits were rolling.

  'Not much,' Sandy laughed. 'A metaphor for living, an allegory of war, a comparison between space travel and exploring our minds. Personally, I think there were a whole lot of props left over from Eraserhead, Elephant Man, and Dune, and they threw them into a room with actors, alcohol, and the film crew, and – voila.’

  ‘That’ll do it,’ Ally grinned.

  They played the next Sandy L. Martin movie and, as Ally watched her beautiful friend on the small screen, she looked over at her and reached her hand out. Sandy stretched an arm out to take her hand. They smiled at each other in a moment of shared understanding of all that they’d ever been to each other.

  ‘You are amazing,’ Ally said, emotion swelling in her chest.

  ‘You are,’ returned Sandy, squeezing her hand lightly.

  ‘You all are,’ said Nick, resting a hand lightly on Lynette’s cheek. ‘You were friends as children, and you are still friends – that is something to be proud of.’

  ‘I agree,’ Marcus nodded. ‘Ally, I wish I’d known you when you were young, but what you’ve achieved in life by helping these four is incredible. And don’t deny it was your doing. They’ve each explained that they know beyond doubt that their lives would have been very different if you had not raised them up.’

  ‘They were always amazing…’ began Ally.

  ‘No, let me stop you there,’ Lynette sat up straight, shoulder to shoulder with Nick. ‘Don’t for a moment think that my life would have been anything if not for you. Life in the orphanage was vile, and the abuse was unspeakable. I hope those priests and nuns had some sort of payback before they died. You gave me friendship and love when I was friendless and unlovable.’

  She stopped for a moment to reach for a tissue. As she dabbed at her eyes, Nick spread an arm protectively around her shoulders.

  ‘I was an angry child at the start of high school, filled with fear and hate,’ she looked at Nick, wondering if he could understand that sort of childhood. He gave her a look filled with kindness, and she continued, her eyes on him. ‘Ally knew what was going on. I don’t know how she knew, but she did. No adult was able to help, but Ally helped. She made me believe in myself. She gave me faith that I could rise above the orphanage. Without Ally, I’d have gone on being a victim to those disgusting people. With her, I fashioned an armour to protect me, dreams to give me hope, and, finally, the words and confidence to stop the abuse. I only became amazing after Ally came into my life.’

  ‘No,’ Ally shook her head in disagreement, her voice soft. ‘You were always magnificent and incredible – you all were. All I did was recognise the gold that was under the surface and polish it a little. But,’ she pulled a face as though she’d tasted something bad, ‘isn’t this complimenting each other just a bit too syrupy? That’s not the way to end movie night, even though…’ she grinned cheekily at them, ‘…you’re my world.’

  A groan escaped Peter. Andrew made a noise indicating pain. Sandy and Lynette giggled.

  ‘You’re every breath I take,’ she continued, waggling her eyebrows comically at the boys as she stood and motioned for Sandy and Lynette to join her.

  ‘You have the song?’ Ally asked Lynette, who was looking at the playlist on her phone while Sandy reconnected the speakers.

  ‘Of course,’ Lynette chuckled. ‘Would any party be complete without Daryl Braithwaite singing You’re My World?’

  The speakers began pumping out the start of the song and the three women stood side by side, swaying to the music, their hands gripping imaginary microphones. Once Daryl’s voice began, they sang along at the tops of their voices with excellent pitch.

  ‘It’s good,’ Marcus said to Peter and Andrew, wondering why they had such a strong reaction to Ally when they knew she was going to sing it.

  ‘It’s fantastic,’ Andrew nodded. ‘No argument there. Great voices. The first hundred times you hear them do this, it’s great. But do you know how many times Peter and I had to listen to them sing this song, and then tell us that they were in love with Daryl Braithwaite?’

  ‘More than a hundred?’ Nick hazarded a guess.

  ‘Many more,’ Peter nodded sadly, a glimmer in his eyes giving lie to his dislike of the song. ‘Many, many, many more.’

  As Sandy, Lynette, and Ally finished declaring that if their love ceased to be, it would be the end of the world, Nick and Marcus applauded.

  ‘No!’ Andrew and Peter exclaimed in unison, but it was too late.

  With smiles broader than gapped axes, the girls hit replay and started the song over.

  At the end of the third run through of the song, Nick and Marcus had learned their lesson and stayed silent under the compelling glares of Andrew and Peter. The playlist moved on to the next song, Ted Mulray’s Jump In My Car.

  ‘We do good?’ Ally joked in bad English as she flopped down on the lounge next to Peter.

  ‘You do good,’ he replied in kind.

  ‘The three of you could have been singers,’ Marcus complimented them, before quickly holding up a hand in a stop signal. ‘Not that I want you to sing it again. But you were brilliant.’

  ‘Thank you, Marcus,’ Ally accepted his compliment graciously, ‘and we might have been if our school didn’t have some of the greatest singers Australia has produced.’

  Marcus looked at her suspiciously, wondering if this was another private joke.

  ‘Seriously,’ she assured him. ‘We were in the midst of brilliant voices, so we didn’t try to compete.’

  ‘They took centre stage when it came to singing,’ said Sandy. ‘We sang at our little five people parties.’

  Andrew looked at them with fondness. It seemed so long ago that three teenage girls ended every party, get-together, and even study session with their rendition of that song. He observed the three women as they leaned on each other, chatting, and he wondered where the time had gone. Once, someone turning sixty seemed ancient, but these women were the same as the teens from long ago, only with more substance and vibrancy to them. The years hadn’t aged them – time had added depth.

  ‘Once more, that was a total time warp,’ said Andrew, and the instant the words left his mouth, he regretted them.

  ‘Idiot
,’ chuckled Peter as he saw the women’s faces light up.

  Lynette picked up her phone and began searching.

  ‘Rocky Horror?’ Nick asked Peter.

  ‘Yep,’ Peter replied, a wry twist to his mouth. ‘And don’t think you’ll escape this one. Everyone dances the Time Warp. No exceptions.’

  ‘It’s astounding,’ Lynette spoke the first words of the song with feeling as she held out her hands to Nick to pull him on to the dance floor.

  ‘Time is fleeting,’ Sandy winked at Marcus and Andrew, beckoning them to join her.

  ‘Madness takes its toll,’ Ally sashayed over to Peter and gestured with dancing fingers to have him take part.

  The song was intoxicating, and they danced, drunk on friendship and love. They followed it with more songs that were impossible to resist, the beat summoning the moves from their bodies. The music was a wormhole in space and time, connecting them to their youth. Outside, the curlews cried for lost souls, their mournful voices speaking to the dead, but in the light of the house there was only room for the living.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Savonarola and Machiavelli

  ‘I’ll finish today,’ Ally promised as Peter spread blankets on one of the private lawns in the gardens the next morning. ‘You can all go back to your lives tomorrow.’

  Sandy took some large cushions from a trolley and tossed them onto the blankets. She was feeling particularly happy today. Shortly after waking, she had received a text from her producer, begging her to come back. He told her that he had managed to shoot around her scenes, and was hopeful she would re-join them soon. His tone was quite conciliatory. It seemed she would be able to go back to her life, but as she looked at Ally, handing out water bottles to everyone, she found herself wishing that she could stay. Ally made life complete.

  ‘It’s good here,’ Lynette said, settling onto the blankets next to Nick. ‘I could stay here forever.’

  ‘I agree,’ Nick planted a kiss on her nose. ‘But I could stay anywhere forever, as long as you were there.’

  Ally made a retching noise, like a dog about to vomit, and then laughed at the alarmed looks she received. ‘Just teasing the love birds,’ she grinned at everyone. ‘Ain’t love grand?’

  ‘You can be really unpleasant, you know that?’ Lynette pointed at her in mock anger. ‘Nick said something beautiful just then, and you had to ruin it with the vomiting-pet noise.’

  ‘I made it more memorable,’ Ally screwed up her nose as though unable to understand Lynette’s protest. ‘What moment isn’t improved by that sound?’

  ‘Just so we’re clear, Chickadee,’ Andrew looked sideways at Ally as he sat next to Marcus, ‘most moments are destroyed by that sound.’

  ‘You learn something every day,’ Ally feigned surprise. ‘Everyone comfortable?’

  She sat with her back against the smooth bark of a blue gum, her legs tucked under the voluminous folds of her cream cotton skirt. A tan leather belt divided the skirt from the matching cream shirt, the pale tones making her skin rosier in comparison. The bandages on her wrists were the same cream as her clothes. It amused her that the nurses matched the colour to her outfits each day.

  Everyone else wore blue jeans and t-shirts, except Peter, who had a collared shirt with a tie in his pocket in case he needed to look more formal for clients. Marcus made Ally snort with laughter when he said they looked like the meeting of a flower-child with her hippy followers.

  ‘Here we are, communing with nature,’ she raised her hands, palm upwards, in a spiritual pose, ‘connecting to the universe, and contemplating peace, love, and happiness in a hippy manner.’

  ‘If I remember correctly,’ said Andrew, thinking back to the 1960s, ‘my hippy neighbours were more about protests, drugs, and sticking it to the man.’

  ‘I’m sure some were peaceful flower-power people,’ Ally said, recalling the odours associated with his free-living neighbours., ‘There was always funny smelling smoke at their place.’

  Andrew laughed, ‘They offered Dad some of their special cookies, once. It was the only time I can recall him singing and dancing.’

  ‘He was fairly serious,’ Lynette understated Mr Lee’s cantankerous disposition. The man was forever barking orders at his son and prohibiting him from wasting his time with friends, socialising. ‘I remember you told him you were always in study group when you were with us. Fishing in the Barwon – study group. Sunbaking in Sandy’s backyard – study group. Friday night shopping in town – study group.’

  ‘I remember Friday nights!’ exclaimed Sandy, transported back to the mid-1970s when the late-night shopping first started in Geelong, and all the shops opened again on Saturday morning. Until that time, shops had strict Monday to Friday trading, 9am to 5pm. It opened a whole new world for teenagers to shop on a Friday night. ‘We thought we were so sophisticated and grown up, hanging out in the centre of Geelong on a Friday night.’

  ‘Study group,’ smirked Andrew.

  ‘We studied popular culture,’ Ally reminded him. She grinned at Nick and Marcus and explained, ‘We were never short of official sounding names for the various study excursions. An afternoon at Eastern Beach was an oceanographic excursion organised by our School Of Study And Gifted Education.’

  ‘Ah, our good old SOSAGE,’ snickered Sandy. ‘Your poor dad, Andy. He must have thought you were studying so many different things with our group. I remember that we called shopping an examination of the supply and demand systems in Australia.’

  ‘And riding our bikes into the Barrabool Hills,’ Peter recalled, ‘was an elective in practical surveying for gifted students.’

  Andrew laughed at the memories. ‘Dad was a bit short tempered when it came to doing anything that didn’t directly relate to work or study.’

  ‘He was,’ agreed Ally. ‘Lots of fathers were a bit strict back then, mine included. Mind you, they had nothing on the Florentine fathers.’

  ‘Let’s go back to Florence,’ Andrew begged, realising that her stories had ensnared him and, instead of wanting freedom from them, he wanted further entanglement. ‘I’m hungry for more of the Renaissance.’

  ‘Maybe some background,’ she closed her eyes to gather up the memories and sort them. ‘Then we can finalise it all later today, since that should bring me to the end of things there, and my decision on going forward in this life.’

  ‘Decision?’ Peter came fully alert at the word. ‘That sounds worrying.’

  ‘I’m not going to kill myself, Peter,’ she snorted and held out her bandaged wrists. ‘I promise, this was the last attempt. The black dog hasn’t vanished, but having you all here, speaking to Zo, and sharing him with you, has set the dog back on its haunches for a bit. I’ll tell you after we’ve put Florence behind us.’

  The thought of leaving these stories of Italy in the past saddened Sandy. There was magic in the stories. She turned her head slightly to look at Peter, leaning on a cushion next to her, and spoke softly, ‘I am going to have to visit Florence after this. I want to walk those streets and look at those buildings. I want to see them through these new filters.’

  ‘Me, too,’ he inclined his head in agreement. ‘Maybe we should all go. Like a school excursion.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ inquired Lynette, who had caught the last few words.

  ‘To Florence,’ explained Sandy, ‘on a school trip. Only we’re not schoolkids any more, we’re nearly sixty, but it would be like school camp.’

  ‘Count me in,’ Andrew was enthusiastic. ‘I don’t feel any different from when we were teenagers. Why is that, do you think? I look in the mirror and I certainly don’t look like a teenager.’

  ‘You do, too,’ Lynette objected. ‘If I didn’t love you so much, I could stab you in the face with a fork for looking so amazing. You haven’t changed a bit since we were kids.’

  ‘Nor have you,’ Andrew waved a graceful hand towards her, ‘you are as beautiful now as then.’

  Lynette pulled a face at him, ‘You
are so full of it, Andrew, my love. I used to be slim and athletic in those years. I’m a well-padded, slightly-lined version these days.’

  ‘She’s still athletic,’ Nick winked at Andrew, adding in a stage whisper, ‘like you wouldn’t believe.’

  Chuckling at his comment, Lynette entwined her fingers with his, ‘Mr Carter, are you giving our secrets away?’

  ‘Honey,’ Sandy drawled, her eyes gleaming, ‘Peter’s house isn’t a soundproof studio. You pretty much gave your secrets away to all of us these last few nights. It certainly sounded like you were doing some sort of athletic workout.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Lynette with mock outrage, ‘if I want to go on a school trip with you now.’

  ‘Are you really thinking of going?’ asked Ally, looking from one face to the next.

  ‘Why not?’ shrugged Sandy. ‘We promised each other long ago that we’d age gracefully together, so I think continuing the great tradition of going on school excursions and being totally silly like teenagers would be a wonderful way to age gracefully. You’d like to see it again, wouldn’t you? How long since you’ve been there?’

  ‘Five hundred years,’ Ally confessed, thinking of the city she knew as Elli. ‘And this morning.’

  ‘Hang on,’ said Marcus, ‘do you mean to say you haven’t visited Florence in this life?’

  Ally shook her head, ‘I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I had all the memories of Zo so fresh in my mind, and I couldn’t touch those buildings and sit on those steps where I’d been with him so recently, and yet so long ago. Do you have any idea of how many things exist in Florence because of him? There would be reminders in every street that he was here half a millennium ago…and I don’t think I could face that truth. The reality in my mind of my life with Zo doesn’t need shaking by the fact that my memories of Florence are five hundred years old. Anyway, it would be really disconcerting to be flicking back and forth between the past and the present in the same place, so I avoided it.’

  ‘We need to go,’ Lynette said with enthusiasm, reaching out with a foot to nudge Ally’s toes. ‘We’ll take care of you so you don’t get too trippy from seeing the now twisting around the then. I want to see the places you’ve told us about.’