The Importance of Ernestine

by Elizabeth Dunk

  John pulled out his phone. He could text her. Maybe she wanted to recreate the magic of Tuesday night. Maybe she was more sensible than him and she would shoot him down and end all this.

  Did he want to know? In this case, was possibility better than reality?

  It wasn’t serious. It was just two people, hot for each other. There was no future, so there were no repercussions to worry about. They would do each other until they no longer wanted to. Easy.

  So why was pulling up her number so hard?

  It wasn’t such a step to text her. If she didn’t respond, or didn’t encourage him, then it was done. If she did, they could just flirt with each other. It didn’t have to become anything physical.

  Even as he told himself that was a lie, his fingers were moving on the phone.

  ‘I have more muffins than even I can eat.’

  He waited, breath held, hands shaking until his phone beeped with her response.

  ‘Congratulations. Alec did try to eat them all himself but it appears even his bottomless stomach has a limit.’

  She’d responded. Not particularly flirtatiously, but still. ‘Wonders will never cease.’

  ‘Where Alec is concerned, I have given up wondering.’

  ‘An important decision to make for the sake of your sanity. If being sane is important to you.’

  ‘I am starting to think a lack of sanity is a decided advantage around here. For example, if I were perfectly sane, I wouldn’t be texting with you.’

  So Gwen recognised the problems they faced. ‘Personally I think sanity is highly overrated.’

  ‘It appears I do too. I wonder where that leaves me?’

  ‘Free to act.’ John sent the text with bated breath. When the response didn’t immediately come, he began to fret. Had it been wrong?

  Finally, his phone beeped. ‘Am I?’

  His heart skipped a beat. ‘You can choose what to do with every moment of your day. For example, what do you want to do now?’

  ‘Something completely insane.’

  ‘Me too. In a totally “I’ve considered all the consequences and want to do it anyway” sort of way.’

  ‘There are a lot of consequences.’

  ‘Maybe there are none. Some moments just are. Outside of our lives. To be experienced, and then left behind.’

  ‘You know that isn’t the case. No matter how much we’d like to think so.’

  ‘Then I suppose the question becomes—is the risk worth it? I think so.’

  Another pause, then Gwen texted, ‘So do I.’

  ‘Beautiful Gwendolen. Fairest of the fair.’

  ‘Hurry. Before I become sane again.’

  John didn’t need to be told twice. Work be damned.

  ***

  As he walked into Gwen’s apartment, Gwen said, ‘Who is CC?’

  John blinked. It wasn’t the sexy greeting he had been anticipating. ‘What?’

  ‘Who is CC? Alec said you’ve been meeting with them a lot.’

  John sighed. ‘I told Alec I’ve been—’

  Gwen crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her breasts together. John told himself not to focus on that because her tone made it very clear this was not a sexy conversation. ‘Don’t give me the crap about the credit card. Alec didn’t buy it and I don’t either. Who is CC?’

  ‘All right. But you can’t tell Alec.’

  Gwen narrowed her eyes. ‘Tell me who CC is and then I’ll decide if I tell Alec or not.’

  ‘CC is my mentee.’

  Gwen frowned. ‘Your what?’

  ‘My mentee.’ He sought for and found a name. ‘Carl Christensen. I like to find new staffers after an election and help them get used to life here in Canberra. I don’t tell Alec because he’d just ridicule me about it, so I made up the story about checking the credit card. I really don’t want Alec to know. Please don’t tell him.’

  Gwen smiled and the possibility of sex was back on the table. ‘I won’t. You really mentor new staffers?’

  ‘The job itself is hard enough, without knowing the rules. I identify people with talent and look after them.’

  Gwen reached over and took John’s hand. ‘That’s a really good thing for you to do.’

  ‘Which is why Alec can’t know.’

  ‘I won’t tell him. But that does lead us to another thing. Alec has found you out.’

  John frowned. ‘The fact he didn’t believe my credit card story doesn’t mean he has found me out.’

  ‘Not that. You told him you spent Tuesday night with Lobelia Prism. Well, Lobelia was in our office yesterday and told him you weren’t. In fact, she told him that you hooked up with a, and I quote, ‘a stunning blonde with a killer red dress’. I’ve been tasked to find this mystery woman, who right now Alec is convinced is CC.’

  ‘Oh, that’s perfect.’ John laughed. ‘Let him think it is CC.’

  ‘But it wasn’t CC. It was me. What if he finds that out?’

  ‘He won’t. Look, it seems Lobelia didn’t recognise you yesterday, right?’

  ‘I wasn’t in the office so she didn’t see me. But if she has another meeting with Alec, and I’m there …’

  ‘Hmm.’ John tapped his chin. ‘Don’t suppose you can wear glasses?’

  ‘You want me to wear a disguise?’

  ‘Only around Lobelia.’

  ‘And what will Alec think of that?’

  ‘Look, Lobelia has already had her meeting with Alec on this trip. Chances are she won’t meet with him again and if she does, it will be so long after the fact that if she does recognise you, just say you weren’t wearing red and she’ll think you were someone else. Now, we just need to figure out the story you tell Alec. He won’t check, because that would involve work. Just do some investigating, come up with a report that I did meet a woman with the initials CC and left with her, and it’s all done.’

  ‘I don’t like lying,’ Gwen said.

  ‘Me either, but we both knew Tuesday night it could lead to this.’

  ‘Alec is going to question you about CC.’

  ‘Then let’s get our story straight.’

  It was simple. The woman’s name was Caroline Curtis. She was the widow of an old friend of John’s who had moved to Canberra recently. John was looking out for her on behalf of his friend. Caroline and he had no interest in each other, but he wanted to keep her away from Alec.

  ‘How did I discover this?’ Gwen said.

  ‘Hmm. Okay, you found some social photographs taken on the night. Saw the name. Looked her up. Saw we had a past. That’s what you tell Alec. When he questions me, I fill him in on the rest.’

  ‘Okay.’

  John smiled. ‘Problem solved?’

  ‘Problem solved.’

  ‘Good. Now we can get onto the fun stuff.’ He held out his arms and with a smile, Gwen stepped into them.

  ***

  John found himself whistling as he popped in to see Cecily. Whistling, for goodness sake. But music was filling his soul, bursting at the seams, needing to declare itself, needing to declare his happiness.

  Gwen. Glorious, wonderful Gwen.

  He pressed his lips together to stop the noise and sauntered into Cecily’s office. ‘Good morning.’

  ‘Morning, John.’ Cecily smiled at him. ‘How goes life?’

  ‘Pretty well, actually.’ John perched on the edge of her desk. ‘I have some good news for you.’

  ‘Michelle got on the tour?’

  ‘She did.’

  ‘Oh, wonderful.’ Cecily clapped her hands. ‘She is going to be so happy.’

  ‘So, I need both of your passports to organise the flights. Once done, I’ll send you the full itinerary. There are meetings to attend prior—I’ll send the Senator the invites, make sure she understands these meetings are compulsory.’

  ‘Of course,’ Cecily said.

  ‘Good. So I’ll leave it to you to tell the Senator. Do you have your passport here or is it at home?’

  ‘The Senator trav
els with hers. She believes in being prepared for every eventuality. I will get it from her.’

  ‘Excellent. And yours?’

  Cecily blinked. ‘Why do you need mine?’

  ‘You’ll be going with her.’

  A violent shake of the head. ‘I don’t think that is necessary.’

  ‘Absolutely it is necessary. Trips like this are good for your career, Cecily. You’ll get to make contacts in other countries, and get to know some of the Australians better. Build networks. And it will show your commitment. Why, don’t you want to go? A taxpayer-funded trip overseas, Cecily. You can’t turn that down.’

  ‘I would rather stay here and work on Michelle’s policies,’ Cecily said. ‘I’m sure she will have more than enough support from DFAT.’

  John leant closer and said softly, ‘Explain to me why you are so against going.’

  ‘I’m not against it, per se. I just think it’s a waste of my time.’

  ‘I can guarantee it will not be. It will be one of the most valuable things you do for your career in this first year in Canberra. And Michelle will need you. You are her policy adviser. You will be her chief of staff soon, because Cregg is an idiot. The relationship you forge is important.’

  ‘I can’t see that.’

  ‘Then trust me when I say it is true. I am your mentor. It is my responsibility to develop the career that you want to have. Trust me, Cecily. Go home right now, fetch your passport and let’s get this started.’

  ‘Actually, that’s the problem. I don’t have a passport.’

  John blinked. ‘All right. We’ve got time. I have a friend at DFAT. He can’t help, but he will know who can. We can fast track it and get it sorted in less than a week.’

  ‘No.’ Cecily shook her head. ‘It isn’t fair to use our position to that sort of advantage. If I were a normal person, I would never be able to have it done in time, so we should just leave it.’

  ‘We’re not normal people, Cecily, and this isn’t a normal situation. Besides, I know plenty of people who manage to get this fast tracked. Have you got your birth certificate on you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then go home, get it and some bills and some such and bring to me. I’ll take care of the rest.’

  ‘No.’ Accompanied by another violent shake of the head.

  John was astounded. ‘You don’t want a passport?’

  ‘I don’t believe I need one.’

  ‘Rubbish. Michelle will want to travel as she becomes more vital to government. And when you become a politician, you’ll need to travel. Heck, you should even travel beforehand. I think at some point you should go work for the UN or EU or something for a few years. You need a passport, and I can get you one. So, hop to it. Go get the paperwork.’

  Cecily slumped. ‘There’s no point.’

  ‘No point to what?’

  ‘Wanting a passport. It’s too hard.’

  ‘It’s not, silly girl. You just need the paper work.’

  ‘That’s just it,’ Cecily said mournfully. ‘I don’t have the paper work.’

  John was flummoxed. ‘What are you missing?’

  ‘I’m not missing anything. It’s just... incomplete.’

  ‘You are making no sense.’

  ‘That’s because I don’t want to say the words.’ Cecily took a deep breath and let it out slowly, giving John time to imagine what she was going to say. She was under witness protection to escape an abusive ex, although didn’t they normally give you a passport with that? She had committed a horrible crime that somehow he hadn’t found when Googling but would stop her being given a passport. She was actually of another nationality and not eligible for a passport.

  ‘I am a foundling.’

  John blinked. ‘A what?’

  ‘A foundling. I was found in a shopping bag in the locker room at Central Railway Station, Sydney.’ Cecily lifted her chin and looked him dead in the eye, as if daring him to laugh at her.

  ‘I say. But they returned you to your parents, right?’

  ‘No. The police searched, there were pleas for them to come forward, but no one did. I was officially abandoned. Google me. Central Station baby should do.’

  John pulled out his phone and did so. Sure enough, there it was. Twenty-six years ago, a baby girl was found inside a David Jones shopping bag on a bench in the locker room. No one came to claim her.

  ‘Cecily.’ John looked at her. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘I was made a ward of the state, and put into foster care until someone adopted me. Unfortunately, no one did so my birth certificate lists my parents as unknown. This causes all sorts of issues in using it as an official document. The only way to do so is to get a judge to sign an affidavit stating that it is my birth certificate and it is real. It’s such a horrible experience to go through that I’ve given up on doing some things that other people deem normal.’

  ‘Like getting a passport.’

  ‘And a drivers license. And I’ll never be able to own a home because I can’t get a loan. I went through all the rigmarole to go to university because I deemed it worthwhile, but it was awful. I have a tax file number because I have to, and I have to go through it all every time I get a new job. That is enough humiliation.’

  John lifted his hands and clapped. ‘Bravo, Cecily.’

  She frowned. ‘This isn’t a joking matter, John.’

  ‘I’m not laughing at you, Cecily. I’m applauding you. I know so many people who had every advantage to the start of their lives that have done nothing with it compared to you who started with so little. You are an extremely admirable woman.’

  Cecily leant forward. ‘I am very worried it stops me from any political career I might dream of.’

  ‘It’s not going to be nice, and it will be used against you, but if you are upfront and honest about it, you can actually use any attacks to garner sympathy. Being a politician isn’t pleasant, and you may have a more difficult time than most because of your background. But then, you’re a woman, so you were going to anyway.’

  ‘But you can see why I can’t have a passport?’

  ‘Absolutely not.’ Cecily frowned again. ‘Dear Cecily, we have access to the chief law officer of the land. We can get that proof for you easily enough.’

  Cecily’s eyes almost popped out of her head. ‘You’re not going to tell the Attorney General about me?’

  ‘No. But I am friends with his chief of staff and Jeff can be trusted. So go home, get what you can, bring it to me and within a week, we will have you a passport.’

  ‘I don’t know...’

  John put his hand on Cecily’s. ‘Let me do this for you. You’ve done this by yourself for long enough. I can help you. Make it easier. Having a passport can help you do all the other things.’

  A pause and she nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Now, go tell Michelle, then go home and get your things and let’s get this adventure underway.’

  John walked out shaking his head. What a remarkable person Cecily was, to overcome such a horrible start to life. And it made a fantastic story of coming from nothing for when she went into politics. If he had his way, she would be one of the most admired and loved politicians of all time.

  Assuming she didn’t make any mistakes.

  Alec

  Lois Bailey was a small bird of a woman, with neatly cut short brown hair and warm brown eyes. She rose and smiled at Alec as he entered the room and he was struck by the sensation that he was about to meet one of the nicest people ever.

  ‘Mr Moncrieff, please do take a seat,’ she said after shaking his hand. ‘Would you like some tea?’

  ‘No, thank you.’ Now that he was here, he was astoundingly nervous. He knew this wasn’t his only chance to make this happen—chances came along all the time in politics. But he felt as if he could ruin everything if he blew this.

  ‘Very well.’ Lois sat and took a sip of her own tea. ‘I was incredibly surprised when Lobelia told me you wanted to see me, and
then incredibly moved when she told me your sister’s story. How long ago did she have her horror?’

  ‘Two years,’ Alec said. ‘Thankfully, her little boy doesn’t know a thing and is happy and healthy. But she still feels terrible about what she went through, and that she robbed little Richard of more than two weeks of the love that he should have had. She spoils him terribly as a result.’

  ‘I can well understand,’ Lois said. ‘It has been 22 years for me and I still look back on that time with so much remorse and shame.’

  ‘And that is what I want to stop,’ Alec said. ‘It’s terrible that good mothers like yourself and Madeleine are torturing yourselves over this when it was a sickness. If you’d got an infection from child birth and had been stuck sick for days, you wouldn’t hate yourself now, would you?’

  ‘No,’ Lois said. ‘And you are right. People are much better informed nowadays but even so, there are women still suffering.’

  ‘Which is where my proposed program comes in.’ Alec pulled out the bound pages. ‘I have costed a program that makes screening for potentiality to postnatal depression mandatory for all pregnant women, and screening after birth mandatory in all hospitals and for registered midwives who serve outside the health system. If everyone is educated and the proper safeguards put into place before birth, you can negate most of the symptoms and problems with PND. And for those women with severe mental conditions, you can ease the pressure that birth places on them. But for this program to be properly implemented, it needs to be bipartisan. I have my party onside, and have been looking for a sympathetic ear on the other side.’

  ‘Which is where I come in.’ Lois nodded. ‘Once you saw my story, you realised that my husband would probably be supportive of this.’

  ‘That is my hope,’ Alec said. ‘But it’s difficult for someone on my side to get information through to someone on your side. I hoped you could assist me.’

  Lois looked at the sheaf of papers in Alec’s hand. ‘I generally try not to get involved in politics. I don’t have the stomach for it. Hate just isn’t in my nature.’

  Alec ignored the small dip in his roiling emotions. ‘If there was another way, I would do it. But Mrs Bailey—’

  ‘Lois,’ she interrupted. ‘People don’t share the things we have without being on a first name basis.’