The Unexpected Life of Carnegie Lane

by Virginia Higgins

  On the way back to the hotel, she had filled Nate in on what she knew, and what she undoubtedly suspected.

  “Turn this around Nate. Your sister is going to kill you if you don’t and with good reason. You should have told me what was going on you know. I knew nothing about Carnegie Lane before I got here.”

  “There was nothing to tell. I’m just doing something nice for her. That’s all.”

  “I get that, although what Kat is saying is right, Richard Toll is ruthless and if he can’t find a real story in this, he will possibly just create his own, and none of it will do her any good if he does.”

  “I think your all making a mountain out of a mole hill.” He said, as he turned his head looking out a window staring at nothing, signaling her with his hand to stop asking questions. He felt bad enough and knew he had to call Kat. It wasn’t that he was trying to go behind her back, he was attempting to avoid conflict. Whatever the reason, he felt a connection to Carnegie. He didn’t know exactly why she made him feel so at peace, it was just that she did. He didn’t want to give her up just yet.

  “Well, this Tye is staying at the hotel, so I’m going to invite him right into the thick of it, and ask him if he wants to join us all for a few drinks. Since Carnegie and her family will be there, it will be an opportunity to attempt to take the emphasis off any secret liaisons. What do you think?” She was waiting for a reply, he didn’t give one, so she nudged him a little. “NATE…I’m talking to you.”

  “Oh, sorry was miles away…yeah go for it Leonie, whatever you want.” He turned and continued staring out over the cane fields they passed on their way back. He wasn’t really listening. Nate Bowman was lost in a world of his own, back in a memory he had tried to forget.

  Back at the Hotel, Tye Markem couldn’t believe his luck. He thought all his plans were all falling into place, it had to be a sign he was really good at what he was doing.

  “Hi Leonie how’s it all going?” He asked, smiling at her innocently.

  “Oh great. We are just having a bit of a relaxing drink in one of the rooms and winding down before we go to Brisbane tomorrow. I’m just ordering some munchies down here, it’s quiet and I can think better.” She had a menu conveniently in her hands and pretended to go back to studying it. Then she looked at him again.

  “Would you like to join us?” She asked smiling at him with those wide eyes.

  “Oh, I couldn’t possibly.” He said, trying to act star struck.

  “Come on, it will be fun. It will add to your memorable holiday.”

  “Well, I’d love to, actually, what room and what time?”

  “Nate’s room, top floor to your left, I’m sure you’ll find it without too much trouble. See you there in say...half an hour?” Oh god I hope I’m doing the right thing…she thought.

  “Great, see you then Leonie.”

  Once he was in the lift, she picked up her phone and called Katalie. Over time, they had become firm friends and what she needed right now was a partner in crime. Somehow between the two of them, she was sure they could find a way.

  “What did you say his name was?” Kat asked her, if she knew a hit man, he would have been activated, although it was hard to say who the target might have been.

  “Tye Markham. I’ve never come across him, he must be one of Richards cronies there.”

  “Well, just make sure you keep Carnegie off my brothers’ knee, if it seems to be headed in that direction. I can’t believe this, we are just about to get her over here and start working on her tour and the media set up for her book. The last thing I needed was Nate in the way.”

  “What’s the fascination, it’s not like she’s outstanding, no offence, you know what I mean.”

  “I couldn’t tell you. He read her story, oh and I have to say, it is really good. And that was it, he started contacting her. He just loved it.”

  “What’s the book about? I might read it myself.”

  “It’s a cosmic love story, hard to explain, as soon as I can get you a copy I will.”

  “Wow, never knew Nate to be into love stories.”

  “Me either. Anyway, he likes this one. It will do great and with Nate around it can only do better, I get that, but this is my first contract. I really need to show this industry I can bring a book to the best seller table without leaning on him. It’s hard to get them to take me seriously as it is.”

  “I know, and Kat, you’re good at what you do, wait and see, this is a storm in a tea cup, one which hasn’t even erupted yet. What’s the release date on that book anyway?”

  “We are pushing for late August with the publishers, to get it out and running before Christmas.”

  “Well, I better go, and get this little gathering in order. You take care and leave Tye Markem to me. I’ll try to throw him off best I can.”

  “Leonie, I don’t know what he would do without you sometimes.”

  “Me either…”

  “Bye Kat and keep me posted!”

  Katalie hung up her phone and just breathed. She was feeling a little better than she had earlier. Her phone buzzed and she looked to see a message waiting for her. It was from her brother, Jason:

  ON THE 10PM FLIGHT TO LONDON. I’M ON MY WAY

  “Great…” She said out loud to no one. Kat regretted sending that email within five minutes of it leaving her inbox. There were times when she wished that the ‘send email’ had a ten minute ‘I’ve changed my mind button’ just in case something was said that you had the opportunity to regret, forever held over your head in print. This was one of those moments.

  Katalie sent him a reply text. She knew there was no point in trying to stop him. It just meant that Jason was coming back to stay with her, about three months sooner than she expected.

  CAN’T WAIT!

  SEE YOU SOON…

  XX KAT!

  While Katalie paced in her office inventing ways to kill her brother using psychic forces, Nate Bowman and his band enjoyed the company of Carnegie Lane and a few invited guests at a small gathering after the gig. Leonie watched as Tye Markham talked casually to them all as if he was an old friend. “Snake…” She thought to herself, hating that he was drinking their wine and eating their food, all the while trying to turn their lives into a paparazzi nightmare.

  If one group broke a story that began to sell, it wouldn’t take long before the photographers would be out in plague proportions. Getting a story that caused controversy was like getting a virus. It was really hard to shake off, and the only cure was time. Luckily, there wasn’t much to see, not unless you were watching closely. Nate’s eyes followed Carnegie, every step that she took. He smiled at her every time she made eye contact, yet she sensed something had changed, a distance that two nights ago hadn’t existed.

  She didn’t know he had been warned by Leonie to keep his distance. It was harder than he imagined. All he wanted to do was talk to her and recreate the perfection of that one very interesting night.

  Moments became minutes that soon turned to hours. Carnegie Lane gathered up her children and prepared to go home, saying goodbye to everyone and holding Nate’s hand for a moment longer than she should before she turned around and walked away. A part of her stayed behind in that room and part of that room left with her. It didn’t feel great whatever it was that began to tug at her from the inside. For the first time in a long time, there was confusion in her mind, and a feeling in her heart long forgotten began to surface.

  It was hard to know if it was self preservation or if she was again becoming lost in her own tragedy, for Carnegie was once again absent… from herself. Her mind was back to a time long ago, a time when she held the hand of another and believed without doubt it would be forever. Now here once again, she could feel it. The same whimsical sense of falling for someone and it scared her beyond belief.

  This time, she had more to protect than just herself. She closed her eyes and tried to think of a song, any song that would distract her and allow her to believe she was somewhe
re else. She opened them moments later, there was no song, not even a chorus.

  Carnegie Lane, mother of four, idol to inanimate objects and almost author, was suddenly and unexpectedly… shutting down.

  I finished crying in the instant that you left

  And I can’t remember where or when or how

  And I banished every memory you and I have ever made

  But when you touch me like this

  And you hold me like that

  I just have to admit

  That it’s all coming back to me now

  “It’s All coming back to me now”

  Written by Jim Steinman

  Performed by Meatloaf & Marion Raven

  Bat out of Hell III Album- 2006

  11

  The next morning came quickly and before long Nate was on the road, heading for Brisbane leaving the cane fields and Carnegie behind. The three cars that contained the crew and the rest of the band were working in tandem as they made their way south on the highway. He was distant, lost in a world of his own. He often seemed that way when he was writing new songs. Escaping into a different place, one where no one was invited until he had all the lyrical prose written down and the rhythm and chords reproduced on his guitar, never to be forgotten. This was different and Leonie knew it.

  Nate had done as she told him and he had remained aloof to Carnegie Lane. She saw the remnants of disappointment in them both as they struggled to say goodbye and tried to look like it didn’t matter. Although her loyalty had always been to Nate, somehow, this time, it felt like he was intruding on a person that didn’t belong to him. Carnegie belonged, in a sense to Katalie. If she thought it was any different, she wouldn’t have done what she did.

  They were the only two in the car, along with the driver. So she took the opportunity to try to get in his head a little. The last thing she needed was a miserable front man.

  “So, did you have fun?” She was smiling at him, priming up to the conversation.

  “Yeah, I suppose it was ok.” He was still distant.

  “I am sorry Nate. It was best. You know that.”

  “Do I?” He retorted quickly and sharply, feeling a little sorry for himself.

  “Well, Kat said…”

  “Kat said what? That I couldn’t have her? That she was her client? She is a friend Leonie…she is my friend! I’m not having an affair with a married woman damn it she’s divorced... I’m not even having an affair with her... My friend!!” He reiterated in a huff and turned back to keep looking out the window attempting to ignore her, which proved hard, since the distance between them in the car was still not quite beyond the confines of “personal space”.

  “Well… talk to me Nate…What’s going on? I can’t help you if you won’t tell me.”

  “There is nothing going on. And besides, I invited them to Brisbane. They are the extra rooms you booked. So I’ll get the chance to apologize at some stage for ignoring her existence.”

  Oh my god! She thought to herself. This time, she didn’t try to talk him out of it. There was no point. He had made up his mind and she knew better than to try to get in his way.

  Katalie was at Heathrow Airport waiting for Jason to arrive. She saw him come out with a flood of people through customs and gave him a wave and a smile. He saw her and walked over with the entire sum of his worldly possessions…His military style back pack.

  “Hey you.” She said as she put her arms around him and gave him a hug.

  “Hi kid. How are you feeling?” He questioned genuinely.

  “I’m ok, was just a rant, I’m almost over it.”

  “Well I’m here now. So make the most of it. I’ll fix things up with Nate if I have to.”

  He grabbed his stuff and headed for the doors, Kat just looked at him. He was so emotionless, he always had been, yet he had an uncanny ability to calm down the family wars. It was like he was a silent observer, able to see both sides for exactly what they were. He also had an uncanny ability to break things; her last television was living testament to that. She sighed and followed him out to the car park, they chatted about Lilli and the kids as they made their way home. They were almost in her front door before the conversation had changed to Nate and the reason he was here.

  “Well I mean, come on. It’s not like he had to go there of all places and he didn’t even tell me.”

  “Are you sure this reporter will cause trouble? Maybe it won’t matter.”

  “Won’t matter! Jase, this reporter could turn Mother Teresa into a serial killer if he wanted to.”

  “Why would he want to?”

  “All he needs is an angle and the photos, well he has that, which means my client….MY client will be affiliated with Nate, and all my work to prove myself will be for nothing. I will still be Nate Bowman’s little sister.”

  “Na, your awesome. Well what’s the worst he could do? If he kept seeing her?”

  “Destroy my life, I won’t talk to him ever again you know, it wouldn’t matter how hard you try to smooth this one over. He had no reason to like her in the first place.” Katalie sat defensively on her lounge. She had made her point very clear. Jase kind of wondered what the fuss was about, since he rarely cared what the tabloids said and Nate had said once that all publicity was good publicity.

  “Maybe he just really liked her story.” He was wondering what did attract him to her in the first place, since she apparently wasn’t his type.

  “It’s a great story, but it’s not the only story in the world.”

  “What’s it about?” Jase was sitting on the lounge next to Kat, ready for the synopsis.

  She sighed a little, wondering where to start. “Well, there was this guy called Seth, and he’s like eighteen or so, and has a girlfriend, called Taylor. And she dies in an accident after an argument. Anyway he never forgives himself, he thinks it was his fault. But it wasn’t. Somehow his want to have her back, was so great he finds a way to be with her…and he begins to live this kind of dual… life. Move into a different reality where she is still alive….It’s way more complicated than that though…Look, read it for yourself. There is a copy over there on my table.”

  “That’s amazing!” Jase replied, absolutely ore struck. “I can’t believe it.”

  His eyes lit up as he looked at Kat.

  “What? I mean… yeah so you get it…it’s a really cool story.”

  “Well yeah… considering some of it is real Kat. Oh my God, of course. You were too young.”

  “Too young for what?” She had no idea what he was on about.

  “Taylor…Taylor was the name of Nate’s girlfriend when he was eighteen. They had a fight after a party one night, and she took off in a car with some other kids. They wrapped the car around a tree, they didn’t even make it to the end of the street. Nate was watching the whole time and saw Taylor thrown from the car. She died in his arms. He promised her he would never leave her while he held onto her. He said he would find a way to be with her.”

  Kat was wide eyed with her jaw almost on her lap.

  “You’re kidding?” She questioned, although some vague memory started to tug at her on this.

  “No I’m not and it took ages for him to get over it. Mum took him to so many Psyches’, it lasted for about four years, and everyone thought he was going to kill himself to be with her... That’s when he started playing music and writing songs. Most of the songs off his first two albums are about Taylor. Although no one knows that and it’s never been brought up in the press. I don’t even know if the other members of the band know it.”

  “Oh no, poor Nate.”

  “So that’s the connection. This girl, whoever she is, this Carnegie, just gave him his Taylor back…Or replaced her.”

  There was silence for a while, as they both let that last bit sink in.

  “He can’t replace her…Oh no! It’s some kind of post traumatic stress disorder, deferred for twenty one years.” Kat said with an edge of demented fear.

  “Tread real c
areful here Kat. I remember what he was like. I know I was younger than he was but I shared a room with him. I know what he went through. He used to scream for her. He lived that accident over and over again as if he was trying to change the outcome.”

  “Well what am I supposed to do Jase? I have to get this book out and I need to do it without Nate being involved with the author, at least until we can see if it will stand on its own two feet…so to speak.” Kat felt suddenly defeated in all of this.

  “Well, let’s just give it a couple of days to think about what to do. I’ll call Lilli later and fill her in, she was right in the thick of all of that mess, Taylor was her best friend. I’m sure she will have some kind of input that might be useful.”

  They ordered pizza and watched a movie together. Kat felt almost guilty for being so harsh. She was also a little put out that this major tragedy involving two of her siblings was a complete mystery to her. Hopefully Leonie was right and it would all blow over and be nothing more than a storm in a teacup. She sent a text off to Nate. It didn’t say much, she just suddenly needed to have contact.

  I love you.

  Kat xx

  It didn’t take long for her to get a reply.

  Love you too kid.

  Always xx

  It had been a strange day for Nate and for Katalie. For Carnegie it was no different. She had no idea why she felt the way she did, or even why she had the right to think it. Nate was a friend, although there had been a moment, just one…very brief…fleeting moment where between them there was more than that. It left the night of the concert. Every time she tried to go and talk to him, he would find a reason to move to the other side of the room. Even then, if she looked at him he would smile, as if apologizing for the distance between them. It was strange. Maybe it was a rock star thing…something she needed to get used to. She decided that music would make her feel better so she fumbled through her collection until she found something she believed she could relate to. Something that reflected her mood. Something… sung… by Nate.