The Affair

by Bunty Avieson

  ‘It’s great news – we really should go,’ she said, rising to her feet.

  James looked surprised by her sudden hurry but stood also, placing a reassuring hand on her arm.

  ‘Thank you, doctor, for such wonderful news. We are very grateful.’

  Nina almost started to relax. The meeting was over. They could go home and resume their life, their happy cosy little life, just the three of them.

  The doctor watched them.

  ‘We are very relieved that the tests proved so favourable,’ repeated James.

  The doctor’s face was impassive. That’s what you think. He was in no hurry. He was enjoying himself too much. He allowed himself a small smile. Beneath the desk, his foot tapped out a slow rhythmic beat. Not … so … fast.

  Often he had sat here watching women like Nina, smiling through their deceit. Women, the weaker sex. Huh! The lying sex, more like it. Their doting men supported them, raised the fruit of their infidelities, and all the time the men were being treated like fools or, worse still, a meal ticket. It was an old, old story and it offended the doctor every time it was presented to him.

  The cheap plastic folder beneath his clasped hands bulged with information, secrets that could destroy the web of lies that this woman had clearly woven around her son’s birth. James’s obvious anguish sickened him. How heartless this woman was.

  But Dr Jones had just changed the rules. This one wasn’t going to get away with it. He was going to have some fun. He felt powerful, almost godlike. It was an intoxicating feeling. He waited till they were almost at the door.

  ‘Oh, by the way …’ he began.

  Nina stiffened.

  In front of her James, hand outstretched, stopped and turned back to him, his face polite and enquiring. ‘Yes …?’

  CHAPTER 15

  Saturday, 23 February 1991

  Leo kept his eyes fixed on the tree. He packed the spinnaker under the bed in the boat’s little cabin and knotted the ropes into neat piles. He wasn’t concentrating on what he was doing, just killing time while he waited and watched that tree. Every few minutes he picked up his binoculars and scanned the park. He wondered what he would do if someone else came along and sat there. After all, it was a nice day and that was a damn fine-looking tree. But no-one did.

  Leo had a couple of bottles of French champagne chilling in the fridge at home. He had bought new crystal champagne flutes. An enormous bunch of white lilies sat in a vase decorated with a huge tartan bow on the hall stand. They were the first thing Nina would see when she walked in. He had been planning their afternoon together all week. He was filled with anticipation.

  ‘Ah, Nina,’ he sighed to himself.

  They would meet by the tree. Then they would walk slowly, casually, separately, not touching, back to his place. Every step would be delightful, excruciating suspense. Then they would fall on each other. He had never felt this way before.

  Leo had hoped Nina would already be waiting by the tree. Every second apart was delicious agony. He remembered their farewell the previous week. Such tender soulful kisses on the landing of his penthouse apartment while they waited for the lift.

  ‘See you next week,’ Nina had called out just before the lift doors closed.

  And Leo had been counting the hours ever since.

  They hadn’t made a firm time or confirmed the arrangement. Leo wouldn’t know how to contact Nina. But it wasn’t necessary. The world revolved around them. Nina felt it as strongly as he did. Leo was sure of it. It was in the way she had smiled, tilting her head on one side and flashing her eyes. They had a date. Late Saturday morning, by the tree, was a commitment as solid as if they had put it in writing. Leo would just have to be patient, he told himself.

  He locked the boat away and made his way across the grass, stopping to pick up a coffee and a newspaper. It was his turn to pretend to read while he watched the pathway for Nina. He settled into their spot, nestled among the roots of the fig tree. He watched a couple argue a few metres away. They were sitting on the back of a park bench, their feet on the seat. She was wearing short gold shorts and a skimpy black halter top with a man’s jacket around her shoulders. In one hand she held a pair of gold sandals and in the other a bottle of water. He was wearing denim jeans and a tight white singlet that showed off muscly arms. Leo tuned in to what they were saying.

  ‘If Ghandi had been an elected politician he couldn’t have achieved what he did,’ argued the girl, waving her arms about.

  ‘I don’t think you can make that generalisation,’ said the guy. He sounded quite angry.

  ‘No, no, no,’ insisted the girl, stamping her foot on the seat. She seemed equally agitated. ‘He would have been forced to function within a corrupt system.’

  Leo listened to them, fascinated. They were both vehement, worked up, talking over each other, desperate to make their point as if their very life depended on it.

  ‘You are full of crap,’ said the girl, shoving him hard in the chest with her shoes.

  The man tipped backwards, lost his balance and fell off the bench, landing with a thud on the grass.

  The girl looked shocked for a minute, then started to laugh. Her laughter had a manic quality that Leo found unnerving. The man stood up, brushed himself down, then pulled her backwards off the bench and onto the ground. They rolled around, kissing noisily. People ignored them. A woman in her eighties power-walked past them, not even bothering to look down. Her arms and legs were pumping furiously. She was followed a few seconds later by an identical woman. Leo did a double take, then realised they must be twins. The second one appeared to be trying to catch up to the first.

  The park was home to anyone and everyone. Leo went back to his newspaper and idly turned a page. It was impossible to concentrate. He looked into the canopy above him, where the forks of the tree created a natural, leaf-covered cradle. It was mostly hidden from the ground but Leo could see it. A slow secretive smile spread across his face.

  *

  Nina saw the car pull into the driveway.

  ‘They’re here,’ she called out in every direction.

  James came quickly down the stairs. Mark rushed in from the barn and up the verandah steps. Amanda, waiting in the sitting room, readied the boys.

  ‘Now you must be very careful with Grandma. Just stay very quiet and don’t rush her. Okay?’

  The boys, dressed in matching denim overalls, with their hair combed back behind their ears, stood side by side at the front door, wincing as their mother preened them.

  James helped Patty from the car while Mark and Frederick retrieved her bags from the boot. The car was filled with flowers. She was a popular woman among the people of the town. Nina helped Amanda carry armfuls into the house.

  Nina was shocked by how much weight Patty had lost. She was like a bird. Nevertheless, Dr Wilson was very pleased with her progress and had sent her home. She had a lot of healing to do, he said, and the best place to do that was at home.

  Amanda and Nina had spent a full day together dusting and disinfecting every room. Frederick had turned the downstairs drawing room into a temporary bedroom, moving elegant period furniture out and a new bed and mattress in. Yesterday had been a long day working together to prepare and get the house in order. They started early and sat around the kitchen table, exhausted, eating pizza at the end of the day. Their common purpose had brought a temporary truce to the troubled family.

  James towered over his mother, bending his head to hear what she was saying. Somehow in the hospital it hadn’t been so noticeable. But, standing next to her strapping tall sons, she looked angular and fragile.

  ‘I have put lunch out on the verandah, Patty, if that suits you?’ said Nina. She felt suddenly uncomfortable, taking charge in another woman’s house.

  Patty beamed at her. ‘That would be lovely.’

  Frederick helped her through the house and outside. Patty stood for a moment at the verandah post surveying the vineyard. Their faces wore the same expression a
s they looked out across the rows and rows of vines.

  ‘The red still hasn’t been picked, eh, Fred? I thought you were going to do that yesterday.’

  ‘We were but the baume still isn’t up quite high enough. We hope to do it at first light tomorrow.’

  ‘Will the rain hold off?’

  Frederick shrugged. ‘Should do.’

  They continued for a few moments mumbling together in a kind of shorthand that only they could follow, using incomplete sentences. Their sons listened without interrupting. They were used to these kinds of conversations between their parents. So many of Frederick and Patty’s hopes and dreams over more than two decades were out in those paddocks. When their sons and their wives looked out they saw neat, orderly rows of vines, a huge stone barn and a clear blue sky. They couldn’t begin to see what Frederick and Patty saw.

  After Patty had reassured herself it was all still there, just as she remembered it, she looked back around the faces of her family. Already she had more colour in her cheeks and an alert expression in her eyes. She settled into her favourite wicker chair with the faded floral cushion.

  ‘You can take me for a walk later, Fred. Right now I want to know how my family are. Have I missed anything?’ she asked.

  *

  The first Leo was aware of any commotion was a loud sharp bark followed immediately by a woman screaming. People all across the park looked in the direction of the noise. Leo twisted his body around and followed their attention. A skinny woman in her twenties wearing only a very brief black bikini was flailing her arms about and chasing a small Jack Russell terrier around in a circle. It was an incongruous sight, even for Rushcutters Bay Park.

  As Leo watched he realised the dog had something in its mouth, which it was thrashing about at the same time as it evaded the hysterical woman.

  ‘My rabbit, my rabbit …’ she yelled.

  A young teenager, a boy of about fourteen, was racing around with her trying to catch the dog.

  ‘Pepper! Come here. PEPPER!’ he yelled, adding, ‘Sorry, lady.’

  Pepper avoided them both, thinking this was all part of a game. He would let them get close, then effortlessly evade them. He wasn’t trying to get away. He was having far too much fun.

  A crowd started to gather. Leo stood, watching the spectacle.

  The boy got a lucky break, catching Pepper by his collar when he was distracted by the woman. Throwing his body half across the little dog, the boy pinned him to the ground. The woman, happy to have a stationary target, started hitting the dog while the boy tried to prise Pepper’s jaws open, at the same time trying to protect him from her blows.

  Pepper finally gave up his quarry and Leo watched as the boy handed the limp, lifeless body of the rabbit to the woman.

  She stopped yelling and took it. The crowd quietened as it realised what had happened. But no-one made a move to leave. They waited, wanting to see what she would do. The boy waited too. It seemed everyone in the park was holding their breath, watching the bikini-clad woman.

  ‘I’m so sorry, lady,’ he said.

  The woman gave no indication she was aware of anyone watching her. She ignored them all. Cradling the small lifeless bundle of fur, she picked up her handbag and her clothes, and with enormous dignity, walked slowly out of the park and into the street.

  Leo returned to his tree. It was way past lunchtime and he was hungry. He lit a cigarette and looked anxiously up the path in the direction of Nina’s apartment block. He hoped she wouldn’t be much longer.

  *

  The Wilde family slipped into a comfortable camaraderie, presenting a happy and united front for Patty’s sake. No-one needed to be told. They all knew what was expected of them, what would make Patty happy.

  Frederick praised Nina’s efforts in Patty’s absence.

  ‘They say nice things now but they complained at every meal that it wasn’t how you would have done it,’ said Nina.

  It wasn’t true but it was in keeping with the mood of the afternoon.

  Throughout the day James never actually spoke directly to his brother, father or sister-in-law. But Patty didn’t notice that. She noticed only how loving her sons seemed to be with their wives. Nina kept stroking James’s arm, almost as if she couldn’t get enough of him. Of course, they were still newlyweds, thought Patty.

  But what did surprise Patty was the new deference in the way Amanda spoke to Mark. Patty often had been uncomfortable with the sharp tone Amanda used with her husband. It showed a lack of respect, Patty thought. It had first become apparent around the time of their wedding and it had made Patty uneasy. Something hadn’t been right though she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Amanda just didn’t seem to appreciate Mark enough, thought Patty. Then the boys arrived, one after the other, and life became very busy for them with two young children to care for. Those boys were a handful. Mark seemed happy, as far as Patty could tell. But today, Patty noticed a marked difference in the way Amanda related to her husband. She seemed positively adoring of him. About time, thought Patty.

  As for the two boys, apart from a scratch on Harrison’s nose they looked fine, playing with each other among the vines. Lachlan had the hose and was chasing Harrison, who was too small to get out of the way.

  Frederick, who continued to hover nearby, was treating Patty like a piece of rare, fragile porcelain, terrified she might suddenly break and while she complained to him to let her be, secretly she liked it. She was touched by his worry and devotion.

  Patty settled back into her chair and sipped her tea, happy that the vineyard had been well cared for and content to be the focus of all the family’s attention. All was well with her little world.

  Nina was finding the afternoon a bit of a strain. Her whole body was tuned into James. She could feel his tension. She was aware what it was costing him to take part in this happy family charade when he felt so miserable and guilty. She continued to stroke his arm, trying to impart reassurance and support.

  There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind, like something she had forgotten to do. A little niggling thought that kept poking and pricking the deepest recesses of her brain. It was a mixture of guilt, longing, shame and resolve – a cacophony of emotions that she wouldn’t allow to come to the surface. She knew what it was and she wasn’t going to let it in. The more it threatened, the more she focussed on her concern for her husband.

  *

  Leo watched the shadows move across the grass. His stomach grumbled painfully and he felt a chill. The sun had disappeared behind a clutch of buildings. It was still some hours till dusk but the heat of the day had passed and people started to pack up their picnics, rugs, frisbees, books and playthings to head home.

  Leo was fearful. What could have happened? Was Nina hurt? How would he ever know? He could turn on the news tonight and see the debris of a smashed-up car, not knowing it was Nina that had been injured. That thought seemed unutterably tragic. Nina lying hurt in a hospital somewhere and he unable to go to her. Leo shivered.

  He knew which apartment block she lived in. He remembered that day a few weeks ago, watching her run down the driveway, already sodden, trying to escape the rain. She had been a small, darting figure carrying lots of shopping bags. But he didn’t know which apartment she lived in. She knew where he lived, but not the phone number. How would she get a message to him? Suddenly it all seemed so very flimsy. Evanescent. Fading before his eyes.

  But he refused to give in to those feelings. What was between them was anything but flimsy. It was young and fledgling but it was a potent force. Something irrevocable had passed between them. He knew it. And yet he was aware of a heavy melancholy settling in his heart. Something was different. He felt sad and he didn’t know why. Ah, lovely Nina. Where are you?

  When the last light faded he set off home. He tried to sort some boating equipment but his mind wouldn’t settle. What did he know of her, this wispy sprite, Miss Knee?

  Nina had referred to her father as Jake Lamb
ert, star of the Barbershop Chorus. So her last name was Lambert. And he knew Nina was her first name. It could be short for something. He couldn’t think what. Janina? She wore a wedding ring so he knew she was married. But he had no way of knowing if she had a married surname.

  He knew it was hopeless but he found himself scanning the death notices in the newspapers anyway. Then, with his heart in his mouth, he phoned the hospitals. No-one called Nina anything had been brought in over the past week, nor were there any unidentified females that fitted her description.

  It was late but he walked up to Kings Cross Police Station, lining up with some drunks, a man who was bleeding from the forehead and a skinny abusive girl with the pasty complexion and unmistakable scowl of a heroin addict. A sympathetic policewoman listened to him, her expression altering only a little when he earnestly explained that this Nina must be missing because she had missed their fourth date. He thought he knew what the sergeant was thinking but she had looked up the name in the computer anyway. No-one called Nina Lambert had been mugged, raped, arrested or detained by police in the past week. Leo was both relieved and near despair. What had happened to her?

  He walked home slowly. He didn’t want this to be a game any more.

  CHAPTER 16

  Thursday, 28 February 1991

  Leo hovered about the security entrance watching people come and go from the apartment block. These were Nina’s neighbours, he thought, eyeing them with interest. They looked back at him suspiciously. They didn’t seem to appreciate the presence of the young man in the baggy shorts and baseball cap, smiling cheerfully. People in exclusive inner-city apartment blocks didn’t like strangers hanging around. It made them wary. Leo tried to look nonchalant and at ease, as if he was waiting for someone who would be along any minute.