Tempus Genesis
Page 60
Jamie stood by the For Sale sign with its ‘SOLD’ sticker stuck diagonally over it. Below this was a smaller sign fixed to the wooden shaft which read ‘top floor apartment 2 beds’. Jamie had a bag for life in his hand which contained two bottles of champagne and a bag of ice keeping them cold.
Jamie checked his watch. It was seven ten a.m. and Mary should have been there at seven. Jamie was convinced she wouldn’t show up. He had pleaded with her for three days, ever since he received a brief text from Oliver.
We fly Sunday, won’t say where, but sorry, so sorry.
Jamie had forwarded the text to Mary and then sent his own to her.
Is this how Minnie would want it to end?
Mary replied.
Unfortunately Minnie is unable to express his opinion.
Jamie offered his first plea.
All I’m saying is he wouldn’t blame Oliver.
Mary said.
Really?
Jamie told Mary he was coming back to London briefly and asked her to meet him. Several weeks had passed and no mishaps or threats had befallen any of them. Oliver’s research was well and truly canned, perhaps things were returning to normal.
Mary agreed (she thought much of it was bullshit anyway) and they stayed together in Jamie’s apartment for a day and a night, drinking and eating take away. They talked about their new lives and Mary laughed heartily as Jamie recounted his various patients and their ailments. He did not say exactly where he was in Ireland. Mary was vague about the location of her new place.
“How did this get so screwed up Jamie,” Mary had asked him as they ate Chinese looking out over the park with its winding lights meandering into the distance.
“Oliver is heart broken Mary, he screwed up, he knows that, somehow Minnie paid a price for things we’ll never truly understand,” Jamie said.
“I just think he must have known something, this Tempus Genesis shit, fuck it if I believe any of it now. Jenny, Oliver, I wonder if it was hard drugs something like that Jamie.”
“I saw Jenny Mary, in Vietnam, you saw her here that night it wasn’t drugs. The regression stuff, even now with some space I think, believe it’s real.”
Jenny chewed on a spring roll, “and the assassins from the future?”
“No, I mean I don’t know, but a threat from some organisation or other yes, I think Oliver crossed someone. Inadvertently.”
“Blinded by his drive to discover,” Mary said a little drunk, a little sarcastically.
“He was on the verge of something brilliant Mary, you know that.”
“Some people are never destined to get as far as they think they should Jamie, he was brilliant without any history in the making invention.”
Jamie went for more champagne, opened their third bottle and refilled each of their crystal champagne glasses.
“Do you remember Oliver doing all your study notes for you, for your final medical exams?” Jamie asked Mary.
“Of course, all annotated and colour coded, with rude acronyms. I can still remember them, CRAP, cardiac rate and pulse. Then the neurology exam, CLIT, cloves ideal stimulant as it preserves its scent, listen to the patients response to smell in either nostril, improvise at bedside with soap, perfume or toothpaste, test one nostril at a time with the other occluded, POOH, patient should be asked to wrinkle their face, observe for asymmetry and the ability to burry the eyebrows, observe for involuntary facial movements, half of an entire face will show symptoms for lower motor neurone weakness.”
Mary smiled and sipped her champagne, “The others are really rude.”
Jamie smiled, “He did one exam for me.”
“What, you cheated? You never said?”
“Just one, you couldn’t do it now, but it was the written paper on cerebral damage, I just got in a panic, I knew it but I lost it, he went in and did it for me.”
“Can you remember Fish and Chip nights at Martin and Barbara’s?”
“How kid like Minnie was when he was with his mum.”
“Piles of buttered bread for butties and ketchup to dip them into, god Minnie could eat,” Mary finished her drink and poured more.
She looked at Jamie, “I know what you’re doing you know?”
“What?” Jamie asked innocently.
“Getting me to reminisce. Generating positive memories of Oliver, softening my view of him, trying to weaken my resolve.”
“Is it working?”
“I loved Oliver, still do, I just can’t keep the anger down.”
Jamie took Mary’s hand and pleaded, “Bury it for one hour on Sunday morning and let’s say some proper goodbyes. Our future lives will benefit from the closure.”
“What psycho babble shit is that you’re coming out with? Look I’ll think about.”
They sipped in silence and ate a little more food.
“Do you think it’s safe to see him?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, I think so. Keep it brief, hugs and kisses, goodbye, we go, move on from there,” Jamie replied.
“Okay.”
“You’ll come? Great.”
“I’ll think about it, seriously I will,” Mary replied.