by Greg Fowler
As he watched, helpless and frustrated, as his dear wife suffered one indignity after another, he lost the energy to be angry. It was beaten out of him by the rollercoaster of startling bouts of hope followed by the rounds of despair. In short, he went numb. They both did. And out of that numbness, something new was indeed born. It was the birth that had to be had before the material birth could finally happen. Rory McKenzie started praying on 18 December 2002, at almost midnight.
He didn’t tell Penny about it. He was afraid she might think he was silly but, more importantly, he didn’t want her to know of his absolute desperation. She didn’t need that pressure. So, in the quiet moments of the day or the night (mostly the night), he leaned his forehead against his clasped hands and asked for the most precious of gifts. He and Penny had an empty space and he prayed for God’s love to fill it.
At 2.30pm on March 15th, 2003, Rory received a call at work. Penny never called him at work and so he took the phone with some anxiety. Her voice had been calm and collected, at least to the untrained ear, but trembling beneath it had been the quiver of familiar battlefields.
‘I’m pregnant.’ It had been as simple as that. She’d picked up a test kit at the local pharmacy and had taken it at work. The blue line won.
Outwardly they accepted this news with reined emotions. They’d been through this too often to get their hopes up and so when they discussed their possible new future it was all about ‘ifs’ and not ‘whens’. Inside though, was a different story.
When June came and went without a hitch, a twinkling of hope had begun to dawn. They’d never made it through the first trimester before, so they were breaking new ground. In more ways than one… literally. The scans showed two little bodies in there. Not only were the signs looking good for a baby at last, they were going to have two.
Then came July, August and September. By the end of September, when Rory came home one evening with two kitset cribs to assemble, the emotional defences crumbled and they’d both held each other close and cried all those pent up tears. They cried for the five beautiful lives lost and they cried for the two lives gained… and, in the midst of this untamed emotion, Rory looked up and thanked his God Almighty.
On 26 October, 2003, at 7.40 pm, two of the most beautiful boys you could imagine were born. And they were loved.
55. A WATCHFUL EYE
On the morning after Reagan had slipped the note under Mr McKenzie’s windscreen wiper, Eddy was up extra early. Mr McKenzie had been working long hours recently and that meant his car usually cruised out of the street by about 6.30am.
Deciding not to stay in his pyjamas (he might be needed if this went bad) he got dressed and lodged himself up by the front window, where he had a good view of the house and car in question.
He didn’t have to wait long either. Soon enough the McKenzie front door folded in and Mr McKenzie strode out to face another day…little did he know. Fiddling with his car keys he unlocked his driver’s door and fell in behind the wheel. Eddy had to admit to a shot of concern. Was it possible that Mr McKenzie would drive all the way to work and not even notice the piece of paper against the window? But before the anxiety could tingle Eddy’s toes, Mr McKenzie flung his door open again, got out and pulled the note out from under the wiper blade.
Eddy knew that this is where it got interesting. It could either get taken seriously or could be tossed away as a sick joke, which was it to be?
Mr McKenzie seemed to take an age to read it, then he turned the page over, just in case there was a clue as to its origin. Finding nothing there, Eddy watched on as he searched up and down the street in a vain attempt to trace this most unexpected of messages.
Go back in. Leave the car alone and go back in.
Mrs Elsdon’s two doors down neighbour must have stood there for a full five minutes. How many times he read the note, Eddy couldn’t tell but it had to be on the right side of ten. He’d read it, look back at the house, at his car, then back at the note again.
Finally, and to Eddy’s absolute relief, he locked his car door and, keys in one hand, note in the other, he walked back inside.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
For the next hour Eddy didn’t budge. He needed to be one hundred percent certain that Mr McKenzie was back in his house for good. What exactly Eddy would do if he did come back out and get in his car was up for grabs. If push came to shove, maybe he’d have to get out on the road, own up and really put it on the line.
At one point he saw the kitchen curtain pull aside and a blurry face come up to the window but that was about as far as the activity at the McKenzie household went. And that was a very good thing.
‘He’s stayed at home?’ called out Reagan through the side win-dow. Eddy wandered over there, feeling much more confident now.
‘Yep.’
‘Man, this is so exciting.’ Reagan was still in her ‘jammies’ and for a moment there Eddy was reminded of how she was those five years ago. Young and innocent. ‘I might pull a sickie, what do ya think?’
‘The school’s just around the corner. Y…you’ll find out quick if it goes wrong.’
‘Spoil sport.’
‘I’ll fill you in on everything as soon as you get home.’
‘You’d better. Wow, has Mr Tree grown again?’
Eddy turned around and looked behind him. Yes, she was right. Mr Tree had had a spurt…a real good one too. For a while now it had been playing tag with the top of the doorway but, in what appeared to have happened almost overnight, those magical fingers of wood had moved on past the top of the door and a good foot or two beyond, across the wall. At this rate they’d be all the way to the front wall before too long. And as these new fingers reached further around his room, each twig had developed those familiar green to gold bumps so that Eddy knew a fresh wave of youthful leaves were about to bloom. All in all, it was a marvellous sight to behold. It was as though Mr Tree was embracing his bedroom, essentially his entire world.
‘Oh, he’s grown alright,’ said Eddy as he walked over and ran his hand over a portion of the new growth. ‘He’s been a busy boy by the looks of it.’
‘The whole blinking house’ll be covered soon.’
‘No. I don’t think so. Something tells me he’s happy right here, in this room.’
After Reagan had reluctantly marched herself off to school and Grandma Daisy had done the breakfast thing, Eddy camped back up at the front window.
He didn’t know exactly what time it would happen today but it would definitely happen. In the meantime he had to watch and wait…and wait…..and wait.
56. ANOTHER BIG RED TRUCK
Eddy must’ve dozed off at some stage late in the morning because the next thing he knew he’d snapped awake, nearly cracking the window as his head jolted against it.
What was that?
There it was again. It was voices, loud ones, urgent ones and they were coming from down the road.
Staring past Mrs Elsdon’s place, he immediately spotted what the commotion was all about. Steaming out of the McKenzie’s kitchen window, the same one he’d seen that vague face in earlier this morning, was a plume of thick, black smoke.
Come on Mr McKenzie! Where are you!?
With perfect timing but wrong persona, Mrs McKenzie came flying out of her front door, a crying baby in each arm and a thinner trail of smoke following along behind.
Thank God…they’re safe.
She ran with the kids out to the neighbour’s front lawn where she felt safe enough to put them down for a moment and begun dialling manically on her cell phone. Eddy watched as the boys began giving the grass the all fours treatment, crawling over to their frantic mother’s feet and doing their very best to climb up a leg.
You got it Mr McKenzie. Please tell me you’ve got it……..Good.
Eddy was itching to get out there, to do something to help them out but now he had a sense of certainly it was going to work out as he’d planned. Things were going to be just fine. As if to
reinforce that positive sense, the smoke billowing from the McKenzie’s window began to stutter and die and within another half a minute or so it virtually disappeared altogether, leaving nothing more than a telltale wisp in the air. It must have been a close call though. At the outset that smoke had been heavy with intent and Eddy imagined that all it would have taken was another few seconds and it would have been past the point of no return. That thought made him nervous. Nervously relieved. What if it hadn’t of worked the way it was supposed to? What would that make him? A murderer? Manslaughter at the very least?
He didn’t have time to ponder that one because Mr McKenzie stumbled out of his house, coughing and spluttering on the way; a large, blue bucket in his hand. He was met halfway to the neighbours place by his wife, kids now back in her warm arms, and she snuggled up against him as he put an equally comforting arm around her shoulders. They were both looking back at their little piece of paradise and thinking what could have been, it was written all over them from top to bottom…that had been a close, close thing.
Now the neighbours themselves were coming out of the wood-work. There was Mr Roberts. Here was Mrs Elsdon, walking stick click, clacking like a pendulum. Eddy heard a squeak and then, a moment later, there was Grandma Daisy heading up the street with a blanket in hand, something no doubt to keep the babies warm with.
Just before they could all close in on the solemn McKenzie clan, Eddy watched on as Mr McKenzie took a certain piece of paper out of his pocket and read it one more time before shaking his head in disbelief.
They were safe now, every one of them and Eddy felt a massive weight release from his shoulders. So big in fact that, after one more glance down the road, he wandered over to his bed and within seconds was out like a light. He didn’t even hear the siren as it howled right by his window. So he didn’t get to see only the second big red truck to ever pull into Willow Avenue. But then again, he didn’t need to; the job had already been done.
Reagan must’ve broken a record on the way home that afternoon. As opposed to Eddy, she’d heard the siren all the way from her English class and was more than a bit miffed she’d missed out on all the action.
‘I should never have let you talk me out of the sickie,’ she said resentfully.
‘I’m t…telling you, you didn’t miss much. Just a bit of smoke and it was all over.’
Reagan shook her head, not in anger, more in awe of the bigger picture that only she and Eddy were a party to.
‘You saved their lives Eddy.’
‘I don’t know. Maybe they would have been okay without me. Like I said, it wasn’t that much of a fire.’
Reagan said absolutely nothing…she didn’t have to because she knew better.
57. MRS ELSDON TAKES THE LEAD
It was Friday, the day after the fire that wasn’t quite a big fire, and Eddy was right back into study mode. It seemed to him that when life suddenly handed you deadlines, time sped up and the pages of the calendar flipped away like playing cards in a game of pick up 52. He wasn’t having all that much trouble understanding what he was supposed to learn, it was just that there was so much of it.
Being Friday, Reagan wasn’t anywhere to be seen. According to Mrs Crowe she was out on a ‘date’. She didn’t say who it was but if Eddy had read Mrs Crowe’s body language rightly, then she wasn’t all that happy about it either. Despite wanting to ask more questions, Eddy had let it rest there.
So it was somewhere between algebra and Australia when Eddy was interrupted by a tap at the door.
‘Come in.’
‘Sorry Eddy.’ Grandma Daisy’s head poked around the corner. ‘You’ve got some visitors. Quite a few actually.’
Visitors?
‘Oh…really?’ Eddy closed his text books and stood up from behind the desk. As he did so Grandma Daisy opened the door up nice and wide for all to see. And what a collection of souls it was too. There was old Mrs Elsdon, right in behind Grandma Daisy, but then, in single file down the hallway behind them was the whole McKenzie family, all four of them.
Oh no. I guess it had to catch up with me sooner or later.
Mrs McKenzie looked happy enough but Mr McKenzie appeared to have some business on his mind…some note paper business by the looks of things.
One by one they filed into the room until they had quite a gathering in place, with Eddy the centre point of a human semi circle.
‘Rory, will you look at this tree!’ exclaimed Penny McKenzie, staring wide eyed through the room as she tried to juggle two busy children, one to each hip.
Jacob and Jordan. Watch out for a green swimming pool in about four years Jacob. The gate will be open, so just walk the other way…okay?
The bundle of bouncy joy on Mrs McKenzie’s right hip let out a little laugh and rubbed his hand against his ear as though something was going on in there. Nobody else but Eddy noticed it.
‘Wow Eddy.’ This time it was Mrs Elsdon’s turn to express wonder at his magical Mr Tree. ‘I knew it was pretty special from the outside but this is incredible.’
‘Thanks Mrs Elsdon. I l…like it.’
‘It’s amazing, absolutely amazing,’ she continued as she walked over and stroked one of the tender new leaves.
‘Mr and Mrs McKenzie here asked if they could pop up and see you about something.’ Good old Grandma, hitting the nail right on the head.
‘Sure, w…what can I d…do for you?’
Mr McKenzie appeared to be fiddling with something in his pocket and Eddy knew exactly what it was. But if there was a competition about the most nerves going on here, it was going to come down to the wire. It was obvious Rory McKenzie had no idea where and how to start up such an absurd conversation and Eddy felt for him.
He didn’t know I had Down Syndrome. Mrs Elsdon didn’t think to tell him because she doesn’t see me that way anymore. She just sees me as me.
‘Look,’ said Mr McKenzie awkwardly, ‘I don’t quite know how to say this the right way so I’m just going to come out and say it.’
‘Okay’ Other than the McKenzie twins, everyone else in the room was waiting with bated breath and Eddy could feel their eyes measuring him, anticipating a reaction that they couldn’t actually anticipate. The only person who seemed to be truly out in the cold here was Grandma Daisy, but, the way Eddy figured it, that wouldn’t last long either.
Seeing that he had the floor, Rory McKenzie continued.
‘We had a bit of a nasty experience yesterday, I think everybody knows that. But it could have been a whole lot worse.’ Rory snuck a glance across at his wife and kids. ‘Under different circumstances… well, let’s just say that we’re lucky everybody’s standing in this room today.’
‘The thing is…it probably would have ended differently except for something I found on my car windscreen yesterday morning.’
Reaching into his pocket, Mr McKenzie pulled out an already crumpled and well read piece of note paper, the same brand of which Eddy had next to his text books on the desk.
‘I found this.’ Eddy looked down at the note as it was held out to him and while he didn’t really need to read it to know what it held, he took it obediently anyway. ‘Do you know anything about this Eddy?’
Eddy couldn’t answer. He should have seen this situation arising but still, he wasn’t prepared for this.
‘Eddy?’ asked Grandma Daisy. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a note Grandma.’
‘Mr McKenzie,’ she responded, turning her attention to the man himself. ‘Can you please explain what’s going on here.’
Eddy did Mr McKenzie a favour and cut out the need for any explanation by handing Grandma Daisy the note. She took it appreciatively and strained her eyes at the handwriting scribbled on one side of it. At first she held it close, then right out at arm’s length and finally, with a expression of exasperation she handed it back to Eddy. ‘Stupid eyes! Eddy, can you read it for me please.’
Oh, this is just wonderful.
Eddy looked around at
all the faces staring back at him and knew there was no escape. So, taking a deep breath, he did as his Grandma Daisy asked.
‘Mr McKenzie. Do not go to work today. This is very important and your family’s lives may depend on it. I can’t explain this so it makes sense, but there is going to be an accident at your house today. All I know for sure is that it has to do with ‘hot’ and I think it’s a fire. I’m sorry, I don’t know where and how it starts but it’s going to be while Mrs McKenzie and your babies are asleep.’
‘I know this is strange but please believe me. Do not go to work!’
Those last few words were big, bold capitals on the page but Eddy figured he didn’t need to go into that. Having finished his assignment, he folded the note back up and handed it over to Mr McKenzie who obligingly received it.
Everyone in the room was silent, so much so that even the twins seemed to be playing along. Eventually it was Mrs McKenzie who broke the deadlock.
‘Did you write this Eddy?’
I can feel Grandma looking at me. She knows I did….and she’s frightened and proud, all at the same time. I guess I know how she feels.
Unable to meet Penny McKenzie’s eyes, preferring instead to inspect the carpet at his feet, Eddy nodded his head. ‘Yes ma’am.’
‘I knew it.’ Eddy didn’t need to look up to know that was Mrs Elsdon.
‘How did you know Eddy?’ asked Mr McKenzie. ‘We’re not angry at you. In fact it’s exactly the opposite. We just want to know how you knew.’
Forcing himself to look back up, Eddy gave it the best shot he could under the circumstances. ‘I don’t know for sure. S…sometimes I get sort of messages. M…most of the time it’s nothing much but this time I thought I should d..do something about it.’
