by D C Grant
Chapter Twenty-three
They were having dinner when the phone rang again. His father answered it and Josh soon realised that it was his mother, updating them about Hayden’s progress. He was unable to ascertain anything about Hayden’s condition by his father’s conversation, but his face was grim. Eventually he said goodbye and put down the receiver. Josh pushed his plate away. Suddenly he wasn’t hungry. He looked at his father expectantly.
“Hayden is out of theatre,” his father said. “He’s on a ventilator to help his breathing and he’s in a drug-induced coma. He’s in intensive care. Penny’s going to stay the night. Your mother will go back to the hospital in the morning. She’ll give us a ring then.”
“Did she say when she’s coming back here?”
“She didn’t say so, although she did say they’d have to get Penny’s car back to the city. I told her we had the keys. She says she’ll talk to Penny about it in the morning and in the meantime we’ll just leave it here.”
“We won’t be going anywhere.”
“No, I guess we won’t. You finished?” his father asked, indicating the plate in front of Josh with the half-eaten food on it.
“Yep. I just lost my appetite,” he said, and got up from the table. He carried his plate to the kitchen and was rinsing it under the tap when the phone rang again. Josh stiffened and stared at the instrument. If it was his mother so soon after the last call then it could only be to give them bad news. Although he was closer to the phone, he let his father answer it, too afraid to pick it up himself.
“Yes,” his father said when the caller had identified himself. He looked up at Josh’s anxious face and shook his head. It wasn’t his mother.
“Well, my lawyer has to sign it,” his father explained, and then Josh realised that he was talking to the real estate agent.
“He’s back on Monday. Yes, I guess we could do that” his father continued. After a few moments, he said goodbye and put down the phone.
Josh leant against the kitchen counter and looked at his father expectantly. His father didn’t say anything at first, just stared out of the window at the road and the dunes beyond. When his father spoke, he continued to look outside.
“The people who came through today are very keen to put in an offer on the bach. The agent wanted to know who had the authority to sign on the sale and purchase agreement.”
“Who does?”
“Myself and the lawyer, who isn’t back until after New Year.”
“So no one can do anything?”
“Not yet, no.”
“But later, when the lawyer gets back. What happens then?”
“Then it could be sold.”
Josh considered this in silence. He could feel his anger mounting again. He tried not to let it get to him, but the events of the day hadn’t done much for his self-control. He felt tired and washed out. His patience and ability to deal with bad news was almost non-existent.
“I can’t believe it’s come to all this,” he said, trembling. “Everything we had. Just gone.”
His father turned from the window to look at him and said, “I wish I could change things for you, Josh, but I can’t.”
“You’ve ruined everything,” Josh said as he made for the door.
“Josh!” his father shouted, but he was already out on the deck. He strode off down the driveway, ignoring his father. He reached the road and headed off in the direction of Lion Rock.
He hadn’t gone far before his pace slowed and he stopped. He remembered he’d done this before, too many times before, and he was sick of it. When he was a boy he’d thought his father was great, that he was rich and successful, and it had made him feel secure. He was angry because his father had fallen from that pedestal and shown himself to be human and fallible. But Josh knew that he wasn’t perfect himself. After all the support his father had given him that day, it was only fair that he go back and be there for his father.
He turned and headed back. Although the sun was setting and it was getting dark, the lights in the bach hadn’t been turned on. He walked slowly up the steps to the deck and through the open door. He couldn’t see his father at first, then, as his eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room, he saw that his father was in the armchair, hunched over, his head in his hands. He was crying.
Josh was shocked, as shocked as he had been when he had come home from the skate park in the dark and discovered his father alone in the family room. That night he’d run up the stairs, away from his father, and he wanted to do that again now, but he didn’t.
He shuffled forward. His father hadn’t heard him come in. Josh reached out his hand and laid it on his father’s shoulder.
His father visibly jumped, turning round to see who it was.
“Josh,” he gulped. “I thought you’d gone.”
“I came back.”
“Why?”
“I got tired of leaving,” Josh said. “I decided it was time to stop running away. My problems are still here when I get back.”
His father stood and hugged him tightly. Josh, surprised at first, returned the embrace and the tension that had built up in him during the day eased. This is what he had needed – a hug. He’d wanted one from his mother, that’s why he wanted her back, but the hug had instead come from his father who hadn’t embraced him in years.
“Do you think that we can learn to get on with each other?” his father asked.
“We can try,” Josh said. “I just get so angry with you sometimes.”
“I could say the same of you, Josh,” his father countered. “It’s not easy for either of us, all these changes.”
“No, it’s not,” Josh agreed. “We can give it a go.”
“Perhaps we can.”
Later they walked to South Piha together, where they could hear the people gathered at the baches for New Year’s Eve parties. The Surf Club was open for the night and his father went inside, but Josh stayed outside, standing on the top of the dunes by the road and watching the waves. The swell was certainly large now and the northwest wind was making it bigger. The waves sounded angry, as if they resented being pushed up onto the black sand.
“Not thinking of going out there, are you?” a voice asked from behind him.
“No, Chris, I’m not.” He turned and smiled at the lifesaver who had come to stand alongside him.
“Want one?” he asked Josh, indicating the beer in his hand.
“No, I’ve given up on them for a while,” Josh said.
“Well, you can stand as lookout for me. If you see a cop car, yell out. There’s a liquor ban out here in the carpark, but I saw your father inside and he said you were out here. How is your friend?”
“They operated on him and he’s in intensive care. My mother’s at the hospital with Hayden’s mother, so she’s been keeping us up to date. She’s going to phone us tomorrow.”
“We’ll just wait then.” Chris looked up at the stars. “It’s New Year’s Eve. Any resolutions?”
“Stay away from beer,” Josh said with a laugh, “and girls that come on too strong.”
“Sounds like you’re talking from experience.”
“Maybe.”
“I’ve got one for you,” Chris suggested. “How about becoming a lifesaver?”
Josh sighed and rolled his eyes at Chris. “You say that every year.”
“Every year,” Chris nodded. “Since you were small. I remember when your dad brought you here as a kid.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“You stopped coming.”
“I started surfing.”
“You had potential then, even as a nipper. And now, with your knowledge and experience of Piha, you’d make an excellent lifeguard. And you’d learn first aid and know what to do when someone got hit by a car.”
“Good try. The problem is we’re selling the bach. Where am I going to find a place to stay?”
“That’s no excuse, Josh. You know we have the bunk rooms at the back of the club house. Any of t
he lifeguards can use it. You get to stay down here and we’ll look after you. It’ll be a blast.”
“But I’ll have to stand on the beach and patrol instead of being out surfing.”
“You’ll get plenty of time for surfing. Anyway, can you think of a better way to spend the summer than down here at the beach?”
“I’ll think about it,” Josh said.
“You say that every year,” Chris said and laughed. “So, what are you doing tonight?”
“Believe it or not, I’m going to bed.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Chris said.
“No, I’m really whacked. And I want to go surfing early tomorrow.”
“That’s best. The wind’s going to change before midday, at about low tide, and when it does, it’s going to get messy.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Josh said. He turned as he heard his father exiting the surf club, shouting goodbye to someone inside. “I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, see you next year,” Chris said as he headed in the direction of the surf club, chuckling at his own joke. He just made it inside before a cop car cruised around the car park.
