by Dean Mayes
She heard the back door click, heard the squeak of the hinges as the door swung open.
The intruder was inside!
Footsteps on the creaking boards in the hall now. A shadow appeared, just outside the bedroom door. Ruby shrank as far down in the bed as she could but peeked over the edge of her blanket. She was utterly terrified.
And then…
A hand pushed on the door to reveal a familiar form.
Ruby frowned quizzically and then her eyes went wide. Reaching across to her bedside lamp, she flicked the switch to reveal Jeremy standing there in the soft light.
She gasped.
He looked completely dishevelled. His clothes were wet, soaked through from the rain. His hair was matted and droplets of water fell down over his face. His colour was ashen; his eyes were reddened and swollen and he shook from the cold and the wet that had seeped through his clothes and into his skin—into his bones.
“Jeremy!” she wheezed, throwing back the covers and scrambling across the bed to him.
Jeremy fell to his knees and then into her embrace as Ruby wrapped her arms around him, ignoring his sodden clothing.
He was here. He was alright.
“Where have you been? What happened to you?”
Jeremy drew himself back and looked up into Ruby’s face.
“I-I couldn’t d-do it,” he stammered, his teeth chattering. “I…I…”
He dropped his head as tears welled up in his eyes.
“You couldn’t do what?” Ruby pressed him worriedly. “What is it, Jeremy?”
Behind them, Asher stirred and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Wh-what’s going on?” she whispered.
Jeremy snapped his head up at the sound of his sister’s voice and glanced around Ruby.
“Asher?” he whispered, blinking in surprise.
Overwhelmed by the sight of his sister awake, he shuffled on his knees across to the bedside and reached out to her, embracing her. He was sobbing freely now. Asher embraced him in return, the warmth of her arms radiating through him.
Jeremy looked up at his sister and at Ruby.
“I…turned on them. All of them,” he said shakily. “They wanted me to do something real bad and…I couldn’t do it.”
Ruby put her arm around Jeremy and squeezed him gently.
“I’m done…” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “…With them. No more.”
For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Ruby felt a warmth inside her at the sound of Jeremy’s words. Whatever had happened to him tonight, none of it mattered. Whatever the disappointment—the hurt and the pain that they had suffered and endured—none of it mattered. Because in that moment, in the darkness of their little room, Ruby knew that Jeremy spoke the truth. In that moment, despite his tears, she saw a strength in Jeremy that she had never seen before.
Asher leaned forward and touched her forehead to his and he smiled faintly.
“Everything will be okay,” she whispered to him.
Virginia crossed the lawn from the granny flat, buttoning her dressing gown and blinking the sleep from her eyes. She had slept poorly and her back ached from having tossed and turned throughout the night.
A trio of birds chirped happily on the power lines nearby as they greeted the dawn and the rising sun. Virginia cast a cursory glance up at them and watched as they took flight, soaring over the yard before peeling away into the distance.
An old memory of a Mingka bird came to her.
The old dog lay at the bottom of the steps of the house. He lifted his head as Virginia approached and she dropped her hand to him, allowing him to lick her fingers. She climbed up to the back door and quietly slipped inside.
Upon entering the house, Virginia sensed that something was amiss. Glancing to her left, Virginia noted that the door to the boys’ bedroom was open. Peering through and into the room, she noticed that Minty wasn’t in his bed. Frowning, she turned and listened for the television in the living room, but there was silence. The whole house was silent.
A chill went through her and she shuffled hastily through the hallway to the door of Ruby and Asher’s bedroom. She cocked her ear to listen for any sound, then gently turned the handle, opening the door as softly as she could.
In the half light, Virginia saw the children—all of the children—huddled together in Ruby’s bed. Asher, Minty and Ruby were under the covers while Jeremy was curled up in his T-shirt and pyjama bottoms at the end of the bed, hugging his pillow.
Virginia stood in silence, her mouth agape, not quite believing what she saw in front of her. Her heart leaped and she pressed her hand to her her chest.
The children were here. They were all together.
Ruby stirred and woke, blinking her eyes and peering over the blanket at her grandmother.
Virginia smiled warmly, stepping into the bedroom and coming over to the bed.
Ruby watched her grandmother as she took in each of the children in turn. Asher sleeping softly, cradling Minty in her arms. Jeremy, curled up and fast asleep—safe in the company of his siblings. Ruby, smiling back at her.
Virginia’s lip quivered and a tear welled in her eye.
Asher stirred then, and her eyes fluttered open. She turned to see Virginia standing there. Minty also woke and sat up in the middle of the girls rubbing the sleep from his eyes, clutching his teddy bear. Finally Jeremy awoke, stretched and yawned and looked up into Virginia’s face. There was no malice there. No sense of anger or disapproval at what she surely must have sensed in him. There was only love.
Virginia sat down on the side of the bed as the children surrounded her and embraced her warmly, with hugs and kisses.
It no longer mattered—all that, which had come before. Neither the struggle or the hardship of Virginia’s own life nor the trauma and heartache of the children’s lives now. Because, in that moment, here in their little sanctuary, they were all together, bound by something greater than anything that sought to tear them apart.
Their love for one another.
Davo stood in the hall, waiting patiently as Jeremy, Belle, Virginia and the children sat at the kitchen table, speaking quietly.
The worry was clearly etched into Belle’s features as she listened to Jeremy. Virginia, on the other hand, was peaceful, serene even.
Jeremy sat with his hands intertwined in front of him.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Belle said, her brow furrowing even more. “The police aren’t good to us people. You know that. They’ll throw you to the wolves if they feel like it and they won’t give it another thought.”
Virginia touched her hand to Belle’s shoulder and shook her head softly.
“Nothing of the sort is going to happen, Belle.”
She glanced up at Davo.
“Davo’s got a couple of good contacts within the force, haven’t you Davo. He’ll make sure Jeremy is okay.”
Davo nodded and entered into the kitchen, coming up to stand beside Jeremy.
Jeremy was staring at the table, considering what he was about to do.
“This is the right thing to do, Mum. I don’t care about what happens to them afterwards. I just know that I can live with it.”
“Jeremy’s information is gonna expose a lot of bad people in a lot of bad places,” Davo added sagely. “I reckon the police will pin a bloody medal on him once he fills ’em in on all of this.”
“But…what about us? Won’t we be in danger?” Belle pressed.
Davo shook his head confidently and grinned mischievously.
“Don’t you bloody bet on it. It’ll all be handled.”
Jeremy stood and looked around the table at his family. He touched his hand to Asher’s cheek and she smiled sheepishly, if a little nervously.
“Let’s go, Davo,” he said.
Davo followed him as Jeremy went to his bedroom and gathered up his wallet and his mobile phone from his bedside table. Virginia, Belle, Minty and the girls gathe
red in the living room, waiting for him to emerge.
Jeremy exited his bedroom and looked up at Davo, taking a deep breath in.
“You’ll be alright, mate,” Davo reassured him, squeezing his shoulder.
Jeremy stepped into the hall and came toward the living room when, suddenly, he paused in mid-step and turned his head to the left as if something had caught his eye.
Ruby and Asher exchanged puzzled looks at one another as Jeremy disappeared into the girls’ bedroom, emerging moments later carrying something in his hand.
He stopped in front of Ruby, holding the violin case out toward her.
“If I do this Rube…then you’ve gotta promise you’ll do the recital.”
Ruby took the case and held it, glancing from Jeremy to Asher—who nodded—and to Virginia.
“Deal?” Jeremy asked hopefully.
Ruby looked down at the case, running her hand across the aged leather. She nodded slowly.
“Deal,” she whispered softly.
Jeremy smiled.
“I’ll be home in time to take you to your rehearsal.”
Opening the front door, Jeremy stepped out into the daylight and walked across to the car accompanied by Davo. He turned once more toward the house before climbing in and he nodded once at Ruby.
“Deal,” he mouthed silently.
Ruby stood quietly before the statue of Sir Walter Hughes, holding her violin case in her hands.
She did not speak. For once, she just wanted to be. A breeze wafted softly through the boughs of the surrounding jacarandas and kicked up some leaves on the pavement causing them to skitter around her noisily.
There was music in those leaves.
No matter where she was or what the sound or combination of sounds, Ruby could extract music from almost anything she heard. It was another of her grandmother’s lessons, one which she had carried with her almost from the time she had begun under Virginia’s tutelage.
And no matter what the music, Ruby found peace within it. Here and now, it was no different.
“Are you ready?” Sir Walter’s voice intoned softly, floating down from above her.
With her eyes closed, Ruby nodded.
“I think so…I just hope Khalili will forgive me.”
“To forgive, young Ruby, is to achieve a state of grace. I think you already know that.”
Ruby turned around to see both Jeremy and Asher waiting patiently over by the steps to the art gallery building. She smiled knowingly.
“I know it,” she replied. “I hope I can catch up in time.”
“I have no doubts,” Sir Walter said. “Now come on…stop loitering around here and get yourself in there…on the stage…where you belong.”
Ruby nodded formally at Sir Walter and turned away once more.
“Ready?” Jeremy asked, taking his hands from his hoodie and putting an arm around her shoulder. Asher smiled warmly as she took Ruby’s hand in hers.
“As I’ll ever be,” Ruby replied.
Together, they crossed the lawn once more and opened the door to the hall.
Inside, the auditorium was utterly silent and empty. Every single chair was empty.
As they crept inside and looked around, neither one of them could see anyone up on the stage. The piano there sat idle, its lid closed.
“I’m too late,” Ruby whispered worriedly to Asher.
From somewhere behind the stage, the three children could hear the faint sound of a flushing toilet, then the sound of footfalls on the stairs.
From the rear of the stage, under the mighty pipe organ, Jeremy spied a figure who appeared there and he immediately pointed in the figure’s direction.
Ruby’s eyes widened hopefully, then she smiled as she recognised Khalili approaching the piano.
He sat down at it and took out a piece of sheet music from his familiar leather bag then placed it on the holder in front of him.
Jeremy, Asher and Ruby approached quietly and climbed onto the stage.
Jeremy looked down at her and nudged her gently.
“Go on,” he whispered. “Go and speak to him.”
Ruby flashed a worried look at Jeremy then at Asher and clutched her violin case tighter.
“Go on,” Asher urged. “He’s not gonna bite you.”
Ruby stepped forward, approaching the professor cautiously.
Khalili lifted his head from the piano and slowly turned in his seat until his eyes fell across Ruby.
Ruby shuddered and stopped.
Khalili’s expression was blank as he studied her up and down, then tilted his head to see Jeremy and his sister standing behind her.
Slowly, as though he were watching a flower bloom, Khalili’s mouth parted and then turned upward in a warm smile. He tilted his glasses so he could see over them.
“I was beginning to think you would never get here,” he quipped mischievously.
He gestured with his head for her to come closer and he reached down into his bag once more, pulling out a different sheet of music and placing it over the top of the one he already had in place.
Ruby gingerly set her case down on the edge of the piano and snapped it open, taking out the violin.
As she did so, she failed to see that Khalili was stifling a lump in his throat whilst at the same time, wiping away a tear.
Jeremy took up his usual seat at the front of the stage and motioned Asher to the seat beside him.
“Mendelssohn?” Khalili asked, lifting his hands to the keys of the piano.
Ruby nodded.
“Mendelssohn.”
Together they picked up where they’d left off and it was as if no time had passed at all.
Chapter 31
Arriving home from school, Ruby marched straight to her bedroom, tossed her bag on the bed and flopped down on the floor.
She felt impatient and had fidgeted for most of the day—not so much from nervousness but from frustration. The Malley-Joyce recital was now less than twenty-four hours away and, on the advice of both Khalili and her grandmother, Ruby had been encouraged not to pick up her violin to practise at all. Their reasoning was, that by taking a complete break from it in those final hours, she could relax and thus, approach the following day with a clear mind.
Right now though, Ruby felt anything but relaxed.
She and Khalili had rehearsed every day and she had thrived spending every waking moment thinking about and practising the pieces for the recital. She’d sat up in her bed, long into the night, going over the compositions in her head, practising the fingerings on her violin without the bow, repeating them over and over again until she was sure they were imprinted onto her consciousness.
Her performances had improved exponentially over the past two weeks. The Mendelssohn piece, in particular, with Khalili’s piano accompaniment was flawless and Ruby had grown significantly in her confidence.
Being forced to rest like this now was maddening. It felt like someone had amputated her arm and no amount of diversion could assuage her frustration.
Asher trooped into the bedroom behind Ruby, set her bag down at the end of her own bed and sat down opposite Ruby. She fixed her cousin with a sympathetic expression.
“I know it must be tough,” Asher ventured. “But the professor and Nana wouldn’t tell you to rest if they didn’t think it was the right thing to do. We’ve just gotta find something to take your mind off tomorrow.”
Ruby looked at Asher with gritted teeth and threw her arms up in exasperation.
“Yeah, but what? This is killing me, all this waitin’.”
“I dunno…maybe we could watch a movie or something?”
Ruby screwed up her face.
“That’s not gonna work. Besides, I hate movies.”
Asher shrugged her shoulders and fidgeted nervously, which Ruby picked up on and immediately felt a pang of guilt.
“Sorry, Ash,” she offered.
Though Asher was much better, she still exhibited signs of discomfort whenever there was a
ny hint of conflict or anger from anyone around her. Recognising this, Ruby, Jeremy and the rest of the family had resolved to make her home environment a much calmer place and it had helped her immensely. She had only just returned to school in the past few days. She was jittery but coping.
Asher smiled reassuringly at Ruby.
“It’s okay. We’ll think of something.”
The front door clicked open and both the girls turned their heads at the sound of Virginia’s voice calling out.
“Ruby? Are you home? Come up the front here. We’ve got something to show you.”
Ruby and Asher scrunched their faces at each other, mouthing the word ‘We’ in unison, before scrambling to their feet and making their way through to the living room where they found both Virginia and Belle with Minty squirming in Belle’s arms. Virginia set a large white box down on the coffee table and stood back, gesturing at it with both hands.
“Well? Come and have a look. Don’t just stand there.”
Ruby rounded the arm chair hesitantly and knelt before the box. She looked up at both Virginia and Belle.
“Open it,” Virginia urged her.
Lifting the top off the box Ruby set it aside and looked down on a navy and cream coloured, handmade, cotton dress.
Ruby’s eyes went wide as she gently lifted the delicate dress. It had a rounded neck with an understated frill bordering it, short sleeves and a gathered cream skirt that fell gracefully down before her.
“It’s beautiful,” Asher beamed excitedly, kneeling down beside an awestruck Ruby and squeezing her gently.
“Well?” Virginia pressed her granddaughter incredulously. “What do you think?”
“H-how?” Ruby answered softly.
Lifting a pair of shining leather shoes out from inside the box and setting them down on the coffee table, Virginia lifted the dress from Ruby’s grasp and held it up so she could see it in more detail.
“Aunty Belle found the dress in a second hand shop and Cherie and I have spent the past week making some alterations to it,” Virginia explained.
“And I bought the shoes over at the mall just the other day,” Belle added, setting a wriggling Minty down on the floor.
Ruby looked up at her aunt with an expression of genuine surprise.
