The Long and Winding Road

Gervais had given me one of his lovely little phone calls to do his usual deed of threatening everyone in my life with Jazz and Braith being top of his list. Since threat was the only language he appeared to understand I gave him back as good as I got, as his incessant intimidation was as exhausting as it was frightening. It was one thing not to be afraid of Gervais but only a fool would not be afraid of what Gervais could do to those around me. I tried to keep his focus on me with the hope it would distract him enough so the wedding could occur before he found a way to extinguish it as the others were not too keen on my plan to allow him to stop it from happening.

The rest of my day on the other hand appeared to belong to anyone and everyone but me and my plans. I received endless phone calls brimming with the latest gossip told in tones feigning between shock and appearing confidential. I knew this town and any tidbit that came my way was just for the sheer malice of sharing the misfortunes of others and again the joy of schadenfreude reared it’s ugly head. Today was no exception and since I was not the subject of said gossip I became part of the chain of information, only this link went no further. I did not have time to share in the dismembering of the reputation of another, I had a monster to outwit and I was a starkly unarmed opponent.

The first puzzle of the day was caused by Caspar Royale. I had not heard from him in some weeks after a tentative attempt of his to get me to return to his work but I was no longer interested in protecting him from his nefarious romances and left him to return to being the puppet of Gervais. Poor Caspar left to his own devices had really cooked his own goose when he had taken Cameo on board for if his intention was to cause less competition and friction in the function business he had not considered the drawback of having a very jealous Cameo watching his every move like a hawk. It appeared that the union in business was only a precursor to a union in person and she spent every available moment pressing him to cement their alliance in the most married of ways. Caspar was running out of excuses and begged me to come back and get her out of his life. All I could remember was that day when he had conveniently changed the locks and left me to be attacked by Gervais so I hung up without further comment as Caspar no longer had the Royale touch, well not according to my experience.

The next person to interrupt my day was Simon, not with a call but with his unplanned arrival as Simon somehow had decided that he could drop in at any time since the frantic phone call that had brought him back into my life and now I found myself in a position of having to remove him from the ease he felt at burdening me with his company. I could not allow myself to have any emotional attachments at this time and for all his strength and beauty now was not a time to have him in my life. Simon sat on the terrace with me drinking coffee and I could tell by his studied silence he was going to ask me something, I knew what this was to be, he was tired of waiting for me to make a decision I had no intention of forming and was going to ask me what my plans for the future were. I waited with my guard up but even that was not enough to battle the crisp blue eyes staring across the table at me, the charm of the tilted smile, his tanned handsome face open with query. I had to distance myself and used the only memory I could—I thought of him and Gervais being intimate and revulsion flooded through me until it left me weak with disgust and despair. Simon saw the shadow cross my face and did not wait for a reply. “I have my answer”, he said quietly and showed himself out. It took every fibre of my being not to rush out after him and beg him to stay but for as much as I wanted Simon to be with me I needed to protect him more, so I let him go, perhaps this time forever.

It is only when you decide your day cannot become any stranger that it does! Before I knew what was happening I was on the phone with Jojo Sedero who for once in his infamous life sounded like a serious adult. I half expected him to lapse into some surf nut babble and wander off into aimless chitchat but again I had underestimated another person in my life. Jojo said that we needed to talk but I was not about to be lured into another one of his love her, leave her episodes and told him I was far too busy to play games right now, perhaps Lynx had a spare moment? This was the sort of comment that typically had made him shout in the past but Jojo was not being drawn into a fight, he said it was about Jazz and it was important so would I please meet him tomorrow. I reluctantly agreed and wondered what terrible information he could be harbouring that would have him insist upon a meeting. For a fleeting moment I thought possibly that Gervais was having him do his dirty work but I found it unbelievable that Gervais would use his ex rival for a revenge plan that was too ludicrous even for Gervais.

I had just put down the phone from Jojo when it jangled again with an impatient call from Tiah as now having discovered her inner rage she was anxious to formulate a plan of revenge upon Gervais. I recall the word blow up and drive over several times in her conversation and I sat there agreeing with every word while she blew off steam. It occurred to me during her tirade that Tiah was becoming a loose cannon and we might have to discourage her from making such frequent public denouncements of Gervais, after all if something were to happen to him the finger would be pointed straight at Tiah and she would fold like the proverbial deck of wet cards. I left myself a mental note to call Zizi and arrange some sort of leash for Tiah. I admonished her for shouting blow him up over the phone and said we had to be far more discreet if she did not want half the town knowing her business. I suggested she use the afternoon for some retail therapy and this had the desired effect of calming her down while giving me a chance to end the call and I was left wondering if Tiah had indeed been a wise choice of partner.

Fed up with the endless barrage of calls and visits I left the house with the intention of having some quiet time to myself. There were many things I had to sort out for although I had allowed Simon to leave my life I still grieved over his loss. There was the mystery of Jojo with his secretive call and of course Tiah wanting to burn the world down. The day belonged to the lunatics of the town and I was not yet liberated from their antics. I drove into the public car park in the middle of the town in time to see between the dim columns of dust stirring in the air Liselle and Jago in a passionate embrace that would spell divorce in diamonds if Taryn had discovered them. Seeing the slow pass of my car they quickly ducked behind a pillar and I continued on pretending to be oblivious to their presence. At this particular moment I could do no more than file the information away for future reference but I knew my dear cousin was going to pay for that indiscretion one way or another. In my past I would have been shocked at how like Gervais that sounded but Liselle had deigned to remain neutral, to the point of watching her brother destroy me. The lines had been drawn and no one was going to be safe anymore.

As I walked over to Djini’s I stopped in shock at the sight that presented itself in the large picture window, here was none other than Coco and Royce sitting at a table. I stared at the foreign spectacle of Coco doing all the talking and Royce like an admonished schoolboy hanging his head in shame. Whatever metamorphosis had transpired in their relationship Coco was no longer the vacuous dimwit prepared to worship her even more dimwitted husband. I wondered if Royce realised what he had really lost when he ran off with Lynx, his time to be adored was long gone and his wife now in battle with the most dangerous man in town had finally found her voice. I did not enter the café for I was not in the mood for the emotional baggage of others. I went back to the car park and sat in my car. There was a long dangerous road ahead for all of us and we desperately needed a plan that involved more than setting Gervais’s hair on fire.

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