Black and Blue by Lee-Ann Khoh

Author:Lee-Ann Khoh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Book Reality Experience
Published: 2021-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

I was still slightly sore when I went to meet Veronica on Tuesday. I got there half an hour early and hid in the bathroom. I was desperate to give myself a bruise in one of the cubicles. The wave of relief would give me the strength to face Veronica. But I stopped myself. I didn’t want to turn to that anymore. Not when I had Rory.

Veronica was entering Cool Beans Cafe when I emerged from the bathroom. I flashed a weak smile and she strode over to me, her grey eyes cold and blank.

‘What would you like?’ she asked, marching to the counter.

‘Pumpkin soy milkshake, please,’ I replied, remembering Rory’s recommendation. Veronica ordered a cappuccino and we took a seat.

‘I suppose you’re wondering why I wanted to meet you,’ Veronica began.

‘A little,’ I replied.

‘My son Zayden has his drum lesson nearby. He’s been stealing money from me for it.’

I didn’t know what to say and was relieved when our drinks arrived—much faster than they had when I was here with Dom.

‘He never practised when Samson was alive,’ Veronica continued. ‘Samson was constantly nagging him about it. It wasn’t a good look for the founder of a children’s arts charity to have a son who didn’t even draw stick figures, you see.’

Would people have cared that much? I wondered. Maybe they would. Unlike the Ottos, no one paid attention to what I did or didn’t do.

‘Now all Zayden wants to do is play drums,’ Veronica said. ‘So, I let him. I pretend that abysmal noise doesn’t give me a headache. I pretend I don’t know he’s stealing from me. It’s the least I can do. It’s probably my fault his father’s dead.’

Why are you telling me this? I thought. I sipped my milkshake. It was rich and creamy, but I couldn’t enjoy it with this conversation going on. ‘It’s not your fault,’ I managed to say, my words sounding hollow.

‘I wasn’t much older than you when I met Samson,’ Veronica said, as if she hadn’t heard me. ‘I knew he was going to be special. He was so full of ideas and dreams. If something didn’t work, he’d try something else. He never, ever gave up until the day he died.’

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. There were days I felt like ‘giving up’. Before I met Rory and The Lyrebirds—and before the bruises—watching Star Trek and listening to Bon Jovi were all that got me through.

‘We never intended to have children. It seemed like an unnecessary distraction. But then I fell pregnant with Zayden. And Samson found he loved being a father. He started the Create Tomorrow Foundation because he wanted all young people to have a voice, and he believed the arts were a universal language. Being Zayden’s dad changed him. Samson started thinking about other people besides himself. Until he decided to die, that is.’

I resented Veronica’s suggestion that Samson’s suicide was selfish. How could she ask someone she loved to exist in misery for the

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