Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng

Author:Melanie Cheng
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2019-03-23T04:00:00+00:00

31

Patrick arrived at one o’clock. On the phone he’d told Meg that check-in at the beach house was three pm. Meg had spent the morning visiting the neighbours for news about Atticus, but nobody had seen him.

‘Have you been to Dromana before?’ Patrick asked when they were packed and seated in the car.

‘A few times, with the family, when I was a little girl.’ Meg thought of the shell necklace she’d stuffed back into the shoebox last night. She hoped she hadn’t damaged it.

‘It’s a great spot.’

Patrick was casually dressed in a polo shirt, shorts and sandals. Instead of a leather cap, his balding head was covered by a fedora.

Meg leant back in her seat. She’d never taken much interest in cars, but she could tell this one was expensive, probably European. Not big but spacious, with tan leather seats.

‘This car has seat warmers. Not that we need them today.’ Meg raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t realised the world had progressed to the point of seat warmers. If anything, she’d always found it a little disconcerting to sit on a chair that was still hot from another person’s bottom. But she supposed it was different if a computer had heated it for you.

‘I remember when the only way to cool a car was to open a window,’ she said.

Patrick laughed. ‘Those days are over.’

Meg looked at him, unsure if he was sad or excited about the future.

‘In a few years we’ll have cars that don’t even need a driver,’ he added.

Meg had heard about such things on the radio. ‘It’s hard to believe.’

Patrick chuckled. ‘If you’re rich enough, soon you’ll be able to do almost everything with the press of a button.’

Meg thought of Helen with her useless legs. Now people with perfectly good legs were developing technology to ensure they’d never have to use them. She thought of the daytime telly advertisements for whole-body vibrators designed to help people lose weight while they sat on the couch and watched more daytime telly advertisements for whole-body vibrators.

‘I’ve packed a picnic,’ Patrick said. ‘Tasmanian brie, homemade parmesan crisps and marinated Sicilian olives.’

‘Sounds delicious.’ It struck Meg that her recent meal of spaghetti bolognese must have seemed terribly pedestrian to Patrick. She looked out the window. They were driving past the Melbourne cemetery. A large billboard mounted to the wrought-iron fence read: Limited release! Exclusive graves. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As they waited at the traffic light, Meg saw a flash of emerald and blue in a nearby gum tree. Taking a closer look, she realised a small flock of rainbow lorikeets had made their home in its branches. She turned to Patrick, who was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. The radio was tuned to Gold FM. Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It through the Grapevine’ was playing. There was something about his look, a smugness, that Meg found unnerving. She felt a sharp pain in her chest. When she inhaled, the air was as thick as honey.

‘Do you mind opening a window?’ she gasped.

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