The Odyssey by Lara Williams

Author:Lara Williams [Williams, Lara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2022-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

I got out of bed earlier than I would ordinarily, aware everything was going to take longer. I showered with my wounded hand hanging by my side, grateful for the practice I’d already had with that. I dried my hair and applied make-up, ate a granola bar while staring at myself in the mirror. I was going to have to explain to Rosa and Li, there was no scenario in which I could not. I mentally rehearsed how I was going to tell them. I thought about how to deliver the news sensitively, to make it seem less frightening for them. To calm them down, if need be.

When I arrived at the salon, Li was not on reception. In the back, I could hear Rosa humming while sanitizing the equipment.

Where’s Li? I called.

She’s gone, she replied.

Gone where?

She’s gone, Rosa repeated, emerging into the main room. She left when we docked. She got the same memo you did, baby. She tilted her head towards my hand.

Oh, I said.

Oh, Rosa mimicked, raising her eyebrows.

I was the first, I said.

Really? She cocked her head ever so slightly. How do you know?

I smiled patiently at her, not wanting her to feel bad for asking such a ridiculous question. Why did Li leave?

Rosa went back into the sterilizing room and I followed her. She pressed open the glowing door to the sterilizer. Spaceship-blue light, an other-worldly object. She removed the recently sterilized utensils, nail files and cuticle trimmers, objects of bodily violence, folded up in a soft white cloth like a burrito. I thought about the hospital and the things that had been done to me. I had consented, I reminded myself. I had been given a choice. I was strong.

Because she wouldn’t have it, Rosa shrugged. She’s young. She has options. Why should she?

But you’re going to have it?

Next week, baby. Chop, chop.

She lifted up her left hand and made a scissoring motion with her right. I tried to read the expression on her face, somewhere between sincere and crazy. There was something unsinkable about her, I realized. She reminded me of Mia. I supposed that was why I liked her.

She paced through to the main room and began laying out the equipment.

I have a lot of debt, she said, mainly to herself. I remembered her telling me that before she joined the WA she had worked in hospitality and sales. She used her savings to invest in various businesses. A wedding-planning website. A location-scouting company. A farm-to-table restaurant. She’d had a lot of bad luck. She’d also told me she had a son.

You can’t actually feel anything, I offered. It’s all under anaesthetic. And you get to choose a song.

Really?

Really.

We should open up, she said.

I straightened my shoulders. We should open up, I told her.

I went to unlock the door, kicked a stopper underneath it. I looked around at the salon, bright and inviting, somewhere you’d come to get clean. I gave the polishes within reach a quick shake, took a look at the bookings.

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