Page 53 of None of This is True

‘Walter?’

‘He’d been grooming her. All along. Just like he did with me. All those times she was here, when it felt like she was part of the family, it had been more than that. And then, just like he did with me, he bought her a necklace, he took her to the pub, he slipped a shot of vodka into her lemonade and then, on her sixteenth birthday, he slept with her.’

The screen goes black and slowly changes to a young girl, sitting in shadow on a chair in a studio.

Josie’s voice continues in the background:

‘While I was at work and Roxy was at school doing an exam, he invited her into our home and he slept with her in my bed. In my bed .’

‘How did Roxy find out?’

‘Erin told her. They thought Erin wouldn’t notice because of the way Erin is with her gaming and everything. But she did. She heard them and then she saw through the crack in her bedroom door Brooke leaving and she told Roxy when she got back from her exam and the next day Roxy went into school and she beat Brooke. Beat her bloody.’

The screen oscillates between dramatised scenes of two girls fighting in a school playground and the girl sitting on the stool in shadow.

‘Shortly after Roxy came back from the homeless shelter, she left for good. We haven’t seen her since.’

A light flashes very briefly onto the face of the girl sitting on the stool, illuminating a small portion of her face.

The closing credits roll.

***

11 a.m.

Josie stares into Alix’s eyes. Alix looks mind-blown. Horrified.

‘I know,’ says Josie. ‘I’m sorry, it’s gross. But there it is. There is the truth about the man I married.’

‘Did you confront him?’

‘No,’ she says. ‘No. Not then. I pretended I didn’t know.’

There it is again, across the smooth surface of Alix’s face, that flinch, that pinch.

Josie can hear Alix gulping drily. She comes in for the kill. ‘That night,’ she says, ‘on Friday. When we got home from having dinner here with you. That was the first time. The very first time I ever confronted Walter about what had happened with Brooke.’

‘And that was why …?’ Alix gestures at the damage to Josie’s face.

Josie nods. ‘Yes. That was why. Exactly.’

They stop for lunch. Alix toasts some sourdough for them and serves it with houmous and baba ghanoush.

She glances across the kitchen table at Josie and says, ‘Any word from Walter?’

‘None. No.’

‘Would he normally be in touch after an episode like this?’

‘I’ve never walked out on him before.’

‘So, you normally just sit it out?’

‘Mm-hmm. Yeah.’

‘So, what was different this time?’

‘Everything, I guess. Ever since I turned forty-five, even before we started making this podcast, I’ve been feeling different about everything. I mean, that was why I was in that pub in the first place that night. We never normally go out to eat. At least, not to places like that. And then I met you and …’

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