Page 10 of The House Guest

She went back out into the garden, leaving Ruth and me alone in the kitchen.

‘I think there’s a place down the street where you can get a SIM,’ I said. ‘You should probably do that now.’

‘Yeah. Okay.’ She headed out.

In the garden, Eden was back on the swing, nose buried in her book. I went out to join her.

‘Mona told me about this place last time I saw her,’ Eden said, closing the novel. ‘She said a record producer used to own it. I guess that explains the jukebox. He must have left it behind.’ She shook her head. ‘Jack doesn’t even like music. He told me it does nothing for him. Can you believe that?’

‘It’s hard to imagine.’

‘Right?’ She sighed. ‘You know, if this was my house I’d stay here all the time. I wouldn’t go off on a retreat or a cruise or anywhere. I’d never want to go out. Some people just don’t realise how lucky they are.’ She tapped the book. ‘Have you read this?’

‘No.’

‘You should. It’s about this guy who inherits loads of money and buys a big house in the middle of nowhere with a basement. Then he abducts this woman and keeps her locked up there. You know what I keep thinking when I read it? If some rich guy abducted me and kept me in a place like this, I wouldn’t mind. It would still be better than where I came from.’

She smiled at me but there was a slyness to it. Like there was something she wanted to say.

I waited. But she opened the novel and said, ‘I can’t wait to find out what happens.’

Ruth got her new SIM card and spent the evening messaging her friends and contacts, giving them her new number. Then she went up for an early night while I had a bath, needing to wash away the grime of the day. I sat in the tub and thought about my miserable meeting with Sam and wondered what I was going to do with my life. It would be easy to wriggle out of the lie I’d told Ruth – the industry was full of flaky people whose enthusiasm waned faster than it waxed – but I still felt guilty about it. And I knew that admitting the lie, telling her why I’d done it, would be opening a can of worms. Giant worms with teeth.

I got out of the bath, dressed, and looked in on Ruth. She was asleep but I was wired. I went downstairs and found Eden staring at moving images on her iPad. Familiar images.

Eden reacted like I’d caught her masturbating. She slammed the cover of the iPad shut and her face turned pink with embarrassment. For a moment I wondered if I was mistaken and she had in fact been looking at porn.

‘Oh my God, did you see what I was watching?’

‘It wasThe Immaculate, wasn’t it?’ I sat in the armchair opposite.

‘Yeah. You caught me.’

It was a strange reaction, but I guessed she was worried I would think she was being deeply uncool. Or something. ‘What do you reckon?’

‘I love it,’ she responded. ‘It actually made me cry.’

‘Really? Which part?’

‘The part where her dad calls her a slut and throws her out – you know, after she tells her parents she’s pregnant. And then she realises she’s all alone.’

It was a powerful scene, beautifully played by Ruth, but I was surprised it would make anyone cry.

‘And now everyone’s after her. The government. The cops. That weird priest. It’s so clever, isn’t it? The way that reality shifts and cracks around her ... like, all these signs that the world is falling apart and everyone just keeps going about their business. It’s giving me chills.’

‘It’s a great film,’ I said.

‘And Ruth is incredible,’ Eden said, eyes wide. ‘When she’s on-screen it’s like ... you can’t look away. Do you want to watch the rest of it with me?’

I had already watchedThe Immaculatea dozen times but I nodded. ‘Sure.’

To make space for the iPad, I moved a pile of books to the edge of the coffee table. They were all self-help books with titles likeThe Power of NowandBelonging: Remembering Ourselves Home; then there was a book by the Dalai Lama and another about kundalini yoga.

‘Are these all Ruth’s?’ Eden asked.

‘Yeah. She’s a seeker.’

Eden raised an eyebrow.

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