Page 27 of The Wish
‘Yeah,’ says Jesse. ‘Yeah, they could . . .’ Jesse settles back into her pillows and looks out of the window.
CHAPTER 14
‘Over there, that looks like the place,’ Alex tells Steve as the two of them, each carrying a high-end camcorder secured around their necks, wander through the park. Alex looks down the viewing pane in front of him, adjusting the angle from wide to tight and back.
‘So how do you want to do this?’ Steve asks.
‘The photos show them under those trees having some sort of picnic. They’re on a rug and there’s food. It’s the right park, just need to make sure it’s the right spot,’ Alex tells him. ‘I want to walk with them to the spot, then we’ll do some panning scenes from where they were sitting. You know the drill. You do the wide shots; I’ll go in for the close-ups.’
Steve nods. ‘Sounds good.’
‘Turn the sound off. We don’t need it as we’ll be superimposing them into the scenes in the studio. We’ll get all the audio we need then.’
‘Which angle do you think we should come in from?’ Steve asks.
Alex looks around, sees the car park in the distance. ‘I reckon they would have parked there,’ he points out. ‘Come in on that angle.’
As Steve walks towards the car park Alex calls after him, ‘I don’t want anyone in the shot – you might have to wait so you avoid those families coming in.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know what I’m doing. By the way, you did get a permit for us to be filming today, didn’t you?’
‘Sure,’ Alex calls out.
‘No, you didn’t. Guerrilla filming again. One day we’ll get caught,’ Steve mutters to himself as he looks down into the lens of his camera, framing the shot he’s about to capture.
Alex and Steve separate, each filming different parts of the park and playground. After a while they come together again, cameras still rolling, sound off. Without looking up Steve coughs to get Alex’s attention.
‘So, I was thinking, maybe you’d like to come to a small gathering I’m having for Lydia. It’s her fortieth next month and I thought I’d surprise her with a party. I was thinking we would have it at home but now I’m thinking this could be a great place, plenty of room for kids to run around and the playground, and well, do you think you’d be up for that?’
Caught off guard, Alex takes his time to answer, concentrating on the viewing pane showing him what he is filming. ‘Forty, eh?’ He whistles. ‘You there yet?’
‘Yeah, a few years ago. It was lockdown and our youngest was just a baby, so it was just the family.’
‘The family? You know, I don’t know if you’ve got any siblings,’ Alex asks. ‘Do you?’
‘A brother and a sister, one lives out in the country, the other overseas. What about you?’
‘None that I’m aware of. But who knows what my old man got up to in his day? For all I know you and I are half-brothers.’
‘You clearly haven’t met my dad. So, what do you say? It’ll be quite quiet – just Lyd’s folks and two sisters – sorry, man, they’re both married – and a couple of friends. I was thinking about inviting Sarah too. She and Lydia have met a couple of times and kind of bonded over soy-milk lattes or some such concoction.’
‘Yeah . . . I dunno . . .’
‘Go on, mate. What else have you got to do? And it’ll get Lyds off my back. She’s always banging on: “When are you going to bring home your work bestie? When can I meet your work bestie? Why are you hiding your work bestie from me?”’
Alex stops short.Work bestie?he thinks to himself.
‘So, yeah, she’s obsessed,’ Steve continues, ‘so you’ll be doing me a favour by showing your face. She’s starting to think I made you up.’
‘Work bestie?’ Alex wonders, this time out loud. ‘Me?’
Steve stops, takes a spare bottle of water out of his bag and hands it to Alex. ‘Course you are, you dickhead.’
Alex shakes his head, grinning as he realises that, yeah, it’s true. If there is such a thing as a work bestie, then Steve fills the brief. He discovers that he likes it. ‘Let me know the date. I guess if you’re having it here, I know where to come.’
‘Sure, no problem.’ Steve doesn’t seem to realise how momentous this revelation has been to Alex. ‘I’ll let you know when I’ve organised it a bit better. I’ll probably have to get one of her sisters to help me.’
‘I think we’re just about done here,’ Alex says. ‘I’m going to take some still photos to show Jesse where I’ve been, then I’m going to head back over to see her. I’ll come into the office in a bit and get the hard drive from you. Thanks for your help, Steve, I mean it.’
