Page 65 of The Pearl Sister
‘I’m sure she is. She’s probably on the phone to her PR people right now. It’s hard to get one front page, let alone all of them. Oh Cee . . .’
Star continued to laugh and in the end I joined her, because the whole situation was so crazy and ridiculous; I ended up clutching my sides while I had an attack of the ‘terrics’, as we used to call it in our shared baby language.
Eventually, we both calmed down and I drew in some deep breaths before I could speak again.
‘I really liked him,’ I wailed. ‘He was a genuinely nice guy.’
‘I could see from the picture that you did. It was in your eyes. You looked really happy. I love your hair, by the way, and that top you were wearing.’
‘Thanks, but none of it matters now because he hates me. He thinks I was the one who told the media where he was, because the photo was on my camera roll. The security guard had it developed for me and I even gave Ace a set as a leaving present. Like I was rubbing his nose in it or something.’
‘Oh, that’s terrible, Cee. You must be devastated.’
‘Yeah, I am, but what can I do?’
‘Tell him it wasn’t you?’
‘He’d never believe me. Really, Sia, he wasn’t at all like the papers describe him.’
‘Do you think he did it?’
‘Maybe, but something doesn’t add up.’
‘Well, if it makes you feel any better, Mouse says he’s convinced that Ace is just a fall guy. Someone else at the bank must have known what was going on.’
‘Right,’ I said, not knowing whether to be happy or sad that her boyfriend ‘Mouse’ was on my side, given he’d played a big part in the trouble between me and Star in the first place.
‘Look, if there’s anything we can do this end to help, please call.’
Her use of the word ‘we’ grated on me further. ‘Thanks. I will.’
‘Keep safe, darling Cee. I love you.’
‘I love you too. Bye.’
I ended the call and having felt so much better when the two of us had been laughing like the old days, I now felt depressed by the fact that one word had reminded me how much had changed. Star had her Mouse, whose arms held her tightly every night. She had ended her journey into the past and begun her future, while I was nowhere near doing either.
* * *
At three o’clock on the dot, Chrissie arrived in reception. Despite the heat, she was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt, with a red bandana holding her curls back from her face.
‘G’day, CeCe, ready to hit the frog – I mean, hit the road?’
I got on the back of her moped, and we set off. I recognised the airport as we drove parallel with the runway and then turned some sharp corners until we reached a dusty road that had tin-roofed shacks set back from the track. It wasn’t a shanty town, but it was obvious that the people who lived inside the huts didn’t have any spare cash to beautify their homes.
‘This is it.’ Chrissie drew the bike to a halt and held it steady for me as I climbed off. ‘I’m warning you that my grandma might seem a bit weird to you, but I promise that she’s not crazy. Ready?’
‘Ready.’
Chrissie led me up a path through what was technically a front garden but looked more like a sitting room. There was a worn brown sofa, various wooden chairs and a lounger that had a pillow and a sheet on it, like someone had been sleeping there.
‘Hi, Mimi,’ Chrissie called to a spot behind the sofa. As I followed her round it, I saw a tiny woman sitting cross-legged on the ground. Her skin was the colour of dark chocolate and her face was criss-crossed with hundreds of lines. She was the oldest person I’d ever seen, yet round her forehead she wore a trendy bandana just like her granddaughter.
‘Mimi,ngaji mingan?This is Celaeno, the girl I was telling you about,’ Chrissie said to her.
The old woman looked up at me and I saw her eyes were amazingly bright and clear, like a young girl had been put inside an ancient person’s skin by mistake. They reminded me of two hazelnuts sitting in pools of white milk.
‘Mijala juyu,’ she said, and I stood there awkwardly, having no idea what she’d just said. She patted the ground beside her and I sat down next to her, confused by the empty sofa and the chairs.
