kce

‘Haven’t I? I’m sorry. It’s still light outside: would you like to look at
the garden?’
‘Great idea,’ Wendy said, her voice mellow with the wine.
Brian overheard this and flew into the dining room. ‘What’s that trick
you were going to show me?’ he asked.
‘Ahh,’ she said. ‘Okay, have you got a ruler?’
A ruler was produced instantly.
‘Watch carefully,’ she said. ‘I’m going to balance this on my nose.’
‘No way!’ the boys said, and Katrina stopped what she was doing at
the sink.
Wendy placed the ruler on the end of her nose and balanced it there
for about a minute.
‘Oh man!’ Brian and James cried. ‘Let me try!’
They had a go, but they couldn’t do it. Wendy explained how it was
done, but they would need to practise. She then spent a minute or so
encouraging Brian to try walking on his hands. He did better at this, and
from his preliminary attempts at it I knew he would have it licked within a
couple of days. I expected to see him walking around the house on his
hands in no time.
‘You should be teaching your brother and sister how to do these
things, Brian,’ Wendy gently chided at the end of his demonstration.
Katrina shook her head. It wasn’t for her: she knew she was just a little too
big for that. James, on the other hand, bravely said that he would at least
try. Brian agreed to teach him, and Wendy and I went out to the front
garden.
‘You have a lovely home and lovely children,’ Wendy said as we
stepped on to the front lawn.
‘Thank you.’
‘If I may, I’ll give you my first impression.’
‘What’s that?’ I asked, uncertain of what was coming next.
‘Well, I think you have such an idyllic life. It’s so peaceful in this little
town, and anyone would have to be mad to think you would invent a story
like this.’
I smiled. ‘Because it’s obviously going to disrupt things. Yes, I know.
I sweated on that fact for weeks before I told a soul what I’d seen. After all,
I moved here from Melbourne to get away from things, to live a quiet life.’