The SPECTRE Of The VATICAN ©

Chapter 7 - A Whiter Shade of Pale.

Time: Present Day
Location: Vatican City

Father Peter Margate took the news badly. He had liked watching the After Dark programme and he especially liked the interaction between Carter Cheval and his co-host Carrie Fisher. He liked watching lots of shows from Australia. He even liked the soapies like Neighbours and Home and Away. They helped to alleviate some of the homesickness he had suffered from all these years in Italy. He had watched the journalistic career of Carter Cheval with some interest as it blossomed into a full blown TV career.

He poured himself a Glenlivet, a single malt scotch favourite of his. He really loved Highland Park better but couldn't always justify the cost except on special occasions. This, he mused could be one. So he vowed to request a bottle the next time someone went into town. His mind drifted to Amelia. Amelia Cheval had been the typical girl next door. Beautiful, playful and strictly out of reach. Both the Cheval girls used to play tricks on him when they were growing up but he had especially liked Amelia. They had developed one of those special bonds from childhood that lingers till the grave. Amelia never made fun of him because he was different to the other kids. She never once called him a "wog" or a "refo" the half derogatory, half endearing terms given to refugees in the 1950s suburban Australia. Like their next door neighbours, the Chevals, the Margates were a strict Catholic family, very close, very loving.

When Vera Margate lost two children at birth and miscarried another they were advised by their doctor not to try again. Vera had suffered irreparable damage to the uterus that would make another pregnancy life threatening not only for the unborn child but for Vera herself. Don Margate decided they would adopt. They did. They adopted five orphaned refugees from around the world. One of these, the very first was Peter. Peter was already three years old when he arrived at the Margates. Amelia was still a baby.

They would go to school together at St Francis but separate of course. The girls to the Nun's school and the boys to the Christian Brother's school. They would all walk together to and from school, the Margates and the Chevals. Safety in numbers. Peter liked to protect all the girls from the bullies, being the oldest. It was Amelia who would sometimes protect him though, from the racial slurs he sometimes received because of his being a "wog". Amelia would come to his aid and give the bullies such a tongue lashing that they would cower away or at least stop what they were saying. Most Catholic boys felt intimidated by girls, especially beautiful ones that could tear at your ego with such vitriolic force. Carter Cheval wasn't around then of course. Carter was the son of Amelia's sister Amanda and her husband Roger. Amanda hadn't even met Roger when Peter had had to leave Sydney and go to Melbourne.

Peter poured himself another scotch as he watched the Australian news on his internet linked TV. He settled into his comfy armchair as he put on the latest After Dark that he had recorded. It wouldn't be the same without Carter though. It was late, eleven pm in Rome as the scotch did its job. Peter became melancholy and it wasn't long before the show took a background step to be replaced by thoughts of Amelia.

Peter often thought of her. Funny really, since he hadn't heard from, or spoken to her in twenty odd years. He hoped she was happy wherever she was. I guess they are right you never really forget your first love, he mused. With the thought love memories came flooding back as they often did. The first time they kissed. They had been at school. He was fifteen she was twelve. She had just given another bully a tongue lashing on his behalf. A German boy called Eric. Funny how as he had gotten older it was the other "wogs" that had started picking on him not the Australians. Peter liked to think it was because they were jealous of all the attention he got from the girls, especially the Cheval sisters. He reached for the remote and flipped through his music video file. He put on Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale. It was her song, she loved it. It was their song. He played it for her the first time they made love.