Reprise

Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight 

It's the first day of our last semester of high school and I'm struggling to get out of bed. The two weeks of holidays got me used to sleep-ins that lasted until ten in the morning, and now that I have to get up at a normal time I feel like death.

When I roll out of bed I knock a Harry Potter book off my bed. It falls onto the floor and the dust jacket slips off, revealing Dad's face looking up at me from the cover of his autobiography. I pick up the book and stare into my father's face. I need to figure out what happened to George, but I don't think even my dad knows what happened. If only I could figure out what was going through George Addison's mind on that night sixteen years ago.

I flick to the passage that Lucas read out to me in the playground.

"Back then, Nora and Clara were quite close. That killed Nicoletta, of course. Nicoletta and Nora had never been the best of friends, but when Nora started making friends with George's new girlfriend, Nicoletta got angry. At the time, I remember, Nicoletta and Nora weren't speaking, so Nora was becoming quite close to Clara. Nora would talk with Clara for hours on the phone and listen to her complain about George. Clara was never in love with George like Nicoletta had been in love with him. While Nic had devoted herself to him, Clara liked the idea of the lead singer of a band, but didn't like the reality.

That night, Clara called Nora and told her that George and Clara had had another huge fight, but this time Clara didn't want to say what it was about. Clara just told Nora she was going to move back in to stay with her parents for a while. When Nora told me that, I realised I needed to see George and see if he was okay. George was prone to destroying himself with substances if he was ever in a foul mood, and I suspected this was one of those times. So I grabbed a bottle of wine and I went over to George's house."

I frown. My mother, Nora Bennett, was friendly with George's girlfriend Clara. I wonder if my mother is still in contact with this Clara woman that George was dating. I wonder what they fought about.

I pull myself out of bed and walk down the hallway to find my mother in the kitchen drinking tea and watching a morning program on TV. I start making breakfast and then say to her, 'Hey Mum, did George have a girlfriend?'

Mum looks up at me. It's not even seven o'clock yet and she has already done her hair and put on makeup. 'Why?' she asks me, frowning slightly. Well, no, not frowning. Nora Bennett doesn't frown – that would give her wrinkles. But she lowers her perfectly sculpted eyebrows and examines me over her cup of tea.

'Did he?'

'Yes,' Mum says. 'Clarice Davids. I don't know whatever happened to her. I lost touch with her once George died.'

'So you were friends with her?' I ask.

Mum sips her tea. 'Loosely.'

I raise my eyebrows at her and she sighs.

'Karen and Nicoletta didn't like me talking to her, but I was the only one that did,' Mum says. Karen and Nicoletta are the twins and Julian's mums respectively. They were both in Dime's the Limit, whereas my mum was always just my dad's girlfriend.

'So Nic didn't like her because she thought she stole George away?' I ask.

Mum shrugs. 'I suppose so. They didn't like me talking to her. But she didn't have many friends around. She went to Hilverton but I think she had a big falling out with all her friends when she got together with George.'

'So did Clara and George fight?' I ask.

Mum takes a final sip of tea and stands up. She walks over to where I'm standing at the kitchen bench to wash her cup. I watch her as she takes her wedding ring off before soaking the cup in hot soapy water. 'They fought all the time,' Mum says. 'He was reckless and wild and she couldn't keep up with him.'