Lucy Blues was happy.
She smiled. She was back home in
the only place where it seemed like she could feel this way. She walked through
the woods that surrounded her father’s cabin and enjoyed the sharp chill of the
winter morning’s breeze as it filled her nostrils. She was walking her
favourite trail and had been doing so each morning since she and Walter had arrived.
It had always been her plan to develop a daily ritual; it always sounded like
one of those things she would read in the self help books that were scattered
among her bookshelf in her city apartment. Four days in and she could
definitely see the benefit.
She had left Walter to sleep in
this morning. He had been eager to explore the cabin and its surrounds but Lucy
could tell he was tired from the last few months. The exhaustion of the tour
and the weight of billions of people’s , it was all taking its toll on the
world’s happiest man. But to see Walter at the cabin had helped Lucy reconcile
with her decision to expose him in the first place. Throughout the tour he
would smile but it always seemed for the benefit of others, but here he would
smile differently. He genuinely looked happy. And when she saw his face resting
on a pillow this morning, drooling lightly, he genuinely looked at peace.
Rounding the small creek and its
swampy banks Lucy remembered how she would hold her father’s hand as they got
to this part so that she wouldn’t slip. She had the same memory every morning
and was still finding it hard not to get choked up. Perhaps that was what made
this trail so inspiring. It had heart and history. She felt her own heartbeat
stir to a new rhythm.
Walter was so different to other
men she had been with. She so often chased men of status without knowing why it
was so appealing. Her fling with Manny was a mistake from the beginning but she
was drawn to his confidence. Beneath that though she found his flaws and it was
sad. She found it almost disgusting the way a man can project strength and then
search for a woman to absorb his weakness. But was she any different? She was just
another man, unloading her burden onto the shoulders of Walter.
The only lover she had ever felt
differently for was Sammy, but she had built up a mental block to the memories
of him.
On the trail Lucy had come to the
hard part, where the trail steepened significantly. “This is where character is
built,” she said aloud, imitating the grave tone her father would always use
when they walked this trail together. The hill looked easy at a glance but
halfway up it usually began to take its toll. More often than not her father
would carry her on his shoulders. “God gave you legs for a reason, Lucy,” she
said sternly, her breath starting to shorten. “But the view is so much better
up here!” She stared down just half a metre ahead of her, counting each step.
Lucy could feel the muscles in her
legs start to strain but she no longer had the despair that she felt the first
day or two. She had done this before and she would do it again. It could only
get easier from here. Plus she had her father to carry her. She looked up and smiled
through her grimace as the crest of the hill approached. She felt like she was
onto something here; a self help book was almost writing itself with each step
she took. Maybe she would be the next Walter Wallace! She laughed aloud as she
took the final few steps and looked out over the small clearing towards the
cabin.
She took a few deep breaths and
made her way towards the house. She loved the way it looked with the morning
Sun glimmering off the wooden boards. She could tell that today was going to be
a good day – a great day even. She knelt down at the front door and untied the
laces to her shoes, neatly resting them against the wall. She entered the house
and was met by a strange sound.
From the downstairs living room
she heard multiple voices talking loudly over one another. They sounded
familiar and they made her uneasy.
“I just think it is another mark
against this whole happiness movement.”
“I don’t see how these people
could let themselves preach to us when they know it is all – and excuse me for
saying this – B.S!”
Lucy entered the living room and
saw Walter on the couch with a tenseness across his face. “Walter,” she began
cautiously, “why are you watching TV? You never watch TV.”
“I don’t know,” Walter said
without looking at her, “I just had a weird impulse and I turned it on to
this.”
Lucy looked at the panel of
frighteningly manufactured women. Their hair and makeup looked as though it
should come with toxic warnings. “You don’t want to watch this, Walter,” she
said, trying to induce levity into her increasingly uneasy tone.
Walter didn’t respond; he just
kept watching with the same stroke of concern gripping his facial features.
Lucy looked at the TV and finally let herself hear the context of discussion.
Along the bottom of the screen was the headline – WALTER WALLACE LOVE TRIANGLE
- the scrolling news feed below it going into more details
...worth, father of Channel 8 reporter, Manny Holdsworth drops
bombshell about his son’s affair with Ms Lucy Blues...
Lucy’s heart seized up. The blood
flooded from her face and she could feel a horrifying prickling sensation all
over.
“I think this goes to show we
shouldn’t entrust our lives to the people like Ms Blues.”
“She promotes happiness by example
but look at her. She is a home wrecker, plain and simple.”
“Well what about the fact that she
and Walter Wallace were last seen exiting a hotel together.”
“At least this man doesn’t have a
family.”
“Not that we know of anyway. How
much do we really know about these people?”
“I think enough al-”
Lucy switched off the TV set.
“Walter...”
“Is it true?” Lucy couldn’t reply.
Walter stood up and looked at Lucy with an expression she had never seen before.
“Why are we here? What do you even want from me?”
“Walter, it was a mistake. It
didn’t mean anything.”
“He had a family, Lucy. A wife and
two little daughters. It meant something to somebody. You spent how long, how
many years trying to decipher happiness? How about you start by not spreading
so much fucking sadness. You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”
Lucy could feel her throat
tightening; her eyes one blink away from tears.
“Where does this end? Where does
it go? People are out looking for me because I can help them and I am here
hiding like a coward. I’m leaving, Lucy. I didn’t choose this but now I have a
responsibility.”
“Walter you can’t go! You don’t
know what they are going to do!”
“What who are going to do?” Walter
snapped back, “Dr Tank? One moment you are rescuing me from him and then the
next you get a call from him on your mobile? Are you fucking him, too?!”
Lucy could barely comprehend how
Walter knew. She broke down in heavy sobs. She felt useless and horrible. She
didn’t mean to be evil but all she did was hurt people. She wanted to die right
there and be forgotten forever.
“I’m turning myself in, Lucy and
don’t try and stop me. Maybe Sammy will give me some answers.”
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