her. Then a kind of calm spread over me, and the fear that was rising disappeared. There was something about the look on her face. The expression of ⦠incredible peace. A look almost of happiness.
I looked around that room. That special room, the one she came to when she felt alone, when she needed to be with him. Her Tony. âHeâs here,â she said once. âAnd he always will be.â
But that wasnât true. Not any more. He wasnât here now; he had waited for her, and now they were both gone.
But not completely.
Sheâd said something else. Something I never really understood until that moment, standing there alone in that room. âWe give a part of ourselves to everyone we love,â sheâd said. âAnd we live on. Thereâs nothing to be scared about.â
I looked at the peace on her face, and finally I understood.
I stood a moment longer, then the dog got up. Gently, it placed its head into her lap and licked her unmoving hands. Just once. Then it crossed the room and stood before me. I looked down into those huge, liquid-brown eyes and, without thinking, I began to rub softly behind its ear.
âCome on, girl.â
Silently, it followed me to the door.
I looked back once more before I left. âGoodbye, Riny,â I said, and gently closed the door.
24
THE FIRST OF MANY
A lot can happen in three years. A lot has.
I joined the swimming club. The same one as guess who? We havenât become great mates or anything â that might have been asking a little too much â but we are team-mates. Weâre both going to Perth in September for the Nationals. Ros is putting me up at her place for a few days afterwards. I canât wait.
Of course, the tripâs not going to do much for my chances in the yearly exams, but Iâm not setting any records in any of my subjects anyway.
Lisdalia still has to help me with my Maths. Trouble is, it doesnât matter whether we study at her house or mine, we donât seem to get much study done. Not that Iâm complaining, you understand.
Funny thing about high school. When you go there all the rules change. Every oneâs new, and all the old rules seem sort of ⦠old. There was I, worried about being the ânew kidâ. A few weeks later, weâre all new kids, and all the old groups donât mean a thing.
All that heartache for nothing.
There are new people in Rinyâs house. They moved in about nine months after she died. It took a while to sell the house, it was just a really bad time for the housing industry. But it wasnât because of the garden â or the pool. I kept my side of our deal â I was still doing most of my training there until Dad got his discharge. Now he drives me to the pool every morning. He reckons it gives us a chance to talk.
As well, every month until the house was sold, Ros sent me a cheque for forty dollars. âPocket moneyâ, she called it. Who was I to fight it?
Weâd arranged it a couple of days before she went back to Perth. She came over to see me about it. Or so she said. But there was another reason.
âMy mother left this for you, Mike. It was all wrapped up in the kitchen on the day she ⦠It had your name on it.â
I donât know if she knew what was inside. I had the sneaking suspicion that she did. But she didnât wait for me to open it.
I took it down to my room, and ripped the paper off. It was a large round tin. Rinyâs favourite brand of Dutch coffee. But when I opened the lid, it was empty â except for a small, flat box.
I struggled with the clasp, but finally it clicked open, and I caught the gentle gleam of gold.
European Championships, 1938
1OOm Freestyle
R. Blankevoort
âThe first of manyâ, the card said. I had to smile.
You have to do it for yourself . I remember, she told me that.
Iâm sorry, Riny, but youâre only half-right. If it is the first of many, the
The Gathering: The Justice Cycle (Book Three)