Free Doors Without Numbers by C.D. Neill Page B

itself from the other side of the room, followed by two dark rimmed eyes. Hammond swallowed; he was being burgled by a monkey.
    “Wally! You frightened the shit out of me!”
    The reprimanding voice was accompanied by the petite figure of a young woman dressed in tightly fitted jeans and a black t-shirt with the slogan “If you can afford me, I’m yours! ” Hammond’s face broke into a relieved smile.
    “Jenny! I didn’t know you would be here.” He wasn’t sure how to continue. It wasn’t every day that his son’s best friend visited him uninvited. In fact, he had never officially invited her. Jenny had a habit of doing what she wanted when she wanted regardless of any unspoken protocol.
    “It’s cool.” Jenny continued pulling at the sofa, speaking as if she were accepting an apology from him. “Paul said he had left a message for you. How do you get this sofa to turn into a bed?”
    She didn’t look at him as she spoke, being so preoccupied with pulling his sofa apart. Her blasé attitude made Hammond feel as if it were he who was intruding into her private domain. He stood there, completely bewildered before walking across the room to assist her unfolding the metal sprung mattress base and rearranged the sofa cushions for her.
    “It’s bloody freezing in here, Wally”
    Jenny looked at him then, and reached her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. The gesture was so unexpected that Hammond, with some embarrassment returned the embrace, patting his hands on her upper back. Then he remembered the front door was still open and returned to the hallway, shutting the door firmly.
    Jenny called to him as he returned along the hallway, kicking his shoes off as he passed the coat rack.
    “I’ve made you some dinner, it’s in the oven.”
    He proceeded to the kitchen, questions popping into his thoughts as he did so but decided not to ask, not yet. He headed for the telephone that was mounted on the wall inside the kitchen and dialled 1571 to retrieve his phone messages.
    “Hey Dad. I need a favour. Jen’s going through a bad time, I told her she could come and stay with you for a while, just until she gets her head sorted. I have given her my keys so don’t feel you have to get home early to let her in. I will phone soon.” The message ended. It was typical that his son had not thought to ring his mobile rather than the home phone to ensure his message would be retrieved before Jenny had arrived. The female call-minder voice instructed Hammond to save or delete the message by pressing three. He pressed three before replacing the handset and looked around the kitchen. It was unusually tidy despite the faint aroma of burnt toast. He felt un-nerved suddenly and strode back into the living room.
    “Jenny, it’s lovely to see you of course. I haven’t seen you in a while and you look great.” He lied; she looked like a small child who had attacked the Halloween face paints. “Although, I have to ask...why the sudden visit? Paul’s message said you are going through a tough time. Are you alright?”
    He perched on the arm of the chair nearest the door and waited for her to face him. When she did turn, he was taken aback by her response.
    “No, Wally. I am not alright. No, I do not want to talk about it, and no, I don’t know how long I will be here, but it’s probably for a few days, unless you want to be like a typical misogynistic male and kick a vulnerable woman out on the street so you can stay here and be cosy with your smug self?!”
    The words were shouted at him with childish aggression, but Hammond stayed where he was, concentrating on keeping his face as neutral as possible. He was unsure how to respond.
    “Ok. Where did you say my dinner was?”

“ All human work, under natural conditions, is a kind of dance.”
Henry Havelock Ellis. The Dance of Life. 1923.
C HAPTER F IVE
    The temperature had dropped to several degrees above freezing. The cold air shocked Wallace Hammond awake as he