As
Alice clung to the pole of the driveway light, she was able to dimly recall a
walk with her long-time friend Katheryn through the bush of the Waitakere
Ranges. It struck her as surprising that despite being able to vividly picture
the pattern on the completely impractical summer frock her friend wore that day
she could not for the life of her remember her own name.
She
looked around for something she recognised, but was familiar only with the Waitakeres
where she had spent nearly all of her life. She could see long fingers of shade
stretching as far as the city in the distance and began to wish she had taken a
jacket with her.
Suddenly a new looking dark
blue sedan appeared from around the corner of the long driveway and came towards
her with surprising speed. But she paid it little attention as she looked past
it and towards the horizon still scanning for something familiar to walk
towards.
The car continued past
her and then abruptly stopped before just reaching the top of the driveway. If
she had not been so anxious she was she would have heard voices, slightly
raised and then silent before the car began to reverse towards her.
“Are
you alright?” Carol asked from the passenger seat of the car. Alice
did not turn or answer.
“Are you looking for someone? Can we help you?” she persisted.
Alice
looked around to see who was speaking and said “No.”
“We’re
going to be late.” The driver's gaunt, profile was motionless apart from regular
flinches on either side of his down-turned mouth.
“Oh
for pity’s sake Dwight, why are you always in such a ruddy hurry. Poor thing is
shaking like a leaf.”
Carol got out of the car and walked around to Alice. She was slim and smartly
dressed and when she stood next to Alice’s elderly frame it
became apparent that she was also quite tall.
“Hello
there. Where are you going?” Carol said and rested her hand gently on the shoulder
of Alice’s cardigan.
“I
was just going for a walk, but now I can’t remember where I parked my car.” Alice
replied looking nervously around her.
“Are
you visiting someone dear?” Carol looked in to Alice’s pale eyes for some
recognition but just saw fear and confusion.
“No,
I don’t think so. My car’s here somewhere. I just need to find it.” Alice
replied confidently.
“Well
I can tell you it’s not down our driveway. Best to look up the road.” Dwight
shook his head and checked his watch.
“Hop
in our car and we’ll take you up the road to see if you can find your car.”
Carol said smiling at Alice.
“What
on earth makes you so bloody sure there is a car?” Dwight tried to lower his
voice.
“We
can’t leave her here.” Carol reached over and opened the rear door.
“Where
do you suggest we take her?” Dwight turned and checked the rear seat of the car
and quickly moved an empty shopping bag to cover the seat nearest the rear
door.
“Where are you taking me?” Alice still
clutched the lamp post.
“Just
to see if we can find your car dear. Not far at all.” Carol smiled and put her
arm under Alice’s and tried to release her from the post.
“You’re
not going to do anything funny with me are you?” Carol had Alice’s attention
now as did the open car door.
“Oh
please,” Dwight sighed.
“I
promise that as soon as you want us to we’ll stop and let you out.” Carol maintained
a reassuring smile and gently eased Alice in to the car.
“Does
this look familiar?” Carol found herself scanning the streets as they drove as if
she knew she what she was looking for. Alice was looking more relaxed and
seemed to be enjoying the drive. “I’m not sure,” she replied.
“What’s
your name dear?” Carol tried to sound conversational.
“Oh,
why it’s…ummm. Well how silly. I can’t remember. I must have bloody Alzheimer’s.”
Alice said looking out the window.
“At
last, some clarity.” Dwight muttered to no-one in particular and stopped the
car at a T-junction. Then he turned to Carol with one hand hanging off the top
of the steering wheel.
“Where
to now? And just so we’re clear, it’s now after 6 and dinner is at 7 and the
invite is only for two.”
“Perhaps
you were visiting family?” Carol offered hopefully.
“I
don’t think so,” Alice frowned. “I don’t have any children, I’m sure of that.”
“Odd
becomes bizarre,” Dwight said. “If she can’t remember her name what makes her
so sure she has a car or can even drive for that matter?” But before Carol
could answer Alice shot her response over the seat to Dwight.
“I most certainly can drive and my car is
red.”
After
a brief pause Dwight decided to drive back towards their home street and once
there he pulled up behind an old crimson coupé parked behind a small line of
cars about 100 meters before his own driveway.
“I’m
going to ask Chris and some of the neighbours if they have mislaid any of their
elderly relatives. I suggest you call the Police and get some advice on what to
do with our elderly passenger. Specifically, where can we deposit her?”
With
that Dwight got out of the car and stood drawing fresh air in to his lungs to
clear the unfamiliar odour from his, thankfully company owned, car. He scanned a semi-circle of houses in the quiet tree-lined street and after
a brief deliberation decided to start with those houses that had the most
cars parked outside.
“Do
you have a purse or anything on you that might help us?” Carol looked at Alice
who was now staring straight ahead hopefully.
“I
think that might be my car,” she said.
Carol
followed Alice’s eyes towards the coupé.
“Are
you sure?” She asked.
“I
think so.”
After
a couple of minutes Carol noticed Dwight coming from the large brick house they
had parked outside with one of the neighbours. Though she had not lived in the
area long enough to know their names it was evident from the curious look on the
woman’s face that Dwight had not met with success.
While
Dwight headed off towards another house the neighbour approached.
“Hello
there,” she smiled at Carol. “I’m Gail. Who do we have here?” She bent and
waved at Alice who did not wave back.
“Hello
Gail. We haven’t met. I’m Carol from number 21.” Carol stretched a hand out of
the passenger window and the two women shook cordially.
“Unfortunately,
we don’t know who this lady is either,” Gail said. “Have you called the
Police?”
“No,
not yet. That’s the next option. She seems to think that the red car in front
might be hers. Do you know who drove it here?”
Gail
looked at the coupé and shrugged.
“Sorry,
no. I’ve never seen it before.”
Carol
got out of the car and walked towards the coupé accompanied by Gail.
“Not
really the type of car my Mum would drive.” Gail offered helpfully.
The
interior of the vehicle was a muddle of detritus and fragments from an
undetermined life. Both women stood beside the vehicle too afraid to take their
examination any further and noticed Dwight jogging slowly out of house number
two and over the road to another neighbour’s property. “Six twenty,” he
muttered tapping his watch as he passed Carol and Gail.
Before
long Dwight and Carol’s sedan was surrounded by a willing but helpless group of
neighbours chatting and offering their best insights.
“You
need to report a missing person,” a dark haired man wearing board shorts and an
All Blacks cap offered.
“And
the purpose of that would be..?” Dwight asked while rummaging through his
leather jacket looking for his cell phone.
“After
you do that the Police can officially start a search.” The reply made Dwight
chuckle.
“And
when the Police discover that we have lost no-one but have in fact found
someone they would no doubt thank us for our vigilance?” Dwight said dialling.
“Sod
it, I’m out of here.” The dark haired man said and spun around and stormed back
towards his driveway.
“Chrissakes,
what’s his problem?” Dwight said to the other two men gathered on the side of
the road. The neighbours had now somehow naturally divided in to two neat,
gender specific groups.
Chris,
the retired but recently promoted chair of the neighbourhood watch committee,
shrugged his shoulders.
“He’s
Police,” said Mike.
Dwight
looked up at the tall, fifty something bearded man who stood in front of him.
“No
wonder he just wants to bark orders at people… Hello?” Dwight said moving away
from the group to begin his phone call.
“We
should have the street BBQ we never had in February,” Gail said conversationally.
“I’d
assumed you’d had it and just didn’t ask Dwight and me because we put in a
resource consent for a two story garage,” Carol replied and all women three stood
silent for a moment before Carol started smiling. “Don’t worry, it’ll never
happen. Dwight just likes the idea of having the biggest everything on the
street.”
“Chris
was seething,” Linda, a new arrival, said smiling back at Carol. “Called it a scar
on the street and refers to the garage as a Dwightmare”.
“Mike
even called his lawyer!” Gail added struggling to contain herself, “And has
nicknamed your husband Blight.” The women dissolved in to collective laughter.
“Bugger!”
Dwight said replacing his phone in his breast pocket. Carol turned to watch him
approach.
“The
bloody new CEO has just made a surprise appearance at Dan’s dinner and I’m
standing in the middle of the road trying to rehome an octogenarian.”
Carol,
implacable and still flushed from the recent laughter, “Oh, for heaven’s sake Dwight
they’ll be just having drinks until 8. We’ll get there in plenty of time to
watch your sycophantic colleagues creeping around your new boss - God help us.”
She rolled her eyes and winked at the other women.
“She
thinks this might be her car,” Gail said.
Dwight
frowned at the faded, deep red coupé. He could not recall ever seeing the dated
sports styling and ‘STOP DRILLING’ bumper sticker parked on the street before.
“So
why don’t you look in it?” He walked quickly up to the car and tried the
passenger door, locked, and then the driver’s door, which opened immediately. He
gingerly climbed in to the car and looked around the shabby interior and started
searching. He grabbed a piece of paper on the passenger seat, read it before
discarding it and then checked the glove compartment and the door pockets.
Eventually he located a bottle of pills on the floor of the passenger’s side
and another piece of paper. He read the label carefully.
Alice
Littlewood
Take
twice daily with food
Tramadol
50mg
Then
he read the piece of paper which had been lying next to the pill bottle.
Best
West Pharmacy
New
Lynn
Auckland
ph 09 455 8100
Ms
Alice Littlewood
1165
Piha Road
Auckland
Tramadol
50mg…
“Nailed
ya!” Dwight said clutching the paper in his hand and turning towards the
assembled neighbours.
“I
believe we have identified our elderly explorer,” he said to Chris and Mike as
he stood dusting off his black Armani jeans.
Carol
watched Dwight as he approached and noted the look of victory on his face. “I’m
pleased to say that now all we need to do is call the Police and get them to
pick up Ms Alice Littlewood and deposit her at her Piha address,” he said.
“Sorry
Dwight, I can’t do that,” Carol replied.
“What
the hell are you talking about? Watch this,” he said turning to Alice.
“Alice?
Alice is that you?” Almost immediately the elderly passenger turned to see who
was speaking to her.
“I
can’t just leave her and let her get dumped somewhere on her own. She’s clearly
not well.”
“Christ
Carol, I know you’d love to get out of this dinner. But surely an evening with
a semi-conscious eighty year old with advanced dementia is slightly worse than
dinner at Dan’s?”
The
other neighbours quietly transitioned from watching the exchange to making
their own subdued conversations.
“You
go Dwight,” Carol said passively. “I’ll drive her home in my car and see that
she gets settled in safely. I’ll come along later if I get back in time.”
Dwight
looked between his watch and Carol and shrugged. “If you’re sure,” he said.
“Positive,”
Carol replied.
“I’ll
come with you.” Gail said, judging it was safe to re-join the conversation.
“Me
too!” Linda added, smiling warmly at Carol.
“Oh
great, so now it’s bloody Piha Rescue.” Dwight said to no-one in particular.
The
following Monday saw Dwight driving through the rain in a long line of traffic
out towards Titirangi. Though it was late summer it was already getting dark
and his delayed departure had not resulted in any lessening of the traffic on
SH16.
It
was, he reflected, an odd weekend. First, the last minute invite by Dan on
Friday to dinner on Saturday. Was it an afterthought? Then the surprise arrival
of Dylan, the new CEO and then, most notably, his own late arrival. He hated being
late. In all six of his last corporate reorganisations he had above all else
prided himself on delivering on time, to target and on budget. Scuppered at the
first hurdle by an aging reprobate. Ridiculous.
And
the conversation at dinner. Though he arrived only 40 minutes later than the
others it was as if he had arrived at the end of the evening. Dylan already had
nicknames for half of the room and Dwight was certain he heard him refer to an
earlier discussion about his aspirations for the group of companies.
“Shit!” Dwight braked suddenly to avoid a 4 x
4 moving in to his lane without indicating.
He
was certain that Carol’s absence was noted. No doubt chalked up by Dylan in
some mental note labelled ‘personal life imbalance’. Why had he let it happen?
The other neighbours could have driven the old biddy home. Why did it need
three of them to take her for heaven’s sake?
“Bugger,”
he said noticing he had forgotten about the road works on Titirangi Road and
realising he had missed the turn off to avoid them.
He
sat in the traffic and tried to recall how Dylan interacted with him during the
brief discussion they had on Dan’s balcony.
“You
come with a formidable reputation,” he had said. Christ that could mean
anything. Reputation as the biggest idiot in the industry, most detested man in
the building, the biggest prick this side of the black stump.
“Oh
crap,” he said realising he had promised Carol he would be home by 7pm to meet with
their architect to discuss the plans for the garage and annex.
Well,
I guess that makes us even, he consoled himself as he steered his car around a
roundabout and towards the winding and narrow ascent of Scenic Drive.
What
was the other thing Dylan had said? Something about change being constant. Then
he remembered.
“Everyone
has expectations and no career is without its disappointments.”
What
the hell does that mean? Future tense or past? The bastard speaks in constant
riddles. Dwight could feel the light stirrings of butterflies in his stomach
recalling how Dylan had looked away from him when Dwight had spoken about how
much he enjoyed new challenges.
Suddenly
the Mozart he had forgotten was playing in the car was interrupted by a loud
ringing tone. Dwight looked down at the words ‘incoming call - number unknown’
glowing on the dashboard display.
As
he started to feel along the steering wheel for the green ‘answer’ button he was
able to visualise it on the bottom left-hand side next to the red ‘hang up’
button.
Be
just my luck to end my first conversation with Dylan before it even started, he
thought.
Slowing
the car to a respectable 70kmph he glanced down at the illuminated buttons.
“Nailed
ya!” Dwight said for the last time as he hit the ‘answer’ button. As he looked
up he was immediately confronted with a car careering towards him having
travelled across the centre line and in to half of his own lane.
He
swerved in time to successfully avoid any contact with the approaching vehicle
but failed to avoid one of the areas more substantial Totara trees. So Dwight
breathed his last while pinned to an ancient native while the crimson coupé
that caused his demise continued its unpredictable descent down Scenic Drive.
