Alice

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.