‘See, he wasn’t properly organised,’ Reuben explained. ‘Danny, I mean. He’d been taking precautions, but they weren’t good enough. You can’t just chain yourself up every full moon – it doesn’t work. After a few months of really rough treatment, something’s always gunna give. Like a link or a bolt or something.’
‘Which is what happened to Danny,’ said Nina.
‘Which is what happened to Danny,’ Reuben confirmed. ‘He kept yanking at that chain until he pulled it out. Then he ended up killing his own dogs, poor bugger.’ There was a regretful clicking of tongues all around the room. ‘I told him, you need a secure facility. So we fixed up an old mine shaft—’
‘I don’t think Toby’s too interested in the details, love,’ Estelle suddenly remarked. She was grinding her cigarette stub into a brass ashtray. ‘Not right now, at least.’
‘Good lord, no.’ Dr Plackett was peering at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘We’re running out of time.’
‘The point we’re trying to make, Toby, is that you’re not the first person we’ve approached. And you probably won’t be the last,’ Father Ramon declared. He spoke in a slightly formal manner, as if he were delivering a sermon. ‘Because although you have an extremely rare condition, you’re not alone.’
‘Not by a long shot,’ said the doctor. ‘We’re here to help.’
‘Any support you might need, whether practical or emotional – all you have to do is ask,’ Father Ramon continued. ‘Every one of us in this room has a special burden to carry, and we know that a shared burden is always much lighter. “Woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.”’
‘Amen,’ Bridget muttered.
The priest ploughed on. ‘We’re here because we believe that we have a responsibility both to you, as a fellow human being in trouble, and to society as a whole. And we each have something special to contribute, whether it be advice or comfort—’
‘—or a wine cellar.’ Reuben weighed in. Seeing Nina grimace, he went on the defensive. ‘What? Aren’t we gunna talk about the wine cellar?’
Estelle flapped her hand at him. ‘For God’s sake, take it easy, will you?’ she croaked, between coughs. ‘The poor kid’s still reeling.’
‘Yeah, but there isn’t much time.’ Reuben was becoming restless. He didn’t just turn his head to look at me; his whole body spun around. ‘We’ve got a friend who’s got a wine cellar,’ he explained. ‘It needs a bit of work, but we think it would be a really good option for you. And it’s not too far away – it’s in Haberfield.’ He paused, then began to twitch and fidget when I didn’t respond. ‘We can’t both go in the bank vault, mate, we’d rip each other apart!’
Still I couldn’t say anything. I sat there dumbly, my mind a blank, only vaguely aware of Reuben’s impatience, and Nina’s sympathetic regard, and the plate of scones hovering under my nose.
‘Are you sure you won’t have one?’ Bridget offered, in a gesture of helpless goodwill.
‘No, thanks.’ My voice was barely audible. Amin was chewing on his thumbnail, round-eyed.
‘Listen, Toby.’ Dr Plackett leaned forward in a brisk, no-nonsense fashion, his bony hands clasped between his knees. ‘We’ll show you the wine cellar before you make any final decisions – don’t worry about that. You’d be involved in the whole renovation process.’
‘Oh, sure,’ said Reuben. ‘And we’d be doing most of the work ourselves, so it wouldn’t cost you much.’
‘It wouldn’t cost you anything,’ the doctor corrected, still talking to me. ‘Maybe when you’re older, with a good job and a solid asset base, you can make your own contribution. The way Reuben has.’
‘And of course you’re free to consult your mother,’ Father Ramon advised. The rumble of protest that greeted this announcement made him add, ‘As long as you’re able to convince her that we have your best interests at heart.’
‘And hers, too,’ Estelle pointed out. ‘God knows, I wouldn’t want to be sharing a bathroom with Toby, next time he has a bad spell.’
‘No, no. Of course not.’ Dr Plackett took over again. ‘But if you don’t think your mother can be persuaded, Toby, we’ll have to arrange some kind of cover story. Maybe your friends can help.’ Focusing his gimlet eye on Amin and Fergus, he addressed them with barely concealed distaste. ‘I daresay you all take part in the occasional overnight camping trip, or some such thing . . .?’
Amin gawked. Fergus said, ‘Camping trip?’ as if he’d never heard anything so ridiculous in his whole life.
‘You must have sleepovers,’ Nina suggested. Then she appealed to me. ‘Don’t you have sleepovers?’
I didn’t want to be rude. I really wanted to answer her. But it was a huge effort. ‘I’ve stayed at Amin’s house a couple of times,’ was all that I could manage, even after a lot of throat-clearing and lip-moistening.
It seemed to satisfy the doctor, though.
‘There you are, then. We can sort something out,’ he said. ‘The important thing is that the police don’t get involved. We simply can’t afford to alert them.’
‘Because of me,’ Reuben confessed.
‘Not just because of you—’
‘Because I’ve killed people. Lots of people. I could go to gaol for that.’
‘But you weren’t in your right mind,’ Estelle cut in, with the fretful air of someone who’s argued the same point a million times before. ‘All you’d have to do is plead insanity—’
‘—and get put in a hospital for the criminally insane! No thanks,’ barked Reuben. Dr Plackett, however, wasn’t about to be diverted. He kept soldiering on, doggedly making his case.
‘We can’t risk any kind of public exposure,’ he informed me. ‘If the police find out, the media will find out. Which would be disastrous.’
‘Why?’ Fergus demanded. He had regained some of his in-your-face confidence; as everyone stared at him, he stared right back, defiantly. ‘I don’t get it. Werewolves are cool. People love werewolves.’
Reuben bared his teeth. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he snapped.
‘Yes, I do. It doesn’t make sense. Why shouldn’t Toby be famous? Why shouldn’t he earn lots of money from going on tv?’ Before Reuben could say anything else, Fergus began to harangue me, his excitement increasing with every new scenario. ‘I bet you’d be famous all over the world!’ he exclaimed. ‘I bet they’d fly you to America and everything! They might even make a movie about you!’
‘That’s right,’ said Nina flatly. ‘Toby would be famous. Wherever he decided to go, people would know who he was. All the scientists who’d want to treat him like a lab rat, and all the crazies who’d want to get rid of an unnatural freak, and all the evil billionaires who’d pay big money to have a stuffed werewolf – all those people would know who Toby was.’
Snubbed, Fergus began to deflate beneath her sombre regard. Then Father Ramon spoke up.
‘It’s one thing to enjoy werewolves when they’re part of a paranormal fantasy world,’ he said. ‘It’s another thing when that fantasy becomes reality.’
‘I mean, we can’t pretend we’re harmless, right?’ Though still flushed, Reuben was keeping his anger in check. ‘It’s not like we’re fairies or unicorns. We’ve had a hundred years of bad press – that’s not going to disappear in a hurry.’
‘It’s like vampires,’ Estelle proposed. For some reason, this comment didn’t seem to go down very well; a slight tension was noticeable in the atmosphere as she went on. ‘If vampires were real, someone out there would want to kill every one of ’em. Just because they have a bad reputation.’
‘But vampires are dangerous,’ Fergus objected. After a heartbeat’s pause, he mumbled, ‘I mean, they would be if they were real.’
‘Yes. That’s certainly what people would think,’ said the doctor, with tight-lipped disapproval. ‘And they’d think the same thing about you, Toby. Your life as you know it would completely disappear. You’d become a
stereotype. A target. You’d be “the werewolf” to everyone, and that’s all you’d ever be.’
‘Plus you’d never get health insurance,’ Estelle remarked. She had shuffled over to the coffee table, where she was pouring herself a cup of tea. ‘In fact you might have trouble finding any kind of insurance cover at all,’ she conjectured. ‘Try telling your average insurance salesman that you wouldn’t be ripping up your soft furnishings every month. Do you think he’d believe you? I don’t hold out much hope.’
A glum and weary silence settled over the room. Even Fergus had run out of things to say; his arms were folded and he looked sulky. Beside him, Amin was staring at the floor. Nina must have been feeling sick, because her eyes were closed. Estelle was peering at her with obvious concern.
Everyone else was studying me.
‘You’ve been very quiet, Toby,’ Father Ramon said at last. ‘Is there anything you’re particularly worried about? Anything you’d like to ask us?’
‘Yeah,’ I replied. ‘There is.’ Then I stood up, shaking off Reuben’s steely grasp. ‘Can I go home now? Please?’ I said. ‘All I wanna do is go home.’
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long for a cab – no more than ten minutes. And during that time, no one said much. Estelle called the taxi service that she always used, because apparently she lived in Surry Hills, which wasn’t that far away. Bridget offered to pack up a few scones so I could take them with me. (I rejected her offer.) Father Ramon gave me his phone number and enough money for the fare back home. Nina vanished; I think she went to the bathroom. Dr Plackett gave Fergus a short lecture about having some consideration for a friend in need. ‘Imagine how bad you’re going to feel,’ said the doctor, ‘if Toby ends up dead because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.’
It was Reuben who came outside with me when the cab finally appeared. He’d been trying to arrange a visit to his friend’s wine cellar, and was fast losing patience because I wouldn’t commit to any kind of schedule. ‘Just gimme a rough idea,’ he pleaded, following me down the front steps. ‘We’ve gotta do it soon, y’know – we can’t just piss about. It’s only three weeks until the next full moon.’
‘I’ll think about it.’ All I wanted to do was escape. ‘I’ll text you.’
‘Yeah, but when?’ he pestered. Then he seized my arm again. ‘Listen – you can’t just ignore this, right? It’s not gunna go away. It’s like being pregnant.’ Hearing Fergus snicker, he rounded on both my friends, scowling furiously. ‘As for you two, you’d better watch your step, because you’re treading on thin ice, okay? You’re really getting up my nose. And you don’t wanna do that. You do not want someone like me on your tail.’
Amin flinched. ‘I didn’t say anything!’ he protested, without eliciting the slightest response. Reuben simply turned back to me.
‘You can call any time,’ he said. ‘If you wanna talk, just dial my number. Don’t go blabbing to anyone else.’ The taxi driver honked his horn impatiently. ‘Did Father Ramon give you enough cash?’
‘Yes.’ It was in my pocket.
‘Good. Off you go, then.’ He clapped me on the shoulder as I pulled open the taxi’s rear passenger door. ‘And don’t sweat it, okay? You’ll be fine.’
I was already climbing into the back seat of the car, so I figured that I didn’t have to say anything. Fergus shoved his way in after me, with Amin bringing up the rear. It was Fergus who told the driver that we wanted to go to Mount Druitt. I just stared straight ahead until Reuben slammed the door shut, because I didn’t want to catch his eye.
I only glanced back when we started to pull away from the kerb. Reuben was standing in the glow of a streetlight, hands on hips, watching us go with a frown on his face. It was good to see how quickly his figure receded.
‘Quick!’ said Fergus. He whipped out his mobile and began scrolling down the screen for my number. ‘Let’s hear what they’re saying!’
‘It’s no use,’ I mumbled. Fergus, however, ignored me. Amin was the one who reacted, his eyes widening with dismay.
‘Whaddaya mean?’ he said.
‘It’s no use,’ I repeated. ‘Fergus? There’s no point calling my phone. I didn’t leave it back there.’
At last my warning sank in. Fergus looked up.
‘You might as well not bother,’ I continued. ‘All you’re gunna hear is us, because my phone is right here in my pocket.’
He was speechless. His mouth flapped, but no sound emerged. Then Amin said, ‘Did you forget to do it?’
He was talking to me, so I shook my head.
‘Are you crazy?’ Fergus had found his voice again, though it was high and hoarse. ‘That’s the whole reason we went there! To plant a bug!’
Amin flicked a nervous look at the driver, who was behaving like one of the three wise monkeys. (‘Hear no evil’, to be precise.) I swallowed.
‘We went there to find out if Reuben was lying,’ I said.
‘Exactly!’ Fergus still didn’t get it. ‘Which means we’re stuffed! This was all a waste of time!’
I turned to stare out the window. Amin, who was way ahead of Fergus, tried to explain why we hadn’t been wasting our time at all.
‘We didn’t need to leave the phone there,’ he told Fergus. ‘Toby’s made up his mind.’
‘Huh?’
‘Well . . .’ There was a pause. I don’t know if Amin was pulling faces or not, because I was still staring out the window. ‘Did you think Reuben was lying?’ he finally asked.
‘Of course he was lying!’ Fergus yelped. Then the penny dropped. ‘Oh, man,’ he cried. ‘You believed all that?’
‘Didn’t you?’ said Amin. ‘I mean, it was weird. I thought they might try to jump us, or sell us something, but it was really . . .’ He trailed off.
‘Really ordinary,’ Fergus supplied.
‘Yeah. Kind of respectable.’
‘Except for . . .’ Fergus jerked his chin in my direction. ‘That thing downstairs. Toby’s freak-out.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Which was spooky,’ Fergus agreed. He fixed me with a speculative look. ‘What was all that about, anyway? Is that what convinced you?’
I nodded.
‘Why?’
But I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt. And after a while, he gave up waiting.
‘Wow,’ he murmured. ‘Man. So it’s the real deal, huh? That’s pretty cool.’
‘Yeah,’ said Amin.
‘That’s really amazing. I mean – wow. Wow. Toby, of all people!’ He was warming to the subject. ‘It’s gunna be awesome! We’re gunna have the best time! I wish I was a—’
‘Fergus!’ I snapped, before he could finish. Then I cocked my thumb at the driver.
‘Oh. Yeah. Right.’ Fergus winced. ‘Sorry.’
‘I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘And I don’t want you talking about it.’
‘Sure, dude. Gotcha.’ Fergus lowered his voice until he was whispering. ‘It’s great, though, don’t you think? It’s way better than being epileptic!’
I was too stunned to answer him, so I turned back to the window. And I stayed like that, watching the streetlights slip past, until we reached our destination. I didn’t have to fend off any more questions from Fergus, though he probably would have liked to ask some. Perhaps he didn’t know how to – not without saying ‘werewolf’ in front of a totally strange cab driver. Or perhaps he sensed that I didn’t want to talk. Whatever the reason, he kept his mouth shut all the way to Mount Druitt. And for that I was very grateful.
We were dropped in front of the cinema, which was shutting for the night. Only half a dozen people were still hanging around. I was the last out of the car because I had to pay our fare; by the time I’d pocketed my change and slammed the door behind me, Mum was already breathing down my neck. I straightened up and there she was: bang! So close I could hardly get her into focus.
‘This had better be good,’
she said, through her teeth.
‘Oh. Hi, Mum.’ The cab was moving off – and so was Fergus, who was trying to fade away into the night. I checked my watch. ‘You’re early.’
‘Would you like to tell me where you’ve been?’ she requested, before suddenly raising her voice. ‘Fergus! Where are you going?’
He froze like a spotlit rabbit.
‘You can’t walk home from here. I’ll give you a lift,’ Mum offered.
Fergus looked around frantically, as if searching for an escape route.
‘Come on, please.’ She beckoned to him. ‘The car’s just over here.’
There was no point resisting; Fergus gave up without a fight, trudging towards Mum’s car like someone heading for the guillotine. Amin did the same. As for me, I was feeling so winded – so numb and baffled – that I didn’t panic at all. I just climbed into the front seat and waited for the next question.
It didn’t come until we were on the road, driving towards Amin’s house.
‘So. Are you going to answer me?’ she asked. ‘Where have you been for the last three hours? Because I know you weren’t at the movies.’
Fergus was a lost cause; he wasn’t going to say anything. And Amin’s face was a complete blank. I could see it in the rear-view mirror.
‘I was visiting my girlfriend,’ was the brilliant excuse that popped into my brain.
Let me tell you, it was a total winner. Mum got such a shock, she nearly ran us off the road.
‘Your what?’ she squeaked.
‘My girlfriend. Nina Harrison.’ I wasn’t going to tell her the truth. Not before I’d had time to absorb it myself. And I knew that a girlfriend was the perfect cover story. Mum would be so distracted, she’d never even think about Reuben. ‘I’ve got a girlfriend, okay? Are you happy now?’