WisteriaWolverine

Light from the window reflected off the white paper that had been positioned in the typewriter ready and waiting. Ready and waiting for him to wander in and begin to vomit forth all his brilliant new ideas. The chair was brown, made of rimu; old and yet elegant. His desk was an antique and made from kauri. The top of the desk was smooth and the colour rich. Even the legs of the table were exquisite. They had been attended to by an expert craftsman, as evident by the intricate etchings that ran from the top to the bottom of each leg in a spiral pattern. So pedantic was he about keeping the desk mark-free that he placed little coasters all over it for coffee cups so that the heat from them would not scald rings into the wood.
The walls of the room were covered in posters from plays he had formerly attended, and some were from plays he himself had written and produced. Although he liked the posters, the mishmash of colours made him feel edgy and he was always intending to getting around to making the pictures on the walls 'flow' better, yet he never seemed to get to it. The floor was carpeted in brown and yellow rugs to cover the concrete. Even though it was not exactly as he would have liked it to be, aesthetically speaking, it was still his space. He did not like it invaded and protected it as a king would protect his castle.
"Sunglasses. Sunglasses. Where are my sunglasses?" he murmured, as he stood there staring at his desk from the doorway. "Last thing I need is another migraine from my dreaded photophobia!"
James was almost six feet tall and semi athletic in build. He had black hair, brown eyes and his complexion was just a shade shy of cafe aulet.
"Heavens above, man! Just move the damn table away from the damn window." His wife had walked up behind him and stepped into his studio. For a few moments she looked around at the disorganisation of the room. She turned to look at her husband who was leaning against the doorframe frowning.
"If I wanted to move the desk away from the window do you think I would have put it there in the first place?" He folded his arms, as he stared at his wife. Samantha was blonde, tall, slim of figure, blue eyed and beautiful.
"You make no sense to me, James. No sense at all. I do not know how you even manage to produce anything out here in this hovel you call a studio."
"It works better for me than trying to work in the hovel that you call a house." James stood up straight and yawned, as he stretched out his arms.
His wife smiled wryly. "Read the paper this morning...James?"
"Remind me again, who are you?" He stared at his wife as he allowed his arms to flop back down at his sides.
"I am your chief cook and bottle washer!"
"If you're not happy then you know where the door is." James wandered over to his desk and began to shuffle papers around. He did not have it in mind to do anything specific; he just wanted her to go away. They had not been getting along very well for years. Not since that day. James then pulled the rimu chair out from under the desk and sat down in front of his typewriter. As soon as he sat down he wished he had not. Now he was committed to writing something new and that always scared him. What if the ideas did not come? He realised that his wife was still inside the studio. James waited for her to start, as he thought to himself, "In three, two one," and pointed his finger in her direction.
"So this is you for the day is it?" she snapped at him.
"You know me so well," he sarcastically quipped.
"I know you too well!"
"No need for you to stick around then is there? Nothing new to be found here."
"Bite your ass!"
"Have a few gins and go take a drive!" he snapped back without looking at her.
She sighed loudly, as the tears flooded her eyes. "You will never let me forget will you?"
"If I am not allowed to forget then why should you get to do so?"
"James...I..."
James shook his head but did not turn around to look at her. "Just get out," he said barely above a whisper. Using his peripheral vision, he saw her walk out of the door. That she would not be back or speaking to him any time soon was made evident by the slamming of the door. It shook the whole building and the windows rattled in their frames for a few seconds after she left. James leaned back in the rimu chair and stretched his legs. He put his hands behind his head and sat there thinking for a few moments.
Opening night had been great and all that he had hoped it would be. Many people had attended the performances, but that was over and it was time to move on with something new. Although it would be quite some time before the harsh words of the critics quit echoing inside his head. "Mediocre," one critic had said. "Banal," taunted another. The reviews had indeed been terrible; every Playwright's nightmare, but life goes on. The critics, like the bunch of vultures that they were, would soon move on to find the next carcass to pick over, James knew that well.
He ran his fingers over the keys of the typewriter. It was old and the name of the company that had manufactured it had almost faded into oblivion. "A bit like my marriage," he thought. The company itself had probably gone out of business during the Wall Street Crash of '29'. But still, he liked his typewriter and not many had one like him. He often dreamed of a day where someone would invent some kind of machine that would correct everything for him, perhaps even give him helpful suggestions with syntax, verb confusions and the spelling of those ball-busting words with silent letters that appeared to have absolutely no sensible place inside a word. But for now? One mistake and it was all over; everyone could see when something had been covered with whiteout. Make a mistake, you start again. That was his policy and it often times had driven him to despair! "QWERTY! What were you thinking, Sholes? We split the atom and put a man on the moon and yet we are still stuck with QWERTY over one hundred years later. Why have we put up with this awkward, inefficient and confusing system? August Dvorak did not get his dues, or good reviews, a bit like me really!" he thought.
As he sat there feeling committed to come up with a new idea, he reminisced the many times he had sat in his studio gazing down at the sea of screwed up paper. "A white sea!" he said out loud, as he stared down briefly at the yellow and brown mats. "I hate my life and I hate my wife! Should have been a poet, not a playwright!" James grabbed a pen in his hand and began tapping it against the side of the desk. "I should have been a dentist that way I could kill myself and no one would be in any way confused or surprised!" He chuckled at his own silly thoughts. James would never kill himself because the one thing he held sacred, above writing a damn good play, was life itself.
"Macbeth, of course! I will redo Macbeth...by Alan Smithee!" James laughed wickedly and then the smile slowly faded from his face. "What am I, insane? I cannot use the pseudonym to hide my failures...but could I not somehow make out that it had been wrestled from out of my control? I would have to be out of control to try it in the first place! Macbeth? There is no such thing as Mcbeth 'well done' and only a fool would attempt it!" James sat there thinking about how the only thing you ever hear, in regard to Macbeth, is how much worse the most recent version of Macbeth is in comparison to the one the last fool Playwright was insane enough to try and produce. Every aspiring and accomplished actor claimed to have been in the worst production of Macbeth; ever! "Macbeth and the theatre do not belong together for a very good reason!"
James sat there tapping his pen for a little while longer and, as he glanced out the window, he saw his wife heading toward the car carrying a rather large suitcase. "Finally!" he muttered. "Finally she is leaving me!"
He knew that she'd run off to Caspian. James sat there for a moment. "Caspian. Caspian. Caspian! Sounds like a cat not a painter. Why could he not call himself Arcimboldo, Picasso, Matisse or Monet? Caspian. I hate Caspian! Perhaps I should write a play about a Playwright who murders the man who stole his wife and buries him in the rhubarb patch at the back of his garden? Why, I say why?" James jumped to his feet and began walking around the room flailing his arms about dramatically as he spoke. "Why? Why do I not write it, dear Caspian? Because you, my fair fellow, have done me a favour!" James then bowed to his imaginary audience. "Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you. No, I do not do curtain calls," he said, as he walked over to his chair and sat back down. James began to laugh hysterically and then he began to cry.
James did not hear the door to the studio open; the first he knew that someone was there was when he heard, "Ahem!"
He looked up to see Joe standing there staring at him nervously. Joe was not sure whether he should walk into the studio or just turn around and leave. James wiped at his eyes, coughed loudly and looked directly at Joe. "Come on in. Misery likes company!" James tapped his pen against the desk again.
Joe walked toward him, grabbed a chair and sat down beside him. "But I'm not miserable." He patted James on the shoulder.
"I'm not either, not really."
"James?" Joe stared at the typewriter as he posed his question. "What has happened to your equanimity?"
James burst out laughing. "No wonder Samantha hates you!"
"What?" Joe smiled, unsure as to what the joke was.
"Equanimity?" James and Joe sat there for a few moments while they chuckled.
"Seriously, James. What's up?"
"I think Samantha and I have hit an impasse."
Joe shook his head in confusion. "James?"
"What?" James looked up from the desk to stare at his best friend and fellow playwright.
"You hit the impasse with Samantha about six years ago; you have just now noticed?"
James sighed loudly. "I have been in denial."
"Which is not just a river in Egypt." Joe moved around nervously in his chair.
James glanced briefly at him. "I hate that stupid saying!"
"I know, but I did not know what else to say." It was silent for a few moments and then Joe decided to ask James straight out. "Has she gone for good this time?"
"Aha." James nodded his head, as he stared at the surface of the kauri desk.
"Caspian?" Joe fidgeted while he waited for James to answer him.
"Of course Caspian. Who else?" James looked away from the tabletop to his friend.
"No one else, just...well I cannot imagine Caspian putting up with what you have put up with, frightful shit that he is."
"Caspian is a drunken fool..."
Joe cut in over the top of James. "He's allowed to be a drunken fool, he is an artist, a painter no less."
"Hitler called himself an artist. Seems anyone who holds a paintbrush for longer than five seconds can claim the title, but that in no way makes them Pablo Picasso..."
"Which is just as well, I hate Picasso...more of a Monet man myself."
James ignored Joe. "Caspian constantly lives life two seconds away from cutting off his own ear, so..."
"So he and Samantha are well matched?" Joe waited for James to defend Samantha, but for the first time ever, James did not do so.
"I could care less what she does or whom she is with. The only hope I have left is that she took everything with her when she departed this morning. That way there will be no reason for her to come back here."
"James?"
"What?"
"You love her." Joe wondered what James would say to that?
"I loved her, there is a difference!"
"It's really it this time then?" Joe was shocked because it was usually James running around trying to bring Samantha home. James was the one who had worked at keeping their marriage together.
"Yes. Samantha and I did our last curtain call earlier this morning and now it is over. Time to move on. Time to get on with something new."
"She is your wife."
"She is a rock around my neck and has been for a very long time. For goodness sakes, Joe. You are the one who has been telling me all these years that I am in a co-dependant relationship with her. That if I did not break away from her that she will destroy me. I broke away, you should be congratulating me, not berating me!"
"I wasn't berating you." Joe and James sat in silence for a few minutes then Joe brought up the next inevitable topic of conversation. "So, you read the reviews?"
"What are you today, Joe? The Grim Reaper?"
"Aha, so you read them then." Joe jigged his foot nervously.
"Yes, I read them. The critics, they are all the same. The play was not mediocre, nor was it banal, the acting tepid nor the plot loose. If they really wanted to see mediocre, banal and tepid, then perhaps they should have gone over to First Read and watched Falcon's version of Pygmalion?"
"It wasn't that bad!"
"You liked it?" James stared at Joe.
"I have seen worse!"
"Judas!"
"Look, Jane Doe went off well, I thought. All six nights you had a full house, who cares what those critics think? It is their job to pick things to pieces, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', is not a theme song they are familiar with."
"Jane Doe was not one of my better plays. What was I thinking being a playwright? What was Luci thinking giving my father's story to me?" James stared at Joe.
"Luci gave it to you because your father wanted him to and secondly, your father obviously knows that his son is a damn good writer. And anyway, it could have been a whole lot worse; you could have been a coroner/mortician like Frankie."
James burst out laughing, "Heaven forbid...poor Frank. Has he managed to even get a date yet?"
"No, the second he mentions the 'm-word' it's all over."
"Poor guy. Speaking of death, you know what?"
Joe sighed. "What?"
"I played around with the idea of doing Macbeth this morning." James stared at Joe as he smiled.
"Of course written and produced by Alan Smithee?"
"Of course! I am depressed not suicidal!" Both James and Joe burst out laughing. It was James who resumed the conversation once they ceased laughing. "So how is Joseph's Coat coming along?"
"Teenagers, they are dreadful, but I have found my Joseph."
"Yeah?" asked James as he stared intently at Joe.
"Thirteen years old, male this time. He has the most exceptional soprano voice, which will be great, so long as puberty doesn't strike before opening night."
James chuckled. "He hits all those grand finale notes then?"
"Yes he does, mores the pity he will lose the ability in a few months though. If he were younger, he would have placed well in the Vienna boy's choir."
"You are a playwright come producer, not a talent scout for the Viennese!"
"You will come to opening night?" asked Joe as he stared at James.
James put his hand up a second, looked at Joe and then looked up at the loft. "Ssh...can you hear that?"
Joe looked up at the loft too. "Yeah, probably a rat chewing on your electrical wires."
James shook his head. "You're all charm today, aren't you?"
"It's pretty loud isn't it?"
"They breed 'em big around here. I saw one the size of a house cat a few months ago. I'll set a trap up there before it can do too much damage." James then stopped looking up at the loft and moved himself in his chair so that he was facing Joe. He did not bother to tell him that he had been hearing that same sound for months but was at a loss to explain what it was. James was certainly relieved that someone, aside from him, had finally heard it too. At least he now knew that it was not a figment of his sorry imagination.
Joe looked away from the loft too. "So opening night, you'll be there?"
"Wouldn't miss it, you know that."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Probably a bottle of wine; take a leaf out of Samantha's book for the day."
Joe chuckled. "Seriously. Got any ideas?"
"Not a clue. How much longer will you be tied up with Joseph?"
"Another month or two, but I had an idea."
"What?"
"Why don't we tear Poe's Amontillado apart and put a new spin on it?"
"Hmm...Fortunato and Montresor? I am probably in the right frame of mind to mess around with it. Caspian can be my inspiration for Fortunato."
"I thought you didn't care?"
"I don't, but we all need faces for our characters and I would not be adverse to burying him alive right now."
"That's kind of an odd reaction for someone who does not care."
"I dislike Caspian. I have always disliked Caspian. It has absolutely nothing to do with Samantha and it is no secret."
"But you now sound vindictive."
"So would you if you had come home only to find he's been screwing your wife in your bed!"
"Shit! I'm sorry...he really is a frightful little shit isn't he?"
"Yeah, well, the conclusion I reached this morning was that he's actually done me a favour."
"How's that?" Joe was a little confused by what James had said.
"Well, Samantha is now his problem, not mine and quite frankly, I couldn't have wished her upon a more deserving person!"
"James..."
"She can drink his booze. Puke all over his floor. Embarrass him at his exhibitions and then screw his friends while he works late preparing for his next disaster."
"I don't think that's going to work."
"Why?" James stared at Joe hoping he was not going to revert back to his really loving Samantha deep down. James was quite sure that he did not, quite the opposite, he despised her!
"Caspian has no friends!" Joe laughed.
James also began laughing. "Amontillado...hmm...yeah...why not?"
Joe sighed and slapped him on the back as he stood to his feet to leave. "Well, you work over it some. I have my 'Masters of the Universe' meeting to attend. In the meantime, while you are working on this, I will stick with Joseph and when that's wrapped up we'll see what you've got."
"Sounds like a plan. I am at a total loose end anyway." James watched as Joe walked out of the studio and then he sat there for a while thinking about the mysterious group that Joe met with every week or so. They had been friends since they were young teenagers and Joe trusted him with everything, except for what went on in the group that he had joined ten years before. Joe had once told him they were a highly secretive order of Masons, but then he had smiled jokingly. James did not know what to make of it, but he had learned not to ask any more.

The moon was high in the sky and illuminated their surroundings enough that they had no difficulty sneaking out of the property and down onto the driveway.
"Walk softly and slowly." Katie stared at her two friends as they linked hands to make their way down the driveway.
"The gravel crunches so loud." Jenny stared at Katie. Katie looked as though her complexion was blue under the moonlight.
"Pretend Urko is around here somewhere and if we make too much noise then he will hear us. Then he will catch us, drag us away and give us a lobotomy!" Mel stared at both Katie and Jenny.
"Who is Urko?" Jenny was confused.
"What's a lobotomy?" asked Katie.
"The gorilla." Mel shook her head in disgust at how quickly Jenny had forgotten their pre-Katie days.
"Gorilla?" Jenny stared sideways at Mel.
"Planet of the Apes?" Mel glared at Jenny. She hated the way Jenny forgot things all the time and made her look stupid in front of Katie. Yet whenever Katie spoke of things, Jenny never forgot those.
"Oh yeah." Jenny nodded her head as it all came back to her.
"Urko?" Katie looked from Jenny to Mel and then back to Jenny again.
"Didn't you watch Planet of the Apes?" Jenny shook her head.
"Yeah. I watched it. Don't remember anyone called Urko though. I don't remember any of their names. I didn't know that the movies were on TV."
"Not the movies, the TV series!" Mel nudged Jenny as she stared past her to Katie.
"Oh yeah, now I remember." Katie was quiet for a few seconds. Her life changed so rapidly and so often, that many times she forgot about the ordinary things in life like characters from TV shows. "But I still don't remember someone called Urko."
"He was the big black gorilla who wore the hat that looked like it had a skid lid shoved up it." Mel stared at Katie waiting for a hint of recognition.
"Weren't all the gorillas black?" Katie stared at Mel and then there was a loud snapping sound as one of them stepped on a fallen branch.
"Oops!" said Mel.
"Stop a minute!" whispered Katie. The three of them stood there under moonlight arm in arm waiting to hear some kind of sound that would indicate that they had been heard out on the driveway. Their hearts beat madly and loudly, and Katie felt ever so slightly lightheaded for a few seconds. After a few minutes Katie looked at them both. "It's okay. No one heard us."
"All the gorillas were black, but only Urko wore the weird hat." Mel looked over at Katie again.
"Hmm...I sort of remember him. I remember the two guys, one was blonde and the other one had dark hair. They were always..."
"Running away from the gorillas," said Jenny, cutting over the top of Katie.
"I got into trouble once because of that show." Katie stared at Mel and Jenny to see if she could tell if they were interested in hearing about it.
"Why?" Mel stared back at her.
"It used to be on on Friday nights and we were allowed to stay up a bit later. The show came on and my dumb foster father changed the channel when it just started and so I sighed. He went bananas."
"Did he let you watch it?" Jenny stared sideways at Katie.
"No, he made us watch that stupid Archie Bunker or whatever his dumb name was."
"My father does that." Mel felt sorry for Katie. Her own father did things like that all the time.
"What's a lobotomy?" Katie stared at Mel waiting to see if she actually knew.
"That's where they drill a hole in your skull and take out a bumpy bit of your brain." Mel stared at Katie hoping that it would satisfy her curiosity.
"But why do they take the bumpy bit out of your brain? How do they know which bumpy bit to take?" Katie felt quite perturbed by the idea of someone taking something out of her head.
"It's the only bumpy bit you have. The rest of your brain looks like spaghetti." Mel stared at Katie as she spoke.
"Don't worry, they only do it to actors and royalty." Jenny nodded her head in agreement with Mel.
"But why?" Katie was still confused.
"It helps actors to remember their lines and um...it helps royalty to...um...I am not sure. But they do it to poets and people who write plays too. Shakespeare definitely had one." Mel nodded her head as she spoke.
"Why?" asked Jenny. Her father loved Shakespeare.
"My dad said he wrote plays like someone who had had half their brain hacked out, so he must have!" Mel looked at Jenny and shrugged her shoulders.
"People who write plays have lobotomies? The guy across the road, he writes plays. Do you think he has had one?" Katie was perplexed by the idea that he might have.
"Sure, if he writes plays he will have." Mel nodded her head reassuringly.
"But how would you know for sure?" Katie wanted absolute proof.
"Has he got a scar on his forehead just above his left or right eye?" Mel looked at Katie intently.
"I don't know. Why would the lobotomy scar be there?" Katie was even more perplexed than ever.
"Well, if you are left handed then your bumpy bit is on the right hand side of your face above your eye. If you are right handed then it is on the left." Mel hoped that Katie would not ask any more questions.
"Why do only actors, poets, play writers and royalty have them? Why not artists or anyone else?" Katie looked at Jenny as she spoke and then at Mel.
"My father says that artists only have a lobotomy done if they start hacking off their own ears. But all the others? Well, he said that their brains are far too big for their heads, and that they are all poofs. He said that they..."
"Can we walk normal yet? We are almost at the gate." Jenny pointed ahead of where they were.
"Yeah. They can't hear us from here." Katie smiled at Mel and Jenny.
"Do you think they will still be up?" Jenny gazed at Mel and Katie as they walked out of the gate.
"Don't know, but we will go have a look anyway." Katie led the way over the road and toward the house that was completely surrounded by a huge hedge. Once they got over to the gate that led into the property. Mel asked, "Whose car is that?"
Katie stared at the car. "I don't know."
"Maybe they have visitors?" Jenny stared behind her at Mel and then in front of her at Katie.
"His car isn't here." Katie turned around to stare at both of her friends.
"It's probably in the shed." Jenny pointed to the shed that was covered in overgrown wisteria.
"Maybe we should go somewhere else tonight?" Katie looked at the other two to see what they thought.
"No. Let's just go in here sit down and whatever happens happens?" Jenny looked at Mel and then at Katie.
Katie had seen the car outside his house many times before, but it was never parked outside when he was there. She was as curious as the other two to see who it was. "Okay." Katie opened the latch on the gate and the three of them cringed inwardly as the hinges on the gate squeaked and groaned.
"Ssh!" snapped Jenny, as though Katie could somehow control what level of noise emitted from the rusting hinges on the gate.
The three of them stared over at the window of the main room in the house and then stared toward the back door. The lack of movement from within the house indicated to them that they had not been heard and so they continued to make their way in through the gate. Katie carefully pushed the gate as far closed as she could behind them once Mel and Jenny had walked through it. The three of them then carefully made their way across the lawn and sat down on the grass below the window. They were far enough away from where the light in the house cast light out onto the lawn so they would not be seen by anyone.
"Did you steal some smokes off your brother?" Mel asked of Jenny.
"Yeah." Jenny reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a red packet. "Want one, Katie?"
"Yup." Katie reached our her hand and Jenny placed a cigarette in her hand. "Did you see the man that has the tube in his throat to help him breathe?"
"What about him?" Jenny lit her cigarette and breathed in deeply just like she had watched her sisters and brothers doing. That was how she had learned to smoke.
"I saw him put a smoke butt into the tube and suck the smoke in that way. Gross eh?" Katie lit her cigarette and took a puff.
"He's old. You have to smoke for like a billion years before you need one of those." Mel shook her head as she exhaled.
"There is this Chinese guy and he's like 115 years old. When they asked him how he lived so long he told them it was because he quit smoking when he was ninety. We're almost eleven so we have...a lot of years yet before we should quit." Jenny stared intently at Katie and Mel under the moonlight.
"Wow. That's old." Katie shook her head in disbelief that someone could live that long. Just as she was contemplating the thought she heard a noise coming from inside the house. Jenny, Mel and her moved a little closer to see what was happening.
They saw a man with the blonde haired woman who lived there. The two of them were kissing and the three girls watched as they stumbled about the place and then knocked a wine bottle off the side of the table in the lounge.
Katie stared at the man. "That's not her husband."
"Slut!" Mel shook her head in disgust.
"Why is he here kissing her? Where is her husband?" Jenny stared at Katie as if Katie should know.
"I think he is away at one of his plays...maybe. I don't know for sure. He doesn't speak to my foster father very often."
"Oh my gosh, what a total sl..."
"He's got his hand up her top!" Jenny cut over top of Mel.
Katie sat there watching the woman allowing the man who was not her husband to touch her in that way. The man had long blonde hair and his skin was very white. He looked, to Katie anyway, as though he needed to take up jogging; he appeared flabby. Katie stopped watching when he lifted the woman's top completely off her, and she did not look back again until they were under a sheet on the lounge floor. She only knew that they were there like that because Mel and Jenny were providing for her a running commentary. Katie stood to her feet, as Jenny and Mel had, and she could see that he was on top of her doing 'the wild thing', as Jenny liked to call it.
"That is so gross! Let's get out of here!" Katie nudged both Jenny and Mel. Just as they turned to look at her they heard a car coming up the road. Katie panicked. "That might be 'him' back from his play!"
They quickly ran toward the hedge, but it was too risky to chance running out of the gate to the road, and so they ran back into the yard near the window and pushed themselves as hard into the hedge as they could. Twigs snapped and crackled as they did so, but they did not care, so long as they were obscured from view.
The hinges on the gate squeaked very loudly as the man who had parked his car in the shed opened it to walk through. Just as he did that, the woman and the man stood up from the floor and the three girls watched them running all around the lounge floor trying to find their clothes.
The man inside the house had managed to pull on his jeans and while he was trying to put on his socks, the woman shoved him out of the front door, which was on the opposite side of the house to the back door where her husband was headed. The blonde haired man walked with stealth around the side of the house and peered across the lawn for a few moments before he decided to make his way across it. Katie began to feel very nervous because he would have to pass right beside them in order to get out. Jenny and Mel also realised the same thing and the three of them held their breath as he tiptoed past them on his way out. As soon as they heard his car start up they breathed a sigh of relief. They then went and sat back down on the lawn and waited to see what would happen next.
"OH AND YOU CAN TALK?" the woman was screaming at the man.
"YOU BRING THAT...THAT...FOOL OF A MAN INTO OUR HOUSE? YOU SCREW HIM IN OUR BED?" the man yelled back at her about an inch away from her face.
"I DIDN'T SCREW HIM IN OUR BED!"
"OH...WELL THAT MAKES IT OKAY THEN!"
"CASPIAN LOVES ME..."
"CASPIAN IS AN IDIOT AND YOU ARE A...A..." but he never got to finish. The woman swung her hand up and slapped him hard in the face.
Katie, Jenny and Mel breathed in sharply, as they waited to see what the man would do in response. Mel thought he'd probably hit her back, which was what her father did when her mother hit him. Jenny had never seen anything like it, her parents were pacifists and did not believe in even arguing, let alone physical violence. Katie fully expected that the man would punch her out, but he did the one thing that none of them expected. He collapsed into a chair and cried.
"What a wimp!" Mel was disgusted with his behaviour. Katie was perplexed, she had never seen a man cry before in her entire life. Jenny felt sorry for him. They continued to watch as the woman grabbed a bottle of drink from the cabinet against the wall. "Vodka?" she asked the man, as she held it out in front of her.
The man did not look up nor make any response to what she said. He just sat there and continued to cry. After another few moments the lights to their house went out and so the three girls decided to leave. They walked toward the end of their road and made their way into the paddock that had the old bridge in it. It used to form part of a road but then became defunct when the road was re-routed, and so the girls went there often to just talk.
"Why do you think she did that thing with the blonde man?" Katie looked at Jenny and Mel as they sat there on the bridge staring up at the sky.
"Happens all the time." Mel offered. "People get married and then they screw around on each other, will happen to us when we grow up too."
"Not everyone does it. My parents never have." Jenny stared at Mel and then at Katie.
"My father would have smashed him over and then probably killed my mother and buried her out the back somewhere. Especially if he was drunk." Mel stared at Jenny and then asked for a cigarette.
"Life stinks sometimes." Katie spoke softly. She was worried about the man who had still been crying when the lights had gone out. "People are mean to each other all the time, I wish they weren't."
"Life is like that, it is just the way that it is." Mel stared at Katie and then at Jenny.
"My mother said that it does not have to be that way and it is not that way for a lot of people. Look at Mr and Mrs Polanski, they had been married for sixty-five years. They even got a telegram from the Queen."
"The Queen?" Katie was really surprised to hear about that.
"Yeah. Anyone who stays married for sixty-five years gets a telegram from her." Jenny smiled at Katie. She hated it when Katie got all sad and gloomy.
"But why?" Katie stared at Mel who was very quietly smoking her cigarette just listening to them.
"Because staying married that long is pretty special and so they celebrate it."
"Have you seen the telegram?" Katie stared over the paddock at a cow that was mooing at them from across the fence.
"Yeah, Mrs Polanski brought it to school last year. It was before you came here I think." Jenny too stared over at the cow.
"Fat lot of good it did them though, old man Polanski kicked the bucket not long after!" Mel looked at Katie and then asked the question that had been on her mind ever since she had met Katie. "Why don't your parents want you?"
"Mel!" Jenny could not believe that she had asked Katie such a question.
"I don't know." Katie was lying, but she did not care.
"So you don't know why they sent you to Welfare?" Mel stared at Katie intently.
"No."
"Your aunt tells everyone that..."
Jenny nudged Mel hard in the ribs. "Shut up!" she hissed at her.
"That stupid fat woman is not my aunt!" Katie glared at Mel.
"That stupid fat woman is your aunt!" Mel retorted as she stomped her cigarette butt out on the ground.
"Oh like the stupid drunk guy is your father!" Katie was really angry.
"Don't speak about my father like that!" Mel snapped.
"Well don't say that that stupid big mouthed fat side of beef at the garage is my aunt, she's not. She is nothing to do with me!"
"Fine!" snapped Mel.
"Good!" snapped Katie who was as equally offended.
Jenny sat there feeling as though she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jenny was the glue in the threesome that kept it all together. If not for Jenny, Katie and Mel would have nothing to do with each other at all.
"Stop clicking your jaw, it sounds horrible and gives me the creeps!" said Mel, as she sat there listening to Katie's jaw clicking while she grinded her teeth.
"Let's go back to your house?" suggested Jenny. The three of them stood up and they started to walk back toward Katie's house. It took them half an hour to get back and as they walked past the house where they had witnessed the ugly scene, they saw that all was quiet. Once they crept back up the driveway and went into the bach beside the house, the three of them climbed into bed and fell asleep.
The next morning Mel and Jenny set out on their way home leaving Katie all alone again. Katie hated that part; knowing that the two of them were walking along together without her. She knew that she would be the topic of conversation, Mel couldn't help herself. With their departure, it meant that Katie had to go back inside the house and put up with him!
Katie got her things and made her way back inside the house and there he sat at the table eating breakfast. He had just got back from milking the cows; he reeked of cows! She put her stuff back into her bedroom, took a deep breath and then walked into the kitchen.
"Morning Katie." He watched her while she went and got some porridge out of the pot on the stove. Her foster mother didn't say a word to her; she never did.
Katie looked at her foster father. "Good morning," she mumbled as she made her way past him to take a seat.
"Where are Mel and Jenny?" He looked up from his bible for a brief second while he waited for her to answer.
"They went home." Katie kept her head down as she slowly ate her porridge.
"Without breakfast?" he asked as he placed the ribbon marker on the page and then closed the Bible.
"They didn't want any." Katie was adept at lying about why her friends never stuck around long during the day. They didn't like her foster father either; they thought him as 'creepy' as she did.
"They really shouldn't go off without telling us and especially without thanking us for having them here. It is very rude to do that, you know? You would never do that, would you Katie?" he asked as he winked at her.
"No." Katie wished she were anywhere but at the table with her creepy foster father and her silent foster mother. She watched him take a mouthful of his porridge and then he looked at her again. "When was the last time you had a bath?"
Katie felt her stomach do a flip-flop. "Yesterday."
"Do not lie to me, Katie. It was the day before yesterday."
"Oh yeah, it was." Katie did not look at him, she did not want to look at him. She wanted to pretend that she was somewhere else. "Perhaps I can pretend that it is not even him sitting there?" she thought to herself. She looked over at him and realised that there was no way to pretend him away.
"You have a bath right after breakfast." He winked at her as he spoke.
"I will have one tonight." Katie figured she would wait until he was out of the house and then have it some time during the day.
"No, you will have it right after breakfast."
Katie jumped as her foster mother abruptly stood up from the table, slamming her spoon down inside the porridge plate. Katie wondered if she knew? Was that why she had been acting funny lately? Her foster mother walked briskly from the kitchen and she thought she heard her sniff as though she was crying. Her foster father stared straight at her and smiled. "Go run your bath, Katie."
Katie nodded her head and got stood up to leave the table. She walked down the hallway toward the bathroom, went in and shut the door. Katie wondered whether she could fool him by saying that there was no hot water left and thus she would not have to have a bath while he was still in the house? But she knew that he would probably tell her to bathe in cold water then, so she turned on the taps and watched as the water swirled around in the white porcelain tub. Once it was full, she stripped off her clothes and climbed into the water, and then right on cue he walked into the bathroom.
He stood there staring at her as she lay in the bath and she could not speak or even move. Her whole insides felt frozen and all she wanted to do was cry, but she could not even do that. He stared at her chest and at her other parts, as he stood there pretending to engage her in conversation. It lasted for about ten minutes and then, as per usual, he went into the toilet and then she heard the toilet flush about five minutes later. He would then walk into the bathroom, wash his hands, stare at her once more and then leave.
Once he left, she imagined being able to scream at him and call him all the names under the sun without receiving the vicious beating he had given her the first time she had 'lost it' with him. After the water had gone cold, she finally got out and got dressed. Once she was dressed she went to find her foster mother to tell her that she was going to go for a walk.
"Where are you going?" she asked without looking at her, as she busied herself in the kitchen.
"Probably down to Jenny's."
"Fine." Her foster mother did not look at her, she just kept doing whatever it was that she was busy with. Katie turned from her and headed out of the house, she hated that home and she hated her life.

Katie woke to the sounds of raised voices and she initially wondered where in the world she was? Then she remembered, she had wandered away from the farm and sneaked into his studio again. She loved his studio and she loved to watch him work. 'James' seemed like a nice man to her, but she was not too fond of his wife Samantha.
Katie never told anyone that she knew who they were or that she sneaked into his studio. She knew if she ever told anyone, then in one way or another, it would get around. No, the studio was her secret and hers alone; her safe place away from the world. It was so secret, that not even James knew.
Katie crept to the side of the loft where she could stare down at Samantha and James arguing. She smiled when finally James told Samantha to leave, and then she watched as James sat at the desk and spoke to himself."QWERTY? Who is that?" she thought to herself as she listened to him. After a few moments he was crying again. Her heart felt heavy as she watched James cry and heard the sounds of his anguish.
Katie got as bigger fright as James got when the other man walked in and sort of coughed to announce his arrival. She watched them as they spoke and she realised that the other man's name, the one who had been with his wife the night before was, in fact, Caspian. She thought that that was the name she had heard James speak the night before. The other man, Joe, he seemed okay and he seemed to care about James and what was happening to him. She felt offended when Joe accused James of still loving Samantha though, she knew that someone like Samantha did not deserve the love of a man like James.
She put her head down on her arms as she listened to them speaking and, being that she was still very tired from her late night, she slowly but surely drifted off to sleep again. The next thing she knew someone was yelling and she was so deeply asleep that she was not sure if it was real or whether she was imagining it.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY LOFT?"
Katie opened her eyes and stared straight up into the face of James. She took a few moments to 'come to' properly, and when she did, she sat up hitting her head on a beam. She did not cry though and merely rubbed it with her hand. Katie looked at James and said, "I'm...um..."
"What...are you," he said pointing to her, "doing in MY loft?" James was pointing to himself and staring at her waiting for her to answer him. The wooden floor of the loft was hurting his knees but he could not stand up in the loft because the roof was too low.
"I am sorry. Please don't tell him."
"Tell who?" James stared at the child waiting to see if she would tell him who 'him' was?
It was at that moment that Katie realised that he really did not recognise her at all and for that she silently and profusely thanked God! "Um...no one. I will leave now."
"Not without telling me who you are and what you are doing in here you won't." James grabbed her by her arm and then began to pull her toward the ladder that led down from the loft to the floor. Once he had his footing sure on the ladder, he pulled Katie over it and held her under his arm while he descended. As he placed his foot on the floor of the studio he plonked Katie to her feet. "Start speaking and it better be good!"
"I like it here." Katie stared at James and then down at the ground.
"Well I like the museum, but I do not hide in there watching people. How long have you been sneaking in here?"
"For a few months."
"A FEW MONTHS?" He noticed Katie jump when he raised his voice. "A few months?" His voice was softer the second time he said it and Katie did not feel quite so threatened.
"Yes. The day you spilled the wine...you thought Samantha cleaned it up...but she didn't...it was me." She hoped that through her confession she might score some favour points with him.
James sighed loudly. "Don't you have a home to go to?"
"No."
"What?"
"It's not my home, I just live there."
"Where?"
"Up the hill."
"Are you the kid who sneaks in here and puts all my shoes in the barrel of water?"
Katie slowly put her hands behind her back and crossed her fingers. She looked James in the eyes. "No. I would never do something like that."
James rubbed his chin with his hand and then pointed to the chair that Joe had sat on earlier. "Sit down."
"I should go." Katie began to head for the door but she was not quick enough.
"I said SIT DOWN!" James grabbed her by her arm and forced her to sit in the chair by his desk. He then sat in the rimu chair and just stared at her for a few moments. "You're just little Miss Innocent aren't you?"
"No."
"So did you dunk my shoes?" He could see the thoughts ticking over in her mind and he could tell that she was tossing up whether to tell him the truth or whether to lie? He could see her eyes darting from the left to the right..."Left for lying. Right for remembering," he thought to himself, as he sat there gazing at her intently.
Katie looked at him and then decided to tell him the truth after all. "Yes. I dunked your shoes."
"Why?" he stared at her and then at the tabletop.
"Just because."
He looked back at her again. "That's a cop out. Why did you come onto my property and put all my shoes in a barrel of water?"
"Because it was fun." Katie began to grind her teeth and that made her jaw click. As James sat there staring at her, he realised that it was the same sound he had been hearing off and on for months. It had just about driven him mad trying to work out where it was coming from.
"Stop it." James sat there watching her jaw pop on the side of her mouth under her skin and he thought her far too young to have developed nervous tics that were so obvious.
"Stop what?" she asked wondering what in the world he was talking about.
"That grinding your teeth and making your jaw click. It's bad for your teeth and horrible to listen to."
Katie stared at James and consciously thought to stop grinding her teeth, even though she had not even been aware that she had been doing it. "Sorry."
"So, you dunked all my shoes in a barrel of water?"
"And all of Samanth..." Katie trailed off.
"I don't give a monkey's what you did to Samantha's shoes! But do you think it was any fun for me to come out in the mornings...the COLD FROSTY mornings I might add, only to find that every shoe I owned was wet?"
"No." Katie's eyes began to well with tears.
James leaned forward in his chair. "DON'T YOU CRY! THAT'S A COP-OUT TOO AND I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR IT! I just got rid of one pain in the neck female today, do not tempt me to make it two!"
"I am sorry." Katie dried her eyes and tried to concentrate on not allowing her tears to fall.
James leaned back in his chair again and stared at her for a few moments. "You're doing it again."
Katie looked at him while he gazed back at her. "What?"
"That horrible grinding thing...stop it!" James stared at her for a few more moments and then he sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" James tapped his right index finger on the table and clicked his tongue while he gave it some thought. He reached out and picked up a small glass paperweight and twirled it around in his hands for a few seconds. He then put it back down on the table and looked directly at Katie. "I'll tell you what, you leave my studio right now and you never come back. You do that for me and I will forget you have ever been here. Deal?"
"No." Katie was horrified at the idea that she would have to go away and never come back.
"What's the problem? It's a good deal, we both walk away smiling." James was confused. He had scared the child silly and now she was supposed to run off wishing never to cross paths with him ever again...and be grateful for being let off so easy!
"I like it here. I like you."
"You don't even know me."
"Yes I do."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do."
"Fine, tell me about me?" James looked at her sternly.
"Your name is James and you write plays. You don't like Qwerty and you want to do Macbeth and blame Alan Smithee. You don't love Samantha, your best friend's name is Joe and you had a daughter."
James had almost been smiling to that point and very quickly the slight smile faded from his face. He stood to his feet, reached out and grabbed her by her arm and all but dragged her over to the door. He threw the door open violently and shoved her so hard out onto the lawn that she stumbled and fell. "DON'T YOU EVER SPEAK OF MY DAUGHTER AGAIN! WHO ARE YOU? SNEAKING IN HERE THINKING YOU KNOW EVERYTHING! YOU KNOW NOTHING, YOU ARE JUST A STUPID LITTLE GIRL!" James stared at the frightened child as she lay on the ground shaking and sobbing. Then he realised what he had done. He leaned against the doorframe and slid down to the sitting position as the tears ran down his face. He put his hands over his eyes and said to her, "Leave. Just leave."
Katie did not move, she just sat there listening to him cry and she continued to silently cry too. About ten minutes passed before he looked up again, and when he did he was surprised to see the girl still sitting where she had landed when he had shoved her. He stretched out his legs, stared at her and loudly asked, "What do you want from me?"
"To be your friend." Katie spoke so quietly that he was only just able to make out what she was saying.
"You want to be my friend? Even after I hurt you? I could be a child molester for all you know! You know nothing of me."
"You're not a bad person." Katie did not look up as she spoke, she kept staring at the green grass. "Samantha is a bad person, but you aren't."
James sighed out loud. "Didn't your parents ever teach you about stranger danger?" He stared at the child while she continued to stare down at the ground.
"I don't have parents."
"Everyone has parents."
"I don't."
"What happened? Did they die?" James knew it was an inappropriate question to ask in the way that he asked it, but he was passed it with everything and everyone.
"No." Katie shook her head and continued to stare at the grass.
"If they didn't die, then what happened?" Katie had peaked his curiosity just a little. "Well?"
"I got sent to Welfare."
James nodded his head. "Oh, I see...why did they do that?" he asked as he ran his hand through his hair.
Katie looked over at him for the first time since he had thrown her from his studio. "I was naughty."
"Why am I NOT surprised to hear that? So how long have you been in Welfare?" James stared down at the ground.
"Since I was two."
"What?" asked James as he slowly looked up from the ground.
"I was two."
James ran his hand down his face and swallowed the lump in his throat for fear that he would cry again. He looked Katie in the eye and very gently asked, "What's your name?"
"Katie."
"Katie?"
She looked at him and nodded.
"Katie is a very pretty name. You live up on the hill with that bible bas...church man?" James managed to stop himself at the last moment. He had met him several times before when he had visited to try and get he and Samantha to come to church. He said that God could fix all their problems. The last visit that he had made to them, James had slammed the door in his face after telling him, in no uncertain terms, never to come back.
"Yes."
"You like him?"
"He's okay."
James nodded his head getting the distinct impression that Katie did not like the man who lived up on the hill at all. He then sighed. "Okay young Katie, who lives up on the hill, I will be your friend, but there's got to be some ground rules."
Katie looked up and over at him and smiled. "Okay."
"No more sneaking around, if you are here then I want to know. Secondly, you will not dunk my shoes any more. Thirdly, you will not bring any of your little ferret friends here, just yourself. Fourth, and not least, you will never, and I repeat 'never' speak of my daughter again. Understand?"
"Yes." Katie began to cry and then she looked at him. "Thank you."
James nodded his head and then looked at the time on his watch. "It's lunch time, you hungry?"
"Yes."
"Won't they be expecting you up there on the hill?" James nodded in the direction of her driveway.
"No. They won't expect me to come home til later."
"Okay, well I will go inside and fix us something to eat. I will bring it out here...you like cheese and pickles?"
Katie nodded her head and watched James as he wandered into his house to make them both something to eat. She rolled up her sleeves to see if her foster father's bruises had been added to. He had bruised her arms when she had gotten fed up with him the day before. It was no worse than what anyone else had ever done. But she was glad to see that James had not added to them. James came out of the door while she was still inspecting the bruises on her arms. James saw them and went and knelt down beside her. He put the plates on the ground and then grabbed her arms in his hands. "Who did this?"
Katie felt embarrassed. "No one."
"Katie! Who marked you like this?" James shook his head. "Did I do this when I grabbed you?"
"No." Katie spoke softly.
"Katie, did I do this to you?" James felt sick at even the mere thought that he might have inflicted the bruises on her when he had grabbed her. He didn't think he had grabbed her that roughly.
"You didn't do it. I fell." Katie looked toward the hill.
"Are you sure?" James tried to gauge if she was telling the truth.
"I got cheeky to him and he grabbed me and I fell. It was my fault for getting smart to him. It wasn't you. If it was I would say."
"Do you have a Social Worker?" James let go of her arms and gave her a sandwich. He went and sat down on the studio steps to eat his.
"Yeah." Katie took a bite of hers and stared at James.
"You should tell him what is happening, those bruises are..."
"They are friends...he goes to our church. And anyway, it was my fault, I got smart to him...and I fell when I ran. I won't do it again."
"I should really tell someone that I have seen those marks on you."
"No, please don't tell anyone. He's never done anything to me. I fell and hurt my arms on the railings by the door. I am fine and he didn't do it."
"Okay." He wanted to add, "So long as you promise me that if he did do anything like that that you WILL tell me?" But he did not say anything at all, it was too soon anyway.
"I like the sandwich. Thank you for making it for me."
"That's okay."
"Who is Alan Smithee?" Katie looked at him as he chewed on his sandwich.
James chuckled and replied. "Alan Smithee is a fall guy."
"What's that?"
"Someone who takes the blame when...well...when things don't go quite to plan...especially in movies."
"Why?"
"Okay, number five rule for our friendship, you can't always just ask why. If you're going to ask me a question then I insist that it at least contain more than one word."
"Okay."
"So, do you like school?"
"Yup."
"Rule number six, no closed answers to my questions."
"What do you mean?"
"Every question that I ask you must be answered in at least three words or more. What things do you like about school?"
"I like English and I like Art, but I hate Math."
"You got friends at school?" James stared at her while he put the last part of his sandwich into his mouth.
"Yeah. Jenny and Mel."
"Mel is the blonde haired girl who lives up on the hill down on School Road? She's got like a hundred sisters and brothers?"
"Yeah." Katie stared at James who looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Um...no...that's Jenny."
"Well, I was going to get on with some work this afternoon, so you can either hang around or go on your way. But whatever you decide, if you stay, you need to be nice and quiet. Can you do that? Stupid question! Of course you can do that. You have been hanging around for two months and aside from the gnashing of teeth, I never knew you were even here." James stood and walked into his studio but Katie just stayed where she was. He waited a few moments and then went and stuck his head out the door. "You coming in or what?"
Katie smiled, got up and walked over to the studio steps. She climbed them slowly and for the first time walked into his studio at his invitation. James was sitting at his desk by then and he stared at Katie and pointed to the seat. "You can sit there."
"Thank you."
"You do not have to thank me for everything, okay?"
"Sorry." Katie felt a little embarrassed.
"And quit saying that you are sorry...and stop grinding your teeth." James smiled to set her at ease. "You ever read Edgar Allan Poe?"
"No, who was he?"
"He was a very strange little man, but fortunately for us, he was also a very good writer. Maybe you have heard of some of his stories and just do not realise they are his?" James looked back at his piece of paper and jotted down some words while Katie watched him. As he stared down on his paper she saw that he had a scar above his left eye. She stared at his hands again and saw that he was writing with his right hand.
"Did it hurt?"
James looked up from his paper. "Did what hurt?"
"Your lobotomy?"
James began to laugh and in between his laughter he managed to ask, "My what?"
"Your lobotomy." Katie wondered why he was laughing.
"Did he up on the hill tell you that?" James was still laughing at what she said.
"All play writers, poets, actors and royalty have lobotomies."
"Sweetheart, I sure know some actors, playwrights, poets and royalty who could benefit from one, but people don't have them just as a rule of thumb. Who told you that they do?"
"But you have the scar."
"What scar?" asked James as he began to laugh again.
"Above your left eyebrow, and you are right handed...that is where they take the bumpy bit out if you are right handed."
"What bumpy bit? Katie, are you on drugs?" James began laughing again and then he said, "Of course you are not on drugs, forget I asked. Katie? The scar above my left eyebrow is not from a lobotomy, but God knows some days I wish it was. Second of all, people don't get lobotomies any more. I don't know who told you that they do, but I am telling you, and I would never lie, that lobotomies don't happen any more."
"Mel said that poets, play writers..."
"Playwrights...the word is playwrights." James chuckled some more as he corrected her.
"Poets, playwrights, actors and royalty get them all the time. She said it helps actors to remember their lines."
"And what about painters, does Mel know if they get them? Because if they do, I know a painter who could truly benefit."
"Painters only get them if they start cutting off their ears," Katie said quite seriously.
James stared at Katie and just laughed more. He laughed so much that he had tears rolling down his face. Every time he stopped laughing, he would look at the child and start all over again. "Oh Katie, you really are truly precious, I have not laughed like this for a very long time."
"So you didn't have a lobotomy?"
"Sweetheart, no." James still broke into laughter every few moments. "Where did Mel get such an idea from?"
"Her dad told her that Shakespeare had a lobotomy because he wrote plays like someone who had had half their brain hacked out."
"Okay, now THAT is just sacrilege. Sweetheart, no one has lobotomies any more and Shakespeare most certainly had not had one...although it might go some ways to explaining Macbeth!"
"What is Macbeth?"
"Some things should be left as the mystery that they are. When you hit sixth form English you will know exactly what Macbeth is."
"I will be," Katie sat there counting on her fingers, "seventeen then. I might not live that long."
James shook his head and then gently touched her cheek, "Don't say that, Katie. You will live to be a very old lady."
"Some people don't. Romeo and Juliet didn't."
"You do know Shakespeare," said James as he stared at her. He was perplexed by Katie's muddled collection of snippets of information. She didn't know anything about Macbeth, thought Shakespeare and he had had lobotomies, couldn't add up without using her fingers and yet was able to talk about Romeo and Juliet.
"Who is Shakespeare?"
"He wrote the play Romeo and Juliet."
"Did he?" Katie looked surprised.
"What do you know about Romeo and Juliet?" James stared at Katie intently.
"One was a Montague and the other was a Capulet, they didn't want them to be together and so they both killed themselves."
"You never saw the play or read the story then huh?"
"No."
"I think you are too young for content of the nature of Romeo and Juliet. Have you read the book Watership Down? That's a good one for kids your age. How old are you?"
"I will be eleven very soon." Katie smiled at James.
"How soon?" James smiled at Katie as he leaned back in his chair again.
"In a couple of months. How old are you?" She stared at James wondering if he would tell her.
"I am thirty two."
"When will you be thirty three?"
"In a few months."
"That's not fair! What month?"
"The month named after Julius Caesar."
"July? That is the same month as me."
James leaned forward in his chair again. "How did you know who the month is named after?"
"I read it in a book. My birthday date is the 25th, what one is yours?"
"Really? Mine is the 25th too."
"Truly?" Katie wondered if he was just having her on?
"Truly. I would never lie to you, Katie from up on the hill. Wow, we share the same birthday, we'll have to have a cake together to celebrate." James tapped his pen against the desk.
"Promise?" Katie hoped that he was not playing with her.
"I promise that we will have a cake and we will have forty-four candles on it. If you can't blow them all out, then I will."
"Why forty-four?"
"Thirty-three for me and eleven for you." James smiled at her and then he looked at the clock. "Gosh I have to get out of here. I have to be somewhere at two."
"When will you be back?" Katie stood to her feet.
"Probably not until late tonight, so maybe I will see you tomorrow?"
"Afternoon, morning is church." Katie pulled a face. She hated going to church.
"Okay, so come down tomorrow afternoon and we will talk some more. I am glad that you want to be my friend, Katie." James walked her out of the studio and down to the gate. "See you tomorrow."
"Okay, James." Katie headed back toward her driveway, but as soon as James went to his garage to back out his car, she disappeared down the bank beside the bridge. Katie did not want to go home yet, so she decided to spend the afternoon building a dam in the river.

Katie had only been playing in the river for about five minutes when she heard it. A vehicle was coming up the road and sounded as though it had stopped right outside their gate beside the bridge. Katie climbed up the bank with stealth. She wanted to see who is was before they saw her. All she saw was a white van parked across the road from James's house. One man had climbed the powerpole and appeared to be doing some kind of repairs to the power or phone lines. Two other people made their way inside James's gate, she assumed, to go inside his house. Katie waited for another five minutes and grew quite bored with what might be going on inside and outside of James's house, so she climbed back down the bank and resumed her play in the river. Katie played in the river until it was almost dark and then she headed back up her driveway to the house. She hated meal times because her foster father always insisted upon having a very long bible lesson straight after dinner.
"King David was a very good man, but he desired Bathsheba. Do you know what desire is, Katie?"
Katie stared at the patterns on the tablecloth and then looked over at her foster father. "Yes. I know what desire is."
He nodded his head. "King David desired her so much that he did not care what he had to do to get her. Bathsheba had a husband named Uriah and David had him killed so that he could take Bathsheba to himself. Do you know what that means, Katie?"
"It means that King David murdered Uriah. God must have been pretty miffed at King David for that...it is wrong to take something that is not yours," she said carefully without making eye-contact with him.
"It is wrong, but God forgives it. King David killed Uriah and yet God still called him a righteous man. A man can do things wrong and still be quite okay in God's eyes you know. And often there are reasons why things happen, like what happened with Bathsheba and David."
"Bathsheba didn't do anything wrong!" Katie asserted.
"Ah, but you see, Katie, she DID. Do you know what she did?"
"What?" Katie did not bother to look up at him.
"She deliberately tempted King David. It happens all the time, quite often women and little girls do things that cause these kinds of things to happen. That is why God does not blame men, that is why he still called King David 'righteous'."
Katie knew exactly what he was saying to her and she wondered what it was that she had done to tempt him? She was always careful about the clothes that she wore and always made sure that she was well covered around him. As she sat there her mind drifted off to a conversation she had once had with a girl named Marcel. Marcel was around five years older than her, but she had warned her about 'him' their foster father at the time. Katie had lay in bed at night facing the wall while 'he' had come in and hurt Marcel in the most horrible way.
"When it is your turn, and it WILL be your turn one day, just shut your eyes and pretend to be somewhere else. Don't ever make the mistake of telling anyone; they won't believe you."
Katie had looked at Marcel. "But why do they do it?"
Marcel looked at Katie and through her tears replied, "Because they can."
"When will they do it to me?"
Marcel wiped at her tears. "When you are older, probably when you start to get boobs and things like...men like him like girls to have boobs at least. Some don't, but most do."
"How old will I be?"
"About eleven. That's when girls start to get boobs...but sometimes they don't care...but he does," said Marcel as she pointed to the door that their foster father had just walked out of.
"Can't you stop him?" Katie felt terrified of the idea that one day what was happening to Marcel might happen to her.
"No, Katie. There is no way to stop him. I wish I could get him back, if I could think of something I'd..."
"KATIE?"
Katie realised that she had drifted off and that her foster father had asked her something. "I didn't hear you."
"You are always drifting off into fairyland...and then you wonder why I get so cross with you! Go to bed, Katie."
The next morning she got up early and got ready for church and they were some of the first people to arrive. Katie did not like their church or the people in it and once the service got started Katie tried to drift off to another place. She thought about James and his studio, "He's probably in there now. I wish I was there now too!"
Katie watched the people as they walked to the front of the church to be prayed over and she knew what would happen next. People would start laughing and crying and then fat old Mrs. Forrester would fall over backward and it would take six men to lower her to the floor as she did so. Sure enough Mrs. Forrester did fall to the floor, but with rather a loud thud because they were not quick enough to catch her. If she had hurt herself, then she sure hid it well, but Katie saw her eyelids flutter as she lay there on the floor. She watched her closely and after another few seconds she saw Mrs. Forrester slightly open one of her eyes to look around to see if anyone was taking any notice of her?
Katie often daydreamed about standing up inside the church, pointing her finger at Mrs. Forrester and screaming out, "FRAUD!"
Katie smiled to herself as she stared at Mrs. Forrester pulling off her fake 'slain in the spirit' thing and then she realised that Mrs. Forrester was staring straight at her. Katie looked around her to make sure that no one was staring at her. That was when she saw 'him', a new person in the congregation whom she had never seen in their church before. He stared back at her and then looked at the floor. His blonde hair fell down over his eyes as he did so. She wondered how long the foolish man would stick around? Most of the new ones did not stay long at all. She looked away from the blonde haired man and back at Mrs. Forrester. Katie glanced once more around her and then looked back at Mrs. Forrester and poked her tongue out at her.
Mrs. Forrester scowled at her and then slowly rolled onto her side. Katie thought she looked like a beached whale and she felt tempted to scream at her, "LOOK OUT! THE JAPANESE ARE COMING!"
Mrs. Forrester then opened her eyes, stared at Katie, pointed her finger straight at her and began to scream out, "DEMON! DEMON! GOD HAS SHOWN ME THAT THE CHILD HAS A DEMON! THE DEMON OF LUST! OH GOD HAVE MERCY ON HER SOUL!"
Katie felt her blood run cold and she stared around her and everyone was, by then, staring at her. Mrs. Forrester had a reputation for being a VERY God-fearing woman and very discerning. If she was telling everyone that God had told her that Katie had a demon, then they would believe her. The Pastor walked over to where Katie was standing and stared down upon her. He then looked at her foster father and asked if he could take her to the front to pray over her?
"I don't want to be prayed over!" Katie was horrified at the idea because she knew what they were going to do. She thought she saw the blonde man take a step forward, but then he thought better of it and stepped back to where he was.
"You can pray over her, Lucan," said her foster father.
Lucan quieted everyone down and said, "Can I have all the elders up here please?" Lucan had Katie's arm in a vice-like grip and she could not get out of it and so she tried to slink to the ground in an effort not to be taken to the front of the church. "IN THE NAME OF JESUS, YOU SHALL WALK, DEMON!"
Katie was terrified when Lucan leaned down and looked into her eyes and spoke those words. Once she was at the front of the church, all the elders placed their hands on her and they began praying in languages that sounded like gobble-de-gook to Katie. Even Wilbur Barnaby had his horrible hands on her and she hated Wilbur because he seemed kind of creepy. While they continued to pray, she also noticed Shonalee Carter standing in the second row back. She had one almighty bruise on her face and Katie figured that Sam Carter must have gotten fist-happy with her again. But just like Katie was responsible for what was happening to her, so was Shonalee Carlter. Jezabel Carter," thought Katie as she stared at the sad looking woman.
After a while the voices of her tormentors became louder and louder and their hands began to shake as they ordered the demon to leave Katie. Katie was so nervous that she began to laugh and after a few moments her laughter was almost hysterical.
"Satan mocks us!" Lucan was disgusted with the behaviour of the demon inside of Katie. He began to pray with even more fervour and after a while he grabbed her by her arms and shook her violently as he ordered the demon to flee. Katie knew that, short of vomiting up a lung, they would not believe the demon to be gone, even once they were done with her. What annoyed her most was that her Social Worker stood with them and did nothing to stop them doing that thing to her.
After about ten minutes more, the eldership and the Pastor gave up their attempts to make the demon leave because it just kept laughing at them. "He is much weakened inside her, Ronald. But you will need to be careful around the child, least she tempt you to sin!" Lucan and the eldership then prayed over Ronald.
While they were praying over her horrible foster father she glanced back to look at the blonde haired man and she saw him walking out into the aisle of the church. He had something in his hand, it was some kind of radio and she saw him slip it into his pocket. He glanced behind him one last time and made eye contact with Katie and he winked at her so she smiled at him.
When the service was finished, no one would look at Katie. Katie didn't care. She thought they were all mad anyway and she did not like a single one of them. All she wanted to do was go home so that she could go and visit James in his studio. James was normal. But her plans to go and see James were to come to nothing when her foster father announced that she would spend the afternoon in the lounge in prayer and repentance for what had happened at church. "You mocked the elders. You mocked Lucan and you refused to let the demon leave you. I will not have it, Katie!"
Katie felt crushed! There was no way to get out of it and once she had eaten her lunch her foster father took her to a chair in the lounge and made her sit there. "You will read the book of Revelation; you will read about the scarlet whore and you will heed the warning, Katie! You will heed the warning, least you take me down in the pits of hell with you! Is that what you want, Katie? You want me to burn in hell for your sin?"
Katie shook her head as her tears rolled down her cheeks. "No."
"Then you will sit here and you will read the book and you will pray that God will have mercy on you. You will seek God to release the demon from inside you or else, Katie, you will be doomed to the fires of hell for all eternity!"
Katie sat in the chair all afternoon until her foster father came back from milking the cows. He walked into the lounge and told Katie to stand up and so she did. He then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her foster father's hands and arms were shaking and his breathing was rapid and loud. "See what you do to me, Katie?"
Katie tried to move her body away from his groin area, it was hurting her as he pressed himself against her as hard as he could. "Please let me go."
"You are a bad girl, Katie. You are a very bad, bad girl!" he said as he grunted and moaned for a few seconds. "You are a bad, bad girl!" he repeated, barely above a whisper. He kissed her hair and then sent her to her room.
Katie lay down on her bed and cried wishing she were anywhere but there. She thought about running down the driveway to go and see James, maybe she might even tell him what her foster father was doing? "But it's my fault...I made him do it," she said to herself through her tears. She then pulled out her diary and began to write. A few times she looked up at her Donny Osmond poster and wondered what it would be like to be him and not her? But she knew that it did no good to wonder about things like that!
After they had finished eating tea, her foster father sent her off to have a bath and go to bed. He did not come into the bathroom that time and Katie made sure she got into her room and into her bed before he came looking for her.
Katie liked school because it meant that she was not stuck at home with 'him'. Being at school also meant that she was with Jenny and Mel all day and she liked being around them. They were the only friends she had at the school. Most of the kids at their small school also went to their church. Jenny and Mel were two of the small number who did not and so they were outcasts like her. The children who had been at church on the Sunday morning stared at Katie sideways. They had been told to avoid her, least they catch what she had. Mrs. Forrester's daughter Merrilyn went to their school too and Katie walked right up to her, got right in her face and went, "Boo!"
Merrilyn began to cry and Katie got into trouble for teasing her. Instead of being able to play with Jenny and Mel at lunchtime, she had to sit in the bike shed and write lines. She watched Mel and Jenny playing on the maypole, while she sat there writing away that she 'Must not tease Merrilyn,' two hundred times over. She laughed when she saw Jenny go flying off the maypole when Mel swung her so fast that she could no longer maintain her grip on the rope. Not long after that, she saw Joelee Elstree and her two friends Holly and Carla. Katie did not like Joelee Elstree too much at all because she was no different to Katie, and yet she treated Katie with the same kind of disregard and suspicion that everyone else did. Joelee stared at Katie sideways and avoided her at all costs and there were no lengths that Joelee would not go to in avoiding her. "Why have they accepted you and yet they will not accept me? What is so special about you?" she asked herself as she watched Joelee Elstree stare at her sideways, yet again. Then she thought about the strange talk around the community of the man whom had moved onto their beach, Luci-arnold Graham. "I wonder who he really is and what it is that he wants?" she wondered as she sat there staring at Joelee Elstree. She did not give too much thought to Luci-arnold Graham, she had too many other more pressing issues to deal with. Then she thought about Sam Carter and his wife Shonalee whom he seemed to beat on an astoundingly regular basis. "Does he beat you too, Joelee Elstree?" she wondered as she sat there watching Joelee sit down on the grass with her two friends. "Perhaps you deserve it for being such a traitor to your own kind!" she told herself as she wrote line number one-hundred and fifty-four.
The rest of the school week went fast and soon enough Saturday morning came around. Katie was finally able to go down the road to see James. Katie told her foster mother that she was going for a walk, "Maybe to go and see Jenny."
Her foster mother nodded her head. "Be home in time for tea." She did not even look at Katie when she spoke.
Katie was just about to make her way out of the house when her foster father turned up. "Walk with me down to the letterbox to pick up the rural delivery, Katie."
"I was just going to go to Jenny's place." Katie felt nervous and heartsick. What if he decided that he wanted her to go out onto the farm to work with him for the day? He had done that before and it was an unbearable torment!
"You can walk to the letterbox with me and then go on your way."
Katie nodded her head and so he took her hand in his. They set off down the driveway and out the gate to the letterbox. Just as he was opening the letterbox, James came wandering out of his gate to come and get his rural delivery too. James looked at Katie, but he did not smile and Katie wondered what she had done wrong? Her foster father, upon seeing James, waited there until James reached the boxes that were nailed to a post against a part of the hedge that surrounded James' house.
"Morning, James."
"Good morning, Ronald." James opened the lid to his letterbox and reached inside for his mail.
"How are things with you?"
"Couldn't be better...and you?" asked James without even looking up from his mail that he was thumbing through.
"Wonderful. God is so good."
"Hmm...that must be nice for you." James glanced up and smiled wryly.
"I don't believe you have met my daughter." Ronald placed his hand on Katie's back and James noticed her cringing when he did that.
"I did not know you had a daughter." James stared directly at Ronald wondering what he would say to that?
"Oh yes, this is my little girl, Katie."
"Hello, Katie." James smiled warmly at her.
"Hello," she said quietly.
"She is beautiful," said James to Ronald.
"She is isn't she?"
"Gosh, to look at her, I would never have picked her as having come from you. Oh well." James nodded his head at Ronald, smiled at Katie and then turned and began to walk back to his house.
"God bless you, James," called Ronald.
James nodded his head without looking back at him. Once James had walked into his gate and disappeared from view, Ronald sent Katie on her way to Jenny's house and he watched her until she had crossed the bridge. Once she had disappeared from his view, he turned and walked up the driveway back to the house to go and get on with some chores around the farm.
Once Katie was across the bridge and around the bend where she knew Ronald could no longer see her, she jumped down into the grass and began to creep back toward the bridge. Once she got to the bridge and saw that the coast was clear, she ran the short distance from the bridge to James' house. She ran through the gate and headed toward his studio and she was glad to be there because his place felt peaceful and calm.

Katie walked across the grass and over toward the studio and just as she was about to knock on the door she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello there, can I help you?"
Katie turned around to see Joe walking across the grass toward her. She had not seen his car outside the house and so had not known that he was there.
"Is James here?" Katie stared up at Joe as he came to a stop right in front of her.
"Does James know you?"
"Yes, James knows her." James walked up behind Joe and stood in front of Katie too. "This lovely young girl is the rat from up in the loft."
"Huh?" asked Joe.
James laughed. "Never mind. Katie, this is Joe. Joe, this is Katie."
"And who would Katie be exactly?" asked Joe as he shook her hand and stared from her to James and then back down at her.
"James is my friend."
"Really?" Joe looked at James. "Since when?" Joe had not meant to say that, but he was glad that the normally astute James did not pick up on his mistake. Truth was that Joe already knew who Katie was. He had come back that day to tell James something, but by then James had already found Katie up in his loft. He had ducked behind the trees as the situation had taken a sudden turn for the worse and James had shoved her out onto the lawn. Joe had crouched there just listening and watching and he had seen James befriend the little girl, but he had not wanted them to know that their privacy had been invaded, so he never told James that he had been there. It was a trouble thing for him though; he had to be careful to 'play dumb' and ensure that he did not let on to James that he knew as much about Katie as he did up to the point where they went back inside the studio.
"Since last weekend, eh Katie?" James smiled.
"Aha." Katie stared up at Joe who had finally let go of her hand.
"Well, I have to get on my way so I will leave you two 'friends' to get on with your visit." Joe smiled, patted James on the arm and headed toward the gate. When he was almost at the gate he turned back and called out, "Nice to meet you, Katie, friend of James." Joe then turned on his heel and headed out of the gate. Katie heard him open the garage and start up his car, back it out and take off.
"Did he stay here?"
"Yes, mother, is there a problem with that?" James stared down upon Katie and smiled. "Come on, let's go into the studio." James led the way and Katie followed him. Once they were inside the studio, James indicated for her to sit on the seat that she had sat on last time and so she did.
"Have you written anything yet?"
"What, first you are my mother and now you are my agent?" James smiled at her as she twiddled her fingers nervously. "I was kidding...it was a joke."
"Oh." Katie was glad to hear that he was not serious because for a moment there, she had thought that she had upset him with her questions.
James sat down in his chair and stared at her for a moment, tapped his index finger on the table and then looked at Katie. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Why do you tap your finger on the table like that?"
"What?" James was thrown by her question for a moment.
"You tap your finger on the table like this." Katie tapped her index finger on the table, as James watched her. "And you always use the same finger. Why do you do that?"
"Um...I am not sure. Why do you grind your teeth and make your jaw click?" James smiled at her.
Katie shook her head as if to dismiss him. "Was that your question?"
James stifled a chuckle. "What? Ah...hmm." James looked away from her, took a minute to gather his thoughts and then looked back at Katie. "Do you like him?"
"Who?"
"Him out at the mailbox, Mr. God is Good?" James wondered if she would tell him anything at all about the man he had come to think of as akin to Charles Manson? Or would she avoid the question by asking him another? He watched her eyes dart from left to right while she tried to make a decision as to whether to answer honestly or not.
"Can you keep a secret?" Katie looked intently at him.
"Secrets are not always a good thing, Katie. It depends what the secret is." James tried to keep his tone light so as not to offend her. James didn't like secrets and he had always vowed that he would never enter into secret keeping with children. He thought it was dangerous for the child to be taught that it was okay or that they needed to keep secrets from the adults in their lives.
"Fine!" Katie got up from the chair and went to leave his studio.
James jumped up from his chair and took her by the arm before she got to the door. "Hey, Katie, what's wrong?"
Katie stood there and refused to look at James and then she said, "How can we be friends if you can't keep a secret?"
"Katie, secrets are usually not good things to keep." James could see that she was clearly shutting down on him and so he did the one thing he had always vowed that he would never do. "But if you need to tell me something and you really want me to keep it to myself, then I will."
"Everyone has secrets." Katie looked up at him.
"Do you have secrets?" he asked as he gently led her back to the chair.
"Some." Katie sat back down on her chair.
James sat on his, leaned forward, touched her on the arm and asked, "What did you want to tell me?"
"I don't like Ronald." Katie stared at James to see what he would say.
"Between you and I, Katie, I don't like him either." James sat back in his chair. "Now that we have that out of the way..."
"What is that book?" Katie pointed to the dark green book on his desk. It looked very old.
"Oh, that's Edgar Allan Poe. Want to look at it?" James reached out and picked up the book.
"Yes please." Katie took the book from him when he passed it to her. "What is the story you and Joe were talking about?"
"Last Saturday?"
"Yes."
"The Cask of Amontillado. It is on page one hundred and ninety one. But I do not know if you will be able to understand the language that it is written in."
"Is it written in another language?" Katie could clearly see that it was written in English, as she flipped through the pages to find the story.
"Well no. It is not another language, it is another style of language. The story is not written in the way that we speak to each other today nor in the way that stories of today are written." James tapped his finger on the table and that was when he realised that Katie was right, he did do that...all the time. He stopped and dug his hand into his pocket.
"I don't mind you tapping your finger." Katie glanced at him briefly and then looked back at the pages in the book.
James shook his head and smiled. He then pulled his hand out of his pocket and pulled the typewriter closer to where he was sitting. He tapped on the keys for a few moments and he typed so fast that Katie could not help but stop and stare. James then pulled the piece of paper out of the typewriter and handed it to her.
Katie looked upon the paper and all she saw was, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" She looked up from the paper and stared at James intently. "Why did you write that?"
James smiled at her and took the piece of paper back. "Therapy!" He then screwed it up and threw it down onto the floor.
"Are you mad?" Katie stared at him and she watched him raise his eyebrows.
"Mad 'angry' or mad 'stark raving bonkers'?"
Katie shrugged her shoulders. "Both?"
"Neither. I am frustrated."
"That means confused?"
"Not exactly. It means that I want to do something but cannot come up with the ideas and so I feel flustered and a little bit irritated with myself."
"Oh. I get like that." Katie set her eyes back down on the page.
"How far have you gotten with the story so far?" James stared at her and could see that she was scanning the words on the page.
"I am still trying to read this word..." Katie held the book up and placed her finger under the word.
James sat forward and looked at the word. "That's impunity."
"What does it mean to punish with impunity?"
"Well, it means to make the punishment exceptionally unpleasant."
"Like bamboo shoots under your fingernails?"
"Um..." James chuckled. "I guess."
"What does this mean?" Katie handed the book to James.
"'A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt to him who has done the wrong'. Was that it?" James stared at Katie.
"Yes. What does it mean?"
"Well, in straightforward terms it is saying that it is no good trying to get someone back for something they did to you if it is also going to hurt you too. Then it goes on to say that it is unsatisfying to you if the person you are getting back does not know that it was you who got them back."
"Oh. Why does he want to do that?"
"Well, Montresor is the one who wants to take revenge against someone, in this instance, Fortunato. Fortunato was a bit of a skite and a knowitall and he had embarrassed Montresor on many occasions. But this one time, Fortunato was insulting as he embarrassed him, and so Montresor said, 'enough is enough,' and decided to teach him a lesson."
"That is what the story is about?"
"Yes, but it is clever in that Montresor found Fortunato's weak point and he exploited that in an effort to exact his revenge."
"What is 'exploited'?"
"Used. Exploited means to use something to further your own selfish ends."
"Oh, I think I get it." Katie was thinking about something else as she spoke to James and he cottoned on.
"What are you thinking, Katie?"
"Nothing," she said as she stared left.
"Katie, do you have a Fortunato in your life?"
"No."
James laughed. "Lies, we all have a Fortunato in our lives. Mine is named Caspian!"
"I saw him here with Samantha." Katie put the book down on the table and stared at James.
He then threaded another piece of paper into the typewriter and his fingers moved like lightning again. Once he was done he pulled the paper out and handed it to Katie. She looked at the paper and it had,' F..k, f..k, f..k, f..k, f..k,' written on it.
"It's f u c k, actually," she said as she handed the piece of paper back to him. "I can't believe that you don't know how to spell it!"
James burst out laughing and then screwed the piece of paper up and threw it onto the floor. Katie watched it as it rolled across the floor and came to rest against the other one. "You're a funny kid." James chuckled as the look of confusion took a hold on her face. "I didn't spell the whole word on purpose...its bad enough I wrote the first one in its entirety and gave it to you!"
"James?" Katie stared at him intently ignoring his last comment.
"Yes, young Katie from up on the hill?"
"Do you believe in demons?"
"What? Why?"
"At church last Sunday, a lady said I have a demon. I just wondered if you believe in them?"
James squinted his eyes, sighed and looked at Katie. "What did the woman who said it look like?"
"Mrs. Forrester is big, fat and ugly. She is not very nice either."
James nodded his head. "Well, demons are pretty big and they need a lot of room, so there is no way that one would bother with you. That big, fat lady from your church? Now she would be perfect!"
"Really?" Katie smiled.
"Well, Katie, I do not actually believe in demons at all, but if they were real, I am pretty sure that that is the way that it would work."
"So there's no demons?"
"No. But there are people who behave as though they are demons though. People who do terrible things to others and do not care for the way that they have hurt them. That kind of person, to my mind, is a demon."
"Why did you pretend that you didn't know me out by the letterbox?"
"Ronald and I do not get along. I did not think that it was especially prudent of me to allow him the knowledge that I know you."
"I was glad that you didn't let him know that you had already met me." Katie smiled at James. "Is Samantha going to be coming back?"
"Why, do you miss spying on her?" James smiled at Katie.
"How did you know I spied on her?" Katie was perplexed.
"I have my ways. How many times have you spied on her and I?"
"A lot. Jenny, Mel and I have been coming down here for ages."
"So you will have seen the fights?" James nodded his head as he spoke. He tried to imagine what Katie must have made of all she had seen and heard?
"Some. She was mean to you."
"It wasn't all her fault. I did things wrong too. I did many things wrong." James leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out.
"Did you do things with other women like she did with Caspian?"
"No. But I was away a lot and I let her get very lonely. I did not pay the attention to her that I should have."
"Why not?"
James sighed, leaned forward and ran his hand through his hair. "I stopped loving her...I..."
"Why did you stop loving her?"
"Something happened. Something bad...she did something bad...and I just could not find it in my heart to forgive her for it."
"Mel said that adults do horrible things to each other all the time and that it will happen to us when we grow up too."
"Katie, that is not necessarily so. It is not this way with everyone. My friend Joe, whom you met today, he has been married to the same woman for fourteen years and they are still very much in love. They are not mean to each other."
"I don't think I want to grow up."
"It happens so slowly that you do not even notice."
"Some people notice. Some people know exactly when you grow up. I know exactly when I will grow up."
"Okay, how old will you be when you grow up?"
"Eleven."
James raised his eyebrows. "At eleven you will still be a baby."
"No I won't." Katie spoke barely above a whisper.
"Katie?"
"What?"
"You WILL still be a baby at eleven. Eleven is a fun age to be because you are old enough to have fun but smart enough not to get caught." James smiled.

It was two weeks later that Joe made his rather odd discovery. He was at the College and they were going through rehearsals. One of the local schools was being brought in to watch the first rehearsal and so Joe was trying to organise everyone. A short while after all the school children had come into the hall and taken their seats, a little girl wandered up toward the stage. Joe happened to turn around and see that it was Katie. Katie smiled at him and said hello. Just as he was about to say hello to her, a lady came rushing up to the front and grabbed Katie by the arm, "Come on love, you mustn't annoy the director."
"No, she's fine," said Joe as he stared at the woman.
"She is retarded ...she..." the woman smiled apologetically at Joe and headed back toward the seats with Katie.
Once the rehearsal was finished, the lady went to Joe and thanked him for allowing the students to come and view the show. "It will help them with their show that's coming up."
"They are to do a show?" Joe smiled.
"Yes, Sleeping Beauty...the little girl who wandered up to the stage when we first got here? We are hoping to be able to allow her to take the lead...although she is a little slow, we are trying to keep it inclusive...kids love drama...all kids, not just the clever ones."
"What is wrong with the little girl? You say she's retarded?"
"Yes, not badly retarded but she will never be able to do what her peers can do. Anyway, it was a great show and good luck with opening night...when is it?"
"Three weeks from today. We still have some glitches to iron out." Joe scratched his head and stared at Katie who was standing across the hall from him. He then stared back at the lady. "Um...I hope you don't think me rude or inappropriate, but was that little girl..."
The lady looked in the direction that Joe was staring in. "Katie?"
Joe nodded his head. "Yes, Katie. Was she...born that way...or?" Joe was uncertain about whether he should even be asking at all, but his curiosity was truly peaked.
"Oh no, she um...she was abused as a little one...they think it is slight brain damage due to that."
Joe nodded his head. "That's terrible. Listen, I have some books on undertaking drama with handicapped children, if you are interested in reading any of them...they may be of help to you with...um...little Katie."
"We don't seem to be having any trouble with her, so long as we keep it simple we never do."
Joe nodded his head. "Okay...well...it was good to see the kids here and good luck with your production."
"No, thank you." The woman smiled and went on her way and Joe watched as she took Katie by the arm and led her from the hall as though she were helpless.
A few nights later Joe went out to visit with James to see how he was doing. They went into the studio and they cracked open a bottle of wine and indulged in a cigar each.
"Samantha came and got the last of her things this morning." James blew out a puff of smoke as he spoke to Joe.
Joe raised his eyebrows as he savoured the wine. "How did that go?" he finally asked once he had managed to suck the life out of his sip of wine. "This is a nice vintage."
"Amontillado!" James burst out laughing.
"Okay, Montresor. So how did it go with Sam?"
"We did a bit of yelling, threw a few recriminations each other's way. A few vases got thrown and she set off into the sunset with Fortunato, never to return...if I am exceptionally lucky!"
Joe looked at James seriously. "You had a baby with this woman...she bore your child..."
"And she also killed my child...mustn't forget that part." James picked up his glass of wine and drank it down in three huge gulps.
Joe poured him another glass of wine. "James...she did not mean to..."
"You get behind the wheel of the car drunk, Joe, you know that someone is going to get hurt."
"She..."
James cut Joe off again. "She drank a whole bottle of gin, Joe. She wasn't even coherent, what the hell made her think that she could get into a car and make rational decisions? She knew that she shouldn't, but she didn't care and she did it anyway and it cost me my daughter. So don't sit here trying to defend what she did."
"Benji was her daughter too," said Joe softly.
"SOME MOTHER SHE WAS, HUH?" James glared at Joe.
"Okay, let's not discuss this any more."
James looked at the floor and then back at Joe. "Let's not."
Joe fiddled with his wineglass and wondered about the wisdom of discussing the other child in James' life, considering his present frame of mind? He decided to plough ahead anyway. "I saw your little Katie the other day at the College."
James perked up a little. "Really? What was she doing there?"
"School trip. They came to watch our first rehearsal."
"How did it go?"
"First rehearsals, you know what they are like. But um, little Katie came up to say hello and this lady came and took her away. She apologised that Katie had bothered me and she kind of rattled off this explanation that Katie is retarded and that's why Katie came up to me like that."
James laughed. "What? Katie's not retarded."
Joe raised his eyebrows and then kind of sighed. "That's what I thought too. After the show was done the woman came up to thank me, so I got nosy and asked about Katie."
"What did you ask her?"
"I pointed Katie out to her and asked again. I just wanted to be sure that I had heard her correctly and that she was speaking of Katie and not some other kid."
James raised his eyebrows as he sipped on his wine. "And?"
"She said that Katie is retarded; that she has brain damage. She said that so long as they keep things simple, that Katie is no problem."
"What do you think?" James stared intently at Joe.
"James, I have only seen her a couple of times...not enough to know. What do you think?"
"She is one of the smartest kids her age that I have ever met. If she's retarded, then I'm Elvis."
"Elvis is dead."
"That is exactly my point." James smiled
"You sure?"
"Of course I am sure, they found him in the toilet face..."
"James! You are such an idiot sometimes. Are you sure that she is not retarded?"
"I have spent enough time with her to be able to pick up if she is retarded or not. I do not even understand how anyone could have come to that conclusion. She reads Poe with me and she understands what is being said."
"How much explaining do you have to do?"
"Not much and only on bigger words that even older kids would not cope too well with. That is so odd...so odd." James was totally perplexed.
"Neena has a friend who teaches at Katie's school, I could ask Neena to ask her if she knows anything."
James chuckled. "There's nothing to ask, Joe. Katie is not retarded...look at this story she typed on my typewriter." James reached behind him, grabbed a piece of paper and handed it to Joe.
Joe sat there reading it for a few minutes and then he looked at James. "Did you help her with this?"
"Look at some of the spelling mistakes...does it look like I helped her with it?"
"No. So she wrote this totally by herself?"
"Yes."
"Well how could they come to the conclusion that she is retarded if she is not?"
"There are gaps in her learning...she is terrible with numbers...adds up on her fingers still."
"Could she be an Autistic Savant?"
James laughed. "No."
Joe shrugged his shoulders. "Well you know, Autistic Savants they..."
"Are great with numbers, facts, figures." James stared at Joe and wondered what he would come out with next?
"Autistic Savants definitely present a fascinating cognitive phenomena in psychology. It could be that she is a language savant, it is rare, but every now and then it happens. She could..."
"She makes eye-contact with me. She interacts with me and she has no unusual splinter, talented or prodigious skills. She is a normal child and there is nothing 'idiot' about her."
"Autistic savants are not idiots." Joe scowled at James playfully.
"Joe, the French called it unlearned 'idiot' skill 'savant'. Katie is many things, but she is not an idiot savant!"
"I am just trying to work out how you see a perfectly normal functioning child while everyone else apparently sees a brain damaged child? I do not understand how they have drawn their conclusions."
"I don't know either, but I can tell you that they are most definitely wrong." James tapped on the side of his wineglass for a few seconds and then looked intently at Joe. "I don't suppose you thought to ask whether she was born that way or..."
"Actually, I did."
"And?" James tapped his finger on the table and then remembered how Katie had noticed that he did that. He wondered if Joe had noticed that about him over the years and whether it annoyed him or not? Just in case it did annoy Joe, he put that hand in his pocket so that he would not be tempted to 'tap' again.
"She said that Katie was abused as a little tot. Can you imagine that...hurting a little kid?" Joe stared at James and then realised what he had said. "Sorry."
"No, don't be sorry; we are speaking of Katie, not Benji. And no, I cannot imagine deliberately hurting a little tot. I am sure that it happens all the time, not just in my life, but me personally? No, I would never entertain it, nor forgive it. You know that better than anyone."
"Has Katie spoken much about her past to you?"
"Not really. When I first met her she told me that she was in Welfare care and that she had been put into care because she was naughty."
"She is in Welfare care?" Joe was surprised to hear that.
"Yes...I told you, remember?"
"No...I must have had stuff on my mind...so those people up on the hill aren't her parents?"
"No. She was put into care when she was two...she thinks...because she was naughty."
"How is a two year old equated as naughty?" Joe was confused as to why Katie would have been told something like that.
"That was what I wondered when she said it, but that's what they have obviously told her...but anyway, it doesn't seem to bother her excessively. She seems a happy kid to me for the most part. Very interested in Poe, particularly the Amontillado."
"She's not friends with Caspian is she?" Joe started laughing.
"Heaven forbid...no. She is not fond of Samantha either and she has this real weird thing about growing up."
"What do you mean?"
James scratched his head. "I'm not really sure...I'm still trying to work it out myself. Did I tell you she thought I'd had a lobotomy?" James broke out laughing at the memory.
"What? No!" Joe laughed right along with James. "What made her think that...aside from the obvious?"
James sighed. "Her little friend Mel told her that...oh never mind...but it was funny. She thought that scar above my eyebrow was from the procedure. Never thought I'd ever laugh about that scar, but boy she had me going for quite some time." James chuckled a few moments longer, as did Joe. "Anyway, so how did your Joseph go? Puberty hasn't hit?" James laughed as he spoke.
"Not yet, but if its going to, it will arrive right on opening night, even you know that." Joe laughed too.
"I'm not sure what to do."
"About what?"
"This place." James glanced around him and then back at Joe.
"Don't make any decisions yet, James. Give yourself some time. Marriage breakups are not conducive to good decision making...wait until things have settled. Will Samantha want anything out of it?"
"I have enough to pay her off if I need to. We were supposed to raise a family here and all we've managed to raise is hell." James rubbed at his forehead as his tears trickled down his face. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's been a very rough six years, you have a right to cry about it if you want. But James, being that you are feeling this way, do you think it is wise to get involved in little Katie's life? It might just turn out to be another loss for you...they move those kids around the place all the time and they hardly ever stay anywhere for too long."
"It's crossed my mind...but in a funny kind of way, I need her and she needs me. Everything has its place, everything has its time and for now the season is Katie and I."
"Seasons change, James."
"I know and this season will no doubt pass away and a new one will start, but while it is here, then I will live it and enjoy it fully."
"Just guard your heart is all I am saying." Joe nudged his leg with his foot.
"Guard my heart...I understand the words and I sure appreciate the sentiment but, Joe? If we spend our lives guarding our hearts all the time, we'll never feel anything."
"What about Katie? What if you decide that here is not the place for you and you decide to leave? If she gets attached to you, James, it will hurt her terribly."
"So many of the experiences in our lives are spoiled because we keep thinking about and analysing the 'what if'? Oftentimes, when we are involved in a project, we look ahead and think that we can't wait for this to be over so that we can do that. Joe, all we end up doing is missing the purity of the moment. We end up missing the here and now. Must we spend so much time feeling the discontent? I don't want to do that with Katie, I just want to savour the moment, that's all."
Joe looked at the floor and then at James. He nodded his head in agreement. "I hear you, James."

The next Saturday morning after Joe's visit, Katie turned up very early and she had been crying. James tried to get her to tell him what was wrong, but she refused to speak of it.
"You need to be able to get your feelings out, Katie. Keeping stuff bottled up inside is not good for you." James slipped an arm around her as he sat with her on the studio steps.
"I don't bottle stuff up, I write it down. I keep a diary." Katie wiped at her eyes again because her tears refused to stop.
"Diaries are good, but they don't talk back." James gently ruffled her hair.
"They don't tell your secrets to anyone either. They can be trusted."
"So long as they don't fall into the wrong hands. You have to be careful with diaries, some people can't help themselves." James was thinking about Ronald snooping into her diary. He seemed, to James, like the type who would.
"I hide it in a different place every day."
"A bedroom can be as big as a house, but there are only so many hiding places for a diary."
"I never hide it in my room. Some times I hide it inside the piano. Some times I hide it in the back of the TV. There's lots of places where people don't think to look."
James stroked her hair. "You're a very smart little cookie, and speaking of that, Joe tells me he saw you at the College last week?"
"What has that got to do with being a smart cookie?"
"Well the lady who took you there told Joe something about you that has confused both he and I." James wondered if she would get upset when he said what it was?
"People say things all the time but it doesn't mean that it is true."
James sighed. "She told Joe that you are retarded."
"Of below average intelligence." Katie corrected James in no uncertain terms.
"Why do they think that?" asked James carefully as he handed her another biscuit to dunk into her Milo. "Way more fun than dunking my shoes, huh?"
Katie giggled as she dipped the biscuit into her Milo. "They make me do all these tests and they are so stupid. Except for the math ones, I really can't do those. All the books at school are boring so I look at the picture ones and the things they tell us to write about are stupid, so I hardly write anything at all."
"Does it make life easier for you to let them think that you are retarded, Katie?" James gently turned her face so that she had to look at him.
"They seem to like it that way." Katie just stared at him.
"Goodness, Katie. You are about as far away from retarded as I have ever seen in a child your age. Why continue to let them think that?"
"It is just easier...if they think you are smart then they just pick on you. If they think you are dumb then mostly they don't expect anything from you and so you get left alone."
"Katie!" said James as he nudged her.
"Don't worry, James. One day I am going to do something that will blow those who think they know me well, right away. It will be so surprising and so ironic that they will hardly believe it, in fact, few will believe it at all."
James chuckled. "Katie, do you even know what ironic means?"
"Well, no I don't, but I will one day. I mean, I haven't planned anything terribly wonderful to do yet, but one day I will think of something and it will happen." Katie smiled at James, and he felt sorry for her. It seemed to him that she did not enjoy being thought of as dumb at all, she was just waiting for a chance to prove them all wrong.
"Did someone pick on you because they thought that you were smart?"
"He picked on me because he thought I was stuck up. Stuck up and smart are the same things to some people. Anyway, I don't want to talk about it any more. I want to hear some more of the Fortunato story; I want to know how Montresor gets even?"
"Let's not read Poe today, let's do something else?"
"Like what?"
"Well, how about I take you down the road in the car and we will go and have some take out food and we will go and watch a movie?"
"What movie? Oh, look at my clothes...I look like a farm girl. And what will I tell them up there?" Katie nodded her head in the direction of the hill.
"Okay, well I have a film projector inside, how about we just watch a movie here and I will make popcorn?"
"What movie?"
"I have a couple. I have Jaws, Towering Inferno. Poseidon..."
"Is that the one about the boat that tips upside down in the water?"
"Yes, have you seen it?"
"No, but I have heard about it. Can we watch that one please? Please? Please?" Katie was really excited about the prospect of seeing that movie.
"Okay, but only because you asked so nicely." James stood and picked up their mugs that they had been drinking from and led the way to the house. As they approached the door he turned to Katie and said, "No gummies inside, take them off at the door."
"I know that! We don't even wear them inside up there. James?"
"Yes, Katie?"
Katie followed him into the kitchen of his house once she had removed her gumboots. "Where did you get the movie from?"
"I have a friend who likes movies and he gave me a copy of it. Go and choose a chair in the lounge...and I know that you know which room that is...you voyeuristic little monkey! And shut the curtains while you are in there. Once you have done that, then you can come and help me to pop the popcorn."
"What's voyeuristic?"
James looked at her, smiled and said, "Someone who likes to watch others without them knowing about it."
"Is that bad?"
James laughed again. "It depends on what it is that you are goofing off on watching. Go do the curtains."
Katie walked into the lounge and then headed toward the curtains to close them. As she neared the end of the window where the pulley was to close the curtains with, she saw a picture of a girl. She stopped and stared at the picture for a moment and then she reached out and picked it up. The girl had brown eyes, dark hair and it seemed to Katie that she looked just like James. She was so busy staring at the picture that she did not hear James walk up behind her.
"Put it down, Katie."
Although James spoke softly, Katie still got a fright and in her fright she dropped the picture and it fell to the floor. She could do nothing but watch as the glass inside the photoframe smashed and splinters shot out all over the floor in all directions. She heard James sigh and she was almost too afraid to even look at him.
James didn't say anything. He just knelt down and began to pick up the pieces of glass. Katie felt so bad that she quietly backed away from where James was kneeling down. Once she was far enough away from him she turned and walked into the kitchen, out onto the porch, put her gumboots on and left his property. Once James had finished picking up the glass he walked out to the kitchen to get rid of it and to find Katie, but she was gone.
James walked back into the lounge, grabbed the photo of Benji and he sat down in the chair and thought back to that day.
It was a sunny day and he had been at the theatre with Joe. Their first combined effort and all had gone well and so James had come home earlier than planned. Joe and Neena had come with him and they were going to make dinner and spend the afternoon and early evening socialising before they went back to the theatre for one last dress rehearsal before opening night. They had planned to be back at the theatre by seven for the dress rehearsal.
Samantha had been on his back about spending so much time at the theatre and that morning they had had a furious argument. James sat there and again, as he did every other time he thought of it, he wondered why he had not gone back inside and made peace with Sam before he had headed out? If only he had done that, then the rest of the tragic events would not have unfolded. He sat there in the chair berating himself yet again.
As soon as he had walked out of the door, Sam had started to drink and so by the time he got home that afternoon with Joe and Neena, Samantha was so plastered that she could hardly stand up. But before he had even gotten home, they had been driving up their street and Joe saw a little child on a blue trike riding on the road. James had slowed down to get a good look at the child, only to discover that it was his little girl Benji. James brought the car to a stop and jumped out. Joe was not far behind him. James grabbed Benji and Joe grabbed the trike and they got back into the car and went further down the street to their house.
By the time James pulled up in the driveway he was very angry with Samantha because the gates to their property were wide open and he was always reminding her to shut them so that Benji did not wander off. Once James brought the car to a stop he climbed out and lifted Benji into his arms. "Shut the gates please Joe?"
Joe had nodded and done as James had asked him to and then he pulled the trike out of the boot of the car. By that time, James had walked inside the house with Neena only to find Samantha out cold on the couch. James put Benji down on the floor and went and woke Samantha up.
"Wake up Sam," he had said as he tapped her face.
"Get away from me," she drawled in her semi-conscious state.
James pulled her to her feet. "I JUST FOUND OUR DAUGHTER RIDING HER BIKE ON THE ROAD DOWN OUR STREET! YOU'VE BEEN DRINKING...AGAIN!" James shook her.
Samantha began to say things to James; really nasty things and Joe and Neena tried to diffuse the situation. James yelled at Samantha and she staggered out of the room and into the kitchen. James did not follow her, he needed time to cool down. He paced and paced across the lounge floor and the next thing he heard was the car door open. He, Joe and Neena ran out to the kitchen and that was when James realised that Samantha had taken off with the keys to the car.
"She won't make it two lamp posts down the street without hitting something," said Joe as he, James and Neena ran outside the front door and headed down the path toward the car that was in the driveway.
Samantha saw James heading toward the car and in her drunken stupor she panicked. She started the car, put it into reverse and shot out of the driveway backwards. James saw Benji on her bike just before her mother ran right over top of her. He heard the sickening thuds of the car going right over top of her and James remembered how Benji had initially shrieked. "GOD NO! BENJI...BENJI...BENJI!" James stood there in the driveway with his hands over his ears frozen to the spot wanting to go and check if Benji was okay, knowing that she couldn't be. He had stood there staggering around in a total daze while Neena grabbed him by his arm and tried to pull him toward the house. Neena saw Joe gently lift Benji from the driveway and she saw him shaking his head in total bewilderment. Joe had then walked back onto the grass, collapsed into a heap and held Benji in his arms. As Neena stood there holding James by the arm, she could see Benji's blood all over the driveway where the car had ground her into the concrete. Neena felt sick and was in shock, but she tried to hold it together for James. In the meantime, the car was out in the middle of the road and Samantha was passed out at the wheel and she was oblivious to what she had just done.
James yanked his arm out of Neena's grasp and rushed over to where Joe was sitting. He stood and watched for a few seconds, as Joe cradled Benji in his arms, and he heard Joe sobbing. Joe could not believe what had just happened; in a split second Benji had been killed by her own mother, and his best friend's life and heart had been destroyed. Joe loved little Benji too and he could not believe what had just happened before his very eyes.
James collapsed to his knees on the ground beside him and he took Benji from Joe. He knew that Benji was dead and so when the ambulance arrived ten minutes later, it was not a shock to hear them say that Benji was gone. "I'LL KILL HER! I'LL KILL HER!" he had shrieked as the ambulance people checked to see if Samantha was okay. Joe had tried to keep a hold on James as the ambulance staff removed Samantha from the car and took her into the house. James was so enraged that he wanted to tear Samantha from limb to limb!
It was a nightmare that James felt certain he would never be able to wake from. The only one who held it together throughout the whole thing was Samantha, she did not remember doing it and she pretty much remained drunk from that day on.
The funeral had been terrible and Samantha would not even attend it because she knew that emotions would be running high and that tempers might flare at her for what she had done. They had cremated Benji, and James was still waiting for the right place to spread Benji's ashes. After the funeral, James and Samantha had moved out to the country for a fresh start. Once Samantha had been sober for a year then they were going to try for another baby, but she had never managed to stay sober for a year. "That's what happens when you make an ultimatum too big to ignore," James said as he sat there thinking back.
Two more years had passed and James soon found himself resenting her deeply for not sobering up, for letting their dreams drown in the bottom of a glass of gin. It became easy for him to taunt her about the role that she had played in Benji's death. They began to fight and Samantha would take off in the car drunk!
It did not take long for James to begin to shut himself away inside his studio and get completely lost inside his work. Four years ago Samantha had her first affair and there had been many since then. James did not care by that time and had gotten to the point where he no longer desired Samantha anyway. He did not care who she shared herself with, so long as she did not do it in their house.
As James sat there in the chair in his lounge staring at the picture, he realised that Benji too would have been eleven that year. As he stared at the picture of his daughter, he remembered the way her hair smelled and how it had felt to have it against his face as he kissed her goodnight or just cuddled her. Benji had been not only his first child, but the best birthday gift he could ever have received. James remembered the moment that Benji had finally slid from her mother's body all sticky and wet. Initially Benji had just lay there all quiet and not moving and it had scared James for a few moments. But once they had attended to her, she began screaming to announce her arrival to the world. James had stared at his child in total wonderment; he had made that little baby, that complex little human being and he was in awe of what 'love' had created. "How ironic that you were both born in the same year and on the same day." he said to himself as he sat there staring at the picture of his little girl and then thinking on Katie.
There were things that a parent just never forgot about when it came to their child, no matter how much time passed and they were the things that haunted James the most. He felt hollow inside remembering that the reality was that he would never see Benji again.

Katie was very nervous about going back to see James again after breaking the frame with the picture of his daughter in it. She remembered how badly he had reacted when she had even dared to mention his daughter the first day that he had found her in his loft. She was not sure he would even want to see her at all. She was down at the mailbox collecting the rural delivery when she next saw James.
James had been watching out for her and he happened to be at the gate when he saw her wander out of her driveway and so he decided to intercept her if she was alone. Once he saw that she was alone, he made his way toward the letterboxes.
"Not speaking to me any more?" he gently asked as he stared down at her.
Katie gazed up at him. "Aren't you mad at me?"
"Why would I be mad at you?"
"I broke your...the picture frame."
James shook his head. "Didn't do it on purpose, did you?"
Katie shook her head and looked him in the eye. "No."
"Then why would I be mad? Aside from the fact that you just ran off without saying anything and haven't been back since."
"I thought you wouldn't want to see me any more."
"Other people may have flipped you off because you made one small mistake, but I am not like that. Most people are not like that, Katie."
"I am sorry I broke it."
"It is okay, it was only a piece of glass that broke, nothing else. So, are you going to come back over?"
"Yes. I will just take the mail up to the house and then I will come down...if you don't mind me coming down?" Katie looked at James hoping that he would not say that she should wait until another time.
"I will put the jug on and meet you in the studio." James smiled and then headed back toward his house. Katie felt happier than she had for days and raced up the driveway to put the mail on the table and get out of the house before her foster father turned up and ruined her day.
When she finally got back to James, he invited her to come inside the house again. He led the way to the lounge and told her to sit down in a chair. Katie sat down in the chair and she felt nervous when James handed her the picture of the girl. She held it in her hands and then glanced up at James as he went and sat on the other chair. He looked at Katie. "Her name is Benji. She was my daughter. If she were still alive, she would be the same age as you."
Katie nodded her head. "She looks like you...she has the same colour hair and eyes as you." She didn't know what else to say.
"Benji was killed in an accident. Samantha got drunk and she drove the car..."
"Did she take Benji in the car with her when she was drunk?" Katie stared at James and then looked down at the picture again. She thought that it was sad that she had been killed in a car accident.
"Benji wasn't in the car, she was behind it. Samantha put the car into reverse and...um..." James coughed. "She hit her. She didn't stand a chance...that is what happened to...to...my daughter...to Benji."
Katie didn't know what to say, as the tears trickled down her face. And then she blurted out, "That's horrible. Why did Samantha do that?"
"She didn't mean to kill Benji. She meant to get away from me...if I had not chased her and made her panic, then she would not have started the car and run Benji over."
"You sound like God."
"What?" James could not believe that she had come out with something so off topic.
"God forgives people for doing things that they know they shouldn't do. So long as someone else made them do it."
"What? Katie, what are you talking about?" James was totally mystified.
"You said it was your fault, not Samantha's. That's what God said when King David killed Uriah...he said that it wasn't David's fault, it was Bathsheba's." Katie stared over at James.
James ran his hand down his face and then stared back at Katie. "It was not my fault that Samantha killed Benji, and it was not Bathsheba's fault that King David killed Uriah. Samantha exercised her own free will in deciding to drive, that it led to the death of our daughter is no one's fault but her own." James sat there for a moment and his own words echoed inside his head. "It really wasn't my fault...I didn't do this...I have been blaming myself all this time for something that was totally out of my control."
"Bathsheba tempted King David and made him do what he did. That's why God didn't blame him...girls and women do things like that all the time."
James looked over at Katie again. "What are you talking about? What things? What do women and girls do?" James felt terrified of what she might say next.
"They do things around men that make men do things that they can't help...bad things. God forgives them though because he knows that the girls and the women made them do it." Katie stared down at the picture of Benji and she wanted to touch it, but there was no glass any more and she was afraid that she might mark the photo.
James sat there thinking about what Katie had said and he was totally at a loss as to what to say. He clearly knew that something was amiss, merely from what Katie had just said, but he was unsure as to how he should address it. James sat there for five minutes in total silence just mulling it over. He then heard a car outside and so he got up to go and see who it was. Just as he walked out of the door onto the path, Joe came through the gate. "Lovely day, Montresor, how are ya?" Joe reached out and embraced James once he reached him.
"I am good, but there will be murder most foul if you do not quit calling me Montresor!" James chuckled. "Coffee?"
"Wine?"
James shook his head as he turned to walk back up the path toward the house. "No, got a mini adult visiting..."
"Katie has a drinking problem?" Joe could have bitten his own tongue off for making a crack like that. "Sorry."
"No, Katie doesn't have a drinking problem, but I would hate to be the one that gave it birth in her, so let us stick to coffee when she is around."
"Fair enough." Joe followed James into the house and he left James in the kitchen and wandered into the lounge. Katie was still sitting in the chair holding the picture of Benji when Joe walked in. Katie looked at Joe, stood up and put the picture back on the table by the window. Once she had done that she turned to Joe and said, "I am going back up the hill now. Bye." She then proceeded to walk out of the lounge and into the kitchen.
James stared at her as she walked through. "Where are you going?"
"Back up the hill. Your friend is here." Katie headed out onto the porch to put her gumboots on.
James walked over to the door and stared out onto the porch. "You don't have to leave because of Joe."
"You don't mind if I stay?"
"Of course not. Why would I?" James was confused but he did not try to work it out. He watched as Katie kicked her gumboots off again and walked back into the kitchen. "You can go and talk to Joe while I make coffee and milo."
Katie nodded her head and walked back into the lounge. Joe smiled at her as she sat down, but she did not say anything to him. James walked in about five minutes later with coffee and biscuits.
Katie smiled when she saw the animal biscuits with the pink, orange, green and yellow icing on them. "You got the ones I like." She got up and walked over to the coffee table to take one of each.
As she walked back to her chair, Joe looked at James and raised his eyebrows at him. James just stared back and shrugged. By that time Katie was sitting in her chair dunking her animal biscuits into her milo. Joe looked over at Katie. "So, you liked the show at the College when you saw it?"
"Yes." Katie continued to dunk her biscuits in her milo.
"You like plays?" asked Joe as he stared at her dunking her biscuits.
"Aha." Katie still did not look up at him.
James rubbed his chin. "Katie?"
Katie looked up and over at James. "What?"
"What did I say about questions and answers? How many words must we answer them in?" James smiled at her.
"Three or more." Katie then looked at Joe and said, "Yes I liked the show. Yes I like plays." She then looked at James and raised her eyebrows at him.
James raised his eyebrows back at her and then Joe and James started to laugh. Katie was just about to dunk her next biscuit when she heard her name being called. She immediately knew it was her foster father and she dropped her cup in fright. Katie then looked at James and Joe and then she saw her foster father walking up the path and she panicked.
"Stay there." James spoke quietly so that her foster father would not hear.
As soon as James was out of the lounge, Katie shot out of the lounge through the other door and down to the front door. She opened it and ran out of it, across the lawn and through a thin part of the hedge. Once she got through the hedge she ran across the road and down the side of the bridge to the river and it was only when she stepped onto the rocks that she realised that she had left her gumboots behind. "Shit!" she said as the tears of panic slid down her face.
James got to the porch just before Ronald did and he quickly grabbed his coat off the hook and threw it over Katie's gumboots. Then there was the knock on the door as Ronald came into view. James smiled. "Ronald. Come to invite me to church again?"
"No. I am looking for Katie. She told my wife that she was going to Jenny's place and I went there to get her, but she was not there. I just wondered if you happened to see her walking past this morning?"
"I saw her getting the mail this morning."
"That was over an hour ago...oh well, if you do happen to see her, could you tell her that I was looking for her?"
"Sure." James could not wait for the awful man to leave.
"Thank you and God bless you." Ronald turned on his heel and headed out of the property. James turned and headed back to the lounge to let Katie know that he was gone. When he got back he found Joe cleaning the carpet and no sign of Katie.
"Where is she?"
"As soon as you went to talk to Charles Manson, she ran down the hall and out of the front door. I saw her shoot through the hedge; from there I have no idea. James, what is going on?" Joe stood to his feet and stared at his friend.
"She hasn't got her gumboots and she will not know what to say to him if he finds her before she sees me again."
"James, again...what's going on?"
James was just about to speak to Joe when he saw Katie walk into the room. "Katie...where did you go?" James walked over to her.
"I ran and hid under the bridge until he went back up the driveway again. Did he know I was here? Did he see my gumboots?"
"No Katie. He doesn't know you were here. He asked me if I had seen you today and I told him that I saw you when you got the mail earlier this morning." James sighed. "He told me that if I were to see you walking past the house that I was to tell you to go home because he is looking for you."
Katie's eyes welled with tears and she said to James, "I have to go."
James thought she seemed panicked and frightened. "What does he want you for? What do you think is going to happen?"
Katie began to walk toward the porch. "I have to go." By that time she was sobbing and would not speak to James at all and James was extremely worried about her. She fumbled nervously as she tried to put her gumboots onto her feet. Once she had managed to get them on, after they had fallen sideways several times, she walked out of the porch onto the path and headed toward the gate. James ran out onto the path and followed her out of the gate. "Katie! Is he hurting you?"
Katie was just about to answer him when she saw her foster father coming down the driveway again. Katie then began to cry audibly. "Did he see me come out of your gate?"
"No. Katie what's wrong? If he is hurting you then I can help you...trust me Katie, please?" James started to speak more softly because Ronald was now out of the gate.
Katie rubbed at her eyes and she looked at James. "Can you tell I have been crying?"
"Not really. Katie, what is going on?"
"KATIE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Ronald yelled.
"Don't say at Jenny's, he already knows that you haven't been there." whispered James.
Ronald arrived right beside them and grabbed Katie by the arm. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
"I was playing down in the river trying to find Mama Cass." Katie tried to remain calm.
"I was just over there calling you."
"No, I went to the river over in the paddock over there." Katie pointed down the road further.
"But Mama Cass doesn't live over there, she only lives in our waterholes." Ronald looked down on Katie and then up at James.
James stared at Ronald, smiled and asked, "Who is Mama Cass?"
"An eel," said Ronald by way of explanation.
"Oh, I thought she was the big lady out of the Mamas and the Papas, you know California Drea...never mind." James realised that Ronald was not interested in what he had to say. "I was just telling Katie that you had come looking for her not five minutes ago and that she needed to get home."
Ronald smiled at James. "Thank you, James. God bless you and we shall be on our way." Ronald turned and began to walk away from James as he dragged Katie along beside him by her arm. Katie turned to look at James and he saw the terror in her eyes but there was nothing that he could do that would not make whatever was going on worse for her. James mouthed the word, "Bye." He then turned and walked back onto his property wondering when he would see Katie again?
James walked inside and Joe was standing in the kitchen. "James, what is going on?"
"I'm not sure what's going on." James ran his hand through his hair as he leaned against the bench.
"Well Katie is quite clearly afraid of Manson, my question is, why is she frightened of him?" Joe crossed his arms and waited for James to answer him.
James breathed out loudly. "I don't know why."
"James!"
James stared at Joe. "I really don't know, Joe. I have no idea...she said something really strange before you got here though."
"What?"
"Well I was talking about Samantha and the thing with Benji and we spoke about fault and how you sometimes just..."
"For crying out loud, James,...make a point!"
"She said that God forgives people for what they do wrong so long as someone else made them do it. She then said that God forgave King David for murdering Uriah because it wasn't his fault...that Bathsheba made him do it."
"I'm sorry...I'm confused!" Joe stood there shaking his head while he stared at James.
"Katie said that girls and women make men do bad things wrong but that God forgives the men because the women and girls made the men do the bad things."
"And you did not hear what she was trying to say?"
"Oh what? And you can?" James stared at Joe and raised his eyebrows at him challenging him to share his wisdom on the matter.
"Manson is having his dirty way with the child! He's having his way with her and then blaming her."
James pulled a face at Joe and then shook his head. "NO WAY! Manson is a bible basher...he thinks chewing gum after midnight Saturday is a sin!"
"And Catholic priests will not miss a confession...nor the opportunity to partake of their charges...being a bible basher doesn't mean a damn thing. Sometimes they are the worst offenders...and you saw the way she dropped her cup when she heard him calling to her."
"Joe, HE'S NOT DOING THAT TO HER!" James paced for a few moments and then looked at Joe. "I am the first to admit that I do not like Manson, I detest him, but he is not 'having his way with Katie', as you so eloquently put it. He's strange, pushy and a right pain in the ass, but he's not doing that." James stared at Joe and raised his eyebrows at him.
"Maybe he's not, but he is doing something because the child is clearly afraid of him. Maybe he's belting her too hard or he's...I don't know." Joe stared at James who seemed dissatisfied with what Joe was saying. "Fine! I admit it...I jumped to conclusions about Manson...he would never do anything like that...he doesn't look the type!"
James sighed again. "He is probably being very strict with her and she doesn't like it...I mean he is very Quakerish. Maybe he was cross with her for lying to him...she told her foster mother that she was going to Jenny's and she never went there. Maybe she knows she is to be punished for lying?" James looked at Joe.
"Is this the part where I nod my head in total agreement with you because it will make you feel better about having arranged what you do not understand into a box so that you can file it away until you feel like dealing with it?"
James nodded his head. "Pretty much."
"Fine." Joe nodded his head at James and smiled wryly.
They were silent for a few moments and then James stared at Joe. "What if he is?"
"You do not want to go there, James. Get out of this thing with Katie before it chews you up and spits you out. It has all the hallmarks of a heartbreak, it is already in the mail and you need to get out of the way."
"Too late."
Joe sighed loudly. "James...you idiot!" Joe rubbed his face with his hands. "I warned you, did I not warn you?"
"'I told you so' is not a very pretty colour on you." James scowled at Joe.
"'Blindly going where angels fear to tread' doesn't exactly go with your complexion either."
"There's nothing going on. Katie will be fine."
"And Benji didn't die," said Joe softly. He then turned and walked out of the kitchen into the porch and he stopped when James asked him, "What the hell was that?"
Joe turned to face him. "James, I love you, you are my best friend, but you bury your head in the sand some times." Joe sighed. "I should not have made the crack about Benji, for that I am sorry, but you never listen, you never have."
"I hear what you are saying about Katie, I just..."
"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT KATIE! I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU, JAMES!" Joe pointed angrily at James for a few seconds and then he turned on his heel and headed out toward his car. James could only watch as Joe got into the car and drove away.
That evening James was in his studio typing away when he sensed that he was being watched. He looked sideways at the door and he saw Joe standing there leaning against the doorframe with a rose clenched between his teeth and a bottle of wine in his hand. James stared at him for a few seconds and Joe raised his eyebrows questioningly at James. James laughed, stood to his feet and walked over to Joe. He took the wine from his hand and the rose from his mouth. "I'm not sleeping with you though," he said as he walked back toward the desk.
"Fool," said Joe as he laughed.
James turned back around to face Joe once he had placed the wine and the rose on the table. He and Joe embraced. "I'm sorry, James. I really am...I just worry for you."
"I know." James nodded his head and then sat down on his chair.
Joe sat down on the other chair by the desk and proceeded to start to open the wine. "Okay, James, let's crack this baby open and see if we can't start writing?"
"Totally sloshed?" James raised his eyebrows at Joe.
Joe shrugged. "That's how Poe did it, did he not?"
"Hmm...well...some of his stories would indicate that in order to write like him we may need more than just a bottle of wine."
"Heaven help us all then!" Joe laughed and then poured the wine into the two glasses that James placed on top of the table.
"A toast?" James asked as he raised his glass.
"To friendship," said Joe as he clinked his glass against the one that James held. "I really am very sorry, James."
James took a sip of the wine and then stared at Joe. "I know you worry for me. I know that I bury my head sometimes, but in some ways, Katie woke me up. For the first time today I was able to think about Benji without the guilt. Katie made me realise that Benji wasn't my fault. Samantha drank of her own volition and got into the car and accidentally killed our daughter. There is no 'what if', no 'could've, should've or would've', it just happened because Samantha chose to be foolhardy. Joe, I was able to think on Benji without crying, I have never been able to do that before."
"I'm glad someone finally got through that thick skull of yours. Maybe Katie isn't such a bad idea after all? To Katie." Joe raised his glass and James did the same.
"Joe?"
"What?"
"I don't want to do Amontillado. I don't want to do anything that has me focussing on negativity. I want to do something funny...something light and something that does not have to be so pat. Know what I mean?" James stared at Joe intently.
"Okay, no Amontillado. I have a couple of ideas, so, wanna play?"
"Sure." James smiled and they sat there and got on with mulling over Joe's ideas.
Joe sighed out loud and then looked at James who was busy writing down some ideas. James looked over at Joe. "What?"
"I am going to be pretty tied up with 'Masters of the Universe' for the next few weeks, so I don't know how much time I will have to do this."
"You and your little Ku Klux Klan buddies." James smiled.
"Actually, our robes and hoods are black." Joe did not smile and James got the distinct impression that Joe wasn't playing with him this time, in regard to his secret group.
"You wear black robes and hoods?" James leaned back in his chair and stared at Joe.
"Yes." Joe stared at James wondering if he would ask more questions?
"Joe?"
"Yes James?"
"You have belonged to that crack-pot group of yours ever since you dropped your degree at University fifteen years ago. Every time I have asked you about it you have kidded around. So why, may I ask, are you telling me the truth about it now?"
"Well, you've been a good friend over the years and I am considering keeping you." Joe smiled and James burst out laughing.
"Really, Joe? What goes on there?"
"I cannot tell you yet, but will come a day when I will. I have always respected that you, James, have always respected my privacy on this issue. The order is very noble, not old, but well established and highly secretive; nobody, but nobody knows about it. There are only certain avenues you can go down to belong to it and you have not, as yet, ventured down any of those avenues."
"Is it some secret playwright society? You know, you sit around planning scenarios for taking over the world of theatre?" James chuckled.
Joe smiled. "As nutty as that sounds, in an odd kind of way, it does, from time to time, involve theatre and a good dose of acting. But for now, my friend whom I love deeply and may just keep on if you are exceptionally good, we must lay this topic to rest."
"Joe?"
"James?" Joe smiled.
"Do you ever regret having dropped your degree in Social Work? I mean this playwright thing, I know it was your dream, but do you ever regret having dropped out?"
"I look at kids like Katie and every day I thank my lucky stars that I came to my senses before I ruined my life getting involved in situations that I am powerless to help."
"Social Workers have a lot of throw though...don't they?"
"From what I saw, in the first three years of my degree, they mostly stand there with their hands tied behind their backs unable to either wave or salute. The ones who do try generally have their hands rebound fairly quickly...most of them get to the point where they burn out and get out anyway. It is a terrible job, and short of legislative changes, it always will be."
"So that's a no?"
"Yes, I do not regret having gotten out before my ship got sunk."
"Okay, well, let's write." James smiled at Joe and then got back to jotting ideas down on his piece of paper.

"What did you tell him?" asked Ronald once he got Katie inside the house.
"What did I tell who?" Katie was afraid that he had found at that she had been going down to see James. But just in case she was wrong, she did not say his name.
"WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?" roared Ronald as he shook Katie violently.
"Who? I don't know what you are talking about."
"MR. MCKENDRICK! WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?" Ronald shook the terrified Katie even harder than he had already been shaking her.
Katie felt relief temporarily flood every fibre of her being. He didn't know about James. Then her blood ran cold as she remembered the conversation that she had had with her Social Worker at school in the office on Friday afternoon.
He had come to the school to see her because the teachers had heard some odd talk going on around the school between some of the children. Things about Katie being dragged up to the front of the church and them trying to take a demon out of her. They had also heard the talk about Katie's foster father having to be prayed over so that Katie did not tempt him to sin and they were very concerned. Some of the girls were overheard speaking about how her foster father was 'creepy'. Because McKendrick went to the same church as Katie's foster father, they decided to send another officer with him to question Katie. That way the visit would be authentic and if there was anything amiss then Katie might open up to the other officer.
Katie had cringed when the messenger had come to the class and asked for her to go to the staffroom. She knew what it meant. She wished Joelee Elstree had been at school that day so that she had had time to get her head together. Usually Joelee got called to the staffroom first, but she was not at school that day. Joelee had not been in school for over a week, maybe more. "Why couldn't I have come down with the mumps like Joelee?" she asked herself as she stood up from her desk. She wondered when Joelee would be coming back to school? "How long does a dose of the mumps last?" she asked herself as she made her way past Joelee's empty chair and then out of the classroom and into the hallway.
Katie had walked into the office and sat down as Mr. McKendrick had instructed her to do. He explained the reason for the visit. "Just to see how you are going. This woman here is Mrs. Milanski and she is just with me for the day. As per usual, Katie, anything you say to us is held in confidence and not repeated outside of this room."
Katie normally knew not to trust McKendrick's idea of 'confidence', she had been caught out before, but with the woman there, Katie thought that it might be different, and so she opened up a little.
"He's creepy and he does creepy things," she said very quietly.
Mrs. Milanski leaned forward in her chair and stared at Katie. "What kind of creepy things does he do?"
Katie looked at McKendrick and he shook his head and Mrs. Milanski saw him in her peripheral vision. She then moved herself so that McKendrick could not make eye contact with Katie. "What does he do to you, Katie? You can tell me and I will help you."
Katie began to cry. "He comes into the bathroom when I am in there and he stares at me. He hugs me and pushes himself against me and he talks about sex things all the time. I'm scared that he might make me...do other things with him...more things with him." Katie looked into the woman's eyes pleadingly.
"If he tries to do anything like that to you Katie, you kick him where it hurts and run as far away from him as fast as you can." The lady smiled at Katie and then moved her chair back so that Mr McKendrick could make eye contact with her again.
Katie sat there thinking, "What? Where does it hurt most? Where do I run to and what if he catches me? Is that all? Isn't she going to do anything to help me? She said she would help me!" Katie looked at McKendrick and she could tell that he was really angry with her, but he simply smiled and sent her on her way back to class.
Once Katie was gone Mrs. Milanski stared at Mr. McKendrick. "Darren, is there anything to what she is saying?"
"The child is retarded, if you had read your notes you would know that. You would also know, if you read your notes, that there have been instances in the past of Katie making accusations like this before and they were proved to be unfounded. Katie quite often misinterprets the behaviours of some people and this leads her to making it seem that people are behaving inappropriately when they are not. I have seen Katie do this."
"She is retarded? Why didn't you say so?"
"Again, you should have read the notes!"
"Who did she make accusations against?" asked Milanski.
"Foster father she had when she was around six years old. Of course she had help from an older child, that's probably where she learned it from, you may have heard of her, Marcel?"
"She was the one who killed herself two years ago?"
"Yeah, very sad case." McKendrick scratched his nose as he stared at Milanski,
"It was all over the news, that was a terrible, dreadful business!" Milanski could not believe that McKendrick had been Marcel's social worker.
"Poor Marcel, she lived in this fantasy world all of her life...mother abused her badly as a little baby and it scarred her mind. As soon as she could talk she was prone to the most fanciful imaginings and it caused so much trouble until someone worked it out. Trouble was, her sickness spread like a disease and before we knew it, there were girls all through that home screaming rape, abuse and molestation. Marcel dragged Katie into it and Katie was telling all of these wild stories, and she was so convincing that, had I not known that she was retarded and Marcel delusional, I might actually have believed her. I felt so sorry for the foster father, but that is what happens and I do not want a repeat with Katie. These girls have problems with perception and relationships scare them, but that is not a good reason to allow them to sink good men. I am going to have to speak to Ronald and let him know that Katie is doing this otherwise it may well cause him problems down the track; just as it did for Sven with Marcel."
"You want to go and see him now?"
"No, I will go and see him tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow is Saturday; the weekend."
"Social Workers never sleep, remember?" McKendrick laughed and set the woman at ease and she never gave Katie or what she had said another thought.
"WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM? KATIE YOU TELL ME NOW!" Katie brought her attention back to her current predicament and yet she did not know what to say. "YOU SINNED AND THEN YOU BLAMED ME, DIDN'T YOU KATIE?"
Katie began to cry and she felt sick but she replied, "Yes."
Ronald then dragged her to her room and set his belt to her viciously and then left her there to cry. On the way out of her room he said, "Don't you EVER get it into your head to speak about what goes on in this house outside of it. GOT IT?"
Katie merely nodded her head. Later that same afternoon Ronald came back to her room and began to be nice to her. He took her by the hand and led her to the kitchen where he let her have ice cream and while she ate it, he told her how much he loved her. Katie felt like she was a robot and she did not know what to say to him and so she just kept eating.
Ronald went off on the farm to do some last minute chores before milking and so Katie went and got her book and went and lay in the sun on the lawn. She liked to read about other people and about places far away from where she was and she was so engrossed in the book that she did not hear him sneak up behind her. All she felt was the cold sharp blade up against her neck.
He grabbed her by the hair as he pressed the blade into her neck even harder. "I am not sure that you heard me correctly Katie...do you know how easily this blade could slice through your neck? Hmm? Keep your mouth shut," he whispered in her ear.
He then removed the blade from her neck and went on his way but Katie remained on the ground frozen to the spot. She didn't know what to do and she could not even cry. All she had thought, as he had held that knife to her throat was that he was going to kill her. She knew that she was trapped and that there was nothing anyone could do to protect her. Marcel had been right, but what Marcel had not managed to do was to describe the level of horror a person felt when trapped in that place. Finally Katie shook her head and slowly stood to her feet, she was shaking so much she could hardly move. Then all of a sudden her adrenalin kicked in and she started to run and she ran to James' house. But once she got there, she stood outside on the road wondering whether she should even go in there?
"He can't protect me either. There's no point in me telling him anything, he can't stop him, no one can!" Katie then started running again and she did not stop until she came to their bridge in the middle of the paddock and she stayed there until just before dark. Just as she was climbing the fence out of the paddock a car pulled up on the side of the road. "You okay, Katie?"
Katie looked over at the car only to see that it was Joe and she burst into tears again. She walked across the road to Joe's car and he invited her to get in. He spoke with her for a little while and then drove her up the road to just before the bridge. By then it was dark, "Please don't tell James, I don't want him to worry about me, there's nothing he can do anyway."
Joe nodded his head; "You remember what I told you, it is really important, okay?"
"Yes, Joe, I will."
"Go straight home now and I will sit here until I see you walk in the gate."
"Thank you, Joe."
"You are welcome, little Katie from up on the hill."
Katie closed the door of the car and walked up the road to their gate and then she turned back and waved to Joe even though she was not certain that he could even see her.
Once Katie got to the house she crept in the door and went straight to her room and got her diary out and she wrote down everything that had happened. She read all the pages to be sure that there was nothing on them that could not be read by anyone. And then she wrote what Ronald had done to her that day and she added, 'He's going to hurt me and then kill me. Maybe he will make it look like I did it to myself, but I would NEVER kill myself! When I grow up, I want to be a doctor so that I can help other people. I hope I get to grow up, I hope that Ronald doesn't do anything to me."
Katie then heard footsteps coming up the hall near her bedroom and so she quickly hid the diary under her matress. She did not want Ronald getting hold of it because she knew then that he definitely WOULD kill her for sure! She had just gotten back on her bed when Ronald walked in. Katie was waiting for his anger to explode, but it didn't.
Ronald rushed to the side of her bed and wrapped his arms around her. "Katie, Katie, where have you been? I have been so worried for you. Why did you run off, Katie? Why did you do it? I don't understand...you scared me so. It would break my heart if anything happened to you." Ronald went on and on whispering in Katie's ear how much he loved her and as sick as Katie felt, she was relieved that he was not screaming at her.
Ronald then took Katie down to the kitchen and made her something to eat and he sat there talking to her about school and her friends. "Why don't Mel and Jenny come and stay a night again? Hmm? You like them and they seem like nice girls. I know that they don't go to our church, but I don't think God would mind too much if they were to play with you every now and then. What do you think?"
Katie looked at Ronald and in that split second she hated him more than she had ever hated anyone and yet she knew not to mess with him. So Katie smiled and said that she thought that it would be nice to have Mel and Jenny stay.
"What about next Friday night?" he asked her.
"What about Saturday?"
"Well, Sunday morning we have church and they would probably have to come with us and I do not think that that is such a good idea."
"But don't you want them to come to our church?" Katie smiled at Ronald so that he would not cotton on that she was, in fact, being cheeky.
"Dear little Katie, there are just some things that you cannot understand just yet. When you are older you will, but in the meantime, just trust me. Friday night would be better, maybe you can go swimming in the river and things like that? Anyway, you talk to them at school this week and arrange it." Ronald smiled and then got up and went into the lounge.
Katie sat there thinking about the photographs that she had found in his draw some months before. Photographs of her, Jenny and Mel swimming in the river naked. They had thought that it would be a fun idea and it had been fun, until Katie had seen light reflecting off something on the bank on the opposite side to where they were swimming. Katie had immediately become suspicious and dressed herself again, but she had not told Jenny and Mel what she thought. She did not want to confirm beyond all suspicion that her foster father WAS a creep! He had photographed them and he had kept the pictures, what Katie had not known at the time, was how he had managed to get the pictures developed.
McKendrick had developed them for him. Katie did not know for sure until he had offered to develop her photos for her in his dark room at home. That was how she had put one and one together and, for the first time in her life, actually come up with two. What she had not been able to figure out was why McKendrick had not told on him? That part had her baffled, but she got to the point where she just stopped thinking about it and concentrated on being careful about what she did and where she was with her friends. That had also meant no more nude swimming in the river!

It was the following Saturday before Katie was able to go back and see James in his studio and by then he had become very worried for her. A few times he had been tempted to go up to the house and inquire about her, but Joe had talked him out of it every time. The last time he had actually caught James on his way up to the house. He had grabbed him by the arms and dragged him back onto his property, into the house and given him a stern talking to.
"Are you insane? If he is abusing her...
James shook his head. "He's not abu...
Joe cut over top of James. "IF he is abusing her you will be giving him someone else to point the finger at if he gets caught. James, you do not want to become a real life Alan Smithee...trust me on this...Ronald must NEVER make any connection between you and Katie...no one in this community can. Most of them belong to that church and they are like...like something out of Thomas DeQuincey's Suspiria de Profundiis...did you read it?" Joe did not wait for James to answer. "Cos if you did then, you know why you have to STAY AWAY FROM HER HOUSE!"
"Fine, I will not go there."
"Promise me that you won't?"
"Why are you so insistent on me staying away from her house and not letting there be any connection between myself and her?"
Joe rubbed his forehead with his hand as he sat there staring at James. "Think about it, James. You are a male...she is a little girl. Men who abuse, and I am not saying that he is, but let us assume for argument's sake that he might be. If he is abusing Katie then he will view Katie as his property and if he gets it into his head that she has been spending time with another male... alone...can you imagine what he might do to her? Can you imagine what he might do to you?"
"I hear you, but I don't think he is."
"Manson is clearly unbalanced to a degree, James. If he wasn't then he would not be involved in that church."
James sighed. "True."
"Until you know for sure, one way or the other, do not risk her safety and do not allow anyone any knowledge of the friendship that you have with her. Promise me?"
James looked at Joe, sighed and said, "Okay. I promise that I will not, but only for her sake, not mine."
"Good. Listen, this week I am going to go fishing with Frankie and some of the guys from the group."
James stared at Joe. "Fishing in the middle of the week? What about your production?"
"It will be okay for two days."
"Joe, the last time you went swanning off to go fishing for a few days in the middle of the week was two years ago. Why such a long gap between trips and why in the middle of the week? What's wrong with the weekend?"
"Just fits well for everyone else and ah...the long gap between trips is because we have very busy lives and oftentimes can't get away. I brought you back a fish last time, so you got nothing to complain about."
"It was a chocolate fish!"
"So?" Joe smiled and then they went out to the studio and got on with some work.
It was shortly after their conversation that Katie turned up outside the studio and knocked on the door. James looked over at the door. "Katie. Katie. Where have you been? How are you?" James took her by the arm and led her into the studio. There was nowhere for her to sit and so he lifted her onto the table and told her to sit there.
"But you like this table...I might put marks on it."
"It is only a table, Katie, see?" James lifted his hot coffee mug and sat it straight onto the wood.
"It will burn a mark on it."
James smiled at Katie. "Worse things happen at sea."
"How have you been, little Katie from up on the hill?" asked Joe as he smiled at her.
Katie nodded her head. "Okay."
Joe stood up and began to walk toward the door. "I will be back in a minute."
"Where'd he go?"
James looked at Katie and shrugged his shoulders. "No idea, but like he said, he'll be back! How have you been...really?"
Katie went quiet and the smile faded from her face. "Okay."
"What's the matter?"
"Jenny and Mel didn't want to come and stay on Friday night and Ronald thinks I turned them off from being my friends. He said I need to read this book called 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' because I don't know how to hold onto friends."
"Why didn't they want to come and stay?" Katie thought that James seemed worried.
"We had a fight."
"Oh. What about?"
"The Osmonds, Bay City Rollers and Abba."
"What about them?"
"I said that I didn't like Abba and that the drummer out of BCR has bucked teeth and their music sucks. I said that the Osmonds were better than both of them."
"Hmm...serious stuff...perhaps you should read the book!" James pulled a silly face at Katie.
"I don't need to read the book!" Katie stared at James and then realised he was just kidding with her.
"You don't need the book, you are right. The Bay City Rollers are frightfully awful, Abba is terribly predictable and the Osmonds have better top management."
"Huh?" Katie was confused.
"They are Mormons, they have God on their side, top management doesn't come much better than that." James laughed and so did Katie.
Just then Joe walked back into the studio and he had his camera with him. "Katie?"
"Yes, Joe?"
"Can I take your picture?"
"I don't like my picture being taken."
"Just one, just this one time...please?"
"She said no, Joe." James shook his head at Joe to tell him not to push her.
"Come on Katie me little matie, just one little picture?"
James looked at Katie. "You do not have to let him take your picture if you don't want him to."
Katie looked at James and then Joe. "Okay, but just one." Katie got off the table and she went and stood by a poster on the wall.
Joe looked at her and said, "No...poster looks terrible in the frame, makes it look too busy. How about standing by the white wall there?" Joe pointed to a part of the wall that had no pictures on it.
"Okay. But can you hurry up, I hate photos."
James watched Katie and she was clearly uncomfortable with what Joe was trying to get her to do. "Katie, you don't have to have your photo taken, Joe, leave it out already!"
"It's okay. I just won't smile for him!" Katie looked at the camera and gave the most non-committal look that she could muster. Joe clicked the shutter and James could not understand why he had not at least tried to get Katie to smile. James watched as the photo fed out of the bottom of his camera and when they had developed Joe handed them to James.
"They look like 'wanted dead or alive' photos...like passport photos. What do you even want them for?" James looked at Joe, while Katie went and sat back up on the table.
"Just wanted to see if the camera loves her or not."
James smiled. "The camera loves her, Joe, but it is clearly not a mutual thing."
Joe smiled at James. "Oh well. Hey Katie?"
"Yes, Joe?" Katie smiled at him.
"How do you feel about earning some extra pocket money?"
James looked at Joe and raised his eyebrows. Katie looked at Joe and said, "What would I have to do?"
"Well, for our production we need a silicone model about your size. We would do the model in parts, you know, arms, legs, head and torso. What do you think?"
James leaned forward. "Wait a minute...Joe...why can't your actor do it?"
"He's allergic to silicone."
"Do I need an agent?" Katie looked from James to Joe and back to James again.
"Well, you could...but I think that we could negotiate a reasonable fee between the three of us. James can write up a contract and sign it for you, as your agent, and then we can get on with it...say...next Saturday?"
"Okay then." Katie smiled.
"Silicone is gooey and they have to make a plaster mould of your body parts before they can use the silicone...it is like being encased in a huge plaster. Are you sure that you want to do this, Katie?" James stared at her to be sure that she was not agreeing because she felt as though she had to.
"Yup." Katie smiled at James.
"Okay."
"Just one little thing, James," said Joe nervously.
"What?"
"I can't make the mould at the college and Neena will not abide me doing it at home so...um...I will have to do it here."
"I already figured that part out." James smiled at Joe. "You are lucky that I like you as much as I do."
"Okay, well with that settled I shall go on my way and allow you two to do your own thing." Joe stood and made his way to the door. James followed him and told him he'd see him tomorrow. He then returned to Katie and by then she had sat down in the chair that Joe had occupied.
"You really don't mind doing that thing for Joe?"
"No, I don't mind. I like Joe, he's nice."
"He has been a friend of mine for many years. Hey, it's our birthdays in three and a half more weeks."
"You still going to get the cake?" asked Katie.
"Of course I am still going to get the cake, I never say things that I don't mean."
Katie headed off late that afternoon and Joe arrived back not long after. James was busy cooking himself tea when Joe walked into the house. "You're back. Neena kick you out?" he asked laughingly.
"Girl's night out...so I'm at a loose end. Is there enough for two there?" Joe leaned against the wall unit.
"Always," said James as he went about adding spices and vegetables to what he was cooking.
"James?"
"Yes?" James did not stop stirring the contents of the frying pan.
"If you could have Katie, would you take her?"
James stopped what he was doing for a brief second and stared at Joe. "What kind of question is that?"
"Just answer the question."
"Well, it'd be a huge thing to take on, but if the opportunity presented itself I would...but Joe, they don't give foster children to single men, especially not girls. Why are you even asking me this?"
"Would you love her no matter what?"
"What is this, a marriage proposal?"
"Taking on a child is a big responsibility...you could not do it unless you were one hundred percent sure that you were not going to bail out."
"Joe?"
"Yeah?"
"I had a child once, remember? I did not bail out on her, she was taken from me." James shoved the frying pan with a little more force to make the contents mix better.
"If you were to take Katie you would have to..."
"JOE! STOP IT! Katie lives with Charles Manson up on that god-forsaken hill and then when he has had enough of her they will palm her off onto the next one. While she is here, I will do all that I can for her, but entertaining conversations with you as to whether I would love her and not bail out on her is like chasing the wind because its never going to happen. They would never let it."
"But what if, by some miracle, they did?"
James threw the wooden spoon at the wall and turned to stare at Joe. "Are you deliberately trying to cause me pain?"
"You would not have to question it if I was. When I decide to deliberately cause you pain, you will feel it acutely."
"You planning on deliberately causing me pain, Joe?"
"I might be, now, answer the damn question."
"WHY?" James was growing weary with Joe's carry on.
"BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW!" Joe was becoming fed up with James not giving him a straight answer.
James sighed loudly and leaned against the bench. "What's going on, Joe?"
"I'm going to go to the authorities; they will listen to someone who is near to Katie but not biased. I think that she is in trouble. I think that she is in danger. I want to be able to go to the authorities to tell them but I want an alternative to give them for her. I don't want them just going in there, yanking her out and taking her off to more strangers."
"Since when do you care what happens to Katie?"
"I have heard stories amongst the older kids at College...they all know Ronald and they all know what a creep he is and I have been trying to work out what we can do to help her and James, I know that you care for her. So answer my question, would you love her and not bail out on her? Could you love her as you loved Benji?"
James sighed. "In an odd kind of way, Joe, I already do. She was even born on the same day as Benji, same year...can you believe that?" James looked up at Joe.
"Same day, same year?" Joe was blown away.
"Yeah...blew me away too. I told her that she shares my birthday, but I did not tell her anything about Benji except that she would have been her age if she were still alive."
"She's not Benji, James, you know this, right?"
"Of course I know that Katie is not Benji and she cannot ever replace Benji, just as Benji could never replace Katie. But there is something about the child, something that...I don't know...she just gets to me."
"If you were to be in with a chance, James, you would have to sell this place. You couldn't stay here...they would not place Katie in close proximity to her abuser. Would you be willing to leave this place...for her?"
James thought about it for a moment. "Yeah."
"So prove it. Put up a for sale sign, flog it off, get rid of it."
"What if it sells before you sort Katie? I couldn't leave her!"
"Good. Don't put a for sale sign up, you have money in the bank, you have enough to start again somewhere else if need be. In the meantime this place could be on the market. Neena has a friend in real estate, we'd handle it for you."
"But you're supposed to be shooting through to the States in six months time...house in the mountains...starting your own theatre in the local city. You might not even be here."
"You could come with us...you and Katie. It was always our dream, why not?"
"There is a huge gulf between my dreams and my reality, trust me on this. But if Katie were no longer in the picture and there was nothing more that I could do for her, then yeah, I'd come with you."
"What if she were with you?"
"They'd never let her leave the country of her birth, not on a permanent basis."
"Let us assume for a moment that they would?"
"We are assuming a lot today, Joe."
"Would you?"
"Yes...yes I would come with you and Neena and bring Katie with me...why are we doing pipe dreams today, Joe?"
"Its good weather for it. Anyway, in a few weeks we will know one way or the other as to whether they will let you have Katie or not, in the meantime, keep it on the quiet."
"She better not get hurt because of any of your grand ideas about going to the authorities and helping her," warned James.
"I hope she doesn't get hurt either."

The next week Katie stopped in to see James every day after school and they discussed Poe and his Cask of Amontillado. But on the Thursday they had a rather disturbing conversation as far as James was concerned.
"I think I understand it now." Katie looked at James once she closed the book.
"Which part?" he asked as he stopped typing for a few minutes.
"The part about the redresser making themself felt by the one who did the wrong. Fortunato knew that Montresor had done it and Montresor had the satisfaction of knowing that Fortunato knew that he had done it, but yet, there was no way out for Fortunato.'
"Aha."
"That was the punishing with impunity part."
"Yes."
"Do you think that there are people in the world who deserve to be punished with impunity?" Katie stared at James and he could tell that she was really concentrating.
"To the point of death?" James leaned back in his chair and wondered what in the world the child was thinking of?
"No, not to the point of death. I don't think anyone has the right to take your life except you."
"You believe that suicide is right?"
"I think that if you decide that you don't want to be here any more then you shouldn't have to be."
"Katie, life is sacred...ALL life is sacred."
"Even Fortunato's?"
"Even Fortunato's...even a rapist...even a child murderer. I am not saying that they should not be locked in a cell and left to rot for the rest of their years for doing those things...but no one has the right to take the life of another...unless it is life or death for the person...like in war...but then that is the banal aspect of war...and..." James looked at Katie and realised that he had gone way off topic.
"So if Montresor had locked Fortunato up in jail to punish him with impunity, would that have been okay?"
James tilted his head to one side, sighed and then sat up straight. "I suppose so."
"Would you send someone to jail even if they didn't commit the crime?"
"An innocent man should never go to jail."
"But what if he had committed other crimes that were just as horrible but no one could prove that he had done them? But they could prove that he had done the crime that he hadn't?"
"Katie?"
"Yes?"
"I'm confused." James shook his head.
"James?"
"Yes, Katie?"
"Concentrate!"
James laughed at her and then said, "Okay."
"What if a man bashed up a woman and then another man came along and murdered her. If the man who bashed her got put in jail for her murder, would you think that that was fair?"
"Um...that would depend...had he been bashing her up for a long time?"
"Okay...yeah."
"Well in that case, I wouldn't have a problem with it...I think...I guess it would depend on a lot of things."
"Like what?"
"Who he was. What sort of person he was...it would depend on so many things."
"But basically, you'd be okay with it?"
"Katie, I don't understand why you are asking me all these questions. And to be really honest with you, I am more concerned about the fact that you seem to think that it is okay for someone to end their life."
"James, what if you knew that life was as good as it was ever going to get?"
"Katie, life has seasons, good ones and bad; both come and go. Life is about change; it is constantly changing. Nothing stays the same forever."
"But what if you just wanted to it to stay the same, like freezing time."
"Killing yourself doesn't freeze time, Katie, it drastically alters it and never for the better."
"But what if you knew for certain that nothing was ever going to get better?"
"Katie..."
"What if you don't want things to change and you just want them to stay as good as they can ever get and what if you never want to walk through the change where as good as it gets is gone?" Katie began to cry.
"Katie, you are scaring me!" James reached out for Katie and pulled her to him. "Please tell me that you are not thinking about killing yourself, Katie?"
"But... Romeo and Juliet..." Katie could not speak and just kept sobbing.
James took her by the arms and stood her in front of him. He said to her very firmly, "Don't you even consider suicide as an option. Katie, I mean it. Suicide is not romantic, death is not romantic. Perhaps Mel's father was right, perhaps Shakespeare should have had a lobotomy! Romeo and Juliet was not beautifully romantic it was tragic! My little girl Benji died and it was not romantic, it was not bittersweet, it was tragic and horrific...and I would not wish the death of a child upon anyone! Don't you dare to do it, Katie. Don't you dare to do it to me. Don't you hurt me in that way! Promise me that you won't?"
"But James, I'm scared," Katie sobbed.
"You can be as scared as you want, Katie, but being scared is not a reason to kill yourself either. Everyone gets scared of life sometimes. I got real scared of life when Benji died. I was not sure how I could move on without her, but Katie? I had to keep going in the hope that one-day things would get better and they did."
"But you and Samantha split up...it didn't get better, it got worse." Katie sobbed even more.
"Samantha and I splitting up is a part of things getting better for the both of us. We were hurting each other by staying together. Katie, sometimes things might not seem like they are for the better, but one-day you look back and you realise that they were. Now I know that life has been very scary for you for a very long time, but it will not be this way forever. One day it will be different and you just got to be a toughie until it passes."
"But I..."
"You are not going to do anything to hurt yourself, Katie? If not for yourself then I need you to promise me that you will not do anything that will hurt me in that way?"
Katie put one of her hands behind her back and crossed her fingers. She looked James in the eye and said, "I am not going to do it, I was just asking." Katie then wrapped her arms around James and sobbed. James felt scared that Katie was seriously entertaining the idea of killing herself, but by the end of their time together that day, once she had calmed down, he felt quite convinced that it had just been an outburst of emotion. He felt sure that she wasn't really going to do anything of the sort.
Katie went on her way home around six and James told her that he would see her in the morning on Saturday when she came to do the mould for Joe.
Katie turned up the next day after school, much to James' surprise. Be he was relieved that she seemed as happy as a lark. She did not once mention the conversation of the day before and James relaxed a little more about where she was at inside herself.
"How was school?" James kept typing while she dumped her bag on the studio floor.
Katie climbed up onto the table and sat up cross-legged beside him while he typed away. She also reached up onto the shelf to take a lillipop from the jar he had started to keep there for when she visited. "Good. I got a part in the play. I'm going to be Sleeping Beauty." Katie waited for James to look up.
"You did? Wow, Katie, that's neat." James smiled at her and nudged her.
Katie smiled back and then her smile faded a little. "I think I got it on the pity vote."
James had resumed typing but stopped again. "What do you mean? What's the 'pity vote'?"
"That's where they feel sorry for you because you are so dumb or so handicapped. They want you to be able to feel normal and special for a while, so they do something risky but nice. If it all goes well and I don't embarrass them then everyone will think they are so great for allowing the retarded girl to be a part of the show. If I screw it up then I guess I get to be their Alan Smithee."
"Such cynicism!" James touched Katie's knee. Although he was quite impressed with her understanding of how life sometimes works, he focussed on ridding her of her negativity, as opposed to congratulating her for figuring it all out. "Did it ever occur to you that they gave it to you because you deserve it and because they think you will be good in the role?"
"What's cynicism?"
"That's where you are suspicious of things all the time; suspicious of people and their motives for doing things and you always think the worst."
"Oh, Joe says that..." Katie stopped when she realised what she had said.
James leaned forward in his chair. "Joe says what?"
"Nothing...I was just thinking of something he said to you once...but I..."
"When have you spoken with Joe that I wasn't around?"
"I haven't...I was just thinking of something I heard him tell you once when I was hiding in the loft."
"What was it?"
"I forget now! Anyway, but I think they did give me the part because they feel sorry for me."
"Well, maybe this can be the place where you do something so wonderful that you blow them all away?" James smiled at her.
Katie sighed. "Maybe."
"You feeling better after yesterday?"
"Yeah. I liked the hug."
"Well, you can have another hug any time you want one. I liked the hug too...been a while since I had a child to hug."
"You miss Benji?"
James nodded his head. "I will always miss Benji. There will always be a little piece of my heart that belongs to her and only her."
Katie nodded her head and looked sad. James added; "Just as there is a little piece of my heart that will only ever belong to you."
Katie smiled and reached out to James for a hug. She didn't know if James meant it or whether he was just saying it to her to make her feel better, but it did make her feel better to hear it, and so she decided that it didn't matter why he said it at all.
When Saturday came around, James thought that Katie still seemed quite happy. She did everything that Joe asked her to do as far as making the casts for the mould went without so much as the tiniest complaint. Fortunately, being winter, the heat did not get to her beneath the plaster. It took all day and well into the evening to make the moulds, but Katie didn't care about getting home late. When Joe paid her the fifty dollars, she gave it to James and asked him to hold onto it for her. "If I take it home then Ronald will wonder where I got it from."
"You coming over tomorrow?" James asked. He watched her as she washed the last little pieces of plaster off her arms and neck.
"After church, if I can."
"Okay. Well I will walk you to your gate then; it is dark outside."
"No, I will be fine." Katie smiled and then said goodbye to Joe and went on her way. James watched her from the gate to be sure she got to the driveway okay. Then he walked back inside and he and Joe cracked open a bottle of wine.
"Went well." Joe sipped his wine and sat down on the couch and stretched.
"Yeah, she is most certainly good at keeping very still."
"Do you think she will get into trouble for being late home?"
James sighed. "I don't know. I hope not. Hey, how was the fishing trip?"
"Oh great...the fish are in your freezer. I popped them in there this morning before Katie saw them and gobbled them down for you."
"I take it that they are chocolate?"
Joe nodded. "Aha."
"I would not have minded if she had eaten them."
"I know...but she's a kid and I needed her to be able to stay still for the mould...with that much chocolate inside her system, she would have been flying around the room." Joe chuckled at the thought.
"She seemed happy today; really happy." James smiled at Joe as he sipped on his wine. "Where'd you get this bottle from?"
"One of my fishing buddies owns a winery...actually it is the one you sunk some money into...the one that pays you handsome dividends every now and then."
"Ah...and the last cheque was impressive, I might add. Nice wine, nice to know my money is not paying to brew meths."
"You are a sensible man, James. You mapped out your finances well and you have been richly rewarded."
"Gee, Joe. Just a week ago you were yelling at me because I bury my head and never listen." James smiled at Joe.
"You know that I didn't mean it that way...that comment was confined to one area of your life, but it seems to me that you have clearly sorted it."
"Benji?"
"Yeah, Benji." Joe went silent for a moment and then his eyes welled with tears. "That day...James...I will never forget it. I will never forget seeing Benji like that...I will never forget holding her in my arms." Joe wiped at his eyes while he stared at the floor. "I remember Neena...she was so quiet...for days after she wouldn't even speak. And the funeral...no father should ever have to bury his child...it left scars on me too, James. I lost Benji too...I loved her...she was my little 'yupnup'. Remember how she used to do that? You'd ask her a question and she'd either say "yup" or "nup"...she was so cute...so sweet. I miss her so much...her death...it haunted me too...for a long time. For a long time I kept thinking if only I had left the damn bike in the boot of the car then she would never have gone back outside to get on it. She would not have been behind the car when Samantha..." Joe put his glass down and he covered his face with his hands as he broke down.
James got up, went and sat beside him and held him. "What are you talking about? Joe, it wasn't your fault. I didn't know you were hanging onto this stuff."
Joe lifted his head and stared at James. "I am your friend, James, you had to be done with your grief before I could deal with mine...I been waiting six years to let this go...six years it has taken you to give me permission to grieve her."
James ran his hand down his face, looked at Joe and said, "I had no idea...I'm sorry Joe...I been so wrapped up in me...in my problems...Samantha..."
"I'm not complaining. You lost your baby, James, no one expected you to be over it straight away. I am your friend, I stayed strong for you and now my turn has come to say how I feel...how I felt. Now I have, I can let her go now, but I will never forget her, James, not ever."
"Neither will I." James smiled as the tears ran down his face too. "Thanks, Joe, you have been a friend who has always been there and I will never forget it."
"I hope you don't, no matter what the future may hold."
"Sounds ominous." James stared at Joe as he let him go.
Joe tilted his head, looked at James and replied; "Well, we are writing a play together and it may well be the biggest flop yet."
"Stuff happens and there's always a next one." James was quiet for a few moments and then he got up and went and sat back down in his chair. "I am glad that Katie is better; I was real worried about her for a few moments there on Thursday."
"How has she been since she spoke to you about..."
James stared over at Joe. "Suicide?"
"Yeah. Has she said anything more?"
"No, I think it was just a very small infatuation with the notion, I think I set her straight...at least I hope I set her straight."
"Well, you know what they say. Those who are going to seriously do it do not announce it beforehand. I think you are right, Katie is just playing with outs to find one that is viable."
"What if she decides that suicide is the only viable option?"
"She is ten years old, she won't do anything like that, the concept alone is much too complex for her to grasp."
"Actually, Joe, its one of the least complex concepts that there is. When someone is upset, even more of the complexities around it fall away. I think that that is why it is so easily entertained by some people."
Joe rubbed his chin. "Well, James, short of watching her 24/7 there isn't a lot that you can do except hope that you got through. When all else fails, resort to guilt trips, that usually works."
James chuckled. "I already did...anyway, Katie is not a selfish kid, she would never deliberately hurt anyone."
"Oh but there is a little Montresor in us all...I think she would if she thought someone deserved it enough."
"But she wouldn't kill herself to achieve it...she understands that if the retribution overtakes the redresser then retribution is wasted on the person who did the wrong."
"Yup, no fun if you're not there to watch them squirm." Joe tapped the side of his wineglass as he gazed over at James.

That Sunday at church was worse for Katie than it had ever been before. Lucan was on a roll about demons and other bits and pieces and no one was spared if they were thought to be the one harbouring such an entity.
The morning before they set out to church, Katie's foster father and mother had a huge fight and what Katie heard made her blood run cold.
"She tempts you and you let her! You go in there and you stare at her and God alone only knows what else you do to her! You think that I don't know, Ronald? Well I DO KNOW! I HAVE KNOWN FROM THE START!"
"Keep your voice down, Louise. You want her to hear you?"
"I DON'T CARE IF SHE HEARS ME...SHE IS A DEMONIC WHORE IN THE FORM OF A CHILD! YOU HEARD LUCAN, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY STRONG AND IF YOU COULD NOT RESIST THE TEMPTATION THEN YOU WERE TO GET RID OF HER!"
"I can deal with Katie, what I cannot deal with is YOU! Crying and whining and wimpering every five minutes. You are a snivelling wreck and the DEVIL KNOWS IT!"
"The time has come to GET RID OF HER...I WANT HER GONE BY THE END OF THE WEEK! You think that I do not know about the photographs? You think that I do not know about the hole in the wall behind the mirror in our room? YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE..."
"STOP IT!"
"Then GET RID OF HER!" Lousie was determined that she had had enough of it and, demon or not, she wanted the child gone!
"AND WHERE IS SHE GOING TO GO?"
"THAT IS DARREN'S PROBLEM!"
"Listen...
"NO!
"LISTEN TO ME WOMAN! We will take her to Lucan today and he can have one more try at getting rid of it. If he can't, then Darren can take her."
"Fine, but you will stick to your word, Ronald, or I will do what I have to do."
"Don't threaten me, Louise!"
"I am not threatening you, Ronald. I am TELLING you!"
Katie was sitting out on the steps, but as soon as she heard their door open, she darted to the side of the house and down the bank onto the driveway. She heard Ronald calling out for her and so she called to him that she was down on the driveway. Ronald felt relieved that Katie had not heard what had been said between them.
Katie sat in the pew listening to Lucan winding up. She knew that before too much longer he would be shrieking and screaming and banging his fists down on the pulpit. Oftentimes, the elderly ones amongst them would almost be falling alseep because Lucan would speak so softly that they would have to strain their ears to listen. Just as they were dropping off, Lucan would suddenly yell and shriek and bang his bible down on the pulpit. Katie would watch the ones who had dared to be nodding off spend the next five minutes scraping themselves off the ceiling. She would smile to herself and then Lucan would glare at her.
Lucan was staring straight at her and she glanced behind her just to make sure he wasn't glaring at someone else and that was when she saw him again; the blonde haired man from a few weeks before. Katie was busy wondering why he had come back when Lucan began roaring. "THERE'S A DEMON IN OUR MIDST, A DEMON, I TELL YOU!" Lucan then softened his tone. "And where does this demon reside? You do well to ask because demons are sneaky and sly just like their master. They sneak around trying to find a vessel to make a home in and one has found a home amongst us. WHY?" Lucan slammed his fist down on the pulpit and it made Katie jump.
"WHY HAS IT COME TO US? To torment a brother. What is the name of this demon? Hmm? Can anyone of you tell me the name of the demon?"
"Jezebel! God help us all it is Jezebel," called Mrs. Forrester as she turned and pointed at Katie.
Katie swallowed hard and she hoped that she was not about to become centre of attention again, but somehow she just knew that she would.
"JEZEBEL! STAND UP, JEZEBEL!" Lucan screamed at the frightened Katie.
Katie didn't want to, but she stood to her feet anyway and she hung her head while everyone inside the church glared at her.
"Jezebel has tempted our beloved Brother Ronald and caused him to fall to sin, but was that enough for Jezebel? WAS THAT ENOUGH FOR JEZEBEL?" Lucan slammed his fist down on the pulpit again. The congregation yelled out, "NO!"
"NO...of course it was not enough for her. Jezebel needs her fill of innocent flesh. BROTHER MARCUS? Where are you?"
"Here, Brother Lucan." Marcus stood up and Katie could not believe that what he had done to her had come to light and she was so embarrassed she felt like she might faint.
"Jezebel made play out of Brother Marcus. And what of Brother Kevin, where is kindly old Brother Kevin?" called Lucan.
An elderly gentleman at the back of the church also stood up to face the congregation. Katie turned around to look at him and she wanted to scream at them that it was HE who had tricked her into going into his house. It was HE who had accosted her and would not let her go and then threatened her if she were to tell on him.
As Katie turned back around she saw the blonde haired man and he had his head bowed and was shaking it.
"If there were only one, then we could determine that the problem is the man, but where there are three? THREE INNOCENT MEN CAUSED TO FALL BY JEZEBEL! BRING IT HERE...LET US BE RID OF IT ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Lucan was red in the face and shrieking by that time and Katie just wanted to run. She looked to the aisle for a means of escape, but it was blocked with elders and there was no way out for her. Even her Social Worker stood in the aisle in an effort to prevent her escape.
McKendrick stared at her. "Don't fight this, Katie. It is for your own good!"
Two elders grabbed her roughly by her arms and dragged her to the front of the church beside the pulpit. Lucan got out his 'holy oil' and tried to make the sign of a cross on her forehead. At that point Katie began to shriek because she was so afraid of what they were going to do to her.
"SEE! JEZEBEL IS AFRAID OF THE ANOINTED OIL!"
"STOP IT. STOP IT!" shrieked Katie.
They held her by her arms while Lucan screamed into her face all the foul things that she had made Ronald, Marcus and Kevin do. She tried to scream back at him that it was them and Lucan flicked the back of his hand at her mouth to shut her up. Katie turned her head away from Lucan and as she did so, she saw the blonde haired man standing in the aisle and he looked so angry. He then turned on his heel and stormed out of the church.
"Well he won't be back," she thought as she watched him. She tried to think of something else to block out the insanity of what was going on around her, but then Lucan began shaking her violently as he had the last time.
"LOOSE SATAN...LOOSE SATAN...JEZEBEL OUT!"
After a while Katie stopped fighting with them and she relaxed and just stared at Lucan. His eyes were mesmerising but scary and within ten minutes Lucan admitted defeat. He stared at Ronald. "It cannot be loosed. Remove her from your midst least she ruin what is left of your marriage and your soul. Take it from the building and do not bring it back into this place."
Everyone let go of Katie and they all turned their backs on her. She looked at Lucan wondering what she was supposed to do. "OUT OF MY FATHER'S HOUSE! BE GONE, JEZEBEL!" Lucan pointed toward the door and Katie ran from inside the church. She got outside and began to vomit in the gutter.
Once she had finished throwing up she was overtaken by her tears because she now knew that she would be sent away. She did not care about leaving Ronald and Louise, but she knew that she would never see James again.
She sat down on the gutter and then looked up and across the road. Katie saw the blonde haired man from inside the church and he was speaking on a CB radio to someone. He looked straight at her, spoke into the microphone that he was holding, started up his car and drove off. Katie thought it was kind of strange, but her mind was soon taken from it when people started to come out of the church.
Ronald grabbed her by her arm and yanked her up off the ground. "Get into the car, Katie."
Once they got home Katie was ordered to go to her room and to start packing. Once she had done that she was made to go and sit in the lounge and read the bible again. That night she was sent to bed early and for the rest of the week Ronald dropped her off to school and picked her up, so she did not get to go and see James.
But on the Friday Ronald needed to go to the shop and so while he was there, Katie went into the Post Office to post a final letter to James just in case she did not get to see him again.
On the Saturday, Ronald made her sit in the lounge again with a bible and he went off to do farm chores so Katie took the opportunity to run. Before she did she ran into her room and put on her pink T-shirt, blue jeans and her white sneakers. Once she had done that, she ran from the house and down the driveway to James' place as fast as her legs would carry her.
As soon as James saw her walking up the path he knew that she was distressed. He got up from his chair in the lounge and he ran out of the house. As soon as Katie saw James she ran toward him and launched herself at him. "THEY'RE SENDING ME AWAY!"
James felt his heart sink and he just held her. "It'll be okay, Katie...they'll send you somewhere nicer."
"But you won't be there!" Katie sobbed.
"Katie, everything has a season, but seasons come to an end, it just means that the season for us to be together is over."
"No! YOU DON'T MEAN IT!"
James knew that he was powerless to do anything for Katie and all he could was try to make her face what was to happen. All he could do was make the impending move seem a positive thing for her. James lifted her and took her to the studio and sat her down in the chair. He crouched down in front of her while he held her hands in his. "Katie, life changes, life changes all the time. You can't..."
"YOU CAN STOP IT HAPPENING! YOU COULD BRING ME TO LIVE HERE!" Katie shrieked at him.
"Katie, I can't..."
"You want me don't you?"
"Of course I want you, Katie. But they don't give children to single fathers...they just don't do it. You will go to a new home, you will have a new mum and dad, and they will be nice..."
"Please don't let them take me away," sobbed Katie.
James decided that, for Katie's sake, he had to be much tougher with her. "KATIE, STOP IT! They will not give you to me and you are just going to have to accept that that is all there is to it. You have to accept that our time is over and that you are going into a new part of your life. This is for the better!"
"IT'S NOT FOR THE BETTER! I"M NEARLY ELEVEN I AM NEARLY GROWN UP!"
"Katie..."
"He makes me do things...he sneaks into the bathroom and he does other things to me...James...please help me!"
"Katie we will ring your Social Worker, we will ring him now."
"I ALREADY TOLD HIM AND HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"
"Katie, I can't help you any other..."
"NO! DON'T TALK TO ME ANY MORE!" Katie leapt from the chair and ran.
James sat down at his desk feeling sick and panic stricken. He sat there and cried. After about ten minutes he decided to call Joe, but Neena told him that he was not there.
James fiddled with the receiver in his hand. "So where is he, Neena?"
"He's out at one of his group meetings. James, can I do anything?"
"No. Just get him to call me when he gets in?"
"Okay, James."
James hung up the phone and did not really know what to do with himself. "She will come back tomorrow all sunshine and light and I will be able to get her to look at the bright side of things then," he thought to himself.
The man slowed his vehicle down as he approached the bridge; he did not want to frighten the child who was walking across the ledge. He did not feel inclined to jump down into the river to fish the child out. As he drove closer he saw that it was the dark haired child who lived up on the hill with Ronald and Louise. He wound down his window and called out to her, "Get off the ledge. You might fall."
Katie stared at him and then climbed down, so the man went on his way. As he neared the second bridge he saw Ronald coming down the driveway and so he wound his window down again. "I say, I just saw your girl walking on the ledge of the bridge."
"Wasn't Katie, she is up in the house in bed sick." Ronald smiled at the man and then he wondered to himself if she might have sneaked off? He waved to the man and waited until he had driven off. He then turned on his heel and headed back up the driveway. When he got back to the house and discovered that she was, in fact, missing, he did not worry anyone; he figured she would be back when it got dark.
The last thing Katie heard, as she stared down over the side of the bridge was, "You ready to die Katie? Are you ready to die? Jump Katie, jump!"

Sunday came around and James was sitting at his desk thinking upon all that had been said the day before and he hoped that he had not been too harsh with Katie? There was nothing that he could do, practical-wise, to help her and so he hoped that what he had said to her had gotten through to her. It bothered him that she had not come down to see him at all so far that day, but he knew that she would soon get over the hurt and come back again. Then he would devise a plan with her to get her some real help. He had wanted to go up to the house and strangle Ronald with his bare hands, but he remembered what Joe had said about being a real life Alan Smithee, so he resisted the urge and attempted to stay sensible. He had not heard from Joe at all and he was a little mystified about it, but then he thought that maybe Neena had forgotten to pass on the message.
He looked out of the window and it was a murky, misty Sunday, "Terribly dismal," he thought as he stared out at the trees laden with raindrops from the nasty weather that had hit late the afternoon before.
Just as he was about to begin typing there was a knock at his studio door. He looked up and thought he saw a hat of some kind. James got up from his chair, walked over to the door and opened it. As he opened the door he saw that there were two policemen standing there. Both were in full uniform and wore wet weather gear on top. “Can I help you?”
“Good afternoon Sir, sorry to bother you, but we have a missing child that we are trying to locate. I was wondering if you know this child?” The policeman held a photo out for James to look at. He immediately recognised the child.
James felt his heart do flip-flops inside his chest. “That’s Katie. She’s missing? Since when?”
“Since yesterday afternoon. How do you know Katie?”
“She comes here to visit me every now and then, actually she was here yesterday and she headed home around one in the afternoon. Has anyone seen her since then?” James felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, but he tried not to jump to any conclusions.
“One of the neighbours thinks he saw her down on the bridge at around one thirty,” said the second Policeman. “We are trying to get as many of the locals out to look for her as we can. Would you be willing to come out and help us?”
James nodded his head. “Sure.”
“You got wet weather gear? You’ll need it out there it’s raining cats and dogs.”
“Yeah, I’ll just need a few minutes to get ready.”
“Meet us out front by the bridge,” said the Policeman.
Just as he finished speaking, Joe turned up and walked over to the studio where they were talking.
“What’s happened?” he asked James, as he watched the Police headed around the side of the studio to exit the property.
“Katie has gone missing.”
“She is probably just hiding out somewhere and will come out when she is hungry. You sure that she is not in your loft?”
“No, she is not in my loft. Joe?”
“What?”
“She’s been missing since just after lunch yesterday and I have a very bad feeling about this.” James looked at Joe and hoped he would tell him not to worry, but Joe was not like that.
“Tell you what, let’s get some jackets and gumboots on and go help them to look for her. They are all congregating up on the bridge.” Joe headed toward the house and indicated for James to follow him. James walked to the house with Joe where they put on their wet weather gear and headed out of the property toward the bridge. When they got out of the gate, they saw that there were about thirty people ready and waiting to go and have a look. Joe and James walked up to the group and he saw that Ronald was with them. Ronald said nothing to him and James tried his best to ignore his presence.
“It would be best to work in twos or threes and we would like to send you all off in different directions. We will search until sundown, which should hit around five, so head back allowing yourself as much time to return as it took you to get as far as you have.”
A policeman attempted to take all of the names of everyone and a record of which direction each of them had gone off in, but he missed a few as the other policemen sent them off in different directions.
James and Joe headed downstream, and a blonde-haired man, whom James and Joe did not know, went with them. While they headed down river on one side, two other men walked the same way but on the other side. “What was she wearing?” asked the blonde-haired man as he stared at James.
“She was wearing a pink T-shirt with her name on it, blue jeans and white sneakers.”
“No jacket?” asked Joe. “It is freezing out here.”
“It was freezing yesterday too.” James tried not to allow his mind to wander off to the worst possible scenario.
They had been walking for fifteen minutes when they rounded the corner. James was the first to see it. A body wearing a pink T-shirt blue jeans and face down in the water. James felt his mind start swimming as his emotions began to surge, and he, the blonde haired man and Joe ran toward where she lay.
The three of them ran into the water and James knew before the blonde-haired man even turned her over that she was dead. When he did turn her over, Joe turned James away so that he would not see her face. "You don't need to see her like this, James."
Joe and the blonde haired man saw that there was a huge gash to her head. “Either someone hit her, or it has happened while she’s been dragged downstream.” James felt robotic as he watched the blonde haired man lift Katie into his arms in a way that kept her face obscured from his view. James stepped forward to take her from him but he shook his head. "Seriously, you don't want to see her face."
Joe dragged James back from the man who had Katie in his arms. Once James was over on the bank far enough away from him, the blonde haired man carried Katie to the side of the river and up onto the bank where he could climb out. Once he got to the bank of the river, he handed her body to Joe and he took off his jacket to cover her face.
Joe crouched down and just sat there cradling her in his arms for a moment, and then he began to cry. James sat down beside him. He was so stunned that he did not even know what to say. There was Joe, yet again cradling the body of a dead child. James just slipped his arms around his shoulders and he reached out to hold one of Katie's hands. It was cold, lifeless and it didn't even feel real. For some reason he made the comment that it didn't feel real. The blonde haired man looked at him and said, "Her body has been in the water for quite some time, so the skin will feel very odd to the touch of someone living." He then bowed his head.
One of the men from the other side of the river found a place to cross and he came over beside James and the others. Once he saw that Joe had the child, he began to blow the whistle that he had been issued with. Joe then stood to his feet, helped by James and they began to make their way back to the bridge where they had started out.
They were almost back to the bridge when Ronald came running down the bank toward Joe. He tried to touch Katie and James yelled at him, “DO NOT TOUCH HER!” He then threw him aside.
James kept walking beside Joe and then when he had climbed the bank, one of the medics tried to take the child from him. “NO! I will carry her to the ambulance.”
Everyone backed back and allowed Joe to do as he had said that he wanted to. Once her body was in the ambulance the driver asked, “Does anyone want to go with her?”
The Social Worker stepped forward and then James said, “No. I will go with her.”
“No, James. You are not going through this a second time. Let me go with her. Oye you…Social Worker…drive James to the hospital.”
"I will drive him," said the blonde haired man.
"Do you mind?" asked Joe.
"It is no problem." The blonde haired man took James by the arm and led him toward his vehicle and as they were nearing to it, James saw a policeman walking toward the car with Katie's sneakers in his hand.
“Joe climbed into the ambulance and undid the belts that held Kaite's body to the bed. He lifted her from the bed and held her gently and spoke softly to her all the way to the hospital. The medic who should have been in the back had gone and sat in the front of the ambulance with the driver. They both heard Joe sobbing as he held the dead child and they both felt sorry for him.
When they got to the hospital the people in charge said that Katie had to be placed back on the bed to be wheeled to the morgue. James met Joe there and held her hand all the way to the morgue. All the way down the hallways he could not get over how weird Katie’s skin felt, so cold and clammy.
When they got to the morgue and once she had been taken out back, one of the Policemen came in with the Coroner and asked if he would officially identify the body? James saw that it was Frankie, Joe’s younger brother, and so he nodded his head and through his tears replied; “Sure.”
By the time that was over, Neena had made it to the hospital to pick him and Joe up and drive them home. “Come on buddy,” coaxed Joe as he tried to get James to leave her.
“I don’t want to leave her…she hated being left alone…I should stay with her.” James stared at Joe through his tears.
“You have done all you can for her, James. She is gone, there is nothing more that you could have done.” James walked up to the desk where the person in charge of the morgue sat. “What will happen to her now?”
“She will be attended to and when the body is ready to be released we will let the next of kin know.”
“Who is down as her next of kin?” asked James trying to hold himself together long enough to get through the next five minutes.
The man behind the desk flipped through the papers in front of him, look at James and shrugged his shoulders. “The Director General of Social Welfare.”
“Change it. James Thompson, this is my number,” he said as he wrote it down, “Ring me when her body is ready to be released.”
The man looked at James and said, “I don’t think we can do that.”
“Yes you can,” said Frankie who walked up behind him. James looked at Frankie and then turned from the desk and walked out of the office with Joe. He still could not believe what had happened. On the way home in the car Joe looked at James a few times. “Just say whatever is on your mind, Joe.”
“Do you think she was pushed, or do you think she jumped?” Joe almost dreaded what James might say to him for asking such a questioned.
“She jumped, but by the same token, she was pushed to jump.”
“James…”
“For goodness sakes, Joe, she wasn’t even eleven years old yet. What ten year old child jumps off a bridge without a certain amount of pushing and prodding?”
“How do you know?”
“She came to see me yesterday and told me that they might be sending her away and she was scared. That prick of a foster father was sneaking into the bathroom while she had a bath and he was bothering her in other ways too….” James thought of something and he looked at Joe. “Take me to Ronald’s house.”
“Are you insane? No!”
“She kept a diary, if I could find her diary I might be able to prove what he did to her…” James cried fresh tears.
“Hell, James…to what end?”
“At least her death won’t have been in vain.”
“All the deaths of children are in vain, James…none of them die for any damn good reason.”
“Maybe she left a note?” James stared at his friend. “Joe, I have to know what happened to her.”
“I will take you up there in a few days, but not now, James.”
Joe turned into the road that led to his house and he almost cringed as they drove across the bridge that Katie may well have jumped from. Joe then parked the car and they both got out and walked into his property.

James headed toward the studio and Joe asked him, “Maybe you should stay out of there for now?”
“It was her favourite place in the world and I feel close to her there.” James continued to head toward the studio and so Joe followed him there. They walked in and sat down and for the longest time they just sat there in silence. Every now and then James broke down and cried all over again, but other than that, they made no sound at all. It was eight in the next morning when the phone rang, the morgue announced that they were not ready to release the body yet. Five days later they were ready to release the body. Up until that point, James had been existing in a state of shock, but he still went to the hospital morgue.
The Director General of Social Welfare wanted to meet James at the hospital and so Joe drove James immediately into town. The man looked very official and had a bunch of papers with him. He invited James into a room to speak with him and when James walked in the man asked him to take a seat. The man sat opposite James.
"My name is Haydon and, as you know, I am the Director General of Social Welfare. You are James Thompson?"
"As you know," James quietly said.
“I understand that you would like to take care of Katie?”
“What is left of her, yes.” James choked back his tears.
“The Coroner has deemed her death a suicide, so that end of things has been cleared away. We have offered her mother the opportunity to bury her, but she has declined. We are unable to locate a father, no one knows who he was, not even the mother. So, if you are prepared to sign papers, then Katie’s body will be released to you today.”
“I want her to be cremated and I would like to keep her ashes for a time. Just until I decide what I want to do with them.” James’ tears then overtook him.
“There will be a funeral?” asked the man.
“Yes, but it will not be in a church, it will probably be in my backyard, she liked it there.”
“So you will have the funeral post-cremation?”
“Who would attend the funeral? Will you?”
“I cannot, as much as I would like to, I have to get back to the city to attend to other things that simply will not wait.”
James sat there nodding his head as his tears spilled freely down his face and he nodded his head. “She’s being palmed off one last time isn’t she? If I take her then it is one less thing that you have to worry about. Don’t you feel even a scant sense of remorse for the way her life turned out? For the way that it ended?”
“Mr Thompson, it is sad that a child has died. It is always sad when children die, but the fact of the matter is that I did not know Katie. I never even met her.”
James sobbed openly but he managed to say, “How unfortunate for you that you never bothered to meet Katie. She was a beautiful child…she…”
“Mr Thompson, I have to get back to the city,” said the man as he stood to his feet.
James jumped up from his chair and walked around to his side of the table. He grabbed the man by the shoulders and shoved him back down into the chair. “YOU SIT DOWN AND YOU LISTEN!”
“Mr Thompson, I…”
“You shut up,” said James through his tears. “You will listen to me, you will listen and hear what kind of child Katie was. You treated her in life as if she didn’t matter; you will not do it to her in death too. She was a beautiful child; she had dark hair and the most beautiful blue eyes. Her eyes could light up a room. And make you laugh? Katie was so funny, and she’d catch you off guard, when you least expected it. She loved to read and they thought her retarded, but there was nothing retarded about her. She loved plays and she had just landed the lead role in her school play, ironically, Sleeping Beauty.” James dissolved into tears again. “This should not have happened to that child,” James choked out through his tears. James was quiet for a moment and then he continued.
“She liked to read and she loved to draw but she hated math, oh how she hated math. But she was a smart little cookie and somehow, she always knew she’d never make seventeen. I don’t know how she did, she just knew it.” James then stared directly at the man and said to him, “She should have been loved, Katie should have at least had that.”
The man stood to his feet, looked at James and replied, “Listening to you, James, she was loved, you gave her that. It is not a perfect system, James, it never was and it never will be, but I am so glad that little Katie found you because you have filled the gaps where others failed.”
“But don’t you see? We all failed Katie, if we hadn’t, then Katie would still be here. She was ten years old, only ten years old, she was just a baby and she took her own life.”
“There will be an investigation into the last few months of Katie’s life, just to see if there were any glaring failures on the part of anyone. It could be that it was just a comedy of small errors.”
“A comedy of small errors?” asked James, barely above a whisper. He could not believe what he was hearing. “SHE WAS A CHILD! HER LIFE WAS NOT A COMEDY! I DON’T…” James swallowed and then stared at the man who was standing with his hand on the doorhandle eager to get out of the room. “You make me sick, all of you, every single last one of you.” James walked to the door and shoved the man out of the way and headed down toward the desk to give his instructions for Katie’s body.
He met Joe in the foyer of the morgue and they set off back to his house. “Frankie is going to escort Katie’s body to the crematorium himself and he is going to bring her ashes to you, just as he did with Benji. I am sorry James, you have no idea how sorry I am about what has happened.”
“You had no way of knowing this was going to happen. I should have listened to her more carefully. I really didn’t think she would do it. How did they reach the conclusion that she killed herself so fast? I don’t understand…”
“It’s been six days, James. It will be a week tomorrow. Frankie did the autopsy…judging from the injuries on her and the bruises, he determined that she jumped…that is also based upon the fact that the neighbour saw her there alone. You should be thankful that they have determined the cause of death so quickly otherwise it could be much longer before the body could be released to you.”
“I still can’t believe that she did it, after everything I said to her and she knew how much it would hurt me…she…”
“She would not have done it to hurt you, James. She just wanted everything to stop.” Joe tried to concentrate on driving while keeping James first and foremost in his mind.
“Bloody Romeo and Juliet…if Shakespeare were still alive I’d wring his damn neck with my bare hands! Bloody hell, Joe, why?” James dissolved into choking sobs again and Joe felt terrible for him. “Why didn’t she come to me? Why didn’t she say something…I would have moved Heaven and Earth for her…I would have done anything. What am I talking about? She DID come to me and I didn't fucking listen to her!” James wept uncontrollably and hit the car door with his fist.
By the time they got back to James house he was a little more settled, but not by much. Joe went inside with him and rang Neena to let her know that he would stay out there with James for the night. They had not been in the house long when there was a knock on the door. Joe walked to the door and when he saw who stood there he said, “You better clear off quick smart.”
“We are just on our way to the memorial service being held for Katie at the church and we wondered if James would like to…”
“Like I said, if you value your life, you would be well served to clear off.” But Joe was not fast enough and James came out and saw Ronald there.
James ran at him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt and Joe heard him let fly the most foul language he had ever heard, as he shoved the horrible man around a few times. It was topped off with; “FUCK OFF OR I WILL KILL YOU!” James threw Ronald out the gate and onto the gravel road.
James then walked back inside the gate, up the path and into the porch. He walked into the kitchen and slammed the door so hard that the glass shattered. Joe just stood there staring at him. James walked into the lounge and just sat down and cried again. Joe followed him into the lounge. “He came to tell you…”
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT WHAT HE CAME HERE TO TELL ME!” James was almost hysterical and Joe was very concerned for him, it was like Benji all over again and yet it was different.
“They are holding a memorial service for Katie at the church.”
“FUCK THEIR CHURCH! LOOK AT WHAT THEY SAT BACK AND LET HAPPEN TO HER!” James sat there for a moment and continued to cry and then he stood to his feet. “Take me there.”
“James, no!”
“TAKE ME THERE, JOE, OR I WILL DRIVE MYSELF THERE!” James stood and walked into the kitchen and Joe heard him grab the keys. Joe stood to his feet and walked into the kitchen. “Fine, I will take you there but you are not to hit anyone there, okay? You can swear and scream and do whatever else you want, but you will not touch anyone, James?”
“Whose side are you on?”
“I am on yours, but what good does it do anyone if you go getting yourself arrested and charged with assault?”
“What does it matter? Maybe Katie was right? Maybe you should call it quits when you are ahead?”
Joe walked over to James and slapped him in the face as hard as he could. “KATIE WAS NOT RIGHT! KATIE WAS WRONG AND YOU KNOW IT! DON’T YOU EVER SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, JAMES!”
“Just take me to the church, Joe.” James walked out of the kitchen, through the door and into the porch. He turned back and looked at Joe. “You taking me or what?”
Joe nodded and followed James out onto the path, through the gate and down to the car that was parked by the garage. It took them about five minutes to get to the local church where the service was being held.
“James?” said Joe. “You are going to behave yourself in here, right?”
“I will not hit anyone but I will speak my mind.” James got out of the car and so did Joe. They walked up the path and through the foyer door into the church. Initially they both just stood there and then James saw that Ronald and his wife were standing there at the front of the church being consoled as the grieving parents. That was enough to get James started and Joe just groaned inwardly hoping that James would at least resist the urge to hit someone.
“Well isn’t this just a cosy little get together then?” James headed to the front of the church and all eyes were on him. He walked right up to the pulpit looked at Lucan and said, “MOVE!”
“Everyone is welcome in the house of God, son.”
“I am not your son!” James stood behind the pulpit and as he gazed out he saw the woman who could only be Mrs. Forrester and then he saw McKendrick, the Social Worker. As he scanned the congregation he saw a lot of the locals in that building and lastly he looked back at Ronald and his wife. James breathed in deeply. “You’re all pathetic, you know that? You think you know God? You might know a god, but you do not know God. If you did then that precious little girl would still be alive. You,” said James pointing his finger at Ronald. “Do they know how much you loved Katie? How much you REALLY loved Katie? And you, Forrester, yeah you,” he said as Mrs Forrester stared at him and squirmed in her seat. “Telling everyone she had a demon…what sort of a sicko are you? And how could you all sit there while that man you like to call your minister dragged her up to the front of this building and screamed into her face and shook her so hard that he left bruises on her arms? WELL? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? You, McKendrick…did you tell them that Katie told you that he had been hurting her? Did you tell them the things that she told you that he was doing to her? No, you didn’t, did you? Too scared they’d throw your sorry ass out to the road. THAT SICK LITTLE …I don’t even know what to call you.” James took a deep breath and then continued. “He sneaked into the bathroom when she was bathing. Yeah, surprise...Ronald’s a pervert! Didn’t see that coming, huh? But you see you DID SEE IT COMING…EVERY ONE OF YOU KNOW WHAT HE IS AND YET YOU SANCTIONED HIM BY BLAMING HER! NO WONDER SHE LEAPT OFF A BRIDGE! YOU MAKE ME SICK, ALL OF YOU! SIT HERE AND CALL YOURSELF CHILDREN OF GOD, YOU’RE NOT CHILDREN OF GOD, THE REAL CHILDREN OF GOD WOULD NEVER HAVE ALLOWED ANY OF WHAT WAS DONE TO KATIE TO HAPPEN! I HOPE YOU ALL ROT!” James picked up the pulpit and threw it against the wall and then walked from the church with Joe hot on his heels.
Joe drove James back to his house in silence and when they got there, James lay down on the couch and fell asleep. Joe sat up all night just keeping an eye on him.

The next morning Joe and James were outside when Frankie arrived with the urn that contained Katie’s ashes. James cried when Frankie handed him the pink porcelain urn that had Katie’s name inscribed on the front and he stood there for a long time just holding it. He then looked at Joe and he said, as he held up the urn, “This was a living breathing child and today is her birthday; she would have been eleven.” He then turned around and walked inside, sat down and wept yet again.
“Thanks, Frankie.” Joe embraced his brother and they spoke for a few moments. “Did you take care of the other thing?”
“Yeah, it’s done. Package should arrive this time tomorrow.”
“Okay, thanks for that.”
“See you when I see you.” Frankie went and got into his car and left.
Later that day when James felt like talking, he said to Joe, “I was thinking about when we found her in the river.”
“Yeah?” Joe stared at him and noticed that James looked beaten.
“The blonde haired guy who lifted her from the water…”
Joe shook his head in bewilderment. “What about him?”
“He obscured Katie’s face from me and yet he did not seem bothered by you seeing it. That was weird…why would he do that?”
Joe shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, James.”
“I mean, why was he concerned about shielding me from it and yet he did not try to shield you from it? I don’t know the guy and I don’t recall having seen him anywhere before, so there is no way that he could have known that I knew Katie any better than you.” James stared at Joe wondering if he had made anything of it?”
Joe sighed. “When I was in the water beside him I whispered to him not to let you see her.”
“Well gee, Joe, why didn’t you just say so?”
“I did not want you to know that I was worried about protecting you from yet another gruesome sight. It was bad enough that you had to see Benji after it happened without adding Katie to your nightmares.”
“I don’t have nightmares any more.”
“I know…that is why I did it.”
“Oh.” James was silent for a few more moments. “I am not convinced that she jumped.”
“Frankie ruled it suicide. Frankie knows his job.”
“I am not suggesting that he doesn’t, but he can only go on what evidence is present at the time. If Katie had been thrown off the bridge then she would have struggled…she would not have gone quietly.”
“And so you would have heard screaming and yelling. No one heard a thing.”
“But what if she didn’t get a chance to struggle, kick and scream?”
“What are you saying? She was sneaked up on?” Joe sat up a little straighter in his chair.
“She could have been. If he approached her from behind while she was on the ledge, he could have pushed her before she even knew what had hit her. The most she would have gotten off was a quick shriek. Take into account the sudden fright aspect, the shriek would not have been very loud and may well have not been heard by anyone, if in her fright she shrieked at all.”
“You got this all worked out haven’t you Sherlock?” Joe smiled at James.
“You know me, Joe, I am not a ‘ghost hunter’ or a ‘who done it’ sleuth. However, I just think that if there is a chance that there was a crime committed, then we should look at it.” James tapped his index finger on the side of the chair.
“James, it may be that it cannot be proved either way.” Joe stretched out in the chair again and then scratched his face.
“So Manson gets away with it?” James sighed.
Joe sighed and yawned. “We do not know that he murdered her.”
“But we know he had motive to.” James stood and looked out of the window at the rays of the setting sun.
The next day James went down to check the mail and he found a package and his name and address was written in Katie’s handwriting. “What?” he asked as he looked at the package. He walked straight back to his house and went inside to show Joe. “Can you open it?” James asked as he handed it to him.
“It is addressed to you.”
“It is from Katie, I don’t think I can…she must have sent it before…well…please Joe, open it for me?” James sat down on the couch and watched as Joe opened the package.
Once he had it opened he put his hand into the envelope and pulled out what appeared to be a little notebook. Joe opened it up and it was titled, ‘Katie’s Diary, 1978.’ Joe looked at James. “It is her diary and there is a letter addressed to you, I assume it is from her.”
James put his hand out to take the letter and the diary. James read the letter first and in it Katie apologised for the pain that she had caused him by doing what she had done. “But things will get better, James,” she had said. She then requested that he read her diary and she stated that she knew that he would do the right thing with it. She also made mention of a letter for Ronald, but that James was not to give it to him until he answered for what he had done to her. “Please read it to him and then get rid of it, I don’t want him having anything of me to keep.”
"She is asking me to take care of things for her. I feel really bad now, Joe." James stared at Joe as the tears filled his eyes again.
"What are you talking about?"
"She posted this on the Friday, she didn't know she was being taken away until the Saturday...how could she know that she was going to be murdered? She must have already decided to kill herself when she posted this on the Friday. She knew that I could be trusted to take care of her affairs...she never had any intentions of staying around."
"James?"
"What?"
"You are assuming that maybe she had planned to kill herself and so posted the envelope on the Friday, but..."
"But what?"
"She may well have known much earlier than Saturday that she was being taken away. Remember, you didn't see her for six days. Perhaps the day you saw her was her first opportunity to see you and to tell you? Manson certainly had motive and opportunity to get rid of her...she told you that she told the Social Worker what he had been doing and maybe the Social Worker told him?" Joe turned and stared out of the window.
"You think that maybe she knew that he was going to murder her and murder her soon?" James looked at Joe.
Joe turned from the window to look at James. "I don't know; all kinds of things are possible. Read the diary, who knows, maybe there are some clues in there that will make things a little less murky? To be honest with you James, I am not sure where to go from here."
James then spent the rest of the day reading the diary and when he got to the last month of Katie’s life he read what had happened to her in the weeks before she died. “He held a knife to her throat and threatened her, he said that if she told anyone what he was doing to her that he would kill her and make it look like she had done it to herself. Joe?”
“He murdered her…James…” Joe stood up and began pacing.
James stood to his feet. “She posted that envelope just in case...she might have been toying with the idea of killing herself, but she never really intended to, not once he threatened her life and took the choice from her. I am taking this to the Police…they need to know what he did…he can’t be allowed to get away with this.”
Joe drove James into town to the Police station and he got his friend from his school days to speak with James. The Detective took James and Joe down to a private room and he said to James, “Where is her body now?”
“She was cremated two days ago, but there is the autopsy report and the diary.” James looked at the guy pleadingly.
“I will need to take her diary and we will need to have it tested to ensure that it is authentic. We will need to know who else has touched it since you received it and then we will decide whether there has been a crime committed. What can you tell me about Katie and what was going on in her foster home?”
“Nothing that is not in the diary, but you may want to follow up some of the leads in there before her foster father gets wind of the fact that you have her diary.” James looked at the Detective as he put on a pair of gloves.
“What evidence, what pages?”
“I marked them with those green tabs. One of the pages mentions specific information about pornographic photos that he took of Katie and her friends. Another page mentions a knife and where that knife is kept. Um she mentions a hole in the wall behind the mirror in the parent’s bedroom that he used to spy on Katie. She also mentions certain things about him that only someone who knew him intimately would know, scars on parts of his body.”
“The scars won’t carry much weight I’m afraid.”
“Why not?” asked Joe.
“It is not uncommon for children to see their parents naked…we’re not long over the sixties and we’re not even done with the seventies. Nakedness between parents and children is not a crime in itself. But the photographs, if they exist, they may well be enough to get him. Wait here.” The Detective stood up and exited the room and he was gone for about ten minutes before he came back. “Fortunately there is a judge willing to sign us off on a search warrant for today, no easy task on a Sunday. I will go with another detective and two units to execute a search warrant. Is there any mention of death threats in here that he made against her?” he looked up at James.
“Yes, I marked those with the red.”
“There’s three here, are they all the same?”
“One was with a knife, another was made after he almost drowned her by holding her under the water in the bath. The other involves him threatening to push her from the bridge.”
“He threatened to push her from the bridge? Didn’t this girl die through a fall from a bridge?” The Detective looked at James and then at Joe.
“Yes, the official cause of death was ruled a suicide, but that was before I got this in the mail.” James tapped his finger on the table.
“What is the postmark on the envelope?”
“It is in my pocket but it is postdated the Friday before she died. I am picking that she must have posted it Friday and it was held in the Post Office until Monday. They probably sent it to me Tuesday and Rural Delivery put it in the box on Thursday. I didn’t check my mail at all until this morning…with all that has happened, it wasn’t a priority.”
“Can I have the envelope?”
“Sure.” James reached into his pocket and handed it to the Detective and he placed it inside a plastic bag.
“You have touched this obviously, anyone else?”
“Joe, the people at the Post Office, the Rural Delivery people…that’s about it.”
The Detective marked it as contaminated evidence. “Still it will be used for the date stamp and to corroborate that she was the one who posted it.”
“Who else would post it?” James was confused.
“It is just standard procedure. If this turns into a murder investigation, then every little piece of evidence we can get will be crucial. It is a great pity that she has been cremated already. I just hope that the coroner kept pedantic notes.”
“It was Frankie,” said Joe,
“Good, Frankie is terribly pedantic, so much so that his reports have sent more than one member of a jury to sleep over the years.”
There was a knock at the door and a uniformed Policeman walked in and said, “Excuse me, Sir? We are ready when you are.”
The Detective nodded his head and then looked at James and Joe. “I will need your phone number, James, so that I can let you know what is happening. Joe, where will you be?”
“With James for now. Neena and I will both be there.”
The Detective looked at James and said, “Don’t worry, if he did anything to Katie, we will get him, he won’t get away with it.” He then stood and walked them both out and he went off to execute his search warrant.

James and Joe were just walking back from the bridge when the Police cars came slowly down the driveway from the house on the hill. James and Joe saw that Ronald was in the back of the first car and James felt relief and yet sadness. The third car stopped right beside them and the Detective wound down his window to speak to them. “See the back seat?” he said as he thrust his thumb over his shoulder. “Boxes of photographs of Katie, all nude. Some of them are of her friends, but mostly they are of Katie. Katie is not staring at the camera in any of them, which indicates that she did not know that they were even being taken. It is probably fortunate that Katie did not know just how many he had taken.”
“Shit,” said James. “Who would develop film like that without saying anything?”
“We do not know, but we will find out. Seems Katie wasn’t the only one pedantic about keeping a diary.”
“Ronald kept a diary?” asked James somewhat surprised to hear it.
The Detective nodded his head. “ I have only thumbed through it, but it looks as though, from what I have seen, that he noted down every single thing he ever did to Katie, including threatening her life. He denies he threw her from the bridge, and yet he wrote in his diary that he was thinking of doing it to her. It is a wonder he did not kill her sooner though, he certainly had thoughts to. Anyway, he has been arrested on child abuse charges and on suspicion of having murdered Katie. Even if he doesn’t confess, I think we have more than enough to get him. Thank goodness Katie loved to write, otherwise he may well have gotten away with it. Oh yeah, and the neighbour who saw Katie on the bridge?”
“What about him?” asked James.
“One of the officers interviewed him again and he remembered that he saw Ronald walking down the driveway in the direction of the bridge when he stopped to let him know that he had seen Katie there. It would appear he was headed toward her, not away and that fits in with the time of death. He is coming in to make an official statement in about half an hour. Anyway, I will stay in touch with you both; let you know what is happening.”
James and Joe both nodded and the Detective went on his way to catch up with the other cars.
"Well, let's hope Manson gets what's coming to him," said Joe as they walked toward James' property.
"I wish I had kept her here, Joe. That day she came down here...I should have held onto her...damn the consequences."
"James, you would have been arrested for...well I don't know, but it would never have worked. Katie is gone, but someone will pay for what was done to her in her life recently, of that, have no doubt!"
A few weeks went by and James still had heard nothing from the Detective and Joe had gone on his way home to Neena, but was still visiting every day that he could. It was two days before the opening night for Joseph that the Detective made a visit to James.
James was surprised to see him at his door but he smiled and welcomed him inside the house. He led the Detective down into the lounge and they both sat down. "Well, I have some news for you, finally. I am sorry that it has taken so long, but I wanted to have something concrete to tell you before I made this visit. I also have some questions that I need to ask you, nothing major, just tying up loose ends." The Detective was looking down on his papers and then he looked up at James and smiled. "You really don't remember me, do you James?"
James looked at the Detective closely, scanning his face to see if there was anything familiar about him. James shook his head. "Sorry, I do not remember you. Should I?"
The Detective shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe not. I was at school with Joe; at College. You were a few years younger than us, but I remember you. Skinny kid on the rugby team who one year just blew up to the size of an athlete and...well you know the rest of it."
"Yeah." James smiled. "What is your first name?"
"Howie."
"Oh, I vaguely remember something about you, Joe, a green Mazda Rotary and a deep ditch." James laughed.
Howie started laughing too. "Oh yeah...we were worse once we went to Uni...much worse."
"You were at Uni with Joe?"
"Yeah, I started the Social Work degree paper too, dropped out at the end of my second year and went to Police College. Best decision I ever made...except for times like these. But my satisfaction comes in getting justice for victims...victims like little Katie."
James was surprised to hear that Howie had been at Uni with Joe. "Maybe Joe told me but it slipped my mind?"
Howie fished into a file he had in his briefcase with him. He opened it and pulled out a photograph and handed it to James. "Ever seen this girl before?"
James looked at the photograph. "No."
"What about either of these two?" Howie handed him another two photographs.
"Oh yes, the little blonde girl, she lives on the hill down on School Road. She has like a million brothers and sisters...all as blonde as her. The dark haired one I vaguely recognise...perhaps she might be Katie's friend Mel?" James handed the photographs back to Howie.
"You never met Katie's friends?" Howie carefully placed the photographs back into the file inside his briefcase and shut it. He then looked at James, as he leaned back in his chair.
"No. Katie came here alone. Last I knew or heard of her friends, she had invited them to stay a night and they declined, I am guessing now, on account of Ronald. Katie got into trouble with Ronald for it...I have found out since that it seems all the kids around here thought him 'creepy'." James rubbed at his forehead. "Oh I just remembered something, she had had a fight with Mel and Jenny."
"What kind of fight?" Howie looked around the room while James spoke.
"Oh just girl stuff. She told Mel and Jenny that the popstars that they liked sucked and...well...girls!"
"Yeah. The first photo I showed you, her name was Marcel. Did Katie ever make mention of her to you?"
James shook his head. "No, not that I recall."
"Katie and Marcel lived in the same foster home when Katie was six years old."
James shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He was confused as to why Howie was even telling him that. "Katie never mentioned her life before she came here to live up on the hill."
Howie nodded his head. "Marcel died two years ago. Took a bottle of pills."
James ran his hand down his face. "Shit! How old was she?"
"Just on thirteen years old, as you can see from the photo, she was a pretty wee thing too."
"That's tragic...really tragic." James spoke barely above a whisper.
Howie nodded his head and then continued. "McKendrick was her Social Worker then, had been for years. When Marcel was almost eleven and Katie six, there was a complaint of sexual abuse levelled against the foster father. McKendrick took the complaint, deliberately discredited Marcel and Katie. We executed a search warrant for McKendrick's home and we found a dark room and many photos of many little girls, Katie was amongst them. We also found papers from Marcel's file that had gone missing when her suicide was investigated."
James ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, so you are saying that McKendricks was in on it?"
"To a point, yes. He disavows any knowledge of Katie's death, but so does Ronald at this point."
"He denies he pushed her or threw her from the bridge?"
"Yes, but we believe that we have enough evidence to charge him, and so he was charged at eleven this morning."
James felt stinging behind his eyes and then he covered his face with his hands and sighed as his tears spilled. "I am so relieved."
"I knew that you would be and that is why I wanted to come and tell you myself. And there has been another development as well, which will go a long ways to helping us get a conviction against not just Ronald, but two other men."
"For her murder?"
"No, child molestation. Someone, and we do not know who, but someone delivered to the station some audio files and some film footage from inside that church that Katie was being taken to."
"What kind of footage?"
"Them trying to undertake some kind of crazy-assed exorcism on Katie. But the best part is when the minister... Lucan Rossi?"
"Lucan is the Pastor." James nodded his head as he spoke.
"Never did a day of Bible College in his life, he is a self-proclaimed minister. Anyway, the best part of the footage is where the three who had molested Katie, in one form or another, are addressed by name and actually stand up. One was Ronald, no surprises there, but the other two were a complete surprise."
"There were others interfering with Katie?" James was horrified.
"Unfortunately, yes. But they have both been arrested and charged. They both intend to plead guilty, they know that there is no point to doing anything else."
"Will Lucan face any charges?"
"Unfortunately, James, there is nothing in our legislation that can convict anyone for harbouring or hiding a child molester. It is morally repugnant to do such a thing; it is not, however, illegal. I wish to God above that it was and most certainly there is a feeling that there needs to be a law change in regard to it. In the meantime, Lucan goes free."
"Do you have any idea where the footage came from or who filmed it?"
"No idea. There are journos around the place snooping into groups like Lucan's all the time, so it was probably one of them. Doesn't matter where it came from or how it was obtained, fortunately, in this country, we have no privacy laws. If we were in the United States we'd probably be in trouble, fortunately here, snooping is sanctioned in that it has not been legislated against. But make no mistake, there is a push for privacy laws, so the days of legalised snooping are definitely numbered. But until the 'bleeding-heart do-gooder idiots' manage to further manacle our hands, we will take what we can get and be grateful for it."
"When will Ronald appear before a judge?"
"He is due to appear at three, which is why I have to up and go now, but I will keep in touch, James. You will also be called as a witness if he pleads innocent. It is our hope that he will plead guilty and let this sorry situation start to lay to rest; for everyone."
James stood to his feet when he saw that Howie had. "Thank you for taking the time to come and see me personally."
"Those her ashes?" Howie nodded his head at the pink urn on the hearth.
"Yes. I haven't decided what to do with them yet."
"Have you had a funeral for Katie?"
James shook his head. "I just can't seem to face it, and anyway, who would come?"
"There must have been people who loved her."
"No, apparently there was only me...Joe was fond of her, but he did not know her that well. It is odd though because Katie's life came into contact with so many people and yet not a one of them have expressed any sorrow at all in regard to her passing. Sad isn't it? That a kid can live to almost eleven years of age and hardly anyone noticed her at all."
"I noticed Katie, even if it is only in her death and I will work my ass off to make sure that she gets justice."
James shook his head and wiped at his eyes. "Thank you, Howie." Just as Howie was about to walk out of the door James said, "Oh I just remembered something. When I got the package with Katie's diary in it, there was a letter from her to me and..."
"Yes, I have the letter and will return it to you as soon as we are done with it."
"No, inside the envelope was another envelope with a letter in it...addressed to Ronald. She asked that I read it to Ronald once he has been made to answer for what he did and then destroy it. I meant to give it to you...it just slipped my mind."
"Oh."
James turned and walked down the hallway to his room to get the unopened letter to give to Howie. He walked back to the kitchen and handed the letter to Howie for him to take.
Howie stared at the envelope and saw that, indeed, James had not opened it. "Take care, James, and I will be in touch." Howie lightly tapped James on the arm and then saw himself out of the house.
James stood there staring at the letter and he stared at Howie's feet as he walked out of the porch. He saw that Howie's left sole was worn down on an angle to the right of his inner foot and he thought to himself that he must have some kind of odd gait to have worn one shoe down so badly like that. He then followed Howie out to the car. "Howie, you should take this."
"James, Katie was murdered by a vicious and calculating man who has absolutely no conscience. I am guessing that she wrote that letter so that she would get to have the last say. We have more than enough evidence to get him for what he did to her."
"But it..."
"James. Everything was taken from that little girl; her happiness, her innocence and ultimately, her life." Howie looked again at the letter James was holding. "Do you really want anyone to take 'the last word' from her too?"
James shook his head. "No. No I don't."
"If you loved her, you will honour what she has asked of you, James." Howie got into his car, started the engine and slowly pulled out onto the road and drove away.

A few weeks went by and Joseph's Coat was a resounding success for Joe. James, Neena and Joe went out to celebrate and then Joe and James got down to working on their next play. James was not really in the mood to do it, but he did not want to just sit around dwelling on Katie and the trial that was underway.
Joe was there when he got the phonecall from Howie. "No need for you to appear in court, James."
"Please don't tell me that he hung himself in his cell...I could not stand the thought that he escaped justice."
Joe stared at James as he spoke into the phone and he figured that it must be Howie he was speaking to. He sat there and stared at James.
"No, even better. He instructed his lawyer, at around five today, that he wants to change his plea to guilty."
"Why would he do that?" James stared at Joe while he spoke to Howie.
"Apparently his lawyer convinced him that the judge will go easier on him if he just cops to the charge. He knows he's sunk and that there is no way out."
"Will the judge go easier on him for changing his plea?"
"I don't know, James. We will just have to see what happens. He will plea out and then the judge will set a date for sentencing."
"Why will the judge not simply sentence him right then and there?"
"Doesn't work like that James. Judges are bound by laws too and he will have to consult his books, look at the crime, take into account factors of remorse. Sentencing someone is not a simple process."
"I'm a playwright, what would I know?" James chuckled.
"You sound better, James."
"I am getting there."
"Listen, once he is sentenced and placed in a jail, I will arrange a visit, so that you can carry out Katie's last wish."
James eyes welled with tears and he choked out, "Thank you, Howie."
"Take care, James." Howie hung up the phone.
Joe touched James on the arm as he hung up his phone. James then looked at Joe. "He changed his plea to guilty."
"Good."
"But the world will never know what he did to Katie. They will never look at him and truly know the extent of what he did."
"I know, but the bigger picture will be well served by his plea. Katie gets justice; there is no chance of a sympathetic jury letting him off or giving him a lighter sentence."
"I never thought of it like that."
"You getting any bites for this place since you put the 'for sale' sign up?"
"Yeah, many actually. Once I have taken care of one last thing, I'll move out of here."
"Where are you going to go?"
"I am going to take your offer and go to Montana. Start getting things ready for you and Neena to arrive."
"You sure that is what you want to do?"
"If Katie had been moved to another home, I would have stayed here just in case she ever came back looking for me. But she's not going to come looking for me, Joe; not ever." James wept again. "So there's no point to staying here."
"I am so sorry, James. You have no idea how sorry I am that you are going through this."
James looked at Joe. "I would do anything to turn back the clock...anything for one last chance. I couldn't help what happened to Benji, but what happened to Katie? THAT should never have happened; it was completely avoidable."
Three weeks later Howie rang James. "He was sentenced today."
"What did he get?"
"Twenty years."
"Eligible for parole in...?"
"Non parole period also twenty years."
James breathed a sigh of relief. "What prison is he in?"
"He's in the Mount in solitary confinement and he will probably have to stay there the entire time because there have been death threats made against him already. Even the most hardened crims don't suffer child molesters/murderers lightly. And James?"
"Yeah?"
"He got the longest sentence ever handed down in this country for the murder of a child. It will hit the newspapers, but I have managed to protect Katie's identity, so that she will not be splashed all over the papers and the TV."
"Thank you, Howie. She would have hated everyone staring at her."
"I know and the Judge saw that from the footage that was shot in the church. The Judge has placed a permanent name suppression order on Katie. The records of the Court proceedings, and anything else that pertained to Katie, have been permanently sealed. She is to be known, from this day forward and forever, as Jane Doe. "
James, even though he felt as though he would like to cry, laughed. "That's ironic."
"How so?"
"My last play was called 'Jane Doe'."
"Yeah, that is ironic." Howie gave James a few seconds to get it together. "I have arranged a visit for you with Ronald at the Mount tomorrow. You up for it?"
"Yes."
"I'll pick you up and take you there."
"I would appreciate that, Howie."
"See you tomorrow."
"Okay." James hung up the phone and reached up onto the shelf to grap the envelope that contained the letter that Katie had written to Ronald. He wondered what it was that she had wanted to say to Ronald? "Oh well, I will find out tomorrow," he said as he tucked it into his pocket, stood up and exited the studio.
Howie picked James up early the next morning and Joe was in the car with him. "Moral support and all that," he said by way of explanation.
"I do appreciate it. I have no idea what is in this letter and I have no idea how I am going to feel once I have seen him."
James got into the car and they made the hour-long drive to the Mount Prison for the visit.
When they got to the prison James saw that it was one of the oldest prisons in the country, made of stone and it looked like a terribly damp hole. Howie, upon seeing the look on his face said, "You think this part looks bad, you want to see the isolation unit! It is the oldest part of the prison. The windows are tiny, so it is very dark and damp. They do not go to lengths to heat it at all."
"So it is a very unpleasant place to end up?"
"Yes. Considering that he is in a cell that is no bigger than a dog kennel for twenty-three hours of every day, it is not unlike being buried alive." Howie led the way toward the building so that they could report into reception.
James looked at Joe and they both followed Howie to the building. Once they got inside to reception, Howie introduced them as colleagues of his so that they would not have to be stripped and searched. James and Joe were both extremely grateful for that. They walked through some really dark hallways and had to pass through many locked doors along the way. Finally they went up some strairs and into a part of the prison that was so dark that lights were on permanently.
Howie spoke with the head guard and he indicated that they could use the room at the end of the hall. Howie led the way down to the room and when they got there, Ronald was already sitting at a table with a guard behind him.
When they walked into the small room and Ronald saw James, his shock was evident by the look on his face. "What are you..."
"THE PRISONER WILL BE SILENT!" said the guard.
Ronald looked away from James and stared at the table. Howie excused the guard and took Joe out of the room too, leaving James standing there staring at Ronald.
"I have a letter here that Katie wrote before she died. She asked that I read it to you once you had been made to answer for your crimes against her. I do this for her, not you. You disgust me and I feel nothing but contempt for you. I think you to be a repugnant, disgusting piece of human garbage who has no conscience, no morality and someone whom the world would be better off forgetting was ever here. This place suits you." James pulled a chair out and sat down. He pulled the letter from his pocket and slowly opened it.
"You have not yet read it yourself?" asked Ronald.
"It was Katie's wish that the letter remain unopened until this very moment. Unlike you, I respected her privacy, and thus the letter has not been opened until now." James opened the neatly folded piece of paper and began to read: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You who know so well the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make herself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. You did unto me, Ronald, now I have done unto you likewise. You sit where you are right now because of me and you will stay there because of me. No you didn't kill me, Ronald. Of that crime you are innocent, but I'm thinking that it will remain yours and my little secret and I know how much you love secrets! You have been forgotten by me already, but I am sure that you will remember me for a very long time to come. If you are only nearly half as miserable there, as you made me, then my work is complete. To the buried who repose around you, may you and they live long. Nemo me impune lacessit." James then added, "She signed it 'Montresor'."
Ronald sat there feeling sick, "She did this?"
James felt sick but he did not let on. "Yes, she did this to you and it is no more than you deserve. Not bad for a retarded kid!"
"I will die in here. It is like being buried alive. It is dark and damp and...I will die in here. For the love of God, James."
"Yes, for the love of God." James stared hard at the pathetic man.
Ronald wimpered for a few seconds. He then looked at James as his tears slid down his face. "What does that last part of her letter mean?"
"Nemo me impune lacessit?"
"Yes."
"'No one wounds me with impunity'." James stared at Ronald and then he pulled out a lighter from his pocket and he set fire to the letter.
"What are you doing? That could help me...I did not kill her...it proves my innocence. If I do not prove my innocence I will die in here."
James waited until the letter was mere ashes and then he stood to his feet and stomped on them. He walked to the cell door and turned to Ronald. "And a message to you from me, No one hurts me with impunity and gets away with it either. I hope you do die in here." James opened the door and walked out of the cell and all he heard behind him was the pathetic wimpering of the man who had destroyed an innocent child.

James walked down the dark hallway toward where Joe and Howie were waiting for him. Howie did not ask what went on in the room and neither did Joe. They simply left that awful place and drove the hour back to James' house in silence. When Howie parked the car Joe looked at him. "I will get off here too...stay with James for a while."
Once James was out of the car and headed up the path Joe looked to Howie and asked him to swing by his house to see Neena and let her know where he was and that he would not be home.
"No problems. You will bring him to the meeting tonight?"
"Yes. I will bring him tonight."
"How do you think he's going to take it?"
"I don't know...but he is desperate enough that he will do just about anything."
Howie nodded. "Take care, Joe."
"You too." Joe shut the car door and headed through the gate, down to the path and inside the house to be with James.
James was not in the kitchen and so he went to look for him in the lounge. He found him sitting there weeping and so he went and sat beside him. "Rough day?"
"You have no idea." James stared at Joe. "She killed herself, Joe. She killed herself and she framed Manson...she used the Amontillado."
"James..."
"She told me that one day she was going to do something so wonderful and so ironic that hardly anyone would believe it at all...and she did it, Joe. That letter that she wrote for Ronald...it was...brilliant. I do not know if she even knew what poetic justice was, I suspect that she didn't, but she pulled it off. Problem is, she forgot just one thing."
"What?"
"Retribution overtook its redresser." James sat there staring at the pink urn.
"James?" Joe nudged him.
"What?"
"We need to talk."
James nudged him back. "We are talking."
"No, James, we need to talk about Katie." Joe stared at James intently.
"There's nothing left to talk about; it is over and she is gone. I feel just as I did with Benji though, praying to God not to let it be true...give me another chance with her because I won't screw it up this time."
"You didn't screw it up, James. You did exactly as you were supposed to do."
"What are you talking about? Katie is gone...she is gone and she's not coming back."
"Focus, James. Remember the day we had the mini argument in the kitchen and I told you that if I was trying to hurt you that you would feel it acutely?"
"Yeah." James looked at Joe feeling a little scared of where he might go with the conversation.
"You felt it acutely, did you not?"
"Joe, what are you talking about?"
"I need to tell you something and I need you to listen to me really carefully. You are my best friend and I would never hurt you unless there was no other way around it. James?"
"What?"
"There was no other way around it."
James ran his hand down his face, stood to his feet and said, "Joe? What the hell is going on? You are scaring me, you sound to me as though...did you have anything to do with what happened to Katie?"
"Yes, James. Yes I did."
"Why?" the tears slid down James' face as the sense of betrayal crept over him.
"It was necessary to kill Katie to catch Ronald and McKendrick. You got in the way when you found her in the loft. I had no idea that she was coming here or that she even knew you. You just got in the way, James."
"What? Joe? What? You killed Katie? But the letter...the...FUCK! Why, Joe?...FUCK!" James paced as he spoke.
Just as James swore the second time, two men walked into the living room, one was the blonde haired man from the search and the other was a man he knew that he had seen somewhere but could not recollect where. They both ran at James before he had a chance to do anything. The last thing he saw, after he felt the needle in his arm, was Joe staring down at him. "I am sorry, James."
When James woke up he felt himself being carried into a building of some kind. He knew it was a building because he could hear the voices of men bouncing off the walls. They had put a hood over his head, so he had no idea how many were there or even who they were. They carried James into a room and sat him on a chair, at which point they removed the hood from his head. It took James a few minutes to get his eyes to focus and he held his hand up over his eyes until they adjusted to the flickering light. Once his eyes adjusted he could see at least ten men wearing black robes and hoods. "Who are you?"
Joe stepped forward and removed the hood from his head and just stared at James. "You need to listen James, your future depends upon it."
"You killed Katie, why would I listen to anything else that you have to say?"
"James..."
"You better kill me while you still can, Joe, because if you don't, then I am going to kill you."
"LISTEN TO ME JAMES! Just listen, it is not what you think. Look at the screen on the wall to your left."
"No."
"You told me that you loved her and that you would move Heaven and Earth for her."
"SHE IS DEAD...YOU KILLED HER, REMEMBER?"
"Look at the screen on the wall to your left."
James turned his head to the left and three of the robed and hooded men moved out of his way. The room was suddenly filled with light as the screen lit up. For a few moments there was nothing but a bright screen, but then he saw Katie. She was jumping on a trampoline with an older girl and then she looked at the camera. "Hello, James. I'm okay. I'm with some friend of Joe and Neena's. This is Marcel... say hello to James, Marcel."
James was shocked to see the core to see Katie alive. He watched the older blonde haired girl look toward the camera and say, "Hello, James."
James began to cry as Katie addressed him again. "Marcel is my friend...we used to live together. I miss you, James, when are you coming here? Joe said it will be soon." James then saw Joe walk into the frame, "Well, here she is. Katie is the twelfth child that we have killed...killed in their system. But as you can see, Katie is not dead. We rescued Katie from a fate worse than death; just as we rescued Marcel. I expect, if you are watching this, that you are sitting on a chair before a group of men wearing black robes and hoods and you'll be feeling pretty sore at me. I don't blame you, but I tried to prepare you for this day as much as I could. Remember I told you about the robes and hoods and I told you about theatrics and acting? But all is about to be explained properly to you, James. You are amongst friends, not enemies." Joe walked over to the trampoline and lifted Katie in his arms and then took her right up to the camera. "Blow a kiss to James."
Katie blew a kiss and shyly said, "I can't wait for you to get here. I love you, James."
The screen then went black. James heard someone taking the reels off the projector and he heard the snapping popping sound of the film being burned. He turned to his right and saw smoke coming out of a bucket. Joe then stepped in front of him and crouched down. "I told you that when I caused you deliberate pain that you would feel it acutely. You had to, James. You had to behave as a man possessed of grief or we could not have pulled it off. We did it for Katie first and foremost, but when I discovered how much you really cared for her, I did it for you too."
"I don't know whether to hug you or to punch you, Joe." James stared at his friend as his tears trickled down his cheeks. "Where is she?"
"We first want to tell you what this group is and how we got together and what it is that we do and why. The reason we are to do this is that if you choose to do so, then you will be committing to it for the rest of your life. For the rest of your life you will financially and physically help this group to achieve the goals that we set."
"What are the goals, Joe?"
"To rescue kids like Katie and Marcel from a fate worse than death. And we only rescue certain ones. In ten years we have rescued only twelve children. There is a very strict criteria for choosing the ones we do rescue and if they do not meet any part of the criteria, then we do not attempt it. It is risky and sometimes, not often at all, but sometimes, if it is completely unavoidable, the wrong people get hurt. Innocent people, people like you, James. It is detailed work and one mission alone will be months, maybe even a year in the planning and we plan them right down to the very last detail. And what we do is so highly illegal that you cannot even begin to imagine just how illegal it is."
Joe stood to his feet and stepped back and another man stepped forward. James was staring down at his feet and he immediately recognised the worn down shoe, but he did not say anything. He already knew who he was and he already knew what he wanted to do. "You do not have to present me with a choice; I am in. Even if Katie were dead, I would still be in because I don't want to sit back and see what happened to her happen to another child."
Joe stepped forward again. "You have to listen, James, and then make your decision. It is just the way we do things. You need to know exactly what you are getting into." Joe lightly touched his shoulder and then stepped back again.
"James. You can stand up and walk out of here right now and leave the situation as it is. Katie's dead, you grieve and you move on. Or you can hear us out, decide to join and then we will take you to Katie."
"I want to hear you out, but I just want Katie." James' tears rolled down his face again.
"We know and it will happen all in good time," said the man with the worn down shoe, who James knew to be Howie. He then stepped back with the others.
"Does Neena think you are out fishing?" asked James of Joe.
"Neena knows that I am out fishing."
James nodded and then Joe began to speak about how the group had formed.

"It was 1962 when Joe and I left College and went on to University. Both of us were keen to do Social Work and were keenly interested in social and political issues. In our third year of our degree in Social Work we were placed in offices around the country to gain 'hands on' experience. It was during that time that we saw how things really worked. Howie and I got first hand experience of the gulf between how things were supposed to work and how they actually did work."
"You told me that you dropped out of the degree in your second year." James stared at Howie hiding under his robe.
"Bloody hell, does anything ever get past you?" asked Howie as he pulled his hood off.
James pointed to his feet. "Your shoes gave you away."
Howie looked down at his feet and then back up at James. "I never wear these shoes but to these meetings."
"The soles, Howie, look at the soles on your shoes when you get home. If you are going to stick with this business, then someone is going to have to devise a way for your soles not to give you away." James smiled at Howie.
Joe laughed and then he grabbed a chair and sat down, as did the other others. "We were out on section and the girl was about eight years old. She had been complaining that her foster father was 'creepy', not too much different to what Katie said to you that day. They brought the foster father in for questioning and he blamed the little girl. They believed him and sent the little girl home with him." Joe shook his head and stopped speaking.
One of the hooded men took over. "Howie and Joe heard the foster father threatening the child on the way into the office and they reported it to the head of that Department and he fobbed them off. Once the interview was complete and the foster father deemed innocent of all charges, the charges having been explained away as wild figments of the child's troubled imagination, Howie and Joe were kicked from the placement at that office."
"That night, the foster father murdered the little girl, beat her to death. The Coroner found that the girl had been sexually interfered with on a grand scale. But it was too late for her." Howie shook his head.
"We had one paper due for our third year and so we based it upon statistics of children who are sexually abused and/or killed in Care. The statistics on killing were not that high, rare in fact. But the statistics on the prevalence of sexual abuse were frightening and it seemed no one cared. Rarely were foster fathers ever convicted of sexual abuse upon children." Joe stared at James.
James looked at Joe. "Why not?"
"Government Department, reports and public relations. The bigger problem was that there is a refusal to believe that it could actually be happening in homes in this country. A group of us set about trying to find out what could be done and as it turned out, there were no legal means to deal with the problem. So, we decided to make changes of our own and thus this group was born." Joe stopped speaking for a while and another hooded man took over.
"There were ten of us originally and there still are only ten of us. We all dropped out of Social Work bar one. We sat around and worked out how we could rescue kids and what we would need to be able to do to pull it off."
Another man began to speak once the last man stopped. "We figured that we would need a coroner, a detective, a documents expert, a court clerk, a lawyer, an ambulance driver and a few good craftsman, particularly in art, specifically in sculpting. We have a few other experts too, but they are the main ones. Being that we were all possessed of reasonably high IQs, the ones who wanted specific paths in life took them. Fortunately not all of us wanted the same things and so it was pretty easy to assign roles."
"Tell me about Katie? How did you pull it off? How did you decide to take her and not some other child?"
"Katie fitted the criteria." Joe moved around in his chair nervously because he knew that James would ask what the criteria was and it would upset him to hear it.
"And what is the criteria, Joe?" James stared at him waiting for him to answer.
"They have to be children that absolutely no one wants; children that will not be missed if they were to die."
"Joe, that is not true of Katie."
"James, it was true of Katie until you came along. No one wanted her, not even her own mother and she had no father. It was a safe bet that no one would ever go looking for her."
"But what about me? Why did you not try to place her with me?"
"James, you said it yourself; they don't place foster children with single fathers, especially not girls."
"And you do?"
"We know that you love her and that you would never hurt her. Sometimes one parent is better than two and in Katie's case, we deemed it to be so. Thing is, that when she stumbled into your loft, we had already decided on where she would be placed," said Howie.
"Where?" asked James.
"Neena and Joe were going to take her to the States with them. But she met you and bonded with you, so Neena and Joe will step into the breech next time there is one; if there is one."
"Is that why you and Neena have never had children?" asked James.
"Yes, and we will not for a while," said Joe.
"And so not being wanted by anyone is the criteria?"
"It is not the only criteria, James. They have to have expressed a fairly prevalent fixation with suicide; death can only be by suicide...unless the case is exceptional..."
"Katie's was exceptional?" asked James.
"Katie's was complicated; very complicated. Being that Ronald was already involved with a crackpot group of religious fanatics complicated it on the one hand, and yet, on the other, it made it easier." Joe looked at James, knowing that he had a thousand questions.
"Tell me how you pulled it off with Katie? I saw her body, I held her hand...I am suspicious by nature and yet you fooled even me."
"What do you want to know exactly?" asked Joe.
"Everything. I want to know everything from the start to the leap off the bridge. I mean, did she even leap off the bridge?"
"A man who had a thick German-sounding accent replied, "Oh yes, Katie did leap from the bridge. She had to leap from the bridge...it was a part of her leaping away from the hurt and broken Katie and embracing the new. It is therapy of a sort, and it works very well."
"When she spoke about suicide, was that rehearsed? And Ps Frankie, you can take your hood off too." James chuckled as Frankie removed his hood and smirked at him.
"Absolutely nothing that she said to you was rehearsed in any way shape or form, she really was in crisis, which is why we brought it forward. It was not supposed to happen until after her birthday. She only ever told you one lie and that was the one where she told you that she had never spoken to me alone. She had, the day before, and she covered the mistake by saying that she had overheard me speaking to you when she was hiding in the loft. We were juggling with Katie because she was in crisis, she was in danger and there were many elements way out of our control. There was Ronald, who we suspectd was abusing her just as the last one had, and then there was Lucan Rossi and his group of crackpots. There was the Social Worker, Katie herself, and then you got thrown into the mix!" James nodded because he knew Joe to be telling the truth.
"So you just picked Katie out?" James stared at Joe, Howie and the other robed and hooded men.
"No, we never just pick a kid out," said Howie. "We had picked Katie before she wandered over to your place. Speaking of which, your whole house, aside from your shower, bathroom and bedroom was snoop-a-rama, including your studio. It was a Godsend that she went to your house and hid in your loft that first time and then when you befriended her... that was priceless...we couldn't believe our luck. Once we realised that you were not going to bail on her... Every time she came to your house or studio, you were watched; you had to be. We had to know what was going on with her and your house was easier to get to."
"We'd been watching Katie since we started planning to rescue Marcel," said the man with the thick German accent.
James looked at Joe. "Did Katie know that this was going to happen?"
"No, Katie doesn't even know that it has happened now. All she thinks is that she leapt from a bridge to leave her old life and to wait for James. She doesn't even know that we told you that she is dead. Katie has no real understanding of exactly what happened, James, and she never will."
"But how did you get her to go along with you?"
"We knew that it had to be done sooner than we had planned..." Howie sighed. "It is probably just easier just to go back to the very start."

It was 1973 when the group first noticed Katie. They had been alerted to a situation with a young girl by the name of Marcel. She had been going to see Jefferson for over a year when it finally came out that her foster father was hurting her.
Jefferson had felt sick when Marcel had disclosed to him what her foster father Sven was doing to her."
"Does anyone else know, Marcel? Can anyone else back up what you are saying? Has anyone seen him coming into your room?"
"Katie has seen him and she has heard him."
Jefferson leaned forward on his chair. "Katie? Who is Katie?"
"She sleeps in my room with me."
"How old is Katie?"
"She's six."
"Six years old and she knows what Sven is doing?"
"She doesn't know exactly what he does, but she will tell you that he comes in. What if I tell her to tell them that he does it to her too? Then they will have to listen."
"No, Marcel. Sven must not be accused of having done something to Katie that he didn't do."
"But they won't believe me otherwise."
"Marcel, if Katie lies, they WILL find out. Do NOT tell Katie to say something that isn't true."
"But..."
"Marcel, if Katie lies about something like this and gets caught lying about it, well, one day she might really be in trouble and no one will believe her then. I am not just worried about you Marcel, we must think of Katie too, she is still very little. What we need to do is speak to Mr. McKendrick. If you tell him what is going on then he will help you." Jefferson lightly touched Marcel on her arm and then went and phoned the Social Worker.
McKendrick arrived within half an hour and sat down with Jefferson and Marcel to hear what had been going on. Once Marcel was done speaking, McKendrick smiled at her, setting her at ease and then asked her to wait outside. Once Marcel was outside the door he looked at Jefferson. "Are you insane?"
"What?" Jefferson knew by his tone of voice that things were about to go down hill very fast.
"Sven is not touching Marcel. Marcel has an active imagination...sick even. Marcel is not right in the head! I cannot believe you dragged me down here to listen to this deluded fantasy of Marcel's."
"He is hurting her, Darren." Jefferson could not believe what Darren had said.
"Sven is not hurting her. Jefferson, Marcel has done this before or have you not read the notes from the last psyche evaluation?"
"She's not lying. She says that little Katie who sleeps in the same room as her is aware of Sven coming in and hurting her."
"Has Katie seen it?"
"No Katie hasn't seen it, but she is aware that he is coming into the room and..."
"And what? Jefferson?"
"She's aware that..."
"Katie is aware that Sven comes into the room, beyond that she knows nothing. He could be going in there to kiss her goodnight, he could be speaking with her, it could all be perfectly innocent."
"But you know that it is not, or else Marcel..."
"Marcel is a mixed up kid who lives in a fantasy most of the time. The line between fantasy and reality, for Marcel, is very blurred. Don't bring me down here to listen to any of her fantastic stories again. I will also be speaking with Marcel and Katie."
"You do not think that Marcel is genuine?"
"Of course I don't. Read the notes, Jefferson. Sven is a good man who has done nothing but try to be a good father to Marcel and the others. It is not fair to even be having this conversation about him. I cannot believe you brought me down here for this!"
Darren stood from his chair and exited the room out into the waiting room. He grabbed Marcel by the arm and said, "You and I need to have a little chat!"
Jefferson was, by that time, standing in the doorway. He looked over at Kelly his secretary and asked, "Why do they make us see these kids if all they are going to do is ignore them?"
Kelly raised her eyebrows and replied, "Beats me. Oh yeah, your next one is going to be late."
Jefferson walked over to the counter and looked Kelly while she cranked the handle of the Bander to print off some kind of notes. "Can you go to the files room and get me all the notes that you can find on Marcel Bager and Katie Ellery?"
"I don't think that Katie Ellery has been here before."
"Yes she has, Colin told me that he saw her at least twice while he was here, so find her notes too. Once you have done that, request their files from Social Welfare and have someone bring them straight over."
"Anything else?" Kelly smiled at Jefferson.
"Coffee?" Jefferson smiled and then turned to make his way back to his office.
It was one month later that the group got together to meet with each other and to see if there were any nominations that anyone wanted to put forward. Jefferson placed down two names on the small table.
"Two?" asked Joe.
"Yes, two. One definitely needs to have immediate action and the other needs to be watched."
"How old?" asked Howie.
"One is almost eleven and the other is six. Both are females and both live in the same town in the..."
"We do not take two at a time and we definitely do not take two from the same town, Jefferson, you know this," reminded Joe.
"They both live in the same home." Jefferson looked around him at the others in their black robes.
"We definitely don't take two from the same home and anyway, six years old is way too young," said Howie.
"I am not saying that we need to take the six year old, I am saying that it should be looked into. But the older one? She definitely needs rescuing because I do not know how much longer she will survive."
"Done your homework on her?" asked Frankie.
"Single mother. Father is dead. She has no extended family and the mother is hopelessly addicted to heroin and is an alcoholic. The Social Worker is an absolute prat and completely incompetent!"
"Jefferson, there is definite abuse occurring?" asked Howie.
"Yes, but you will still need to run the perp through your system. Sven Carter is his name."
"The girl? She is speaking of suicide?" asked Frankie.
"She has alluded to it, but as yet has not come right out and said it."
"If she were to commit suicide, would it be believed or would it be viewed as completely outside the realm of possibilities that she would have done something like that?"
"Howie, for now it is unlikely that it would not be met with some suspicion. However, she is on the road to thinking that kind of thing."
"Which one of us would take her?" asked Joe.
"Ghunter would be best, he and Morgan have that place in Montana, Marcel could be placed there. Ghunter, what do you think?" asked Howie.
"She would fit into the family well by her age. What does she looked like?" asked Ghunter of Jefferson in his thick German accent.
"She is blue eyed, blonde and very pretty. Stephen is also blonde haired so she would fit as far as her looks go too," said Jefferson.
"Okay, if we decide to take her case then Morgan and I will take her. But the little girl, the younger one, it is far too soon to be contemplating her. It will be four years before we could seriously consider anything...no six year old kills themself."
Howie, Joe, Frankie and the others agreed with Ghunter's asessment of the situation.
"Could we please at least keep an eye on her?" asked Jefferson.
"We have to be totally focussed on Marcel, which means that we cannot watch the younger child. It would be too suspicious to take another child from the same town let alone the same home. Perhaps in a few years, if she has been moved away, then we will find her and reassess the situation," said Howie.
"But..."
"Jefferson, it is Marcel or the younger child, which one are you nominating, knowing that you can only nominate one?" Joe stared at Jefferson sympathetically.
"I am nominating Marcel." Jefferson reached forward and took Katie's name from the table. He then burned the piece of paper with her name on it.
"So, we need to set about making a plan of rescue for Marcel Bager. You all know what you need to do, so let us get on with it," said Howie.
With that the meeting was closed and each of the ten went on their way. It would be another two years before they took Marcel and it would be another year after that before Katie's name appeared on the table before them again.
In mid 1977 Jefferson again presented another nomination, only the third that he'd ever made. "She needs our help, desperately," Jefferson said as he stood in the circle of the ten.
"Katie Ellery...the six year old from three years ago?" asked Howie.
"Yes, I want to put her before the group again."
"I have one that I want to nominate too, Trina Carlisle. She is eleven," said Jonathan.
"Well, you will both have to state your cases, we can only take one at a time," said Howie.
"You go first, Jonathan." Jefferson nodded his head at Jonathan as he spoke.
"Trina is eleven, almost twelve. She is being sexually abused by the foster father and has been speaking openly of killing herself. She runs away from home regularly and her abuse has been cited and charges were faced by a previous foster father."
"What happened to him?" asked Howie.
Jonathan shook his head. "Nothing. They couldn't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt and Trina was discredited. Her mother is deceased and her father is unknown, but she has an older brother."
"How old?" asked Joe.
"He is a teenager, late teens."
"Does he have anything to do with Trina?" asked Howie.
Jonathan shook his head in frustration. "Yes he does, but they won't allow him to..."
"Take her name from the table, Jonathan," said Howie.
"But..."
"Jonathan." Joe sighed. "The safety tomorrow, of the children that we have already taken, depends entirely on what we do today. We do not take any chances, no matter how small they are. You know this. As much as we want to take all of the kids we nominate, we can't. If we mess it up taking unnecessary chances today, then that may cost another child tomorrow."
Howie then spoke. "Trina is not a good candidate, as much as she might be suffering, if she dies, there will be someone ready and willing to jump on the bandwagon to find out how it happened and why. Trina will be missed, so she doesn't qualify. I am sorry, Jonathan."
"She could..."
"Jonathan, ships in the night, remember?" reminded Frankie.
"I know. I just thought it was worth putting her name on the table."
"So, now we have little Katie Ellery back to haunt us," said Howie staring at Jefferson.
"Tell us that she is, in the least, not still in the same town as where we took Marcel?" said Joe as he stared intently at Jefferson.
"No, she is in a small town North of that place. She has been there for nearly a year, but the situation is not good. She has a foster father who is a little off...I am not sure what the extent is of the abuse, but most certainly the situation is not good."
"Family?" asked Joe.
"Mother doesn't want her and her father is unknown."
"Jefferson, that does not mean that the mother doesn't want her," reminded Howie.
"Katie was conceived as a result of rape. The mother has already told everyone who ever knew her that she died back in 1969."
"Siblings?" asked Joe.
"None."
"Grandparents?"
"There is a grandmother but she has expressed absolutely no interest in the child at all. She thinks it is better that the child has been erased from her daughter's life."
"Could she have a change of heart?" asked Howie.
"No. She is an alcoholic whose one concern in life is where is the next drink going to come from."
"But Katie is living in a town, right?" asked Joe.
"Yeah."
"So taking another via pills isn't really viable for two reasons. First, how would they explain Katie getting hold of pills from the locum in the town? Secondly, it could create much suspicion if Katie dies by the same method as the girl she lived with a few years ago. I think we need to look at it and evaluate it for risk. If she were living rurally it would be so much easier to set up our monitoring systems, but in town? We found it extremely difficult to monitor Marcel." Joe shook his head and stared down at the floor.
"Why don't we begin to develop a game plan for Katie Ellery and just see what the next six months brings? For all we know, this placement will fall apart and Katie will hit the jackpot with her next placement," said Howie.
"So Katie stays on the table for now?" asked Jefferson.
"For now, yes." Howie nodded his head as did the other eight. "Well you all know what you have to do, so let's get on with it."
Within four weeks, they were off for a weekend fishing trip, which was code for scouting. They went to the town where Katie was living to assess the situation, but it became apparent that Katie was going to be on the move very soon because the talk was all over town and even in the local pub. When they got back from their 'fishing trip' they gathered for another meeting.
"We can't touch her while she is there, too many people know who she is, too many people watch her. To take Katie we are going to have to make it a suicide by other means, which means that our planning needs to be meticulous. We are just going to have to see where they send her next, and hope that the environment is more conducive to our needs, if we decide to take her," said Howie.
"Could we not take her between homes?" asked Jefferson.
"Short of a car wreck or an abduction, no." Jonathan shook his head as he spoke.
"Well I know that we cannot do an abduction, they'd never stop looking for her. But a car wreck is feesible and the situation is exceptional so we could look at it."
Joe shook his head at Jefferson. "No, there are way too many variables; we cannot do that. We will see where they take her to next. If we are real lucky she will get sent up to the desert area and we could easily take her from there, perhaps without even arranging any kind of suicide. They would probably assume she had wandered into the bush and fallen down a ravine. They would search for a few weeks, but they'd soon stop."
"True," said Jefferson.
"So you keep your finger on the pulse. Have you already palmed her off onto another psyche team?" asked Jonathan.
"Yes, I palmed her off months ago, but he is not seeing her any more either. I just happen to know someone who knows someone who lives in the town where Katie is now. They have made discreet enquiries." Jefferson chewed on his bottom lip. He was worried that Katie could get dropped.
"I will watch her from Head Office, I will soon be able to tell you where she has been placed or where she is to be placed," said Haydon.
"Yes but you have to be careful what you do, Director General or not," reminded Joe.
A few weeks later they held yet another meeting and Haydon was able to tell them where she was going.
"There? That's tantamount to putting her on a silver tray and handing her to us." Joe smiled.
"She may well have hit the jackpot...from the notes it looks as though Ronald and Lousie Cooper are very upstanding and nice people. They are church going folk and there does not seem to be a bad word able to be said against them. BUT...we need to get into the heart of the place. Joe and Frankie, you live closest so do some homework and see what you can find out. Ghunter, perhaps you could scope out the church they attend...it is run by Lucan Rossi, so Howie, perhaps you could see if you can find any red flags on him. Other than that, Katie goes there in two weeks, just in time for Guy Fawkes."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Jefferson.
"I want you to check out the officer she has, McKendrick."
"Oh no, I know him personally...well in a professional capacity. He was Marcel's officer."
Everyone looked at Jefferson and then Joe spoke. "You don't think that's a little close to home where Marcel is concerned?"
"I think that McKendrick's navel might not be on the level so it actually may work in our favour as opposed to working against us." Jefferson hoped that Katie was not going to be dropped.
"We are still in the homework phase and no definite decision has been made in regard to Katie other than the fact that the situation needs assessing. If Lousie and Ronald Cooper turn up trumps, then Katie is off the table." Joe stared at Jefferson to be absolutely sure that Jefferson understood where they were at.
"I understand," said Jefferson.
"Maybe you can have a closer look at McKendrick for us, Jefferson?" asked Howie.
"I will."
"You want me to start any tentative document processing?" asked Jonathan.
"Not yet, we are still not committed to this. We will know more in two or three weeks." Joe nodded at everyone and then the meeting broke up and they all went on their way.

One month later they all met again and no one had any idea what the other had found out. Outside of their meetings, nothing they ever did, in regard to their secret missions, was ever discussed. They did not even socialise with each other and if they passed on the street they pretended they did not even know each other, aside from Joe and Frankie who were brothers. Howie and Joe spoke every now and then; it was no secret that they had been in school and University together and so they did stop to speak in the street. They did not, however, socialise together just in case anyone figured them to be close friends.
The ten gathered at their meeting place and the ones who had something to report, did so. Ghunter went first. "Lucan Rossi is, or was, a memeber of the group 'The Family' that David Berg founded in 1968, during the Californian hippie era. It was a fusion of Christian fundamentalism and free love, but now, Lucan Rossi's church is just plain bizarre! Full of ex-Quakers and Manson type personas. They believe in demon possession and if anyone is accused of having one, of course by an upstanding member of the sect, then they are subjected to an exorcism."
"What?" asked Howie.
"Aha, exorcism as in rotating heads, projectile vomiting up of innards and other unmentionable things. What concerns me more is that they seem to teach this idea that a man is not guilty of sin if another man causes him to sin. I get the impression that...well...there are suspicions amongst those who do not belong to the church that untoward things may be occuring and not being dealt with through the appropriate channels."
"This is the church that Lousie and Ronald Cooper belong to?" asked Howie.
"The same one," said Ghunter. "I could arrange a severe blow out of their electricals and be the one to fix it. That way I could set up some surveillance gear. It would give us an idea of what is going on inside the place. Strangers are not spoken to at all and it takes a very long time to be embraced into the inner circle...we don't have the time to spare on winning friends and influencing people. Of course my report may be the only negative one."
"You want to befriend someone like Lucan Rossi like you want a hole in the head!" Howie smiled wryly and shuffled his feet unsure as to how his comment would go over with the others. But he needn't have worried, they all chuckled.
"Something to look forward to," quipped Ghunter.
"Any dice on Ronald Cooper?" Howie looked at Joe wondering if he had made any progress at all on that front?
Joe then stepped forward. "The locals are not fond of Ronald Cooper, especially the local girls. Seems he is perceived as 'creepy'. I do not know if there is any substance to the claims."
"What Joe has heard is correct, I have a colleague in my building who lives out that way and she said that Ronald Cooper is in fact a man who has proclivities that may well be very negative for Katie. He was once accused of having held a child against him and 'gotten off on it' so to speak. Nothing was proved, but I have a bad feeling about this guy." Frankie nodded his head and stepped back.
"Something else I need to mention." Joe stepped forward again as he spoke. "My best friend James lives about twenty feet down the road and across from where Katie's driveway is. I have no reason to suspect that they will ever cross paths, but I just thought that I should mention it."
"Jefferson, anything on McKendrick?"
"Well, and this is interesting. McKendrick attends the same church as the Coopers."
"What?" asked Ghunter. "I didn't see him there."
"He's been away for his month of annual leave...he went to the city, but he is back now and a regular at the church. So regular is he that he is in fact an elder."
"Well, and I have some even more astounding news for you. Lucan Rossi used to head a church in the town where we took Marcel, of course by the time we took her, he had gone. But McKendrick also attended that church and Marcel's foster parents were members of that church. McKendrick knew them more than just on a professional basis." Howie looked at the others to see what they would make of it.
"And now he is in Lucan Rossi's church here and has placed a child with church members whom he also knows. Am I the only one who sees a pattern emerging?" asked Joe.
"Time has come, is Katie on the table permanently?" asked Haydon.
"I think she should be," said Jonathan.
"I think we take her," said Joe.
"What about everyone else?" asked Howie.
"In," said Ghunter.
"Count me in," said Jefferson.
Within seconds they all indicated that Katie would be their mission for however long it took to acquire her.
"Who will take her?" asked Haydon.
"Neena and I will take her. We are due to go to Montana in eight months anyway, we will just go sooner if the need arises."
"What date shall we work toward?" asked Howie.
"Sometime in August, so long as the situation does not quickly deteriorate," said Joe.
"I will start on the documents...you will definitely take her to Montana?" asked Jonathan.
"Yes." Joe nodded his head and thought of Neena. She would be happy about their taking Katie, he knew that.
"Okay, method of death?" asked Frankie.
"Obviously suicide," said Joe.
"How?" asked Jonathan.
"There's two good bridges down that road, maybe we could make use of one of those?" suggested Joe.
"You will need to keep in mind that we will need a body and someone needs to begin to befriend Katie. Joe, maybe seeing as how your friend lives nearby, you could keep an eye out for her?"
"Do we want James making a connection between Katie and I?"
"Does he know her?" asked Howie.
"If he does then he has not mentioned it...although he has been having problems with a prowler dunking his shoes in their barrel of water over night. Probably kids, could be Katie."
Howie sighed. "If you are with James when you see Katie, make no overtures toward her, not even a wave. James can't make any connection between you and Katie. Ghunter, any chance you can hang around James' place and see who the little ferret is dunking his shoes? At least we will know, one way or the other, if Katie is going there at all. It may be that he has never even seen her and never will."
"Do you want me to set up surveillance gear inside the church?" asked Ghunter.
"Yeah, blow their electricals on Sunday and be there to offer to have a look. Once you get to have a look, get Rossi on his own and offer to fix them on the Monday morning," said Howie.
"Why Monday morning?"
"Religious fanatic's day off. Most ministers don't go within booey of their churches on Mondays. Take Jonathan with you and perhaps Frankie. Joe can make them up so that they will not be recognised. I could even swing by on the pretext of a problem if Rossi hangs around being a pain and getting in your way," said Howie.
"Okay."
"Anyone got contacts inside the school Katie has been attending?" Howie looked around him.
"Neena has a friend who works there, she could keep tabs for us that way."
"Neena is trustworthy, I see no problem with that, but remind her to be incredibly discreet."
"I am to undertake the production for the College this year, it may be that I can get more information that way...kids talk, you know?" said Joe.
"Okay. Now as for McKendrick, how are we going to monitor him?"
"I could blow his electrics, give Rossi a calling card. He'll pass it onto McKendrick, mates rates and all that. I will be able to snoop around, maybe even set up some gear."
Howie nodded to Ghunter and then he shook his head. "I think that's too risky; you do not want to develop a profile inside that place. No, McKendrick is our loose cannon here."
"I can try to maintain tabs on him through Head Office, place another officer with him who will report directly to me on his movements without him knowing."
"Haydon, can you do that? I mean, is it legal?"
Haydon smiled at Howie. "Well, it is not illegal, at least not yet. I am concerned about his behaviour and competency. When those concerns arise, it is not uncommon for us to do this kind of thing."
"So you have done it before to other officers?" asked Howie.
"Sure. It would not be anything unusual."
"Okay, then do it," said Howie. "Joe, start working out how we are going to produce a body...we WILL need a body, so this one is going to be risky. In the menatime, we all go on our merry way and meet back here as the need arises."
"Ah, we never really settled the documents issue." Jonathan stared intently at Howie.
"We have no name to give her yet," said Howie.
"Well she will be a Sembello obviously," said Jonathan.
"Yes, but we need to find a child that was born on the same day as her but who has since passed away. No easy task, let me tell you."
"I do not mean to be insensitive here, but unfortunately, kids die all the time, Howie," said Jonathan.
"Be that as it may, the child needs to be caucasian, Katie's age and female and as easy of an ask as that may seem, in reality it is actually quite difficult. You will need to search graveyard records...births and deaths and perhaps even church records might be of some use to you. Until we find a name then we cannot do too much in the way of documents. Joe?"
"Yeah, Howie?"
"You will be taking the child out of the country so you will need to acquire passport photos. Ghunter can fiddle the background colour so long as the background you shoot her on is light and one shade. Do it the first chance you get."
"Okay, Howie."
"Anything else of significance comes up or happens, call a meeting," said Howie.
Two months after they started their mission in regard to Katie they got together for a status report.
"Katie is the shoe dunker, her and her two little friends walk around the place in the middle of the night when they stay. James' place is a regular stop off of theirs and they sit on his lawn and stare in the window at James and his wife." Ghunter tried very hard to conceal his smile, but he needn't have bothered. Joe and the others could not contain themselves and chuckled.
"She's a little monkey, bless her heart," said Joe.
"She also smokes," said Ghunter.
"She has plenty of time to quit," said Howie. "I am more concerned about her running into James, if she does then it could prove very difficult later on."
"Why is that?" asked Jonathan.
"Well, James is supposed to be going to Montana eventually isn't he Joe?"
Joe nodded to Howie. "Yes."
"If he gets to know Katie now and then he knows she has died then you are going to have some explaining to do."
"Well, what if I start to prepare James for the group?"
"Joe, to what end?" asked Howie.
"So that when he joins us in Montana then Katie will not be an issue."
"But I thought that you were going to tell him that Katie was yours of an affair you had? Isn't that what you and Neena decided?"
"Well yes, but obviously there is a great risk that James will meet Katie at some point. My hope is that he will pay her no attention if he does, if the meeting is brief. But what if he catches her dunking his shoes? We have to have a backup plan here just in case."
"Okay, you are right. Are you set up in the church, Ghunter?"
"Yes, all set up and everything is working. Joe makes me up and every now and then I attend."
"And?" asked Howie.
"Katie seems to have some kind of fear thing going on with one of the church members, Marcus. I overheard some talk that she has been accused of having set herself upon him and 'provoked' him."
"Provoked him to what?" asked Howie.
"Is there any substance to it?" asked Joe.
"I have no idea. What I do know is that Katie would not set herself against a fly, from what I can gather, but something has happened there. I guess it will all come out in the wash eventually."
"Was it sexual in nature?" asked Howie.
"I couldn't tell if it was a sexual thing or whether she just got smart to him or what. I really don't know."
"Any word for sure on Ronald?" asked Howie.
"Creep from way back," said Joe. "All the girls can't stand him and all the boys reckon he's a pervert. He is the most openly spoken about adult and yet no one does anything or questions him, yet these kids..."
"Well Joe, sometimes kids talk and exaggerate...although we know that these kids probably aren't, the adults around them do not know so much. How are we off for a body?"
"I need bones, lots of them. I can make a body that will behave similarly to a dead human body, but I need bones and I need innards and I have to somehow get it to just about Katie's size. Frankie says that if it is off on any of the measurements that it will be questioned."
"What about disposal of the body?" asked Howie.
"Cremation," said Frankie. "I will examine the body, sign it off, escort it to the crematorium and stay until it is in flames."
"Can you do that?" asked Howie.
"I am the local coroner come mortician, I can basically do whatever I like."
"Will they ever be able to test the ashes and find out that they are not Katie's?"
"Not yet, no. But they are working on developing tests that will definitively prove that a person either is or is not whom thay claim to be. Any trace of Katie will need to be eradicated; even down to her hairbrush, just in case."
"Frankie, how many years away are they from being able to do this?" asked Howie.
"I do not know, could be twenty years, could be more; no one knows for certain. What I do know is that those ashes will need to be gotten rid of quick smart so that there is nothing left for them to ever test."
"But they will not look for her, she will be dead," said Howie.
"Yeah, but you never know. Like we are always saying, you can never be too careful! Look, as far as medicine goes, we have a window for rescuing children, but there is going to come a day where we will not be able to do this any more. We will not be able to beat the system," said Frankie.
It was Ghunter who spoke next. "Frankie is right, even as far as technology goes, we will lose in the end so we will have to get out before the window closes and make no mistake, it IS closing. Just ask Jonathan."
"Jonathan?" Howie and the others looked at him.
"Forging documents is becoming tougher and tougher. At the moment births, deaths and marriages are written into a ledger, but one day they will be inside a computer and once that happens, there will be few ways to change them without leaving a trail."
"How will you do Katie's this time?" asked Howie.
"A man in our office smokes...he will accidentally leave a lit cigarette on the ledge of the draw that contains Katie's details. Everything to do with Katie's birth will be destroyed; all the records will have to be redone and inevitably, errors will be made and never discovered."
"Won't they be suspicious, Jonathan?" asked Joe.
"No, the guy's a walking fire hazard. He'll lose his job, but he should lose his job anyway; before he kills someone."
"James and Katie haven't met?" asked Howie of Joe.
"No, we drove right by her the other day and he did not even look at her and kept right on speaking about what it was that we were talking about."
"Good. Let's hope it stays that way. Is there any way to deter Katie from going onto James' property?"
"Howie, the only thing that would deter her would defeat the purpose of stopping her going there; James himself," said Joe.
"Oh well, here's hoping he doesn't catch her," said Howie.

It was a month later, the night before opening night that Joe got the biggest fright that he had endured for a while. He arrived at James house just in time to see the tail end of yet another ugly fight. James was trying to stop Samantha from getting into the car and driving in an incredibly inebriated state. Samantha was so drunk and her words slurring so badly that Joe could hardly understand a word that she was saying. James was wrestling with her to get the keys off her, which was quite a task because she was staggering around and falling all over the place. She had just gotten back on her feet when she looked at James and then projectile vomited all over his front, down onto his jeans and finally all over his shoes. James looked at her and screamed. "I CAN'T DO THIS ANY MORE!" He ran his hands through his hair and looked at Joe as the tears of frustration rolled down his face.
Samantha leaned against the wall unit and slid down to the floor. She looked at James and replied, "I hate you...I hate you so much."
"SHUT UP!"
"I am leaving you."
"And I am fine with that Samantha, except you keep coming back!" James turned from Samantha and went down to the bathroom to shower and change his clothes.
Joe tried to deal with Samantha, but she slurred at him. "I hate you too...you are his friend...you held Benji and you think that..."
Joe lifted her from the floor. "It doesn't matter what I think, Samantha. But if you loved James; if you felt any remorse at all for what you did to Benji, you would knock this off."
"I am leaving him...I am leaving and I am never coming back."
"Well that is one way to show James you truly love him."
"Shut up!"
Joe was just about to walk Samantha down to the bedroom when he heard a car outside. He leaned her up against the wall and went outside. He saw immediately that it was Caspian.
"What are you doing here?"
"I am here to pick up Samantha."
Joe went to say something else when Samantha staggered outside onto the path and swaggered up to Caspian and began crying. Caspian then looked at Joe. "What did James do to her? WHAT DID HE DO?"
"NOTHING! She vomited all over him, which I am about to go back inside and clean up. Just take her and go, Caspian!"
By the time Joe got back inside, James was out of the shower. "So where is my ever loving wreck of a wife?"
"James!" Joe was just cleaning up the last of the mess that Samantha had made when she vomited. James squatted down beside Joe and tried to take the towel from him. "Leave it, James. I got it." Joe stood and took the towel to the wash house and put it inside the machine with the others. He switched the machine on and returned to the kitchen with a mop and bucket. He proceeded to then mop the floor. James just stood there watching him and once he was done they both went out into the studio while the house aired out.
James sat on his chair nearest to the typewriter and Joe sat in the chair beside the desk. James looked at Joe. "I can't do any more of this, Joe. I just can't do it. She's killing me!"
"James..."
"It's opening night tomorrow night! What the hell am I supposed to do with her? I can't take her with me because she'll become the life of the party. I can't leave her here, she's likely to fall asleep with a cigarette in her hand and burn the house down."
"James, it is time that this was done already. Samantha needs to go and you need to tell her to. Caspian wants her so badly; let him have her!"
"Yeah that's a good idea."
"You don't want to be with her James and she does not want to be with you. Decide to let each other off the hook and move on. If her life is with Caspian, what does it matter so long as she is not here dragging you down?"
"It's just that..."
"It is just? What, James? What is it?"
"James looked up from the table at Joe. "She is the last link to...to..."
"James, that is NOT a reason to stay with her. Your daughter is gone and staying with Samantha will not bring her back."
"But Smanatha might come right and then we can have another baby...another..."
"James, you have been saying for six years that if Sam could stay sober a year then you would try for another. But James? She hasn't stayed sober for a month straight, let alone a year. When are you going to realise that this marriage that you and Sam have is destructive and it is over?"
"I am not sure that I want it to be over." James sighed. "Actually I do want it to be over, but I am scared."
"Of what?"
"I am so used to pouring everything into Samantha, all my love; everything. Once she goes then who will I pour all of that into?"
Joe sighed. "One day, James, you will meet someone new and you will pour all your love into the person."
"And in the meantime? What does my life become?"
"You get to write in a puke free environment. It doesn't sound much...I know...but it will be an improvement on what it is that you are doing now."
"And what is that?"
"Refusing to let go of the dream. It is not Samantha that you are holding onto; it is the life that you were supposed to have together. If you let Sam go then you are acknowledging that there is no dream. But James?"
"What?"
"You have to let go of the dream in order to get out of the nightmare."
James sat there for a few moments and twiddled his fingers. He then looked at Joe. "You are right...but I hate that you are right!"
"I, for one, am sorry that I am right. James do it for you. Allow yourself some happiness."
"I don't know how you gauge happiness, Joe, but letting Samantha go is not what I would term happiness."
"Bottom line, James, if you allow her to stay and make you miserable then that is your choice, but I am drawing a line here. You either get rid of her or you shut up because I don't want to hear it anymore."
"Joe...I..."
"No, James. People can only do to you, to a certain extent, what you allow them to do. You are allowing Samantha to do this to you now. Listen James, you can be miserable because of her or you can be miserable because of you. Being miserable because of you is the better option because at least that way you are in control."
"I can control Sa..."
"You are NOT in control of Samantha; quite the opposite actually."
"What do you mean?"
"She's got you by the balls, James, and she's squeezing. All you are doing is yelling, but you aren't doing anything about making her let go."
"I just..." James noticed that Joe was staring at the window. "Joe...what's wrong?"
Joe looked away from the window. "Nothing...I...um...what did you say?" Joe had seen the reflection of a child in the window. It was Katie and she was hiding up in the attic of James' studio. Joe sat there wondering what the heck she was doing in there and how the heck he was going to get James out of there without him seeing her. As Joe sat there he thought James looked preoccupied with the window. Joe deliberately knocked over a glass of flat wine and it went all over a copy of the script for his play. James also jumped up from his chair and out of the way of the spilled wine. "Jeepers, Joe. What was that?" James stared at Joe as the wine trickled off the side of the kauri desk and onto the floor.
"You go inside and make coffee. I will come and get a bucket and a cloth and I will come back and clean it up."
James stared at Joe and said, "Fine."
James and Joe both headed to the house and James attended to coffee while Joe went back to the studio to clean the wine. He did not look up at Katie as he spoke for fear that James might see him from the house. "Katie Ellery? You get down from that attic as soon as I turn the lights out and leave. And Katie?"
"What, Joe?"
"You do NOT come back here!" Joe got down on his knees to scrub at the yellow mat once he was done with the desk.
"I like James. I like his attic and I AM coming back and you can't stop me."
"Katie?" Joe heard the stubbornness in her voice.
"No, Joe. I am coming back here."
Joe knew that there was no point in arguing with her. "Fine, but Katie?"
"What?"
"James cannot know that you are here, so you be careful not to get caught! Okay? Katie?"
"What?"
"I mean it. James will not be happy to find you in here so you make sure that he does not find out."
"Okay, Joe."
"As soon as I turn out the lights, you go. Got it?"
"Yes, Joe."
"Okay and I will swing by to see you on Monday after school on the bridge, just like we normally do, okay?"
"Yes Joe. Are you mad at me?"
Joe stopped scrubbing at the yellow rug. "No Katie, I am not mad with you, but you make sure that Ronald does not catch you walking out of here either or he might get mad with James, thinking that James knows that you have been coming here."
"I would NEVER tell Ronald about James."
"I know. You're a good girl Katie...most of the time. Now as soon as I am out of here you shoo and on your way home." As soon as Joe walked out, he went back to the house and kept an eye out for Katie leaving. As she did she accidentally made the hinges on the gate squeak. James heard it and looked at Joe. "Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"The gate." James stared at Joe as he handed him his cup of coffee.
"Might have been the gate, but it is not windy outside, so how would it move?"
"Maybe my shoe dunking ferrets are back?" James looked sideways at the door. He then walked out into the porch and along the path up to the gate before Joe had time to stop him. The moon was high in the sky and James would have sworn he saw someone heading up Manson's driveway. "I think it was the kid who lives up on the hill."
Joe was by that time standing beside him and he too saw Katie heading up the driveway and so could not deter James from assuming that it was her who was the shoe dunker. "Kids will be kids."
"She's a strange little thing that girl."
"What do you mean?" asked Joe.
"Well she's always wandering around, her and her two little friends."
"I have never seen her around when we are here."
James laughed. "That's because the child is nocturnal."
"Really?" asked Joe.
"Well her father's a bat; I swear he is!"
"So have you ever seen her close up in daylight?" asked Joe.
"Never. Oh well, let's go finish our coffee."
Joe finished his coffee and then he made his way home and then contacted everyone for an urgent meeting. The other nine met in their usual place and Joe told them of their latest problem. "I found her in James' studio tonight. I told her to stay away from there, but that's just like inviting her back for sure."
"Does James know?" asked Ghunter.
"Not yet, but it is only a matter of time. He knows that she is probably the one dunking his shoes and he is watching for her. Sooner or later they WILL meet face to face."
"Does he know who she is?" asked Howie.
"Doesn't know her name and has never seen her in daylight, but it is in the mail." Joe stared at Howie wondering what their next move could be?
"Isn't it opening night for Jane Doe tomorrow night?"
"Gee, Howie, I never picked you for a play buff." Joe smirked at him.
"Cindy is planning to go, that is how I know that it is on. Ghunter?"
"Yeah, Howie?"
"Rig James Thompson's house tomorrow night...and the studio. Cameras, audio, the whole nine yards. If he catches Katie, then we need to know. Joe, what do you think he will do if he does discover Katie?"
"He'll go mad, scare her half to death and that will probably be that."
"Good. But just in case, Ghunter, you do the whole setup there. Will you be able to get in and out in three hours?"
"I'll be pushing."
"I can't come because I am babysitting tomorrow night; our kids and Cindy's girlfriend's. Frankie?"
"I could probably do it no problem."
"Jefferson?"
"Sure, Howie."
"Three of you enough?" asked Howie of Ghunter.
"Yeah that should about do it. But what about the wife?"
"I will make sure that she is not there one way or the other," said Joe.
"This kid, Jefferson. I swear some days I could strangle you!" Howie chuckled and then they all went on their way.

"Neena?" called Joe as he walked into their house. Joe really like their house and he especially liked the way that Neena had decorated it. He liked her style and her tastes in art, but even if he hadn't, he would still have left the decorating up to her. So long as Neena was happy, then Joe was happy.
"In here," called Neena from Joe's den.
Joe walked in and kissed her. "I need you to do something for me tomorrow night."
"Sounds ominous!" Neena sat on the chair flicking through some papers of theirs pertaining to their impending move to Montana later in the year. She then put the papers down and looked up at Joe. "What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to take Samantha out tomorrow night."
"Are you joking? I am going to opening night with you to be there for James."
"So bring Samantha with you." Joe fidgeted nervously.
"No." Neena looked down at the floor and then back up at Joe while she jiggled in her chair. "Don't look at me like that, Joe. NO! I am not taking Samantha to opening night; she will ruin it for James."
"Neena...." Joe sighed. "I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
"What has happened?" Neena was sometimes more perceptive than Joe liked. Neena stood to her feet and wrapped her arms around Joe's neck. "Tell me what has happened or else I am just going to have to strangle you!" Neena laughed as she spoke.
"I discovered that Katie has been sneaking into James' studio."
Neena let go of Joe's neck. "What?"
"Yeah. And it is only a matter of time before he finds her."
"You guys are going to rig his house?"
"We have to."
"He's your best friend, Joe."
"I know, but it is unavoidable. If he meets her then we need to know about it."
"What are you going to do if he does? Joe, you are planning to kill this child. James cannot be put through something like that again." Neena was very worried for James, but she was not alone.
"I am pretty sure that when James does find her that he will give her her marching orders in no uncertain terms and that will be the end of it." Joe ran his hand through his hair just knowing that it would not be that easy.
"And what if he doesn't?" Neena walked away from Joe and went to the desk to look at something while they spoke.
"Then I will try to dissuade him from having anything to do with her as much as I can." Joe watched Neena as she walked back toward him again. He loved to watch her move; she was graceful.
"And what if that doesn't work?" Neena slipped her arms around Joe's neck again.
Joe looked her in the eyes. "Honestly, Neena, I don't know."
Opening night was the Saturday night and the play ran through to the next Friday night, bar Sunday night. The local churches and Council worked in well together and everyone a greed that there should be no such entertainment on the Sunday. The final reviews hit the papers on Saturday morning and they were not wonderful. Neena and Joe were once again needing to discuss the issue of James.
"James is going to be so disappointed when he reads these, Neena."
"They are critics, Joe. James knows that they feed from the bottom of the pond. I liked Jane Doe. I thought it was really good and I have not heard anyone say a negative thing. Besides, Andrew Williams is Caspian's brother and the other two are friends of Andrew, so it is hardly what you would call filled with unbiased reviews. And you have read the reviews when Caspian has a showing...a monkey could paint better and yet he gets raves. Go figure, Joe."
"You cruel woman! Saying that about Caspian! Anyone would think you plain and simple just don't like him." Joe broke into laughter and so did Neena. Joe was just about to say something else when the phone rang. Joe answered it and it was Ghunter. "Get out to James' place now. Katie has just sneaked into the loft and James and Samantha are in there going at it hammer and tongs!"
"Leaving now." Joe hung up the phone and stared at Neena. "I have to go."
"Katie?"
"Yeah."
"Be careful."
"I will." Joe kissed Neena and then set out on his way to James' house.
By the time Joe got near to James' house he was just in time to see Caspian pulling out onto the road with Samantha in the car with him. Joe had to give way to them on the one way bridge, but he tried not to look at them at all. Samantha gave Joe a middle finger salute, but Joe ignored that too. He drove over the bridge once they were gone and parked outside of James' place. Once he got to the studio door he could hear James weeping and so he stood in the doorway and coughed to announce his arrival. Once he was sitting at the desk with James, he knew that he had to play things very carefully. He sat there speaking with James and he could clearly hear Katie grinding her teeth and making her jaw pop. When James brought up the issue of the noise, Joe suggested that it was a rat so that James would not investigate it.
Ghunter watched Joe leave the studio and then with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he watched James ascend the ladder into the loft. He grabbed the phone to call Howie. "Things are about to take a turn for the worst."
"What?" Howie wondered what had happened as he sat there in his office at the station catching up on some paper work.
"Shit! The rat has been found chewing on the wires."
"How is that working out?" Howie had other people in the room and he did not want to draw any attention to his conversation.
"You got company?" Ghunter watched the screen and listened to the audio in one ear while he listened to Howie in the other.
"Yes up to my eyeballs in it."
"Great. Well, he's going bananas wanting to know why there is a rat in his loft. Where's Joe?"
"I am not sure that I have that file, it is possibly in the records room...to be completely honest with you, I have no idea."
"Did you not send him out there?" asked Ghunter as he watched James carrying Katie down the ladder from the loft.
"I did send that one away, but I have no idea when it will be sent back."
"Well, let's hope he is still there. Listen, I will let you go and you call me when you can."
"Will do," said Howie who then hung up the phone.
Joe heard James yell and he knew that Katie had been found. He rushed inside James' house and stood in the lounge and gave a thumbs up signal where he stood. He was trying to let Ghunter know that he was there and aware of what had happened. By that time Jonathan and a couple of the others had arrived at Ghunter's place to see what was going on. One of them saw Joe standing in James' lounge and asked Ghunter, "What in the world is he doing?"
"He's been watching far too many episodes of Happy Days if you ask me!" Ghunter sighed.
"He is letting you know that he is there and knows what is going on. Can you flick audio into the lounge for a moment?" asked Jefferson.
"I could but I don't want to. I don't want to miss what is said in the studio," said Ghunter.
"Joe knows that you can only have audio in the house or in the studio, that will be why he is gesturing," said Jonathan.
"You think?" said Ghunter as he stared at Jonathan wryly.
"Well..."
Ghunter cut Jonathan off. "Katie is trying to extricate herself from the situation, but James won't let her...oh hang on, here we go...James is giving her an out. Take the 'out' Katie." Ghunter could not believe what he was hearing when he heard Katie refusing to take the offer that James was giving her. "Katie! He is letting you leave with no repurcussions; take the deal and run."
"Well that's just great isn't it?" said Jefferson. "Now we have one more person to add to the ever growing mess."
"Hang on, look at that. She's made him angry and he's..."
"Throwing her from the studio," finished Jonathan. "This is a good thing...she won't want to come back now."
"Whoa, James; steady on!" Ghunter watched James roughly push Katie from the door of the studio.
"Do you have surveillance outside the building?" asked Jefferson.
"I have a camera pointed at the window out onto the lawn, but the sound will not be too good at all." Ghunter fiddled around with his volume controls to see if he could get the sound any clearer. He then shook his head. "No dice, all you are hearing now is all I can get."
"Well, here's hoping Joe will hear what's going on." Jefferson shook his head as he watched the screens.
Half an hour later when they saw James walk into the studio alone Ghunter said, "Great. He's gotten rid of her." The three of them watched as James stood and walked over to the studio door and called out to someone. They all sighed and shook their heads when they saw Katie walk into the studio at the invitation of James. "Damn it!" said Ghunter.
"Great, another complication," said Jonathan.
"Well, Howie WILL strangle me now." Jefferson chuckled.
They watched the screens and then saw Joe walk into the lounge and point to his ears.
"He wants me to flick the audio over to him." Ghunter flicked a few switches and then they could hear Joe.
"I don't know if you saw it or not, but James has befriended Katie. They are in the studio together now. We will have to monitor this closely because I have no idea what might happen now or where it may go." Joe then turned and walked out of the lounge and Ghunter switched audio back to the studio.
Joe then made his way around the other side of the house and out onto the road. He took the handbrake off in his car and pushed it as far as the bridge, then he got in, started it up and drove to Ghunter's house up on School Road. Joe made his way into Ghunter's house and down to the room where Ghunter had his gear set up. He knocked on the door and once they knew it was Joe, then the door was opened and he was allowed inside the room. "What's happening?" he asked as he took a seat behind the three in front of the screens.
"Oh those two are getting on like a house on fire," said Ghunter as he glanced back at Joe.
"I really thought he'd give her her marching orders. "Joe sat there scratching his head.
"He tried to, but she wouldn't go," said Ghunter. "I think I will go back in this afternoon to rig simultaneous sound in the lounge as well."
"Do you think you can?" asked Joe.
"I don't know, probably not, but you get him out of there this afternoon and I will give it a go."
"This child is so wildly unpredictable." Jonathan glanced back at Joe and then at Jefferson. "You did this," he said laughing at him. Joe also playfully thumped Jefferson on the arm.
"Well this is great for Katie; she now has a new friend. But it is very bad for us. Now we have yet another person to add to the mix. Joe you are going to have to monitor this in person as much as you can without arousing James' suspicion." Ghunter turned around to stare at Joe.
Joe sighed. "I will be juggling eggs in trying not to arouse his suspicions...James is very astute."
"Do your best. Worse case scenario, we may have to bring him onboard with this." Ghunter stared at Joe to see what he thought.
"I will start to divulge little pieces of information. We are to take her in August, it is now just gone the end of April. There's still plenty of time for this thing with Katie and James to fizzle out," said Joe.
"It won't fizzle out," asserted Jonathan.
"What makes you say that?" asked Ghunter as he turned to stare at him.
"Well that would make our lives easier wouldn't it? And that just ain't never going to happen with THIS child." Jonathan tapped the screen with his finger.
"Ghunter when are you due to go back to Montana?" asked Jefferson.
"I am supposed to be flying out with Katie in August and my wife will keep her. Once I have been back and cleared out of the house, we will keep her until Joe and Neena arrive in September/October. How are the documents going?" Ghunter stared at Jonathan.
"I still haven't found a suitable replacement for Katie." Jonathan shook his head as he replied.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Did he just say what I think he said?" asked Ghunter, as he turned to stare at the others.
"What?" asked Joe.
"He just said that he and Katie share the same birthdate."
"And?" asked Joe of Ghunter.
"Didn't you say that his daughter was born on his birthday?" Ghunter turned to stare at Joe again.
"Yes she was...but..."
"What year?" asked Jonathan.
"Same year as Katie, 67. But you..."
"Bingo! There's my document match," said Jonathan.
"No, Jonathan. You cannot use James' dead child's documents for Katie."
"Why not?"
"Because I was there when Benji died. I am James' best friend and you just will not do it. Find another dead child, Benji is not an option!" Joe stood and exited the room.
"She would be perfect," said Jonathan as he stared at Ghunter and Jefferson.
"Find someone else," said Ghunter without even looking at Jonathan.
"But I could get started on the documents now if..."
"Again, Jonathan...find someone else." That time Ghunter did stare at Jonathan.
"Okay. It was just a thought." Jonathan shook his head because Benji's documents would have been perfect.
"I am going to call a meeting. I think we need to discuss this turn of events and decide where to from here," said Ghunter.
That late afternoon they all met in the usual place and discussed the current crisis.
"No dice on the simultaneous audio. It can be switched from room to room, but that's about it," said Ghunter.
"Well, do what you can with what you have," said Joe.
"What do you think the odds are that this thing with James and Katie will fizzle out?" Howie stared at Joe.
"Considering that Samantha left him for good earlier today, and considering that both Katie and James are lonely, not good. I think they will gel together through necessity if nothing more."
Howie rubbed his face with his hand. "This could be a real problem!"
"Why don't we just watch them for a few weeks and see where it goes?" suggested Joe.
"What for?" asked Howie.
"If they gel together really well, then maybe it does not have to be the disaster that we think it will be." Jonathan stared around at the others.
"What are you thinking?" asked Joe.
"Perhaps James could come in handy? Nothing like a grief stricken adult for authenticity."
"I can't believe that you just said that, Jonathan. He lost his child! James is not a pawn," said Joe.
"Well he is in the way. If we can't remove him then we are going to have to use him." Jonathan stared at Joe apologetically.
Howie sighed and stared at Joe. "Jonathan is right. If James doesn't get out of the way then he is going to be a part of this whether you want him to be or not."
"Why don't we bring James in on this?" suggested Joe.
Howie shook his head. "Too risky...he has had no experience of children like Katie and so chances are that he would not be sympathetic to the cause."
"What if he got sympathetic?" asked Joe.
"Let's just see what the next few weeks bring, Joe." Howie stared at Joe and the others and they all nodded. "Now what is this thing about a document match?"
"It is a match with James' dead child Benji. She was born same year, same day in the same town as Katie. She's even caucasian...her documents would be..."
Joe cut Jonathan off. "NO! I said no and I meant it."
"Joe, what if we can't find a match any other way? Jonathan is right, Benji's papers would be perfect." Howie stared at Joe.
"Howie, I was there when she was killed. I held her in my arms...James is my best friend...I just can't face the idea of exploiting Benji's death..."
"Not even to save another child's life?" Howie stared at Joe and then sighed and stared at the floor.
Joe was silent for a few moments. "Okay, but only if there is absolutely no alternative. I mean it, only as a very last resort."
"I will keep looking in the meantime, Joe. But if I haven't found a match by July, then that's it." Jonathan did not want to upset Joe, but as much as he could hear what Joe was saying about Benji; first and foremost their concern had to be with the living.
"How's everything going at your end, Haydon?"
"I have placed Antonia Milanski with McKendrick. She thinks that she is there for a kind of work experience; to learn from him and she is taking notes."
"What happened to monitoring him?" asked Howie.
"Well if I did have him monitored and they turned up dirt on him then there could be an internal investigation before we need there to be one. If that happens, we could lose Katie. They may move her and then she may end up back in an urban setting. If that happens, then we can't grab her because there are just too many pairs of eyes. As unpleasant as it may be for Katie where she is right now, that is our best environment for executing this plan."
"Milanski, can she be trusted?"
"Howie, it is not a matter of trusting her. I am counting on her ignorance to keep me up to play. Being that she is new, then she will be a stickler for the rules. McKendrick steps outside the bounds of the rules, then Milanski will drop him in it."
"What if she is too scared to drop him in it?" asked Ghunter.
Haydon kind of shook his head and sighed. "It is the best I can do without compromising Katie and the plan to rescue her."
"Okay. Ghunter, you go to church tomorrow and see what's going on there," said Howie.
"I can just monitor from home."
"No, I actually want Katie to see you as you are so that when you finally do take her then she will not feel so threatened."
"Howie, don't you think that it is a little early in the picture for her to be seeing me?"
"You may have to extract her sooner than we are planning if this situation blows...and let's be honest here, thinking that we can hold off until August is probably a little presumptuous of us."
"Why do you say that, Howie?" asked Joe.
"There are just too many variables this time; too many things that can make the situation reach crisis. It may be that we may find ourselves with a very small window of opportunity and we don't want to lose her. Joe you go and see James tonight, see if he confides anything in you in regard to Katie. Everyone else, just keep doing what it is that you have been doing."

Ghunter arrived at church just in time to be a late straggler and it did not go unnoticed by Lucan Rossi, yet he did not recognise Ghunter as Ghunter at all. The man he had met had been George the electrician and Lucan really had no idea that Ghunter and George were the same person.
The church seemed really strange and Ghunter had never really seen anything like it before, and when the people began falling backwards and crying, he was quite stunned. He could see that Katie found it amusing and he noticed that she was paying particular attention to a rather portly woman who had fallen without being caught. As she hit the floor and Ghunter heard the loud thump he said to himself, "That's gotta hurt!"
"Excuse me?" said the lady standing beside him.
"I say, I think she dropped her purse." Ghunter motioned toward the portly woman on the floor at the front.
"Someone will pick it up for her," said the woman as she smiled at Ghunter.
Ghunter nodded his head and smiled. He then saw Katie glance back at him and for a split second she made eye contact with him and so he lowered his head. As soon as Katie turned away from him he saw the portly woman open one eye and stare at Katie. Then he watched as Katie glanced around her one more time and then poked her tongue out at the woman. Ghunter stifled a laugh when he saw it. But then he saw the woman trying to turn on her side and he saw her point at Katie. Ghunter could not believe what happened next as he watched the woman shriek out that Katie had a demon. Before he knew what had happened, Lucan walked over to Katie and grabbed her by her arm after saying something to Ronald Cooper.
Lucan then began to pull Katie toward the front and Ghunter decided that he was not going to stand there and allow that to happen. Ghunter stook a step forward and in his earpiece he heard Jonathan say, "Ghunter, DON'T! You'll blow it."
Ghunter stepped back again and could only watch as Lucan shrieked at the child and shook her. Then Katie began laughing and Ghunter was a little confused by it until he saw her face. She wasn't laughing because she was mocking them; Katie was laughing because she was afraid. Her fear responses were all screwed up and in that situation her little mind did not know how to cope, so she laughed. He felt sickened watching them shaking her and screaming at her, but there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He waited until Katie had returned to her seat and then he went to walk from the church. As he walked out he glanced back at Katie to make sure that she was okay and when he caught her eye he winked at her, and to his complete surprise, she smiled.
Ghunter called a meeting that very next afternoon to report on what he had seen going on in the church. Jonathan had seen what had happened and he told Howie that he felt it was pretty disturbing too. Howie shook his head. "I don't know what to do...I don't know whether to bring it forward and grab her now or whether we should wait a little longer?"
"I think we have to wait. We have no body yet. We have no papers and thus no way to get her out of the country. The only way we could do it is to abduct her and despite whether she is truly loved or not; they won't stop looking for her; ever!" warned Haydon.
"And yet they let their deaths pass by so easily," said Ghunter with much disgust. He glared at Haydon for a moment.
"Yes they do, Ghunter, because it is clean, final and allows them to shut the file and hide it away forever. They become one problem less in a system overflowing with them." Haydon realised that Ghunter was taking it out on him because he was representative of a system that was so filled with flaws and pitfalls that it was a wonder any child got through it intact at all.
"Haydon? It's heartless."
"Yes it is. Why do you think I am here?" Haydon glared back at Ghunter to get his point across.
"I am sorry, Haydon." Ghunter lowered his head.
"Don't be. We all have moments where we truly feel disgust at this system." Haydon stared at Ghunter until he looked up again and then he smiled. After a few moments of silence had passed ,Howie continued on. "Okay, we sit it out for a bit longer and see what happens. Joe, I really wish you would let us use Benji's documents; we might have to grab this kid in a hurry."
Joe sighed. "Okay." He had spoken barely above a whisper.
It was the next weekend before Katie went back to see James and they had all but come to the conclusion that she was not going to go back at all. Ghunter was just checking the monitors when he saw Katie going past the studio window. "Oh no," he said to Jefferson and Jonathan, who had turned up to take a shift each of monitoring. "She's back at James' house."
"Isn't Joe there? She might blow it by letting James know that she knows him," said Jonathan.
"No, Joe has spoken to her about James. She won't let on that she has already met him," said Jefferson.
"She's a kid, Jefferson. She will forget..."
"Oh Joe!" said Ghunter as he heard him make a blunder. "Never mind the kid blowing it, Joe's doing a perfect enough job of it on his own. Did you hear what he just said?"
"No," said Jefferson and Jonathan in unison.
"Never mind, looks like James has not picked up on it." Ghunter sat there staring intently at the screen. The three of them watched and listened as James and Katie sat in the studio conversing about nothing of significance and so it was a bolt out of the blue when they heard her ask James if he could keep a secret.
"Okay...where are you going with this little Katie?" Ghunter asked the screen as he watched what James would do.
"Do you think she's about to spill the beans to James about Joe?" asked Jefferson.
"I sure hope not," said Ghunter.
Jefferson watched with the others as James declined Katie's invitation to share a secret. "He shouldn't have said that to her..."
Ghunter talked over the top of Jefferson. "Look at that body language, she won't even look at him."
"Why is she reacting that way?" asked Joe. He had arrived at Ghunter's place and walked into the room in time to see and hear the last thirty or so seconds of Katie and James' conversation.
"Hey Joe," said Jefferson and Jonathan.
Ghunter nodded at Joe and then looked back at the screen. "She perceives that she has entered into a new friendship with James, and her expectation is that friends keep secrets together. James' refusal to enter into secret keeping is telling her that he may be someone not to be trusted."
"Well that's a good thing considering the circumstance. Maybe now she will go away and stay away from James?" suggested Jefferson.
Everyone was silent for a while and then they cringed as James had a sudden change of heart and decided to enter into secret keeping with her after all. Ghunter sighed. "Well that's that. With James confiding to her that he does not like Ronald Cooper either, they now have a common bond...in her mind. She will keep going back to James now." Ghunter rubbed at his chin.
"Do you miss your psychology work?" asked Joe.
"With kids like Katie how could I? These kids are absolutely fascinating to watch and to listen to. Adults perceive them as simple little creatures with little understanding of anything beyond what their favourite ice cream is. But they are wrong. Kids like Katie are so complex that they make some adults seem simple."
"So Katie and James have bonded?" asked Joe.
"Not yet, but the foundations are under construction. It would take a clear betrayal of trust on the part of James to break it with Katie. It is fragile and of little consequence on the one hand, and yet on the other it is of major significance. Bottom line? If James continues down this road with her, then I would hazard a guess that James is in this for the long haul."
"Why do you say that?" asked Jefferson.
Ghunter looked sideways at Jefferson and the other two. "It is like what Joe said; James needs Katie and Katie needs James. I mean they have even gone through a kind of odd little ritual of secret sharing and noticing things about each other."
"What do you mean?" asked Joe.
"Katie noticed that James taps the desk with his index finger. She pointed it out and so he stopped. But then she told him that she does not mind that he does it, letting James know that she accepts him as he is. He has also noticed Katie grinding her teeth and making her jaw pop, which he is no longer bothered by either. I would say that Katie has probably had people badger her about it and yet around James she can do it as much as she wants."
"And?" asked Joe.
"Well the really odd thing is that around James she hardly even does it at all now. That means that to a certain extent she already trusts him. Again, that's good for Katie, but bad for everyone else; including James." Ghunter sighed loudly and then looked directly at Joe. "Every opportunity you get to deter him from being involved in Katie's life you should take it because James is headed for a major car wreck here. We WILL be taking Katie, regardless of what happens with James, so keep it under control as much as you can, Joe."
"Oh great, now they are baring their souls to each other," said Jefferson.
"James is being pretty open and honest with her," said Joe as he heard James explaining to Katie what had happened between he and Samantha.
"And she has confided her worst secret to James as far as James goes, in that she has admitted spying on him. With every moment that these two spend together they are building that foundation for trust even stronger," said Ghunter.
"What is this hang up she's got about growing up...or being grown up at eleven? What's that all about?" Jefferson stared at the other three.
Ghunter rubbed his chin for a second and then he leaned back in his chair and said. "Of course...Marcel."
"Marcel...what?" asked Joe.
"Marcel was eleven when Katie found out that she was being hurt and I am thinking that Katie thinks that she will be considered grown up enough to be completely abused. Kind of like Marcel was."
"Could this be a problem thing for us?" Joe stared at the others.
"I don't know. She seems to flit from one thing to another with James. She doesn't stay on a topic for too long, except for the Amontillado; she seems to like that topic. And with her flitting so fast, it is really hard to gauge the depth of the meaning of some of the things that she says." Ghunter shrugged his shoulders at Joe.
"Well...it is a nice neutral topic." Joe raised his eyebrows back at Ghunter.
"No, Katie is processing something inside that little mind of hers...I don't know what, but she's thinking about something." Ghunter smirked and then nodded his head, as he stared at the screen.
The four of them took it in turns to monitor James and Katie over the next two weeks, and much to their disappointment, Katie and James did begin to bond with each other. Ghunter came to believe that it was going to be a real problem for Katie to let go of James when the time came for them to take her.
"She won't come without some assurance that James will be coming with her...I can see it coming now, Joe."
"Ghunter, I will try to get him to break it off with Katie...I will try to get him to see that this could be a real heartache in the making for him...see what he says."
"Okay Joe, give it a try. But short of that, then we are going to have to reassess what we are doing here."
"You are talking about leaving her?" Jefferson began to panic, as he stared at Ghunter waiting for him to respond.
"No, that we are taking Katie is a fact that is set in stone now. What I am talking about is reassessing whether James ought to be brought onboard after all. I will have to speak with Howie and the rest of the group...I mean it is not a decision I can make on my own. But if we want to avoid really hurting this child, then we may have to figure James into this somehow. But Joe?"
Joe looked up from his paper that he was reading. "Yeah?"
"I will not abide Katie being involved in a situation that could potentially see her at the hands of yet another alcoholic. You need to be absolutely sure that James is not going to invite Samantha back into his life. I need that assurance before I will even mention bringing James onboard. The others will insist upon it too, so dig as much as you can."
Jefferson and Jonathan were monitoring while Ghunter was out and he did not see what happened when Joe visited with James, so they filled him in when he came back.
"James has started little Amontillado jokes with Joe...Katie talks about it all the time."
"Cutesy Katie jokes?" asked Ghunter of Jefferson.
"Not quite. But on the bright side, he is definitely over Samantha; she won't be back. Joe also pushed him about not getting too close to Katie, but he basically told him that he needs Katie and that Katie needs him."
"Great. What now?" asked Ghunter as he threw his hands up in the air.
It was the next Saturday morning that Ghunter got a major break on Katie information. "She keeps a diary, Joe. Did you know that?"
"No. No I didn't know that."
"It's going to be useful in setting up the suicide...having a diary to leave behind. But you need to coach her to be careful with it. If Cooper finds it..."
"Could leave her vulnerable?" asked Joe.
"Yeah. Tell her not to write anything about James in it. We do not want Ronald making a connection between him and Katie."
"Okay. Next time I get a chance to speak with her I will tell her."
"Righto, time to switch to the house," said Ghunter when he heard that they were going to watch a movie."
They watched the events unfold when Katie dropped the photo of Benji and then backed away from James and apparently left James' place.
"Why did she leave like that?" asked Jefferson.
"Not sure...could be that she is scared of how James might react...that makes her trust in him very fragile. It may be that this could break it, which would be good." Ghunter watched as James sat in the lounge by himself doing nothing. "I think that might be that for now."

It had been a whole week since Katie had been to see James and Ghunter was not paying much attention to the monitors. He just happened to glance up as Joe arrived and saw that Katie was in James' lounge with him. Ghunter reached over and flicked the audio switch and he and Joe sat there watching and listening.
"How significant is it that he is sharing about Benji?" asked Ghunter as he glanced at Joe.
"That's pretty significant, Ghunter. He rarely speaks of her to anyone but me, and even then he does not speak of her often."
Ghunter and Joe watched and listened as James and Katie spoke.
"Well if we ever needed confirmation that Cooper is hurting her, that was it right there," said Joe.
"Yeah, don't need to read between the lines too much there. I wonder if James has picked up on what she is saying? Listen, Joe, I think you should go over there. Speak with James...bring the topic up if you have to." Ghunter glanced at Joe.
"Is that a good idea?"
"I don't want James putting it together and then rushing up the hill to strangle Cooper. If you turn up, Katie might take it as a cue to leave, which at this point would be a very good idea."
"On my way," said Joe as he stood up.
Ghunter waited to see what would happen when Joe arrived at James' place and sure enough, Katie went to leave. Ghunter breathed a sigh of relief, but then he saw Katie come back after James persuaded her not to leave on Joe's account. "Oh great he's now buying her favourite biscuits..."
"Hello you," said Jefferson as he walked into the room.
Ghunter jumped. "Man! Wear a bell!"
"Sorry, Ghunter." Jefferson chuckled. "What's this about biscuits?"
"James is now buying Katie's favourite biscuits..."
"And behaving like a parent!" said Jefferson when he heard James correcting the way she was speaking to Joe.
"Whoa, did you see that?" Ghunter looked at Jefferson and then back at the screen.
"I didn't hear Joe or James say anything that would have caused that." Jefferson leaned forward to watch the screen closer. "Did you?"
"No. But something's up. Where is James going? Okay now where's Katie going? Joe speak to me...say something!"
Joe stood and also left the room and returned in a few seconds with a cloth to clean the floor where Katie had dropped her drink. He then said, without looking up, "Cooper's here looking for Katie. James is at the door with him now and Katie has run off in fright."
Ghunter grimaced and then looked at Jefferson. "She is clearly frightened of the man...oh look at that, she's back."
They watched as Katie panicked about her gumboots and whether Cooper had seen them or whether he knew that she had been at James' place or not.
"I wonder what's happened that she is so panicked about him looking for her?" asked Jefferson.
"I don't know...I have heard nothing at all about anything. I mean, she hasn't been there all week. I have no idea what is going on here."
They watched for a few minutes more and saw James and Katie leave the room and Joe went and looked out of the window. He then said, "Cooper has just arrived at the gate and he is dragging Katie away by her arm. James isn't intervening...other than that, I don't know what is going on, but Cooper doesn't look happy at all."
James then came into the house and back into the room. "Cooper is mighty irate about something. I have no idea what Katie might have done, but he's spitting tacs!"
"I think I will ring Haydon," said Ghunter. Ghunter went out of the room and rang Haydon's home number and got his wife. He asked for Haydon, but she said that Haydon was not there, so Ghunter rang Howie.
"There's a problem with Katie...I don't know what it is, but have you heard from Haydon?"
"He's headed your way now."
Ghunter had just hung up the phone when Haydon pulled into the driveway. Ghunter went out to meet him and Haydon had news that was not good. "Milanski put her weekly reports in yesterday. We had an emergency with another child and so I took the reports home with me and I just got around to reading the reports this morning. Apparently Katie disclosed information to Milanski on Friday...in front of McKendrick."
"And?"
"She disclosed abuse...but McKendrick discredited her to Milanski. She mentioned in the report that McKendrick was going to go and let Cooper know this morning. I am picking that he will go there sometime today."
"He's already been...it certainly would explain what Joe just said. Apparently Cooper turned up looking for Katie and he's pretty upset about something."
"You need to go up to the Cooper's place to see what is going on."
"Haydon, how the hell am I going to do that?" Ghunter ran his hand through his hair.
"Rip the phone lines out, turn up to fix them?"
Ghunter shook his head. "No, I will put on a backpack and feign being lost...Joe is at James' place and I will need him to make me up."
"No time. Go as you are."
"But he has seen me in the church."
"So you wanted to go hiking and were wondering if he could tell you which are the best tracks at the end of the road. Jeepers, Ghunter, you're usually way more inventive than anyone when it comes to covers."
"I will only tell it if I get caught, other than that, this is a snooping expedition."
"Whatever, just get up there NOW! I will monitor James' place with Jefferson."
Ghunter's trip was completely wasted. As soon as he got to the top of the driveway he ran into Cooper's wife and she set him in the right direction for the best tracks and he had to leave. Haydon knew something had gone wrong as soon as Ghunter arrived back so soon. He looked at Ghunter and said, "Great! We're blind here, we have no idea what is going on!"
They then went back inside and put their attention back to the screens to see what was going on with Joe and James. Jefferson informed them that Joe and James had just had a minor disagreement about whether Katie was in fact being abused by Cooper or not. Joe had stormed out. As soon as he finished giving them the update, Joe arrived back in the driveway of Ghunter's place. He slammed the door as he got out of the car and then walked inside down to the room where all the surveillance gear was set up.
"That went just great! I have now managed to alienate my best friend and I have no idea what is going on with Katie!"
"We know exactly what has happened," said Haydon.
"What?" asked Joe.
"Katie disclosed abuse to the social worker and he has just spilled his guts to Cooper. Haydon shook his head in frustration.
Joe shook his head and then looked at Haydon. "What now?"
Haydon shook his head. "We wait. There is nothing more that we can do."
Later that afternoon Jonathan pulled into the driveway and ran inside down to the surveillance room. "Hey our little Katie is on the move."
"What?" asked Joe, Haydon, Jefferson and Ghunter all at once.
"I just saw her climbing the fence into that paddock with the bridge in it when I was coming here."
"Joe. Get in your car and go and park up the road from it. When you see her leaving the paddock, intercept her and see if you can find out what is going on," said Haydon.
"Okay," said Joe and he left immediately. Joe parked the car up the road from where Katie was, but he was able to keep an eye on her with his binoculars. It was almost sunset when she finally made a move to leave. Joe started up the car and parked across the road from where she was climbing the fence out of the paddock. He called her over and invited her into the car and she got in. Joe could see that she had been crying. "What's happened, Katie?"
"I told this lady about Ronald. She came to school with Mr. McKendrick. I thought it would be okay becasue she was there. It wasn't and McKendrick told Ronald." Katie burst into tears again.
"What did he do to you, Katie?" Joe gently touched her arm as he spoke to her and when she was done crying he drove her home. He then went back to Ghunter's place and told them what had happened. "He threatened her...gave her a hiding and then put a knife to her throat and threatened her. We need to bring this thing forward, it is too dangerous to leave her there for too much longer."
"Shit!" said Ghunter as he thumped his hand down on the desk.
"I told Katie to record what happened in her diary...I told her to record the threat against her life. When we take her, if we are VERY lucky, then Cooper might even go down for murder."
"Joe, I..."
"NO! Jefferson, this guy is dangerous...he could potentially go on to kill...if not Katie than some other child. We need to tie up loose ends this time. We need to do everything we can to make sure that Cooper is out of business. Permanently!"
"Joe's right," said Ghunter. "How's our body coming along?"
"I have not yet been able to make it, but I have a plan. Also, next time I see Katie I am getting the passport photos, one way or another. But this needs to be moved forward; we can't leave her there until the end of August."
That night they had a meeting in their usual place with the whole group and they all decided that from that point on they needed to be ready to move at a moment's notice. "We could grab Katie, hide her and arrange the finding of her body later on...it would not be that hard to do. Same with the making of the passport," said Jefferson.
"You couldn't do the passport at all once she was gone. Especially if you allow her to be missing for a few weeks. Her face would be splashed all over the TV and be on every Post Office wall. Making a passport for her then would be almost impossible. We cannot grab her until we have the body and the documents!" said Howie.
"So how are we supposed to keep her safe?" Joe stared at Howie and the others.
"You a praying man, Joe?" asked Howie.
"Why?"
"Because we are going to need a miracle with this one. Look, we are basically going to have to wing it. First opportunity we get once the body is ready and the documents are done, we take it. Where are we with James?"
Joe stared at Howie. "I am going to push James. I need to know if James will take her, if he will, then Neena and I have decided to allow James to have her."
"You are speaking about bringing him on board?" asked Jefferson.
"Not before, but after. I thought about what Jonathan or Jefferson said about a genuinely grieving man...he will swing this for us I think. But I will sound him out just to be sure before Neena and I make any final decisions."
The next week dragged slowly for everyone including James. No one had seen hide nor hair of Katie all week and they began to get very worried. Neena's friend let Neena know that she had been at school but that she was very quiet.
Then the next Saturday she turned up at James' place and Joe grabbed the opportunity to not only get her photo but to get her to model for the body that he needed to make. He felt badly about lying to James, but there was no other way around it.
Once Joe had the photos, Jonathan got on with document processing and he received Katie Thompson's passport within two weeks of putting in the application. "One way or another, this kid will be in Montana very soon. There were no questions posed about the documents or anything."
"Good," said Howie. "Ghunter you will need to book your flight to LA at least two weeks in advance. You get to postpone once, so pick a tentative date."
"How the heck..."
"We will grab Katie in four weeks from today. That is our definite date. If anything happens before that, then it happens. So Ghunter, make the flight date three weeks from today, if need be we can push it back."
Ghunter nodded at Howie. Once their meeting was done, Ghunter went back and monitored James' house and he heard James saying that he would take Katie if the opportunity presented itself, and that was good news to everyone. Joe and Neena stepped back to allow for James to have Katie once she was taken.
"He will go to Montana?" asked Howie when they spoke on the phone.
"He was going to join us eventually anyway, so yeah."
"Good." Howie hung up the phone.
The next week was very disconcerting for them all as far as Katie was concerned. Joe had had another opportunity to speak with her and she had expressed an interest in what was going to happen to Ronald if he was ever caught for what he had done to her. Then they watched as she sat in James' house asking about people being punished with impunity for the things that they had done.
"What is she doing, Ghunter?" asked Joe as he also watched.
"She is seeking James' approval for what she is doing in her diary without actually telling him."
They watched for a little longer and that was when they heard what she was secretly thinking. "This isn't good," said Ghunter.
"Do you think she is seriously entertaining it?" asked Joe.
"Oh, Katie. No, no, no. James, talk to her!" Ghunter sat there feeling exceptionally worried by the turn her conversation had taken. "I think she is seriously considering it as an out. She's afraid and she doesn't know what is going to happen."
"Should we tell her?" asked Joe.
"We can't tell her. She can never really know what happened here. We are going to have to watch her. Oh look, James is handling it well...emotional blackmail is a last resort, but it is good that he has resorted to it. We need to keep Katie safe, from everyone including herself."
On the Saturday Joe made his moulds of Katie's body and he managed to speak with her a few times when James went out of the room. "I need you to post that envelope to James this weekend."
"What am I saying in the letter to James?"
"Goodbye. He needs to think that you have gone away to another house. Can you do that, Katie?"
"Yes."
"You have put all the stuff in your diary about Ronald that you can think of?"
"Yes."
"There is nothing in there about James?"
"No."
"Good. Because once you have moved to your new house, then the Police need to be able to arrest Ronald for what he has done to you."
"Okay. Will you come to get me next weekend?"
"The weekend after...we need a week to spend with James about the diary and some other things. Then we will take you and James, you will get on a plane and go to start a new life somewhere else. Everything is going to be okay, Katie. I promise you."

Things on the 'Katie front' began to unravel very quickly starting with the very next day, which was Sunday. Ghunter went to the church again so that he could make some kind of contact with Katie. But what he saw happening to Katie was so disturbing that Ghunter nearly blew it. He sat outside the church in his truck speaking on the CB with Jefferson and Jonathan who were back at his house. "I am taking her. She's sitting right there on the gutter and I'm going to grab her."
"That's a negative!"
"You didn't see what they were doing to her!"
"We saw it and it is still a negative."
"Damn it! I am taking her...it can be a murder..."
"GHUNTER! NO!" yelled Jonathan.
Jefferson then spoke to him. "You grab her now and you will blow it. A murder investigation would uncover absolutely everything. You leave her sitting in that gutter and you drive away, Ghunter. DO IT NOW!"
Ghunter sat there for a few moments more staring at Katie and then with much anger and frustration, started the vehicle and headed back to his place. When he got there Howie was waiting for him. "What did you think you were doing, Ghunter?" he asked.
"I..."
"WE DON'T DEVIATE FROM THE PLAN WITHOUT THE AGREEMENT OF EVERYONE ELSE...UNLESS IT IS A CASE OF LIFE OR DEATH!" Howie grabbed Ghunter and slammed him against the wall. "It is not just you, Ghunter. We all have wives and some of us have kids. One goes down, we all go down. DON'T PULL A STUNT LIKE THIS AGAIN!" Howie slammed him against the wall one more time and then he hugged him.
"I am so sorry. I panicked!" said Ghunter.
"No harm done, but Ghunter we are so close so keep your head on straight, okay?" said Howie.
"Okay."
They became very worried when even on the Saturday morning Katie was a no show at James and they were just about to devise another plan when they saw Katie walking into the studio with James. She was clearly deeply distressed and Ghunter got the impression that Katie was in crisis. He rang Howie to find out what they should do while Katie was still with James. "Okay. It's a go. Get down there and acquire her any way that you can. Get her before she goes back up the hill. Where's the body?"
"It's here," said Ghunter.
"Joe is with you?"
"Yeah he is here too."
"Jefferson and Jonathan?" asked Howie.
"Yeah."
"Okay..."
"Oh shit, she's just run from James...I gotta..."
"Ghunter go now. Execute the extraction!" Howie got off the phone to Ghunter and then he rang all the others to ensure that everything was set up and ready for Katie.
"We have to go and extract her now," said Ghunter to Joe, Jefferson and Jonathan."
"Everything we need is in the van?" asked Joe.
"Yeah, come on," said Ghunter as he headed out toward the van with the three others following him.
They drove slowly up the road and parked the van down a little piece of track by the river. Ghunter and Joe grabbed all the equipment that they would need to grab Katie and as they approached the bridge from down on the track Ghunter saw Katie and his blood ran cold. "She's taking things into her own hands."
"There's a car coming...shit! Everyone down!" said Joe.
They all ducked down and they heard the car drive onto the bridge. A man called something out to Katie and they watched as Katie got down from the ledge. The car then drove on and Katie then again climbed onto the ledge of the bridge. Ghunter and the others made their way down to below where she was standing. Ghunter looked up at the ledge and called out, "Katie?"
Katie looked around her wondering where the voice was coming from and she had trouble seeing anything as her tears kept welling up in her eyes.
"Katie...down here...look," called Joe.
Katie looked down and saw Joe and the man whom she had seen at church. She saw another two men with them, but she did not know who they were. "He's sending me away...I'll be gone by next weekend...I don't want to go away from James," she sobbed.
"It is going to be okay, Katie," Joe said.
"NO IT ISN'T!"
"I think she might jump," said Jefferson.
"So do I," said Joe even though he maintained his eye contact with Katie.
"So let her jump," said Ghunter as he pulled out the big mat made from a trampoline cover. Jefferson, Joe, Jonathan and Ghunter took a corner each and went and stood directly below where Katie was standing.
"So, Katie, jump," said Ghunter.
"What?" she asked as she stared down hardly believing what the man from church was telling her.
"Jump, Katie. Jump off the bridge and we will catch you."
"Why do you want me to jump?" she asked through her tears.
"Isn't that what you want to do?"
Katie nodded her head. "Will I die?"
"The old Katie will die at the top of the bridge, but when you hit this mat, you will be a new Katie. A new Katie going on to live a better life than the old Katie ever had. You have to leave her behind, Katie, or else you will not be able to go forward as easily."
"What about James?"
"James is going to come to you as soon as he can," said Ghunter.
"Come on Katie me little matie," said Joe with a smile.
"Are you ready to die, Katie?" asked Ghunter.
Katie nodded her head and Joe said, "Jump, Katie. Jump."
Katie jumped down off the side of the bridge and fell the three metres onto the black mat. As soon as they set the mat down onto the ground, Joe grabbed Katie and hugged her. "We have to leave now, okay Katie?"
Katie nodded her head and so they took her to the van and Joe held her in the back. They drove to town and went straight to Joe's place where Katie removed her clothes and put on a new set that Neena had bought for her months earlier. Inside Joe's garage they transferred Katie into another vehicle and from there she was driven to the Winery Estate of Danyon, who was also a member of the group.
Danyon and his wife Iilona were to mind Katie until Ghunter came to pick her up on the Monday.
"We have to get back there and plant the body and then arrange it to be found. Frankie is set up with the hospital side of things and Anson is going to go to the house tomorrow to recover her diary," said Ghunter.
"She's left it inside the tool shed under the welding unit in a plastic bag," said Joe as they drove back to Joe's house to recover their van.
All they could do then was wait for Katie to be reported missing and that did not happen until the next day. Joe was busy all morning putting the final touches on the dummy and then by two they were ready to make their move. Jonathan and Jefferson took the body and dressed it into Katie's clothes and put it in the water face down. They then backed up and hid behind a ridge to ensure that the body did not float away nor get disturbed. Ghunter had been down earlier that day and thrown Katie's white sneakers into the river where they, fortunately, snagged on a log as he had intended them to. There had to be no doubt that Katie had, in one way or another, ended up in the swollen river.
When they went to search, Ghunter was fitted with an earpiece so that he could hear the status of the body because the river had risen some with the rain and the chances of it being swept away before they 'found' it were high. Jefferson and Jonathan watched as Joe, James and Ghunter happened upon the body first. Joe and Ghunter executed the plan flawlessly and no one seemed any the wiser that what they had found was actually a dummy. While everyone had been searching the river for the missing girl, Anson, another group member had made his way up to the hill and recovered Katie's diary from the tool shed where she had hidden it.
The hardest part for everyone was watching James' genuine deep grief over the death of the little girl he thought that he had failed by not listening to. It was hardest on Joe. That Monday at Danyon's, Katie got a huge surprise when Ghunter turned up. "Do you remember this person, Katie?"
Katie looked at the older girl for a few moments and then shook her head.
"It is me, Marcel. Remember? We lived in the same house when you were six."
Katie looked at the fair haired girl more closely and she realised that it was in fact Marcel and she was exceedingly pleased to see her. "Where have you been?" she asked her.
"I live in a place called 'Montana' now. He's my father," she said pointing at Ghunter.
Katie then got onto the trampoline and Marcel got onto it with her and they jumped for a while. Then Joe came outside with a camera and he called to Katie to look at it and say hello to James.
"Why?"
"So that he can see that you got here safely," said Joe.
Katie and Marcel both said hello to James on the camera and Katie asked James when he was going to be coming to her?
"Okay, well you have to get into the car now with Danyon and Marcel and drive up to the city to catch a plane," said Ghunter.
"Where to?" asked Katie.
"To Montana where your new home is," said Ghunter.
"What about James?" she asked fearfully.
"He is going to be joining us there soon. He has some things that he has to take care of first and then he will join us there. Meantime you will be staying with Marcel, her mother and brother." Ghunter then turned to explain the change of plans to Joe. "Danyon will be taking her out to Montana, I have to stay here and get the equipment out of the house and the church when the time is right."
"I will help with that," Joe replied.
"What about you, Joe?" asked Katie.
"I will be coming over with Neena around the same time as James comes over. We just have to take care of some things here first."
Meanwhile back at the house where Ghunter had lived Jonathan and Jefferson set about packaging up the diary and letters that had been written. Jonathan date stamped them the Friday before Katie went missing and he then popped down on the Thursday night and tucked it into James' letterbox for him to find.
Howie ensured that a search warrant was able to be issued from a friend who owed him a favour; a judge no less. Anson, the lawyer in the group, had rushed through an adoption for the judge, and Haydon had assissted the process. The judge was quite happy to perform a discreet favour for them in return when the time came. Anson was then appointed as Ronald Cooper's lawyer to represent him for the trial he would face for the murder of Katie Ellery.

Piczo