12
Wolfgang was waiting outside the station when the moss-green Mercedes pulled up. The driver’s door opened and Keith stepped out onto the road. He spotted Wolfgang and waved as he walked around to the footpath. Audrey climbed out, holding a black and mauve backpack. As she slipped her arms through its shoulder straps, her father leaned into the car and removed a white cane from between the seats. He gave it to Audrey and closed the door behind her.
‘Wolfgang, good morning!’ he said heartily as Wolfgang approached.
‘Good morning, Keith. Hullo Audrey.’
Audrey smiled in the direction of his voice. She was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans and a pink cloth hat he hadn’t seen before. ‘Hi. Have you been waiting long?’
‘Five minutes,’ Wolfgang said, although it was closer to twenty. He looked at her cane. ‘Where’s Campbell?’
‘Staying home. He’s a wimp when it comes to lions. See you later, Dad.’
‘Have a good time, sweetie. Did you bring your phone?’
‘No, the battery’s flat.’
Keith rolled his eyes for Wolfgang’s benefit. ‘I buy her a mobile phone and she never uses the thing.’
‘I didn’t ask for a mobile,’ Audrey said tiredly.
‘They only got it so they could keep tabs on me,’ she told Wolfgang when her father had gone. ‘They treat me like a baby. I’m nearly nineteen, for Christ’s sake.’
Nineteen. Wolfgang shouldered his backpack. He’d thought eighteen, hoped seventeen. ‘Let’s get on the train,’ he said. ‘I’ve got our tickets.’
‘You bought me a ticket? Shit, Wolfgang, I get enough of this crap from my parents.’ She held out her hand. ‘Here, give it to me.’
‘The ticket?’
‘Yes, the ticket. I’ll get you a refund.’
‘Why not just pay me for it?’
‘Because I can get a concession,’ Audrey said. ‘Point me in the direction of the ticket counter.’
Not a good start, Wolfgang thought as he watched her tap her way over to the counter. There were three people waiting but they stepped courteously aside when they saw Audrey’s white cane. He wondered if she was aware that she was queue-jumping.
‘Can I get a refund on this, please?’ she asked sweetly, placing her ticket and the cane on the counter, then rummaging through her backpack for her purse. ‘My friend bought it for me but he didn’t have my concession card.’
Friend. For the first time since he had made the agreement with Audrey’s father, Wolfgang felt a stab of guilt.
Audrey slept almost all the way to Melbourne. Sitting in the aisle seat beside her, Wolfgang wished he had something to read. But he hadn’t brought a book, imagining the two-hour train trip would be a good time for him and Audrey to get to know each other. He’d even researched his role as a university student and found out which Melbourne universities offered veterinary science, along with some of the study units they offered.
As the train swayed into Southern Cross Station, Wolfgang touched Audrey lightly on the elbow. ‘Audrey, we’re here.’
She came awake in a moment. ‘Melbourne? Already? Oh God, I’ve been asleep, haven’t I?’
‘Only for the last ten minutes or so.’
‘And then some,’ Audrey said, yawning hugely so he could see almost to the back of her throat. ‘I’m not much of a morning person. Sorry.’
‘You say sorry a lot.’
‘Touché.’
‘Actually, I owe you an apology,’ Wolfgang said.
‘Do you?’
‘Yeah. For what I said when I was leaving your place the other night.’
‘What did you say?’
‘How I was glad I wasn’t blind.’
‘I don’t even remember it,’ Audrey said. She touched his arm. ‘Anyway, I’m glad you aren’t blind, too, Wolfgang. I’m kind of relying on you to be my eyes today.’
As soon as they were out on the platform, Audrey lit a cigarette. She offered him the packet. Wolfgang almost told her he didn’t smoke, but changed his mind and took one. It would make him seem more worldly. More like a university student. He lit up and took a single light puff, then exhaled immediately, before the smoke burned his throat – before he choked and gave himself away as a non-smoker.
‘What about your cane?’ he asked, noticing the folded shaft still protruding from Audrey’s backpack where she had stowed it when they boarded the train.
‘Don’t need it.’ She changed her cigarette to her left hand, then threaded her right hand through the crook of his elbow. ‘Lead on, McDuff.’
They caught a tram to the zoo. The trip took about twenty minutes and most of it they travelled in silence. Audrey wasn’t talkative. She would answer any questions Wolfgang put to her, and do so cheerfully enough, but she initiated no conversation of her own. Wolfgang found it hard work and eventually stopped trying. For the final twelve or fifteen minutes of their journey they sat in silence, side by side like two strangers.
I can’t do this for five weeks, Wolfgang thought. Not even for two thousand dollars.
As soon as they alighted at the zoo stop, Audrey became a different person. ‘You know, Wolfgang, you really took me by surprise,’ she said brightly, clinging to his arm as they made their way towards the entrance.
‘How do you mean?’ he asked.
‘Well, the zoo! It isn’t exactly the most obvious place to take a blind person.’
‘I thought you wanted to come.’
‘I did. I do!’ She squeezed his elbow. ‘I’m just amazed that you asked me. Amazed and, well, grateful.’
Now it was Wolfgang’s turn to be silent.