Page 47 of Chaos Theory
I disengage and move away. I find Julia cross-legged on the floor, obscured by the plant.
‘I may have a solution for you,’ I say. ‘A mutually beneficial arrangement, in fact.’
‘Mutually?’ she says. ‘Never mind. Just tell me.’
I outline my plan, instructing Julia to instigate a long print run of the most complex tourism brochures available on the system, and to include the images of David somewhere within the run.
‘Do you think this will work?’ she says.
‘Let us find out,’ I reply.
TWENTY-SIX
MAEVE
Thursday, 4pm
Shane hands me a box of popcorn at the door to the gift shop.
‘Wow! You’d hardly recognise this place,’ I say.
‘Thanks,’ he replies. ‘We did okay. Concept was mine; Sandra did the execution. Well, most of it.’
He gestures to the half-darkened room: rows of chairs laden with soft cushions and blankets, a digital projector propped on a small table, a white screen hiding the cash register. Movie posters obscure many of Trish’s watery masterpieces. I recognise some of the posters from Shane’s bedroom wall.
‘Sandra wanted to do it in the Shannon Suite, but I thought here would be a more fun location,’ he says.
I smirk at him, raise one eyebrow. ‘Do it, eh?’ I can’t help myself.
He punches my arm lightly. ‘Movie night! We argued over the best place to hold it – me and Sandra. Too much natural light in the Shannon Suite. I had to show her – you can achieve near total darkness in here once the lights are off.’
I picture it. Shane and Sandra here, alone in the dark,Shane talking passionately about movies. It doesn’t bother me. Why would it bother me? I shake the image from my mind.
‘It sounds like the Social Committee might be suiting you after all.’ My voice comes out weird. I barrel on. ‘It looks great. What movie are we watching?’
‘A surprise, but a classic. It’s gonna start in ten minutes. I need to have a word with Sandra first. Save me a seat, will ye? I’ve to hand out the rest of the popcorn as well.’
‘Sure. I’ll just get Kobi settled first.’
Shane goes to the top of the room, where Sandra is standing by the projector, beaming at him like a movie star on the red carpet. She’s wearing a white sequined floor-length dress with a black fur shrug. I’m pretty sure there was no official dress code for this event. Everyone else is casual, as usual. Although, now that I see him at a distance, is Shane wearing new Nikes? They’re box-fresh, almost glow-in-the-dark white.
The rest of the staff are filtering in behind me, entrances punctuated byoohs andaahs. My eyes hunt for Kobi in the gloom.Ah, there he is.Kobi and Julia appear to be sitting together at the end of a row. Well, Julia is sitting. Kobi has retracted himself into short mode and positioned himself next to her, in the space between the end of the aisle and the wall.
I make my way towards them. ‘Hey, Kobi. You wanna watch the movie together?’
‘Actually,’ says Julia, ‘Me and Kobi – and Dave – are sitting together. We kind of planned it earlier. You don’t mind, do you, Maeve?’
A surprising development. Kobi did report that he’d been helpful in the customer relations department today and yesterday, and there were no complaints from Dave and Julia either. ‘Um, no, I don’t mind at all. Kobi, are you happy here?’
‘Yes, thank you, Maeve,’ he says.
I pause to see if Julia – or Kobi – might invite me to join them, but this seems to be the end of the conversation. Julia takes out her phone, taps away at the screen.
‘Well, enjoy the movie then,’ I say slowly. ‘Kobi, I’ll be just a few rows back if you need me.’
I move away, choose a seat near the back of the room, put my popcorn on the chair beside mine to save it for Shane. Dave arrives and makes his way to Julia, smiling. Until he notices Kobi beside her. He rolls his eyes, mutters, ‘Ah for feck’s sake,’ and sits down heavily.
Shane appears at the end of my row to say, ‘I just have to press play and then I’ll be back.’ He reaches the projector and fiddles with its many shiny buttons.
