Water Lilies and Other Short Stories

By Mary Brooks

Mary Brooks is an Australian author (of Mary Lives) whose passion for life is well-illustrated in these observations of daily living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jun 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499006858

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Mary Brooks.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014910111

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-0684-1

                Softcover        978-1-4990-0682-7

                eBook            978-1-4990-0685-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 06/03/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

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Table of Contents

Togetherness

Heartbreak

Leper

Teatime

Hiking

My Favourite Place

Sausages Sizzling

The Gym

Boy Boxers

Water Lilies

Wake-up Call

Deserted Island

United Nations

Another Bad Night

Cheryl and Eve

Bus Ride

A Sleeper

Catharsis

House-warming

About the Author

Togetherness

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T heir lives had followed similar pathways, and it was hard to believe Gary and Lisa would ever part. It was difficult to imagine one without the other.

Gary and Lisa had both grown up in Matraville. They had attended the same school and both went to the University of New South Wales, UNSW. Gary did a BSc and Lisa a BA majoring in Psychology.

Gary was in the UNSW cricket team and soon spent a lot of his time in games around the state. Lisa was studying hard and barely missed him. They were the closest of friends and could pick up from where they left off every time they met. It was May who spoiled their friendship.

May was from Singapore and was studying Engineering. May insinuated herself into Gary’s life and drove a wedge between him and Lisa. It was barely noticeable at first, but Lisa was most upset when Gary came back from a cricket match in Armidale and didn’t rush over to tell Lisa all about it, as he usually did.

Lisa found he had taken May out to dinner and the movies instead. He told her she was being silly when she told him how disappointed and hurt she felt.

‘Whatever is the matter with you, Lisa!’ he complained. ‘Can’t I even spend a night with my girlfriend?’

Reluctantly Lisa thought about her upset and agreed they each had their own priorities and could not expect their childhood relationship to take first place all their lives. She calmed down her disappointment and buried herself in her books. Lisa was a top student and had chosen to do honours. She noticed that Gary was often away playing cricket and that often May went too. A few quiet enquiries reassured her that Gary was still managing to keep up with his studies.

One day they bumped into each other in the university canteen, and May was not there. All around them students were talking, eating, and carrying trays as they looked for somewhere to sit.

‘Gary, how good to see you!’

‘And you too, Lisa. How’s everything going?’

As if you cared, thought Lisa, upset by the brusque, uncaring tone of his voice. She took a deep breath and tried to ask politely how his cricket was going and even asked, ‘How is May?’

‘Good thanks, we’re off to Singapore next week, at the end of term.’

‘Oh,’ said Lisa, ‘I didn’t know…’

‘How could you,’ laughed Gary. ‘Bye now.’

Lisa’s appetite vanished, and she nudged her way through the crowd and left the canteen. She was hurt and confused. Years of schoolyard fun and companionship swept through her mind and the laughter they shared when they both caught the same bus to university and found they both were in a Psychology class together in the first year. Now Gary was different. She felt she scarcely knew him anymore. She sat down and sobbed and fought back hot, salty tears.

She and Gary had seemed inseparable and had been close friends for years. Now he was going to Singapore with May. Lisa took a good long look at herself and ruefully admitted she was being a fool. Of course their lives would go different ways one day. It was just that she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

Lisa trudged slowly to her next class and tried to refocus her attention. The lecture topic was one of her favourites, and she was able to settle herself and take notes, at least until the lecturer made a reference to work on separation anxiety, and the tears welled in her eyes again. Not anxiety but certainly separation. She pinched herself and tried to turn her attention back to the lecture. Gary’s nonchalant attitude taunted her again. ‘We’re off to Singapore,’ he had said. She gritted her teeth, tried to push Gary out of her mind, and turned her thoughts again to what was being said by the lecturer. She had missed some important parts of the class and would have to compare notes with Ivy or Jane. There was an essay on this topic took so she really should have paid more attention.

For the first time, she felt really angry with Gary. Lisa rarely had a cross or nasty word for anyone and she never swore. But now, ‘Damn you, Gary’ burst from her lips, and she walked slowly back to the bus stop to go home. ‘Damn, damn, damn!’ It did help a bit, and she relaxed her tight shoulders as she hailed the bus.

Lisa had a book open as she sat there on the bus, but her unseeing eyes read nothing The bus was full and she stood up for an elderly lady as they passed Kingsford She and Gary used to travel home together.

‘Oh shshsh, Lisa.’ She suddenly shook her head fiercely in contempt. How could she let Gary spoil her day, interfere with her concentration, and generally unsettle her equilibrium. She tried to laugh at herself and alighted from the bus at Matraville with a hint of a smile on her face.

Lisa phoned Jane and caught up on her lecture notes, then settled herself with open books all around her as she planned her essay. That was fine, dinner was fine, watching the news on TV was fine, and her evening shower. But her sleep was disturbed by a nightmare about Gary disappearing over a cliff and leaving her in tears. She started, awake and ashamed. ‘How could she! How could she!’

The essay kept her busy, and she was able to mentally place Gary and May in Singapore and lock off that part of her mind so she could concentrate on her work. The essay was brilliant and she sighed with relief and satisfaction. Her place in the Honours year was definitely secure.

Over the next few weeks Lisa did not think about Gary, only once or twice to remind herself that she had promised herself she wouldn’t go there. Everything would have been sailing along happily except for that one letter.

‘Gary and May invite Lisa Williams to their wedding in Singapore.’

‘How dare he! Damn it!’

30/11/2013

Heartbreak

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T heir son’s death was harder to bear than his life for of heartache. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to have