A Place Beyond The Horizon Ch. 02

[Aidan has landed in Sydney, leaving his wife after her infidelity. He's met Hardy and Flint, two friends on a road trip around Australia, finding his feet in a foreign city. He also crossed paths with Kat in the pub, and she's on his mind.

The background to Aidan's story can be found in Oxygen Games by oneagainst, continued here with permission.]

---

ALONE, TOGETHER

For some reason he can't quite understand, Aidan finds himself tagging along behind Hardy to the beach. It's early morning, and Hardy's talking it up like he's personally invented surfing. Flint had just rolled over in his bed and told Hardy to fuck off.

"Feeling a bit dusty there, are ya?" Hardy says as they wait for the crossing light.

Aidan blinks, trying to work out what Hardy is asking.

"Too much of the grog last night?" Hardy continues.

"Yeah, maybe."

"I'm surprised. A unit such as yourself, I would have expected that would have just been par for the course."

Aidan shrugs. "I've been off drinking for a while. I guess I'm just out of practice."

They cross the road, but Hardy's looking at him. On the other side, he resumes the conversation.

"So, what did you stop for? Crook?"

"What?"

"Uh, ill?"

Aidan shakes his head, but Hardy's not done.

"What then?"

Aidan could say that he had just decided not to drink, but that feels like lying. He has the distinct impression that Hardy is just going to keep probing.

"Trying to get pregnant. We laid off alcohol."

To Aidan's surprise, Hardy's attitude changes.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. And I guess you're now here, right?"

The bluster has disappeared, and Hardy is genuinely concerned. Aidan looks out at the surf, but he can feel Hardy's attention on him.

"Yeah. It didn't work out."

"That's real shit, mate. Life is fucked, eh."

"I guess," Aidan replies, then changes the subject, "Where do we get boards?"

Hardy leads them down the beach to a van. They hire a couple of longboards after a brief discussion. Aidan has been on a board exactly twice, so Hardy has volunteered to give him tips. He picks the rip out and they launch into it, getting pulled quickly out to the back of the breakers, beyond the surf zone. Aidan watches the other surfers and feels out of place.

"Nah, it's all good," Hardy tells him, "We'll just sit here and keep out of the way of the local boys. We probably don't want those waves anyway. This is quieter."

Aidan paddles up next to him and sits up on the board, his feet dangling in the blue water.

"You look worried," Hardy comments.

"Just, uh, I feel like we're a long way out."

"It's all good. See that bloke on the beach in the red and yellow? Jetski'll come and pick you up if you get into trouble. Safe as houses," Hardy replies, then smirks, "Apart from the sharks."

"Sharks? Are you fucking...?"

"Hey, cool your jets. All good. Don't need to worry about the sharks."

"Well, now I am. Why are we safe?"

Hardy nods up the beach. "Tourists will protect us. Old Whitey will have a crack at them most likely. It's a numbers game."

"And what if the shark comes in further down the beach, like here?"

Hardy's already down and paddling, looking behind him as a wave begins to build.

"Then we're fucked," he calls, "You just better hope you paddle fast enough."

The wave rears up, obscuring him as it sweeps forward, carrying Hardy with it, and there is a crash of foam, but then Hardy's head appears, slicing across the wave at speed. Aidan can just make out a manic grin before he disappears in a froth of white. Aidan glances behind and sees a set is starting to roll in. He looks down at his feet, dangling in the water, then at the deep, featureless blue beneath his board. Hardy is just fucking with him, but it's in his head now, the idea of an unseen killer lurking below.

Aidan lies on the board and begins to paddle. His timing is off and he hasn't quite straightened up when the wave lifts his back end. For a single, brief moment, he feels the board surge forward, propelled by the momentum of the water, before it slides left and rolls, throwing him into the roiling surf. When he pops back up, he hears a voice calling his name.

"Fuck, mate, you weren't lying. You really are shit," Hardy calls out from a distance.

That goads Aidan, but when he climbs back onto the board, Hardy's already turned, paddling out for the next set.

They stay out for over an hour, until Hardy is satisfied that Aidan has caught a few respectable waves. Unlike Hardy, Aidan just heads straight towards the beach, pushed forward by the water. By the end of the session, he's even managed to get to his feet.

All the while, they're talking, or more accurately, Hardy is talking, asking questions. It should annoy Aidan, but there's a directness to his new friend that is disarming. He's articulate and intelligent, and away from the ceaseless banter with Flint, Hardy has proved to be insightful. They talk about the boys' plans to circumnavigate Australia in their trusty vehicle, how they both quit their jobs on the back of Hardy's modest lottery win to go on an epic adventure around their vast, empty country.

Aidan finds himself talking about Rosa, for the first time since he left. He tells Hardy about trying to get pregnant, giving him an abridged summary of the clinic visits and the drugs and the medical procedures. They're sitting out the back, waiting on one last set, just watching the ceaseless rise and fall of the ocean in silence, when Hardy turns to him.

"So why are you here, and not there? It sounds like you went through hell and high water. What happened?"

Aidan's eyes are on the waves still, but all he can see is Rosa's face, in their kitchen on that day, replaying the conversation in his head.

"She decided to fuck someone else."

"Ah, that's shit."

"Yeah."

Hardy is quiet for a while, content to rise and fall on the waves.

"Do you still love her?" he asks.

"That's really complicated."

"It's a yes or no. What does your heart say?"

Aidan doesn't answer. He shrugs and lays down on the board, paddling into a wave that he knows he won't catch. It's an escape from the uncomfortable truth. Hardy's right, Aidan still loves her. That's why it's so hard, knowing what she did, knowing that there's no way to rewind history and fix the missteps. He can't forgive her, even if he acknowledges that their situation was fucked, that the relentless cycles of IVF had just about destroyed them.

Being in the water now reminds him of how they had met, competing in an Ironman contest, the way she looked in her race bikini. He can still recall her crazy, wild grin as she flashed her first-place medal in his face, taunting him with his bronze, how cocky she was, how absolutely gorgeous. Now, he's back in the water again, but this time without her, on a foreign shore with an unknown future ahead. He paddles back to Hardy's position.

Hardy just gives him a nod. "Way too small," he says.

"I guess."

"There's a set coming in now. Maybe try these."

Aidan looks out to the horizon, seeing a wall of water rising up out of the deep, larger than the rest.

"Any plans, tonight?" Hardy calls over his shoulder, but he's watching the wave roll in.

"Dunno. What about you guys?"

"Mayhem somewhere local. The usual. But you, did you want to catch up with, uh, what was her name?"

"Kat."

Hardy lies down, eyes locked on the wall of water as it bears down on them.

"Look, we'll get you to the wharf, to go and find Kat, then we'll peel off. Just see how you go. If you tap out, give us a buzz, we'll be nearby, probably flaming out at some other bar, and we can all drown our sorrows together. But fuck, man, just go there and talk. Who knows?"

"Thanks, but...."

"Wait. Hold on. Before you say it, what's the thing you do if you're thrown off a horse?"

"I really don't know."

"Aido, you get back on. That's tonight, mate. Get back on the horse."

Hardy is suddenly in motion, turning the board.

"Jump on this one, I'll see you on the sand," he calls, and begins to paddle.

Aidan joins him, and as he feels the board lifted by the wave. Just talk, nothing more. Just move forward.

---

Hardy is gradually winding Flint up. Aidan leans over and interjects.

"So, your plan is to go around Australia, the two of you, driving?"

"Sure," Flint replies.

"And not end up killing each other?"

Hardy's about to speak, but Flint cuts him off. "Yeah, look. I'm saying that we started this together, and we'll end it together. Even if it's just his head in a jar in the back."

"Fuck man, that's dark," Hardy replies.

"You mean it might be my head?"

Flint laughs, but Hardy fixes him with a strange look.

"What?" Flint asks.

"Just make me a promise. Even if it's just my head in a jar, let's finish this together. I want to know I got all the way around."

"Sure. No worries. Don't make it all weird."

Hardy's mood shifts again. "You really wearing that? No fucking wonder you're single."

"What's wrong with this shirt?"

"It looks like your mother bought it for you."

"Well, uh, she did."

"Fuck, we're doomed. Aido, tell him."

Aidan holds his hands up. "No way. You're all batshit."

Aidan smiles, feeling good that he's gotten to interject into the free-for-all of their conversation, picking up on their dynamic. Despite his initial reservations, he's having fun tagging along with them.

"Anyway, fuck, anyway, too late now motherfucker," Hardy replies, "Just so long as you don't go out the door naked. Let's go, Aidan's got a date."

They pile out of the backpacker hostel and head away from the beach, across the peninsula to the ferry wharf on the harbour side. The pub is already packed at six o'clock when they reach it.

"This place is going off," Hardy says, "Saturday night."

Flint is looking around. "Can't see them. Should we split up?"

"What, like this is Scooby fucking Doo?" Hardy replies, "How about we just do a sweep, all together. We drop the payload at the target, fire off the flares and turn into the sun. In and out."

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

Aidan holds his hand up and then points. "There," he says, "I can see them."

"Nice work," Hardy replies, grinning, "Now, do you want us to walk you over there, maybe hold your hand?"

"I'll be fine, thanks."

Hardy flips him a salute. "Target acquired. You may begin your attack run," he says.

Hardy's smile softens. He holds his hand out and Aidan shakes it.

"Fucking happy hunting, mate. Let us know how you go."

Aidan leaves the boys, fully aware of them watching him as he makes his way across the crowded floor towards a long table with a dozen women on it. He doesn't know why the hell he's doing it, beyond Hardy's insistence, and something about horses. At the last moment, Aidan diverts to the bar.

He orders a beer, turning back to look at the table, trying to locate Katriona. Kelsey is obvious, in the tiara again, but now in a long pink dress with an L-plate pinned to the front and a plastic necklace that could quite possibly be shaped like male genitalia. He scans the faces, but the dark-haired woman from yesterday isn't there.

"So where are the other two musketeers?"

Aidan turns, to see Kat standing behind him. She has her long, dark hair up in a French twist, a few stray locks framing her face. Her deep brown eyes are scrutinising him, a teasing smirk on her face.

"They, uh, they're around somewhere."

"They going for another try? There's more of us now, maybe they could separate one of us from the herd."

"I think they're going to move on."

"Not you though?"

"I don't know."

He can see that Kat is trying to work him out, and he can feel his nerves are getting to him. Davey would have had a line, he thinks ruefully, or Ant. His friends from back home would have been able to help. Aidan isn't good at this sort of thing.

"How's the festival of Kelsey?" he asks.

"Fuelled by cheap champagne. So, as you'd expect."

"You were right, it's quite a crowd."

"Just a select group of her closest friends."

"Closest? Like you? Or are you just...."

"Oh, I'm the maid of honour."

"Quite a job."

Kat made a face. "Yeah, but she was chief bridesmaid for me, so I guess it comes around."

Unable to help himself, Aidan glances down at her left hand. Kat catches him doing it, but she laughs.

"Oh, yeah. Not so well."

She holds her hand up, showing a bare finger.

"I'm sorry," Aidan responds.

"Shit, I'm not."

Kat's gaze shifts down to Aidan's finger and Aidan rubs it. She frowns.

"Same?"

"Uh, yeah."

"How long?"

"Still working on that."

"Ah, so you're fresh off the boat. Well, welcome to Splitsville, population us."

Kat looks over his shoulder to the table of her friends.

"And her, in three years. That's a cert," Kat continues, "But, hey, that's life. No-one's entitled to a happy ever after."

"You told her that?"

Kat laughs. "Hell no," she says, "I'm saving that for my maid of honour speech. Ah shit."

Kat's head drops, and Aidan looks over his shoulder at her friends. Two of them are smiling at him.

"Cover's blown," Kat murmurs, "Now I'm just gonna get crap all night."

"Or."

Kat looks up at Aidan, her warm brown eyes searching his face. "Or?"

Aidan breaks into a smile, and she responds.

"Okay. Screw it. Gimme one minute."

Kat strides past him, to her friends. Aidan watches her approach, sees the smiles on her friends' faces, the babble of conversation. Kat bends down to the floor and retrieves her handbag. Kelsey says something to her, but she shrugs. Across the far side of the floor, Aidan catches sight of the boys, still observing him. Hardy mimes a slam dunk. They're both grinning like fools, and Aidan's spirits lift. Kat's on her way back to him.

"Okay, let's go," she says.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere that's not here."

They exit onto the boardwalk. Aidan can't quite believe it, that Kat wants to walk with him. He's painfully conscious of how she looks, in a black maxi-dress that comes down to her ankles. It covers her, but doesn't mask the curves of her body. She's wearing strappy open-toed sandals with a low heel, but even without, she would be taller than Rosa. It's the little differences that help, making her just familiar enough but without reminding him.

"How was day two in Sydney?" Kat asks.

"I went surfing."

"How'd it go?"

Aidan shrugs. "I didn't get eaten by sharks."

Kat laughs. "Ah, right. It's not the sharks you need to worry about."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's the smaller stuff. Brown snakes, tiger snakes."

"Oh, come on."

"There's a species of spider that's found just here in Sydney, the funnelweb, deadliest on earth. You know where it lives?"

Kat's grinning at him now, and Aidan finds himself grinning back, enjoying the tease. He shakes his head.

"It lives in a little burrow in your lawn. You go out barefoot at night and, well...."

"You're kidding."

"Am I?"

They come to a halt in front of the ferry terminal. Kat's looking up at him playfully.

"Stuff can kill you in Australia," she says, "It's a wild country."

"How do you cope?"

"Oh, sometimes you just have to live on the edge."

She's close now. Aidan can feel the pull towards her. There's something in the way she's looking at him that kindles a feeling he hasn't felt in a long time. She breaks eye contact, looking past him.

"Want to go sightseeing?" she asks.

"Sure. Where?"

Kat nods and he turns to see a smaller ferry pulling into the wharf. It's a catamaran, with two decks and an open area out the back, thronged with people ready to disembark.

"We could go for a drink in the city," Kat replies.

It's the same feeling that he had this morning, as that huge wave came in: a fight-or-flight response.

"Okay," he says.

They buy tickets and board the ferry, finding an outside spot at the bow. The sun is low, brushing against the trees now, and they settle into their seats together. Kat's looking around, but he can sense there's something there, beneath the surface, beyond the brash façade. The ferry begins to move, swinging around into the open water and then accelerating until it's cutting a path across the harbour, engines roaring, the wind whipping against them and sending the wisps of Kat's hair streaming across her face. She reaches up to tuck them behind her ear and smiles at Aidan.

As they run down the harbour, they talk. Aidan tells her about the gym, how he took a physical sciences degree and set himself up as a personal trainer. Kat grins and squeezes his bicep playfully, commenting on how he's been practicing what he preaches. Aidan doesn't tell her that he owns the gym with Rosa, just that he works there. He doesn't want to think about that now.

Kat confesses that she's a management accountant, as if she beats children for a living, and quickly diverts onto other topics. She's from Melbourne, born and bred, surrounded by a large family originally from Ireland. She's been over twice to see her ancestral homeland but likes Australia better.

Just then, the ferry rounds a headland, turning inland, and they are facing the glorious gold of the setting sun, framing the harbour bridge in intricate dark lattice-work. The white sails of the Opera House are tinged with amber in the last light and the water of the harbour is lit up like fire. Aidan is caught in the moment, finally coming to terms with just how far away he is from everything he knows.

He gets out his phone and takes a picture.

The ferry begins to slow, rounding the Opera House and pulling into the quay. They disembark and turn left, back towards the distinctive white sails, now turning crimson in the afterglow of dusk. There's a bar on the water, tucked in the space between the Opera House and the harbour wall. Kat spots a couple of empty seats looking across the water to the bridge.

"I'll get the drinks," Aidan says, "What do you want?"

"Chardonnay, but let me get this. You're unemployed at the moment."

She grins at him, and he can feel that little tug as she teases.

"Do you want a beer, or wine, or...?"

"Same."

"Okay. I'll get a bottle then."

She makes her way to the bar and Aidan watches her go. He's nervous. Somehow, he's found himself in a beautiful location with a beautiful woman who has ditched all her friends to spend her time with him instead. The conversation is flowing freely and it feels easy, but this isn't the same as customers flirting with him at the gym. This time, there are consequences. He looks out across the water, watching the ferries weaving expertly in and out of the berths. He's still deep in thought when Kat returns.

"This is my life," she murmurs, setting down the ice bucket containing the bottle of Chardonnay, "Making sure the table is supplied with wine."

"I could have got this, I'm not broke."

Kat laughs. "Let's deal with this bottle first, then we can get into gender politics."

"At least let me pour," Aidan counters, picking up the bottle and filling their glasses.

"Sure, it's the least you could do."

"You're just gonna keep giving me a hard time?"

"You look like a man who can take the shit."

She's smiling coyly, and it's infectious. Aidan flashes her a smile in return and his companion raises her glass.

"Cheers," she says, "Welcome to Sydney."

They empty the bottle slowly over the course of an hour, until it's dark and the stars have come out over the city. The bridge is lit up and the sails of the Opera House behind them are illuminated with spotlights. Kat's laughing about something, relating a drama with Kelsey and her engagement party. The way she laughs is engaging, and Aidan laughs too. Between the wine, the view and Kat, he's relaxing, unwinding a tight little knot inside that feels like it's been there forever. They're not drunk, but they're tipsy. Kat has her chin in her hand, looking across the table at him. Her eyes are bright with mirth as Aidan empties the remnants of the wine into their glasses and thrusts the bottle upside down into the ice bucket.