Lola's Lurching Life

Lola watched approvingly as Cooper rinsed the cloth, wrung it and placed it over the tap to dry properly. If his mother had been a socialite, he'd probably been trained by Mrs Redpath, making his part-time surrogate mother.

Lola changed her shoes under the portico, waiting for Cooper to say something like great legs. Well she was proud of their shape. Instead, he said, "Ah, stockings."

"Yes, with your reprimand to go and dress up, I decided to dress formerly."

"For which I appreciate greatly. I'm making a determine effort to come out, you know."

She said yes, she'd thought as much as and patted him on the shoulder, rather like she'd pat a good dog. When thinking thank goodness he didn't come to that conclusion himself, she heard him go, 'Whoof, whoof' quietly.

She swung him around by the shoulder and kissed him fully on the mouth.

"Cripes," he said, looking pleased.

She replied, "I meant it, but don't read too much into it. I'm just out to assist you in your attempts to fully return to normality."

"That may mean you'll develop an attachment to me."

"It may," she said indifferently.

As he unlocked the one of the double doors with an enormous key he asked, "Will we eventually have sex?"

Concentrating on keeping her voice soft, Lola said, smiling at his back, "Who knows what the future will bring?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Would you mind knowing I might jerk myself off picturing of you in my arms, nude?"

"Of course not, who could object to such a noble thought?"

He turned and lifted his chin said, "I chose to express that thought out aloud, directly at you, only half-expecting an understanding response."

Lola smiled, "Can you accept that my indirect response was my natural response to such a foul question from someone who's practically a stranger?"

"As raised to be a gentleman, I feel bound to say even in my fractured state of mind, yes of course."

Lola said thanks and added, "Please don't answer this but I feel your reference to the term 'fractured' is simply a state of mind. Believe that you can rise above that shackle."

"Omigod, Lola you even think like I do in my present unrelenting bid to normalise."

"That impresses me enormously," Lola said, truthfully. "Please take me to the kitchen."

"Um, that's a no-no. Mrs Redpath expects to be introduced to you in the day room."

"Please do what I ask, Cooper. Be a gentleman."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Arsehole."

He smiled, obviously enjoyed that combative exchange.

"Forgive the intrusion, Mrs Redpath. I'm Lola Hunt of the Gatehouse Cottage. Cooper tried to prevent me from entering your domain but brain power after establishing a good relationship usually wins over conventions and brawn."

"Omigod, a modern beauty with intelligence to match," said the sharp nose and obviously sharp-eyed elderly woman with a genuine welcoming smile.

Acting on instinct, Lola strode forward and kissed the cook whom Lola believed had acted as Cooper's surrogate mother softly and instantly won a heart.

"Omigod, how lovely of you and you smell ever so gorgeous. Cooper keep this young lady in sight as I predict she'll do wonders for you. I guess you know..."

"That Cooper is committed to social rehabilitation? Yes."

"Oh, what a lovely way of putting it. I was about to say attempting to creep out of his hole from masquerading as a social misfit."

"Omigod, Cooper. Your surrogate mother has described your situation brilliantly."

"Cooper!"

Cooper protested, "Mrs Redpath, I swear I never attempted to describe you as such, or even hint of your motherly relationship with me."

"Is that true, young lady?" asked Mrs Redpath, nostrils flaring.

"Yes, entirely Mrs Redpath. All he said he used to do this homework in your kitchen and I though his mother probably hit the cocktail circuit regularly and put 2 and 2 together."

"See, Mrs Redpath. I indicated to you she has an awesome brain. It probably never sleeps."

"Well, was she told about that incident involving me and the plumber."

Cooper was eyeing the door as preparing to run out of danger when Lola said calmly, "Ooh, that sounds interesting and perhaps that man made a hit on you in front of young Cooper. Tell me all, Mrs Cooper."

It was Mrs Cooper's turn to eye the door but as if remembering this was 'her kitchen', she said emotionally, "Do you know how to make gravy, Lola?"

"For sure," Lola said as if attempting to fake a Scottish accent.

"Great, and scram from my kitchen, Cooper."

Then puffing out her cheeks as if in relief, she called to him, you'll find chilled beer on the side-table, but first bring in whiskey sours for your lady and me. The ingredients are in the sideboard."

"Yes ma'am."

Lola asked in surprise, "How could you have guessed I'd have my pre-dinner drink with you in the kitchen."

"I put 2 and 3 together and thought it was probably correct. Himself raved about you and said you had balls - please excuse me repeating that foul male term. And I guessed you'd drink anything put in front of you as part of your effort to impress me being the lad's part-time mother."

"Omigod, Mrs Redpath. You are amazing. Your perception activating your brain is ever so awesome."

"Now don't you go befuddling me, young lady. If you wish to see me again after tonight, please visit me at the Bluebells Retirement Village across from here in Milford. Ooh, I say, why not come as my guest on Sunday evening to our annual Scottish night?"

Pleased, Lola accepted and said perhaps a little recklessly, "May I bring Cooper with me?"

That send Mrs Redpath into laughter.

"Dear, I admire your optimism. Look, we already are friends, please call me Alana, You have as much chance of getting Cooper to toss a caber (very long pole) as attending a dinner with the old residents of our village, some with relatives as their guests, as you would having him to agree to walk up Auckland's Queen St wearing a woman's dress without wearing dark sunglasses or the hood of a hoodie pulled over his head securely."

"Tossing the caber sounds like a polite term for the thing men do in the privacy of the toilet," Lola said, buoyed by having consumed most of the contents of her strong whiskey-based cocktail.

"Omigod, aren't you a fearless one," said Alana who'd immigrated with her family from northern Scotland when she was twelve, and now surprisingly at her age, falling into a chuckle that sounded close to being a teenager's giggle.

An hour after a most impressive dinner, with the cook having accepted Cooper's invitation to stay the night in her former room as it was late, Alana said, "Should I make up a bed for you Lola, or will Cooper walk you back to the cottage?"

"That latter, I presume," Lola said flatly, as if indicating she'd hadn't received details of a third option or, alternatively, was signalling it was too early in her relationship with Cooper to consider sleeping with him.

"My goodness, obviously Lola you adhere to some sort of structure concerning personal behaviour. My impression was that people, under the age of forty, did it whenever, wherever and almost with whoever pressed them into sexual union."

"Are you a reader of women's hot magazines?" Lola asked slyly, pushing Alana's laughter reflexes once again.

"Oh, my dear Lola, I haven't had such a stimulating conversation since that horrible tragedy took Cooper's mother away from me. Flora gave everyone but those who knew her closely almost a cold shoulder and took no nonsense from anyone, being an arrogant and self-centred wealthy man's wife. But I tell you, for the 37 years that I served as her cook and managed her household including staff, Mrs Roper whom I always called ma'am, sat in my kitchen and told me about her experiences during that day and as her gins began to take effect she would slip into reminiscing about..."

"Omigod, she was Scottish as where you and you were probably of similar age and like you came to New Zealand to live when in her early teens."

"Good heavens girl, what else has Cooper told you about his mother and me?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. But your name is Alana and his late mother's name Flora is even more Scottish, and I immediately saw the connection. Flora would have had no intention of hiring staff who were English or were of recent generational descent of the English, dismissing them as unacceptable for hiring as her mother had done when and after they lived in Scotland, probably using the old derogatory term for the English as Sassenachs."

"You have a wonderful imagination and a convenient grasp of history although I can't vouch that my mother and close friends, being Highlanders, used the word Sassenachs to express their dislike of the English people based on historical reasons," Alana smiled, shaking her head.

Lola kissed the cook, easily the oldest person she'd ever befriended, good night and walked home with Cooper at her side.

Lola had half-expected the formal walk home to become a semi-romantic stroll, but not to be.

Her male companion, had before venturing outside, changed from a dinner suit into jeans, a polo shirt and light windbreaker, and appeared agitated and in a hurry.

"I really enjoyed the evening, thank you Cooper.

"Good for you. I feel I scarcely saw you."

Oh, oh, she thought. Trouble at mill.

"My apologies. I became fascinated, actually quickly becoming connected to Mrs Redpath."

"She is a real people person. My mother adored her for that skill whereas my father thought mother spent far too much time with Mrs Redpath."

Oh, oh, Lola winced, now fully concentrating on her companion's apparent burst of jealously. She acknowledged to herself that she was responsible for her unintentional lapse although his paddy (disparaging behaviour) was, in her opinion, an over-reaction.

"I found Mrs Redpath fascinating, but now that I've met her there will be no need for me to give her so much time whenever I'm with you."

"If there is to be a next time."

She thought oh dear, now wasn't the time to invite him to the Scottish evening including dinner at the retirement village where Mrs Redpath resided. However, it was not the time to back off and be submissive.

"Are you free tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"I wish to invite you to paddle alongside me on the lake to chat about something that might change your life. It's just an idea."

"I might be."

She goaded, "You might be what?"

He snorted, "Available to paddle on the lake with you in the morning. I've paddled on the lake most of my life and have three kayaks in the basement."

"Oh, I wasn't aware of that, but could you kindly allow my arrangement to stand? I'd asked Kit Adams to hire me two of the latest model kayaks and she rearranged her hire-out schedule to allow me to have them for two hours from 6.00 am."

"Christ."

"What, is 6.00 too early for you?"

"No and it's usually the prime time to go out on to the lake, even earlier, as a breeze if not wind hits the lake after 9.00 and often builds to uncomfortable levels for paddling. I expressed surprise because some how you managed to get Kit to yield. Her uncompromising attitude was one of the reasons why she became one of the greatest female kayakers that this country has produced."

"And don't I know it, Cooper. She was like that at a kid when I first met her at kindy (kindergarten) and I trained with her at high school when she was already becoming a champion."

"You know Kit Adams that well?"

"Yes, I've known her most of my life but couldn't say I'm one of her closest friends."

"Well, aren't you full of surprises. I'll collect you at 5.45 in the morning to drive the short distance to her paddling school. After I finish you on the lake, you'll be too exhausted to walk. Or are you paddling-fit?"

"I still paddle occasionally, but only recreationally as my competitive days are around thirteen years behind me."

"What do you wish to talk to me about?"

"You'll learn that on the tranquillity of the lake as soon as you heroically burn me off in our inaugural race."

"I'll not race you; I'll just keep ahead of you, that's sufficient for me."

At the door, Lola turned to be kissed.

He kissed her clumsily.

"May I come in and watch you undress."

"Let's give that a miss tonight, huh?"

"I promise on this occasion not to touch."

"No thanks. I don't strip for perverts."

He smiled with just his mouth. Eyeing her with hard eyes, he said, "Be ready at 5.45 on the dot" and walked off, neither of them saying good night, with Lola fuming and thinking why bother with him?

Ah yes, he was like a wounded animal and she'd accepted without pressure or even a request, the challenge to try to heal his mental wounding to raise him above the tragedy that took his parents from him. and for a time leaving him barely alive with severe injuries.

Chapter 3

Cooper arrived on Sunday morning, five minutes late, dressed in a wetsuit, neoprene boots and black cap.

"Jump in and buckled up and if I drive fast, we'll get at the pontoon by 6.00."

He was driving a veteran red sporty-looking Jaguar and Lola thought they probably would hit his target providing the small loop around part of the lake was negotiated without incident. Perhaps she should drive!

They arrived on time and one of Kit's assistants was waiting for them, clipboard in hand.

"Kit apologises for not being here, Lola. Her 11-year-oldest Rebecca became ill during the night."

"Hi, Jacki. Nice seeing you again," Cooper said.

As they paddled off, Lola said, "You appear to know Jacki Yates well."

"I used to be one of the team of chaps on call to pace Jacki seven years ago but I, like most if not all of the guys, dropped out when she became too fast for us. She's the reigning NZ female champ on distances up to 500 metres."

"I know," Lola said. I've often seen her competing on TV."

"What, you watch sport on TV?"

"Aye, doesn't everyone?"

Lola was pleased to get a grin from Cooper at last.

Two hours later, Lola drove home, feeling rather tired, but Cooper beside sat slumped and looked exhausted.

"You suckered me," he complained.

"Bullshit. You said let's race the 1000 metre course with a 2-minute rest after 500 but you then changed that when I said I prefer to race the 200 course four times, with a longer time in between to allow us to chat."

"That's true, but you made no mention that you are in good shape, you still paddle once a week and until four or five weeks ago, you were padding at 6.00 Monday, Wednesday and Fridays helping Kit with her match racing crews and the most promising paddlers in the novice training group."

"Oh, perhaps it didn't occur to me to give you background like that and I certainly hadn't been told that prior to you being smashed up in that road accident, for some years you had been a 1000 and 2000 distance competitor."

"Why should I have told you that?" he said, yawning.

Lola's reply was a polite, "Yes, perhaps that would have been too much to expect."

As she drove his car, she thought about them being on placid Lake Pupuke for the first race where she'd been left in the wake of eager Cooper who'd powered away to establish who was top dog, and they had rested, ready to chat. Their chat interested him.

She began by saying, "This concerns some thoughts I've had about your direction in life post-tragedy."

"Careful, Lola."

She nodded and said she had read all that she could find about Roper Holdings' business activities, which was not much because it was a privately-owned enterprise.

She'd learned the company had five-divisions - industrial and home vacuum cleaners sales and servicing that was his late father's original acquisition, domestic pest control, spring water bottling and distribution, fresh and frozen food products distributed by other operators and his father's pride and joy, being a New Zealand road cycling champion in his youth, a bicycle manufacturing and import company with sales outlets in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and small city of Invercargill that was the competitive cycling capital of the southern South Island.

"I read that cycle business really took off when your father began importing ultra-light racing cycles from Italy that took the national market by storm and it is still the leading importer of premium quality cycles."

"A published obituary four years ago on your parents stated that that in the last publication of a magazine's list of the top 100 New Zealanders that your father was listed as 27th with assets estimated at $288 million dollars and that you, if you survived your horrific injuries would be his sole beneficiary. Is all that correct?"

"Yes, of the assets left after the Government and other financial jackals took their cut," Cooper snorted.

"Understood," Lola said sympathetically. "Right, here's question one?"

"I've heard that you still take no active interest in your huge holdings?"

"Correct."

"Is that likely to change?"

"Perhaps not."

"Are you likely to live in the Roper Mansion long term?"

"Very unlikely. As you probably can guess, it no longer possesses the activity of a family home to me. The feeling I have is something close to nightmares where sleeping there. Do you have some purpose in digging into my private life?"

"Yes, and here it is: Significantly change the direction of your life could assist you in regaining happiness. But that's all for now. Let's have our next race.

At the start of the fourth race, Lola said, "With three wins to you, this race could well be mine."

"You'll be lucky."

"Oh Cooper, how bright you are to guess one of my enduring features. I'm very lucky as a person. Why, I've even come across you to become my pet project, which is to part-reinvent you."

"Okay, enough bullshit for now," he said, rotating his shoulders to relax them.

They raced. Lola cleverly left something in reserve and gradually began hauling in Cooper as her superior fitness, although not sufficient to be a huge advantage, began to tell. Cooper was unable to hold her off when they went head to head in a sprint finish and she won by half a length.

When his puffing slowed, he said slowly, "There you go, being lucky again."

She just smiled and winked at him and Cooper managed a grin.

As they rested to the side of the course, he said, "And how do you suggest making significant change to the direction to my life?"

"You could sell the 22-acre mansion property and in doing that, perhaps to give yourself a new interest by engaging a specialist to advise you how best to quit the land. For example, to sell it as is to a developer.

"Alternatively, you could submit a subdivision plan to the Auckland Council that retains the mansion or includes it demolition with recovery of the blocks of stone for sale or to be reused in the construction of two smaller premium homes in the vicinity of the present mansion that will have the best across-lake views."

"Hmm, that thinking indicates you are not just a pretty face. It has the option of Cooper Ross Roper becoming a land developer and that could interest me. And the companies?"

Lola said they should talk about that later because he looked exhausted and he agreed and said she should drive home.

"I've really lost race fitness," he said. "I used the gym almost daily for a while after I first was admitted to that recovery facility in rural Queensland but I practically ignored working out on the stationary bikes that would have assisted preparing my lower back and legs for today's endurance activity."

"And the truth is you have gone lax on maintaining a half-decent fitness level since then," Lola muttered, provoking Cooper into grinning and he said, "Indeed, my guru adviser."

She girlishly poked her tongue at him. At that, Cooper was forced into a quite series of movements to prevent himself from capsizing himself into the water because he was laughing so much.