The Switch Ch. 06

She shrugged helplessly. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have looked.'

'No,' he agreed. 'You shouldn't have.'

'I'm sorry.'

He shrugged. 'So you said. I only came inside to get a flashlight. Ben wants to see what an old outdoor dunny looks like. I have no idea what's inside. It's been locked up since I bought the place and I never bothered to look.'

He found a flashlight and went outside. She followed him meekly. She didn't know how to apologise. How to explain herself.

Val didn't want to speak to her. He barely looked at her, and if it wasn't for Ben, she wondered how he would have reacted. She knew he was angry. That was reasonable. She, too, would have been angry if he'd gone through her phone.

Ben was excited to be opening the old backyard toilet. Val stood on a ladder and shone the flashlight inside to see what was there.

'There could be anything inside,' Ben remarked.

'I doubt it,' Val grinned. 'It just looked like an old shitter to me.'

Ben hovered as Val used a bolt cutter to cut through the chains that held the door shut. The metal was old and rusted, and it took Val a few minutes to cut through the metal and untangle it. Eventually, the chain was loose and Val pulled the door open.

There was nothing inside but an old green toilet seat set into a bench, and a lump of what once must have been toilet paper. It was as underwhelming as the contents of Val's phone.

'That's disappointing,' Ben commented. 'I was hoping there'd be a rat in here. Or a family of rats. That would be cool, wouldn't it?'

Pink Panther, one of Val's oldest cats, slipped inside.

'It's because the cats that you don't have rats, hey?' Ben remarked to Val. 'I bet they eat them all.'

'Probably,' Val agreed. 'How about you get Pink Panther and we lock this up again?'

'I need to pee,' Ben argued. 'Let me pee in the toilet.'

Val opened the toilet lid and peered inside. 'I suppose you could do that. There's only dirt underneath. Someone must have removed the bucket.'

Aimee and Val waited outside while Ben did his business. Aimee glanced over at Val. He caught her gaze and raised an eyebrow slightly. He was still angry.

'Do you want me to take your phone to be fixed, or should I just give you the money?' she asked.

'I don't care about my phone. It's out of contract. I'll get another one.'

'Are you mad?' she asked.

Ben proudly strutted out of the outdoor toilet. 'All done!'

'Go inside and wash your hands,' Aimee ordered. 'Now.'

Ben sighed and headed back to the house. Aimee and Val watched him go. It was the middle of summer, and stinking hot in the midday sun. They moved to the shade of a mango tree without either of them saying a word.

'I thought I would have come across a bit more ethical than that,' Valery commented, plucking at a low hanging fruit. 'Goddamn possums. Every time a mango ripens, they come and eat it.'

'It's not that I didn't trust you.'

He shrugged. 'It doesn't matter. I'm not angry with you. Everyone believed Linda. She made Casey and I look like shit. There were people that I considered friends who dropped me like a hot potato. Casey's boyfriend broke up with her. Linda got exactly what she wanted. That's all that really matters.'

'Why did Linda do it?'

'She had a new partner, and she wanted him to be accepted by the group. She didn't want me hanging around, cramping their style. You've probably noticed it's a pretty small community, so things can and do get awkward when relationships fail. In the end, I got asked to leave. I ended up hearing about a new group, which is of course Miles and his friends... I was lucky. I got on better with them, anyway. It's just shit that so many people still believe Linda's lies.'

'If I didn't have Ben, I wouldn't have snooped,' Aimee said slowly. 'I was scared.'

'That's okay. As I said, I'm not angry with you.'

Aimee found a ripe, unblemished mango and picked it. 'So why is Linda now hanging around with Miles' group? What happened with her old buddies?'

Val shrugged. 'I don't know. I don't care, either. I've left all that behind.'

Aimee raised the mango to her nose and breathed in it's scent. She loved fresh mango. If she lived here, she'd cover the fruit with netting early in the season to prevent the possums from stealing them. 'Why do you think I'm such an angel?'

He leant over and kissed her. 'Because you are. Because I want to marry you and have children with you.'

She laughed and wrapped her arms around him. 'Sure.'

'It's true,' he argued, rubbing her stomach. 'One day, in a year or so, I'm going to knock you up.'

She rolled her eyes. So far he hadn't even mentioned the 'l' word. Marriage and pregnancy was a bit farfetched. 'You're clucky, aren't you?' she asked.

'Terribly.'