Mr. Imperfect(41)

"How grateful?"

"You never give up, do you?"

"At last," he said, "you're getting it." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and left.

The kiss still burned like a brand when Kezia phoned the hospital ten  minutes later. "Marion's sister will ring me back, yes, I know, I've  heard it all before." She'd long given up trying to wheedle information  out of the receptionist.

Disconsolate, she rang off, hesitated a moment, then phoned Everton's  pet shop. Feeling like Judas, she ordered a white male rat, about  Roland's size, to be delivered before lunch. The thirty pieces of silver  went on her credit card. "Sorry, Roly," she whispered as she hung up.

John Jason's face, when she presented the substitute at lunchtime, almost made her duplicity worth it. Almost.

"Roland!" He shoved aside his peanut butter sandwiches, seized the rat  and stroked between the tiny ears. The rat's whiskers even twitched as  nervously, as Roland's. "Where'd you find him?"

"Outside. He, um, walked over when I was watering the garden. Probably  thirsty." Okay, Kezia cautioned herself, don't overdo the lies. White  lies, she amended.

"You look funny," said John Jason. He tried to coax the rat into eating  some peanut butter. The rat balked. "That's weird, normally he loves  peanut butter."

"Does he?" She dragged her voice down from the rafters. "Maybe he's full of … hayseed and the other stuff he's been eating."

"Hi, honey, I'm home." Christian's voice came from the hall, a timely  diversion. He was back for a quick lunch, then taking John Jason to  playgroup. "And look who I found poking his nose out of Kez's car … ."

Oh, no. No, no, no, no! Kezia's coffee cup clattered in the saucer as  she sprang to her feet, but she couldn't move quickly enough. Christian  stood in the doorway beaming, gingerly holding a towel wrapped around a-

"Roland?" John Jason sounded puzzled. Kezia subsided back into her chair.

Christian caught sight of the rat cupped in John Jason's hands and his  mouth fell open. "I'll be damned," he said. His gaze flew to Kezia and  she couldn't help herself. She blushed. Christian's eyes widened, then  he started to laugh.

The blush scorched to the roots of her hair but she managed to look surprised. "Wow, two white rats!"

Christian couldn't play ball; he was laughing too hard. Deep down a  similar tremor shook Kezia. Oh, no, one of them had to be sensible,  carry this off for John Jason's sake. The child looked completely  bemused. She took Christian's rat out of the towel and inspected it.  Amazing, his clone was as good as hers. Almost.

She couldn't suppress an explosive snort of laughter. It felt as if a  detonator went off inside her, vaporizing the trauma of the past ten  days. She laughed until she howled, until Christian stopped laughing and  stared at her, until tears ran down her cheeks. Picking up a napkin,  she wiped her eyes and said weakly, "Don't mind me. Do carry on,  Christian, you obviously know what you're doing."                       
       
           



       

He looked from one rat to the other and blanched. "I think it's great we have two rats."

"Yeah," said John Jason, "but which one's Roland?"

Kezia played up her smugness. "The one you're holding."

As expected, Christian bristled. "What makes your rat Roland, Miz Smarty Pants?"

Kezia started laughing again. "Because yours is a girl."

"Oh, shit!"

"Christian said shit." It was obvious John Jason's day couldn't get any  better than this. "You can be my friend again," he told Kezia  magnanimously, and insisted on taking both rats to preschool with  Christian.

Kezia napped while they were gone, a deep, heavy sleep of utter exhaustion, and woke feeling better.



"DOESN'T ASKING FOR VOLUNTEERS imply choice?" Christian complained as  they finished an early dinner of Peach's beef stew and mashed potatoes.  "I had an idea for a preschool fund-raiser and suddenly I'm chairing the  subcommittee."

"I hope you told them you won't be here."

He scowled. "Very funny. And speaking of yanking my chain, time for the bells, Esmeralda."

"Esmarella. That's what I'll call the mummy rat," John Jason said. It didn't help Christian's mood but made Kezia smile.

As she pried John Jason out of his Batman outfit and got him bathed and  ready for bed she remembered that at the town council meeting that  morning everyone had sung Christian's praises, too-not all of them  women, either. It bothered Kezia that his popularity bothered her.

Christian had shaken them all out of a rut by challenging systems that  could be improved. Which was about half of them, she acknowledged wryly.

Kezia flexed her fingers inside the cast. Still another month to go  before it came off. Then Waterview could get back to normal. But deep  down she knew normal had changed in some indefinable way for everybody,  forever.

Absentmindedly she took the rats off a protesting John Jason and put them to bed in separate cages.

"They want to sleep together," he complained.

"Tough." The phone rang in the middle of their argument. "Breeding prevention center."

"Kezia?"

She leaned against the wall for support. "Marion!"

"Listen, I had a couple of visitors earlier, friends of Christian's."  Marion's voice sounded strained. "They said you haven't been getting any  news."

Kezia clutched the receiver. "Sally said yesterday there'd been no change."

"That's nonsense. I've been getting sensation and movement back since  the day you left. The specialists say I'll make a full recovery." Kezia  opened her mouth, but couldn't speak. "Did you hear that, Kezia? I'm  going to be fine."

"Fine," she choked out at last. "You're going to be fine? John Jason,  Mummy's going to be fine." Laughing and crying, she grabbed him with her  cast arm and danced him around in a circle.

"I know that. Why are you acting funny?"

"Because I'm so happy! Oh, Marion." She sank to the floor in relief. "I'm so happy."

Marion started crying. "I can't believe Sally put you through this … she  told me she was keeping you updated. I'm sending her away."

"No, don't. She's family. Just make her grovel. Now tell me again!"

"Actually, there's something else Sally didn't tell you." There was a pause. "Joe's been visiting."

Kezia sobered immediately. "Marion, be careful."

"I knew you'd say that and I am. Joe's been in a rehab center all this  time. He thought we'd be better off without him, but when he heard about  my accident he came straightaway. He's not expecting another chance  but … I want to give him one. I think we've both changed enough to make it  work this time. I want John Jason to see him on home ground so I've  suggested he come visit you in Waterview this weekend."

"But that will mean not seeing you for another week. Look, there's something I need to confess-in person."

"It can wait, can't it?"

"No." She heard disappointed silence on the other end. "Yes. Just tell me the good news again."

"I'm fine, Kezia, I'm going to be fine. Now let me talk to my son."

"You want me to prepare him for J-o-e?"

"I'll tell him now, but yes, that would help."

Kezia's first thought while she waited for the child to finish was, I've got to tell Christian.                       
       
           



       

"'Bye, Mummy, I love you." John Jason hung up. "My daddy's coming to see me!"

They shared another celebratory dance, then Kezia grabbed the phone and  dialed Christian's mobile. It was switched off. She scooped up John  Jason. "We're going to tell Christian your mummy's good news." She  buckled the child into the passenger seat, climbed into the driver's  side, and looked at her cast. Glanced at John Jason. What the hell, the  church was only two kilometers down the road. "Let's practice changing  gear."

As Kezia drove, while John Jason graunched between first gear and  second, she broke down in tears of relief. "It's okay, honey," she  reassured him. "This is happy crying."

His face scrunched up. "I don't like it. You stop!"

Swallowing the tears gave Kezia the hiccups, and they were both laughing  when they pulled into the churchyard. If only she didn't have the  confession still hanging over her head.

When she lifted John Jason from the car he clapped his hands over his ears. "What's that awful noise?"

"A beginner," she said smugly as another discordant clang rang through  the air. At last something Christian Kelly wasn't good at. Though to be  fair, it took at least twelve lessons to control a bell well enough to  adjust its speed and stop it at will before you even started learning to  ring rounds with other people.