Every Touch (23 page)

   Laila smiled.  “I am.  I feel safer than I ever have.”

   “Good.”  Kelly nodded and smiled back at her.  “One more question though.”  She leaned forward, looking serious.  “How’s the sex?”

   Laila burst into laughter and looked down in embarrassment, knowing she was blushing.

   “
That
good?” Kelly said, raising her eyebrows and grinning.

Denny was having the best birthday he could remember since he turned fourteen and Ginny Grant let him feel over her bra during the school lunch break and his parents gave him a Nintendo NES. 

   Laila had taken the day off work and, after waking late, they spent the morning doing things he wouldn’t have even imagined existed when he was fourteen.  Oliver had stopped by to give him his smutty comedic rendition of
Happy Birthday To You
, a tradition that had begun the year after Denny died and this year included five verses complete with new lyrics which had him crying with laughter.  Laila had bought him the DVD boxed set of
The Walking Dead
, a title that had become a joke between them, which he was looking forward to starting with her later.  And they were now in the middle of a game of chess which she swore to him she wasn’t letting him win.

   In addition, he knew something else was going to happen, because Laila kept glancing surreptitiously at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and was noticeably distracted.  Which may have explained why he was winning their game of chess.

   His curiosity was reaching unexplored heights.  When the intercom buzzer sounded, he almost hit the roof.

   Laila rocketed off the sofa, sounding completely unconvincing when she said, “I wonder who that could be.”  All she said into the intercom phone was, “Hello?” and “I’ll be right down.”  Which didn’t help Denny at all.

   She walked back to where he was sitting on the sofa, held out her hand and pulled him up when he took it.

   “I need you to go into the bedroom,” she said, “and don’t come out until I come to get you.  Please?”

   He tapped her wrist once.

   “Promise me you won’t look?  And don’t look out the window either.  I want this to be a surprise.”

   He took her hand and drew a cross over his heart with her hand in his.  “I promise.”

   She smiled, kissed him and pushed him towards the bedroom door. 

   “I’ll come and get you when I’m ready.”

   She looked so excited she was almost bouncing.  Denny watched her for a moment, smiling at her enthusiasm, then went into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

   He sat down on the bed, trying to think what the surprise could be.  Her excitement was contagious, however, and before long he was up again, shoving his hands into his pockets and pacing around the room. 

   After ten minutes or so he heard voices coming from the living room, Laila and what sounded like two different men, although he couldn’t hear what they were saying.  They stayed for another ten minutes or so, during which time he was sure he heard furniture being moved across the floor, before the front door opened and closed.  That was followed by some rustling and then finally silence.

   He waited by the door, leaning against the frame and feeling like a kid at Christmas.  When it opened and Laila appeared, he almost fell through.

   “Denny?”

   He took her hand immediately, since he was almost on top of her.

   She smiled.  “I wanted to give you something special for your birthday, something I knew you would love.”

   “You already did that this morning,” he commented with a smirk as she stepped away and led him back into the living room.

   For a second he couldn’t see anything different, until he turned and looked towards the window.  He gasped, his jaw dropping in stunned disbelief.

   Against the wall, in the corner to the left of the window, stood an electric piano.  Denny stared at it as if he expected it to vanish at any moment for a good ten seconds before he walked over to it, keeping hold of Laila’s hand.  He reached out and ran his free hand over the closed lid before pushing it back to reveal the keys beneath.  He touched them in awe, brushing his trembling fingers lightly across the keyboard.

   “I hope it’s alright,” she said next to him.  “I did some research and asked in the music store which was the best for what I could afford and the consensus was that this one is...”

   Her words were cut off abruptly as Denny threw his arms around her and hugged her tight to him, closing his eyes and burying his face into her hair.  He was so overwhelmed he couldn’t speak, even finding himself sniffing back tears.  

   When he finally loosened his hold on her and pulled back to look at Laila’s face, she was smiling the biggest smile he’d ever seen.

   “You like it?”

   “I... you...” He laughed, picking her up and spinning her in a circle.  “I love it, I love it, I love you!”

   “Play me something,” she said, letting him go and pulling the stool out.  “I’ve never heard you play.”

   He sat and pressed the power button, thinking about what he could play for her as the lights flickered and stabilised on the front of the piano.  And then it came to him.  Placing his fingers onto the keys, he began to play
You Light Up My Life.

   Laila’s hand was resting on his shoulder as he played.  He half thought she might sing along, or at least hum, but she was silent.  As he finished the final note, he turned to look up at her.  Tears were streaming down her face.

   “Wow,” she whispered, “that was beautiful.  You’re so good, I had no idea.  I mean, I know you said you could play, but you never said you were that amazing.” 

   She smiled and leaned down to kiss the side of his neck, then grabbed a tissue from a box on the coffee table and pushed the armchair around so it was facing him.

   “Play,” she said, sitting on the chair and drawing her feet up and grinning, apparently getting comfortable for the long haul.  “I want to hear you play more.”

   Smiling and feeling like he must be the happiest person on earth, Denny turned back to the piano, placed his fingers onto the keyboard and launched into Für Elise.

Laila sat low in the driver’s seat of her car and tried to look inconspicuous. 

   People did this all the time on TV, but she wasn’t convinced someone sitting in a car surveilling a house was as easy to get away with as they made it look.  At least she didn’t intend to stay long, she just wanted to see them. 

   Surreptitiously watching the house across the street, she pretended to read a book, her phone lying on her lap in readiness.  It was an ordinary semi-detached house on the outer edges of town with a well kept front garden.  It looked loved.  Laila imagined Denny walking up the lavender bush lined pathway to the front door, his nephew opening the door, excited to see him.  Denny had talked a lot about Trish, Jay and John.  She knew how much he still missed them.  That was why she was here, hoping desperately no-one would notice her and report her to the police as a stalker. For Denny. 

   A car pulled into the driveway and she fake-studied her book even more intently.  Her free hand went to her phone and lifted it so the camera lens was just peeking above the bottom sill of the window.  Swivelling just her eyes, she checked it was aiming in the right direction and zoomed in on the car. 

   The passenger side door opened and a boy climbed out.  Laila gasped.  Jay had the same light reddish brown colour hair as Denny.  He was a little short for his age, which she knew was fourteen, but he still had plenty of time to catch up with his uncle.  She suddenly realised she’d been so surprised at how much like Denny Jay looked that she hadn’t started filming.  She quickly began to record as he closed the car door and walked around to the front door of the house, carrying a backpack and a football.  The driver’s side door opened and a woman stepped out.  She was unmistakably Denny’s sister, the same hair colour, cheekbones, and she imagined the same blue eyes, although she couldn’t tell from this distance.  She kept the camera going.

   “Hey,” Trish called as Jay opened the front door to the house, “a little help here please.”

   His shoulders slumped in the way of teenagers the world over.  “Yes, mum.” 

   He dropped his pack inside the door and walked back to the car as Trish opened the boot, taking the two bulging shopping bags she handed to him and returning to the door.  He disappeared inside and Trish shut the boot, locked the car and followed.  The door to the house closed and Laila finally lowered her phone.

   She sat still for a few seconds, feeling an unexpectedly emotional reaction to seeing Denny’s family.  She imagined going to the door, knocking and telling them about him.  In her dream, they came to the flat and Laila saw them reunited after more than four years apart and shared their joy.  She knew that nothing would make Denny happier than to see them again.  She shook her head.  The only thing knocking on the door and telling Trish her dead brother was a ghost would get her was thrown in jail.  And then possibly a mental institution.  She felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks and she wiped at them.  She couldn’t reunite them, but she had at least had the courage to be able to give Denny a glimpse of the family he hadn’t seen for so long.

  Placing her book on the seat next to her, she put her phone back into her bag, started the engine and drove towards home.

***

Denny walked through the door and looked around, going to check the bedroom and bathroom when he saw the living area was empty.  It was Laila’s day off, but she obviously wasn’t home from her shopping trip yet.  He shrugged and dropped onto the sofa, casting about for the TV remote control.  Thirty seconds of channel surfing later all he’d found was a nature documentary.  He settled down to watch.  Ten minutes later, he was asleep.

   He was woken by the feel of soft lips on his cheek.  He opened his eyes, looking sleepily at Laila who was sitting next to him.  There was nothing he loved more than waking up and seeing her face.  He took her hand and kissed her palm.

   “Hello sleepy,” she said, smiling.

   “Hello beautiful,” he replied, touching her face then sliding his fingers into her hair and pulling her to him. 

   When their lips parted, he took the pad and pen from the end table beside him.

  
How was shopping?

   “It was okay.  I only got a few things.  Actually, I went somewhere else too.”

   Denny looked at her sitting beside him.  She seemed to be almost nervous.

  
Oh?

   She nodded.  “I hope what I did was okay.  I didn’t want to tell you before, in case it didn’t work out.  But I thought you would want to see them.” 

   He noticed for the first time that she was holding her phone in one hand.  She worked on it for a few seconds, then handed it to him.

   His curiosity burning, he watched the moving image playing on the screen.  It was a little blurry at first, looked like a kid by a car in a driveway, then the picture zoomed in and focused and he gasped.  His hands began to shake as he watched Jay walk around the car in what he now recognised was Trish and John’s driveway.  Then Trish got out the car and tears began to roll down his face.  He couldn’t help but smile when Jay trudged back to the car.  He’d grown up so much.  And Trish looked so good.  He hoped she was happy.  She looked happy.

   The video came to an end and he took a deep, shuddering breath, looking at Laila. 

   “Is it okay?” she asked.  “You don’t mind that I kind of went a bit stalkerish?  You miss them so much and I wanted to...”

   She stopped as he wound his arms around her and held onto her tight, the tears still sliding down his cheeks.

   “Thank you,” he said, “thank you so much.”

   He kissed her, wiped at his face and, keeping one arm around her, replayed the video of Trish and Jay, watching it over and over again. 

   “I wish they could somehow know you’re here,” Laila said, when he finally put the phone down.

   Denny picked up the pen. 
This is more than I ever thought I would see.  It’s enough.  Thank you so much.  I love you.

   She leaned her head against his shoulder.  “We can upload it to your laptop, then you can watch it bigger.”

   He kissed her temple and nodded so she could feel it, wrapping his arms around her again.  She lifted her face and he leaned into her, lightly brushing their noses so she knew he was there as he brought his lips toward hers. 

   The intercom buzzer sounded.  He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers, smiling ruefully.  That thing had the worst timing. 

   Laila giggled.  “I swear it does that on purpose.”

   He chuckled as she got up and went to answer it.