Chapter 3

“He looked stoned tonight.”

“Yeah, he’s nearly died twice already. We found him down at the lake one night slumped in a park bench. John got him walking around and I called the ambulance. After that I was his best mate, but he’s one guy who can’t last much longer.”

“Nineteen, he lost his licence and did six months for burglary. We’ve been trying to get him into some long term accommodation but the places around here are all full up.”

“I’ve got a spare room,” she spoke up.

“Not a good look,” she changed gear, “he’s a hard core heroin user, the places I’m talking about have dedicated facilities for dealing with these cases.”

“Thank fuck I was never into drugs, just the piss and the dope.”

“That can be bad enough,” she nudged the accelerator, “trust me.”

Overall though it had been an interesting night Charlie surmised as she got into bed. It wasn’t the same as an AA meeting but she still felt a little uneasy about hanging out with Christians, even if they were the more sedate Uniting kind. One thing she did admit to though was an attraction to Casey and that was perhaps the deeper reason behind her uneasiness.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Charlie opened her eyes as the alarm stopped ringing, trying to focus on the here and now. It was Sunday and she didn’t have to work. So why was the alarm going off? She picked up the phone and stared at the screen, registering that someone had just called her and then she remembered changing her ring tone last night at the coffee shop. She’d been showing someone how to use a song for an alarm. She swiped down to bring up the notifications menu and tapped the return call option and put the phone to her ear. Casey replied after two rings.

“Hiya, I just called you. Were you asleep?”

“Yeah, I was fucking about with the phone last night and made my alarm the same as my ring tone but didn’t change the alarm song.”

“Well you’re a silly moo,” she chuckled, “I’m just heading off to church now but I was thinking of dropping in on you afterwards if that’s okay?”

“Probably about one, I’ll stop off at the hot bread kitchen and grab some rolls. Have you got cheese and cold meat or should I buy that as well?”

“Um, no, it’s fine,” she pinched her nose, “I’ll walk down to the supermarket and do some shopping this morning so that’s cool.”

“Super duper,” she replied, “okay, see you in a few hours time.”

Charlie stared at the time on the phone after she’d hung up. It showed 08:35.

“Who does that?” Charlie stared at the ceiling, “on a fucking Sunday morning?”

One of the benefits of living here now that she’d lost her licence was being within walking distance of a reasonably sized supermarket along with a few small shops and the ubiquitous hair salon. Her outfit that day was casual, a red checked shirt over a white tee shirt, jeans and her Ugg boots. She half considered something smarter but decided against it at the last minute.

After returning from the supermarket a couple of hours later she undid the shirt and left it hanging loosely about her because it was starting to get a bit hotter. At least she had climate control in the house and thanks to the fact she had a bit more money coming in she could even afford to have it running whilst she did her housework. She worked methodically, stopping every now and then to check her phone and like a few posts. One of them was from Zoe, she’d just completed a dress, Zoe had been learning dressmaking from one of Lisa’s friends, Julie. She liked that photo and then had a look at some of her other pictures, a mish mash of selfies or pictures with Lisa and friends.

It made her realise just how empty her social calendar had been since she stopped drinking, after work she went to meetings or just stayed home. Last night had been the first Saturday night she’d been out for months and all she had done was serve coffee and wash dishes.

“I need to get a life,” she stared at the vacuum cleaner, “maybe I should go to church.”

That idea was still bouncing around her brain when Casey turned up at 1:15. Charlie felt a slight quickening of her pulse as Casey made her way to the front door. She was wearing a pink blouse tucked into a white, three-quarter pleated skirt, a light tan jacket and brown ankle boots completed the outfit.

“You’re in your church clothes,” Charlie commented as she opened the flywire door.

“Afraid so,” she stepped inside, “I went to the Uniting one today.”

“Different outfits for different churches?”

“Not really,” she looked around, “nice place.”

“Ha ha, you should have seen it this morning, I’ve been vacuuming and cleaning for the last few hours,” she closed the door.

“So, you’ve worked up an appetite,” she grinned.

“Something like that,” Charlie led her into the kitchen.

Casey didn’t reply as she looked around the kitchen, taking in the wall-mounted oven and then she put the plastic bag and her handbag on the bench.

“Well, let’s get lunch ready.”

“Sure, take a seat,” she nodded at the breakfast bar, “this shouldn’t take long.”

“I can make lunch,” she smiled crookedly, “you supplied the rolls, I’ll supply the fillings and you can sit and watch me if you want.”

Casey took off her jacket and hung it over a nearby chair in the dining room. Charlie chanced a quick glance at her when her back was turned. The blouse was a long-sleeved one with a matching tie and a pleat down each side of the bodice.

“I was surprised to get your call this morning,” she spoke again.

“Were you?” Casey turned around and fluffed out her hair, “I was thinking about you last night,” she sat down at the breakfast bar.

“Something you said last night,” she unbuttoned a cuff, “about Linux.”

“Uh huh?” Charlie glanced over her shoulder as she opened the fridge.

“Yeah, it’s free to download isn’t it?”

“Sure, upgrades are free too.”

“Yeah, I remember someone saying that a while ago,” she folded the cuff partway up her arm, “it was some guy I was seeing back in Sydney,” she unbuttoned the other cuff.

“Not really,” she folded the other cuff, “just some guy, he was a nice guy but he was a bit of a geek, he spent more time talking about his computer than anything else.”

“So, you want me to burn you a disc?” Charlie took out the sliced ham and cheese.

“It’s not my computer I’m talking about, I was thinking about those computers at the church,” she flicked out her hair.

“The council budget won’t allow us to buy a site licence for Microsoft but if someone was to come in and install Linux on those computers then it’s doable but I need to have a look at a typical Linux system just to see if it is going to be something that would benefit people. All the clients would be doing is resumes and applications, along with going online.”

“Well that’s certainly possible,” Charlie replied, “I can show you my computer and let you have a play on it.”

“That’d be great,” she propped on her palm, “where is your computer?”

“The bedroom,” she replied.

“So, I get to see your bedroom as well?” Casey’s eyes widened, “cool.”

Charlie felt a slight weakness at her smile. Was this woman flirting with her? Casey was reading something on her phone when Charlie asked the inevitable question.

“So, how did you meet up with Linda?”

“I’ve been seeing her once a week,” she glanced up briefly.

“Okay,” Charlie arranged the ham and cheese on the rolls.

“I’ve been struggling with my sexual identity for a while now,” she pushed the phone to one side, “I went to see one counsellor in Sydney who belonged to my parents’ church but all he wanted to do was pray for me,” she glanced at her phone as it beeped.

“And that didn’t work out? The praying I mean.”

“Yes and no,” she replied, “he wanted to hold hands and pray but afterwards he gave me a hug and I felt his cock against my body. I knew then that this wasn’t going to work so I put it off for a while but then I found another counsellor who wasn’t a Christian.”

“And?” Charlie raised an eyebrow.

“She was quite good but it was only three weeks before I was due to come down here so she gave me a few numbers to call. Linda was the first one I called and she’s been quite good,” she eyed the two plates of food.

“There’s no assumptions with Linda. She just asks questions and then lets you talk, I’ve never had someone just sit and listen without interrupting.”

“She’s pretty good at that,” she picked up the plates and carried them over to the table, “may as well sit here, I’ve got Coke, cordial, orange juice or the usual coffee and tea.”

“Cordial will be fine.”

Despite her sudden admission though, Casey wasn’t about to shed light on the mystery and Charlie didn’t feel right about intruding. Casey did talk about her family. She came from a family of three, she was the oldest child, her brother Tim was two years below her and working in construction, and Gina had just started an arts degree at university. Her father was a software engineer and her mother worked as a tax consultant. They had been avid churchgoers when she was younger but hadn’t been to a church service since she started secondary school.

“They still have friends in the church but I’m the only one who made a commitment, the other two aren’t religious at all.”

“Puts a whole new meaning on being the black sheep of the family,” Charlie smirked.

“I suppose so,” she eyed the empty plate, “but at the rate my faith is disintegrating I think I’ll soon be turning into a white sheep. This group is starting to raise serious questions.”

“Oh that’s a long story,” she locked her hands behind her head and stretched, “shall we?”

Charlie straightened up as Casey looked down at the table.

“Sure, let’s go through to the bedroom.”

Charlie led her through to the bedroom and Casey glanced briefly at the bed and then the computer, she perched on the end of the bed and leaned back on her palms as Charlie sat down and turned the computer on. Once she’d logged on she glanced over her shoulder and nodded at her.

“Grab that chair over there and bring it over here.”

A minute or two later Casey was sitting beside her and Charlie rose.

“As the big fat lesbian says when she shits the bed, half time, change sides,” she tapped her seat, “sit down and have a play.”

For the better part of fifteen minutes Casey navigated her way through the various programs found on a typical Linux computer. They ranged from word processing and other office programs through to web browsers, graphics editors, video players, music players, and just to show her how easy it was to install software, Charlie downloaded yet another text editor from a repository.

“What about saving documents in Word format?”

“You can do that with Linux as well,” she replied, “the only problem is with certain macros but I never use them anyway. You can use Windows programs if you download a program called Wine, which usually works but not always. It can be a bitch if you play games on a Windows system but I don’t play games on computers.”

“Well that’s probably an advantage for what I’m thinking,” she rocked back in the chair, “and Linda installed this for you?”

“Yeah, I made dinner for her and Caroline one night, and she installed the system. I was going to keep the original Windows and have a dual boot system but that was just defeating the purpose, the computer was choking on Windows.”

“Excuse me for a few minutes,” she pushed away from the computer, “I need to make a phone call,” she grabbed her phone and walked out of the room leaving Charlie alone.

Casey was gone for the better part of fifteen minutes but when she came back through she was still on the phone and had plugged in a headphone and microphone.

“Well there’s money involved, we can’t ask you to do it for nothing. Hang on, I’m in her room now, I’ll ask her,” she lowered the phone.

“What’re you doing right now?”

“Sitting in front of the computer.”

“Fancy a ride down to the church hall? Linda’s going to meet us there.”

“Great,” Casey stepped away from her, “we’ll meet you there in half an hour, no worries, see you soon,” she ended the call.

“Sorry, I had to call my boss. She’s keen to look at the idea but she has to talk to the bean counters on Monday but Linda could do it, she just wants to have a look at them first.”

“What about the church? Don’t you have to ask the priest?”