The Anniversary

They made their way back to the playground and sat on the picnic table watching the sun set. It was a beautiful setting. Very romantic. But Carl didn’t get ahead of himself; Louise might not even go as far as a kiss on the first date. He needed to go at her pace.

“What are you planning to do when you graduate?” He asked.

“I haven’t thought about it, really.” Louise tucked her hair behind her ear. She had been doing that all evening. “I was thinking maybe I’d go straight into work but I don’t like any jobs out there.”

“What would you study if you wanted?”

“Probably psychology or nursing. That’s my main passion, helping people.” She glanced at him. “What were you planning to do?”

“I’m having a year out to work. After that I’ll go to university and study English.”

“You work?” Louise raised an eyebrow. “I would’ve thought with your parents’ money you wouldn’t need to work at all.”

“They may have lots and I do have a decent allowance but no more than other kids.” Carl watched the sun dip even lower. “Dad got his money by working hard. He acts like a man of leisure now but he says it’s because he earned the money. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon and doesn’t expect us to behave like we did.”

He was glad his father had raised him not to take money for granted. Others moaned that he had all that money and he didn’t use it – a lot of his classmates tried to get him to fund an expensive trip but Carl always refused – but he didn’t care. It was a lot better to use the money when he needed to instead of for the hell of it.

“So they’re not financing you on anything?”

“They are. They pay for all the sports and music clubs we go to. But it works both ways.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, Dad says he’ll buy me a car but I’m to pay for the lessons and to get my license, which is fair enough.” Carl sat back on his hands. “He is happy with whatever I study but he doesn’t want me to waste my tuition and scrounge on his money. So we agreed that if I get a job for my year out and save up enough, he’ll pay for my tuition fees and then I can use whatever I earn to go out and the like.”

“Why would he do that?”

Louise sounded surprised. Charlotte had sounded surprised when Carl had told her. But Carl saw his father’s point of view.

“He wants to make sure I will be good with my money. Mom taught me how to be good with it. If I save my money I’ll have more to spend on myself when I go to university.” Carl shrugged. “That’s fair enough to me.”

“What about your mom? What does she think about all that money?”

“She shrugs it off. I swear she’s barely made a dent in what we have. There will be splurges, such as furniture for the house and whatnot but most of what she spends goes towards us.”

Louise laughed.

“That doesn’t sound like any woman with all that money to splash on. I would’ve thought she’d go to spas every day and spend thousands on clothes.”

Carl grinned.

“Not my mom. She’s the most down-to-earth person you could meet.”

He was proud of her. His mother was a credit to him. Carl couldn’t think of a better woman than Simone. Except maybe Louise.

The girl in question was looking at him in silence, her eyes looking into his. She caught her lower lip in her teeth before her tongue snaked out. Carl gazed at her. Damn, she was beautiful. If it was possible to fall in love so quickly it had happened to him.

There came the sound of voices shouting. Louise broke eye contact and looked behind them. She stiffened and jumped off the picnic table.

“Oh, God. It’s Jason.”

Carl looked round. Jason and five of his friends were striding towards them. Jason was carrying his baseball bat, Carl’s blood still smeared on it. Another one of the group was carrying a chain. They were glaring at Carl as they approached, Jason in the lead.

A sense of foreboding settled in Carl’s gut. This wasn’t going to end well. He slid off the picnic table and stood in front of Louise, Louise clutching at his sweater, as Jason and his friends vaulted the fence and surrounded them. Carl faced Jason, trying not to look at the bat Jason was swinging.

“I told you to leave my girl alone, Reynolds.” Jason pointed the bat at his face.

“Jason,” Louise pleaded, “Just leave, please.”

“No, honey. He’s going to tell on me. And he’s trying to steal you. I’m not standing for that.”

Carl knew what was going to happen. There was no getting out of it. There were six of them and only him. This was not going to end well.

“Hey! You bas*ards get away from my son!”

Carl looked around and saw Simone running towards them. Her cell phone was in her hand and she was pointing at Jason.

“Get away from him, Jason, or I’m calling the police!”

Carl looked back at Jason at the same time Jason swung at his head. Then his head exploded and his vision went black.

*****

Toby stood by the bed and stared down at Carl, who lay unconscious with a breathing tube in, the ventilator whirring beside the bed.

He was a mess. His stitches had come out and the wound was bleeding anew. His face was a mass of black and purple bruises, his nose was broken and his jaw looked distorted. Toby had also been told that Carl had had to have emergency surgery to mend his spleen, which had ruptured. His leg was broken and his pelvis was cracked.