The Empty Room Page 15

Grabbing our bottles of water from Georgia’s back pack.

  “I’m so tired this is going to suck,” Karen said to me.

  Wiping the sweat from her forehead looking less enthusiastic than her excited sisters.

  “Hey let’s go up the stairs and take a photo with the colosseum in the back ground,” Lisa suggested.

  “Yeah that’ll be fun,” Georgia said.

  I lean over and tell Karen, “Unlucky.” Smiling, like an idiot at her.

  “I’ll make the effort for them, but you’ll keep,” Karen said to me.

  Walking up the stairs, Jeff asked me how Karen was doing, after realising the walk wore a few people out.

  “She’s coping man,” I said.

  “Well, let us know if she starts to really struggle, we don’t mind sitting down for a bit aye,” Jeff said.

  Lisa looked back and nodded in agreement, which seemed to just piss Karen off more.

  “Hey guys I’m fine I’ll let you know if I’m not fine,” Karen said, quite angrily.

  As we all made it into the colosseum finally having a good look around, it was bigger than you would have thought from the outside, I walked up to the balcony turning around and suggesting we take a quick photo up here. Luckily everyone agreed and we got one of the locals to snap off a few pics for us.

  Walking up to the guy afterwards I could tell he was thinking about making a runner, luckily he stops to think about it and hands me back the camera and walks away.

  “Thanks man,” I said, as he wanders off and the rest just stare at me with bizarre looks on their faces.

  “Hey Phil, was he going to make a runner?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah, wouldn’t be the first time that happened in Italy,” I said.

  “Anyway let’s take some more photos, as Karen wasn’t really-smiling in these,” I added, looking through the photos. Best thing about a digital camera.

  “Can I see that?” Lisa asked

  “Yeah no worries, take it easy on the delete button, you’ve got your eyes closed in a couple of them,” I said.

  Lisa just shakes her head at Karen with a big smile on her face, I can see the look Karen gives back and starts laughing when she looks at me.

  “These are all pretty good,” Lisa said.

  As Georgia takes a quick look and agreed.

  Any way we hung around and took a few more pictures and just relaxed and watched a few other groups.

  “Hey, we should wander back soon and get ready for later tonight,” Jeff said.

  “Yeah, we’re still dressing up aren’t we?” Karen asked.

  Looking rather excited. A little too excited I thought to myself, though I shrugged it off and started to follow everyone to the exit.

  “Hey so what did you think?” I asked Karen.

  “I’m not sure how to best describe it,” Karen said, beaming at me.

  “This place is pretty cool aye?” I said.

  “Phil it’s incredible, I was so excited walking up to here, I can’t explain it, its awe inspiring, I’m so ridiculously excited to be here,” Karen said, still smiling, grabbing my hand and giving it a little squeeze.

  Just as Georgia turned around and smiled at us both, as we all reached the exit.

  “Let’s go get something to eat or drink,” Georgia said.

  “Yeah sounds good,” I said.

  “Nick lead the way man,” Jeff said.

  As we all stood around agreeing, getting a few filthy looks from Georgia, which had us holding back a lot of laughter.

  We took a few steps away and I stepped forward,

  “Hey Arkos sisters, How bout a quick photo?” I asked.

  “Yeah that would be great thanks Phil,” Lisa said.

  “Yeah thanks Phil,” Karen said, giving me a bit of a meh face. Which had Jeff and Georgia laughing at me.

  “Alright you three just stand there and I’ll take a few pics,” I said.

  As Jeff and Nick came and stood next to me, taking a few then walking over to Lisa and handing her the camera,

  “There you go Lisa,” I said.

  “Now let’s go get something to eat,” Jeff said.

  As we set off on a bit of a walking tour, finding a green hotdog stand a little further along, I had to try another dodgy hotdog again.

  Filled up, we slowly headed back to our hotels to get changed and head out with everyone that night.

  “Oh man I’m so tired but today was really great,” Karen said.

  “Yeah I was gonna ask, you did really-well today,” I said.

  “I’m just gonna have a quick shower then we can head over to the other hotel,” Karen said.

  “Yeah take your time I might relax for a bit,” I said.

  While Karen just laughed and went and took a shower, I switched on the computer and saw a message from Hannah.

  Hey I’m heading off to china and should be landing a day before you, hope you don’t mind I got some advice from Audrey and booked a few tours, is one of Karen’s sisters or family members coming with you guys cause we have four booked for the hotel so I just booked four for the tours as well, by the postcards it sounds like you’re having a great time, tell Karen we’re thinking of her and you, not sure why we’re thinking about you though. Ha

  Hannah.

  I got up and went to quickly spoke with Karen.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey are you getting in, plenty of room,” Karen said.

  “Not just now,” I said, as Karen pouted a little.

  “Ha, hey is it cool if I let Hannah know we’re bringing a sister with us?” I asked.

  “Yeah no worries, why’s that?” Karen asked.

  “Ah, she’s just booking a few tours for us in China,” I said.

  “Oh cool, that’s so nice of her,” Karen said.

  “I’ll wait and see, but if it’s the ones Audrey was talking about it might be fun,” I said.

  Heading back out and flicking Hannah a quick message. Just as I heard Karen get out of the shower.

  “Showers free Phil!” Karen yelled, from the bedroom.

  Turning the computer off and heading into get ready.

  “I won’t be long,” I said, to Karen and she was still getting ready.

  We left and headed over to the others hotel about half an hour later. The night was so long but, we filled up on a couple of coffees, Karen got a second wind and we ended up having a great time, I’m sure Karen made a few memories she would cherish in that time spent with her sisters, even laughing during another call to Tara, all of them had a fun night.

  14

  The First Message

  It took us ages to finally get to Switzerland just over seven hours, the landscape went from the rocky muddiness of Italy, to the lush greenery of Switzerland. The train ride was long and Karen hated being cooped up in cabin on a train, I did offer to get one of those scenic river cruises. But she thought it would take too long. I thought she was being stupid after everything we had seen together, I still hadn’t told her I loved her, I was saving it for that moment we would eventually get. She amazed me, the person I had known for so long and possibly the strongest person I had ever met. Or at least the most stubborn.

  As I drifted off to sleep I found myself back at my old college in front of the guidance counsellor.

  “You need to take your future seriously, you cannot, I repeat cannot go around hitting people,” The guidance counsellor declared.

  “For the record again I didn’t hit anyone, what the hell am I doing in here,” I replied.

  “We want to try a new thing a way of dealing with people wanting to act out in an unsatisfactory manner,” The counsellor remarked.

  Really-starting to piss me off.

  “We asked your parents and they have giving us permission to ask you to try this pen pal scenario to see if we can use it in the future.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Take this, her names Karen Arkos and she’s from Sydney, she’s finding ou
t about you, now.” The guidance counsellor said.

  As he was saying all this I was still surprised my parents put me up for this shit.

  I had possibly just become the out of control teenager they probably thought I was.

  “Hey, take this, you’ll need to be in the computer room while you’re on your study break,” the guidance counsellor suggested.

  “Yip, whatever.”

  Taking the envelope and walking out in to the hall and back to my next class.

  It wasn’t till after lunch that I had my study break, so I wasn’t really-worried about anything. I had my own email set up I had to change my password and then I had no idea why I was doing this. Or why was I suppose to talk someone in Sydney, this was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of. What kind of idiot university class came up with this stupid idea. I didn’t hit anyone. Well, lunch went really-quickly unfortunately and I soon found myself sitting in front of the computer. Typing in my email address and password, quickly changing my password and opening up my inbox. Not thinking I’d already have a message from Karen on it. Though it was there and staring back at me. HI, she had written in the title. Opening it up, now I can laugh at the profanity but at the time it was rather descriptive.

  Hi, I hate this, why the FUCK do we have to do this SHIT, so I tried to cut myself I’m sure you’ve done it, we’re not all little bitches, I just need to get the FUCK out of the FUCKEN place, ah FUCK FUCK FUCK.

  Karen.

  I thought about laughing when I was reading it, but luckily half way through she sent me another message, I wasn’t really-looking forward to reading it. Though I opened it up anyway.

  Sorry about that, but the annoying teacher was looking over my shoulder and I wanted them to leave. I think they’ve gone to get the principal as I clicked send, just wanted you to know I’m not that angry but don’t see the point of any of this. They wanted me to tell you about myself, I’m a girl, I live in Sydney I have sisters who are prettier than me and I won’t introduce you to them. I hate red headed people, as my cousins use to bully me and have ginger speckled heads so if you’ve got ginger hair the messages will stop.

  Wow, I thought to myself. looking down at the keyboard, nothing witty or well thought out would come across as something I could write, that and the fact I was thinking about her sisters, I started laughing to myself. Though eventually it came to me.

  You sound like an angry smoker, I’ve done some stupid stuff the past few weeks but nothing I saw myself would involved this sort of thing, I did smoke weed for the first time on the weekend, that’s the naughtiest thing I’ve ever done. I know badass right. I hate this, supposedly I hit someone and the school guidance counsellor thought this was a good idea. I have brothers that I won’t introduce you to either, just because fair is fair. I’m not sure what to say about myself, I’m a normal kid that does normal things, I write a bit and hopefully one day I’ll write a book, but who knows. I don’t know why I’m on here but I guess if you want to talk I’m here, or on here.

  I clicked send, and also flicked Karen my home email address, I didn’t see the point of any of this, little did I know we’d talk almost every week until finally meeting the day I would walked into my Literary agents and spotted the ring on her pinky finger. We talked about how she was doing, she had someone on the end of an email she could confide in. We would always chat, she’d asked me about guy stuff and I used her for the knowledge on the ladies. She found me dorky and I found her a little bit dopey.

  It wasn’t like we would ever meet so we would open-up about everything, we occasionally sent each other postcards over the years to where we were at, it was the strangest relationship I ever had, I hardly ever talked about her unless I was drunk and would cop it from time to time, I never let anyone contact her, but I did get a message from her mum once, thanking me. which I still thought was strange, I had no idea what was going on in real-life, but over time I was happy to know that her mum knew about me. With everything that happened.

  “Hey wake up we’re here,” Karen said

  “Yeah, get moving, I’m hungry,” Georgia said.

  As, Karen just looked at me like it was my idea to invite the both of them along for this leg of our tour. I hadn’t told them we’d be flying off to China after a three night stay in Switzerland. Though I was starting to get hungry as well.

  “Yeah let’s go get something to eat,” I said.

  As I go and grab Karen’s bag and we all walked out to try and get the courtesy car we had organised with the hotel.

  Luckily the guy was there waiting for us, so we piled all the bags in the back and headed off to the hotel.

  Still yawning, quietly kicking myself for inviting Nick and Georgia along.

  “So, what’s the plan while we’re here guys?” Nick asked.

  “Well there’s a few things to do but first let’s go get checked in then meet you guys back down stairs once we’ve dumped our bags in our room or you both can meet at ours,” I said.

  “We might try and sort out some stuff to go through their laundry while we’re here,” Karen added.

  “Yeah sounds good sis, we might do the same,” Georgia remarked.

  “Well, let’s get you guys and ladies to the hotel,” the driver insisted.

  Just as we all jumped in the van and the driver jumped in his seat and motored away to the hotel.

  Looking out at the view I had forgotten what this place was like and started wishing we might have been here for longer. Karen just sat there and squeezed my hand possibly knowing what I was thinking.

  It didn’t take us long to get to the hotel and we were all pretty tired and hungry.

  “Thanks for last night sis, it was a really great way to end our time in Rome,” Karen commented, to Georgia.

  “Yeah, it was a fun night, luckily you guys came to get us in the morning or we might have slept in and missed the train,” Georgia replied.

  “Yeah, good of Lisa and Jeff to see us off as well, hope they made it to the airport okay,” I added.

  As Nick just sat there agreeing with everything being said.

  It took us about half an hour to get to our hotel, and luckily the cog train was just a short walk away so we could head up the mountain while we were here, I thought.

  Walking in and sorting out our rooms, we told the other two we’d meet them at ours in about twenty minutes once we were sorted and headed off.

  “Hey Nick is pretty quiet aye,” Karen remarked.

  “Not really, he got pretty-loud last night,” I replied, back to Karen as the memory of Nick singing in to his bread stick still made Karen laugh,

  “Yeah he’ll never live down that bread stick incident.”

  “Agreed,” I added, putting my stuff in the room and walking over to where Karen was standing looking out the window.

  “I’m okay,” Karen whispered, wrapping me up in her arms and giving me a squeeze.

  “Ha, good to hear,” leaning over and kissing her on the forehead.

  “This has been an amazing trip Phil, can’t wait for China, bags not telling Georgia she’s not invited though,” Karen remarked.

  Laughing I agreed to tell her in a few days.

  “Hey do you want a drink of anything,” I asked.

  “Yeah, what have we got to drink?” Karen replied.

  “I’m just going to put my bag in the bedroom,” Karen said winking.

  I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a couple of cans of soda and headed over to the couch to check some emails. Luckily the wifi in the hotel was supposed to be awesome.

  “Hey do you want me to email your mum?” I asked Karen, still in the bedroom. Just as she walked out shaking her head at me. While someone knocked on the door.

  “Saved by the door,” I said, smiling at her.

  As she opened it up and Nick and Georgia strolled in.

  “Hey, nice room guys,” Georgia said, looking around.

  “Yeah, do you guys want to go and have a look around?” I asked.<
br />
  “Um, we might skip the wander and catch up for dinner,” Georgia said, as Karen and I started laughing.

  “That’s terrible, what?” I asked.

  “Oh I’m just really tired from the train and need to chill out for a bit,” Georgia said, while Nick looked on agreeing.

  “Yeah no worries we’ll see you both later on,” I replied.

  As they both left Karen turned to me,

  “Hey, where should we go?” Karen asked.

  “Um, let’s go and have a look around and see what’s close,” I replied.

  While Karen agreed and we both went and got sorted. Before ten minutes later walking out of the hotel and noticing it was a bit cold, only to look up and see Nick and Georgia making out near their hotel balcony.

  “Ew,” Karen said laughing.

  “Ha, hey let’s go up and grab a jersey it’s a little bit chilly,” I laughed.

  “Yeah good idea,” Karen replied, having a quick look around and noticing what looked like a little lolly store, just around the corner.

  “I say we go there first though.”

  As we both agreed and quickly went back to our room and grabbed a jumper each before hearing some loud noises coming from the area where Georgia and Nick’s room was.

  “Ha, good for them,” I said, making Karen feel uncomfortable,

  “Last thing I want to hear,” Karen replied, as we both laughed our way back down the elevator and into the lolly store. Purchasing a few items before continuing along the steep streets and into a few other shops before finding a little bar out of the way and walking in.

  “So, cog train tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Yeah sounds good,” Karen replied.

  “Hey did you email my mum?” Karen asked.

  “Nope, only really got the laptop out of the bag and put it on the coffee table,” I replied.

  “What should we drink, is it too early for a beer?” Karen asked.

  “Ah, never too early,” I said, smiling getting up and walking over to the bar.

  Ordering a jug of their lager and getting a couple of glasses before heading back to the table.

  “Hey nice score,” I commented to Karen. As she had somehow got us the seats closest to the fire place just next to a smallish coffee table.