The Empty Room Read online

  “Caught anything yet?” I asked, smiling at him.

  “Just an off day, bro,” Devin replied laughing.

  “Well, it was your boat and it was your equipment.”

  “Yeah fair enough, physio was pretty-rough man, thanks for the postcards dick,” Devin commented.

  “Yeah man, thought I’d send you a few to make sure someone was pushing you along,” I replied.

  “Well, dick, it worked so thanks,” Devin laughed, raising a glass and we both clink ours together.

  Karen just sat there beaming away as the wine was starting to make her a bit intoxicated and sleepy.

  Hannah however just looked at the both of us and nearly started to cry.

  “I’ve missed this, can’t wait to have you both back in London,” Hannah said to both myself and Karen.

  “What about Devin, Hannah?” I asked.

  “Nah, I’m good bro, I’ve got a bit on back home at the moment,” Devin replied, with a pause that wasn’t lost on Karen or I.

  Luckily I didn’t get to grill him on it, as the tequilas had just arrived at the table and some of the food I had ordered.

  “All right guys and girls let’s get this sorted.”

  Picking up the salt and licking my hand, pouring some of the salt on to it and licking my hand again with the salt on it, then straight away drinking the tequila and shoving a lemon wedge into my mouth,

  “Ah that’s just awful,” I announced.

  Followed by everyone else, placing their shot glasses just in front of themselves.

  “All right guys this is when it gets funny. Grab one of these clean shot glasses and turn it upside-down. Now what you want to do is pour the little dribble that’s left in the glass you’ve just drunk from, and pour it into the groove on the bottom of this glass.”

  Everyone followed me, giving me some strange looks.

  “All right close one of your nostrils and then snort the tequila out of the groove.”

  Being the first to do it, the others didn’t realise that my eyes didn’t water anymore.

  As the others watched they were none the wiser, Devin was the first to do it, followed pretty-quickly by the girls.

  All three of them had an eye watering for ages, I couldn’t stop laughing.

  “I’m immune,” I declared.

  As they all tried to look at me pissed off with their eyes watering.

  “I should have said it was a stupid idea,” I added.

  Grabbing some of the nibbles and munching away, as they just sat there crying out of one of their eyes.

  “Wow, I should have known better,” Hannah remarked, grabbing some napkins trying to dry her eye.

  The others following along, trying to dry their eyes, Karen leaning over a squeezing my leg.

  “Thanks, but I’ll never do that ever again.”

  ‘I can’t see these two saying the same thing’ I thought to myself.

  I had no idea what Devin had going on in New Zealand and I wouldn’t meet Hannah’s drop kick partner till I got back to London and the idiot tried to hit me after I caught him trying to hit Hannah.

  ‘We were here in China and the adventure of it all laid in front of us,’ I thought to myself. Be it a moist start to the trip.

  “Guys have something to eat, there’s more food coming, we’re all sorted to have a look around tomorrow, let’s get some room service up at ours later but let’s eat all of this and have a few more drinks.”

  Only the girls ordered another bottle and Devin and I were really-enjoying the beers. The food took us ages to eat as I ordered way too much, the bar staff said they would send what hadn’t been sent out yet, straight up to our room for us, which worked out really-well.

  Finishing up our drinks and the food being sent up to our room, I ordered a dozen beers and a few bottles of wine.

  Even with the bar fridge we had, tonight was going to be awesome.

  “So are you guys ready?” Karen asked.

  “Yeah, just sorting everything else,” I replied.

  As I joined them back at the table and grabbing my beer,

  “What we’re heading back up now?” I asked

  “Yeah, we’ve just waiting for you bro,” Devin replied.

  So, I quickly necked the beer and got up with the others. Walking over to the elevator Hannah wrapped an arm around me,

  “How’s it going Douchebag?” Hannah asked.

  “Yeah, it’s going all right Hannah.”

  “Good to hear,” Hannah remarked.

  As Devin was chatting to Karen as Hannah and I stepped in and turned and waited for them.

  “Oh man, let’s head up to our room,” I declared.

  “Yeah bro,” Devin agreed.

  Finally making it in, Devin turned and asked me.

  “So bro, you’ve known Karen since high school?”

  “Yeah bro, we go back man,” I replied.

  “Oh really,” Hannah remarked, looking like she wanted to know more of this story.

  As we left the elevator and walked into our room, noticing that we had ordered way too much food, but the wine was in an ice bucket surrounded by a few beers.

  “Yeah, okay, let’s eat this stuff and have a few more drinks,” I declared, filling up the glasses and handing them out to everyone.

  Raising mine up,

  “Hey guys let’s toast to China,” I said.

  The others laughed and joined in.

  “TOO CHINA!” We all toasted.

  “So Karen, what do you want to know?” I asked.

  “How does Cam and Susan fit in?” Karen replied.

  “Ah,” Hannah said, grabbing a seat on the couch with Karen as Devin and I sat on the other.

  “Well, Cam was one of my oldest friends and Susan basically was his fiancé, that at one time, Devin and I lived with in a house in Ealing.”

  “They got caught up in the terrorist attacks,” Hannah commented.

  “One of the strangest times I’ve ever had to live through.”

  With Hannah agreeing,

  “It wasn’t fun,” Hannah added.

  “I was in an induced coma,” Devin remarked.

  “After my friend had jumped on me on the tube as I had jumped on a couple of kids that we saved,” Devin added.

  “He should have just hit the floor of the tube and he’d still be here,” Devin remarked. Wiping the dust from his eyes.

  As the room got quiet.

  “I’ve never heard that,” Hannah said, as a tear started to fall down her face.

  “Susan got caught on the bus and we lost her too,” I added.

  “Her mum was in town so it was just a still crazy, sad time,” I mentioned.

  “I couldn’t feel, I was lost,” I added.

  As Karen just looked at me and started to cry, pretty-hard and Devin just looked at me strangely as Hannah wrapped an arm around her.

  “So we don’t talk about it, but when we’re here together, we’ll always take a second and thank everything for the times we had together,” I said.

  “Those memories mean the world to us,” I added, looking at Karen.

  Devin finally figuring out that something wasn’t quite right with Karen.

  He knew our history and he knew our present as Karen had sort of filled him in.

  “Anyway, we’re here and we are together again,” I said, standing up.

  “Too cam and Susan!”

  As everyone else got up and we all toasted and then sat back down again.

  “Thank you guys, I now know that must have been tough,” Karen said.

  As we just looked at each other and enjoyed the next three hours before we all started yawning, half boozed and knackered.

  “Hey guys the tours in the afternoon so we have heaps of time to recover, lets meet back here in the morning before heading to breakfast,” Hannah suggested.

  As Hannah and Devin left and Karen and I turned and headed off to get ready for bed.

  “Thanks for letting me in on that story
about, Cam and Susan,” Karen declared.

  “Yeah well, you know more about me now I guess,” I remarked.

  As soon as we both laid our heads down we were out to it till the next morning, only being woken up by Hannah who had, she told us been knocking on the door for ages.

  “Morning Hannah.”

  Opening-up the door in a robe, which made Hannah laugh.

  “Nice robe,” Hannah said.

  “Thanks, what time is it?” I asked.

  “Its ten, hurry up and get ready,” Hannah added.

  “Oh aren’t we excited Hannah,” I teased.

  Just as Devin walked up and saw the robe I was wearing and started laughing which had Hannah laughing as well.

  Which was fine till Karen woke up and saw the robe and started laughing, not the start of the day I was hoping for. By the time we got sorted and got room service we were down stairs and being introduced to our travel guide who could speak Chinese and English, which was handy. She took us to all the main tourists spots in Beijing, and we had an amazing day. I stood at the side of the Great Wall and took a photo of the three of them, till both Devin and Hannah wanted a photo of Karen and I. I could see the look on Hannah’s face and smiled back. The day went great. We were surprised by exhibits in the museum and by the things we saw around the streets. The guide did a great job of showing us around, by the time we got back to our hotel we were knackered. We still had four more days to go before the train, in those days of sight-seeing we tried to persuade Devin to join us on the train but with no luck, he had to get back for more physio, hiding something else in the way that he spoke. The terracotta soldiers were amazing and the tour guides we somehow got whether through Audrey or share luck were all awesome, we were all good, but spent the nights pretty tired laughing and drinking in Karen and my hotel suite, luckily we were all sober or sober enough to go and see Devin off on our second to last day, before we had to get sorted for the train.

  “Thanks guys, I really needed this trip,” Devin declared.

  “You’re welcome bro, glad you could join us. Still a spare seat on the train bro if you change your mind,” I said.

  “Ha, a bit late now bro, how’s the eucalyptus and ear buds treating ya, forgot to ask,” Devin laughed.

  “Yeah, he still uses them and gets funny looks Devin,” Karen commented,

  As Hannah and Devin started laughing.

  I just smiled and shook my mates hand as both Karen and Hannah hugged Devin goodbye.

  “See ya guys send me those pics Phil, the wall and Taktsang Dzong,” Devin insisted.

  “Yeah, I’ll see how I feel,” I replied.

  We all started laughing as Devin walked off and we jumped back into the hotel courtesy van and headed back.

  16

  The Last Train to Russia

  We had a whole day to wait for the train, and unfortunately Hannah thought it would be the perfect time the night before to have a huge one our last night in Beijing. We drank to Devin, which was stupid he had only just left. I had one of the suits I had made up on and we sat around downstairs. Luckily Karen was enjoying herself and was talking with Hannah and having a great time. I smiled as I watched these two. I wouldn’t put my thoughts on what was to happen. I was just getting greedy and wanted Karen in my life as much as possible, only for her to give me a strange smirk every once and a while. I knew I was going to email Hannah when we were in Amsterdam to leave the light green bag on my bed, so Karen could find it when we walked back in. I was drifting off thinking about all the scenarios that might occur. Luckily Karen walked up to me and whispered.

  “Smile, we don’t have long here so smile. So, I can catch it with my eyes and store it away forever.”

  Then for whatever reason kissed me on the cheek, and walked away back to Hannah.

  I sat there staring at the both of them again. Just smiling and taking it all in. For one brief moment Karen wasn’t sick, she was herself, beautiful, powerful and graceful. Till that was shattered when she stumbled in her high heels. Hannah only just catching her before she tumbled over. I walked over to make sure she was alright and thought about taking the party up to our room.

  “Do you ladies want to stay here or do you want to get a few bottles and some food sent up to the room?” I asked.

  “Let’s stay here for a while longer, but food sounds good,” Hannah replied.

  “Yeah I could eat, food does sound good,” Karen added.

  “Alright, I’ll go order some,” I said, walking back to the table then up to the bar to order some finger food. The night stretched out for ages, we laughed till our sides hurt, we talked about what we had seen in China and what Karen and I had seen and done, how much writing I had done, which surprised Hannah as well as Karen, both looked shocked at the amounts I could get done. In no time at all I was already up to seventy thousand words. Hannah knew why.

  “So are you gonna tell us what this book is about?” Karen asked.

  Hannah just started laughing.

  “Come on you have to tell us,” Hannah said, smiling while Karen smiled as well.

  “No, it’s bad luck,” I replied.

  “So what’s happening with Devin,” I asked Hannah.

  “He told me not to say anything as its bad luck,” Hannah replied, sticking her tongue out at me.’

  Making Karen lose it, both of them started laughing again. I was having so much fun my head was twirling around and around and I really-wanted to get some words down. Karen had inspired me this whole trip. She noticed me give her another weird look and understood, squeezing my leg under the table.

  “Hey did you know Karen was nearly a physio?” Hannah asked.

  “Yeah, I knew that Hannah.”

  “Oh, okay,” Hannah said, blushing a little.

  “Did you know Hannah wanted to be a ballerina,” Karen said.

  As I started choking on my beer and Hannah took it upon herself to whack me on the back, not lost on Karen.

  “Thanks Hannah.”

  “You’re welcome Phil,” Hannah commented.

  Finally, our food turned up and we laughed through our meal then ordering a few drinks we headed upstairs.

  “So all three of us in a cabin on the train,” Hannah commented.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to put up with your snoring for a few nights Hannah,” I remarked.

  “Wow, you can’t really talk Phil,” Karen added, smiling at me, making her and Hannah start laughing again.

  “Hey Hannah do you want to crash out in here tonight,” I asked.

  “Yeah, was going to anyway, and just sit up and talk to you guys,” Hannah replied.

  “Yeah sounds good,” Karen added.

  As we polished off a couple of bottles of wine we sat up for ages laughing and talking, it was a night I got to remember some of the things I had forgotten about Karen. I got to admire the strength she still had when Hannah mentioned it. Hannah just looked on and occasionally at me, making sure I was all right I guessed.

  Karen asked Hannah heaps of question which were embarrassing when she knew the answers about me. We both agreed neither of us wanted to talk about Anna, which made to room feel awkward for a while.

  It was the worst night’s sleep ever. Somehow, Hannah was in the bed and both Karen and I were crashed out on the couch. We both laughed when we woke up and we could hear Hannah snoring in the bedroom.

  “This train trip is going to be rough,” Karen joked.

  Moving around trying to get comfortable.

  We were both laughing when Hannah snorted and snored in her sleep.

  “Yeah we should have gotten our own cabin,” I replied laughing.

  “Hey should we order some room service and get ready?” Karen asked.

  “We probably should, or.” I had just said.

  Karen turned around which was a tough ask on the small three seater couch we had thrown the back cushions in the corner of the room.

  “We can’t with Hannah in the bedroom,” Karen commented.
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br />   “Oh not that, but thanks for bringing it up, we can just lie here a little longer.”

  “Oh okay,” Karen said, looking at me smiling.

  “Then you might want to do something with that,” Karen added, pointing down.

  “Ha, it’ll sort itself out,” I joked, as we both laughed.

  Just as we heard Hannah moving around in the bedroom.

  Laughing when Hannah said, “hey this isn’t my room,” then running to the ensuite toilet and spewing.

  “Oh no, I’ll go see if she’s all right, we’re gonna need something hot and plenty of coffee,” I remarked.

  “I’m on it,” Karen added.

  Walking through the room, checking the bed to make sure Hannah hadn’t thrown up during the night, feeling relieved once I saw nothing. Walking in to find Hannah crying and lying next to the toilet.

  “Hey are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’m just going to need a second,”

  I took a seat on the bath and turned to Hannah.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I’ve got your back, I’m here if you need anything Hannah,” I added, a little more in my annoyed tone than I was hoping for.

  “I’ll tell you once you’re back, let’s just have a great train trip okay.”

  “Okay, but,” I started to say.

  “I know,” Hannah insisted, wiping her face with my jersey top and splashing some water in her face at the basin.

  “Hey, I’m gonna head back to my room and have a shower, then I’ll pop back down for breakfast in about half an hour,” Hannah remarked, hugging me as she walked out.

  “I’ll see you soon Hannah,” I said, following her out as Karen hung up the phone.

  “Breakfast has been ordered,” Karen declared.

  “Cool, I’m just gonna have a shower, pack, then bring my stuff back down here,” Hannah replied.

  As Karen walked up and hugged her before she walked down the hall.

  “Is Hannah okay Phil?” Karen asked.

  “I don’t think so, but nothing I can’t sort out.”

  “Ha, poor bloke,” Karen joked, hugging me.

  “I’m just going to jump in the shower, are you going to wait out here for room service?” Karen asked.

  “Yeah, if I have to,” I said, looking at Karen dropping my lip.

  “Ha, I’ll see you soon,” Karen laughed.