Feathers

3. The Door

Outside the emergency department exit of John Hunter Hospital, a stooped man wearing a hospital gown smoked a cigarette under the "No Smoking" sign. A bored-looking security guard watched him but didn't try to intervene. Michael and Kobie stepped gingerly out of the automatic glass sliding doors and into the sunshine.

"What was the number plate?" asked Kobie.

Michael looked down at his phone and then back up at the cars parked in the 5-minute waiting bay. Their Uber hadn't arrived yet.

"ADZ 05W. A white.... car."

Michael wasn't great with cars. 'It's white' was about the most he could tell from looking at one. He could tell the difference between a 4WD and a normal-sized car, but that was about it.

While they waited he breathed in the scent of the eucalypts that lined the ring road. The rain must have only just stopped because the tarmac and the neatly trimmed lawns were slick with water and the air smelled of moist earth. A small flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos picked gumnuts and insects out of the wet grass next to the ambulance bay.

The normal-sized white car with the number plate ADZ 05W pulled up in front of them and the driver leaned across the passenger seat and squinted up at them out of the window.

"Mick... er Michael?"

Their Uber driver had a bushy black moustache and wore a starched blue shirt with no creases tucked into a pair of tan chinos. Michael couldn't see his shoes but he'd wager that if he could they'd be leather and polished.

"Please sit in the back seat and apply the complimentary hand sanitiser," the driver said smiling.

There were plenty of COVID restrictions that Michael didn't enjoy. But the new rule about always sitting in the back of an Uber wasn't that bad. It meant having an excuse to sit next to Kobie, holding hands surreptitiously. It would have felt rude to leave the driver in the front by himself otherwise.

The driver hummed along to a Taylor Swift song as they drove through the hospital grounds, an oasis of orderly concrete, glass and steel in a chaotic hillside of thick dry Australian bush. They followed the ring road as it circled the emergency department, the Hunter Medical Research Institute, the Children's Hospital and then snaked through the shrubland back onto the main highway that ran above the ridge, connecting the main city of Newcastle with the outlying suburb of Charlestown and then onwards, if you kept driving for a couple of hours to the bright lights of Sydney.

They turned onto the Pacific Highway in the direction of Newcastle. Five minutes later they passed the lookout road where Michael had taken Kobie on one of their first dates. He squeezed her hand as they passed the turn-off and caught a glimpse of the sprawling city of Newcastle.

From the lookout, you could see through the coal dust haze across a sea of Colorbond painted steel rooftops to the curve of the coastline and Nobbys Lighthouse in the distance. Newcastle was technically a city but you'd be forgiven for thinking of it as an overgrown seaside town. Only the multi-storey car park near the transport interchange and the clump of medium density residential towers nestled in the shadow of the ancient cathedral gave it away.

Michael leant his head on Kobie's shoulder and curled her hand up in his lap.

"Are you sure you don't want to come to mine tonight?" he asked.

She twisted her head to kiss him on the forehead.

"You have to rest, you've got work in the morning. You know what will happen if I stay over" she said, smiling down at him. An image of Kobie lying naked on his bed in the early hours of the morning flashed through his mind.

"It's worth it though," he said.

"So is sleep. You need some you time before work."

She was right. That was one of the things he liked about her. They were in love, definitely. But it wasn't a stupid love that was so blind that they both forgot their own needs. Kobie helped him with that. She didn't want her own self consumed by the 'us'.

"I just thought maybe, with everything that happened. I know the doctor said we're fine. But just in case."

Kobie squeezed his hand.

"I'll be fine. I promise." She smiled at him, and then changed the subject "I'm sorry about your car".

His car. His first new car ever, with a lot of useful electronics that had never stopped seeming luxurious to him. Side mirrors that curled up against the body of the car when he locked the doors remotely. A touch screen that showed maps and music and a bunch of other things that he hadn't figured out yet.

Unfortunately, all those modern marvels that he enjoyed so much were also much less resistant to surviving the surge of electricity that came with a lightning strike. If he had an old Ford from 20 years ago it would probably still be fine apart from some scorch marks on the roof. At least the fuel tank hadn't caught fire and exploded.

"It'll be okay. I mean, the car probably won't. But it's insured."

It wasn't the car that he was worried about at that moment. Or even Kobie, he realised, feeling selfish. It was himself. That's why he really wanted Kobie to come over. He didn't want to be alone with his thoughts. He'd managed to push the creature from the hospital room out of his mind. But now the memory of it rose up again.

Using the reasoning that if he thought about it too much that would just make it more real, Michael had managed up until this moment to cut the thing out of his thoughts. But he knew he wouldn't be able to do that forever. Eventually, he'd have to face what he saw.

He let himself do a quick check of his surroundings. He held his breath while he scanned the periphery of his vision. He couldn't see any telltale sign of it. No dark cloak, no moving shadows. No glint of a beak or a beady eye.

Obviously his brain had been affected somehow by the electricity. It wasn't surprising. Just like the electrical circuits in his car that had been fried by the strike, he couldn't expect his brain to escape completely unscathed.

He looked across at Kobie. She was staring out the window, watching the afternoon light. She didn't seem bothered. Was it happening to her too, was she seeing things? No. She would have said something. She was better than him. More honest. More brave.

The Uber slowed down as it pulled into Vera Street and parked next to the Coles Express service station. Kobie's bedsit was tucked behind the flowering frangipani tree and rusted gate of number 11.

"I'll walk you to your door at least," Michael said.

"Is that okay?" he asked the driver "Can you keep the meter running while I walk my girlfriend to her door?"

"There is no meter sir but certainly I don't mind" The driver smiled back it him from behind his moustache in the rear vision mirror.

They walked across the road and Kobie unhooked the latch on the rusted metal gate and held it open for Michael. He walked up her short concrete path past the overgrown frangipani to her chipped patio.

He stopped dead in his tracks. Kobie bumped into him and then seeing the front door let out an audible groan.

Scrawled across the faded white paint of the wooden door in bright red spray paint was the word 'WHORE'.

"What the hell?" Michael's face reddened with anger. "Who would do this?"

"Dean," said Kobie. She didn't look angry or hurt. Just tired.

Dean was her somewhat recent ex-boyfriend. They'd already been broken up for six months before he'd met Kobie. But Dean hadn't taken the break up well. Kobie had told him that he was unpredictable, aggressive. This was Michael's first time seeing it for himself.

Kobie sighed.

"Maybe I will take you up on your offer. If it's still okay?" She looked up at him with sad eyes.

"Of course it is, come on"

He led her gently by the hand back to the Uber.

"A change of plan sir?" said the driver as they slid into the back seat "ahh young love".

He winked at them in the rearview mirror and pulled out, turning right at the traffic lights and driving down Maitland Road towards Michael's flat.