Chapter 3

Duane

Tiffany phoned him two days later.

“Saturday evening, three weeks from now,” she said excitedly. “Make sure you're available, OK?”

“I don't have anything on,” he told her mildly, glancing at his wall calendar.

“Well, now you're committed. Can you spare a few rand for a gift?”

“Sure. Whose birthday is it?” He glanced at the calendar again. All his friends' birthdays were marked on it, but there is nothing on the Saturday Tiffany mentioned.

“Surprise party for Evan and Leila. They're getting engaged. They're taking their parents out for lunch, and we're planning on abducting them afterwards.”

Duane felt his heart turn to lead. He had been expecting this, but without even admitting it to himself, he had still hoped against hope that Leila might change her mind.

“All right,” he managed, hoping she wouldn’t detect the disappointment in his voice. “How much do you need for the present?”

Caoimhe

I should be grateful that I was spared witnessing Alan and Miranda's courtship, I think.

Would it have been more painful than his sudden departure? I don't know. I have to admit that by the time he left, there was little left of our initial happiness. He was dissatisfied with me for a number of reasons. I was afraid of him, depressed and disillusioned.

I don't like where my thoughts are heading. This is exactly why I wanted a book. I can't face the pain of analysing what went wrong. Not yet, anyway. I pick the book up again, and push my personal problems into a deep recess in my mind.

Caoimhe is trying to rebuild her life after her husband of seven years walks out on her. On the first weekend she has to face alone, she hopes to escape from the thoughts she doesn’t want to face by reading a damaged book she bought cheaply at a second hand book shop.

Right from the start, she notices parallels between her life and that of Duane, the luckless main character in the book. As her empathy with the storybook character grows, she starts fantasizing about Duane.

By chance, Caoimhe’s sister finds her an expensive apartment which is renting out cheaply, but it is surrounded by mystery. The owner of the apartment had vanished on Halloween eleven years earlier, and the only indication that he may still be alive is his indirect contact, every year on the day of his disappearance.

Caoimhe moves to the apartment, but she can no longer ignore the strange coincidences between her life and the book, which now seem to involve her mysterious missing landlord as well. As she tries to unravel the puzzles, reality starts blurring into fantasy.

Meanwhile, the next anniversary of her landlord's disappearance is approaching.