When Belinda hears Chloe sobbing into the phone, hundreds of kilometres away, she knows that unlike herself Chloe does not yet have the ability not to feel anymore. But then again, Belinda wasn’t the one to get the phone call.
‘She said – she said she is really going to do it this time’ Chloe cried. Pulling her emotional blinds down quickly, and only betrayed by a slight fluttering of her heart, Belinda listened. ‘She said she has driven somewhere, where we won’t be able to find her. She is in the car and she has a hose and she has taken pills – ‘ Chloe stops to take a shuddering breath.
They both know if she was really going to do it she wouldn’t make the call. She wants to be saved. But by being saved she wants to be looked after, cosseted, coddled and cocooned. She doesn’t want to learn, understand, look after herself.
She won’t call Belinda because she won’t cry, get distraught. Belinda will tell her off, call her out for her manipulation. Tell her to get proper help, call the police.
Belinda hangs up the phone, while Chloe calls their father. She wonders if maybe, really, this is finally it.
