Page 27 of People Skills

‘But it won’t hurt to still do my program. It’s not about writing. It’s about getting you in a headspace where you might want to write.’

‘You have a program?’ He looks very skeptical.

‘A program. A syllabus. Of sorts,’ I say.

He’s looking amused now.

‘I would tailor it to your needs, of course.’ I’m trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about.

‘My needs,’ he repeats. He’s looking at me like he’s half-scared of what I’ll make him do and half-fascinated by what it might entail.

‘Yes,’ I say.

‘Well,’ he says, carefully. ‘That sounds…batshit crazy.’

‘Will you do it?’ I ask.

‘No,’ he says.

As if on cue, Rex jumps on my couch and walks along the back of it, tail swishing. He appears to be eyeing the curtains now. He’s going to take a flying leap on to them, I can tell.

Xavier senses this too and stands up and grabs him. He looks at me and sighs. ‘Okay, fine, I’ll do it. But only if you admit that my mother put you up to this.’

‘I will admit that helping you is also helpful for my career.’

He raises his eyebrows but says nothing.

‘We start early tomorrow,’ I say. I don’t want to get up early but I suspect Xavier doesn’t want to get up early even more than I don’t, and I need to assert my power. And break his nocturnal lifestyle.

‘Okay.’

‘At 6 am.’

‘At 6 am…okay sure.’ He’s trying to appear unconcerned.

I have the upper hand here and I need to exploit it. His guilt will fade once Rex is settled in, so I need to use what power I have while I have it. Now I’ll have to frantically spend the rest of the day figuring out exactly what this much-hyped program actually is.

11

WAKING UP WASN’T difficult because Rex started yowling at five-thirty, which Xavier assures me he ‘never usually does’ and must be ‘because he’s missing Lana’. He also pushed open my door, jumped on my bed and started paddy-pawing my hair.

My plan for Xavier is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Or unsticks, as it were. See what resonates with him. Starting with getting up early to walk on the beach at sunrise. This hits a few key elements: exercise, the ocean, early morning, the wonders of nature and all that. Seeing the day begin. Getting off on the right foot.

It’s going to be a warm summer day, but it’s very early when we start out and there is a cold breeze coming in off the sea, so we’re in long sleeves. I insisted we leave while it is still dark, because if you get up early enough, you can see the sunrise over the sea, stretching across the skyline, pinks and purples and buttery yellows, and if you walk to the rock wall and turn around, you can watch the sunrise all the way as you walk home, starting small and getting bigger and bigger, like a secret performance the sky is putting on just for you.

I have never actually done this before, but Jamila has shown me photos from her early-morning beach runs.

Xavier and I don’t talk much at first. It’s dark and I have a little torch with me so we don’t trip over anything. My house is five minutes’ walk from the beach, which is one of the best things about it, and while most of the beaches in the area are surf beaches with huge waves, Barwon Bay’s beach is mostly flat, with occasional waves that never get big enough to surf. It’s a place where families with young kids like to come, because it has rock pools, no seaweed, and gentle waves. Early in the morning, there are no tourists or families, just locals, walking their dogs while they can, because during summer months dogs are not allowed to be on the beach after eight. We’re out before first light so we’re missing most of the dog walkers too.

The beach is a little bit spooky in the dark. The torchlight bounces off the sand creating shadows, but I like it a bit spooky. Sometimes a dog looms out of the dim light, sandy and panting, usually a border collie or a golden retriever, because that’s what everyone has here.

Xavier and I trudge along, him sometimes muttering under his breath but mostly staying silent. When we reach the rock wall, the sun is just coming up, and we turn and walk towards the sunrise. It’s a few degrees warmer now, there are more people out and more dogs, and the long beautiful beach stretches ahead of us, curving towards the sky.

It feels less like a horror movie now and more that we’ve been dropped into a summer romance movie, or maybe a sci-fi film set on another planet, because when you really look at the sunrise, the sky doesn’t look real.

‘Okay that’s pretty nice,’ Xavier says, after a while.

‘It’s the best way to start the day,’ I say.