The Lazarus Effect by H. J Golakai Page A

thing her brain was good at: spooling facts, running playback. The flipside: glitching out in the face of overwhelming levels of choice or visual input, typically in malls and supermarket aisles.
    ‘She cleans her room and takes off for tennis practice at Newlands Sports Club with her friends, or so she tells her mom. That part of the story holds up. After that, holes. Just before midday, Adele called to find out where she was, got told they were on their way to lunch in Rondebosch. Like most teenagers, Jacqui was a great white liar, so her mother was in the habit of checking on her a lot, particularly on weekends. Didn’t do much good, because Jacqui still managed to give her the slip. She ditched her girlfriends and went to Ashwin’s garage in Athlone. According to him, it was simply to talk about their relationship, but it escalated into a screaming match. He wantedher back and she wasn’t havin’ it. Later, he swore up and down that the subject of pregnancy never came up. The prospect of having another child, this time with his beloved, wouldn’t have scared him but would have made him the happiest man alive.
    ‘ That’s when the trail goes cold,’ Vee flung her hands up. ‘By about four in the afternoon, Ashwin gave up the bended-knee act and Jacqui left. He swore he never laid a hand on her that day. Nobody admitted to seeing her again. Everybody who tried calling her once they started to get really worried said her cell was switched off. Wherever she ended up, I’m guessing that phone ended up there with her.’
    ‘Not necessarily,’ Joshua countered. ‘She could’ve lost it or it could’ve been stolen.’
    ‘True, possible. Too many possibles at this stage.’
    ‘Whatever you do, you’ve got to roll out with it like a boss.’Cause I bet your boss’s given you this much,’ he held two fingers an inch apart, ‘wiggle room.’
    ‘Oh, my inner bitch is so poised.’ Vee sat up. She let silence bounce around the room for a minute. Then, ‘Sorry I forgot your birthday.’ She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. ‘I meant to send you a male stripper for the big three-oh.’
    ‘Shucks, guess I missed out.’ He stroked her fingers. ‘Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t here, anyway. New York.’
    ‘I’ll make it up to you.’ She side-eyed him, testing the air with her feelers, wondering if it was safe just to spit out what she’d wanted to get off her chest from the second she’d run into him. Screw it – she was going to ask. He looked so relaxed, though.Why ruin the mood? No, she would see him on the weekend and bring it up then.
    ‘So, how’s your friend doing? Where he at?’ she blurted.
    Joshua drew his hand away. He didn’t meet her eyes, but his shoulders and the corners of his mouth spasmed. ‘Haven’t heard from him,’ he replied when he did look up, holding her gaze steadily. ‘You know I wouldn’t hide it from you if I had.’
    ‘Well, does he know how I’ve been doing? Does he give a righteous shit?’
    Joshua dragged his hands up and down his face and over his head, messing his bramble of hair even more. ‘Uggghh. Vee …’
    ‘Y’know what’s funny?’ She chuckled. ‘I’ll tell you what’s the final word in hilarity. Filling out a new form at the WI the other day and getting to the section on contact details for next of kin. Ti was mine. He’s been my go-to all the time I’ve been here. So, I’m sitting there with my pen hovering over this piece of paper–’
    ‘Stop. Don’t do this.’
    ‘–poised to write who the hell knows what, at a complete loss. He took pride in that position, especially since we weren’t linked by marriage yet but since I knew we would be, I relinquished control. He sure didn’t have a problem with telling some doctor to slice me open and chop off a vital organ; he signed that consent form pretty willy-nilly. Then, because he had to play nursemaid for a few months afterwards when I lost it, suddenly behaving