Twenty Years On
‘You know what I like about coming here, angel?’
Lynn smiled as her husband gave her a playful wink. ‘You’re going to say nothing ever changes.’
‘I was,’ Jeff shook his head. ‘How’d you know?’
The black Land Rover Discovery turned into the lane towards the back gates of the vast Benloch property. Both knew the couple’s shared observation was as false as it was true… On the face of things, remarkably little had changed in the twenty-three years since the songwriter and his muse first drove his old, rusty Ford Fairlane along this narrow track, too fast over the gravel and kicking up dust behind them.
Heavy electric gates lumbered away from the car, barely escaping a helping hand from the roo-bar as the car accelerated towards them.
‘Well, that has, for a start,’ the beauty countered. ‘Before, you would’ve tried to run me over instead.’
In the back of the car, Kierney dug her brother in the ribs. ‘Wake up. We’re here.’
For a moment not recognising where he was, Jet opened his eyes and groaned. He had flown in from the UK that very morning, having started his journey home from Cambridge University some thirty hours before.
It had been the lad’s first Christmas away from the family, permission for which he had negotiated carefully when he found out an exquisite Russian archaeology student was staying in college over the holidays. However, he had later confessed to his father that his plan had been an almost total waste of time and he regretted not coming home to Melbourne as planned. The girl had not turned out to be quite as exquisite as he hoped, leaving the young buck to beat a hasty retreat from her room first thing on Boxing Day morning.
The eighteen-year-old sportsman had received a sympathetic hearing from his dad, who then undoubtedly passed on the juicy snippets of information to his mother, judging by the knowing smile she had given him later in the day. Jet didn’t mind. He was very pleased to be back en famille, even if it did mean his kid sister was on hand to give him a hard time.
‘Grab this, please,’ Lynn asked her son, pointing to a large black suitcase.
The young man lifted the case out of the car as if it weighed next to nothing, his six-foot-four-inch frame beginning to fill out as he headed towards the end of his teens. He carried his own bag in the other hand and a folder of paperwork under one arm, stopping to kiss his grandmother in the doorway as he passed through into the house.
‘Are you tired?’ Marianna asked. ‘You mustn’t know what time it is, dear.’
‘What time is it, Grandma? Sorry? What did you say?’ the larrikin teased. ‘Nice to see you. Happy Old Year.’
Jeff clipped the top of his son’s head with the fingers of his right hand, and bent over to kiss his slowly-shrinking mother-in-law. ‘Ignore him,’ he told the elegant lady of the house. ‘He thinks he’s funny. We haven’t got the heart to tell him the truth.’
‘Good morning, Jeff,’ the gracious woman replied. ‘Twenty years. Can you believe it?’
‘Definitely not. Feels like forty.’
‘Papá!’ Kierney shrieked from behind him. ‘That’s so mean! You think you’re funny…’
The father turned round and gave his daughter a playful grin. ‘I mean I wish it were forty,’ he quipped.
Once inside and with everyone suitably greeted and kissed, the Diamond family disappeared straight upstairs to unpack for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. The air-conditioning system made sure the temperature in the big house was comfortable, and sparkles of sunlight glistened on the outdoor pool down below, enticing the couple as they looked over from the balcony.
A Life Singular – Part One Description:
First in Epic 7-part Serial: Love and Loss, Celebrity and Secrets
The Endless Pursuit of Love and Wisdom
In essence a love story, “A Life Singular” is a seven-part contemporary fiction serial. Recipient of a WILDsound Review Award (November 2015), official selection for the New Apple Awards for Literary Fiction (October 2015) and a Shelf Unbound Notable Book of 2014 (December 2014), “A Life Singular – Part One” follows a successful rock star while he writes his autobiography after the tragic loss of his soul-mate.
The books’ themes are triumph over mental illness, the choices we make between right and wrong, and how one affects the other over the relentless passage of time. Sales proceeds go to two Australian non-profit organisations assisting young people with their education: EdConnect Australia and The Smith Family.
Dealing with some of the more complex social justice issues of our age, the universal theme of love and our fascination for celebrity spirit the reader behind the scenes of a superstar family who are plunged into grief, proving that there are always many sides to a story we see in the media. The important events in our public lives are always overshadowed by the backstory’s real truth.
˃˃˃ Book One Synopsis
What do you do when you lose the one who gave your life meaning? You write about it. You tell the world how amazing it is to love and be loved by someone so special, what love helps you achieve and how it makes you stronger.
Jeff Diamond had built a life of influence, adulation and wealth by making the right choices for the right reasons. He lived by the law of reciprocity, a lesson learned on the streets as a teenager with nothing but an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Plagued by the scars of a violent childhood, he created his vision and fought for it. And once he no longer needed to fight for himself, he fought for others.
Yet when Jeff’s dream girl was taken from him and their children by the ignorant act of a jealous misfit from his own home town, the millionnaire realised just how far he had come. Why had he succeeded when so many like him fail? It wasn’t complicated. The secret lay in the endless pursuit of love and wisdom; life’s two magic ingredients. Now Lynn was gone, he resolved to use his remaining days to account for their life in a way that would inspire young people to make his type of choice rather than García’s.
Then after their story was written, he would be free to go after her, to begin the whole incredible journey over again. Everyone has a life singular: one; unique; extraordinary.
