Page 38 of The Wish

S howered and shaved, in casual clothes and bare feet, Alex fills Max’s bowl with the appropriate dog food he bought on his way home.

No one paid him any attention when he entered the supermarket, everyone there looking equally wet and bedraggled.

Max has had a lovely run to the park in the rain and is feeling pretty good.

He’s enjoying the amount of time Alex is spending at home.

The doorbell rings and Max bounds towards it.

‘That’ll be Steve,’ Alex tells him.

Catching up to Max who stands impatiently, his tail wagging furiously, he opens the door. In the poorly lit entrance stands Steve, along with Sarah, Charlie and Phil.

‘Max, back inside, boy, go to the kitchen.’

Head down, tail down, Max slowly saunters away with several backward glances.

‘Hey, Alex,’ they all greet him.

‘I didn’t know you were all coming?’ Alex says.

‘Hope you don’t mind. I spoke to them this afternoon, told them your plans, and they asked if they could come and help.’

‘Of course not, are you sure you want to help, though? If Ian finds out there could be trouble.’

‘Let him try and do his worst. We’re here for you man,’ Phil says, showing off the three large pizza boxes he holds in one hand, and a carton of six bottles of beer. ‘Hungry?’ he asks.

‘Let me in, I’m getting wet out here while you all babble,’ Sarah says, pushing past Steve, Phil and Charlie.

Charlie follows Steve and Phil into the house, wearing a biker’s black leathers complete with a patch that makes Alex wonder if Charlie is part of a gang.

He can only hope it’s the friendly kind, the kind that dresses up as Santa at Christmas and delivers presents to disadvantaged kids.

He’s carrying a portable music machine. ‘Hey, Alex, I hope you don’t mind a bit of music while we work?

’ He hits a button and rap music blares out.

‘No, come in,’ Alex tells him.

He hears Sarah say to Charlie, ‘I play my music on a different kind of keyboard: show me where to go.’

They all follow Max into the living room where Kelly is waiting.

‘Everyone, this is Kelly,’ Alex says shyly. He points at the others, naming them.

Steve extends his hand to Kelly.

‘Hi, Kelly, I’ve seen your photo, um, on Alex’s computer, last night,’ he stumbles over the words.

‘That doesn’t sound good, I’m almost too afraid to ask,’ she replies with a smile.

‘We met before, right, you were with Alex at the café,’ Sarah says, smiling, winking at Alex.

‘Yes, I thought I recognised you when you came in. Hello again,’ Kelly says, shaking Sarah’s hand.

‘What’s that in your bag?’ Alex asks Sarah.

‘Data tracking module. Thought we could load it directly at the studio later – skip a step.’

‘You shouldn’t have – if Ian notices . . .’

‘Nah, I signed it out as going to the manufacturer for a software update, won’t be missed for a week and I’ll have it back by then.’

Sarah’s taken a risk for him; Alex doesn’t know what to say.

From the kitchen, Max barks.

‘Oh no,’ Alex says. ‘He’s not used to this many people . . .’

But when he gets there, Phil’s already sitting on the floor, handing Max half a slice of pizza. Max sniffs it, then devours it.

‘We broke bread. We’re cool now,’ Phil says, grinning.

Over the next few hours, Alex and his team of mismatched friends work together to make Jesse’s wish come true.

There is laughter, music and off-key singing – sounds never heard in Alex’s home.

They trip over each other, over cables plugged from one piece of equipment to another.

Max finishes off all the half-eaten pizza left in boxes on the floor.

At one point, Charlie finds an old virtual reality helmet and puts it on Max who blindly stumbles among them before Alex rescues him.

Kelly’s main role is coffee maker – but she’s also quite helpful in giving them a rough timeline of the images of Jesse.

Half-empty cups placed on the floor are sampled by Max, who’s having the best night of his life.

Kelly and Sarah chat, clearly getting on, they perform a duet together, rolled-up computer magazines improvised as microphones.

As they finally finish work, Steve raps his knuckles on the table, and everyone goes quiet.

‘Last one, boys and girls. As soon as this section finishes compiling, we are done, well, this part anyway. The rest will have to be done at the studio, live.’

They all squash together, looking at the one remaining screen.

Alex stands behind Kelly. Placing his arms around her waist, he rests his chin on her shoulder, his exhaustion obvious.

Kelly leans back against him, surprised and amazed at how natural it feels.

Charlie drops into a chair, his stretching cut short by Sarah plonking herself on his lap.

Phil walks over to the window and pulls open a curtain a chink.

Early rays of sunshine briefly fill the room, but the pained look from Steve tells him to drop the curtain again quickly.

Phil joins the others as they all stare at the image of Jesse outside on the hospital balcony at night.

They follow her gaze into the star-filled sky, and the screen goes black.

Kelly breaks the silence. ‘What happens now?’

Everyone looks to her. She’s the only one who doesn’t yet know the full scope of Jesse’s wish.

Alex steps forward. ‘I’ll explain everything. But first – thank you. Steve, Sarah, Charlie, Phil – I don’t have the words. What this means to me . . . to Jesse ,’ Alex says, his voice breaking.

‘We’re happy to help, in fact we need to thank Steve and you for letting us be part of this. I’m never going to forget what we did tonight. What do you say, Charlie, Sarah?’ Phil says, pumping Alex’s hand before drawing him into a firm hug.

‘Charlie? Sarah?’

They join the embrace.

‘And screw Ian, right?’ Phil grins.

‘Screw Ian,’ they echo.

Sarah glances at Kelly. ‘She really is that sick?’

Kelly simply nods.

Slowly Phil, Charlie and Sarah gather up their things. Max leads the way to the front door and everyone hugs goodbye.

Alex walks into the kitchen where Kelly has already put the kettle on. She rinses two cups, adds teabags to them and waits for the water to boil. Alex sits at the kitchen table, head down, exhausted. Max puts his head on Alex’s lap and is rewarded with a big hug.

The cups are placed on the table and Kelly sits opposite Alex.

‘In some ways,’ Alex says quietly, ‘what we did tonight was the easy part. Now we’ve got to finish the props, prep the studio. And . . . I need your help buying a couple of things for Jesse.’

‘I thought tonight was the wish,’ Kelly says, puzzled. ‘The videos, music, poems . . .’

‘It’s part of it. Now we bring it to life.’

He takes a breath.

‘We have a studio – a large soundstage. One whole wall is a curved screen, fifteen metres wide, five metres high. 300 monitors synced into one. What we built tonight – those visuals, that audio – they’ll play across that wall.

And Jesse and her family will be in the middle of it, surrounded by real props, immersed.

Like they’re in the park again. Or at the beach. ’

Kelly stares. ‘That’s . . . like a movie.’

‘Exactly. But it’s theirs. A home movie, sure. But one that looks like cinema.’

‘Wow,’ Kelly mutters.

‘Here’s another way of looking at it. Consider someone writes a movie, a screenplay.

The producers then go and find the locations and create the sets to film the story.

What we have done is combined the screenplay and the location and set designs; the actors now just walk around the stage, sit at a table, walk on a beach, all in the comfort of our studio as we transport them into the scenes. ’

Alex pauses, looking at Kelly. He’s lost her.

‘OK, let me give you an example of what we need to do. Think about the scenes of the park with the rotunda.’

‘OK, I remember; it is beautiful.’

‘Right. Yes, it is. Well, Jesse told me she and her family used to go to that park to play and they would have a picnic in the rotunda. One day she overheard her mum saying to her dad that this would be the perfect place for a wedding.’

‘A wedding?’ Kelly’s eyes widen. ‘Who’s getting married?’

Alex holds up a hand. ‘It’s symbolic. Something Jesse and I talked about. Our team’s recreating the rotunda set from the images. We’ll stage a picnic, just like they used to.’

‘And the wedding?’

‘She wants to slip into a simple white dress, hold flowers, and walk towards her family. They’ll turn, see her there – just for a moment. A memory her mum can keep.’

His voice falters. He can’t finish.

Kelly stares at him, tears brimming.

‘You’re really going to do that,’ she whispers. ‘You’re giving them that moment.’

She stands so suddenly her chair topples. Then she’s in his arms, hugging him tight.

He pulls her onto his lap, and they stay hugging for a long time, holding each other in silence.