Australian Story

The mood in the library's main office suddenly turned to total despair when tragedy struck at the heart of the team's spirit.

Tom slowly and thoughtfully entered Dale's office. His face appeared slightly dazed, but focused.

"Dale, I’ve just had a phone call from the police," he said quietly to his superior.

Dale raised his head to look at his colleague. "What’s happened?"

"Jayne has been involved in a car accident this morning. She’s been killed. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. They couldn’t do anything for her. The Melbourne police are notifying her family right now."

Dale fell back into his chair and stared at Tom in total shock.

"I’ll fill in her time on the front desk today," Tom said. "We will need the staff at that time with the exams on at the moment."

Dale struggled to find the words, awkwardly bearing in his spirit the deep loss of a good friend and reliable colleague. "Arr,...do the rest of the staff know?"

"Not yet," answered Tom. "I wanted to let you know first.  I felt it was better for them to know later anyway. They’re sending her body to Melbourne. She’ll be buried there."

"I’ll inform the council," Dale told him. "I’ll make an announcement this afternoon to the staff. How did it happen? Did they say?"

"Er,...I don’t think you want to know."

"How did it happen, Tom?" Dale repeated more strongly. "I want to know."

"Drunk driver," he replied. "He had a reading of 2.5. At the moment, he’s in hospital, hooked up to a life support machine in the intensive care unit. Do you need me to do anything?"

Dale shook his head as a deep regret was building up in his heart towards anything, but sympathy for the driver.

"I’ll bring you in a cup of tea," said Tom. "You look like you could use it.”

As Tom left, Dale's heart was exploding in it's silence. Suddenly coming to terms that one of his colleagues was suddenly gone without warning, all because of stupidity, drew open an anger that was inevitable, even for a Christian.

Tom returned five minutes later carrying a mug of tea for him. He watched as

Dale sat still in his chair, bearing a wrath of deep despair and emptiness.

"Drink driving!!" bellowed Dale, slamming his hand hard down on the desk as he stood up quickly while Tom placed the mug of tea before him. “A life has been sacrificed by someone who didn’t think, or wasn’t in a state to think about what he was doing. We treat life as though it’s a deadly disease. We treat people’s feelings like they’re an interruption to our personal liberties. Let’s operate by killing someone. That will help the problem go away. No, the problem doesn’t go away. It sky rockets out of control, like my temper!!"

Tom closed the door behind him, allowing Dale's risk in his reputation to remain a private affair.

"Dale, you have every right to be angry,” he said. “Just be careful that you don't boil over to something worse than it should be. Don’t forget you have a hot cup of tea sitting on your desk when your papers decide to go flying."

"I'm not angry. I'm steaming!!!"

You mean there is a difference.”

"For me there is."

Tom quickly sat down in the chair. "I know you don't want to kill the guy. You stated that last time. You want to talk to him, find out what his concerns are that caused him to go over the limit to kill a young girl in the prime of her life. You want to encourage the guy with positive values, maybe so he can search for God and think more about what he has done. But you know, in reality, he's not going to change. He wanted his drink and that's what mattered most to him at the time. He was happy about drinking too much, then he was safe to drive home and sleep it off. Nothing was going to happen to him. But then some young girl made the wrong turn and got in his way. It wasn't his fault she was killed. She was stupid enough to make a right hand turn at the wrong time, just as he was going through the red light. The red light was wrong. It should have been green at that very moment of impact. But you being Dale, the person you are, have to try to work on why he needed that drink in the first place. I know you all too well, son."

"I'm not in any state to talk to anybody."

"I figured that."

"Tom, I’m sure the driver himself was fed up with the way society is. But his action was still something that could’ve been avoided. Alcohol is usually used as an escape from something,...usually."

"Are you okay to work today?"

"I’ll have to be,” replied Dale with a sigh of despair.  "I’ll be fine, Tom. We can’t change it now. My anger won’t bring her back."

"Will you be attending her funeral?"

"Yes. Will you be joining me?"

"Yes, I’ll be there," answered Tom, then stood up from the chair.  "Buzz me if you need me to do anything, won’t you?"

Tom turned around left the office, closing the door behind him.

Dale returned to sit back in his chair again. Then again, with a gust of his strength, slid all of his paperwork, along with the hot mug of tea, off his desk in frustration, then he lowered his head quietly to cry.

******

After the private funeral service at the cemetery for Jayne which was held in Melbourne a few days later, her family, along with other mourners, began to return to their cars.

Jayne's mother quickly approached Dale and Tom as they were solemnly leaving and called out to them. “Dale?”

Dale and Tom both turned around to face her.

"Are you going to join us at the club for some sandwiches?" she asked. "We would love you to come."

"We have to get back to Monaghan, Mrs. Williams," Dale said. "I'm sorry. I have a council meeting to attend to at three."

"I just wanted to invite you along anyway," she smiled quickly. "I didn’t want you to think I was rude But I wanted to thank you for what you did for Jayne. She told me you were the only employer who cared about her."

"We were delighted to have her on our team," added Dale with a sad smile, taking her hand gently into his. "She was very conscientious. We were aware that her foot was often playing on her sometimes, but we knew that was something she couldn’t help."

"She had an injury playing netball when she was fifteen. I always blamed that for her pain, but the doctors didn’t want to rule out other causes. They really couldn’t pin it down to any one thing."

Jayne's mother paused awkwardly.  "Anyway, thanks for coming, Dale,…and Tom. Thanks for being here. We really appreciate all you did for her."

"We wanted to pay our final respects to our colleague," Tom said. "She was part of our family, too."

"She always said she felt like part of a family where she worked."

"She was part of the family."

******

Later on, Dale was driving Tom back to Monaghan after the funeral.

"Pity you have that council meeting at three,"  Tom said, looking down at his watch.  "I certainly wouldn't be in the mood for any bureaucratic red tape after that."

"No."
"What are you thinking about with the drunk driver? He's still in a coma at the hospital."

"Nothing."

"I know you well, Dale. Nothing means something with you."

"Tom, we've just buried our colleague,"  he stated clearly. "She is hardly in the ground and you're asking me what I think of the drunk driver?"
"Well, I mean, if and when you are going to talk to the guy."

"I'll figure that out later.  He's still on life support. He won't be able to do much talking anyway."

"I know,” answered Tom. "I just need to know what you are feeling about him, that's all. I don't want another episode of you losing your cool again where all your paperwork goes for a bunji jump. You don't give much out when you are contemplating any action. I just want you to confide in me as your working partner. I run the library too, you know."

Dale sighed.  "I know, Tom. I'm sorry. I am just not ready to talk about it."

"Okay. But the next time your desk debris goes for a flying leap, I'm not helping you clean up, okay?"

Dale turned to him with a chuckle. "Thanks, Tom."

******