Chapter 191
SALEM HIGH
As the students finished getting into their seats, Mr. Canning, the Australian Cultural Studies teacher, walked into the room. He wrote “ANZAC Day” on the board, then turned around.
CANNING: G'day, mates.
A bunch of the students replied with either a “hello” or a “g'day”.
CANNING: As you can all tell, I haven't been here the last week. I was visiting a mate of mine back home. Since this is Australian Cultural Studies, I left your sub with a video of an Australian TV show, Neighbours. Any thoughts on that?
JOEY: It was pretty much a soap opera.
CANNING: No argument, there.
CLAIRE: I liked it, except for that one girl...I can't remember her name. She was a teen, and she had brown hair.
CIARA: Piper, I think. Either way, she was obnoxious.
CANNING: Oh, yes. Piper Willis. Yeah, she's a bit of a handful.
CHASE: I liked that one older woman who was the principal.
CANNING: Susan Kennedy. Yeah, she's a good one, her.
CIARA: She reminds me of Aunt Maggie.
CLAIRE: Me too.
CANNING: Well, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Now, while I was back in AUS, it was a holiday, and we both had a special service to go to earlier in the week. So, since it's my first day back, I thought I'd talk about that.
He pointed to the board.
CANNING: ANZAC Day. Anyone know what ANZAC is an acronym for?
Claire raised her hand.
CANNING: Claire.
CLAIRE: I think I've got this right, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps?
CANNING: Exactly. ANZAC Day was this Tuesday, April 25th. Now, ANZAC Day is basically the Australian equivlant to American Memorial Day. It's a day where we stop to remember those who have given their lives in defense of their country.
CLAIRE: That's really nice.
CANNING: It was, yeah. Beautiful service. Was held at a war memorial, the Shrine of Remembrance. Which, by the way, we'll be visiting when we go to Australia in June.
CHEZ ROUGE
Much later in the day, Philip sat at a table at Chez Rouge. He checked his phone.
PHILIP (to himself): 6:15. Come on, I wanna get this over with.
A few minutes later, Nicholas arrived and sat down.
NICHOLAS: Sorry I'm late. Got caught up in traffic.
PHILIP: I see.
NICHOLAS: Come here often?
PHILIP: Every now and then.
Nicholas and Philip put in their drink orders. After flipping through the menus in awkward silence for a few minutes, they received their drinks and placed their meal orders.
NICHOLAS: So, Philip, you're the one who called this meeting. So, what's going on?
PHILIP: I just want to make sure we're clear on a few things.
NICHOLAS: Such as?
PHILIP: As you know, I am Acting CEO of Titan Industries. You're CEO of Alamain Industries.
NICHOLAS: I am aware.
PHILIP: I just want to be sure that you understand that Titan has a very large hand in the goings on in Salem. Most major companies here are either owned by Titan, DiMera Enterprises, or a minor, family owned, third party.
NICHOLAS: Not really seeing the point here.
PHILIP: The point is, don't step on my turf.
NICHOLAS: Philip, you don't own Salem. You own a business in Salem.
PHILIP: Oh, I know. But, as I said, a large part of Salem is owned by Titan. Don't interfere with our business, and we won't interfere in yours.
NICHOLAS: Understood.
PHILIP: Second, stay way from my mother.
