The Long Way Home Page 12

  Chapter 4

  Inside, Simon was busy tearing the wrapping paper from his birthday presents. He sat in the middle of the lounge room floor surrounded by a small circle of toys and birthday cards, and a larger circle of discarded gift wrap. Rowena made her way through the lounge room, carefully stepping between children sprawled across the floor.

  “Cool, look Mum!” Simon excitedly called out holding up a cowboy action figurine.

  “Yes that’s great sweetie, don’t forget to thank whoever gave it to you.”

  “Thanks Max.” She heard him say as she made her way into the kitchen.

  All the adults had gathered around the kitchen bench and were already busy in conversation by the time Rowena joined them. Doug was talking with her mother Carolyn and her sister Gail. Her father Alan was standing cross-armed by the doorway, engaged in a serious discussion of politics with William. That left only Tim, her brother-in-law, on his own, standing off to the side listening casually to both conversations. She chose to make her way towards him.

  “No one’s killing each other yet?” She joked.

  “That depends. Are we talking about the kids or the grown-ups?”

  “Either.” She frowned, watching her father become more animated.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on them. Two things you don’t discuss with family, religion and politics. I’m going to step in when I hear the word church.”

  “C’mon,” she laughed. “You can give me a hand to get the food ready.”

  “Sure.”

  In the lounge room, Simon had finished unwrapping all his presents. He had invited all of his friends from school along with his cousins Lynnie and Justin. They all sat on the floor playing with some of the toys that Simon had already opened, or throwing balls of wrapping paper at each other.

  “What are we going to do now Simon?”

  “Yeah, what are we going to do next?”

  “I don’t know,” Simon replied. “My Dad said he was going to do some games and stuff.”

  “What stuff?”

  “It had better be cool stuff.” Said Max who was growing bored of watching Simon play with the cowboy action figure he had given him. He would rather have kept it himself, why should he have had to give it to Simon. Besides, Simon already had a cowboy hat, a cowboy gun and a cool cowboy vest with a sheriffs’ badge that he was wearing now. Why couldn’t he keep the cowboy action man for himself?

  “Of course it will be cool stuff.” Cameron yelled back at him. “It’s a party stupid.” Cameron was one of Simon’s best friends. He went to pre-school with him and now they were in the same class at big school.

  “Hey let’s go outside.” Shouted another friend of Simon’s named Brian.

  “Yeah cool!” They all shouted in chorus as they got to their feet and ran out of the lounge room. Everyone except Max Abbott Jnr. He waited until the last child had left the room and shoved the cowboy action figure up under his shirt.

  “Hey, no running in the house!” Rowena had yelled as the horde of kids stampeded through her kitchen. Then she turned, surprised to see one last child following behind, walking quietly from the lounge room. “Oh I didn’t mean you.”

  “I wasn’t running Mrs Small.” Max replied in his most innocent voice.

  “Oh, I know you weren’t. Aren’t you a good little boy.”

  “You’ve got a nice house Mrs Small.”

  “Why thank you Max. Why don’t you tell the other children that I’ll bring the food to the table outside in just a minute.”

  “Yes Mrs Small.”

  She waited until he had left the room, watching him as he walked out the back door, arms folded in front of him. Then turning to Tim said, “What a nice little boy, why couldn’t Simon be more like him?”

  Doug in the meanwhile had pulled himself away from Carolyn and Gail to start organising some games with the children. They had set up an outdoor wooden table beneath the clothesline earlier that morning and had even decorated the hills hoist with balloons and paper streamers. The children had discovered the party blowers on the table and had turned the backyard into a chorus of screeches and honks as they blew madly on them. Doug was trying to talk over the top of the noise to explain the rules of the egg and spoon race.

  “Nice party.”

  Gail had joined Tim and Rowena on the other side of the kitchen bench. Rowena had just placed a saucepan full of cocktail franks on the stove.

  “Thanks Gail. Can you give a hand for a second?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “I need the drinks in the fridge to go outside on the table, and there are paper cups on the second shelf in the pantry too.”

  “I’ll take the bowls of chips outside then come back and check on the sausage rolls in the oven.” Tim said as he left the kitchen, leaving Gail alone with her sister and out of earshot from the rest of the family.

  “Now what’s up sister?” Gail let out as soon as Tim had left. “And don’t tell me it’s just the party and all the kids here, it’s Mum isn’t it? Something’s up and you’re hiding it from her, I can tell.”

  “No Gail.” She answered before thinking, ‘Geez, is there nothing this girl doesn’t notice?’

  “Rowena?” She pressed her for more information.

  “Look Gail, just let me get organised here and then I can talk while the kids are eating outside.”

  “Okay then.”

  ‘Just keep smiling,’ she told herself. After all, it was the reason they planned to do this today. They could tell everyone at once while the party was on, and not get the one on one advice that she could expect from her sister Gail.

  Tim walked back into the kitchen saving Rowena from any further cross-examination from her older sister.

  “The sausage rolls look ready,” he announced. “What would you like me to serve them in?”

  “Here,” Rowena offered a glass baking dish. “Let’s dish everything up and take the food outside. Just keep some aside for us to eat in here.”

  Outside, Doug had just finished the last of the egg and spoon races. There were broken eggshells all over the backyard. They had two dozen eggs and by the look of things Doug probably didn’t have any more than two or three left in the carton he was holding in his hand. He put the carton on the ground beside the house when he saw Rowena, Gail and Tim make their way outside with the last of the hot food.

  “Okay lunch is ready.” Rowena called out loudly.

  The words were met with a yell of approval as the children all made a bee line to the table, little hands madly grabbing for hot sausage rolls, handfuls of potato chips, sweets and anything else that was within reach. Tim and Doug both started pouring soft drink into paper cups and placed them in the middle of the table for anyone to drink, making sure that they’d filled at least 20 cups.

  “Gail and I will go inside to make tea and coffee, you two join us once you’re done here.” Rowena said before returning to the house.

  ‘This was it,’ Doug thought. It was, so their relationship counselor had told them, their chance to end things the right way. Their marriage hadn’t been the best experience in their lives, for the most part it seemed they’d done everything wrong, but at least they could choose to end it well. There was such a thing as a smooth divorce, they owed it to themselves and at the very least, owed it to Simon. They could make this work even if they hadn’t been able to make their marriage work.

  They had been separated for the last month. Doug had spent more time at his brothers’ house than he had at home, all the time slowly moving some of his personal things out of the house. The time he had spent at home had purely been for Simon’s benefit. He hadn’t figured out that his Mum and Dad had been sleeping in separate rooms. They would have to sit down and explain everything to him, and soon, but for now the first hurdle was telling both sides of the family. In reality, that was only Rowena’s family and Doug’s father. Doug’s brother Barry knew what was going on. He hadn’t had anything to do with Rowena since the day he had
picked Doug up from the hospital.

  “Coming inside?” Tim asked, as he finished pouring the last drink.

  “Yep, that should be enough drinks for them.” Doug replied while watching the kids scoff down food as fast as they could. “You kids behave now while the grown-ups go inside to have their lunch. Just play outside for a while when you’ve finished eating, I’ll be back outside later.”

  Doug followed Tim into the house. ‘Time to do this,’ he thought.