The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
Chapter 29
It was a warm, sunny Thursday afternoon, the kind of summer’s day you wished would never end. The first week of school holidays were slowly drawing to a close yet five more glorious weeks lay ahead, and waiting just around the corner was Christmas. School and grade eight were already a distant memory, lying dormant on the other side of the hill from where Simon and Brian now sat perched high on a rock on top of President’s Hill lookout.
“Hey do you remember the nice old people that used to live across the road from you?” Brian asked, returning Simon’s thoughts from afar. The two boys had spent the entire morning climbing over the sandstone rocks directly below the car park at the top of the lookout and now lay strewn across the tallest rock they could climb, staring lazily out over the Broadwater below.
“You mean Mr and Mrs Braddley?” Simon asked.
“Yeah, remember how we’d go over to their house after school while we waited for your Mum to come home? The old lady was nice, she’d give us afternoon tea and stuff.” Brian shared his thoughts before trailing off into silence.
“Yeah, that must have been like three years ago now.” Simon thought for a second. “You know, if they were still alive then that Ron guy would never have moved into their house and met my Mum. Can you imagine how much better my life could have been?”
“Yeah, I feel sorry for you Simon. I can’t believe he’s going to move in with your Mum, is that going to make him like your new Dad or something?”
“Over my dead body.” Simon scoffed at the idea, at the same time tossing a small stone over the edge of the rock and listening as it fell amongst the leaves somewhere below. “That’ll never happen anyway. I overheard Mum talking late one night when the two of them were drunk that if she ever remarried she would have to sell the house and give half the money to my Dad.”
“Think she’ll do it anyway?”
“Nah, anyway if she ever did there’d be no way I’d call him my Dad. I’ll only ever have one Dad.” Simon said coolly. “If it wasn’t for my Mum being such a stick-in-the-mud about me being too young to travel on my own, I’d probably be up in Queensland now visiting him for school holidays.”
“I still can’t believe your Dad married your teacher man.” Brian joked lightly. “So she’d be like Mrs Small or something at her new school right? So what’s the big deal anyway, why won’t your Mum let you go and stay with them?”
“Dad’s stupid enough to keep sending money down to buy a train ticket for me to go and visit when all Mum does is keep the money for herself. I know because I find all his letters in the rubbish bin. It’s easier not to say anything about it to either of them, that way Mum doesn’t know that I find them and write back anyway.”
“What’s it like anyway having her at home all the time now that she’s lost her job?” Brian asked.
“Why do you think I’m always around at your house?” Simon shot the question straight back at him. “You don’t have to answer that one. Just try to imagine what it’s going to be like when her stupid boyfriend moves in. At least now she’s spends nearly all of her time across the road. Though soon enough, across the road is going to be in our lounge room. I don’t want to think about what it’ll be like then.”
Below them the quiet afternoon was disturbed briefly by a freight train rumbling across the causeway that split Brisbane Water in two. Three brightly painted red and white locomotives hauled a mile long string of dirty, brown carriages that spanned across the Broadwater. The locomotives disappeared from view on their approach into town leaving in their wake a string of carriages passing noisily over the steel railway bridge below.
“I wonder where that train is heading to.” Simon wondered aloud.
“Who cares?” Brian seemed puzzled. “It’s just a train.”
“It’s not just a train, it’s going somewhere. I wonder if it’s going near my Dad’s place.”
“Okay this is starting to get boring.” Brian stood to his feet. “We’ve been here for like three hours now. Don’t you want to do something else?”
“Sure, like what?”
“Why don’t we ride our bikes over to the cemetery at Point Clare and see if we can find the graves of the old people who used to live across the road from you? Have you ever been there before?”
“No.” Simon seemed disgusted at the idea. “Have you?”
“Yeah, it’s the biggest cemetery you’ll ever see. We can stop by Craig’s place at West Gosford and see if he wants to come for a ride with us.”
“Well I s’pose the ride would be good.” Simon considered for a moment. “But I’ll have to check with my Mum first to make sure it’s okay. I’m sure she won’t mind, it’s just she always likes to know where I’m going to be.”
“Okay let’s go then.” Brian shouted as he started to climb down the sandstone rock, careful not to slip on the fallen gum leaves that had collected in the crevices they had used as footholds when climbing up.
Simon followed Brian down from the top of the rock and the two of them scampered back up the roughly worn path towards the car park where they had left their BMX bikes. It still amazed Simon that despite the incredible view over the Broadwater below there was seldom anyone else up here each time the two of them had made the long trek to the top. They picked their bikes up from their hiding place behind the trees, threw their legs over so that their feet immediately landed on the pedals and in a moment were accelerating back down the lookout road.
The shadows cast by the trees lining the road provided some welcome relief from the warm air that blasted their faces as the two boys darted around the curves in the road. They playfully took turns taking the lead, content to enjoy the fast ride down the hill rather than race each other under the glare of the sun. Ahead of them the road straightened out and they could see a mirage dancing across the surface of the hot bitumen at the point where the trees gave way to houses lining either side of the road. Within a few minutes they were slowly coasting down the street where Simon lived towards the white weatherboard house at the end of the street.
“Looks like you’ve got visitors.” Brian called loudly to Simon as the two rode side by side. “Do you know whose cars they are?”
Simon looked up and saw the two cars parked in front of his house, he had no idea who they belonged to. One was a beaten up old Kingswood station wagon parked at the bottom of his driveway while the other was a hotted up panel van with mag wheels and wide rear tyres that was parked on the side of the road. It sat gleaming in the afternoon sunshine across the road from Ron’s house, in complete contrast to his overgrown garden and knee high front lawn.
“Dunno, never seen either of them before.” Simon shrugged as the two boys swung their bikes into the driveway and pedaled up to the front porch. Letting their bikes drop on the front lawn, they jumped the steps of the front porch and swung the front door open.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Brian yelled from behind Simon the moment they both stepped inside the house.
Simon’s jaw dropped to the ground as he stood frozen in shock at the sight of the four semi-naked people in the lounge room of his home. They each looked up at the boy’s sudden entrance with absent, drugged expressions on their faces. From within the smoke-filled room Simon could see his mother, Ron and two other men he had never seen before.
“What on earth are you doing?” Simon yelled at them above the music blaring from the stereo.
“What are you stinkin’ kids looking at?” Ron suddenly snarled at them, trying to pull his denim jeans on as he hopped angrily across the floor towards them, his longish black hair bouncing wildly off his shoulders. The unshaven, dark stubble on his face made him appear mean to start with, right now he was furious.
Behind him his mother tried her best to cover herself as she sat up. The coffee table to her side was littered with syringes, a near empty whiskey bottle and an ashtray with the still smouldering remains of crudely rolled cigarettes, rich with the strange smell that would often accom
“Mum what’s going on?” Simon asked angrily, still shocked by what he had just seen.
“Simon, it’s alright.” Rowena tried vainly to calm Simon as she pulled on a shirt, already feeling disgusted with herself for being so careless as to allow her son to walk in on them. “Mummy’s sorry you had to see that, can you come back later and please let me try to explain?”
“Well, why are you kids still standing there? Get out of here!” Ron continued to hop across the floor towards them, only he tripped and fell face first to the floor.
“Run Simon!” Brian grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door.
The two jumped on their bikes and pedaled for all they were worth down the driveway. Behind them the front door slammed shut. Simon didn’t stop to look over his shoulder, he just pedaled until his legs burnt from the pain and he was sure that he was far enough away from whatever he just saw.