by Tim Winton
Five minutes, said Keely.
To fuck me in the arse so hard I’d cough up shit for a fortnight.
Oh, God help us, he said aloud, holding hard to the rail. Dear God. Please.
You think he won’t kill his kid? Maybe you’re right. Maybe his little mate just thinks it’s funny to dangle a boy by the ankles, ten floors up. Like that’d be a hoot. Wouldn’t that rock, eh? she said, kicking the blighted geranium across the balcony. Wouldn’t that be a fuckin scream?
The pot glanced off his shin. Keely staggered back, sat on the milk crate by the door, felt something crack under his weight – a scorched saucer whose service as an ashtray was at an end.
Gem, this is serious, he said, pulling the shards from under him, rubbing his leg. We should go to the police. Right now, this minute.
I can’t.
You have to report it.
Tommy, I just. Can’t.
This is bad. This is scary.
You think I’m not scared? You think I’m just stupid?
What’d he look like, this bloke?
What does it matter what he looks like?
Please. Just tell me.
Small, orright? Black hair. Somethin gold in his teeth. Anyway, I’ve seen him before.
So you can tell the cops.
No.
Just say what happened.
Oh, Jesus.
C’mon! Just call them.
Tommy, Jesus!
Keely thought of the thug getting out of the lift. He’d missed it all by a minute. And if he’d been there in time what could he have done? Really, how would he deal with somebody like that?
Shitheads, she said bitterly. He tried to hug her but she jabbed him away.
This is all about the car?
I spose. Sort of.
Gemma, that thing’s worth about five hundred bucks if you’re lucky.
I know that. You know that. Probably even they know that, the fuckin drug-addled idiots. But now I’ve made it worth something, haven’t I, like a fool. I’ve called him, AVO and all, and I’ve gone around there thinkin I’m real smart, like they’ll reckon you’re a cop or a lawyer or some bullshit, and all he’s seen is I’ve got a new bloke and I’m in a nice dress and he thinks, Right, she’s got money. He needs money, he’s got ugly debts. And now they’ve found where we are.
How does this happen?
What’re you talkin about?
The authorities, the DOCS people, the courts – don’t they make sure the kid’s somewhere safe and private?
Dream on.
Could these guys have followed you home?
Or you.
Me?
Stewie knows what you look like.
Right, he thought. Terrific.
And I’ve got the car parked down there, obvious as you like. What a blockhead. For a stupid little car. What a brilliant idea that was.
Well, you had a right, he said lamely.
I can keep the car – that’s what he said. But I need to pay up. Five thousand bucks, she said with a hopeless laugh.
When?
I told em I needed a week.
Do you have it?
What d’you think?
If you did it wouldn’t be the end of it anyway.
I know that.
Keely glanced back and saw Kai still standing with the bowl on the other side of the glass. He wasn’t eating; it didn’t look as if he’d even taken hold of the spoon.
Well, he said. There’s a week, then. At least there’s that.
Gemma leant against the rail, her features darkened by a new thought. She blinked repeatedly, pulled herself upright.
When were we at Bandyup? she asked. Yesterday?
Yeah, he said. What is it?
Christ Almighty.
Keely saw some dread realization travel through her face.
Jesus Christ Almighty, she said. She was already askin about the car. They’re in it together. Carly and him. That’s who they are. That’s what Kai is to em.
She held her head, as if she could not trust it to contain the noxious reactions this thought had set off. Her eyes widened. The hot wind whipped her hair in every direction. She looked like a woman hurtling, falling backwards.
He tried to go to her but she batted him away again, tears tracking crazily in the wind. He caught her arm, drew her in, took the blows and when she gave way he held her to his shoulder for some gesture of comfort, some hopeless promise of safety. And there was Kai at the window, alert and afraid.
Keely let her cry. He did what he could to show the boy he meant no harm. Her face burnt through his shirt and her sobs were awful. He tried to master his panic but his mind capered perilously. This business, these threats – it was all probably junkie bluster. No one in this town would be shaking a six-year-old off the top-floor balcony for five thousand dollars. But he didn’t have the stomach to wait around and test the proposition. The state of her, the fear in the boy’s face.
He couldn’t just leave them. And even if Gemma did go to the cops, she and Kai couldn’t stay here in the building.
The wind tore at him. The boy’s ice cream melted.
Keely didn’t know what to do. But he knew he had to do something. Today. Now. Without hesitation.
III
Keely stood at the sink washing flour from his hands as Doris spun a lettuce beside him. From the kitchen window he saw Kai wading through fallen plane leaves. Gemma leant against the verandah rail, smoking pensively, alone. She’d been out there two hours; she’d hardly spoken all afternoon. Since the unsettling drama of their arrival – all that clutching and weeping in his mother’s arms – she’d withdrawn. As if she regretted the chaotic outpouring of need, the words, the mewling. And now she was shaky, remote, somehow defiant.
Do you have a plan? his mother asked.
No, he said. Not really. I’m sorry. I just …
It’s okay. See them safe first. Figure it out later.
Yeah, he said ruefully. That sounds like a plan.
Chip off the old block, then.
He saw her gracious smile, did what he could to respond in kind, but he knew she was just trying to steady his nerves.
So you didn’t witness this exchange, hear threats uttered?
He shook his head, told her about the encounter with the little thug in the lobby.
Doris seemed diffident, even sceptical.
She was a mess, he said. They both were.
Over a fifteen-year-old Hyundai.
You don’t believe her?
My instinct is always to believe her.
But?
Doris set the broken lettuce into a big majolica bowl and wiped her hands on her apron.
Well, my instincts haven’t always been infallible. I wasn’t there, Tom. I don’t know these people. I don’t have enough information to make a judgement. I’ve learnt some things the hard way.
Forty years ago you’d have taken them in without question.
Tom, love, I have taken them in without question.
Yes, I’m sorry. I’m just …
Caught up. It’s normal.
My head’s still reeling.
Doris took a cucumber and a jar of olives from the fridge.
You know she should be at a police station. Laying a complaint, making a statement.
She won’t go. I’ve tried.
Keep at her.
I can’t. She just shuts down on me.
Are you involved with her somehow?
Why do you ask?
To get some idea of the situation. And because of the way the boy watches you.
Kai? How?
As if he’s waiting for something. I don’t know. Waiting for you to take her off him? Waiting for you to do what men have done before? Who knows? He’s just very watchful.
He’s had a pretty crap day.
No doubt. Seems a lovely boy.
He is.
And she’s a very attractive woman.
Doris.
You did
n’t answer my question.
I don’t know how to answer it, he said. And I don’t know why I should.
Fair enough, she said. As long as you’re still able to ask it of yourself.
Mum, I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
Of course not.
And I don’t need any ulterior motive to help them out.
She dipped her head in assent and rattled away at the cutting board, glancing up now and then at Gemma and Kai in the fading light.
Strange, isn’t it? she said. Seeing her again – a woman, a grandmother.
Strange doesn’t even get close.
I think my head’s spinning a little, too.
Full house again.
Doris smiled broadly, her pleasure finally evident, and just then Gemma turned and saw them. She looked guarded, even disgruntled, as if suspecting their smiles had come at her expense.
Thanks for this, he said.
Get the girl a drink. And run a bath for Kai.
* * *
Dinner was every bit as quiet and chary as the afternoon that had preceded it. Kai was silent. Keely and his mother did what they could to lighten the mood, but Gemma was shy, almost childlike with Doris. She hadn’t come inside until dusk, when Doris had gone out to coax her in. She was nervous with her cutlery, visibly anxious about the house and its furniture. To Keely she appeared sullen. Doris seemed to take it all in her stride. But he could see Gemma was already having second thoughts.
They ate the fish he’d fried and passed the salad around. After five minutes or so, having eaten very little, Kai withdrew to stalk the living room. Gemma ate in silence for a while and then pushed her plate back as if she had neither strength nor appetite to finish. Doris laid a hand on Gemma’s.
You’ve done a good job with Kai, she said. You’re a brave girl.
Gemma brightened, rose from her hunched posture, stretching in a manner that struck Keely as feline. She leant in towards Doris, actively seeking contact, and it gave him a queer feeling. She didn’t say much. Just gave that bashful, pleased smile as Doris stroked her hair and petted her.
In the living room Kai moved from shelf to shelf in his PJs, peering at the contents of every bookcase and cabinet, glancing up at the ochres and oils on the walls. He stopped before a Wandjina. Stared at that big mouthless face. The owlish eyes. The storm-power radiating from its head in thick brown rays. He turned and for a moment their eyes met – his and the boy’s – and he wondered what he made of it, this ancient depiction of the Mighty Force. But with the women having their moment it didn’t seem the time to ask him. They were watching him themselves.
He’s a delightful child, said Doris. A credit to you.
Does he remind you of me? Gemma said in a teeny voice he’d never heard before. When I was little?
That hair, said Doris sadly.
Keely wondered if Gemma could detect the melancholy in his mother’s voice. It unsettled him. He didn’t know what it meant. Wondered if he was jealous. Which was absurd.
But Gemma looked pleased. She kept smoothing down her dress, smiling at her hands.
The boy opened the atlas on the canted shelf. Keely finished up his fish. It was red emperor, would have cost Doris a bomb, and in the end only he’d eaten it.
Does Kai look like his mum? asked Doris.
No, said Gemma. She’s different.
They stretch us. Our kids.
And that’s just the start, said Gemma with a conspiratorial grin, in a voice more like her own.
Doris laughed knowingly and Gemma’s smile was suddenly warm and womanly, as if she’d declared herself. Maybe this would work after all.
I might go for a walk, said Keely. Let you gals compare gynaecological notes.
Look, said Doris. He’s set to bolt already.
Blokes, said Gemma.
I could show Kai how close the river is. Let you two ladies catch up.
Listen to him, said Doris. He’s gone all Mister Darcy on us.
He needs puttin to bed, said Gemma.
The kid turned a page of the atlas.
I’ll give you a hand, said Keely.
Gemma can handle it, said Doris.
Right, he murmured. Course.
All our stuff’s in binbags, said Gemma. I gotta find me work clobber.
You think you should go in tonight? he asked.
Yes, said Doris. We should go and make a report.
It’ll take bloody hours. I’ll be late.
I’ll come with you, said Doris. Maybe speed things up a little.
I’ve took sick days off already, said Gemma. They’ll give me the flick if I don’t show.
We’ll write a letter, said Doris.
I know how the bosses think. Tell em what’s happenin, you sound like trash, like a crim. Gives em the excuse they’re lookin for to sack ya and put in some cheap Chinks.
Gemma —
I need the job. I can’t lose the job.
Maybe tomorrow, then.
Have to think. Get Kai to school.
You think that’s wise?
It’s all he’s got. Gotta keep him in school. School’s the most important thing, isn’t it?
Keely caught Doris’s look of misgiving. He felt as useful as a hip pocket on a singlet.
Okay love, said his mother. You do what you think’s best. Now, I’ve made up a bed in the spare room. And there’s a mattress on the floor for Kai. I thought he’d prefer to be in with you for a few nights.
Gemma nodded abstractedly.
Will that be okay?
Gemma turned the handle of her knife back and forward across the plate. Funny, isn’t it? she said.
Funny?
Weird.
Doris patted her arm.
Forty-four and still bunked down at the Keelys’.
Yes, said Doris. Life’s a surprise.
It’s the shits, really. Scuse the French.
No, said Doris. You’re right. It is. You’ve got to work, you have a boy to care for, and a home you have every right to live in without feeling you’re under siege. If that isn’t the shits, then I don’t know what is.
We’ll sort it out, said Keely, conscious of how lame he sounded.
Perhaps we’ll talk about our plans in the morning, said Doris, getting up, drawing things to a close.
There’s only a week, said Gemma.
A week’s a long time in Stewie’s world, said Keely.
You’d know, would ya? Gemma said with a flicker of disdain.
I’m just saying.
If I had five grand, Tom, he’d be dead. That’s all it costs.
I think we can all leave it at that, said Doris frostily.
Keely turned in his seat and saw Kai in the doorway, taking it all in.
While Gemma showered, Keely and his mother did the dishes. Doris was taciturn. The set of her mouth was grim, almost disgusted.
Doris, he said in the end. What is it?
She shrugged and rattled her bangles. I don’t know, she murmured. That poor little boy.
He’s watching telly. I’ll put him to bed in a minute.
Let her do it, Tom.
Okay.
He set a brush to the pan, scoured it of its ghostly outlines of fish.
He’s seen too much, she said.
No question.
The weight of it, she said. You can see it on him.
Keely didn’t know what to say.
You know why I can’t give her money.
She’s not asking you for it. Neither am I.
Keely scrubbed the pan until it glowed. He hadn’t been completely forthcoming with Doris. He’d been vague about the threat to Kai. And she was right, he hadn’t witnessed it. Not that he didn’t believe Gemma. She was scared. It was natural she’d be afraid for the kid. In her position you’d take any sidelong leer as a threat, wouldn’t you? But he hadn’t wanted to send Doris into overdrive right from the outset. He also needed to process what was happening, get his mind into gear. It was just
that his head was so boggy and slow. As if his software were old or compromised.
Tom?
The pan shone where he hadn’t even applied the brush. Around the rim was an aura. The pan replicated itself on the tile-work, the window; it gilded his hands and made his head swim.
What are you doing? Tom?
He saw he’d braced himself against the windowsill. I’m alright, he said as much to himself as her.
You don’t look alright.
Thanks.
You’re exhausted. Here, let me finish this.
No, he said. I’m good.
I know you’re good, she said. What I’m wondering about is whether you’re well.
Too late in the day for a grammar lesson, Doris.
Well, she said, summoning all her matriarchal indulgence. Don’t drown in my sink. I like to keep a tidy house.
He grinned. But she was right there. Watching. Like that Wandjina painting. Owl-eyed. Taking him in. Him. In his freeze-framing jerks of consciousness. Washing. Sticking. Coming free. Grinning. Holding onto the sink like a geriatric.
Gemma drove herself to work in the accursed Hyundai. Before leaving she put Kai to bed with the door open and a lamp burning.
Keely watched it all happening as if he were outside the house looking in. He had to concentrate to keep up and there were constant jerks of energy coursing up his legs as if his body were repeatedly recovering from stumbles.
He sat in the kitchen trying to look casual. Doris retreated to her room, face ominously untroubled. Keely knew the boy was still awake. From along the hallway there was silence, only the light slanting from the door, but he knew Kai well enough to be certain he’d be restless. He hauled himself upright. Ghosted down the passage like a dirigible. Saw the kid lying in there beneath his sheet, examining his hands. He knelt beside the mattress.
Kai looked up, unsurprised.
This’ll only be for a few days, Keely said carefully.
Kai said nothing.
Are you comfy?
The boy surveyed his palms.
I know it’s a strange house. I mean, a different place all of a sudden. But it’s safe here. Doris is here in the next room. I’ll sleep in the lounge tonight. I’ll be right there, right along the hall. You can see me anytime.
Kai chewed his lip.
You want to tell me anything?
The boy breathed, wheezing slightly.