“Are you serious?” David was laughing delightedly.
“You bet! We Canberrans have far greater disrespect for politicians than you Victorians; simply because we all work so closely with them. But it is a real party – in fact, I voted for them in my very first election!
“Well, why don’t we have them?” Jack looked like a boy who had just heard of bicycles but never seen one. “Anyway, I’d have thought you would be mad keen to vote in the first female Prime Minister of Australia.”
“I know – I’d have thought so, too. But I liked Kevin. I like Wayne Swan, too. I think we should have the super-profits tax. I love that they are standing up to Big Bizznezz. And I hate that Julia’s ability and ambition is being used to thwart a good, democratically elected leader in his first term. How dare they say that ‘the Labor Party’ holds office, and the Labor Party decides who shall be the leader? I voted for Kevin as much as the Labor Party! And on the previous occasions when I have not voted for the Labor Party, it was because I didn’t respect the leader they offered us.”
“So you don’t think Julia can do the job?” Jack couldn’t believe his ears. He had picked Louise as a feminist and thought she would see Kevin as a worthy sacrifice.
“Oh – I’m sure she can do the job. You or I could do the job. But I refuse to vote for anyone who thinks it is okay to usurp a first-term Prime Minister who has been democratically elected and whose only crime so far is that he and his Treasurer have stood up to the corporate bullies. She should be backing him up, not hacking him down.” Louise paused to calm herself down. “And I’m now very upset with her for staining the role of the first woman who has a real swing at being the first Australian ‘female Prime Minister’, and doing it this way. It stinks.”
“Yeah,” agreed Jack. “It does stink.”
“We have a much bigger problem that the election,” Lou continued.
“Oh?” Jack refilled their glasses. “What’s that?”
“They’ve set the election for the night of James’ 21st.”
“They haven’t!”
“Oh, yes. And I have family and friends coming from three states for this.”
“Oh, no!” Jack was smiling at Louise with no sympathy whatsoever.
“Oh shut up!” Louise sipped her drink.
*
Mary settled herself into Louise’s home, and Camille’s bedroom, quickly and decisively. She made no apologies for crowding the family; and gave Camille no thanks. She insisted on making a contribution to the household.
“I want to pay you enough to cover my food and electricity,” Mary was digging around in her purse as she spoke.
Louise wasn’t sure. “It isn’t necessary, Mum,” she said. “I don’t need the money and it isn’t forever, after all.”
“No,” insisted Mary. “I pay the others the same amount when I stay with them, even for a holiday. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t.”
Louise knew that this was true, so she agreed. “I’ll use the money to take us out to dinner once a week then,” she said. “That will make your stay fun for everyone.” Immediately she said the words, Louise hoped she hadn’t admitted that a treat was required to enjoy Mary’s prolonged stay. But Mary wasn’t offended and merely said, ungraciously, Louise thought, “It’s your money. Do whatever you like with it.”
Jack and Julia made a point of dropping by the first Friday afternoon after Mary arrived, and bringing a bottle of red wine which Jack remembered Mary enjoyed.
“So!” Jack was opening the wine as he spoke cheerily to Mary, who was sitting in the lounge room with Julia while Louise found a CD to put on. “Welcome to Blackburn! How does it feel to be in Melbourne?” Mary accepted the wine he offered her and answered him as he delivered a portion to the others.
“I like Melbourne,” Mary said. “Most of the people who moved to Canberra back in the 50’s and 60’s were from Melbourne, so the people have a very similar way.” She sipped her wine. “Even the houses look similar.”
Jack laughed. “Really?”
“Yes!” Mary laughed with Jack, and Louise was relieved to see that Mary was enjoying herself. “You don’t see so much of it around here, but Louise took me to The Glen to go shopping and all the suburbs around there could be Canberra in the 70’s!”
“The A.V.Jennings era!”
“That’s right,” said Mary.
“Oh god – A.V.Jennings – the Carlingford!” Louise laughed.
“What?” Jack didn’t follow.
Louise explained. “When I was about 10 years old, Mum and Dad decided to build a house. We had been in Canberra about two years by that time and just renting.”
Mary interrupted. “And that’s exactly what it was called: Just Renting!”
“So,” continued Louise, “we pored over all the plans of the houses on offer by various builders, and our favourite was the A.V.Jennings Carlingford. It had four bedrooms, lounge, dining AND family rooms - and an ensuite!”
“The ensuite – very 70’s!” Julia added.
“Oh – we couldn’t imagine such glamour!” And I remember that the house was $12,600, but you had to have the land already.”
Mary nodded. “And we had bought the land, but couldn’t afford $12,600 for the house, so Jim had to design one and we became owner-builders.”
“Did he?” Jack was confused. “So, who earned the income?”
“We both did,” answered Mary. “We both worked in the public service during the day. Jim was a programmer at the Dept of Treasury, and I was a stenographer at the Dept of Social Security.”
“So, when did you build the house?” asked Julia.
“We had sub-contractors do most of it,” explained Mary. She was enjoying the trip down memory lane; back three and a half decades, to when she was in her early 30’s and had a young family, a young husband, a young body and so much future. She smiled proudly. “But we did everything we possibly could on the weekends and at night.”
“That’s right – we did!” agreed Louise. “I remember putting the ceilings in. They were huge sheets of gyprock, and we had to get them up into the ceiling space and lay then over the exposed beams. Six-by-two oregon beams,” she informed her friends.
Julia laughed. “She can even remember the lingo!”
“Some things you never forget!” Louise agreed. “And we put in the door jambs, and hung the doors, and added the door handles, and cut the sea-grass matting to the right shape for the floors and painted the walls and stained the wood.”
“It really was the 70’s house, wasn’t it?” Jack was shaking his head.
“Oh yes! This was 1971.” She sighed, still smiling. “It was the best house in Davidson St,” said Mary.
“Best house in Canberra,” agreed Louise.
When everyone had gone home and Mary retired for the evening, Louise thought about the family home that her parents had built all those years ago. It really was something. Whenever she went to Canberra, she drove out to Belconnen just to take a look. It was such a large, solid house, with attractive proportions and set back from the road behind a now mature garden of silver birch trees and roses. She’d been 10 when they started building it, and 11 when they had moved in. She’d lived there till she was 22. It was the longest she had lived anywhere before or since.
Now, at 46, with three kids of her own, Louise realised how young her parents had been and how much they had achieved. They’d both had good jobs – her father had an excellent career. They had a lovely home that was admired by everyone who saw it. How had they done it? Lou herself was living in a smaller home now than the one she grew up in. Her parents had ‘bettered themselves’ in relation to their own parents, but Louise hadn’t. And although she wasn’t dissatisfied or unhappy with her situation, still it was interesting to observe that her parents had actually done pretty well, compared to both their parent’s, and their children’s, generations.
Chapter 13 – Changes
On a Saturday morning a month later, Lo
uise was surprised to open the door and find Julia standing there, and even more surprised to see that her friend’s face was swollen and tear-stained.
“Julia!” Louise took her friends arm and pulled her into the house. “What’s the matter?”
Julia sniffed and looked around. “Where are the kids, Lou?” she asked timidly.
“Oh, they are still asleep,” she explained. “They won’t be up for hours yet.” She sat Julia down on the couch. “Shall I make us some tea?” she asked. “Or coffee?”
Julia tried to smile but more tears came. “Tea would be lovely,” she sobbed.
Louise gave her friend a hug before settling her on the couch. She handed Julia a box of tissues and left her to get the teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl and set them up on the dining table.
“Jack’s left me,” Julia said. Then she cried as though her heart was breaking.
Louise couldn’t believe her ears. She watched Julia crying and wondered what to say. “Julia, I can’t believe it!” was all she could come up with. “What happened?”
“There’s a woman at work,” Julia explained. She blew her nose and took the cup of tea Louise handed her. “He’s moved in with her.”
“What? Already?”
“Yes, well, this woman is going back to India for a couple of months apparently, and Jack is house-sitting for her, so that he doesn’t have to live with me anymore.”
“Julia!” Louise sat beside her friend and patted her shoulder. “Is it just a fling?”
“No.” Julia sounded definite. “He’s been unhappy for a while. He has been on at me to lose weight, and he said he couldn’t take it anymore.”
“He has left you because you haven’t lost weight?” Louise was so disbelieving that all she could do was repeat the words of her friend. “How much weight have you put on?”
Julia thought. “Well, since we got married, I’ve put on about 20 kilos.”
“Oh.” Louise realised that 20 kilos was a substantial amount, but after a minute of thought, she frowned indignantly. “Hold on a minute,” she said. “Let me get this straight. Jack, who is no oil painting himself, has left you for another woman because he thinks you are overweight.”
“Not just that,” Julia had stopped crying now and was drinking her tea, “he says he’s been unhappy for ages. He says I complain about my job –“
“Everyone complains about their job! It’s an international topic of conversation!”
“And he is sick of me smoking and not even trying to give up.”
“Did he ever say anything nice about you?” asked Louise pointedly.
Julia looked at Louise without saying anything, so Louise continued. “Does he ever acknowledge that you have made a beautiful, comfortable, welcoming home for him and his FOUR kids? Does he ever acknowledge that you contribute all your salary to the household that feeds and shelters these FOUR individuals for more than half the month every month? That you entertain their friends, do the drop off and pick up for them, attend school functions for them; buy them food; clothes and pay for their holidays?”
Still Julia was silent.
“I’ll bet he doesn’t,” added Louise quietly.
Louise had to acknowledge, if only to herself, that she was very sorry for herself, too. With Jack’s exit, she lost one of her most valued friends. She knew that she and Julia would remain friends, but it wouldn’t be the same. For one thing, Julia was now forlorn; nothing like the confident and vivacious wife of her beloved Jack. And besides – Louise already had lots of divorced female friends. In fact – all her current friends, with the exception of Julia, were divorced. One or two of them had boyfriends, but for the most part they were single.
It had been so nice having a married-couple set of friends. And it wasn’t as if Louise had been friends with Julia first, then befriended her husband as a sort of “ring-in”. She’d met him first, and her very soon after, so they had each been friends of very equal standing.
Their friendship had been such a big part of her life, and such a healthy, normal part of it, that she knew she would miss it. Louise was angry with Jack. What was he thinking?
*
The next day, there was a knock on the door just after dinner. All the kids were in their respective bedrooms, earphones inserted, computers on. Louise was sitting alone in the lounge room, contemplating whether to watch a dvd or read a book, since there was absolutely nothing worth watching on any of the television channels. She looked out the peep-hole before opening the door to Jack.
“Hello!” She opened the door and let him in. “Come in.”
“Hi,” said Jack. He smiled at her and came inside. “I just thought I’d drop in to see how things are.”
Louise indicated a chair, and closed the sliding door to the kitchen. “I assume you mean with Julia?”
“Yes. I’ve just been over there, to get a few things, but she made sure she wasn’t there. She said she isn’t ready to speak to me yet.” He shrugged.
“She’s a wreck, Jack.” Louise sat down Jack. “What’s going on?”
Jack shook his head. “I’ve been unhappy for a long time. I just don’t want to spend any more of my life like that.”
“I’m so surprised!” Louise spoke softly. “I could not tell that you were unhappy.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Is there anything I can do? Julia came to tell me, and I have tried to keep in touch with her since then, but she seems to prefer to be alone.”
Jack scoffed. “I doubt she would come to you anyway.”
Louise looked hurt. “I think we are good friends, aren’t we?”
“Of course we are,” Jack smiled at her.
“I mean Julia and myself,” Louise corrected him.
Jack shrugged. “We will have to wait and see how it all pans out,” he said. Jack looked down and said “I’ve really enjoyed our friendship, since you moved in here. I was hoping that we, you and I,” he looked at her but didn’t finish his sentence.
Louise looked at him and listened, expecting him to ask that she remain his friend, too; and prepared to assure him that she would.
“I’ve always been very attracted to you,” Jack finished.
Louise blinked, and laughed nervously, trying to make light of the idea. “What?” Seeing that Jack was going to wait for her to reply, she said, “Well, I hope you didn’t tell Julia that!”
“I had to. She already knew anyway.”
“God, Jack!”
“You can’t help these things, Louise. And I thought you might feel the same.”
By now they were both sitting on the couch. Louise was rubbing her forehead. “Jack, even if I did feel the same way, I wouldn’t act on that feeling.”
“Why not?” Jack looked puzzled. “Life’s too short to waste good opportunities.”
“Yes, life is short; but friends are essential to happiness. And happiness is so fragile. I couldn’t be happy knowing my happiness was the direct result of my friend’s misery – could you?”
Jack shrugged. “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs,” he said with a grin.
Louise sighed. How could she explain to Jack that her image of herself as a good friend and neighbour was more important to her than her romantic life? That in order to demand that her children behave morally and sensitively, she must also behave well – particularly in something so public and so confronting?
But was she tempted?
She shrank from the knowledge that she was. Never in her life had she been allowed to fall into the arms of a man – someone who stood and waited for her when life became overwhelming and when she cried out for assistance. She thought about her past.
She remembered having a car accident and being bedridden for months afterwards. She had become a nuisance to her parents and, in a new city, had been overlooked by her one male friend. It had taken time to rebuild her health and her life, and only then had she been able to reclaim any sort of social life.
She remembered other occasions, too, when sh
e had had to make many of the toughest decisions of her life. At those times she had invariably been alone.
Was it only in novels and films that the heroine’s needs were met by a desirable and available man? Certainly in Louise’s life, there was no indication that real-life offered anything - or anyone - like that.
Or was it just Louise whose life-path was singular?
“Jack!” She finally answered his unspoken question. “Don’t you care about Julia’s feelings at all?”
“Of course I do,” he said, “but we aren’t in love anymore.”
“I think Julia’s still in love,” Louise insisted. She could see that Jack was annoyed that his offer was being sidelined, and that Julia’s name was coming up all the time. Louise fought down her own confused feeling to say something she hoped would make sense. “Look, Jack, even if we were to start seeing each other as more than friends,” Louise looked away to avoid Jack’s smile, “we couldn’t do that for at least a year-“
“A year?” Jack sat back, the smile gone from his face.
“At least,” repeated Louise. “And only then if Julia has by that time found another love. If she is still single, we would have to wait two years.”
“Two years!” Jack was laughing at her. “Who says?”
Louise shrugged. “It’s the code, Jack. It is what differentiates us from the intelligent primates of the jungle. No matter how we feel about each other, we cannot begin a relationship based on the destruction of a good woman’s life – Julia’s life. What has she done to deserve being betrayed by her husband and her close friend – who also happens to be her next-door neighbour? We would be destroying her marriage; her neighbourly relations, and therefore her home life; and taking away one of her closest friends. Who could do that? I couldn’t.”
“So what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
Louise smiled at him. “If I was you, I’d be trying to clean up the mess you’ve created.”
Jack sighed. “Yeah, no one’s happy with me. The kids are furious. I’ve got nowhere to live.”
“What was your plan there?” Louise was curious beyond the romantic implications. She knew that Jack, despite being a high earner, was financially depleted after his first divorce and the annual child support for his four children. She also knew that Julia’s income had supplemented his life in no small part during their five-year marriage; and that his portion of ownership of their townhouse was in dispute since Julia had provided most of the down-payment and more than half of the mortgage repayments.
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