Whilst Daniel investigated every factory, every yard, read every postcard in every window, Oriel waited in the shade of a verandah. At the end of the afternoon he had found nothing – as both had privately guessed. Hooking one of her arms through his, the other through the handle of her bag, a hot and weary Oriel plodded beside him towards home, whispering that she would make him feel better when they arrived.
He turned to embrace her in his grin as they stepped to the edge of the kerb and made to cross the road. Eyes diverted, he did not see the young cyclist who, in one fluid and much-practised movement came sweeping past them, hooked his arm through the handle of this well-dressed woman’s bag and before Oriel could even open her mouth had ripped it from her possession, swerved away and was pedalling furiously off down the road.
Oriel came to life, screamed and pointed. ‘He’s got our cash!’ Heads turned at her frantic cry but no one gave chase except Daniel who pelted off down the road after the cyclist, arms and legs moving like pistons, heart pumping and face straining with determination.
Oriel ran after him for a time, but with her high-heeled shoes an obstacle to speed she got nowhere, was forced to stop and stand there watching as Daniel, his legs no match for wheels, fell further and further behind his quarry. Losing his initial burst of steam, he petered first to a trot then to a halt, whence he threw down his hat in a last burst of frustration as the cyclist swerved into an alley and out of sight with a triumphant flick of his head, taking their money with him.
21
Beware of Bootleg Criminals, Keep Victoria Free From Crime and Corruption. Vote No to Prohibition.
Daniel gave an ironic laugh as similar posters entreated him and Oriel wherever their futile search for work took them.
‘I can’t afford the grog anyway! Don’t know why I even bothered to vote.’ The fact that he and the majority of the Victorian electorate had recently voted against prohibition did not make beer any easier to come by for those with no funds to spare. He had barely been able to afford a gift for his daughter’s birthday. ‘Shouldn’t grumble. At least we’re not starving.’
The robbery had been a crushing experience, yet the lovers refused to be cowed, bolstering each other with the opinion that they were still better off than most in their position.
Oriel sympathized for the loss of his pleasure. ‘Yes, it’s rather fortunate that I’ve never been one to find gratification in food or drink. All my pleasures come from up here,’ she tapped her head, ‘or down there. There’s nowhere in between.’
‘Yeah, I had noticed.’ Daniel grinned at her through the sunshine.
‘Do you think I’m awful?’ Her eyes sought reassurance. ‘I’ve never known any other woman say they like it. I often wonder if it’s something to do with my grandmother being – well, you know, in the blood so to speak.’
Daniel smiled at her innocence. ‘I reckon girls like your granny don’t do it for pleasure but out o’ necessity.’
She gave a thoughtful nod. ‘Yes, I understand her a bit better now. It must have been dreadful for a fourteen-year-old to bring up a baby. I certainly don’t despise her now – not that I’d do it myself.’ She smiled. ‘Even if we were starving. I’d rather steal, I think.’
Daniel said she might have to. Whilst it was true that they had not yet reached crisis point, for they still had some money in the dressing table drawer, this would not last for ever.
The three months they had predicted it would take to see an end to their troubles became four, then five. Though Oriel sneaked through her old home collecting things to sell, the proceeds did little more than help to keep their heads above water. It was useless now to think they could afford to rent the house in North Brighton and the deposit they had left on it was forfeit.
Whilst Oriel waited in vain for her divorce to come to court the For Sale sign outside her house began to lean to one side, being joined by the forest that had sprung up all over the city. There had been one offer but that had been so derogatory that Clive had refused it. With winter approaching it was unlikely that there would be any more until the warmer weather arrived. Oriel detested the thought of having to ask him for more money. When she had told him of the robbery he had shown no sympathy, only disgust. She had always found difficulty in asking anyone for help and when that person was someone she detested the task became anathema.
Less extravagant these days – her one luxury a weekly soak at the public slipper baths – Oriel learned to make do and mend, played barber, reduced her food bill to shillings instead of pounds and patched clothing. With his army experience behind him, Daniel could sew and darn and knit too. With such joint talents they would make ends meet. If there were the occasional bout of melancholy, it was not the dispossession that induced it, but the self-imposed exile from their children, which was as raw as ever it had been. Despite the fulfilment they had found in each other there was terrible guilt to be endured.
The meetings with Jennifer and Dorrie were becoming increasingly strained. At first there had been the zoo and the Glaciarium and Luna Park, but now with no money to spare she resorted to taking them for walks on the racecourse or the beach, which cost nothing, the only remaining extravagance being a chocolate nut sundae and a look round the toyshops before bringing them here to a place she knew they detested.
Daniel was wonderful, playing games with them when she herself was at a loss. But Oriel knew this was not fair to them, nor to him – there were days when he could not even bear to visit his own children it was so painful, this in itself incurring yet another slice of Melinda’s wrath.
There might be no work, but Oriel never seemed to be idle. Every odd ball of wool she had pillaged from her old home was utilized to make Dorrie a Fair Isle jumper. Using her sewing machine, she made Jennifer a winter outfit from one of her own dresses, and a hat to match. Proud of her industry, she handed all of these over at their next meeting.
The little girl accepted her outfit, but was not overly enthusiastic.
‘She’s not too keen on the idea of going out today,’ explained her father, getting ready for work.
Oriel bristled, feeling it was just Clive’s way at getting back at her, but managed to sound cheerful in her response. ‘Oh, we’ll have a lovely time! I thought you loved our chocolate nut sundaes? Of course you do! Run along and get your coats.’ She waited for her children to leave the room then turned to Clive, her face annoyed.
He forestalled her with a curt flick of his hand. ‘It’s nothing to do with me. Neither of them was very happy when they got home from seeing you last week. Jenny says she doesn’t want to go out with you because she knows you’re only going to leave her again. Dorrie’s started wetting the bed.’
Oriel sighed in dismay. ‘Are there sheets to be washed now? I’ll do them before I go out, then.’
‘I suppose it’ll save my mother from having to do them,’ he made cool observation, before leaving for work.
Throughout the meeting with her mother, even when they were enjoying their usual jaunt around town, Jennifer remained anxious, her mood infecting Dorrie too. Though broken-hearted herself, Oriel tried to jolly them with extra treats that she could little afford.
‘Tell me what you’re reading at school!’ she asked as they were on their way to meet Daniel in the park. Her daughter shrugged and said she didn’t know. Oriel laughed. ‘You must know.’ Jennifer had been reading well until now.
This having no success, Oriel changed tack. ‘It’ll be your birthday in a month or so. Would you like a party and invite your school friends?’ The little girl shook her head, drawing a sound of astonishment. ‘Why ever not?’
‘I don’t want them to know I haven’t got a mummy.’
Oriel sagged, her heart shrivelling. ‘You have got a mummy!’ Leading them to a less busy section of town, she lowered herself to their level, wrapped her arms around both children, hugging them together, trying her best not to cry. People were looking. ‘Just because I don’t live with you doesn’t mean I�
��m not your mummy. But we can’t live together until we’ve sold the house and bought a new one.’
Dorrie pushed his mother away. ‘We have to go home now.’
Oriel did not force her attention on him. ‘Don’t you want to come back with me and see Uncle Daniel?’
He was adamant, mouth sulky. ‘No, I want to go home and see my daddy.’
‘Daddy won’t be there,’ Oriel told him, then saw the panic in his eyes – he feared that his father was going to leave him just as his mother had! She was quick to reassure. ‘He’s gone to work, he’ll be back later. But I can take you home if you really want to go.’ Both children said they did.
At her mother’s tearful reaction, Jennifer thought she should put forth her reason. ‘I have to help Daddy with the housework, you see, because he hasn’t got a mummy now.’
Recognizing that explanation was urgently required, Oriel struggled for words that such young children could understand. Hitherto, she had always left them with the parting words that she would see them next week, but realized now that they must have no inkling of how long this time span was. Faced with her hesitancy, Dorrie jumped in first.
‘Are we really coming to live with you?’
‘Yes, of course!’ Oriel stroked his hair as they walked to the station. ‘I’m sorry it’s taking so long, but I’ve told you we have to wait until we get some money. Don’t you think I want you to come and live with me?’
Dorrie was unable to voice his fear – if his mother didn’t want Daddy maybe she didn’t want him either. ‘Doesn’t Daddy want us to live with him?’
‘Yes!’ Oriel wondered if her children could have chosen a more public spot in which to air their grievances. ‘That’s the trouble, each of us wants you to live with us, but that’s not possible. Even though Daddy wants you he’s agreed that you’ll live with me when I can find somewhere nice for us. But things are difficult at the moment. Wait until we get home and I’ll try and explain it all to you.’
Having to field many more questions throughout the thirty-minute journey, she was relieved finally to arrive at the house in North Brighton. Here, she made them comfortable with drinks and biscuits then, after taking a few sips of her own tea, kneeled on the carpet nearby in order to be level with their faces.
‘Would you—’ She broke off and cleared her throat, then steeled herself to begin again. ‘Would you rather live with Daddy all the time?’
Both children thought about this, then shook their heads. Somewhat relieved, Oriel nodded.
‘But I don’t like it when you only come to see us once in a while,’ announced her daughter. ‘It makes me sad.’
Oriel turned to Dorrie and asked if he felt that way too. He gave a solemn nod.
‘It makes me sad too,’ admitted their mother, and allowed herself to cry as endorsement of this. The children wept also and did not push her away when she hugged them. She wiped their eyes and her own, then continued as the two grave little faces looked on. ‘I’m sorry you’re hurt. But sometimes grown-ups can’t help hurting children. They don’t mean to, it just happens.’
‘Why did Daddy say nasty things about you to Nanna Widdowes?’ Her son pulled at the fringing on a cushion.
Oriel tried not to blacken Clive in their eyes though she herself detested him. ‘Sometimes when people are hurt they say things they don’t mean.’
‘Don’t you love Daddy?’ asked a teary-eyed Jennifer.
Oriel did not know what to say. ‘The important thing is that I love you, both of you – and Daddy does too. We want you to be happy… and you’re not happy at the moment, are you?’ Both shook their heads. She kissed and stroked them. ‘You said it made you sad when I only come once a week… would it be better if we didn’t see each other at all until I’ve found a new house for us to live in?’ It would be such a sacrifice – carried the risk that they would forget her – but it couldn’t continue like this. The visits had become as challenging for her as they were to the children. Putting an end to these disruptions might be the kindest thing to do.
‘How long will that be?’ asked Jennifer.
Oriel was honest. ‘I really don’t know. Nobody wants to buy this house and until I sell it I won’t have the money to buy another one. But if you change your mind and want to come and visit me then all you have to do is to tell Daddy.’
The children agreed that they were willing to wait and Oriel delivered loving kisses, emphasizing that she would come back the moment she had more to offer them – and of course she would be present on Jennifer’s birthday. When Clive came home he was informed of their decision and was quick to give agreement.
But as he went with her to the door, the tots out of earshot, he made additional comment on the plan: ‘I’m glad you’ve decided to stop messing them around.’
‘You make it sound as if I’ve been doing it deliberately! I would’ve had somewhere else to live by now if the money hadn’t been stolen.’ Why did he persist in holding her to blame for that?
His reply was derogatory. ‘Yes well, if you looked after that as well as you looked after the children I’m not surprised it got stolen – and I’m telling you this!’ He precluded any objection. ‘If you walk out on them now, you don’t come back.’
Her flesh crawled. ‘But I’ve told them—’
‘I mean it. You can’t keep playing with people’s lives like this and expect them just to take it.’
Oriel was angry but did not raise her voice in case the children overheard. ‘I’ve told them I’ll come back for them and I will! Don’t you dare tell them otherwise.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it, they’ve been hurt enough. No, I think they’ll just get over you on their own, grow sick of the way you’ve messed them about and come to recognize that they’re better off with somebody who has regard for their feelings. Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Goodbye!’
On this empty note the afternoon ended. Short of barging in and abducting them there was nothing much Oriel could do except to wait and come to get them when she was better armed – and she was determined to do so. Lacking any other option, she went home to weep upon Daniel’s loving breast.
* * *
Whilst Oriel and her lover continued to exist like automatons, the Depression worsened. The year saw a mass exodus from Melbourne, hundreds of thousands of men and whole families took to the road in old cars and trucks, wagons, bicycles and on foot looking for work in other areas. But there were still queues everywhere: queues for job vacancies, queues for the dole, queues for the soup kitchens – even outside the pubs that had started to give free meals, much to the disgust of the temperance movement. There were barefoot kids with billy carts collecting bottles on the beach, infants crying with hunger, young factory workers congregating on street corners. Yet still in the back streets there were those who would risk their last coppers on a game of two-up.
With winter upon them the Defence Department opened its warehouses. Khaki greatcoats and tunics were dyed black and given to the poor who wore them as a badge of adversity. The Prime Minister, James Scullin, turned to British experts for help in guiding Australia out of depression, thereby incurring the scorn of others in his party who accused him of deserting Labor’s creed by inviting British lords to run the country.
Acting out of charity and also in need of something to restore his manhood, Daniel travelled up to Powelltown and helped to cut firewood for the destitute of the city – but some had no hearth in which to burn it. Around Melbourne’s inner suburbs houses fell vacant and into disrepair when the tenants could not pay their rent, and were eventually demolished to make way for factories. With each bulldozing the shanty town that had sprung up on Dudley Flats took in new inhabitants who erected yet more makeshift shacks of corrugated iron, kerosene tins, cardboard and anything else they could get their hands on, whilst the rest of the world went on as normal, with tales of rape and murder sandwiched between the more important sport results and the society pages.
From Bright’s recent le
tter, the Depression seemed not to be affecting her and Nat at all. The only mention of it was in a comment about the queues of unemployed men that Bright had seen during a shopping trip to Bundaberg. ‘But I suppose you’ll see more of it down there,’ she opined to her daughter, the irony of which was not lost on Oriel. If only Mother could see her haggling for payment over items that had once graced the family home… But if it had been difficult to contemplate a confession six months ago, it was downright impossible now. Some days, the pressure of guilt, sadness and confusion was unbearable.
Funds dwindled, as did the visits from Dorothy. Oriel had not seen her since Easter three months ago. Daniel’s friend Norm was their only source of friendship now. He too had been unemployed for months since his workplace had closed down, though being a bachelor he was luckier than his pal with no one to support but himself. Even so, he had been forced to turn to the sustenance handouts in order to maintain the room he rented in Carlton. On his friend’s latest visit, Daniel revealed that they may have to make this sacrifice too, telling Norm that he did not know whether they would be able to pay the rent for much longer.
There came immediate offer from Norm. ‘Yer can share my room with me!’
Seeing an end to the intimacy she shared with Daniel, her only comfort, Oriel stuttered, ‘Oh, Norm, we couldn’t dream of it!’ And she nudged Daniel with her knee just in case he should be about to agree.
However, as the winter dragged on and their money evaporated to a little pile of coins, the day finally came when they were faced with a choice of paying the rent or Daniel’s maintenance payment to his estranged wife, and naturally it had to be the latter. The first week was not so bad. His knock unanswered, the rent collector went away. By the following week his knocking became more persistent and, in the knowledge that they would soon be evicted if they did not do something, Daniel said they must seriously consider taking Norm up on his offer.
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