The Big Split

by Rowan McAuley

  ‘Well,’ said their mum. ‘What’s done is done. I’m just glad you’re safe,’ and she gave them both big, relieved hugs.

  ‘And now,’ she went on, ‘let’s get back to the clinic. I have a funny feeling you two are going to be busy all afternoon, cleaning out the dog kennels and cat boxes.’

  ‘What?!’ Faith protested. ‘Not that! Oh, Mum!’

  But Holly stamped on her foot. ‘Shh!’ she hissed. ‘Do as she says. We’re lucky if that’s all the trouble we get into.’

  And they followed their mum back to the clinic.

  That night, their dad rang. Their mum spoke to him first, and Holly heard her tell him everything. It took a long time. She didn’t leave out any of the details.

  Eventually, though, shepassedthe phone to Holly.

  ‘So,’ said her dad. ‘You’ve been up to no good with your sister.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Holly admitted.

  ‘What were you thinking, Holl? Your poor mother. This is a hard time for her, and you and Faith need to be especially kind.’

  ‘Kind to her?’ said Holly, suddenly cross. ‘Who’s being kind to us? We weren’t trying to be mean to Mum. We just didn’t want to go to school.’

  Her dad sighed. ‘It’s hard on you kids, too, I know. Nobody’s having a good time right now. But things will get better. I promise, Holly.’

  Yeah, right, thought Holly. But when?

  Holly sat in the hallway and listened while Faith had her turn on the phone. It was easy to guess what their dad was saying from what Faith said in reply.

  ‘As if we got away with anything!’ Faith protested. ‘First Mum yells at us in front of practically the whole of Australia. Then we have to spend nearly two hours shovelling dog poop at the clinic. And some of the dogs had diarrhoea! Then Mum tells us she’s phoned the school and everyone agrees that Holly and I should be on lunchtime detention for the rest of the week!’

  Then Faith went silent.

  Holly poked her head into the room just in time to see Faith roll her eyes at something their dad had said. He must have really been telling her off.

  ‘It’s fine for you to say that, Dad, but it doesn’t make it any better for Holly and me, does it?’

  There was another pause as Faith listened, and then she said in a softer voice, ‘I know. I miss you, too. Love you. Bye.’

  ‘Well?’ said Holly as her sister hung up the phone.

  ‘He agrees we should do the detention. And he wants to take us out to the movies on Friday night.’

  ‘So that’s it, then. We have to go to school tomorrow.’

  ‘Yep,’ grumbled Faith.

  Holly sighed.

  The next day, Holly woke up to the sound of an argument.

  Is Dad home? she wondered. But it wasn’t her dad she heard, it was Faith.

  ‘I do feel sick, Mum. In my stomach.’

  ‘That’s enough, Faith. You’re going to school.’

  And then the sound of Faith grumbling, stomping down the corridor, and slamming her bedroom door.

  A moment later, Holly’s mum came into her room and sat down on the end of her bed.

  ‘And how about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you going to try to tell me you’re too sick for school as well?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘And no wagging either, right?’

  ‘No!’ Holly didn’t think she and Faith were ever going to be allowed to forget about yesterday.

  ‘OK, then. Get up and have brekkie. I don’t want you to be late today.’

  There was no way of avoiding it any longer. Holly was going to have to go to school. And that meant talking to people. And talking to people meant that she would have to admit to herself that her dad had really left. Her parents really were splitting up.

  Holly wasn’t looking forward to that one little bit.

  At school, as usual, Holly and Faith went their separate ways as soon as they got to the playground. Even though Faith was two years older than Holly, the way their birth-days worked out, she was only one year ahead at school. Holly was in Mr Mack’s class, and Faith was in Miss Price’s.

  All the kids agreed – Miss Price was scary. She was quiet and serious, and her lessons were very dull. She didn’t laugh or tell jokes, and Faith said she hardly ever smiled.

  Holly felt really sorry for her sister being in that class.

  Miss Price’s class usually hung out by the tennis courts, so Faith went that way. Holly turned and saw her group over by the trees, playing handball.

  Phew, she thought. If everyone was busy playing, she could sneak in and join in the game and hopefully not have to say anything at all.

  She saw that Lily was in king, about to serve the ball. Then Lily looked up and saw Holly walking over.

  Holly expected her to maybe wave hello and keep on playing, but Lily threw the ball to Iris.

  ‘You play king,’ Lily said to Iris, who was in queen. ‘I need to talk to Holly.’

  Lily hurried over to Holly. Holly could hear the other girls calling to Iris, ‘Service! Service!’ but Lily wasn’t taking any notice of them.

  ‘Where were you yesterday?’ she said. ‘Were you sick? You didn’t call me!’

  Holly hadn’t realised how much her friend would miss her. She had been so worried Lily wouldn’t understand about her mum and dad, she had forgotten Lily only really cared about her.

  Holly thought how dumb she’d been to forget what a great friend Lily was. Of course she could tell her all about her dad leaving – she could tell Lily anything!

  ‘Well, you’ll never guess what happened,’ Holly began.

  And she told Lily everything. About her mum and dad fighting, and then her dad leaving, and then wagging school and hanging out in the bush, and then getting into trouble with everyone.

  Lily didn’t say a word. She just listened and listened as Holly spoke, her eyes getting bigger and bigger with amazement.

  ‘Wow,’ she said, when Holly had finished. ‘Holly, that’s a really big deal.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘No wonder you wagged yesterday. So, do you want to keep it a secret, or are you going to let other people know?’

  Holly grinned.

  Lily understood perfectly. And because Lily understood, suddenly Holly didn’t care who else knew.

  She shrugged. ‘I suppose, if it comes up …’

  ‘Hey, guys,’ said Layla, jogging over to them. ‘If what comes up?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Lily. ‘You heard …’

  She looked sideways at Holly to see what she should do. Holly just shrugged again. She didn’t mind at all now.

  ‘Well,’ said Lily. ‘Holly’s mum and dad have split up.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘What? What?’ It was Aysha, Layla’s twin, walking by and overhearing them.

  Layla passed on the news. In this way, one by one, Holly’s whole class knew in about five minutes.

  This was exactly what Holly had been dreading – everyone talking about her, everyone knowing about her family’s private business. She had thought she would hate it, but it turned out to be OK.

  Better than OK, actually.

  It was good not to have to keep a secret. And it was good to know that nobody thought differently about Holly just because of her parents. No matter what her mum and dad did, she was still just Holly. Nobody could change that.

  In the car on the way home from school that afternoon, Holly sat in the front seat with her mum.

  ‘How was school?’ asked her mum.

  ‘It was OK.’

  ‘Just OK?’

  ‘Well, I would have said it was good, but I had detention at lunch, remember?’

  ‘I remember. How was it?’

  Holly sighed. ‘Boring. We had to sit in Mrs Delano’s classroom and do silent work. And I had heaps to do, because Mr Mack had collected all my worksheets from yesterday.’

  ‘How about you, Faith?’ asked her mum, calling over her shoulder to the back seat.

  Faith grunt
ed. She was in a bad mood.

  ‘Faith?’ said their mum.‘What happened today?’

  Faith didn’t say anything, but Holly heard a sniff from the back seat. Holly turned around to look and saw that Faith was crying!

  ‘Faith!’ said Holly. ‘What’s wrong? Was Miss Price mean to you?’

  Faith shook her head and looked out the window. They drove the last few blocks in silence, and then their mum pulled into the driveway at home. She turned off the engine, took off her seatbelt and turned around so she could see Faith too.

  ‘What’s happened, baby?’

  Faith got cross then.

  ‘What do you think?’ she yelled.‘What do you think I’m upset about?’

  ‘It was Miss Price, wasn’t it?’ said Holly.

  ‘No!’ Faith yelled again. ‘Nothing to do with school! As if I care about stupid Miss Price!’

  ‘Well, what then, honey?’ said their mum in a calm, soothing voice.

  ‘You!’ said Faith.‘You and Dad! I don’t want you to be split up! Can’t you get back together?’

  Their mum sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Faith, but no. It’s very complicated –’

  ‘Why? What’s complicated about it? When Holly and I fight, you always say we’re sisters and we’re stuck with each other. You say we have to work it out and be friends. Why is it different with you and Dad?’

  Holly thought that was a very good point. She was curious to know what her mum would say.

  ‘I think we’d better go inside and have a proper talk,’ said her mum.

  Inside, Holly and Faith sat at the kitchen table while their mum made three glasses of cordial. She brought the whole biscuit tin to the table, too, which was normally out of bounds for afternoon tea.

  ‘Right,’ she said, sitting down. ‘Let’s talk.’

  At that very moment, the phone rang.

  ‘Hang on …’ she said, getting up again. ‘Hello? Oh, it’s you. I think you should come over. The girls need to talk to us. OK. See you soon.’

  She hung up the phone and looked back at Holly and Faith.

  ‘That was your dad. He’ll be here in about twenty minutes, and then we can all talk together. Go and get started on your homework. We’ll get takeaway for dinner.’

  ‘Wow, Faith,’ whispered Holly as they went to their rooms. ‘How did you make that happen?’

  ‘I don’t know, but let’s be on our best behaviour. Maybe if we’re good, we can get Dad to stay.’

  Their dad rang the doorbell when he arrived, instead of letting himself in with his key as he usually would. Holly thought that was a bad sign. Still, she and Faith ran to him and pulled him inside.

  ‘Mum said we could have Thai for dinner,’ said Faith. ‘You have to help us choose!’

  Holly could see her dad felt awkward. He looked like he wasn’t sure what to do or where to sit.

  That’s crazy! thought Holly. This is his home, too!

  But then, it wasn’t really. Not anymore. She had to try to remember that.

  She wanted to be like Faith – confident that their dad might change his mind and stay with them. But she couldn’t ignore how uncomfortable her mum and dad looked with each other.

  ‘Well,’ said her mum, as though it was a big effort to sound cheerful. ‘Why don’t you three organise dinner? Then we can talk while we wait for it to get here.’

  Faith and her dad argued over the menu.

  ‘I want Pad Thai and Mee Grob,’ said Faith.

  ‘But those are both noodle dishes,’ said her dad.‘We can’t have two lots of noodles.’

  ‘Why not? Noodles are my favourite!’

  ‘You choose one, and we’ll let Holly pick something. Holly?’

  But Holly didn’t want to choose. She was too busy watching and listening, trying to figure out how her family fit together. Were they still a family if they didn’t live together?

  Her dad saw the sad look on her face and said, ‘All right, let’s hurry up and get dinner. Then we can have this talk.’

  Once he had made the phone call to order dinner, they all sat down at the table.

  ‘So, where should we start?’ asked her mum.

  ‘How about,’ said Faith,‘you explain to Holly and me why you and Dad can’t just stay together?’

  Holly saw her mum and dad look at each other.

  ‘It’s complicated –’ her dad started, but Faith cut in.

  ‘That’s exactly what Mum said! But why? What is so tricky about being nice to each other?’

  Their mum sighed. She was sighing a lot lately, now that Holly thought about it.

  ‘Dad and I have tried,’ she said.‘Really, we have. We wish we could make it work, too, but things have been cross and unhappy for so long now.’

  Their dad nodded and went on.‘Do you remember all those nights you had dinner at Auntie Pia’s? Mum and I were trying to sort stuff out with a counsellor, trying to make things better. But in the end, we decided we needed some time apart.’

  Something was puzzling Holly and at last she realised what it was.

  ‘But you’re getting on now!’ she said. ‘You don’t look cross with each other right now. And I’ve heard you talking on the phone, and you don’t argue at all anymore. Maybe it did work. Maybe it will all be OK after all!’

  Her dad smiled sadly.‘That’s our point, though, Holly. Mum and I get on better when we’re not together. The longer we’re together, the more we argue and yell, and we don’t want you girls growing up in a house where there’s fighting all the time.

  ‘We want you to see that your mum and dad can be friends with each other,’ he went on. ‘Even if that means we have to live in different houses.’

  ‘Do you understand?’ asked their mum.

  It was confusing.

  Holly thought it sounded like it made sense in her head, but in her heart she just wanted them to stay together.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Holly said, slowly.‘I sort of know what you mean …’

  ‘And Faith?’ said their mum. ‘What do you think?’

  Holly turned to face her sister. What would Faith have to say about all this?

  ‘You want to know what I think?’ said Faith. ‘You really want to know?’

  Her mum and dad nodded. ‘Yes, Faith. We want you to tell us how you feel.’

  ‘OK, then,’ said Faith. ‘I think it’s all a bunch of lies!’

  ‘Faith!’ gasped her dad.

  Holly stared at her sister, amazed. She was shocked that Faith would be so blunt, but she was also glad. It was good to hear Faith saying what Holly really wanted to say.

  ‘Well, I do,’ Faith went on.‘I don’t care what you and Mum say. I know exactly what’s going to happen. I talked about it with the kids at school, and we worked it all out.’

  ‘So what’s going to happen?’ asked her mum. ‘I mean, what do the kids at school think is going to happen?’

  Faith looked sternly at her parents and folded her arms.

  ‘Right,’ she said. ‘First of all, you and Dad aren’t going to stay friends. You’re saying that now to make Holly and me feel better, but it isn’t true.

  ‘Second, Dad is going to get a new job. Probably in America. And then we’ll never see him again.

  ‘Then, after Dad goes to America, we’ll have to sell our home and move to some horrible place where we don’t know anyone and go to a new school.’

  Faith drew a deep breath, but she hadn’t finished yet. ‘And after that, you’ll get a boyfriend, Mum. And then you’ll marry him, and you’ll have a new baby, and you’ll be your own special family. Except for Holly and me. You’ll forget about us.’

  Holly felt like she was going to faint.

  ‘Is that true?’ she asked. ‘Is that really how it’s going to be?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Faith.

  ‘NO!’ said their mum and dad at the same time. ‘No! Definitely not!’

  ‘Never!’ said their dad. ‘Of course your mum and I want to stay friends. We were friends lo
ng before we got married. And I’m not changing my job. And even if I did, I wouldn’t go to America. I want to stay close by my girls. I don’t want to miss out on you two growing up!’

  ‘All right, then,’ said Faith, and then looked at her mum.

  ‘Well?’ said Faith.

  ‘Well, we’re not selling the house, that’s for sure,’ said her mum. ‘Dad and I have discussed it, and we’re staying right here. Money’s going to be a bit tight for a while, but we don’t want to move house on top of everything else. Nothing’s going to change there.’

  Phew, thought Holly. She loved her bedroom and the backyard, and she didn’t want to change schools, either.

  So far, so good.

  What else would her mum say?

  ‘As for a boyfriend, well, I don’t plan to have one. Not for a long time, anyway. And if I ever did want to go out with someone – not that I’m planning to! – I’d be very careful that they were someone you two could like.’

  ‘See?’ Faith said to Holly, rolling her eyes. ‘I told you. Mum can’t promise us there won’t be a boyfriend or babies to take our place.’

  ‘No, of course not,’ said their dad. ‘It would be silly for your mum or me to try to look into the future. We don’t want to pretend with you or make things up. We want to tell you the truth, and the truth is, one day, your mum or I might possibly meet someone new –’

  ‘Aha!’ said Faith, angrily.‘You admit it!’

  ‘But,’ said their dad,‘we can promise that we will always love you. No-one will ever forget about you or Holly. We won’t ever stop loving you or thinking how beautiful and smart and wonderful you both are.’

  ‘Your dad’s right,’ said their mum. ‘It wouldn’t matter if there were fifty new babies in our family, you would always be our girls. There will never, ever be another Faith or Holly to take your places.’

  Holly realised she was holding her breath. She had been concentrating so hard on what everyone was saying, she had forgotten to breathe. Her mum and dad and Faith looked tense and focused, too.