Page 6 of Queenslander
Her dad frowned. “You better not have dropped in on them on your way home… Brum…”
She walked down the hall barefoot, finishing her lukewarm beer. Her childhood bedroom overlooked the pool; now it was her stepmother’s office.
The guest bedroom used to be Mattie’s. Dusty blinds looked out onto the front veranda. Beyond Blaise’s potted hibiscus the neon-green lawn sloped down to a quiet paved road. The room still smelled like weed, though Blaise had changed everything except the mattress. Mattie, who played pro rugby for New Zealand, still slept here when he came home.
She logged into her account to see her balance. Her paycheck marked UPSEND DOWNS had come through on time, direct deposit. She transferred five hundred into the joint account she shared with Maude, then shot off a text.
paid feb early
2
ABOUT RAINBOW
At the soccer pitch behind the Atherton primary school, Ronnie ran five and six-year-olds through a practice game. Getting them to play in two teams and track the ball without all following it in a pack felt like herding kittens.
Dozens of sweaty little girls in school uniforms, tube socks and hair bows, glowing with pride. For some of the youngest girls this was their first practice match.
Wasironicthe word for this? Had it occurred to her that she was getting something selfish out of this job? Yes, yes it had. Was it funny that she was hero-worshipped four hours a day by every pre-teen girl in town but the one she had given birth to? Yes, yes it was.
After practice, she walked over to her bike in the car park, put on her jacket and checked her phone. Missed call from the American turtle biologist intern she had been hooking up with on karaoke night, not important. She zipped her phone into a pocket of her leather jacket and started her bike.
Atherton was the local metropolis with a grocery, department store, Burger King, and a main drag with shops on both sides.
At the purple house in Lionheart her stepmother was blasting ABBA again. Ronnie tuned it out the way she tuned out her stepmother. Both were inoffensive, sentimental and nostalgic for the 80’s. She wondered what the lyrics ofSlipping Through My Fingersmeant to Blaise. A mother watching a happy young girl grow up too fast, dearly loved but disappearing every minute. Blaise had no kids. Maybe Blaise was sad about Ronnie’s daughter Rainbow growing up.
Thinking about Rainbow was uncomfortably close to missing Rainbow, which led to why Rainbow wasn’t here, which smelled of a stinking pile of shit guilt and possibly some kind of horrible joke some bastard cops were laughing at in a station somewhere in the past. No, she didn’t want to think about that.
Ronnie locked herself in the guest bedroom in preparation for the feelings incoming, scrolling through pictures she had taken that afternoon.
She wondered what Rainbow was doing now over in Gordonvale. She hoped it was wholesome, whatever it was. Her daughter was probably watching telly, playing computer games or texting her friends.
Ronnie sighed, spread-kneed on the edge of the bed. She inhaled carefully. Exhaled to a count of five. She rubbed her face. Should shower before she fell asleep. She could already tell it would be an early night. Nowhere to go from here but call it and try again in the morning. Do a reset tomorrow.
Matilda and Maya barked. She didn’t think anything of the arrival of another car until the knock on the bedroom door. Her chest hurt. A lump caught in her throat. She swallowed. Maybe they would go away.
Then again. Three loud knocks.
Three small soft knocks.
She blinked. The waterworks started, silent tears running down her cheeks. She wiped them away. “Come in.”
The door remained closed.
Fuck, she thought, this hurts, this hope business.
The door swung open, revealing Reg standing behind a nine-year-old girl with pigtails and skinned knees. Ronnie smiled. Rainbow was wearing the binoculars Santa had given her. She took them everywhere, even slept with them.
Reg whispered in Rainbow’s ear. The girl held up a cardboard sign that said YOU ARE THE BEST MUM! in pink magic marker.
Ronnie chuckled, opened her arms. Rainbow went to her without any more encouragement.
Ronnie closed her eyes and smelled her daughter’s head. “What are you doing here, angel?”
“Grandad brought me.”
She cupped Rainbow’s round cheeks and kissed her nose. “Did he kidnap you?” She feared he had.
He leaned on the windowsill. “Maude let me take her. She’ll fetch her Monday.”
