Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
W hen she got home, Bob was nowhere to be seen, so she spent the rest of the afternoon tidying up the house and getting the shop ready for the morning. With no one to annoy her, she took the time to read a letter that had arrived on Friday afternoon. It was from her father and she sank into the nearest chair, the weight of his words echoing in her mind as if he were seated beside her, articulating them aloud. Her parents were going to visit for her upcoming twenty-first birthday. They had booked accommodation at a local motel and would stay for three nights, before returning to their respective homes — her mother to Cairns, her father to Melbourne.
Her stomach churned with nerves. As much as she wanted to see them, she didn’t want them to meet Bob. Father would hate him straight away, and neither of her parents would approve of the way she was living. Pushing the letter and envelope into her hiding place at the back of the cupboard, she told herself she would write back and try and put them off. Maybe if she travelled to them, it would be better, but she knew she wouldn’t be allowed to do that. Who would run the shop?
When Bob arrived back late that night, he was drunk and stoned. She pretended to be asleep, hoping he would pass out on the lounge. Unfortunately, like many other nights, he made his way to the bed and she had to endure him slobbering all over her before they had sex. When it ended, she lay still and waited until he was asleep before pushing him off. At least the interaction, as she now thought of it, was quick, and for once he hadn’t threatened to kill her if she ever left him.
As she lay curled up on the edge of the bed, his snoring and body odour keeping her awake, she tried to work out a way to escape her life with Bob. Soon she would be twenty-one and no longer the young, stupid girl who had run away with him. She hated his desire to have total control over her, his jealousy, and his threats to kill her if she tried to leave.
It was like she was trapped. Trapped in a bait shop in Yeppoon with a smelly, drunkard, drug addict called Bob. Thoughts of Layla and her other friends in North Queensland came back to her. What were they all doing with their lives? Were they in nice relationships, or maybe travelling around Australia, fruit-picking like the young couple who had come into the shop last week?
Punching the lumpy pillow, she tried to think where she could go. To admit defeat and run back to her parents was not an option. The few phone calls she had with her mother gave hints that she was unstable and not coping with life. ‘I’ve had to stay in a rehab place for a little while,’ she said, the last time Evie spoke to her. ‘I don’t want you to worry. It sounds like you’re doing fine with your shop. I just can’t cope with anything at the moment.’
Guilt pressed heavily on Evie, and she tried to push it away. Her mother had not been the same person since she had broken off the relationship with Mr McIntosh, and they’d left Beaudesert. Did she still love him? Did she think about him, like Evie sometimes thought about Chris? What a mess. Maybe the only one who was truly happy was her father.