Chapter 4
Chapter Four
A s Evie ticked more birthdays off the calendar, and tried to manoeuvre through the physical and emotional changes in her life, she noticed the relationship between her mother and father was also changing. At first, she didn’t think anything of it. Maybe before she had just been younger and not taken notice, but now it was obvious that her parents didn’t talk as much as they once did. Mother rarely smiled, and her patience was even shorter than before. Her father spent more time in the shop and travelling to Sydney to attend vacuum cleaner conferences. When he came back home, he often looked unhappy. ‘You look sad,’ Evie told him one day.
For the first time, her father didn’t dismiss her concern. ‘Life changes, Evie. Look at you, growing up so fast,’ he said, his voice tinged with sadness. ‘I’m okay. Just focus on your schoolwork.’ His words hung in the air, and she could sense there was more he wanted to say. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tightly, ‘I don’t want you to be sad. Can I help? Are your vacuums not selling?’ she asked, her voice filled with a mix of worry and determination.
He held her face gently in his hands. ‘No, there is nothing you can do. Sometimes we are sad and sometimes we are happy. Owning a business can be hard at times, but vacuums are selling better than ever, so there’s no need for you to worry.’
Another not-so-good part of her life was the fact that her mother had taken a job at the high school—the same high school where Evie was about to plunge into the teenage years of her education. Only the Christmas holidays lay between her last weeks at primary school and what she had anticipated would be an exciting time of her life. Now, however, there was nothing to look forward to. How embarrassing—her mother—a cleaner—at her school.
‘Get over it,’ her mother told her. ‘We need the money and it’s time for me to get out of the house and do something other than housework.’
Her father winked at her, ‘Your mother will see everything you’re up to. She will know if you’re not doing your studies. The most important thing is for you to work hard and go to university. Your mother and I didn’t have that opportunity.’
‘What if I don’t want to do that?’ she questioned.
He rattled off something in Italian that she could not understand, and then in a calmer voice told her, ‘You must go to university. It is your destiny.’