Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
B efore she knew it, several birthdays had come and gone. Last week, Evie had turned twenty-seven, and soon Bob would be thirty-eight. The years had not been kind to him, and his addiction to drugs and alcohol made him look even older. Over the years, she had come to accept that this was how her life was going to be. As much as she wanted to get away, there was nowhere to go. Her days consisted of running the shop and trying to avoid Bob.
It had been years since she had seen either of her parents. Her father was always busy with the business expanding in Melbourne, and although she talked to him every month, they hadn’t been able to arrange a time to meet. She used the bait shop as an excuse, time and time again. ‘We just don’t get days off. It’s busy all the time.’
The last time her father rang, he told Evie to ring her mother. ‘She has some exciting news to tell. I won’t spoil it. She wants to let you know herself.’
Hopefully, she had lifted herself out of her depression and didn’t need to spend any more time in hospital, Evie thought.
Sidestepping the broken glass that lay on the floor of the phone box, Evie pushed a few coins into the slot. It was getting harder to skim money from the till, and Bob had questioned her last week, saying he thought she was ripping him off. He’d grabbed her face with one hand, his fingers tightening when he spoke. He no longer bore any resemblance to the musician she had first met and run away with, his lined face pushing up close to hers, his eyes narrowed and bloodshot.
‘If I find you’re taking any of my money, you’ll cop it. I’ve always looked after you, Evie. Given you a house and the shop. You’re getting under my skin lately. Almost like you’re planning something.’ He’d gritted his teeth and tried to frighten her by pushing his ugly face closer.
She’d laughed. ‘Plan what? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m not fucking stupid. I see that copper in here talking to you. If I find you’re with another man, especially a black one, you’re a dead woman walking.’
Words twirled in her head that she wanted to hurl at him. What a drug-ridden grub he was and how dare he, with all his evil traits, judge someone by the colour of their skin.
‘Do you hear me? Don’t try anything. I’ve got a gun there that Leon gave me. I’ll chase you wherever you go.’ He sneered and pinched her tighter. ‘You just keep working that shop.’
It had taken her a long while to stop shaking, and she only found solace after he walked out, declaring he was going to Ziggy’s place for a party.
Sometimes Bob made her go with him to the parties, and she had to sit next to him all night and watch him get drunker and drunker. ‘I bring the wifey to drive me home,’ he loved to tell his mates. ‘Don’t want those pigs picking me up.’
The women who hung with Ziggy and Leon, all looked the same as the men. They appeared haggard, drug-ridden, and their faces were full of similar signs of defeat. The look that said they had resigned themselves to the shit life they led. Was that what she was going to look like in ten years?’
Now she waited for her mother to pick up the phone. ‘Evie. Hello love,’ her mother’s voice sounded through the earpiece. The line crackled a bit and Evie pushed the phone harder to her ear.
Her mother’s words gushed out, and Evie held her breath as she listened. ‘Last month David came into where I work. Yes, Evie, David McIntosh. He said he’d been trying to find me. He came looking for me. And Evie…’
All Evie could think about was the day she had dropped the Jaffa lolly under the bed. ‘Yes, Mum.’
‘We’re going to get married. Mrs McIntosh passed away a few years ago, and David doesn’t want to waste any more time. The wedding will be in Brisbane, and you have to come. May twenty-eighth.’ Her mother talked for a bit longer before Evie said her coins were running out.
‘Yes, Mother. Of course, I’ll come. No, Bob won’t be able to. Someone’ll have to stay and run the shop.’
Evie stood still, holding the end of the phone for a long time. Through the glass of the phone booth, she watched as groups of school kids walked past. The girls wore short uniforms, a couple of them holding hands with boys who had long, straggly hair and wore untucked school shirts. They grinned at her as they passed, a few of them passing a cigarette between each other. She smiled back. Where had the time between her school years and now, gone? That had been her once. Holding hands with Chris, smoking a cigarette with Layla, laughing and mucking around on the walk home. Not a care in the world.
Placing the receiver back in its holder, she pushed the phone booth door open and began to walk home. She’d left Bob to look after the shop while she phoned her mum. Ziggy and Leon had called in to talk to him, so she had made a hurried exit, using the excuse that she had to get some food for dinner.
She took the long way home, dawdling and letting her mother’s latest news sink in. There was a sense of shock that, after so long, Mr McIntosh still wanted to be with her. It had been so long since she had heard her mother sound happy and animated. Good on her. Finally, they were going to be together. And even more exciting, she was going to see her parents.
On Sunday she headed towards Matilda’s house. She kept a good pace as she walked along the beach, because that meant she would have more time to spend with the old lady. Bob was spending the day with his friends. He had decided there was no reason for her to have Sundays off, and had been keen for her to do a shift at a nearby island resort on a Sunday afternoon. So far, she had been able to avoid his suggestion. ‘It’s my only day off and I like to walk. I collect shells and sometimes I fish.’
‘They just need someone to wash dishes, and it would bring in more money. If you want to have a fancy washing machine, and a stupid inside toilet that we’re spending a fortune on, you’ll have to pull your weight.’
‘I already do. I work all week in the shop.’
‘Don’t argue with me. You can do a couple of shifts. The bloke who owns the place came in here the other day, and I’ve already told him you’ll do it once the busy season starts. They’ll let you stay in a room for the night if your shift finishes after the last ferry has left.’
Sunday afternoon visits to Matilda’s had become a ritual and the two of them had become good friends. Sometimes they did weaving, while other times Evie watched Matilda paint. The old woman was sprightly and usually sat on the ground. Today, however, she was sitting in a chair, with a pot of tea and two cups ready for their afternoon tea .
Evie hugged her and sat down. Matilda had become her best friend and, although she had never said much about Bob, she knew that Matilda sensed something was wrong.
‘He’s not a good fella this Bob, is he?’ Matilda asked, as she sipped her tea. Her eyes were barely visible between the folds of skin and creases that made up her face, but Evie knew she saw everything.
‘Not really. No.’
‘Was your father a good man?’
‘He was the best father. I have very good memories of him. He gave me lots of love and everything else I needed.’ She stopped talking then, thinking how good life had been before the Jaffa day. ‘That was before we left him.’
‘What happened?’
Evie paused. Usually she let Matilda talk, preferring to listen to her stories about her life before she came to live at Yeppoon. She had been taken from her mother when she was only five, and lived on a mission to the west of where she lived now. Her life had been full of struggle and heartache, but she never complained. Evie never revealed much of her life, but today Matilda was asking.
‘My mother and him split up. Mum was in love with someone else and my dad, well, you might find this hard to believe, Matilda, but my dad likes other men, not women.’
Matilda pulled a face. ‘Hard to believe? Not really. That’s the way of the world. I have a son, Mattrick, Baker’s younger step-brother. He likes men too. As long as he’s happy, so are all of us. He’s a good man. That’s all I care about. ’
Evie breathed a sigh of relief. There weren’t many people she talked to about her father, and Matilda’s reaction was a surprise. ‘The man my mother fell in love with stayed with his wife for a while, but now she’s passed away. He came and found my mother in Cairns. They’re going to get married in May, and I’m going to the wedding.’
‘That’s a good story. A wedding. And you? I don’t see a ring on your hand. Will you marry Bob? And how come no children?’
Cupping her hands around her mug she looked down at the tea leaves in the bottom. If only she could read her future in them. ‘No. I don’t want children with him, and he’s never asked me to marry him.’
Matilda leaned forward over the table. ‘And if he asked, would you?’
‘No.’
The two of them looked up as a car pulled up beside the house. It was Baker. Sometimes he was there when Evie visited, but usually he was working. ‘G’day Evie. Wow, you’ve had your hair cut. It looks great.’
She blushed, unused to compliments. ‘I’m going to Brisbane for my mother’s wedding.’
Matilda held a floral dress up. ‘I’m going to hem this. My sewing skills still come in handy. You know, Evie, Bob still brings me all of his mending to do. Boys. They never learned how to sew.’
‘You always did such a good job, Mum. I still remember all the patches on Dad’s shorts. They held together for years. ’
Flicking the dress out so it lay flat, Matilda then held it high in the air. ‘You will look beautiful in this.’
Evie tried not to look at Baker, who hadn’t taken his eyes off her. When Matilda went inside to make some more tea, he leaned over the table towards her, his dark eyes full of fun. ‘I wish you were single, Evie.’
Evie checked that Matilda was out of earshot. ‘I wish I was too. I like you too, Baker.’
They stared at each other, until Matilda came back with a fresh pot of tea. ‘Right. Cuppa for everyone,’ she declared.
‘I think I should drive you home and drop you off at the beach before town again,’ Baker said, as he looked towards the sun that was sinking in the western sky.
‘I wasn’t watching the time either. Yes, thank you. That’d be good.’
They chatted as his old Holden ute traversed the bumpy track. When he pulled up in a spot where she could get out and make her way to the beach, he turned the car off and swivelled in his seat towards her. ‘I wish you weren’t with Bob. If you were single, I’d ask you out.’
She turned towards him. ‘And I would say yes.’
She moved closer and then leaned in further, as he put his hand gently around the back of her head and drew her towards him. His lips were sweet and soft, and she moaned softly as he pressed them down on hers. When they pulled apart, he stared at her until she looked down .
‘I can’t, Baker. It’s a small town. He’d make life hell for you and me.’
She didn’t add that he’d also probably kill both of them if he saw them together. ‘I need to go.’
‘Please Evie, I’ve been waiting for you. I’d take you away from here. We could make a life together, somewhere else.’
‘I can’t. I’m sorry. I can’t.’ She reached up and stroked his face, before kissing him. His arm wrapped around her and he drew her into his chest, her face pushed into the warmth of his body as his hand stroked her hair. He whispered, ‘You deserve so much better.’
She didn’t look back when she walked away from the car, towards the beach. Her heart burned. It would have been easy to say ‘yes’, to leave her life and start a new one with Baker. But it wasn’t only the fear of Bob tracking her down that stopped her. Baker was gorgeous and she loved him, but only as a friend. His kisses had sent her mind spinning, but it was because no one had touched her so intimately for so long. This time she would not make a mistake. There was no use getting into another relationship, just to escape a bad situation.
She walked quickly along the beach. For once the spray from the ocean and the birds wheeling above did not interest her, and she started to run. She ran as fast as she could, until her chest hurt. She ran until her legs ached and a stitch in her stomach felt like a knife twisting in her gut. She ran until her throat was parched and she wanted to vomit. She ran away from what she couldn’t have and ran towards the one thing she wanted to get away from.