Chapter 4
FOUR
“Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal.”
~ Mario Andretti
Two weeks had passed since the first Life Makeover Club meeting and Cara still hadn’t done her homework. Trying to find the time and energy to do something different for herself was about as likely as finding the Holy Grail. She’d managed to exhume some paper and drawing pencils out of the drawer a few days ago, but that was as far as she’d got. At least she’d made a start on her vision board though, until Jacob had drawn on the pictures she’d cut out. The lady being pampered in a salon with cucumbers over her eyes had grown a beard and a fancy moustache, and the cucumbers had transformed into big googly eyes. The image of a beach at sunset now had stick figures going skinny dipping, and a priceless work of art being unveiled by an acclaimed artist was now a painting of The Wiggles. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was annoyed, Cara would have been quite proud of her son’s artistic talents.
She hoped at least one of her children would inherit her creative abilities and be able to make use of them in life. Cara felt she’d missed that opportunity. After falling pregnant at nineteen during her second year of Graphic Design at university, her artistic lifestyle was replaced by nappies, breastfeeding, and sleep deprivation. A couple of years later – surprise! Pregnant again. And then again. Her creative pursuits had become limited to finger painting and papier maché, which she enjoyed doing with the kids, but weren’t as satisfying as the artworks she’d created in the past.
It was time to change that.
With the kids playing in the living room, Cara escaped to the kitchen table and picked up the pencil. She glanced around the room, tapping the pencil against her chin, and her favourite photo of Jacob caught her eye. She placed the frame in front of her on the table, her son’s smile triggering her own. Gently, she stroked the paper with the pencil, the familiar scratching sound bringing back memories from years ago...
During high school, friends would pay her five dollars for a drawing of their favourite celebrity, and she’d enjoyed the attention and acknowledgment. She wasn’t only popular for her artistic abilities; blessed with a petite figure, pretty face, and naturally curly blonde hair, she garnered much attention from boys. From the time puberty hit she was rarely without a boyfriend, right up until the time she married Pete. Although Pete didn’t share any of her lectures at university, him being in the final year of a Paramedic degree, she’d seen him around and thought he was cute with his ever-present smile, gentle green eyes, and short sandy hair. Plus, he was neither too short nor too tall, which was a bonus for Cara, who, at only five foot, often had a sore neck from looking up at people all her life. At the end of Cara’s first year, Pete sat next to her on the train one day, despite plenty of other seats being available. By the time they arrived at the university they’d exchanged phone numbers, and Cara agreed to attend the opening of a new nightclub with him on the weekend. From that moment they were inseparable, and the times they shared over summer break were some of Cara’s happiest memories.
‘Muuumm!’ Jacob yelled, jolting Cara from her reminiscing. ‘Toby keeps messing up my twains!’
She put the pencil down and peered into the living room. ‘Toby, why don’t you sit on the lounge for a while with some toys? Let Jacob set up the trains by himself for now.’
Toby’s chin quivered and a tired wail escaped his lungs, accompanied by fresh tears from his eyes.
‘Oh, man!’ Cara’s chair skidded as she stood. ‘It’s okay, pumpkin. You’re just tired aren’t you?’ She walked into the living room, pulled the box of toys and books out from under the coffee table and tempted her crying son with his favourite book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ , which Cara could read blindfolded by now. Toby’s cries became sniffles, and when Cara sat on the lounge he lifted his knee onto her lap, climbing and nudging until he was snuggled beneath her arm.
‘Muuumm!’ Jacob yelled. ‘I can’t find Thomas. Where’s my Thomas twain?’
‘No need to yell, Jakey, I’m right here. Go have a look under your bed.’ Cara opened the book and read to Toby.
‘Muuumm!’ Jacob yelled from the bedroom. ‘It’s not here! Where’s Thomas? ’
‘Mummy’s trying to read to Toby. I’ll have a look when I’m finished, okay?’
He came out and stamped his foot. ‘But I want it nowwww!’
‘Jacob Collins. I said I’ll have a look when I’m finished reading. Now, do something else for a while.’ Cara had been told to beware of the Terrible Two’s, but no one thought to mention the Frustrating Fours. Lily had also been difficult at age four, and now her brother continued the tradition. Of all her babies, Toby had been the most difficult. God help her when he turned four.
Upon hearing his surname, Jacob must have known his mum meant business, and trudged off to the kitchen. A minute later he scurried out and dashed into his bedroom. The home phone rang. Luckily, Cara was on the last page of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ so she finished up and rushed into the kitchen before the phone went to the answering machine.
‘This is emergency services, we just received a call from this number, is everything okay?’
‘What? Oh no ... Jacob,’ Cara said, a hand on her forehead. ‘I’m sorry, my son must have called. His dad works for the ambulance service, he probably thought he could speak to him,’ she explained, her voice wobbly with embarrassment.
‘Well, as long as everything’s okay. Be sure to explain to him what Triple 0 is for, as I’m sure you’re aware, we need to be available for real emergencies.’
‘Yes, absolutely. I’m so sorry to waste your time. I’ll go and speak to him right now.’
‘Jaaacoobb!’ This time Cara yelled. She sat him down and talked about his dad’s job, and how he couldn’t help sick people in time if kids called Triple 0 when it wasn’t an emergency.
‘But he might know where my Thomas twain is,’ Jacob reasoned.
‘Yes, he might, but you can’t call Triple 0 to speak to him. Tell you what, I’ll write Daddy’s mobile number near the phone, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Jacob nodded.
Cara crawled on the floor for the next fifteen minutes looking for Thomas while Jacob cried in frustration. A futile search. She often wished toys had some kind of in-built tracking device, having calculated that she spent about three thousand one hundred and twenty minutes of each year searching for lost trains, blocks, action figures, and the only Lego head that had sunglasses painted on its face. In addition, they should come with their own airbag that spontaneously puffed up with the slightest hint of being dropped, to avoid those annoying breakages that often occurred only days after buying the toy. Oh! The list of things she could invent to make parents’ lives easier, if she only knew how.
At two o’clock, Cara’s mouth stretched into a long yawn. She’d been woken four times the previous night, and the house was a mess. She also often wished she was Samantha from ‘Bewitched’, able to tidy the house with a twinkle of her nose. And while she was at it, she’d whip up some dinner, zap in some new furniture, and put a spell on her kids to make them behave. Oh, and zap those dark bags and wrinkles that were starting to appear under her eyes. Her youth spent in the sun developing the perfect tan was already starting to show its effects, and she was only twenty-six. Then again, maybe the sleep deprivation had a role to play too.
When Jacob calmed down, his cries reduced to sporadic sulking noises, Cara put on his favourite show, ‘Barney’. With the kids practically hypnotised by the singing purple dinosaur, she took to the lounge like a fish to water, hoping to catch some shut-eye before picking up Lily from school in an hour. She wriggled, trying to get comfortable, but something dug into her back. She stretched her arm behind to retrieve the culprit, and was about to say ‘Hey, Jakey! I found Thomas!’ but put it discreetly under the cushion. Jacob was smiling, eyes wide open, at the television screen. Cara had learned to never disturb a quiet and happy child. She took a deep breath, relaxed her muscles, and closed her eyes.
The phone rang.
‘Oh, forget it, you can leave a message,’ she mumbled. Maybe it was the emergency services employee checking if she’d spoken to her son, or Community Services calling to arrange an appointment to observe her parenting skills.
‘Hi Cara, it’s Mum. I tried your mobile but I guess you’re busy with the kids and it’s charging or something and you couldn’t get to the home phone in time. You know, you really should set the ring tone to last longer, giving you more time to answer.’ Cara’s mother, Pam, was always offering ‘helpful’ suggestions, but sometimes it got on her nerves. ‘Anyway, Nanna’s with me, we’ve been out for lunch in the city. Thought we’d drop in to say hello before heading home. Be there in ten. I hope you’re not out, oh well, we’ll come by anyway. See you soon.’
‘Oh, for crying out loud!’ Cara threw her arms in the air, heaved her tired body up from the lounge, and trudged into the kitchen. She removed her almost-drawing from the table, laying a tablecloth in its place along with a plate of biscuits for the impending visitors, and sighed. Her search for the Holy Grail would have to resume another day.