Page 53 of Lost in the Current of You

Dad cleared his throat. “Laura, I didn’t know you were here yet.”

“Clearly, Tim. I was out there knocking for quite a while, but it’s obvious no one heard. Don’t you think you should be able to hear if they’re knocking? The noise from here could be heard from down the street. I wouldn’t be surprised by a noise complaint arriving in your mail.” She rolled her eyes.

Dad released a slow breath. “It’s good to see you, too.”

She waved him off. “Yeah, you too.” Then, she looked at Nate and surprise flickered in her eyes. “I didn’t know you were still here, Nathan.”

Nate cringed at the use of his full name. “Of course I would be, Mum. It’s Christmas.”

Mum made a non-committal noise. “I thought you would have been getting started on your studies for the next semester.”

“Laura,” Dad warned.

Her eyes flicked to his for a moment and I swore I saw a moment of softness enter her eyes, but it was gone too quickly for me to be sure.

“Right,” she corrected, smiling tightly at my brother. “It’s good to see you again, Nathan.” Nate looked surprised when he glanced at me but then Mum turned her attention to me all too quickly. “You too, Dakota. Merry Christmas to you all.”

It was silent between us for a moment before Dad clapped his hands together.

“Well,” he started. “Everyone, go sit at the table and I'll bring the food over.”

We did, with Nate beside me and Mum deciding to sit right in front of me. I saw Nate glance at me from the corner of my eye and plucked an eyebrow up. I could read his glance immediately with just a short look. It read Good luck, soldier. Because, by the seating arrangements, it was right within the firing range of my mother. Whoever was in front of her was the first to be dealt her blows.

Dad started piling the food on the table. The rissoles, sausages, buttered buns, pasta salad, potato bake, cream broccoli, corn on the cob, honey carrots, and, of course, in the centre of the table, a leg of ham that dad had already shaved bits from.

As soon as he sat down, we immediately started piling food on our plates. We had already had our fair share of prawns before Mum arrived since she didn’t like seafood, but that didn’t stop Dad and Nate from filling their plates with way too much food , more than I could ever handle.

It was quiet for a while, the only noise coming from the scraping of forks against plates and my brother’s noisy munching which I glared at him for. He just grinned and to annoy me even further, he chewed louder before Dad reprimanded him.

Mum cleared her throat for the third time tonight and I grasped my knife and fork a little harder. Here we go.

“So, Dakota, how was your little week away after you graduated? Where was it again?”

I relaxed a little with her question. It was a simple question without any bite.

“Airlie Beach. And it was good. Really fun. I got a nice sun tan there and took a lot of photos on the digital camera Nate gave me. But now he got me a bigger one, like a real professional one, so I’m excited to take it for a test run.”

“More like sunburn,” Nate muttered under his breath and I kicked him under the table. He kicked me back and I threw him a glare.

“You two,” Dad interrupted our fight, a smile fighting against his frown.

Mum smiled, but it always seemed off when she did. Like she wasn’t used to smiling. “He got you a camera?”

“Yeah. I mentioned a few times that I loved taking photos but was sick of filling up my phone then having to delete them because I was running out of storage. Who knows, something could come out of photography for me,” I joked, throwing around the idea since Reece had planted it in my head.

I wanted to keep the memories I captured, to store them in film reels, albums, or photo frames. It felt freeing.

And most of all it made me smile.

Dad started to smile. “That’s amazing, chook. And if photography makes you happy, you should go for it.”

My lips rose at his words of encouragement but a scoff came from in front of me, dimming the light that started to spark.

“Photography is not a stable career. Be smart, Dakota. You cannot survive in this world living a dream.” Mum cut my spirits like a knife to the heart.

“Laura, don’t,” Dad warned.

“No, Tim. I cannot sit here and support my daughter living a fairytale. She needs to know the only way she’s going to be able to live is a stable, sturdy career like law, or psychology, or hell even nursing is stable these days.”

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