Page 28 of The Family Across the Street
‘Logan, Debbie just called. I am so sorry, mate, so sorry to hear about Maddy. Anna and I think the world of her and she’s… I mean she’s going to be such a great teacher and I… we’re just…’
Logan is surprised to hear Mack’s voice choke up, as though he’s crying.
‘Th-thanks,’ he stutters, ‘she’ll… I mean, she’ll be okay we hope.’
‘Bring everything back now and just leave, Logan. I’ll do the rest.’
Logan considers this for a moment. ‘Mack, I’ll finish up if that’s okay. I’ll go mad just waiting to get on a plane, and Debbie is in touch with her nurses. I’m okay to work another couple of hours.’
‘Okay… okay but if you feel… I’m here, Logan, we’re all here for you.’
‘You’re a good mate,’ says Logan, feeling himself getting choked up, everything he once thought about Mack disappearing with the man’s kind concern. Mack keeps talking and Logan listens, thanking him when the conversation is done.
He gets into his van, determined to finish the day so Mack can start tomorrow with a clean docket.
A text pings in from Debbie:
Just spoke to Terri. She says Maddy’s stable but critical. Even if you could get there now, they probably won’t allow you in. They may have to operate to relieve the pressure on her brain. I think you should come home.
I think I’ll go crazy if I do. I only have a few deliveries left. I spoke to Mack – he’s signed me off until the end of the week.
Good. I’ve booked you into a motel. It’s not exactly luxury but it will do.
Logan allows himself a chuckle at Debbie’s last text. All he needs is a bed and a locked door. He doesn’t care about anything else.
He picks up the meat pie he bought from a service station ten minutes ago. He takes a few minutes to force down a bite, parked on a side road with the air conditioning on because the thought of being outside is not pleasant. Every time he climbs out of his van and feels the furnace blast of heat hit him, he stares up into the perfectly blue sky, hoping for a slight gust of wind or a slight darkening to grey that would mean a storm was on the way. But the sky remains achingly blue, the sun a fiery yellow. He would welcome a storm – a giant gust of wind and pounding rain would be better than a day this beautiful while his sister lies in a hospital bed.
The temperature has reached thirty-nine degrees and every suburb he drives through is silent, as though the whole of Sydney has decided to take a collective nap. He’s passed lots of houses with dogs lying by front gates, their tongues lolling as they watch the street for movement.
He doesn’t mind the quiet. In prison, what bothered him the most was the constant noise. It never stopped, not even at night. Men in prison don’t talk normally. And underneath the loud voices, the noise… he could always hear the fear. All he wanted to do was get through the years and start again. There were others who wanted the same thing, but there were many more for whom prison was a way of life they never anticipated leaving. Those were the most dangerous men of all, because they had nothing left to lose.
Prisoners aren’t supposed to have access to mobile phones but they are smuggled in and available to those who want them enough. Logan pictures Nick’s face, tries to see him as he would look now. He looks at the text again, his fingers hovering over the number. He could just call and find out who it is.
He touches the number, his heart hammering in his chest as it starts ringing.
But the ringing continues until the call is answered by a robotic voice. ‘You have reached the message bank of 614—’ Logan hangs up, knowing the robotic voice will just repeat the number.
A yellow Porsche roars past him, the noise startling him as it spins its wheels in the quiet street where he’s parked. Maddy once bought him a toy Porsche for his birthday. It was his seventeenth and she’d been telling him for months that she was getting him a car. She had presented the small toy car to him with such love and hope in her face that he hadn’t even managed to laugh at the joke, only to give her a long hug. She was the only one to give him a present. He still has it somewhere, is holding on to the desire to give it to a son one day.
Cars have always been his passion and he feels at home around an engine. Engines can usually be fixed – people, not so much. It was his plan to get work as an apprentice mechanic when he was released from prison, where he’d taken classes, but no one wanted to hire him. His record follows him like a dog. He has to put the truth in his cover letter – no point in hiding it.
‘Just keep trying, babes,’ Debbie told him. ‘Put in an application everywhere you can and leave the rest to the universe.’ Debbie is big on leaving things to the universe but then she comes from a life where the universe seems to be on her side. She and Mack grew up with loving parents who gave them what they could materially but made up for any lack with complete love and support. Debbie’s father, Paul, is a quiet man. The first time they met he barely glanced at Logan’s tattoos, shaking his hand and avoiding looking down at the letters ‘H A T E’ inked across his fingers. Logan knew that Debbie must have briefed her family on him but her mother, Ruth, couldn’t hide the surprise in her eyes. Before the meeting, Logan had debated what to wear and then he had purposely chosen a T-shirt, reasoning that he may as well be upfront from the beginning. At the table, while lunch was being served, he carefully moderated how quickly he drank his beer, how he held his knife and fork. But he wasn’t able to control the tapping of his knee on the underside of the table, hadn’t even known he was doing it until Debbie placed her hand gently on his leg and squeezed. The only member of the household who seemed unfazed by his appearance was their Labrador, Betty, who dropped her golden head onto Logan’s knee and stared at him with soulful eyes while he stroked her soft ears.
After lunch, Paul called him aside and he felt his heart sink to his stomach. He understood he was going to be asked to leave Debbie alone, to give the beautiful, smart young woman a chance to find someone more worthy of her.
In the garage, Paul picked a spanner up off his workbench and searched the wall for its correct placement. Logan waited, his heart pounding. He knew that he wouldn’t even be able to argue with Paul about his unsuitability. He was thirty years old and he had already spent three years in prison for break and enter and assault. He had no job and no money. He was a waste of a human being. As these thoughts circled in Logan’s head, Paul found the place for the spanner and smiled, clapping his hands together to get rid of imaginary dirt. ‘She’s always been the best judge of character, you know.’
‘She’s really smart,’ Logan replied.
‘As smart as any Labrador, I imagine,’ Paul said and Logan started laughing. Paul was talking about Betty. Paul joined him in his laughter.
‘I know my daughter, Logan,’ he said. ‘If she thinks you’re an okay bloke, then that’s good enough for me. I’ve always been a fan of second chances. It seems that you’ve been given one. See that you don’t stuff it up. We love her dearly and would hate to see her hurt.’
‘I won’t hurt her, Paul, I promise,’ Logan said, hoping like hell that he would be able to keep that promise. ‘I won’t waste this second chance.’
Paul nodded and Logan breathed a sigh of relief. He smiles now as he thinks about Betty, who always sits right next to him when he and Debbie go over for a visit. His own personal dream is a house with enough of a garden for a kid and a dog. It’s not much, but right now it seems an impossible goal. It’s what Maddy always said she wanted as well – a house with a yard and dinner on the table, and kids who weren’t scared of their angry parents. She’d thought she’d found it with Patrick, and even though Logan didn’t understand the attraction, what bothers him is that his radar never picked up on the man being capable of such hideous violence.
He looks down at his hands. He is so much bigger than Patrick. He could kill him with his bare hands. This thought is satisfying.
