Page 8 of The Family Across the Street
At a traffic light, he taps the screen on the dashboard of the van and calls his sister instead. ‘Hi, it’s Maddy, leave me a message.’
‘Hi Maddy, just checking in. Wanted to see how things are going. Give me a call when you can.’
Maddy is probably already at university. She’s getting a teaching degree as a mature student although he would hardly think twenty-five qualifies as mature. She’s perpetually worried about falling behind so she works harder than most of the other students. That’s another reason why the idea of her still being with Patrick irritates him so much. He doesn’t like the fact that she works so hard because it takes her attention from him.
‘Tell him to get himself a job then,’ Logan told her. ‘He should work so you don’t have to waitress at night and study during the day.’
‘He’s trying, Logan, but he doesn’t have any qualifications. He thinks he may be interested in architecture. He draws really well.’
‘Does he?’ Logan scoffed.
Logan wishes she still lived in Sydney so they could see each other regularly, but he supposes he should be grateful that she is only two hours away by plane and they can speak all the time. Maddy had felt like she needed to get even further away from their family than Logan did. ‘I can’t be in the same state as them. They keep trying to get me to come over and I don’t want to be sucked back in.’ He couldn’t blame her for wanting to be away from them. He left when he was eighteen, having little choice but to leave. ‘Take me with you,’ Maddy begged but he knew he didn’t have the ability to take care of a kid, even if it broke his heart to say no to her. ‘I can’t, Maddy, I don’t have any money and I need to find a place to live, but I’ll call you all the time.’
‘Promise?’ she asked on his last day at home, as his father sneered and his mother ignored him. Only Maddy had tears on her cheeks and he grabbed her and held her tightly to him. ‘Promise,’ he whispered. No matter what happened in his life, he would never neglect his sister.
She struggled for a couple of years once she got down to Melbourne, but now she seems to have found her way.
It took a lot longer for Logan. He couldn’t see a way forward for himself in the world and so for years he knows he moved through his life letting things happen to him, getting involved in things that he never planned on being involved in. Until it all stopped, the night he met Debbie.
It’s only since they got together that he’s understood what a real family should be like. Debbie is forever on the phone to her mother and her sister-in-law and her various cousins. If someone is sick, everyone calls and worries. If there’s a birthday, presents are discussed. Triumphs are celebrated and tragedies fretted over.
He touches the screen on his dashboard as he drives, tapping Debbie’s number. She’s home today instead of at the hospital. She’s a nurse on the maternity ward, helping bring new life into the world every day. But it’s tiring work and she seems to catch whatever is going around. This morning he made her a very early morning cup of tea and left it on her bedside table so she could have something to drink when she woke up, even though it would probably be lukewarm then.
She’ll be up by now, he’s sure.
‘Hey babes,’ she answers, ‘is it hot enough for you?’
He laughs. ‘Are you going to ask me that every time I call today?’
‘Yep, I’ve just finished my book so until I download another one, you’re my only avenue for amusement.’
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Yeah, slightly nauseous, slightly shitty. At least my nose has stopped running, but then I’ve taken enough stuff to help that.’
‘You poor thing. Hey, I had a weird delivery this morning.’
‘Ooo, do tell – a naked lady?’
‘Nah,’ laughs Logan. He had one of those once. Too bad she was at least eighty. He had felt really sorry for her, understanding that she wasn’t even aware she was naked. He had averted his eyes and pretended she was dressed.
‘I had to deliver a computer and that needs to be signed for but the woman wouldn’t open the door.’
Debbie is quiet for a moment. ‘Are you wearing long sleeves?’ She asks the question softly because she knows this is the worst aspect of his job right now. It’s fine in winter but he hates to be hot. It makes him feel trapped and claustrophobic and he hates feeling trapped.
‘You know I am, Debs. I promised Mack, didn’t I?’
It wasn’t that his arms were covered in tattoos; it was more the kind of tattoos. The knife dripping blood; the gun firing a bullet with the words ‘everyone dies’ written underneath. The skull and crossbones with a woman’s face screaming behind one of the eye sockets; the writhing, fanged snake creeping up his neck. Choices made when he was drunk or seething with rage. They are the choices he regrets every day. Removal would cost a fortune and leave him with scarring. He’s thought about covering them up with different tattoos but just walking into a tattoo studio made him uncomfortable, brought back memories he had no interest in revisiting. A different man got his tattoos and he never wanted to meet him again.
‘Course you did, sorry, babes. I know it must be really uncomfortable,’ says Debbie.
‘Don’t worry about it. Anyway, so the woman wouldn’t open the door and when I told her I would wait for her to get dressed or something she said that I needed to understand that she couldn’t open the door, like she made sure to emphasise the word understand.’
‘People are weird,’ says Debbie.
Logan shakes his head. ‘I think that something is wrong in that house. There wasn’t even any noise from the kids and I know there must have been little kids because there were scooters in the garden.’
‘It sounds like you’re reading too much into what she said. Maybe the kids were at school early, or with their dad, or staying at friends, and she was having fun with her husband or her lover. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors as they say.’
