Page 59 of The Family Across the Street
Maybe that was Karma. Maybe the bill has been fully paid?
‘What are you thinking, babes?’ asks Debbie now.
‘I’m thinking that I hope the kid looks like you. I’m a bit of an ugly bugger.’
‘Yeah, well,’ she says, planting a soft kiss on his forehead. ‘I hope he or she has your heart. It’s pretty spectacular.’
Logan smiles and closes his eyes as she kisses him, enveloping him in her soap and flower scent.
There’s a light knock at the door and Debbie goes to open it, smiling when she sees who it is.
‘Oh, I’m not interrupting, am I?’ asks Gladys. She peers into the room, clutching her large striped bag that she always has with her. Today she is dressed in black pants and a top with a sequined cockatoo embroidered on the front. Logan smiles and bites down on his lip.
‘I have to get back to work anyway. You keep him amused for a bit.’
‘How are you feeling, Debbie?’ Gladys asks, concern in her voice.
‘Excellent. Lou okay?’
‘He… well, you know.’ She shrugs her shoulders.
‘I do. I’ll pop by this weekend again.’ Debbie doesn’t ask if she can visit, but then she never does. She never says to those in her family, ‘Can I do anything?’ She just does it and she knows that her visits to Lou are appreciated, if only because she plays a good game of chess. ‘He’s weaker on some days and I can see how Gladys watches him, wanting to do things for him. It’s heartbreaking but you can see how much she loves him,’ Debbie has explained to Logan.
‘That would be lovely,’ smiles Gladys and she touches Debbie on the arm, giving her a quick pat.
Debbie leaves and Gladys sits down. ‘I thought we could play a game of rummy,’ she says, extracting her cards from her bag. Logan nods. Gladys has already signed herself up for babysitting duty. She’s got her niece’s new boyfriend looking for an affordable house for them since he’s in real estate. A few days ago, she showed him and Debbie a picture of a clapboard house with some scraggly rosebushes in the front. It’s quite far from the city but it has a yard big enough for a dog and a kid. And if Logan works every hour possible, they could probably afford it.
‘My dad said he would help,’ said Debbie as she and Logan talked about the house, clicking through pictures on the internet of the large open rooms and the brown kitchen that Debbie called ‘retro’ instead of ‘ugly’. What Logan likes most about the house is the wraparound balcony with wrought-iron railings; it still has two wooden rocking chairs from the previous occupants. He can imagine sitting there with Debbie after a day at work, watching the sun go down as a little boy or girl chases after a Labrador that looks a lot like Betty.
Logan’s not sure about borrowing money from Paul, but he knows that he will work the rest of his life to pay the man back.
Lou has a lot of old contacts who are mechanics, having been in the car game for so long. ‘I’ll get you a job, don’t you worry,’ he said when he called Logan to speak to him. ‘You may have to start off with a small salary but trust me when I tell you I’ll get you one.’
‘You don’t have to do that,’ Logan said.
‘I don’t have to do anything, but I want to. If not for you, my old girl might have gone into that house herself and she would have been no match for that boy, no match at all.’
Logan likes Lou. He’s someone who should have gotten the chance to be a father and it feels as though he’s lavishing some of that missed fatherly attention on him.
‘I’m grateful, Lou, but if you can’t find anyone willing to give me a go, that’s okay. I understand.’
‘Just you wait,’ said Lou. ‘I can’t get around but I can make a call, with Peter’s help. And I’ve seen a lot of men start their lives over and become the people they want to be, believe me.’
Logan already has three interviews set up for when he is ready to work again. ‘I’ve been to prison,’ he has said each time he’s got the call from a garage. None of them seemed fazed. ‘I reckon we all have a past,’ one man said. ‘You should look into some TAFE courses so you can brush up on your skills. We’re not exactly a bunch of accountants here, we can deal with a man with a past.’ Logan thanked the man, whose name was Bill, keeping his voice strong so he wouldn’t betray the emotion he felt.
Gladys is knitting and sewing. She’s kind of adopted him as well and he doesn’t mind. He never had much of a family to speak of, just him and Maddy. His mother has yet to visit Maddy down in Melbourne or him, but she has called them both to let them know that she’s thinking of them. He supposes it’s the best they’re going to get from her.
He’s less bothered now that he has other people to bring into a baby’s life, other people who feel like family. Gladys and the Wests. He has something more to offer a child than just himself and a murky past. And, of course, the kid will have a very attentive Auntie Maddy.
He hates card games, remembering long hours in prison when they were the only thing to do, but he sits up a little and gets ready to play. Gladys talks and talks, about Lou and about the Wests and about how John is coping. She hardly stops to even draw breath and there are brief moments when Logan wishes he was alone, but he never lets that thought stick around for too long. He used to be alone, completely alone, except for the responsibility of a little sister he felt he couldn’t help enough… So, he smiles and nods and listens, because that’s what you do with family.
Gladys
Gladys gathers up her things and tiptoes quietly out of Logan’s room. He’s fallen asleep in the middle of the game. The poor man really needs his rest. Patrick shot him twice, Katherine only once. That idea of someone she knows being shot is so shocking that Gladys has trouble wrapping her head around it. The idea that Patrick was Katherine’s son is almost as shocking. She feels as though she has been in the middle of some television crime series instead of just a neighbourhood drama.
It’s a long, complicated and very sad story, but Gladys hopes that everyone will find a way forward now. She’s been babysitting the twins a lot as it’s the summer holidays now and poor John needs all the help he can get. Gladys is loving every moment with the siblings, even though there are times when she looks at them and wants to cry. Lou is teaching George to play chess. Sophie is a real chatterbox but Gladys has noticed that her twin brother is more circumspect, quieter, after what happened. His little life was turned upside down in a day. Nothing will ever be the same and she can see that both children are carrying a heavy sadness. Things could so easily have been worse. George could easily have lost his life, Sophie too.
She doesn’t like to think of Patrick and of the idea that he was in her garden the day before he did what he did to Katherine and her children. She couldn’t have known what would happen, but sometimes she feels guilty for not saying anything.
