The Summer Sisters

by Lilly Mirren

  “Here’s to being together again. Cheers,” he said, raising his cup.

  Stefano and Amara clinked their small, china cups against his, smiling.

  “How was Aunty Sylvia?” asked Stefano, after taking a small swig of the coffee. He’d never met her, but he’d seen the photographs and heard the stories from Charlie’s childhood.

  “She was okay. Unfortunately, it seems she’s got early onset dementia.”

  “What? Oh no.” Stefano set down his coffee cup and leaned forward.

  “Yeah, while I was there, I convinced her to see a doctor. He said she’d have to go into a home soon, when she isn’t able to care for herself any longer. So, I’ll have to go back to Bathurst to check on her every now and then and help her find a place to live.”

  “I’m sorry, Papa.”

  “Thanks.” Charlie sighed. “After all this time, I was so looking forward to catching up with her. Still, she remembers everything from our childhood, just not what she did five minutes ago.” He sighed. “Other than that, she was well — the same old Syl I remember. She was always a sweet, kind-hearted girl.”

  “Did you get to catch up with everyone you wanted to see?” asked Stefano.

  Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. There were two people he’d been longing to see ever since he remembered who he was, ever since he’d stared at their faces in a photograph, which had jogged his memories of the life he’d once had. Edie and Keith.

  He swallowed, nodded. “I chewed the fat with a few people. Some had moved away, others passed on. It’s strange to go home after so many years. You keep expecting everything and everyone to still be there, right where you left them. But of course, that doesn’t happen.”

  “I see you’re getting your Aussie accent and sayings back, without any trouble,” said Amara, with a laugh as she flicked her black hair over her shoulder.

  Charlie chuckled. “I suppose I am.”

  She carried the empty cups to the kitchen. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to go for a walk. It’s so beautiful outside.”

  “Don’t get lost,” replied Stefano with a smile.

  “I’ll try not to.”

  Once they were alone, Charlie leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the table. “There are a couple of other people I’d really like to see…but I don’t know if I have the nerve. I’ve been trying to work up my courage to visit ever since I arrived in Brisbane.”

  Stefano’s brow furrowed. “Who?”

  Charlie swallowed, linked his hands together on the table to still his fingers. “Edie and Keith.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Edie was my first love, my high school girlfriend. We were going to be married.”

  “Oh. And then you went to war and lost your memory?”

  Charlie dipped his head in acknowledgement.

  “What happened to her?” asked Stefano.

  “She married, raised our son with another man as his father.” Charlie swallowed.

  Stefano’s eyes widened. “Your son?”

  “Yes, Keith is our son.”

  “You mean, I have a brother?”

  Charlie smiled. “Yes.”

  “Wow. That’s… I don’t know what to say. Have you ever seen him?”

  “Only in photographs.” The admission thickened the words in his throat, set his heart aching.

  Stefano stared at the table, shook his head slowly. “Well, you’ve got to go and see them. So much time has passed, you can’t waste any more.”

  “But what about your mother?” asked Charlie with a sigh. “I don’t want to disrespect her memory.”

  Stefano’s brows knitted together. “What? It wouldn’t disrespect her. You spent your life making Mamma happy. She’d want you to be happy now. And besides, it isn’t fair on Keith — he should know you. If it were me, I’d want to meet my father.”

  “I’m not sure he knows I am his father… He was raised by someone else.”

  “Still, I’d want to know the truth,” finished Stefano with a firm nod.

  “I don’t know… I could disrupt everything, their whole lives. Perhaps I could meet Edie in secret, talk to her before I blow everything apart.” He inhaled a long, slow breath. It didn’t seem right to show up after all this time and cause so much turmoil for Edie and her family. It wouldn’t be fair on her, her husband, or their son.

  “Do you know where they live?” asked Stefano, standing up suddenly.

  Charlie shrugged. “Mum gave me an address years ago. I don’t know if they’re still there.”

  Stefano paced to the other side of the room. “They might be, and even if they’re not, someone is sure to know where they went. It’s worth a try, Papa.”

  Charlie chewed on his lower lip. Stefano was right, so much time had passed, they’d been robbed of an entire lifetime together. He couldn’t give away more of it. But he wasn’t certain Edie would even want to see him. He’d written letters to her over the years, poured out onto dozens of pages an account of his life, of what’d happened to him and why he’d disappeared the way he did. The letters sat in a dresser drawer in his bedroom, unsent. He couldn’t decide if it would be better for her and Keith to continue believing he was dead, or to find that he’d been alive all this time and stayed away.

  “She might not see me,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame her for being angry.” He shook his head. “For many years I was angry enough with myself about it all.”

  Stefano slumped into the seat across from him. He combed fingers through his dark, wavy hair, setting it on end. “Papa, this is something you must do,” he said, sighing. “Mamma is gone, she isn’t coming back, and Edie, Keith, they deserve to know the truth, to see you again. If Edie loved you, she will want to know you are well. If Keith is your son, he would want to meet you.”

  “You think so?” Charlie knew the answer even as he said the words.

  “Yes, of course.” Stefano was so firm, so certain in his beliefs. It was one of the things he admired most about his son — that certainty, the belief that everything was either true or it was false. That there was nothing in between. And that he knew which it was, every time without having to question himself.

  He’d carried that view of the world around on his shoulders since he was a young boy with wild hair and knobbly knees running through the streets of Casoli with a soccer ball permanently attached to one foot.

  Stefano sighed at the look on Charlie’s face.

  “Papa, think of it this way — if you never visit them, you’ll never know.”

  24

  February 1997

  Cabarita Beach

  Bindi rested her feet on the lowest railing of the verandah and stared at the letter in her lap. She folded it slowly, her heart pounding and a smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

  Charlie Jackson had returned to Australia after all. And he’d planned on visiting Nan. Had he come to the inn? Had Nan agreed to see him after so many years apart, so much heartbreak? She’d have to look through the stack of letters to see if there was one to follow the one in her lap. She could barely contain her excitement.

  She giggled to herself. Fancy getting so worked up over something that’d happened when she was a little girl, and other things that’d passed before she was even born. But all this time she and her sisters had assumed Charlie had died in the war, then they’d believed he’d never returned to Australia. Now, it seemed none of those things were true.

  What must’ve Nan thought when she received his letters so many years after he’d disappeared from her life and she’d married Pop? Had she been filled with joy? With grief? Regret?

  And what about Dad? Had he discovered the truth about his parentage?

  It was maddening not to be able to ask anyone. The only person who knew anything was staying virtually silent on the subject. Whenever she brought up the name, Charlie Jackson, with Mima, she acted as though she’d barely known the man, and didn’t have anything further to add on the subject. Perhaps she
didn’t. Maybe Charlie hadn’t come to the inn after all, or if he had, maybe Nan hadn’t told Mima about his visit.

  Bindi folded the letter, slid it into the envelope and stood to her feet with a yawn. Ever since she’d gotten the clean bill of health from Doctor Ash, she’d begun to feel better and better. She’d been eating normally again for weeks now, even her cheeks had begun to fill out again. She brushed fingers over her face, feeling the plumpness of her cheeks where before there’d been only angles and points.

  She smiled and gazed out over the muddy back yard. There’d been just enough space between the inn’s building and Nan’s garden to fit a swimming pool. The pool sparkled, dazzlingly blue, under the summer sun. She smiled at the sight. It was still surrounded by upturned earth, the occasional rock, and clods of cement, but it looked beautiful anyway. The landscapers would be coming tomorrow to finish everything off, but she and her sisters had agreed to take the first swim that afternoon. Bindi couldn’t wait. The water looked so inviting and she was excited about what was to come for their thriving business. The guests who’d seen the construction had been as enthusiastic as she was about it — promising to return for another stay when it was finished.

  After a quick glance at her watch, Bindi hurried upstairs to put the letter away and get her purse. She was meeting Mima at the retirement village. Mima had invited her over for lunch, and she was looking forward to spending some time at Mima’s new home. She hadn’t been there much since Mima moved in, since the former cook seemed to end up spending so much time at the inn instead.

  When she reached the retirement community, she punched in the gate code and waited for the metal structure to swing open. She parked outside Mima’s small cottage and grabbed the bee-sting pastry she’d bought at the cafe in Cabarita, before climbing out of the Land Rover with a grunt.

  In the distance, a swimming pool glinted beside a large, rectangular building. The water looked inviting. A trail of sweat ran down Bindi’s back between her shoulder blades, and beads formed on her forehead. Overhead, the sun blazed, warming her scalp in moments.

  Narrow roads wove between rows of cottages. Mima’s cottage was painted white with blue highlights and was surrounded by a pretty garden of green clipped hedges and colourful freesias, snap dragons and lavender bushes.

  Bindi knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. She frowned. Mima knew she was coming. She peered in the front window but couldn’t see any movement in the cosy living space.

  She listened a moment. A voice that sounded like Mima’s echoed from the cottage next door. Bindi wandered over to the next cottage, and along a narrow pathway to the back yard. She found Mima and Betty seated in rocking chairs sipping from cups of steaming hot tea.

  “There you are,” said Bindi.

  Mima jumped to her feet. “Oh, I’m sorry, love. The time got away from me.” She kissed Bindi’s cheeks and took the offered pastry. “This looks delicious, thank you my dear.”

  “Hello, Bindi,” said Betty, still rocking. “Pull up a chair and join us. We were just discussing the state of politics.”

  “Did you solve the country’s problems yet?”

  Mima winked. “We’re getting close. If only the prime minister would ask us, he’d find we have all the answers.”

  Bindi settled into a chair beside Mima’s with a grunt. Mima took the bee-sting inside and soon returned with it sliced up on a plate. She set it on a table in front of the three of them and handed Bindi a cup of tea.

  “Thank you, Mima,” she said.

  Mima nodded. “So, my darling girl, what’s new in your world? Tell us poor old biddies something exciting so we can remember what it was like to be young.”

  Bindi shrugged, reached for a piece of pastry, and took a bite. “I don’t know… I don’t really live a very exciting life. I prefer quiet, simple, drama-free.”

  Mima dipped her head in agreement.

  “I hear you on that,” added Betty. “Drama-free is the best kind of life to live.”

  “Especially after what you’ve been through,” said Mima, reaching over to pat Bindi’s arm. “You’ve had enough drama for a lifetime.”

  “Yes, I have,” mumbled Bindi around a mouthful of custard and icing.

  “Still… I can’t help wondering about that handsome boyfriend of yours,” continued Mima with a glint in her eye. “How are things going with your police officer?”

  “You mean Josh?” asked Bindi.

  “That’s right…Josh. I like that name.”

  Bindi chuckled. “Josh is great…wonderful actually. He was by my side throughout my treatments, didn’t let me push him away.”

  “Sounds like a keeper,” piped up Betty before taking a huge bite out of a piece of bee-sting.

  “He is a keeper.” Bindi pondered her words as she spoke them. They’d been dating for several months now, more regularly in recent weeks than before. She saw him almost every day now, and each moment they spent together only drew her closer to him. With Brendan, she’d found that spending too much time together had only pushed them further away from each other, so she’d always moderated how often they’d seen each other. Although, as busy as each of them were with their jobs, that hadn’t been hard.

  But with Josh, time spent together seemed only to draw them closer. She never got sick of him. He didn’t annoy or frustrate her, only drew her in with his charm, his charisma, his kind heart, and the humour that made her laugh out loud at the most unexpected times.

  “Tell us about him,” replied Mima.

  “Well, he loves to surf. That’s how we met, actually. I found out I was sick and went to the beach to look out over the waves. But when I went back to the car, I fell and scraped my knee. He helped me, got me a band aid…”

  “A knight in shining armour then,” replied Mima, her eyes gleaming.

  Bindi nodded. “He really is. When I told him I was sick, he wouldn’t let me push him away. He says he knew he wanted to marry me back in high school but couldn’t work up the courage to ask me out on a date.”

  Betty pressed a hand to her heart. “Oh my word. That is truly beautiful.”

  Mima tut-tutted. “Ah. Reminds me of—” She didn’t finish her sentence, instead wiping her eyes with a handkerchief pulled from a pocket in her dress.

  “Reminds you of what, Mima?”

  Bindi knew what Mima was referring to — Nan and Charlie. She wanted Mima to talk about them. Maybe she’d reveal a clue, some new information she hadn’t spoken of yet. Or maybe she was hinting at her own romance all those years earlier with the American serviceman who’d died in battle soon after their engagement.

  Mima only shook her head. “Never mind. He sounds like a wonderful young man. I can’t wait to get to know him better.”

  “Do you feel the same way about him?” asked Betty.

  Bindi sipped her tea, her eyes narrowing in thought. Then she set the tea back on the table beside her. “I think so…it’s been such a whirlwind. I do know this, the more I get to know him, the more I like him.”

  “He’s a catch,” said Mima, the brightness returning to her voice.

  Bindi stood on the edge of the swimming pool in her green bikini, a droplet of sweat trickling down the side of her face. Next to her, Kate and Reeda looked at the pool, just as pensive, just as proud as she felt.

  “I love it,” declared Kate.

  Reeda nodded. “This was a really great idea, Bindi. I’m glad we listened to you.”

  “There’s a first time for everything.”

  Her sisters laughed.

  “Alright, let’s christen this thing,” declared Kate, lowering one foot into the sparkling water.

  Bindi shrugged. “We have to do it right.”

  She grabbed Reeda’s hand and then Kate’s and leapt forwards at the same time. Both sisters let out a shriek before all three of them plunged beneath the water’s surface. The cold of the water hit Bindi’s overheated body with a shock.

  She burst through the surface wi
th a smile. Beside her, Reeda and Kate groaned and spluttered.

  “Give us fair warning before you do that!” cried Reeda, rushing her sister and dunking Bindi’s head under the water.

  Bindi emerged again, coughing, and rubbing the pool water from her eyes.

  Every day she celebrated growing a little stronger, feeling more like herself. She hadn’t realised how weak she’d gotten until she began to feel better. Simply jumping into a pool, splashing about with her sisters, the realisation of how much better she felt filled her thoughts. She thanked God for another chance at life, an awakening of sorts.

  She might’ve gone through her whole life not appreciating these small moments, the beauty and poignancy of rollicking with her sisters in a brand-new swimming pool beneath the glare of the summer sun. But she did now. The beauty of the moment tightened her throat as she watched her sisters splash one another, laughing and squealing as Reeda pushed Kate’s head beneath the surface.

  They swam for half an hour before climbing out to lay on the narrow deck around the pool’s edge. They didn’t stay there long, anxious to get out of the sun’s glaring rays. So they relocated to the verandah, lounging in rocking chairs and sipping fresh squeezed lemonade while they dried. Several guests from the inn had watched them play in the pool with smiles on their faces, but now they were alone.

  “Did you ever think the three of us would end up back here?” asked Reeda.

  Bindi shook her head. “Never. I hoped…but I didn’t think it would happen.”

  “Definitely not,” replied Kate. “I thought I’d be head chef in an amazing restaurant somewhere in the world by now.”

  “You’re head chef at the Waratah Inn,” interjected Bindi with a grin.

  “That’s true.” Kate shrugged. “I guess part of my dream came true…but honestly, my dream changed and I’m fine with that. More than fine… I lived in the city and pursued that life and it didn’t bring me any satisfaction. Well, not much anyway. It was exciting at first, but once that wore off, it was empty… I didn’t have you guys. My family. I thought I could live without family, but I was wrong.”