Living on Hope Street

by Demet Divaroren

‘He’s a relationship manager, Dad.’ Katie beamed at him like a radiant sun.

  ‘How wonderful,’ said Mrs Bailey. ‘Congratulations, dear.’

  ‘Cheers to Aaron!’ Mr Bailey raised his glass of wine and took a sip.

  ‘Daddy, why does Grandpa always call you Aaron?’ Anita said, her mouth full of cucumber.

  Mr Bailey put his glass down and a splash of wine bled onto his placemat.

  ‘Coz he can’t say Arjun, that’s what Mum says,’ said Daniel. ‘Kids!’ said Katie.

  Katie and Aaron exchanged a glance that started off serious but ended with them smiling into their glasses.

  Mr Bailey was hot around the ears. Well, it was the bloody truth! Arjun got stuck on his tongue like a bad taste, made him feel like an idiot trying to say it. Thankfully they had enough sense to give the kids normal names. He cleared his throat.

  ‘More salad, dear?’ said Mrs Bailey.

  ‘No thanks, love,’ he said, reaching for the next topic. ‘And how are the kids faring at school?’

  ‘They are doing great,’ said Aaron. ‘Daniel loves basketball—’

  ‘We are learning about true stories, Grandpa, and I wanna write about you!’ Anita wiped cucumber juice from her mouth with the back of her hand.

  ‘Anita, there’s a napkin right under your nose!’ said Katie. ‘You little grub!’

  Anita laughed and so did Mrs Bailey. ‘Just like her grandpa.’

  ‘Well, they had to get something from our side, hey,’ Mr Bailey said. He was feeling so good that his granddaughter wanted to write about him that he noticed too late that Aaron had stiffened in his chair.

  Katie squeezed Aaron’s hand.

  Mrs Bailey let out a long sigh.

  What had he said wrong?

  Sunshine poked his head out of the laundry and inched closer to the table.

  ‘What about me?’ Daniel said. ‘What have I got from your side, Grandpa?’

  ‘There are no sides, kids, okay?’ said Aaron, his voice hardening.

  ‘But Grandma said Anita is like Grandpa—’

  ‘Well, you have his cheeky smile,’ said Mrs Bailey.

  ‘Anyway, Dad, Anita’s class is studying a unit on biographies. She has to interview a family member. She chose you.’

  Mr Bailey’s eyes stung with pride. ‘Thank you, young Anita! Grandpa has lots of stories! Our family history dates all the way back to the gold rush in the eighteen-hundreds!’

  Aaron gulped half his wine.

  ‘When was the eighteen-hundreds?’

  Mr Bailey was ecstatic! Here was his chance to instil some history, the real stuff and none of that nonsense they were taught at school. His family’s roots would live on in his grandkids. ‘It was a long, long time ago, Daniel. Back then, people travelled to Australia from England in big ships!’

  ‘Daddy’s mum and dad came by plane,’ said Anita. ‘Coz they were poor in India.’

  ‘But they’re not poor anymore, right, Daddy?’ said Daniel.

  ‘No.’ Aaron’s jaw was stiff.

  Mr Bailey searched for the words that would bring a smile to his son-in-law’s face. ‘They’ve done well for themselves, they worked hard, not like other migrants—’

  Mrs Bailey stood up and her chair scraped against the tiles. Sunshine looked at her hands expectantly. ‘Who’s got room for dessert?’

  The kids followed their grandma to the freezer and scooped the ice cream, leaving Mr Bailey alone with Aaron and Katie, who had locked stares.

  ‘… migrants?’

  ‘… it’s the attitude …’

  ‘… ignore it …’

  Their snippets of conversation caught in Mr Bailey’s ears. He recognised the change in current and quickly searched his memory for a safe topic. He settled on cricket.

  Dad’s been gone two days.

  There were still lots and lots of numbers to count till forever – that’s what I told Kane, but he didn’t look happy. He said, ‘Listen, bud, no more talk about Dad, okay?’ and I said okay, but last night I saw Dad in my dreams. He was nice. He said, ‘Come on, Sammy, come outside, I got something for you,’ but I never went and he got mad and banged on the front door like the big bad wolf till I woke up.

  Mum had a headache today. She was talking to Kane in her room.

  ‘I’m not leaving you alone,’ Kane said.

  ‘I’ll be next door at Mrs Aslan’s. The police will be with him. Take Sam and go out—’

  ‘Is the police coming again?’ I said.

  She shaked her head. ‘No, baby. Everything is okay. I cross my heart.’

  ‘Then why are you crying?’

  ‘It’s hot in here, my darling. I’m just a bit sweaty.’ Her face was red. Red happened when sadness came. ‘Did you have a good day at school?’

  ‘Uh huh.’

  Kane looked at me then Mum. ‘Come on, bud, get off the bed, we’re going to have some fun!’ he said.

  ‘But what about Mum?’

  ‘What about Mum?’ She kissed me on the cheek. It was a sloppy one. ‘I’m going to have fun with Mrs Aslan. You and Kane go and enjoy your afternoon.’

  I was scared, coz what if Dad came back? When we left I checked the door was locked.

  ‘He’s not coming back, bud,’ said Kane, like he could hear inside my head. We walked down the street and he put his arm around my shoulder. It made me feel big and brave. I made my legs straight like Kane’s but the trees still came towards my head so I counted the cracks in the concrete again.

  ‘Hi, Sam.’

  I looked up. Gugu was waving in her front yard.

  I waved back. ‘Hi, Gugu.’ I smiled and hoped she’d play marbles with me again.

  ‘Come on, bud, if you’ve finished flirting, let’s hurry or we’ll miss the bus.’

  I stepped on his foot – he laughed and it sounded like thunder. ‘Where we going?’

  ‘Wait and see.’ He winked and it looked like he had something in his eye. It made me giggle.

  ‘You look funny when you do that.’

  ‘It works with the girls,’ Kane said.

  ‘But you don’t have a girlfriend.’

  ‘I have lots of them! Now come on!’

  I knew where he was gonna take me. Timezone. We always went there to hit alligator heads with our hands till they turned red and we won tickets. We never won the big toys but we won heaps of lollies.

  A car beeped and Kane turned to see. It was Ahmed. His car was shiny and he had loud music. ‘Where are you off to, bros?’ he yelled. Kane ran to his door and whispered in Ahmed’s ear.

  ‘Yeah, I’m going that way, hop in!’

  ‘You sure?’ Kane said.

  ‘Get in here before I knock you one across the head.’

  Kane laughed. ‘Come on, bud, get in!’

  I smiled and put my seat belt on. Ahmed’s car smelled nice. Kane sat in the front.

  ‘Hey, Sam, my car’s so slick thanks to you. You did a good job, bro, better than the blokes who work at the car wash.’

  Kane smiled and gave me a high-five. He put the music up. Him and Ahmed sang very loud and it made my ears hurt.

  ‘Come on, little bro,’ Ahmed said to me. ‘Put your hands up like this!’

  His hand went up and down, up and down and I laughed. ‘Or you can do it Lebo style like this.’ He clicked his fingers and I tried to do it but it didn’t work.

  ‘Hang on. Kane, change the CD. Put on that one over there with the red label. We can’t click our fingers to rap.’ He made a funny face in the mirror and it made me giggle.

  Music came on and it was fast and loud and in another language. Ahmed yelled and it sounded happy and Kane copied Ahmed. They shaked their shoulders and laughed. ‘Click your fingers, little bro, close your eyes till nothing else exists but this sound! It’s happy music!’

  I closed my eyes and clicked my fingers like Ahmed said. The music was everywhere and it felt nice and the air was cold on my nose and Mum was sleeping in bed, her face was still red and
Dad kicked the door till it breaked. I opened my eyes coz my breaths hurt again and I breathed in like Mrs Aslan showed me till we got to the shopping centre.

  Kane said thanks, bro, to Ahmed and we walked inside and past Timezone. ‘But where you going? We’re here!’

  He smiled and grabbed my hand. ‘Not today!’

  We walked till I saw big posters of a cartoon house with hundreds of balloons. There was also a poster of a lion and a boy and girl with swords and arrows.

  ‘We’re gonna go to the movies?!’

  ‘Yeah!’ said Kane, but I didn’t hear the rest coz it was loud inside and smelled like popcorn and lollies. The movie with the balloons was called Up and the old man looked so funny holding onto his house with a string! It was so big and colourful it looked real. Kane made me wait next to it then went to talk to his friend from school. He worked there collecting the tickets. When I went to the movies with school I sat next to Miss Bree coz I was scared of the dark and Bad Bill. I wasn’t scared today.

  ‘It’s your pick, bud. What you want to see?’

  ‘Up!’

  ‘I was hoping you picked that. I watched it at school a few years ago. Looks like they’re showing it again just for you! Come on, we have half an hour so plenty of time to buy popcorn.’

  I hugged him coz Kane was the best brother in the whole world. I gave him ten dollars. Mum put it in my pocket before we left but he shook his head and said, ‘That’s yours, bud.’ He bought me popcorn and the Coke cup had Up characters on it! We sat in the middle and when the movie started people said shh coz people kept making noise. I held Kane’s hand when someone got up and said shut up or get out but Kane laughed and said it’s okay, it’s normal and put his hand around my shoulder. Then it was quiet and the movie was like magic. We wore glasses that made the old man pop out! I liked the boy who talked funny coz he wasn’t scared of the old man, he snuck into the house when the old man wasn’t looking. The movie was so funny my stomach hurt from laughing. Kane laughed too and I wished I had a grandpa who could make our house fly to a safe place.

  The sun was turning orange when me and Sam got home from the movies. The front yard looked bigger without Dad’s car. The cops had come and gone. They’d called Mum today to arrange a time to escort Dad to our house to pick it up. I hated the thought of him anywhere near Mum even with cops around. But it would have been worse for Sam if he saw Dad.

  The court hearing was tomorrow. ‘There’s no way you’re going alone,’ I told Mum. ‘I don’t give a shit about school. I’m going with you.’ I was going to be Mum’s shadow, look Dad in the eye when he heard the verdict, show him who was boss now.

  Mum was hopeful; some colour crept back into her cheeks like it did when Dad was sober. One time he took me and Sam to the footy to watch Collingwood play, called us ‘son’ and made everyone around us laugh until we had our own cheer squad. Sam watched his chips most of the game and Dad seemed so normal that I relaxed enough to watch the game and barrack for the boys.

  Sam hugged me on the porch. He smelled like butter and bits of popcorn were stuck in his hair. ‘You’re the best brother ever!’ he said.

  ‘Whoa, bud, you’re getting too strong. I can’t breathe.’ I made coughing sounds and he laughed as I opened the door. We half fell inside and I wrestled him to the ground. His hands were sticky from the Coke he spilled on his jeans.

  I held him down and deepened my voice to sound like the Ninja Turtles’ Rat Sensei Splinter. ‘The mind, body, spirit and weapon work in harmony. Balance is all,’ I said, lifting him up by the waist and twirling him as Mum came out of her bedroom wrapped in a pink robe. Sam was laughing so much he was choking on his spit.

  ‘I’m flying, Mum!’ he yelled his face red and sweaty.

  ‘Then let’s fly together!’ She grabbed his arm with her good hand, and they twirled their way into the kitchen.

  ‘Everything okay?’ I whispered when she looked my way, and she nodded. I pointed behind me to the door when Sam wasn’t looking, signalling for her to come outside.

  She put her finger up and mouthed in a minute. ‘I hope you boys left some room for dinner. I made a yummy dish with Mrs Aslan.’

  ‘Is that what that smell is?’ I walked to the kitchen and peered into the pot. ‘It looks like soup.’

  ‘It’s okra stew. It’s called bum-ya.’

  ‘Bum-ya? Yeah, I’m not eating anything with bum in it,’ I said.

  Sam laughed. ‘I’ll eat it, Mum.’

  ‘Mmm … hope it doesn’t taste like shi—’

  ‘Kane!’ Mum sat Sam down at the dining table and placed a bowl in front of him. ‘Don’t listen to your silly brother.’ She kissed his head.

  Sam shoved a spoonful in his mouth. ‘It tastes furry but it’s yum.’

  ‘Enjoy, bud, I’m going for a walk.’

  He nodded and bit into a chunk of bread.

  Mum walked me to the door.

  ‘What happened—’

  ‘Everything’s okay, Kane,’ Mum whispered. ‘The police came and Dad took the car. I left the car key in the letterbox. I didn’t even see him.’

  I stepped onto the porch and peeled paint off the railing. What if he took off in his car and didn’t turn up tomorrow? What if he was playing by the rules to screw us over at the last minute?

  ‘How was Sam today?’

  ‘Full of popcorn.’ I looked inside. ‘Don’t know how he’s got room for all that.’ Sam was dangling the gooey green veggie with his finger and throwing it in his mouth. ‘I’m off. Won’t be too late.’

  ‘Better not be. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.’ She flicked my hair.

  ‘Come on, Ma.’ I pushed her hand away and fixed my fringe. ‘You ready for tomorrow?’

  She nodded. ‘It will be over soon,’ she said, but her eyes looked away.

  I walked off as thoughts crashed inside my head. The judge would take one look at Mum’s plastered hand and slap Dad with an intervention order for at least a year. That’s what the police lawyer told Mum. But what would happen after that? Mum giving Dad an IVO was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

  I kicked a stone into the gutter and walked down the street. Mr Tupu was watering his plants in a red singlet, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Who watered plants at this time? Sione was sitting on the old couch in the middle of their garden. We hung out at school sometimes when he wasn’t with his pack of Islander boys. He had broad shoulders and chunky legs that smashed the footy during PE. He was a gladiator with a ball, wrecking everyone with crazy skills that made the PE teacher’s mouth drop.

  ‘Kane, hold up.’ Sione ran towards me.

  ‘Hey, where you going?’ Mr Tupu said. The cigarette fell out of his mouth. ‘Ah shit.’ He bent over to pick it up.

  ‘Talking to my mate Kane, Dad. Relax.’

  ‘Don’t go off now. Nearly dinnertime, you don’t want to keep Tinā waitin’.’ He waved the hose towards us and squinted at the soggy cigarette.

  ‘What’s up, bro?’

  I knocked his fist. ‘Not much.’

  ‘Where you off to?’ He looked behind him. Mr Tupu had one eye on us and the other on his plants.

  ‘Here and there.’

  ‘Bro, Miss Shane’s been busting our chops about work experience. I got nothing. You?’

  ‘Dunno yet.’ I shrugged. What was the point of doing work experience when the private school kids got the good jobs anyway? We’d be stuck with the scraps. Plus, I already had a job: to look after Mum and Sam and take care of Bad Bill. ‘I gotta go,’ I said. ‘Catch you at school.’

  ‘Hey, ah, just wanna say, if …’ He looked towards my house. ‘If you ever want to talk, I’m here, bro.’

  I looked away. ‘Yeah. Thanks, but there’s nothing to talk about.’ I took off to get away from his eyes that made me feel small.

  It wasn’t me but Sam who needed to talk. His thoughts were eating him up, gathering inside like some disease. His teacher called Mum, recommended art therapy, said it was go
od for students who bottled things up, but Sam was showing no interest in it at school. Mum said she would work with him at home and borrow the money for supplies from Mrs Aslan until the welfare payment came through. She wanted to find a job but who the hell would hire her with a broken hand?

  There was no way I was letting her beg for money.

  I had to find another way.

  Mum spooned eggplant stew into her mouth.

  Her lips were tight as she chewed.

  I scraped the fork against the plate and let out a breath that blew a serviette off the table. Michael Bublé’s voice was putting me to sleep. What I needed now was the punchy notes of a screaming guitar to help me get through this awkward dinner.

  The light made Mum’s glossy red fingernails shine. ‘I’m sorry I embarrassed you like that,’ she said.

  I nearly dropped my fork. ‘Huh?’ I leaned forward in case my ears weren’t working properly.

  Her lips twitched. ‘You heard me.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure I heard something about a story …’ I shoved rice and stew into my mouth to stop myself from gloating.

  ‘I could have handled the situation better, I know.’ She sipped her wine and a red line streaked her upper lip.

  ‘You were scary.’

  ‘You weren’t very calm either,’ she said.

  ‘I have an excellent role model.’

  She raised her eyebrows. ‘Is this how it’s going to be?’

  I sipped water and leaned back. ‘I’m still hurt, you know.’ Not that she cared. If she did, she would have thought twice before turning into a monster.

  ‘I don’t want us to stop talking ever again, okay, kızım?’ She took a deep breath, tapped her fingernail against her wine glass. ‘We’re family.’

  ‘Grandma’s family too.’ The words spilled out of my mouth.

  Mum nearly choked on her wine. ‘That’s different.’

  ‘How? Everyone makes mistakes. You made one. You got caught with Dad—’

  ‘Her mistake ruined my life!’

  ‘You stuffed up first.’

  Her mouth dropped open. Michael Bublé hit a high note as Mum tried to control her breathing. ‘I was young and curious and thought I was in love. A mother’s job is to protect her child. She didn’t listen to me. She listened to others and forced me to get married.’