Transformation of Minna Hargreaves, The

by Beale, Fleur

  That was clever. The child word was a good ploy. I waited for the punchline.

  ‘Why do you think it’s ridiculous?’ asked Cara, who was drooling with all the good television she was getting.

  Okay — punchline coming up. Gran H ticked the points off on her fingers. ‘One: she’s never had to struggle for anything in her entire life. Two: she doesn’t have a practical skill to her name. Three: she’ll go crazy if she can’t have a phone glued to her ear day and night. Four …’

  Gran Aveson jumped right into the middle of the battle, waving her white flag of peace. A pity — things were warming up nicely. ‘Minna will be just fine.’ She smiled at Gran H. ‘She’s like you — tough at the core.’

  Masterly! A compliment for Gran H but she was not pleased to be in any way compared with me. Actually, I wasn’t that stoked either.

  I took my tray of mussels away from the grans and as I departed I heard:

  Gran H: Disgraceful! She might as well be naked.

  Gran A: Shall we go and check on the dinner?

  That was the total excitement for the entire evening.

  Sunday arrived. I spent the day packing up my bedroom with the help of Lizzie, Addy and Jax. I managed a short chat to Seb before he took off with his mates to ride to Makara.

  ‘You still haven’t talked to him about The Issue, have you?’ Lizzie said, wagging her finger at me.

  ‘According to you we should be breaking up about now so why should you care?’ Bitchy, but if you can’t bitch at your friends when you’re deep in misery, then who can you bitch at?

  She jumped up and hugged me. ‘I’m sorry! I was such a cow that day. I didn’t mean it and I hope you stay together forever and I want to be your bridesmaid.’

  That was what I liked about Lizzie — she loved you even when you were bitchy. ‘Sorry. The way my parents feel about him we’ll have to elope.’

  We laughed and clowned around — did no packing, but I felt better — until they had to go home. I wanted to walk with them to the corner, but Mum said she’d come with me if I did. I could feel the sympathy oozing from the girls.

  I returned to my room and shut my mother out. I might as well be stuck on the island already. She was so unfair. Noah did exactly as he pleased and came home stoned hours after he finished work — and I know for a fact that he hadn’t been at school for most of last week. Double standards were alive and thriving in the Hargreaves household.

  Only six more sleeps until the year of imprisonment began. I tried to stretch the week out to make it last forever.

  Seb met me at the corner every morning. I spent every interval with him, but that was it. The rest of his time belonged to other people. ‘Sorry, babe. It’s a bad week.’ He didn’t say he loved me. He didn’t say he’d wait for me. He did say he’d miss me. He did say we’d ‘get it on’ when I got back. I had to hang on to that, although I told the girls he said we’d ‘be together’ when I got back.

  I made the most of the time I had left in the world of civilised living.

  On Monday after school I had my hair highlighted and cut to just clear of my shoulders.

  On Tuesday the girls took me into town but wouldn’t tell me why. They led me to a beauty salon where they’d booked me a manicure and pedicure.

  On Wednesday we went into Magz and I stocked up on magazines.

  Thursday we spent at BeauTox while I got photos of them and Seb developed. It took us an hour to choose frames for them.

  I kept busy. It was good because it stopped me thinking, but by the time Friday rolled around it was getting pretty difficult to hide from the truth of what was about to happen.

  On Friday morning Cara turned up and filmed me walking to school. I didn’t bother asking her not to — why waste my breath? ‘Ignore me,’ she said, looking at Seb loping towards me and practically falling into her camera with excitement. ‘Pretend I don’t exist.’

  Seb did pretend she didn’t exist. He completely ignored her. ‘Hi, babe.’ He kissed me and we walked off hand in hand to join the girls.

  Lizzie took one look at Cara, smiled and said, ‘Hello Cara. Lovely day, isn’t it.’ Then she proceeded to carry on a weather conversation with Jax and Addy.

  Lizzie: It’s really warm for this time of year.

  Addy: Lovely to see the sun after all the rain we’ve had.

  Jax: If the wind drops we might get a frost tonight.

  I hoped Cara was grinding her teeth over the wasted film.

  At school, she shoved the camera in my face just as Seb was kissing me goodbye. He stuck out a hand and pushed it away. God, I was going to miss him.

  Cara followed us to class. We sat together and we didn’t say a word.

  ‘Are you going to miss Minna?’ Cara asked my teachers.

  ‘She’ll certainly leave a gap,’ said Mrs Stannard (Science).

  ‘She’s a very vivacious pupil,’ said Ms Wiley (Maths and hander-out of detentions by the mile for talking).

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said Mr Hanson (English and who had pointed out only yesterday that you can miss people you don’t at all care for).

  And then Cara had to go — oh what a shame.

  We relaxed.

  She came back and caught us in the canteen queue at lunchtime. Oh, what the hell. ‘Ignore her,’ I said.

  So we stuffed our faces with doughnuts, pies and all the things we’d been avoiding in the interests of slimness and elegance.

  The afternoon sped past. Cara came to Social Studies where I doodled on my book. She followed me to Art, zoomed the camera in on my still life and I knew that would make the final cut along with a smart remark about how I was the daughter of well-known artist Livana Aveson. She wouldn’t need to say I’d had a talent bypass — one picture being worth a thousand words and all that.

  I wondered how Cara got on with filming Noah. She gave me a funny look when I asked. ‘He had the day off to pack. Didn’t you know?’

  Wagging again.

  The girls came home with me. They stared at my bedroom. ‘It’s so bare and sad,’ said Jax.

  My stuff was all in boxes except for Seb’s koala which I intended to carry with me.

  Addy picked up the new acoustic guitar Dad had bought me to salve his conscience over locking me up for a year. ‘You’re really going to learn to play this?’

  I shrugged. ‘Face it — what else will there be to do?’

  Lizzie grabbed my arm and gave it a shake, her fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. ‘Min — listen. Please don’t think I’m an unfeeling, hard-hearted bitch but …’ she paused to give us time to brace ourselves for a burst of unfeeling, hard-hearted bitchiness, ‘but look at the opportunities you’ve got. Play your cards right and you could come out of this with modelling contracts, celebrity appearances — the works!’ She jammed her hands on her hips and glared at me. ‘So stop moaning and start maximising.’

  ‘Maximising?’ I said. ‘What crap have you been reading?’

  Addy rolled her eyes. ‘Ignore her.’

  Jax said, ‘She’s not just a nut — she’s the whole freaking fruitcake.’

  It was time for them to go. ‘Write to me,’ I begged. ‘Please write me long letters that I can read slowly and pretend I’m still here.’

  They promised. We hugged and cried and they promised to be there tomorrow too when we flew away in the chopper. They left and I felt my old life dissolve and drain away through cracks in the floorboards.

  After dinner, Cara turned up with a camera crew for us to separately record our thoughts about the whole deal. She wouldn’t let us watch each other, but I bet all she got out of Noah was grunts and cool, man. It’ll be cool. What a loser.

  When it was my turn, she sat me down in the lounge. ‘So, Minna, nearly time to go.’ She gave me her beaming, friends-together smile and leaned forward in a disgustingly chummy way. Chums with Cara the Cow, without whom I would still be living my real life? Not in a million years.

  She hit me with the first question. ‘
What do you think you’ll learn through being on the island?’

  You ain’t getting nothing out of me, lady. ‘Oh, Cara — you know I haven’t looked at the correspondence courses yet.’

  She smiled again but not quite so chummily this time. ‘Besides schoolwork. Do you think you’ll learn any — life lessons?’

  Not if I can help it. I leaned towards her so that our heads damn near crashed together. ‘You know, I might. I mean, if you look at Dad and how keen he is on the whole conservation thing. It’s never really pushed my buttons but when you’re with somebody and they’re doing something they’re really enthusiastic about — well, stands to reason it’s going to rub off. Don’t you think?’

  She didn’t even blink, the cow. She swapped the chummy expression for one of great seriousness. ‘This is a big chunk of your life. Tell me what you’re feeling about the year ahead. Are you excited?’

  I looked her dead in the eye. ‘I feel like I’m being sent to jail. Solitary confinement. I guess that’s pretty exciting.’

  After that, the interview didn’t have a lot of places to go. I hoped she’d use the entire thing in the final cut.

  I stood at the window and watched her drive away. Dad came bouncing into the room. ‘Well, that was excellent. She said she got some good footage from all of us.’ He clapped me on the shoulder. ‘Exciting, isn’t it, Min!’

  I removed his hand and took myself off to my room. I talked to Seb for two hours. He promised he’d be there to say goodbye when I left. It took me forever to get to sleep that night.

  The morning came. Dad packed the last of our stuff into the taxi. I got in the back seat beside Noah. I held my koala in my arms. I wasn’t crying, but only by a supreme effort of will and a determination not to look like a cry-baby on film because Cara would be there with the camera for sure.

  I was right. The taxi rolled to a stop and I’d only just managed to work out that we were at the airport, but on the opposite side from the terminal, when Cara bounced up, opened doors and started babbling at us. She was coming with us on the helicopter, she informed us, with a big huge smile like we were supposed to be delighted by that. Dad smiled back and chucked luggage around. Mum gave Cara a very level look, then turned away. Noah slouched around and appeared vaguely interested by the chopper. My friends came and hugged me. The four grandparents came and hugged me, although Gran H managed to hug me without touching me, which suited us both.

  Seb didn’t show.

  ‘He isn’t coming,’ I whispered to my friends.

  ‘There’s still time,’ Jax said, staring at Noah who grinned at her but appeared to find the chopper more interesting.

  ‘There he is!’ said Lizzie. ‘Come on girls — it’s our duty to keep the camera away for Minna’s last farewell’

  I hardly heard her. Seb was here. I ran to meet him. He jumped out of his car and hugged me. Then he kissed me and it was a kiss to remember, a kiss I could take with me to warm and comfort me. ‘Hiya, doll. Can’t stay. Here — got you something.’ He pushed a parcel into my hand.

  ‘Oh, Seb! Can I open it now?’ It was small. I hoped it was a ring. It had to be — a ring would mean so much.

  ‘Sure,’ he said, his smile warming me but killing me too. ‘Better hurry though. Gotta go in a sec.’

  I undid the ribbon and stuffed it in my pocket. I’d keep that and the paper. Inside was one of those little cardboard jewellery wallets. It had to be a ring. I opened it. ‘Seb! Oh, that’s beautiful!’ It was a ring — a gorgeous silver ring with a garnet set in it. ‘That’s my birthstone.’ I couldn’t say anything else so I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

  He was pleased. ‘Don’t forget me, babe.’ Another brief hug and he was gone. I slid the ring on my finger and watched him leave me.

  The girls rushed up. ‘What did he give you?’

  ‘Show us!’

  ‘Wow! Is that significant or what!’

  Then Dad was calling and I had to go, walk away and leave my friends, my life and my love. Prison was a short helicopter ride away.

  eight

  The helicopter tipped and rocked so that wild shots of the city and harbour reeled into view and out again. Damn Cara. My first helicopter ride and I couldn’t enjoy it. It was all her fault. I turned my face away from her and the camera. I could get my own back by doing some dire filming, or forgetting to do it at all. Serve her right. No one would watch the programme, the channel would have to pull it and all the money she’d laid out would be wasted.

  Dad’s voice blathered in my headphones telling us to look at this mountain, that headland, this island. I tuned him out. Couldn’t tune Mum out though — she was sick, and not just once either. She vomited the entire journey. Dad ended up asking the pilot to fly as smoothly as he could, and he kept patting Mum’s arm and saying ‘Not long to go now’, but I noticed he looked at the view and not at her. ‘There it is!’ Dad said. ‘Only a couple of minutes more, Liv.’

  Mum was sick again. I turned my head away, and there below us was the island that got Dad and Cara all misty eyed and breathless. Not me. If ever I have to live on an island, it won’t be a chunk of bare rock. Oh, that’s right — I was going to live on this island. Lucky old me.

  We swooped in a loop right around the island. Mum moaned again.

  ‘It’s not very big,’ Noah said.

  ‘It’ll be big enough once we start weeding it,’ Dad said.

  ‘You have got to be joking.’ I hoped he was, but even if he wasn’t he’d have a hard job getting me to weed the place.

  Dad chuckled. ‘That’s one of our jobs — eradication of tradescantia, thistles, ragwort. Lots to do.’

  ‘I’ll film,’ I said. ‘You weed.’

  The island stuck up out of the sea as if somebody underneath had slapped a hand under it and said up you go. Its sides were vertical rock. The pilot pointed to a scar on a cliff side. ‘See that? That’s what finally stopped the place being farmed.’ He flew us closer so we could see the narrow track snaking up the cliff. A slip had taken a bite out of it and left the scar.

  Given the choice of crawling up the track or flying in by helicopter I’d choose the helicopter any day.

  The pilot pointed out another attraction. ‘There’s your house. Used to be the farmhouse. Hope they’ve tidied it up for you.’

  And then we were down.

  Cara leapt out first, toting the camera. Dad ignored her and turned to help Mum out. She was dry retching by this time. Not a good start to our new life. Dad put his arm around her and helped her walk through the grass to the house. I followed them up the three steps on to a verandah that stretched around two sides of the house. We stepped into a big room that had the kitchen at one end and an airy family room at the other. I stood at the big windows while Dad got Mum settled on the sofa. Out the windows I could see the sea and, beyond that, the mainland where my real life waited for me.

  I turned away. I would not cry anywhere near Cara and her camera because if I did, I could be one hundred per cent sure that that particular piece of footage would end up on screen. She liked me about as much as I liked her, and if Dad kept smiling at her like that I would have to deck him. In the next second though, I decided I’d misjudged him. The scene went like this:

  Dad: (smiles at Cara)

  Cara: (smiles back, eyes sparkling, body inclined slightly towards Dad)

  Dad: Make Liv a cup of tea, would you, Cara?

  Cara: (through clenched teeth) Certainly, Wes.

  Me: (big smirk)

  Cara: (having observed big smirk) Minna — I’ll show you how the water works.

  Me: It’s okay, Cara. I know how water works.

  She shrugged at that and said, ‘Suit yourself. It comes off the roof — I guess you might like the taste of bird shit and salt.’

  One–nil to Cara. This place was living up to all my expectations — unfortunately. Cara was busy laughing her little socks off as she filled the kettle. My only comfort was that her whole programme pret
ty much depended on me. She turned her head to speak to me. ‘Don’t worry Minna, it’s fine when it’s filtered and boiled. The old guy who lived here drank it straight from the tank. Survived till he was eighty-one.’

  I stood in the middle of the room. Crates and boxes cluttered the floor space. Mum lay on the couch. Noah slouched in a chair beside a woodburner. Dad had disappeared. Suddenly I didn’t care about Cara and her games. All I wanted to do was get away from here and from her. I walked back outside. ‘Minna! Take the camera,’ she called after me.

  I ignored her and was at the bottom of the steps off the verandah when she caught up with me. ‘Here.’ She shoved it at me. ‘You have to get used to taking it everywhere. Remember the training?’

  I just shook my head and kept walking. Let her sweat. I hoped she’d lie awake at nights worrying that I was going to mess the whole thing up. She muttered something but went back inside.

  I didn’t get very far because Dad bounded around the corner of the house, swept me up in a whirl of isn’t this wonderful, dream come true, can’t believe we’re really here. Yeah, that last one I could totally relate to. He dragged me back inside because there was important information Cara had to impart to all of us. I went because the sooner we got rid of her the better pleased I’d be.

  The second she saw Dad, she went into a sickening domestic goddess routine — putting out cups, sugar (which none of us takes), milk and biscuits on a plate, and all the time she slid sleek smiles in Dad’s direction. He didn’t notice; he went over to Mum and asked her if she was feeling better yet.

  ‘No,’ she whispered.

  He took the tea Cara poured and carried it to Mum. Didn’t say thanks to Cara which pissed her off.

  Noah ate all the biscuits.

  Dad drank his tea, in between lighting the wood-burner.

  I drank tea too, mainly because there didn’t seem to be anything else and I was thirsty.

  Cara sipped her tea and the camera lay on the table in front of her. If she wanted me to be filming 24–7 then she wasn’t setting a crash-hot example.