Madison had gone away to university and mostly stayed with Mack when she came back. But that wouldn’t last much longer because Mack was poorly and talk was that he was headed towards a nursing home.
Sometimes he heard Detective Johnson on the radio talking about a local case. Brock wondered if he would even recognise the place now. The detective had done his best to re-establish goodwill even if his particular strategy didn’t actually make the difference.
He hadn’t seen or thought of Jennifer in a long while. To everyone’s surprise, she had not forced the sale of the farm or division of family assets. She had moved to the coast, got herself a job and remained a partner in the farm. Someone who had seen her said she was content and happy. Sarah’s opinion was that it couldn’t last: she would want a large lump sum sooner rather than later and she would come looking for it. At least Andy would have time to get organised.
He thought one day he might ask Sarah out for a drink, a real drink, but not just yet. For now all that mattered were the children and the school.
MACK
It had not ended well. A total mess in fact. The Booth name was made ridiculous. Andy’s family was in pieces. Jennifer would eventually force the sale of the family farm.
To an outsider, it might have seemed that everything he had worked for, over two generations, was falling apart but Mack couldn’t see it that way. He had witnessed his granddaughter in action and it made him feel sublime. There wasn’t much he cared to live for anymore, but whatever the future held for the Booth family it looked good with Madison in it.
She didn’t come home much, but when she did they spent lots of time together and that made up for everything. She’d got good marks for her painting of him, and he loved hearing her talk about art school. He just wished his eyes were better so he could properly see what she was doing.
Andy didn’t seem disconsolate. Not now, and that was a good thing. The last crop had been good, and in some ways he was even happier than he had been before, a little less burdened, maybe.
With Madison and Jennifer gone, Mack knew there was no way he could live on his own anymore. He had to face up to town. A nursing home seemed a pretty good idea, a relief even. Madison would help him move and he knew it would take some worry away from her, help her get on with the life she needed to live. That was his job now: to get out of the way and let her generation have its turn.
He would miss Leo worst of all, but he knew Andy would take the best care of him. Leo was an old dog too, and he would enjoy his last days lying in the shade watching, smelling, listening to and enjoying the familiar.
When he sat on his verandah for one of the last times, and thought about everything that had happened, Mack was glad Celie hadn’t been a witness to it all. But he knew she would have loved the woman Madison had become, tattoo and all. Perhaps everything that had happened was for the best.
Choughs squabbled in the hay on the garden beds below him as a cool breeze blew in softly from the south. The nursing home wouldn’t be all bad. Everything would be done for him and he would never die alone on his kitchen floor. There were some old mates in there too, senile, but still mates.
In the distance, a bull boasted of his prowess with a long echoing call. Mack understood the suggestion and laughed a little to himself. There were women in the nursing home. Lookers in their day, some of them. Still lookers in a way. He brushed what remained of his hair back and smiled. ‘Ah, women.’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph: Sally Alden
R.M. Anderson is a farmer and a family man. He has four dogs and a small veggie garden. Over time he has written for many publications and sites. He claims to be comfortable with ambiguity and unimpressed by self-importance.
First Published 2017
First Australian Paperback Edition 2017
ISBN 9781489239150
THE GOOD TEACHER
© 2017 by Richard Anderson
Australian Copyright 2017
New Zealand Copyright 2017
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