‘Not all, but a lot of them, yes.’ The embarrassment was in his voice. ‘I have been a potter for a long time.’
‘Was she one too? Your wife.’
‘She sometimes had a go at decorating them.’ He pointed to a platter with sun orchids leaning in the deep windowsill. ‘That’s one she painted. But no, she worked at the botanical gardens at Mount Tomah. You might have gone there for science.’
She shook her head.
‘I did,’ Kayla said, surprising him. She’d not spoken since arriving.
‘Do you remember seeing the orchids? They were her specialty.’
She shrugged. ‘I just remember goin.’
Jade flashed her a look, you could at least lie, and the return look, why? He said quickly, ‘She was retired by the time you’d have gone there.’ He pointed towards the other doorway. ‘Okay, everything’s on, so let me show you where the bathroom is and your room and you can take your things in.’
He narrowed the table spacings and set a place for Kayla. He tested a sausage with a knifepoint, remembering that Michael had insisted they be well done. They were, and he turned the griller off and mashed the potato, sprinkling in chopped chives, but leaving out his customary lemon pepper. He put the bowl and the platter of sausages on the table and cracked the seal on the bottle of tomato sauce, then went to the doorway and called them to the kitchen.
Kayla didn’t sit, asked for a second plate. He fetched one down and went to the drawer for an additional knife and fork. She filled the two plates, heavy on sausages and bread and light on salad, and asked if he had a torch. He took the small one from the everything drawer, tested it, handed it to her. She slid it and the cutlery into her left jacket pocket and lifted one plate in her right hand and balanced the other expertly on her forearm and went down the hallway. You’ve done waitressing then as well as weekenders, he said silently to her back.
It was a meal without conversation, but their table manners were better than he’d expected. The little ones, though, ate more than he thought possible, the girl, Emma, clearing her plate in the time it took him to eat one sausage and half his mash. She crossed her knife and fork hopefully and tried to catch Jade’s eye without catching his. ‘Yes, you can have seconds,’ he said. ‘Serve yourself.’
‘And me?’ the boy said.
‘Of course.’
‘You ain’t finished,’ Jade snapped. ‘You’re eatin the lettuce or no sausage.’
The boy looked at Russell, then down at his plate when Russell arched his eyebrows, she’s your boss, not me.
He heard the front door push open, and Kayla came in. They, too, had hoovered the food. She thanked him and carried the plates and cutlery over to the sink. He asked did they want dessert.
‘Nah.’
She hooked her head at Jade, who rose and followed her outside. The boy and girl shot nervous glances towards the hallway until Jade came back in. She closed the door. She sat again. ‘She’ll ring you in a couple of days.’
‘Me?’
‘You answerin’s cool. Better if my phone stays off.’
She helped herself to more salad, but no more sausages. When their plates were empty a second time Russell made to stand and was told no. She nodded at the two. The boy gathered up the cutlery, Emma stacked the plates and carried them to the sink. They returned for the bowls and platter and Jade said, ‘One at a time — and two hands!’
He’d stewed pears. He asked whether they wanted them, or just ice cream. The boy looked at her, got a nod, said, ‘Just ice cream please.’
He jumped up when they’d emptied their bowls, said it was their first night in the house and he would wash up. He saw her gaze flick towards the sink. ‘We’ve never had one,’ he said. ‘She thought them a waste of water.’
‘So … how long’s it been … you know, just you?’
His throat tightened. He’d expected the question at some point, but not phrased so directly.
‘I thought Kayla might have told you.’
‘No. Only that she … died.’
‘Eleven months.’
‘Was she sick?’
Emma, he saw, was listening, eyes fixed on his face. The boy was staring vaguely at the woodcut of banksias on the wall above the phone.
‘No, it was sudden. She had a stroke.’
‘My daddy’s dead,’ the girl whispered.
He thought he’d misheard and looked at Jade, who confirmed with a lift of her brows. His impulse was to kneel and take the girl in his arms, but that was impossible. He had, though, to do something with the welling-up in him. He put out his hand, and she lifted hers to be taken. He squeezed the fingers gently, controlled the urge to put out his other hand and stroke her hair. He released her hand, looked again at Jade.
‘Was this … recent?’
‘She was three. She don’t remember him.’
‘I do!’ the girl said.
‘You don’t,’ Jade said flatly. ‘You remember his photo.’ She waved a finger above the two. ‘Can they have a bath?’
‘What? Yes, of course. Please, you don’t need to ask about things like that. For as long as you’re here it’s your house. That goes for food, the radio, books. Okay?’
‘Thanks.’
The boy beckoned urgently to her, come down. She bent for him to whisper in her ear, and straightened, suppressing a grin. ‘He wants to know if you got only a radio, no telly.’
Russell laughed, but stopped when he saw the betrayal that crossed the boy’s face. ‘Sorry. Yes, mate, there’s a telly. In the lounge room.’ He traced the other hallway in the air with his hand. ‘Along there and across from your door.’ He turned again to Jade. ‘Just one thing I’d like to clarify, if you don’t mind. You are … all brother and sister?’
‘Yeah. Kayla and me are same dad. Toddy’s she got on with before her and Em’s split. I pissed off, was livin with my old man down Wollongong, but he’s a prick, and his girlfriend didn’t want me there, so I come back. Had to anyway, she went back usin, and they were dealin it, heaps, and weed, Jarrod and her — Toddy’s old man. From the house and round the pubs. No way known they weren’t gonna get done.’
He was about to mutter I see, then remembered in time the look of contempt Kayla had flashed him.
‘Kayla said your mum tried ringing her. She must at least be a bit worried about you.’
‘Yeah, now she can’t get nothin! Other reason I’m leavin my phone off.’ He saw her gaze go inward, then return, a decision made. ‘I dunno what you know about smackheads.’ She pointed. ‘How them two even got fed — when her and him were out of it I’d rat their wallets and ring a cab to Coles, yeah. I’d get Em to school, but some days I’d have to stay with Toddy — if she’d shot up. One time they drove down Melbourne, just took off. I had to do a house so’s we fuckin ate! Now she’s “worried”. Well bad luck. She won’t be hearin from me.’ She spun, hooked her arm. ‘Come on you two — bath.’
They heard the whip in her voice and vanished through the doorway.
‘Jade?’
She halted, looked at him.
‘I bought some ointment for her eye. It’s a little tube, in your room. It says wash the eye first with a warm flannel, okay, then squeeze some in.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks.’
He washed up, absently dunking plates, bowls, while his mind expanded on the glimpses given him of their world. Went back using, she’d said, which explained Kayla’s bitter remark about her and Jade being taken and separated. So how old had they been? The age of these current two? And how often did it happen? ‘Went back’ didn’t necessarily mean only twice, there was probably a whole history of getting off then using again. He snorted softly. ‘You’re a junkie expert now, are you?’ He should certainly not be proffering glib guesses about the woman’s state of mind! There came the clunk in the pipes as the shower was tur
ned off, and he heard then the gurgle of the emptying bath. He snapped back to what he was doing, grabbed up the cutlery and ran it under the hot tap, dumped it in the drainer, peeled off the gloves.
They returned to the kitchen with clean shining hair, and in different if not entirely clean clothes. The filthy windcheaters had, he was glad to see, stayed in their bags. The morning would be time enough to point them to the laundry. And to school them in the story he’d invented for Helen. They wouldn’t need telling to stay out of sight. Emma’s eyelid shone greasy. He asked if it felt better, and she nodded. The boy asked could they watch telly. Of course, he said, and that he would come, too, in a short while. He didn’t want to reveal on their first night that the pantry held Mars bars, that seemed too much. He badly needed a coffee, though. He should offer something. Who, he asked, wanted a mug of hot chocolate?
When he carried in the tray some ten minutes later they were watching young men and women swinging on vines and crawling through mud, to what end he didn’t know. He pretended an interest by asking a few questions, which they answered without taking their eyes from the screen. When he stood with his empty mug he saw the girl’s eyes follow. He went to his bedroom and fetched the borrowed book he’d finally started, a biography of the eccentric Japanese potter and gourmet Rosanjin. John Farley had sent a slightly testy email. He carried the book out to the kitchen and closed the door and sat at the table. He’d read only a page when the door quietly opened. It was her, Emma.
‘Hello. Are you after something?’
She shook her head. She pointed back over her shoulder. ‘What’s that game?’
Thinking she meant the survivalists, he was about to say she should ask Jade when he realised what she really meant. ‘On the little table — in the window bay?’ She nodded. ‘That’s called chess.’
‘She said checkers.’
‘She’s nearly right. The board looks the same.’
The girl hovered.
‘You want me to show you?’
She looked at the book open between his hands. He closed it and stood.
He turned on the playing lamp and sat and nodded her to the seat opposite, his hands already moving the pieces swiftly back to their starting squares.
In forty minutes she had memorised the names of all the pieces and how they moved, and could execute three of his standard openings. He cleared clutter from the board and set up a trap to take her bishop with his knight, using a pawn as bait, and asked what her move should be. She stared for a few seconds then moved the bishop to safety. He set up another, threatening her queen with both rooks, one of them five squares away, and she evaded that, too. He set up a third, this against himself, telling her she could take his queen with her knight, not this move but the next. She moved wrongly, saw in time, and jumped the knight to where it threatened both king and queen. ‘Yes!’ he burst out. ‘Good girl! I have to move him, and you’ve got her.’ The excitement in his voice brought Jade from the lounge room.
‘It’s called chess,’ Emma said, not lifting her eyes from the board, ‘not checkers.’
‘And,’ he said, ‘she’s got the brain for it.’
‘You tell him why?’ Jade said down at the girl. She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘When she’s home she’s playin computer games nonstop.’
‘So?’
‘So just tellin him. That you’re not some genius.’
He didn’t state what he believed, that nothing prepared one for chess but chess. What interested him more was the flash of jealousy.
The boy was asleep on the couch. He offered to carry him. Jade scooped him up as if he hadn’t spoken. Rebuffed, he returned to the kitchen and closed the door and sat again at the table and opened the book. The door opened to Emma come to say goodnight. He didn’t want to inflame jealousies further and said nothing about tomorrow having a proper game. He’d read only a further page, was thinking of bed himself, when the door opened again. Jade came in and closed the door behind her. He saw she wanted to talk. He shut the book on the tooled leather gumleaf, which had come inside Adele’s last-ever present to him, The Hare with Amber Eyes. He motioned to the chair opposite but she shook her head. ‘Only be a minute, we’re already stoppin you doin stuff.’ He began to say not at all, and she spoke over him. ‘Kayla’s sayin don’t tell you nothin, yeah, but I said we’re stayin in your house so you need to know what’s goin on. She’s tryin to find our mum’s cousin — down Sydney. One time we went to her. Other times to our gran, but she’s died. Anyhow she’s moved, mum’s cousin, and we dunno where. We left word, yeah, we’re lookin for her. Kayla’s hopin a couple of days. Anyway, that’s so you know.’
‘Thank you. But you’re not putting me out. As I said, I’m glad you’re here rather than down in that cave. And I need to tell you a couple of things, if you don’t mind staying a bit longer than your minute.’
She nodded but went on standing at the closed door.
‘Firstly, though, let’s talk about security. I suspect you’re ahead of me, so what have you told them, the littlies?’
She was well ahead of him, had instructed them that a knock on the door or a voice other than his and they were to run silently to their room and get under the bed and stay there until she or he called to them that it was safe to come out. He didn’t say what he thought, that it sounded rather melodramatic. Good, he told her. But it might not always be possible to avoid a visitor, so they all needed a story. He’d given his friends Hugh and Delys the truth because Hugh would have been coming to the house the following night to play chess and they were not people he lied to. The only other person who might just arrive was the woman across the road or one of her children. To her he’d given a story about who they were. He told her the story, and that she should rehearse the littlies in it, especially Todd, till they could repeat it. ‘What parts of Sydney do you know? You mentioned Blacktown.’
‘That was bullshit. Our gran was Marrickville.’
‘Fine. Let’s use Marrickville.’
Anyone else who arrived unexpectedly they should act shy and leave the talking to him. Although if he needed to introduce them he would use their real names, it was too hard to remember made-up ones. But, he told her, he didn’t think any of what he’d just said would be necessary. A week often went by without anyone calling to the house. There was no reason for the next week to be any different. ‘All the same, I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to go exploring like they did down there.’
She gave an impatient toss of the head, ‘I already told em.’
He pushed back his chair. ‘We’ve gone well over your minute. You’re sure you won’t sit, I’ll put the jug on?’
‘Nah, she won’t be asleep, she’ll be waitin.’ Her mouth flickered in a smile. ‘They asked me what they’re supposed to call you. It’s “Russell”, right?’
‘Goodness me. Yes! Please.’
‘And … she seen that photo. In the hall? That’s your son, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘She asked me what’s his name.’
‘Michael. And my wife’s was Adele.’
‘Yeah, I seen it on that picture. In our room.’
He nodded. Of course. It would be one of the first things a stranger’s eyes went to. She’d chosen one of her best for the guest room.
‘Tomorrow I’ll need to do some work, but we can talk about it in the morning. I get up early, so I mightn’t be in the house. If I’m not, come over to the workshop.’ He pointed at the window. ‘The building over there. You’ll see smoke coming from the chimney.’ He dipped his head. ‘Goodnight. I hope you’ll be warmer than last night.’
‘Already. Heaps. Kayl and me were gettin worried about Toddy.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ he said carefully. In the few days since he’d last seen the boy the eye sockets were hollower, the cheekbones more prominent. ‘He certainly filled up tonight, though,
they both did.’
The voice reached out from the guest room, ‘Jade?’, the beginning of panic in its rising inflexion. She spun and snatched the door open, ‘Comin!’
A bit before seven he came past their closed door and imagined them asleep in an unaccustomed snugness, nothing of each head visible but the hair.
They were in the kitchen, the little ones at the table with glasses of milk and eating white-bread toast and honey, Jade standing at the trembling jug, a mug on the bench with the tag of a teabag hanging over its side. They said hello, gave him shy smiles. He hid his surprise and returned the greetings, suppressing the urge to know why they were up so early and asking only whether they’d had a good sleep. Already, though, he was wondering about the rhythmic clicking coming from the landing, the laundry. Jade saw the direction of his eyes. ‘That’s zippers. I put your machine on. I hope that’s all right.’
‘You beat me, I was going to suggest it.’
The boy came and stood at the stove with his toast and watched him make porridge. He didn’t know its name. Russell asked did he want a small bowl to try and he wrinkled his nose.
He told them he was going to his workshop, he had pots he needed to finish. They could come too, if they wanted, he would give them clay to make something. The boy turned on Jade an anguished look.
‘He was wantin to watch Pokémon.’
‘On the television?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, he can if he wants.’
Hare's Fur Page 9
