The Long Way Home

by Phillip Overton

  ****

  Rowena put down her glass of sherry on the coffee table and turned the volume down on the TV. She could hear the phone ringing from the kitchen more clearly now. Getting to her feet she hurried from the lounge room and picked the receiver up just before it thought about ringing out.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi Rowena it’s only your sister. I was beginning to think you weren’t home.”

  “Gail, hi how are you?”

  “Oh, I’m okay I guess.” Gail paused, thinking of how to break into the news. “A lot has happened this week….”

  “Tell me about it.” Rowena interrupted. “Work has been a disaster and I’ve been run off my feet all week. They’re making me do overtime almost every night, its lucky that the old lady across the road doesn’t mind having Simon around for afternoon tea. At least I know he’s not off roaming the streets and getting up to no good.”

  “That’s good Rowena, and Simon is fine with that?”

  “Yeah I s’pose, I mean sometimes he goes over to his friend Brian’s house, I don’t mind as long as he lets Mrs Braddley know. She’s sort of become his adopted Grandmother.” Rowena quietly grimaced as soon as the words left her mouth. That probably didn’t come out quite the way she intended.

  There was a brief pause of silence down the phone line.

  “Gail, are you still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything nasty by what I said. Nobody will ever replace Mum. C’mon Gail, you know that.”

  “I know. Its fine Rowena, anyway I’m glad for Simon that it’s all working out. It’s just that I hear you talk more of the lady across the road than I ever heard you talk of Mum when she was around. She was Simon’s Grandmother after all.”

  “I know Gail, but what’s with this all the time? You don’t think she meant a great deal to Simon?”

  “No I don’t think that at all.” She paused before changing the subject. “The reason I called is to tell you some big news, and I mean some really big news. Tim got a promotion at work this week.”

  “That’s great, what position did they promote him to?”

  “Well the company has grown so much over the last two years they’ve had to open a new office and they want Tim as the manager and associate partner in the firm.”

  “That’s fantastic Gail. Where are they planning on opening the new office, will he have far to travel?”

  The line went quiet for a second before Gail answered.

  “Melbourne.”

  “What?” Rowena asked in disbelief. “They want him to move interstate? What did you say?”

  “Yes of course. We thought about it for a couple of days before Tim got back to them with an answer, but its everything he has been aiming for since he started with Landers, Barber and Willis. I know it’s a big move but….”

  “It’s a pretty big move Gail.”

  “I know but a change will be exciting, and as I said, it’s a huge opportunity for Tim.”

  “But I thought you loved living in Manly.” Rowena said still dumbfounded that her sister was actually planning to move so far away.

  “I do, it’s going to be sad saying goodbye. I love everything we have done to this house, but when one door closes another one always opens.”

  “What are you talking about Gail?”

  “Well, I haven’t got Mum dropping around anymore to go shopping with. The kids are both at school and you’re so busy with your own life that we hardly have the time to catch up. I guess I haven’t got the same reasons to stay here as I had only a few years ago.”

  “But I like knowing you’re only an hour away.”

  “I know Rowena, but when is the last time you actually drove down the highway to visit?”

  Rowena went quiet as she tried to think of the last time she had been to visit her sister. It had been Christmas. ‘Had it really been five months ago?’ She asked herself. She tried to think of when she had visited the time before that and could only come up with the July school holidays last year when she had brought Simon down to spend the two weeks with his cousins. She had even missed coming down for Lynette and Justin’s birthdays as she had been working as usual.

  “See, a visit every six months from my own sister is hardly a good enough reason to deny my husband the chance of a lifetime.”

  “I’m sorry, I hadn’t realised we’ve been that busy Gail.”

  “You’ve been the one who’s been busy Rowena. I’m a stay at home Mum who does housework while my kids are at school, volunteers on the school tuck shop roster every Tuesday and runs the ladies craft group every week at church just so I can talk with other women. How often do I phone you to see what you are doing only to find out you are too busy for me to drive up and visit? We used to see a lot of each other Rowena, I guess time just changes everyone.”

  Rowena went quiet from the guilt and embarrassment her sister made her feel. It was true, even on the weekends when she had nothing on, she would pretend to be busy to get out of having her sister drive up and spend the day imparting her good advice and moral judgement.

  “But don’t worry,” Gail tried to put things in perspective. “Tim is going to have to fly back to Sydney on business regularly throughout the year and they’ve agreed to cover the cost of the kids and I accompanying him twice a year. So I can still get to visit friends and family. That is as long as it is okay for me to stay with you?”

  “Yeah of course.” Rowena answered, immediately feeling better that her sister wasn’t intending on breaking contact altogether. “Don’t ever feel that you have to ask, you’re always welcome.”

  “Good, then is it still okay for Simon to come down and stay over the July school holidays?”

  “Of course, you’ll still be there?”

  “Yeah, we’ll probably be packed up ready to move but it will be the last chance for Simon to spend the holidays with his cousins. Tim’s planning on taking the kids to the Manly Pier one last time and he’s always promised to take Simon to a football game, so I guess this will be the last chance he gets to spend some quality time with his nephew.” Gail said with a touch of sweet sadness in her voice.

  “So exactly how soon are you moving out?”

  “Tim has to be ready to start in a month’s time. He’s flying down to Melbourne next week to help with setting up the new office and to look for a place to rent for the next six months. It will give us time to sell our house here before we start looking for another house to buy, somewhere close to his new office.”

  “So I guess you’re going to be busy with all the packing then. I could come down for a weekend if you’d like a hand?” Rowena asked feeling that she should at least do the right thing and be supportive before her sister moved so far away.

  “I’ll probably have everything finished by then. I’ve already started some of the packing. Speaking of that,” Gail paused and drew a long breath. “I came across something interesting this week. You know how we stored all Mum and Dad’s personal stuff in the garage at our house after the funeral?”

  “Yeah.” Rowena listened closely, interested as to where the conversation was now leading to. “I thought you’d already sorted through all of it.”

  “I had, well most of it anyway. After we divided their personal things between us there were still a lot of boxes of files and documents that we shoved to the side to go through later. Well, I finally got around to doing something with it over the last couple of weeks. I know it’s been two years since the funeral Rowena but I’ve finally sorted out the last of Mum and Dad’s things.”

  There was a brief period of silence as the realisation sunk in between the two sisters that the brief mark their parents had left on the world was now gone. Their house in the leafy suburb of Pymble had sold quickly, only a week after having gone on the market. The money was split evenly between the two daughters and three grandchildren. It had been enough for Rowena to pay off her share of her home in Gosford leaving only Doug to
continue with the repayments on his share. Simon’s share of the money had according to her parent’s will been placed into a trust account until the day he turned 21. The furniture and other personal items had been divided between Gail and Rowena.

  “So what did you come across that was so interesting?” Rowena finally asked.

  “Well I threw out most of it. There were a lot of old insurance policies, legal documents, tax returns, Dad’s Liberal Party membership, stuff we’d already cancelled years ago. I did however come across something important that we’d missed the first time we went through everything.”

  “Well, don’t tease me Gail. What was it?”

  “Remember how I had to identify Mum and Dad’s body after the car accident? Well, afterwards they gave Tim a large envelope containing the personal items that they retrieved from the scene, I remember being too upset at the time to take it from the police officer. Somehow it got put to the side and mixed up with the files that sat in our garage for the next two years. Remember the crucifix pendant I gave Mum for her birthday that I got upset with you about at the hospital?”

  “You mean the one Simon still wears?” Rowena asked puzzled.

  “Yeah well I found it. It was in the envelope along with their drivers licenses.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” Rowena exclaimed.

  “I didn’t think so at first either. Remember how I wanted Mum to wear it at her funeral? I looked everywhere for it, and then when it turned up three weeks after her funeral around your son’s neck we all believed that Simon had got the pendant from beyond the grave.”

  “So now you’re saying that he couldn’t have?” Rowena asked, somewhat confused. She didn’t know what implication this was going to have on the explanation she had allowed herself to believe for the last two years.

  “Well, no.” Gail paused admitting her mistake. “But do you remember how Mum used to keep receipts for everything?”

  “Sure do.” Rowena laughed.

  “Well I was still curious as to how Simon got the exact same pendant as the one I’d bought for Mum, so I went through all Mum’s receipts until I found one from the same jewelers store. I’m guessing Mum remembered me mentioning where it came from and went back to purchase the same one for Simon when he was in hospital. I checked the date of the receipt and it seems to make perfect sense.”

  “So that’s it? That’s the biggest mystery in the history of the family solved just like that? No ghosts or visits from beyond the grave?” Rowena plied sarcastically.

  “No, but I did find a receipt for a toaster that she bought back in 1978.” Gail laughed causing her sister to join in, the two of them nearly reducing themselves to tears.

  “She must have placed it around Simon’s neck in the hospital when no one was looking.” Rowena pondered. “It was probably the last time she saw her grandson….” She trailed off, breaking into tears at the thought.

  “I thought the same.” Gail comforted her. “The fact remains that Simon has a vivid memory of his Grandmother giving it to him while he was in the coma. What he described sounded just like he stood at the entrance to heaven before returning to us. I know you don’t believe any of this Rowena, but Simon does and that is important to remember. I think that pendant provides him with a sense of comfort far greater than we can ever understand.”

  Rowena recalled that her search to explain how the pendant had suddenly appeared around Simon’s neck had ended up in a séance that had gone horribly wrong almost a year ago. There was no doubt there had been a definite change in her son’s behaviour since he had come out of the coma, but maybe it wasn’t the spirit of her mother watching over him after all. Perhaps there was something much more.