****
There came a knock at the door. Rowena and Ron both sat up, outside the sun had set long ago, leaving the lounge room cloaked in darkness. Rowena stumbled as she got to her feet searching for a light switch. Another knock followed, this one louder and more urgent.
“Alright, alright. I heard you the first time.” She called out as her hands slapped desperately against the wall looking for the light switch. Finding it she flicked it on, almost blinding herself in the brightness of the incandescent bulb that hung from underneath the lamp shade on the lounge room ceiling. Still rubbing her eyes as she crossed the room to the front door, she stubbed her toe on the leg of the coffee table, yelping loudly.
Reaching the front door she flicked the outside light on, revealing through the glass pane on the wooden door the outline of a woman standing on the front porch. After finally fumbling with the front door knob she threw the front door open to be greeted by a visibly mad Susan Wilkes, the mother of Simon’s friend Brian.
“What on earth is wrong with you?” She blasted Rowena the minute she swung into view. “How dare you take to a little boy the way you did!”
“What are you talking about?” Rowena demanded, raising her voice back at the small framed, fiery woman who was standing on her front doorstep hurling abuse at her.
“Don’t you dare play dumb with me woman.” Susan raised her finger at Rowena. “I’m disgusted at what you did to your son, and when he finally told me what happened, well it even made one of the nurses at the hospital cry.”
“What in God’s name are you talking about lady?” Ron said gruffly as he joined Rowena at the front door. “Her stinking kid hasn’t been here all afternoon.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Susan mocked. “I didn’t realise I was in the company of a pig! Maybe if the two of you weren’t so busy getting high all afternoon you’d realise that this house isn’t fit for a dog to live in. I would have gone straight to the police if Simon didn’t need medical attention first, so I took him to the hospital. The doctors ended up filing a report with the police so you can save your explanation for them.”
Rowena’s head pounded as she recalled yelling at Simon when he had come back from his weekend at his Dad’s. She remembered throwing the stupid Bible at his head before losing it and giving him a belting. The rest of the afternoon had been a blur, Ron came over to smoke some pot and the next thing she knew Susan was standing on her doorstep abusing her.
“What’s this crazy woman on about?” Ron asked Rowena. “I was here all arvo and didn’t see anything happen.”
“I’ll help you remember Rowena, just in case you’ve forgotten.” Susan lowered her voice as she made her point. “You split your son’s eyebrow open, fractured his eye socket, left him so he can only see clearly out of one eye and then sent him around to my place on a pushbike with a cracked rib so that he can hardly breathe!” She raised her voice as she finished.
“Where’s my son?” Rowena snarled slowly at her, panic gripping her entire body while at the same time her throat knotted from the anger that was welling inside of her.
“Where do you think Rowena? He’s in the hospital being taken care of, I stayed with him until his father arrived. I’m raising five kids on my own, I know it’s not easy but you’re obviously not fit to have custody of Simon.” Susan paused watching the blank expression fall over Rowena’s face. “If you ask me the boy should have been with his father from day one.”
“Yeah well no one’s asking you, so why don’t you just go home.” Ron opened the door and stepped out on the front porch.
“Oh please, you don’t scare me.” Susan scolded him as he moved menacingly towards her. “I’m not staying anyway.”
Ron looked at her car that was parked in the driveway. The park lights were still on and pressed up against the front windscreen were the five frightened faces of her children. ‘She wasn’t lying about that part’, he thought as he backed away from her.
“Better go home to your kids lady.” He said with a tone in his voice that reeked of the sort of smugness one feels when they have had the final say.
Ron watched as Susan got in the car and started the engine. There was a mad scramble of children putting their seatbelts on before she reversed down the driveway. He turned back to the house in time to see the front door slam shut and hear it lock from the inside.
“Hey babe, let me in!” He called out as he banged on the screen door.
“Go away Ron, I want to be left alone.” Rowena called out from inside.
“Rowena.” He pleaded as he knocked again. “Don’t be like that, I’ve got just the stuff that’ll make you feel better.”
“Not now Ron, I just want to be alone. Go home.” She said firmly, leaving him no choice but to trudge begrudgingly across the street to his own house.
The Long Way Home Page 63
