The Long Way Home

by Phillip Overton

  Chapter 30

  Simon rolled slowly downhill towards home feeling bittersweet about the way the afternoon had ended. Amidst the euphoria of having seen Jesus appear before them, they had hurried back to Brian’s house to recount the story to his family again and again. Not only did his entire family believe him, but his mother wanted to drive all the way over to the cemetery just so that she could see the spot where Jesus had appeared to her son.

  She was in the process of phoning the Reverend of the church that she hadn’t attended since the Christening of Brian’s younger sister Kylie 11 years ago, when she happened to ask why the two of them were being chased by a gang of bullies in the first place. Brian’s answer that it was because Max got caught instead of Simon for trying to steal a dirty magazine had her hanging the phone back up in a hurry. Again the question came from Brian’s Mum, this time what would even make a young boy think of stealing such a filthy magazine. Once more Brian’s answer left Simon looking like the black sheep. The look on Mrs Wilkes’ face had left Simon devastated. Somehow she didn’t think too highly of Simon’s answer that he had only tried to steal it to get the image out of his head of seeing his Mum and three other men almost naked in his lounge room that afternoon. Mrs Wilkes then promptly told Brian that he was forbidden to ever play with Simon again.

  ‘Home,’ he thought as he swung his BMX into the driveway nonchalantly, ‘is where I can never speak of how Jesus saved me from being beaten up by a bunch of bullies, unless I want to be beaten by my mother instead’.

  Simon pedalled up the driveway to the carport at the side of the house and leant his bike against the pole in front of his mother’s beat up old car. He hoped to God that she still wasn’t inside doing whatever she was doing earlier in the day. There was no trace of the cars that had been parked in front of his house which had to be a good sign. He slowly opened the sliding glass door at the back of the house and listened carefully for the sound of anyone moving inside, but the house lay silent.

  The late afternoon sun was slowly sinking in the distance. Outside, the evening air was still pleasantly warm but stepping inside the house felt unusually cooler. The cold chill that hung in the air had him heading straight for his bedroom to put a jumper on. Simon emerged from his room wearing his prized Manly Sea Eagles jersey and a pair of black tracksuit pants. He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of cordial. The kitchen clock showed that it was nearly 6.30 and there was no sign of his Mum getting dinner ready. He had half expected to get yelled at for being late home the minute he stepped foot in the door, instead the house was perfectly still.