‘When could anyone make Mel change her mind once she’d decided on something?’
He sighed. ‘She’s certainly got her full quota of stubborn genes.’ There was a moment’s silence, then he said in a strangled voice, ‘I can’t take much more of this, Ma watching her run herself into the ground and… Ah, there you are, Mel.’
‘You all right, love?’ Gina asked when her daughter came back on the phone.
‘Obviously not. But I’ll survive. A pregnancy doesn’t go on for ever. Now, you wanted to see me and Lexie. What was it about?’
‘I’ll tell you when we meet. It’s quite important. In the circumstances, I think it’d be best if we came to your place. How about tomorrow evening? Are you going into work? All right then, I’ll bring a casserole for tea, with enough for us all, Simon and the children too. You’ll only have to come home in the evening and take it easy. Tell the after-school sitter that Emma can come straight home tomorrow. I’ll be there.’
Mel’s voice softened. ‘Thanks, Mum. That’ll be a big help.’
Gina phoned Lexie about the meeting then tried to watch TV, but she couldn’t concentrate for worrying about poor Mel.
* * *
After his talk with his children, life speeded up so much that Brad started to wonder if he was going crazy.
He looked at several flats and chose one which had views of the city. The lights at night should be pretty. It had three bedrooms and a spacious living room and kitchen combined, two bathrooms, plus a balcony big enough to entertain a few friends.
To his dismay, he had grossly underestimated the time it would take him to clear out the house, and in the end, he had to call in Joanna and Michael to help so that he could be out by settlement date. He hadn’t realized how many of Helen’s things were still packed away in various cupboards, not to mention stacked in the roof, and deciding what to throw away gave him a few wakeful nights.
When removal day came at last, he stood around feeling useless, watching the men carry his life out of the front door, piece by piece. The boxes looked so anonymous and the furniture scratched. It was cruelly revealing, that sunlight. He’d buy some new furniture when he came back from his travels.
After the removal men had gone, he took a last stroll round the empty, echoing house, dashing the tears from his eyes and muttering, ‘Bloody fool!’
Then he went outside, locked up carefully and got into his car. No regrets, he told himself fiercely as emotion still threatened to overcome him.
* * *
A couple of weeks later, when Michael popped in to see him, Brad invited him and the whole family out for a farewell meal.
‘Come and have dinner at our place on Friday, instead,’ Michael said. ‘You can stay over and I’ll drive you to the airport early on Saturday morning.’
‘Thanks. And Michael… I just wondered if things are all right at home? You and Sheila seemed to be very distant with one another last time I was round.’
Michael looked at him and grimaced. ‘You don’t miss a thing, do you?’ He took a deep breath. ‘Sheila and I aren’t getting on all that well at the moment. She’s met someone else.’
‘Oh, no!’
‘It’s a bit… um, difficult.’
‘Are you sure you want me to stay the night?’
‘Yes. Sheila’s very good a putting a normal face on things for the kids’ sake. She should have been a damned actress! The kids will want to say a proper goodbye to you and we’ll invite Jo’s lot over too.’ He gave his father a wry smile. ‘I take after you. I love having kids. If Sheila tries to take them away from me when she leaves, she’s in for a big battle.’
‘Family is what matters most,’ Brad agreed quietly. ‘And thanks for all your help with the house and flat, son. I really appreciate it.’
‘It was my pleasure. Got to go now.’ Michael drained his glass, then as they both stood up, gave his father a big hug. ‘I’m going to miss you like hell.’
‘I’ll miss you, too.’ He hesitated. ‘Do you want me to postpone things?’
‘No. There’s nothing you can do to help my marriage. You go and sort out our baby sister.’
CHAPTER 7
England
Lou had had it with the rows and threats at home, and the fuss her mother was making about moving house. It was driving everyone crazy, not just her.
‘For two pins I’d pack my bag and leave tomorrow,’ she told her boyfriend Rick that evening as they walked down the street.
‘Why don’t we?’
‘I thought we were going to wait for the end of the college year, so that you could get your credits.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m going to fail. No credit in that.’
‘You should do some of the work, enough to scrape a pass at least.’
He shrugged and grinned at her, his teeth very white against his dark skin. ‘I can’t face it. They want me to draw and paint in their style. This group of lecturers doesn’t seem to go for pictorial work and that’s what I like to do. Crazy, isn’t it? I chose the wrong college, I think, but I didn’t know any better then. No one in my family’s ever studied art.’
‘Oh, Rick. You’re not going to drop out?’
He shrugged. ‘I’ve dropped out already. Haven’t attended any classes for the past week. Haven’t told my dad about it, though. You know how ferociously respectable and follow-the-rules he is. He’ll go through the roof at me.’
‘Will you have enough money to pay for your share of the trip?’
‘Sure.’ He grinned. ‘They might not like pictorial work at college, but it brings in a steady flow of punters who want their likeness sketched at the shopping centre every weekend. And I can earn more money while we’re away doing the same thing.’
She frowned at him, thoughts chasing one another round in her mind, then straightened her shoulders. ‘All right. Let’s go and find out about tickets tomorrow. Mum’s driving me mad with her nagging and I’ll have nowhere to live once she moves because I’m not going to live with them in Birmingham. And Rick?’
‘Yes?’
‘I want to go straight to Australia to find my family. We can do a few side tours on the way back.’
‘OK. Still at odds with your Ma?’
‘Very. And with Gramps, too. They’re so unreasonable about my great-grandfather. He wasn’t a serial murderer, just a man who left his wife for another woman. It happens all the time.’
‘What are you going to do about your things?’
‘Beg Gramps to let me put them in his garage. He won’t refuse.’
‘And how will you find these relatives when we get there?’
She smiled. ‘There was an envelope in among the photo albums. It wasn’t opened, but on the back it had my great-grandfather’s name and address in Australia: well, it’s either him or he had a son called Daniel Everett. I didn’t mention that I’d found it, just memorized the address. Gramps was so angry with me that I didn’t dare ask him why he hadn’t opened the letter.’
‘His father’s probably dead by now.’
‘Well, he wasn’t dead a few months ago and that’s when it was posted. Even if he is dead, his address gives me somewhere to start, doesn’t it? He may have family out there. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it?’
‘So we’re on for our trip, Missy Lou?’ he asked in a mock American voice.
‘We certainly are, Mr Rick,’ she replied in the same accent.
Solemnly they shook hands, then he kissed her and she melted in his arms as she always did, loving his tall, strong body but most of all loving the fact that he was such a darling.
Her mother hated her going out with a black guy. She hadn’t said it straight out, but she was always very stiff with Rick. Well, that was something her old-fashioned, narrow-minded mother would have to get used to. Her father was more concerned about his new job, even more than he’d been about his old one. She tried to remember the last time he and she had talked, really talked, and shook her head. They never had and probably
never would.
She smiled wryly against Rick’s shoulder. He was as much a misfit in his family as she was in hers. They refused to call him Rick, which was what he liked, insisting on ‘Richard’, with which they’d christened him. Richard didn’t suit him at all. He was so laid back nothing seemed to faze him and his family were all uptight about life.
They’d made it clear to Lou that they considered their son too young for a steady relationship. During it his father had called her ‘white’ in such an officious tone that she’d told him straight out that she was pink, not white, thank you very much. He hadn’t liked that. Too bad. He could lump it.
And actually, Rick wasn’t black. He was coffee coloured, café latte, lovely skin he had.
Coffee and roses, they joked sometimes as they held hands. Now he signed his notes to her with a little sketch of a cup of coffee and a rose. Was that romantic or what? She smiled at the thought.
‘What are you grinning at?’ he teased.
‘You. Coffee and roses. Us.’
He put his arm round her and they walked on, not saying much, simply happy to be together. They were good with one another and if it was up to her, their relationship was going to be permanent, whatever anyone said about them being too young. Age had nothing to do with recognizing your soul mate.
Rick hadn’t actually said anything about a long-term relationship yet, but he would soon, she was quite sure of that. And just as sure of her answer.
* * *
After school Rosie and her friend went to pick up Mandy’s family mail from their post office box. Mandy grinned and held out a letter. ‘He’s replied.’
‘Oh, no! I can’t believe it!’
Rosie took the letter her friend was holding out and stuffed it in her pocket.
‘Aren’t you going to open it?’
‘Only when I’m alone. It’s scary stuff, Mandy. I can’t open it in the street. What if I cry or something?’
‘You’ll tell me what he says, though.’
‘Mmmm.’
When she left her friend, Rosie went to sit in a sheltered corner of a park near her home, tearing open the letter with hands that trembled a little.
Dear Rosie
Your letter came as a great surprise to me, but a very welcome one, I promise you. I am indeed the correct Bradley Gerald Rosenberry and I remember your mother very fondly, so it seems I must indeed be your father.
It feels strange, doesn’t it, to have such a close relationship with a complete stranger?
I’d love to meet you and I’d already planned to visit the UK next month, so you don’t need to save up to come to Australia. My wife died a few years ago and I’ve just taken early retirement, so I’m going to do some travelling.
Are you all right with me coming to meet you? If so, it’d be nice if you gave me a proper address and a phone number.
Do you still live with your mother? How does she feel about this? If you haven’t told her you’ve been in touch with me, you really should.
There are so many things I want to ask you… but I think they’d better wait till we meet.
You have a half-brother and sister here, both older than you. Joanna is 32 and works in executive placement. She has three children. Michael is 30 and is in real estate. He has two children. So that makes you a five-fold aunt.
I’m looking forward very much to getting to know you.
Love,
Brad
PS I had trouble thinking how to sign this letter, since you have another father and I don’t want to usurp his place after all these years.
She swallowed hard and read the letter again, then held it to her breast and tried to think coherently. But she couldn’t! She felt dazed at how easily she’d found him.
And he was already planning to come to England. She’d only have a short time to prepare for their meeting, the main things being to convince her mother that it was a good idea and to make sure her Dad wasn’t too hurt by it all.
When she got home, she stopped short in the doorway of her bedroom at the sight of her mother standing staring at a piece of paper. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded. ‘Those are my things.’
‘I was getting my emails from the computer, then I decided to clear up this pigsty of yours so that I could vacuum. I knocked that box off the shelf. I didn’t mean to pry, but everything fell out.’
Rosie went a little closer and gulped as she realized which letter her mother was holding. She could have kicked herself. She’d written it so many times and kept a copy of her final effort. ‘So now you know that I’ve written to him.’
‘How the hell did you get Brad’s address?’
‘From the Australian white pages online. You told me his middle name, which made it easier.’
‘I did?’
‘Yes. Bradley Gerald Rosenberry. You were being sarcastic, but I remembered it.’
‘I wish you hadn’t done this, Rosie.’
‘I know. After I realized Dad couldn’t possibly be my biological father from our science lessons, you made it plain that you didn’t want me finding out about my real one. I think it’s weird that you never told me.’
‘Schools have a lot to answer for, the way they teach science!’ Jane snapped. ‘And Stu’s been a good father to you, he doesn’t deserve this.’
‘It doesn’t stop me loving Dad, but we both know he’s always cared more about Casey than me. No, don’t deny it! You know it’s true.’ She watched her mother close her mouth on a protest and avoid looking directly at her. She couldn’t help her voice wobbling as she added, ‘I never understood why. I thought there must be something wrong with me. Once I understood, well, I felt a lot better about myself. So it was a good thing for me to find out.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’
Rosie shrugged. She hadn’t realized how much it mattered, either.
‘Can’t you let it drop at that? You hurt Stu badly when you confronted us about your parentage. This’ll hurt him even more.’
‘And you? Doesn’t it hurt you at all? I mean, you must have loved this Bradley person once.’
‘Brad. He never used his full name.’ Jane ran one hand through her unruly hair and sighed. ‘I was telling you the truth when I said he was just a holiday romance. It meant no more to me than that because I knew by that stage of my travels that I’d never want to settle anywhere except England. I didn’t even know Brad was married at first and when I did, well that made a difference too. I didn’t want to be responsible for breaking up a marriage.’
‘So he was unfaithful to his wife.’ Rosie didn’t like the thought of that.
‘These things happen. People don’t mean to be unfaithful, but I was lonely and he was unhappy. He’d just had to turn down a job in Sydney, a job he wanted very much, because she refused point-blank to move from Perth. And he was not only married, he had two children. He loved them to pieces. I soon realized he’d never leave them.’
‘Would it have made a difference if he’d known about me?’
‘I doubt it.’ Jane sighed and stared into space for a moment or two. ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant myself till I got back to the UK. I decided not to tell him and almost immediately I met Stu. He’s the man I love properly, as one should love a husband.’ She hesitated, then begged, ‘Please, darling. Don’t do this. Don’t push it any further.’
Rosie stared at the floor, testing out the thought of agreeing in her mind, then shaking her head slowly because she knew she couldn’t stop here. What was driving her was too important to abandon. Some primal urge to know your kin, she supposed. They didn’t teach you about that in biology, just the mechanics of how human beings bred more human beings, and how blood groups interacted. ‘I’m sorry, Mum, but I just have to meet him. I don’t know why, but I have to.’
Jane screwed up the copy of the letter and threw it on the floor. ‘I’ll make sure you don’t. I’m not having you do something which will tear Stu apart, especially not now.’
‘What�
��s so special about now?’
Silence, then, ‘Nothing.’
Rosie stared at her mother. ‘You always say ‘Nothing’ in that tone when there is something.’
‘Nothing that I intend to tell you about at the moment.’ She turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Rosie went and sat on the bed, staring into space till her brother Casey came in and flopped down beside her.
‘I couldn’t help overhearing.’ He kicked a shoe to one side. ‘How long have you known Dad isn’t your father?’
She grabbed his arm. ‘Shh! Mum will go ballistic if she finds out you know.’
He lowered his voice. ‘How long?’
‘Since last year.’
‘That means we’re only half-brother and sister.’
‘Doesn’t make any difference to me. You’re a pain in the arse, but better the pain you know…’
He grinned. ‘Yeah. You’re a pain, too.’
She could tell he was relieved by her response, though he’d never admit it.
‘Scary stuff, eh?’
‘Tell me about it. Casey… do you know what Mum means about Dad when she says she doesn’t want him worrying “especially now”?’ Rosie waited, then nudged him. ‘You do, don’t you?’
‘I did happen to hear them talking the other evening.’
‘You mean you eavesdropped again. You are a little shit.’ He was always doing it, which drove her mad when she had friends round.
Casey shrugged. ‘A guy has to keep an eye on things.’ He began drawing patterns on the carpet with his toe.
‘Well? What did you overhear?’
‘Dad’s been given a hint that he might not get the job as head of the Learning Resource Centre when they merge the two schools. There’s a guy in the other school who’s put in for it too, and you know Dad doesn’t get on with the headmaster. So he may have to look for another job.’
‘He’ll hate that. He loves that job of his, and it’s only just down the road.’
‘We might have to move to another town, you know,’ Casey added.
Family Connections Page 6
