Yet the revelation her mother was preparing to forsake her for a man shook Audrey to her core. As she sat on her mother’s bed watching her pack her clothes, Audrey looked for any way she might convince, connive or guilt her mother into staying.
“Can’t Neville move here? If he’s always driving interstate, why does it matter where he starts from?”
“He’s got family there, love.”
“You’ve got family here.”
“I’m afraid the woman has to sway for the man, Audie,” her mother smiled. “He’s happy for us to be together, but he wants me there.”
And I want you here. “Dad and Stan need you.”
Her mother sighed. “They’ll be fine.” She looked at Audrey sternly. “I only stayed for you, Audie. This has been coming for a long time. I wanted to leave before you were born. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have stayed at all.” She smiled and stroked her daughter’s long hair.
Audrey stiffened. But even as she said, “You never told me this,” she remembered things her mother had said. This is for you, Audie. You keep me here, Audie. I’m only in it because of you, Audie. It made her imminent departure all the more stinging.
Her mother smiled listlessly. “I’m like those little ants that look after the aphids so they can get the sticky dew. I gave it my best try, Audrey, but I was so alone.”
Audrey felt like crying because she knew that feeling. Alone was the feeling Audrey would use to describe most of her life. She tried to imagine being that way forever, with two little children to look after.
“After you, I didn’t want to get pregnant again. So I went off it.” She paused. “Sex, I mean,” she added softly. “Your father said he had needs, so that resulted in several girlfriends, while I carried on being the responsible one. But I needed company, too.”
“Mum, I know about the uncles. I’ve been here for seventeen years, you know.”
Her mother caressed Audrey’s face. “But you see I, well, I didn’t … you know, well, you know. Just with Neville. He’d already had a vasectomy, so, well, well, oh, you get it.” She smiled. “Come with me, love. There’s space for you in Neville’s house. He’d love to have you come, too.”
“I’ve started the school year here,” Audrey whined. “My final school year.”
“So come now. Pick up there. You’ll meet new friends. Have a new family. A new chance at a good life. Don’t stay here. There’s nothing here for you, Audie.”
Audrey drew her shoulders up. “I have a life here, Mum.”
“One friend? A school in this horrible suburb? Love, the best you can do is pack up and move like me. With me.”
But Audrey wouldn’t. She said good-bye to her mother the next morning and went off to school like it was any other day. She promised her mother she’d think about coming over to live with her when the school year finished, although she knew she wouldn’t. She chatted with Yolanda and finished her homework in her lessons and ate her recess and her lunch, and when she went home her mother had left forever.
There was only one thing for it: another story needed to be written about the girl and the handsome prince who rescued her at a dance school.
Joni Page 