Christmas Day was brutal.
“Where’s Sally?” Audrey asked her father, as she dished up lunch for two.
“Giving it a another go with hubby.” He took a swig of his beer and said sadly, “I’ve got no ties here now.”
Audrey dropped the scoop.
“Easy, Audie.”
“What about me, Dad? Your ties to me?”
“What about you? You’re an adult now. You finished school. You’ll get a job and move out and I’ll be left all alone. I’m moving to Brisbane with your brother. Go live with your mother, get a job over there.”
“I am not moving to Perth!”
“Suit yourself then.”
Audrey’s eyes filled with tears. This was too much. “Dad-”
“Don’t worry, I’ll leave you some money to look after yourself.” He dismissed Audrey’s increasing horror with a wave. “Five thousand ought to be enough for a while. Not many kids get looked after so well. Get yourself a job, too.”
The day he left – in a taxi, with Audrey refusing to take him to the airport – she stayed in her pyjamas reading, avoiding all thoughts of the night to come. Books had always been her mainstay; now they were her salvation. When night fell, the stifling summer heat and moonless dark terrified her. She may as well have been the only person alive. She lost herself in her book until she fell asleep with the light on.
She spent a numb New Year’s Eve on the couch, watching everyone else, it seemed, having an exultant time. In a desperate attempt to lighten her melancholy she’d bought some pickled octopus, brie, crackers a bunch of grapes. And a bottle of cheap champagne.
She spent the start of the year vomiting in the toilet.
The week wore on; the isolation was unbearable. Yet in her despair she found freedom: the only person she had to satisfy was herself. She hauled herself into some clothes, walked to the shops and bought a newspaper. In the Positions Vacant column she saw an ad for a governess on a remote sheep station. She rang immediately, lied about her age and experience and, as she was the only applicant, gained her first job.
She bought herself a workable mobile phone, rented out the house with an agent, forged her dad’s signature and told the agent to deposit the money into her own bank account (the agent never asked whether A Golding was Audrey or Anthony). She put in a permanent postal redirection and told her parents they should only contact her on her mobile (not that they ever did).
One week later, loneliness was replaced by family life on the sheep station.
Joni Page 