‘Sulking now, are we?’ she asked, and he was relieved when his mother called them both in to tea because he was sulking but he didn’t want to admit it. Sulking wasn’t manly.
‘When’s your dad coming back then?’ asked Beth as they resumed their spot on the verandah after dinner. Colin shrugged. He didn’t like talking about his dad going off and leaving him and his mum with five younger nippers to feed.
‘I dunno, Mum reckons he’s most likely gone to Hamilton and maybe his girlfriend’s gone up there with him, but I reckon he’s just gone on a bender and can’t find his way home. Or maybe he’s in a lock-up till he dries out. But he’s been gone a good long while,’ he said as he tried to get his hand up her skirt.
‘You’re not getting any,’ said Beth. ‘Not here with that old busybody Nurse Drake looking out her window.’
‘She’s got her own fella,’ said Colin, ‘so she shouldn’t be throwing no stones.’
Beth pulled away from him. ‘Go on.’
Colin sighed, he didn’t want to have to bother telling her about Nurse Drake’s business. He was over talking for the day, a man had other things he’d rather be doing. Now he wished he hadn’t said anything because he knew she’d persist till she got it out of him.
‘What’ll you give me if I tell you?’ he asked, smiling.
‘Come on, tell me.’
‘What’ll you give me then?’ He threw out his hands like he had nothing in the world until she filled them with her something.
‘You tell me or you won’t ever get nothing again!’ she said, walloping him on the arm.
‘Oww,’ he cried, making out he was hurt. She hit him again, this time harder. ‘Oh all right, before you beat the living daylights out of me. She’s a married woman, right, and her husband’s a miner in Bendigo and she has a boyfriend on the side. One of the local coppers. He comes round thrice a week regular as clockwork. Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday arvo.’
Beth almost couldn’t believe it. Nurse Drake committing unholy adultery? Colin lived next door to her so he’d know if it was true.
Colin could see she was in two minds about believing him, so he said, ‘Hey these ain’t houses like the Cottingham’s round the blasted lake, there ain’t no gardens and bushes planted just so your neighbour can’t see your dirty deeds.’
There were no secrets here. He watched her look at the space between the houses. She looked disappointed now that she believed him. Now she knew this piece of news it didn’t seem as exciting as when she didn’t know it and could still imagine all sorts of possibilities. He saw his chance of getting a bit of comfort fly away.
‘Come on, it’s dark and too cold to be sitting out here any longer. Walk me back to Webster Street,’ she said, opening her umbrella. ‘And pick me a rose on the way like Mister Hooley does for Edie.’ She slipped her arm through his.
Young Colin’s face darkened. She was always on about Mister Hooley. Mister Hooley this and Mister Hooley that. ‘Blimey I hate that geezer!’ he said.
‘Why?’ asked Beth pulling away from him. ‘How could anyone hate Theo Hooley?’
‘Think about it,’ he said. ‘How are the rest of us blokes ever to live up to his antics? A rose a week on her doorstep. All the kids following him up there, the women mooning over him as he passes their houses. I ain’t getting you no rose, Beth. You have to just take me as I am.’ And he stood tall, pleased he’d put it to her like a real man, a grown man who wouldn’t put up with any ruckus from his missus.
But it cost him because Beth removed her arm from his and sulked after that and he got wet from the rain because the umbrella wasn’t large enough for the two of them unless they stayed close. Beth looked longingly at every rose bush they passed and he seethed because he was green to the gills at the way she always went on about Theo Hooley.
Reading his fiery thoughts and unable to step away from the flame, Beth said, ‘Mister Hooley told me how to preserve rose petals.’
‘What’re you going to do with them? Serve them up with custard?’
And she laughed and forgave him for his moodiness and put her arm back through his and he patted her hand and thought how he loved her and could spend the rest of his life listening to that laugh. His mum said laughter was the secret to a happy union, which meant he and Beth would be real happy.
Saturday, 9 May 1908, when Young Colin makes a decision.
The next day Colin got up at 3 a.m. like he always did. He put on his clothes that were stiff with cold and rubbed his hands together to bring his fingers to life. His mum had packed him some bread in a tin case and tea in a thermos and it was waiting on the kitchen table for him. The rest of the family were still asleep. Davo Conroy, who lived in Number 3, was waiting out the front and they walked to work together.
‘Uncle Davy, think I’ll marry Beth when I’m twenty-one.’
‘You’ve got a four-year wait if you’re going to wait till twenty-one, mate.’
‘Beth seems to like a man who can wait,’ said Colin bitterly.
Seventeen
Beth
Sunday, 29 October 1911, when secrets are made and kept.
The laundry was outside, a little room that sat on the far edge of the back verandah. Inside it there was a large copper and a concrete double sink with a wringer that perched between the two
