Page 108 of The Side Road
‘I can’t help it,’ Blanche said. ‘It’s not my fault if men still find me attractive.’
‘You know it upsets him.’
‘It’s who I am.’
‘Then for goodness’ sake, tone it down. For him. The man you’re supposed to love.’
The kettle whistled.
‘I’m going to make tea and then take Tash home. You’re going to sort this out. Say you’re sorry. Say you love eachother, stop drinking and go to bed.’ After Mia made the tea, she placed the cups on the kitchen table. ‘Goodnight.’
Mia closed the front door behind her and greeted Tash, who was still sitting on the step. Taking a seat beside her, Mia said. ‘They’re happy. But occasionally things go off the rails – alcohol, old age, frustration. Pretty much in that order.’
When Tash looked unconvinced, Mia added, ‘Sometimes loving another person is hard work, and you can’t be in love all the time. At some point, I think everyone has a difficult time.’
‘Dad says no one really knows what other people’s relationships are like. He’s gone for a ride. Can I stay with you?’
Mia didn’t hesitate. ‘Of course. We’ll have a girls’ night. What’s your favourite food?’
‘Pasta and cheese.’
‘Just cheese?’
‘Occasionally I have a chopped egg on the side.’
They cooked spaghetti carbonara.Tash grated the cheese and stirred the eggs, while Mia chopped the bacon. They ate together at the table and talked about art and fashion, and how Mary’s parents were also fighting, because her father set random alarms on his phone, which annoyed her mother.
‘There might be something in the air,’ Mia said.
Tash declared the carbonara the best meal she had ever eaten. There was no dessert, but Mia had expensive cocoa and rich, full-cream milk from a local dairy. They lit candles, and while Mia read, Tash finished her art essay on Howard Arkley. It was due tomorrow. Mia was familiar with the artist who painted the post-war suburban landscape in garish colours. She told Tash that in the 1950s, the governmenthad encouraged families to go west (and north and east) into the suburbs, but then they provided no infrastructure. Essentially, abandoning them in a wasteland. It was a way of removing the radical elements in society. A great way to stifle creativity and kill the human spirit – especially in women.
‘But creativity will thrive anywhere because it doesn’t live in the city, it lives inside of us,’ Mia said. ‘So, here’s to the suburbs.’ She lifted her cup of hot chocolate and clinked mugs with Tash.
Tash drank half of her hot chocolate in one gulp.
‘Dad says life isn’t a straight line to old age and dying. He says you have to take lots of different roads along the way. Some are highways, others are side roads. When you leave one lane, you need to merge into the next, and sometimes that’s hard.’
‘It’s a good metaphor,’ Mia said.
After Tash was settled into the third bedroom with Quinn, the chicken nestled under her arm, Mia texted Oliver.I have your daughter. She’s fine, but Blanche and Leo had a fight – it upset her.
Mia watched the ellipsis of Oliver’s reply glow, fade, and then disappear from her screen. Her heart swelled. What was he not saying?
Another row of ellipses followed, and this also disappeared.
She wroteI miss you.Then slowly deleted the message.
He was typing again – an eternally long reply. Her racing heartbeat synced to the dots. But soon, this message also evaporated. Staring at the blank screen, she willed him to write something else. When no reply came, she wrote,I’m so sorry. I made a terrible mistake.But paralysed by regret and fear, she couldn’t send it.
Eventually, he said,Thank you.
She wrote,Of course,and pressed send. She considered forwarding him the brand of cocoa she used. Tash had finished two mugs. Mia had set a high standard with the chocolate, and Tash, now accustomed to the premium grade, would reject inferior substitutes.
34
TERMINAL
Oliver,stretched out on the Parker lounge in the garage, was listening to Gerry Rafferty, one of his dad’s records, while he finished his second beer on Sunday afternoon. For the first time in his life, the long ride hadn’t helped. His chest hurt, and he missed Mia. He mourned the potential future they might have had.
