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Leah slipped upstairs to her room as soon as the kitchen was cleaned up. She threw herself down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She hadn’t really allowed herself to think about why she was there. Why she’d left Blessed Inlet. She reached for her phone. No text from Callum. She’d blocked his number. But texts from Mikayla and Juniper. She smiled, even as her eyes blurred with tears.
The next day passed in pretty much the same pattern. Errands for the church, house cleaning and cooking in the afternoon. Silence at dinner. By the third night, Leah had had enough. She broke the taboo of silence by saying she thought she might go for a walk after dinner.
“Wanna come with me, Mum?”
Lynne flicked an uncertain glance to David. When he didn’t look at her, she turned back to Leah. “That sounds lovely.”
They walked down the quiet street just as the streetlights flickered on. It was a concrete jungle. The houses sat cheek by jowl. In the morning, Leah could hear the man next door spitting in the shower. It was so far from her little beach shack that it was like she’d landed on an alien planet. They walked around the block without talking. Leah just couldn’t think of anything to say. But at least they got out of the house for a bit.
Over the next week, Leah fell into a routine. Cooked breakfast, kitchen clean up, church errands, housework, cook dinner, walk with her mum, go to her room. Ignore her bruised heart. Rinse and repeat. Her father had spoken barely more than ten words to her. Leah found she didn’t care. But she was watching her mother. And learning a lot. Growing up, she hadn’t realized how overbearing her father’s presence was. He had completely subsumed her mother and she deferred to him in everything. Every time Leah had said “my parents” she really should have just said “my father.” Her mother had no will of her own. She wasn’t allowed one. Of an evening, when Leah had gone upstairs, she could hear them talking. One night, she grew curious. She opened her door carefully and tiptoed to the top of the stairs. Her mother was giving her father a complete list of everything she’d done that day. Accounting for herself. It was a familiar act for Leah. Scott had required the same. It made Leah angry. And sad. Sad for herself, for the patterning she’d been given. But sadder, much sadder, for her mother. For not being able to escape it.
???
Leah found it increasingly difficult to be in the same room as her father and was very relieved when he announced he was heading away for a work conference. The next day. So no forewarning. Rude. He left early in the morning, before Leah had come downstairs. She walked into the kitchen to hear her mother humming to herself.
“What will we do today, Mum?” She asked when she’d finished breakfast.
“What we do every day.”
“Fuck that.”
“Leah Anne Kaplan!” Her mother was aghast.
“While the beast is away, the women will play. Let’s go shopping.”
“I don’t think you should talk about your father like that.”
“I won’t tell him if you don’t.”
Lynne sighed. “I haven’t got any money for shopping.”
“Not even a little bit, squirreled away somewhere?” Leah asked because it was exactly what she used to do. Even though she was always too scared to spend it, in case Scott found out. “Come on, Mum. Even twenty bucks will do us.”
“Okay. Maybe a little bit,” Lynne said after a long moment of hesitation. “I’ll go and get it.” She returned a few moments later, with a large, heavy jar, handing it over to Leah with shaking hands.
Leah emptied it on the kitchen bench. “Jesus Christ —”
“Leah!”
“Crikey moses, Mum. There’s over seven hundred dollars here.”
“Is there?”
Leah’s heart ached. Seven hundred dollars, with the largest denomination being five dollar notes. It must have taken years for her mother to accrue this amount of furtive money. “Maybe we shouldn’t spend it.”
“F-fu. No, I can’t. Stuff that.”
“Okay then! But maybe just a few hundred. I’ve got a little bit in the bank I can put in, too.”
“What will we do with it?”
“Facials and manicures.”
“B-but your father will be upset if he sees me with painted nails.”
“Then he can deal with me.”
Lynne quailed. “What on earth has happened to you?”
