no choice but to leave school and get a job; that being a shop assistant in a deli. She understood and told me she would stand by me in my decisions even though I was only fifteen.
This would keep me out of the house during the day and that meant I wouldn’t have to put up with his crap, or so I thought. It didn’t make much of a difference after all because the times I was home, the crap was still going on. I was so over it and I knew I had to get out of there permanently but what were my options? Where was I going to go? The only choice I had was to ask my sister and her boyfriend if I could move in with them. I told them what was happening at home and how it was affecting me. They were a bit hesitant at first because it was only a one bedroom flat and there wasn’t much room and they also wouldn’t have much privacy. This made me feel bad but I had nowhere else to go so I persisted with my sob story and told them I would try my hardest to not to get in their way. I also told them, I could sleep on the lounge and that anything was better than where I was. They thought about it for a while and eventually gave in. What a relief! This was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. I now felt safe.
Meanwhile Paul, along with my Mum and younger sister did move into a flat. My Mum still visited me but I had to distance myself from her as it hurt too much to see her in a situation that she could not get out of. I was also afraid that if I saw her more regularly, she would turn up with a black-eye or something to that effect.
Eventually they moved back into the house and mum asked me to come back home. My sister and her boyfriend were moving to another place so I thought I should go and be with my mum. As soon as they settled back in, I then went back home but for some reason things were different. He seemed to be a lot calmer and happier. Why? Something was going on with him but what? I wanted and needed answers so off I went to my mum to get some.
She told me she had come across some needles in the glove box of the car and that they obviously belonged to Paul, This meant he was a drug addict and this would explain many things. I am still not sure whether she confronted him about this though but I reckon she must have at some point because he seemed to have changed thus: being a lot happier and he even started looking for another job.
It took him a while to finally get one but it was up north somewhere which meant he had to go away for about four days out of the week. This is what he told us any way and at the time we believed him. Good riddance because it meant there would be at least four days peace at home. When he did come home after his four days away, everything seemed fine between him and mum but something was different about him even more so. He was being way too nice and nothing seemed to worry him much anymore. We weren’t used to this so what was going on with him? All we could think of was maybe because he was earning money it made him feel better within himself. Pigs might fly too but maybe, just maybe, he could have also missed us while he was away. Who knows but it was all too weird seeing him like this. We were not used to it. Then to our surprise, out of the blue, he asked my Mum to marry him and would you believe it, she said, “Yes.” My God! What was this woman thinking? She would be trapped forever and us along with it!
I wasn’t sure at the time, but I realise now she was too frightened to say no.
Then about a week later, a strange thing happened. The engagement ring he had bought her had gone mysteriously missing. How could this be? It had only been on her finger for that one week and I know she was always very careful with it and only ever took it off when she showered so where was it? We all searched high and low for it but it was nowhere to be found. This was strange but what was even stranger was, because we couldn’t find it, he was acting so stressed and started vomiting. What the hell? It was only a ring and if anyone was to vomit, you would think it be my mother. Was he putting on an act? This was the question we asked ourselves. But why would he? In a calm and blasé voice he said, “I am sure it will turn up somewhere.” Huh? Why so blasé? Did he take it? If so why?
They say a woman’s intuition kicks in when something just doesn’t seem quite right and my Mums’ did by putting all the pieces together one by one. With him going away and the good moods he was always in when he came back started setting off alarm bells but it was the ring more than anything that got her suspicion’s really going. How could a ring which was so important simply vanish into thin air? But there was something more because he didn’t seem to be too worried about it in the end and this caused Mum to be more concerned than ever. But what was it she was concerned about? Did she have any ideas what was going on with him? Even still, we waited for a couple of days to see if it would turn up somewhere, giving him the benefit of the doubt but something was telling us it wouldn’t.
It never did. Funny that!
After Mum and all us kids talked about it, we could only come up with one solution. He had to be having an affair all this time but what was with the ring? Why would he go to all that trouble of asking Mum to marry him, give her a ring then it goes missing? It didn’t make sense at all and seemed a bit bizarre don’t you think? The main question was, if he was having an affair, who was the woman?
The only person Mum could think of was a woman they had met a couple of months prior who they had become friends with. They would sometimes go to her place and she would come to ours as well so we all got to know her fairly well. Could it be her? We were pretty sure it had to be because we couldn’t think of anyone else and apparently Mum already had suspicions about her before all this anyway. She told us kids she even suspected he was living with her when he was supposedly going away working which would make sense and we told her she could be right. We could have just been grasping at straws but we needed to find out the truth whether he was living a double life one way or another. This meant we had to come up with a plan to catch the cheating bastard out.
My two best friends Gale and Lee and I decided we would do the honours for Mum and go spy on him. We had no choice and we needed to know if he was at this jezebel’s place so Mum would finally know the truth.
We were only fifteen at the time and being rebels that we were, would do anything for a bit of an adventure. At first, Mum thought it would be too risky but we knew we could do it and hounded her until she gave in.
We chose one of the Friday nights when he was supposedly away working which was our opportunity. It was now or never!
Mum and us three girls took off on our secret mission and even though it was a bit scary, it was exciting too! At first, Mum started driving toward the house so we could familiarise ourselves with the area but she realised she couldn’t get too close because her car; being a Vw beetle, was kind of loud and he would have heard it going past. All we could do was to drive past on the highway above overlooking the house and area.
The house was the only one situated down a road off the highway and just about every light was on so you definitely couldn’t miss it and obviously someone was home. Opposite the house was a huge paddock which was a bonus. It meant we had plenty of room to run and escape if needed.
By now it was really dark so hopefully we wouldn’t be seen but the first thing we had to do was to get the car out of sight, so Mum parked in an old shop carpark a bit further up the road.
All four of us were laughing our heads off and giddy with excitement but then the three of us girls decided it was time to set about our mission so it then became a serious matter. Of course we left mum in the car as our getaway driver just in case it turned into a game of chase.
Off we walked down the road, crossed the paddock and then got to the side window of the house. We couldn’t hear much at first but the sound of a television so we knew someone had to be home. A few minutes had gone by when Gale decided she needed to pee as she always did at the most inappropriate times. She normally only ever did this when something was really funny and she couldn’t hold it and most times she would piss her pants because she couldn’t get them down quick enough. I used to deliberately make her laugh so she would. It was entertainment!
