That night my mum and my new step father (Arthur) went on their honey moon. They went for a week to Sydney. We got to stay with Pa and Nan.
You have probably noticed I don't speak much about my Nan. I did love her and as a child you tend to want to love your relatives but my Nan was a funny lady and she had her favorites and my brother and I weren't one of them. We had 36 cousins on this side of the family and I suppose Nan didn't really have room for us in her Favorite list. We knew it every time the others were around. She wasn't nasty to us she just didn't show us she loved us. I don't ever remember her giving me a hug and if I went to hug her she didn't really give me a hug back.
All this being said we did sometimes play up for her. One day one of my cousins came over and we decided it would be a great idea to see what fly spray and a match does. Let's just say after she showed me how she handed me the can and I lit the match and pressed the spray and as you all know a huge flame came out. Unlucky for me at this very minute Nan came out the back door and here I was with a can of fly spray alight. She started yelling at us and said "you wait till you Pa gets home" well we never moved so quickly. We were smart though we started helping Nan clean the house from top to bottom in hopes that she would not tell Pa.
Pa got home and not a word was mentioned to him plus my nan had had a few glasses of beer by then.
When Mum came to pick us up with Arthur we went back to our little house. We got home just after dark. Arthur unlocked the door and went inside he noticed that there was mess everywhere and someone had taken our television and smashed all our plates and left half eaten biscuits everywhere. We had been broken in to.
Arthur told us to stay outside while he checked the house. Once he had checked everywhere he called us in.
Mum took my little brother to his bed she had carried him from the car as he was asleep. I followed close behind my mum holding on to her dress. Mum then took me to my room but I was petrified as I thought the it was my dad coming to hurt my mum again. I made mum check everywhere. When mum checked under my bed she saw a window screen... The person had gotten in to our house through my bedroom window. The used the tap that was below my window to climb up and pull the screen off and open my glass window then they put the screen under my bed.
There was no way I was sleeping in my room. I was petrified. The police were called and they checked everything and I felt safer as one of the officers told me it was ok now they would catch the bad guy. Mum laid with me till I fell asleep. Let me tell you it would have been really early in the morning before I actually fell asleep (I love my mum).
Over the coming weeks we found out the it was a local aboriginal guy (well known to the police). That same night he had broken in to several homes and beating the women inside the houses ( he knew where the woman lived alone). We also found out that he had beaten his mother almost to death and raped her. For a little kid that was hard for me to comprehend as I had over heard mum talking to the neigh ours and then the police.
Life seemed settled for a few months and we got a puppy of how I loved this dog.
My brother and I got bikes for Xmas and Arthur taught is how to ride them in our back yard.
Arthur had a green house around the side of our house that we were never allowed to go in as he had Mexican tomato plants in there that only flower once a year (this is what he told mum and us kids). One day when we were riding our bikes my brother accidentally rode into the greenhouse and crush one of these plants. We didn't say anything as we were so scared. When he got home from work e went in to his green house and saw the plant. He was furious he started yelling " you fucking kids get out here now". We knew what he had found but we went out as we were told. Mum had gone to a neighbors house for a cup of tea as you could leave your kids at home in those days to play in your back yard. After he had stopped ranting and swearing he asked who had done it. Neither of us said who it was but when he grabbed my arm my little brother stepped forward and said "it was me". Arthur grabbed him by the arm and started smacking him so hard whilst swearing at him. It was that hard it was lifting him off the ground he then dragged him to a chain that was on the clothes line and chained him to it. I tried to stop him but he just back handed me so hard I fell backwards. I was crying and I am sure the neighbors could hears us but didn't come out. He said "you want to act like and animal you will be treated like one" this made no sense at all as I look back on it but to him at that time it did.
Mum got home about 2 hours later and I was in my room still crying and my brother was still chained to the clothes line. Arthur explained what had happen (sort of he said we were being assholes and my brother started acting like and animal so he chained him up) almost everything that came out of his mouth was a lie..
Mum yelled at him and ran out the back to my brother and in chained him. I came out when mum brought him inside and he hadn't even cried (no brother never really showed much fear) he was so red as it was a Saturday and Arthur only worked till lunch time so he had been out there in the heat with no water or shade.
Arthur was nowhere to be seen and all I could think was I want my daddy (weird I know but that is what went through my mind). I remember a lot of yelling later that night between Arthur and my mum and a door slam but I don't remember anything else only that when we got up the next morning mum had breakfast on the table as she always did and Arthur was not there Mum had kicked him out. We were so happy but mum was miserable. Did she let him back ? Find out in the next Instalment..
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