Jean was standing talking quietly with Higgins, Miss Jackson and Miss Ashton. The sun had well-and-truly set and only the raging bonfire and porchlights lit their faces. Mrs Holroyd returned with the kids, whom she had gathered together and instructed to call Mel’s name.
Mrs Holroyd switched off her flashlight and shook her head.
Miss Jackson turned her gaze from the search party to Jean.
‘Look, I’m sure the little miss is just hiding,’ she blurted, slurring her words. ‘She’s probably trying to teach the boys a lesson.’
Jean and Higgins shifted uncomfortably. They were relieved to see Daniel approaching with Jack.
‘Any luck?’ asked Jean.
‘No. Juliet’s going to keep searching at their place.’
Daniel turned to Mrs Holroyd. ‘So you didn’t have any luck either, I take it?’
Mrs Holroyd tried to smile. ‘Look, I’m sure the little girl is just hiding.’
Jean and Higgins shared a glance: Mrs Holroyd’s words had almost been an echo of Miss Jackson’s, but without the lofty tone.
Mrs Holroyd turned to Jean. ‘I’m sorry, Jean, we’ve got to get the kids home.’
Jean nodded.
‘Glen! Shane!’ yelled Mrs Holroyd. ‘Get in the car!’
Michael, with his father and mother, Mr and Mrs Gimbol, walked up to the group. Mr Gimbol leant in to Daniel.
‘Sorry, Dan, but the babysitter needs rescuing from this tyrant’s younger brother.’ Mr Gimbol ruffled his son’s hair. ‘They can both be—’
They looked up at the sound of a glass breaking. Miss Jackson had dropped her punch.
Wobbling, she addressed Jean. ‘Yes, I’m sorry, Mrs. Bennett, but we…’ she indicated Miss Ashton, ‘… must say our goodbyes as well. I wouldn’t worry too much. Children are always deceiving their parents. In my experience, they’re all liars, every last one of them.’
The adults shifted uncomfortably. Higgins put a warning hand on Miss Jackson’s forearm.
‘Miss Jackson!’
She threw him off. ‘Let me finish, Mr Higgins. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if that Mr Rush had something to do with this. The pervert!’
Jack, who had turned away by this time, stopped dead in his tracks and whirled around.
Higgins tried again to escort her away. ‘Miss Jackson. Marcia… please!’
He tried to take her elbow but she shook him off.
‘In my opinion, he’s still here, preying on kids.’
Jean felt herself near panic. ‘Marcia, enough!’ she balled, fearful. Fearful of what all their rumour-mongering had done.
For where on earth was Mel?
Jack was starting to comprehend exactly what had happened to Dash. He looked first at Higgins and then Miss Jackson with hatred, but especially at the latter. Then, with equally unsympathetic eyes, his gaze fell on the general circle.
Miss Jackson would not be silenced. ‘I don’t know why you’re shushing me, Jean. He touched your—’
‘He didn’t touch me.’
Everyone in the throng went quiet and turned to Jack. Miss Jackson was the first to regain composure.
‘What would you know? Frank, you saw that Mr Rush touching Jack.’
All eyes turned on Higgins.
‘Well, yes… no. I mean, I did see him put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.’
Daniel looked down at his hand on Jack’s shoulder. Leaving it there, he addressed Higgins with disbelief.
‘Is that all?’
Higgins rubbed his hands guiltily. ‘Well, I…’
Miss Jackson could see every adult in the group hanging their heads, bar Daniel, for the way they had contributed to the gossip. She saw she was losing the argument and shook Miss Ashton.
‘Miss Ashton heard what he said in the library!’ she screamed hysterically.
All eyes were now upon Miss Ashton. She spoke in a meek, faltering voice.
‘Well, I suppose you could say he was just responding to the picture Jack drew, calling a spade… a spade.’
Miss Jackson went red. ‘Yes, but what about all that stuff about Greeks performing in the nude?’
There was no answer to this until Jean stepped forward, her head bowed. ‘Well, um, apparently Mel asked about that. I guess kids are… curious.’
Daniel looked at Jean sadly.
Miss Jackson faltered for a few seconds before getting back her wind.
‘Then it’s that girl causing all the trouble. Just look at what she’s doing now, hiding to get attention!’
Jack’s eyes drilled into Miss Jackson.
‘I know the type. They’re low-down, filthy scum. But worst of all… far, far worse… they’re liars. All of them. Liars, liars, liars…’
Jack’s jaw set in anger, as Miss Jackson continued to rant. Recent episodes flashed through Jack’s head. Miss Jackson telling Michael: ‘Don’t lie, I saw you.’ Higgins saying to Jack: ‘Don’t lie, Jack.’ Mel saying to Jack after she’d sent a card in the Cubby House: ‘You’re lying.’ And later, Mel saying to Jack: ‘I would never lie to you, Jack. Never.’
He shook his head free of the broiling torrent of memories.
They had taken away Dash, which meant Juliet was going too, and that of course meant Mel. These lies had cost him his best friend.
He threw himself at Miss Jackson, his arms flailing into her.
‘Liar! Liar! Liar!’ he yelled at the top of his lungs.
For a moment, everyone watched, too startled to react, as Miss Jackson, overwhelmed, began screaming. The noise attracted the other kids to gather around with their parents. Something in Miss Jackson’s cries made Jack pause. There was a wounded, frightened girl behind those accusing eyes. Mel’s words came to him; her plea to remember Miss Jackson was lost but that they weren’t. He withdrew his attack, but he could not yet forgive. He understood, somehow, that his greatest scorn should be reserved for Higgins.
Daniel, the first to get his wits about him, stepped forward and held Jack. ‘Jack… Hush, son.’
Jean knelt beside him. ‘Why did you hit her?’
Her old tone was gone; she genuinely wished to hear.
Daniel had to struggle to keep Jack still.
He looked his mum in the face. ‘She hit me.’
Jack lifted the hair off his split ear. Jean winced and touched it tenderly before turning to Miss Jackson. Michael stepped forward to stand alongside Jack.
‘And me. She hit me too.’
All eyes refocused on Miss Jackson. The accusation was obviously news to Michael’s parents; they clasped their arms around their son protectively. Miss Jackson, even in her drunken state, realised she had gone too far, and started backing away.
‘Oh, I see. You’re going to listen to the word of two filthy brats over an adult. Is that right?’
She turned to Higgins for one last vain petition of support. ‘Mr Higgins?’
Higgins looked down, no longer willing to bail her out of trouble.
‘Et tu? Well… well! Miss Ashton, take me home, please.’
Miss Ashton seemed unable to move.
‘Now!’
Reluctantly, Miss Ashton took pity on her friend and escorted her to their car, Miss Jackson throwing one more defiant look at the others.
‘Well, where the hell were the listeners when I was a child?’
Jean glanced at Higgins interrogatively. Higgins could barely meet her gaze. Her focus shifting, Jean caught Simon’s eye. Her elder son looked away, ashamed. Jean swallowed dryly; she knew she was guilty herself. Daniel continued to stroke Jack’s hair. The anger had abated in Jack, leaving him in shock. Daniel eyeballed Higgins.
‘I think you’d best go home as well. All of you.’
In a moment of crystal clear clarity, Jean beheld her husband. He alone in the town, had never engaged in idle gossip, had never run another person down, had always found the best in people, the things to praise. Mount Miller was a place where everyone knew everyone else’s business, and what they didn’t know, they made up. Daniel alone was exempt.
She watched him with these people, and the whole scene flipped for her. These people she saw as superior to him, superior in their tastes, their interests, ambitions, were all the fainter to her now, the less real, the apparitions. What were they next to this tower of a man? And yet she had looked down on him!
With a shock that made her tremble, she realised for the first time in their long marriage that she loved her husband. Then, with a second shockwave of heartbreaking, ecstatic emotion, she saw that meant she finally loved Jack also, for he was his father’s son. Overwhelmed with motherly relief, she kneeled and pulled him to her breast, kissing his confused, crying eyes for forgiveness.
God, what had happened to Mel and what part had she played in her running off?
The last car drove away. Jean rose and regarded Daniel. She understood she had never really claimed her husband’s heart and there was only one chance left to her.
To give him up completely now.
‘Go to Juliet, Dan.’
Dan looked at her, pain in his eyes.
‘She must be beside herself. Take Jack. Go to her. Go!’
Daniel nodded. He took Jack’s hand. Jean went over to Simon standing dazed, and rested her hands on his shoulders. ‘What have we done, Simon? What have… I done?’
She swivelled Simon round to face her and kneeled down. ‘Simon, I want you to know something. I don’t care who you end up loving.’
‘Mum…’
‘And if I ever meet anyone who does mind, I’ll tear their throats out.’
Taking a torch, Daniel walked with Jack towards the fence dividing his property from Juliet’s. Why had he stayed in this town? He’d seen it for what it was as a kid. It beat down the people who dared dream the world better. He spied Juliet coming the other way, without a torch. Maybe her eyes were adjusted to the dark. He turned off his torch but knew from her expression, and the fact she was alone, that she had failed to find Mel.
‘Jack, have you any idea where Mel might have gone?’ he asked his son. ‘Some secret place you had?’
‘The Cubby House?’ Jack ventured, realising he’d never actually climbed up the manhole that led to the roof and the view over his house. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to twin the two worlds more than necessary.
‘I can look again but…’ said Juliet, hopelessly.
Daniel stood up in a passion, grabbing Jack by the shoulders. ‘Juliet, we’ll find her. And when we do… well, you and Mr Rush, you’ve got to take Jack with you.’
He thrust Jack forward who stumbled and turned round.
‘Dad!’ he cried.
Juliet looked from Jack to Daniel. ‘Then you don’t believe Dash is…’
Daniel took her hands. ‘No. What I do believe is this is a small, narrow-minded town, and it will kill any spirit of difference in anyone who remains in it. And I know this most of all: you’ve got to take Jack.’
He thrust Jack at Juliet again.
‘Dad!’ screamed Jack.
Juliet, crying, patted down Jack’s hair and tried to push him back.
‘Dan…’ she moaned.
Daniel was still wild in his eyes. ‘Please take him.’ He began almost talking to himself. ‘I’ll talk Jean into it somehow.’ He lunged forward and took her arms, which were caressing Jack protectively. ‘But, Juliet, we can’t have this happen twice.’
Juliet stifled a sob. Jack, crushed between them, looked up, scared.
‘Have what happen twice?’ he yelled.
Daniel remained gazing at Juliet. ‘Losing our garden.’ He clutched her fervently. ‘It was real, Juliet. We made it real for a moment. I remember it too.’
Juliet stared at him. Her expression of longing was mixed with horror. ‘But you forget…’ She slapped her right temple. ‘It’s in my head, Dan. My mind, it’s eating my mind!’
Daniel clutched her head and kissed it. ‘I’ll burn it out with my thoughts. I’ll…’
At these words, Jack stared at his father.
‘We could once do that, couldn’t we?’ murmured Juliet. ‘We could sense each other from miles away… We’ve got it back!’ She blinked. ‘But we couldn’t sense my mum when she was killed in that crash or your dad after he shot himself, could we? This was it, this life.’
Daniel and Juliet looked into each other’s eyes with the same sudden thought. Juliet’s face went ashen.
‘No, no, Juliet, I’m sure—’ Dan tried to comfort.
‘No, Dan. Mel… we can’t sense her.’
Juliet turned and hurried back through the ghost gums, disappearing amid the inky blackness like an apparition. Daniel fell on the ground, his head bent over, moaning. Jack fled to a tree and hid behind it.
A terrible premonition came over Daniel that he would never see Juliet again. He looked up, trying to get one more glance. But she had slipped from his world for a second and final time.
Jack ventured from his hiding place behind the tree. His father was an artist too—his father and Juliet had also read each other’s minds. Then… how did it go wrong? He reached out and touched his father on the shoulder.
‘Dad… why did you give up?’
Daniel shot a surprised and pained glance at Jack. ‘What, son?’
‘Mr Higgins said you used to paint pictures.’
Daniel sighed, and wearily got to his feet. ‘Well, I had you and your brother and your mum to support.’ He turned away, dangerously near tears, his greatest fear. ‘But don’t you give up, Jack. You’re a better artist at eleven than I am at thirty-six. And far more courageous. Don’t ever give up, do you hear!’
Daniel scanned the trees desperately. Jack gently took his hand. This seemed to reignite the wildness in Daniel and he knelt down again, grabbing Jack by the shoulders.
‘Dad! You’re hurting me!’
‘Whatever happens, Jack, I’m going to give you the life I should have had. You won’t fight anyone’s wars but your own, you’ll never take another’s life and live with the nightmare of that, you’ll…’
Jack pulled away from his father, and ran back to the house. For the first time, in search of his mum.
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