The
Rumpled Aristocrat and the big white house
I kissed him goodbye and left the apartment,
the tea lights still burning. I was headed to a Lamb gig with Sam, their last
ever before they split up. Ryan left half an hour later and went out to do
whatever it was he did with his friends for the night. He called me 3 hours later.
Um,
there’s been a fire. Well, not a fire exactly. I think one of the candles in
the bathroom was a bit close to that can of deodorant. There seems to have been
an explosion. I don’t think you’ll be getting the bond back.
You
didn’t blow them out when you left.
No.
His parents wanted him to move home for a
bit. He had quit his job 6 months earlier and hadn’t bothered to find a new
one, was waiting around for a handshake deal between his father and an old
business associate to materialise. An agreement worth nothing made across a
shiny solid desk with a green lamp and two glasses of scotch, poured from the
mini bar in the corner of the office. It was going to be highly lucrative he
assured me.
“I
don’t care about that. I just want to see you have a purpose. Anything!”
He proudly and valiantly resisted his
parents’ request but came around shortly thereafter as our lease came to an end.
Hey
maybe we should. My parents like you. We’d have most of the west wing to
ourselves. Mum’s always out and dad’s always working. It’s a pretty sweet deal,
really.
I would have to move there to. I looked at
the ring on my finger. Separating didn’t seem to be an option despite all the
reasons why it was a very good idea. He was my first love. I said forever one dark night.
For him it meant a big mansion at the apex
of Darling Point with a maid and shiny cars and no responsibilities.
For me it meant not entering another lease
with this feckless man-child who seemed to have coasted through life on good
looks and no consequences. I didn’t have to stay longer than I wanted and could
evade difficult choices I didn’t want to make as I wrapped up my final year of
psychology, working at a bistro down the road in Double Bay. It was all very
convenient, but there was some other reason I agreed, I still cant put my
finger on it. Maybe I wanted to know what was going on in there, how two lovely
sensible adults had produced Peter Pan’s bad cousin between them.
Ryan’s best friend Muz helped us pack up
and move into the big white house. It commanded a prime position at the top of
a hill punctuated with tidy rose gardens. The house was resplendent with
abundant storage space for our boxes.
I put my perfume on the dresser in our room
and tried to feel at home. I took down a picture of his high school girlfriend
and put up one of myself. I tip-toed
around at first but they welcomed me like family. Suzi had finished her psychology
studies 8 years ago and wanted to see me finish mine. She set up a study for me
and occasionally sent Emmy up with little plates of crackers and smoked salmon.
The Patriarch liked to talk politics, albeit through a right wing glaze and
Ryan and I went to mass with him on Sundays. The whole family thought it was
hilarious that I worked through university, wore short shorts and purple furry
boots and leopard print. The purple furry boots disappeared mysteriously one
day as did other distinctive bits and pieces of my wardrobe, only to be
replaced by Suzi’s ill-disguised but well-intentioned gifts of suitably demure
clothing.
…I
just picked this up from Max Mara but white really isn’t my colour…
…I
saw this and thought, ‘wouldn’t Caitlin look lovely in a knee length skirt’…
…I bought
this for Lucy but it really doesn’t suit her frame, I can’t be bothered to take
it back…
The Patriarch encouraged decadent and
relaxed Sunday family lunches in the commodious courtyard strewn with gardenias
and Parisian outdoor furniture. Sometimes we were there, sometimes we weren’t. Sometimes
Ryan and I had disappeared on a Friday night only to reemerge Sunday or Monday.
We could have been at an Arab pool party, eating oysters in Brooklyn, crashed
out at the after-party of a beach party or anywhere really, usually with Muz.
The second time we did it Suzi was annoyed.
This
is very naughty of both of you! To just disappear like that! We didn’t know
where you were. You’re both grounded.
I sort of laughed, not spitefully but at
how endearing the gesture was. I loved that they cared, I loved that we were in trouble. I loved the vague attempt to
discipline their useless and beautiful Prodigal Son, about 20 years too late.
I
have a double shift tonight though, can I still go to work?
Well,
yes. And lectures too of course. I don’t know, you can go wherever you want,
but Ryan is grounded.
He was too hung-over to care. The Patriarch
looked at him briefly and looked away.
