“And I don’t want you to. That money was a gift, my way of repaying you and Uncle Keith. You welcomed me into your home when I had nobody else, and you stuck by me even when I was being a little shithead.”
“We said we would reimburse you,” she insists.
“Seriously, Maggie. You’ve got enough going on with the new house and all the repairs. Don’t make me call my bank to ask them to bounce your checks.”
There’s nothing for a moment, and then I vaguely hear her talk to someone in the room with her. But it’s muffled by her hand on the phone, so I can’t tell who answers. This continues for a few seconds, and then she returns her attention to me. “Keith suggested we finish the remodeling, and once we’re financially stable, we’ll start the payments.”
I roll my eyes, holding back another sigh. “Fine, let’s do that,” I concede. This will be a problem for future me, who hopefully won’t have had as much whiskey.
“In the meantime, do you want us to make you another care box?” she offers.
That brings an unexpected smile to my lips. We’ve done this a handful of times in the past thirteen years since I left Australia. She fills a box with all sorts of lollies and snacks from my motherland, the kind of stuff I grew up with, and sends it to me all the way in New York. The last one was a couple of years ago, and I have since found a specialized grocery store that sells all those things right here in the States.
But I know how much she enjoys sending me those boxes, so I say, “I’d love that, Mags. Can you put some extra Strawberry Clouds in there? And strawberry-flavored Dairy Milk Snacks, too. I know someone who’d love them.”
“Really? Is it your friend who ate all the Sour Ears last time? Killian, was it?”
“No, it’s—” I hesitate, wondering if now’s the right time to let her know about Gen. I haven’t done it yet, and tonight doesn’t feel appropriate. “Her name’s Genevieve,” I end up saying, anyway. Margaret is the closest thing I have to a mother, and I need maternal advice.
“Is she your girlfriend?”
“Yeah. We met about three months ago.”
“Jakey, that’s incredible! Keith and I were wondering if you’d ever settle down.”
“Well, I didn’t plan on it until she came along.”
“Sometimes it just hits you in the face. You can’t help it. But that means she’s a great one,” Maggie confidently says.
I nod. “She is. She’s fucking phenomenal. But she’s also extremely complicated.”
“How so?”
“She’s got this fucked up relationship with her parents. Drives me nuts that she can’t see it.”
Maggie says nothing, so silent that I check my phone to see if we were cut off. “You know, your mum and I were in that kind of situation growing up,” she carefully reminds me. “Our dad would beat us for the damndest things, and Mum… Well, let’s just say we had the imprint of her hands on us more than a few times. When you’re in that situation, you rationalize, thinking you deserve the slap for burning Dad’s toast or to be locked in a closet for spilling Mum’s expensive perfume. But it was easy for us to recognize the abuse because we were the only ones in school with bruises. So, as soon as I turned eighteen, I decided to move out and take my baby sister with me. There was no way I’d leave her alone with them.”
“I know she was thankful for that,” I tell Maggie. “She used to tell me how she would forever owe you.”
“Leaving her behind was never even an option. But she didn’t want to go at first. She was only twelve, and she thought our parents loved us in their own twisted way, so she refused to leave. I stuck around for a little longer because that was all I could do for her—be there for her, support her, protect her. Then, one day, Dad went too far and broke your mum’s arm in two places. I called the Department of Child Safety that afternoon and got custody of her. After that, we left Sydney for Brisbane and never looked back.”
We rarely talk about Mum because the topic is a sour one. I vaguely knew about her and my aunt’s rough childhood, but I never knew all that. It’s painful to know that my mum, that sweet angel, went through so much. And when she was finally out, she got pregnant young from a cunt who didn’t want the responsibility of raising me. And then it all stopped because of a pulmonary embolism in the back of a bus on her way home from a long shift at the hospital.
Not being able to give her the life she deserved will forever be my biggest regret.
“I don’t know what the situation is with Genevieve and her parents,” Maggie continues, her voice laced with care, “but I know how hard it can be to rip yourself out of an abusive situation. Don’t judge her too harshly, and be there for her. She needs you, just like your mum needed me back then. I don’t know what they would have done to her if I’d left her with them. But I will never regret staying until she was ready to take that leap with me.”
“I’m thankful you did, Mags.”
“Of course you are. You wouldn’t exist otherwise,” she says with humor.
I chuckle. “I guess I wouldn’t, no.”
I hear Keith calling her in the background, and after a brief conversation between them, Maggie refocuses on me. “I’m sorry, Jakey, I have to go help your uncle. We’re having a barbie with the kids and a few mates who’ve been helping us out.”
“Yeah, of course. Let me know how much the parcel costs for the lollies. And do not send me a check. I’ll send it back. But let me know if you need more money for the repairs. I’d be happy to help.”
“Thank you, my boy. I think we’ll be good. Feel free to come and visit us to see what your money bought, yeah?”
