Get your kicks...
Things settled into routine after Clara started work, and as she was on a changing pattern of shifts even in her part-time role, we were able to cover LC’s school days far more easily. Maz and I had visited the school and signed all sorts of disclaimers, but in the end, Clara was listed as a safe person for the collection of girl, small, Rhodes brand, one off.
We also, of course, got slightly pestered by Ish for a repeat of his ‘school mates’ barbie, which naturally meant the Butts as well. We got set up the usual way, but my darling wife went behind my back, and as Geeta set out the first bowls of cold food, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it to find Ronnie, Vern and Chad. She was carrying two eskies.
“Old man couldn’t make it, so I stole his eskie full of booze. Waste not, Mike!”
I started the first load of carnivore-bait sizzling just as the first students rolled up, and then almost lost my hearing, as Mindy and a couple of other girls sighted Clara, and simply screamed at each other. It was hugs all round, as a confused LC asked who had been hurt and Ish simply laughed, one arm over his lover’s shoulders.
That was the word that now really, really made sense in my view of the girl. So much of her shyness seemed to have lifted from her, and what replaced it was serenity. A rather tipsy serenity by the end of the evening, laced with more of that smugness I couldn’t really blame her for, for Ish was beaming, LC was laughing as happily as I had ever seen, and only a few jokes were made about damaged fingers.
Ronnie caught me in a rare quiet moment.
“She is lovely, Mike. Ish looks like he’s been slapped in the face by the Happy Fairy”
“Oh, he is absolutely besotted, Ronz. And so is she”
“First love, ey? Sweet as! Now, we’ve got a wedding coming up, I hear”
“Oh?”
“Bloody men! Melissa’s, Mike, to Kul’s boy. We’re going to have the bachelorette, hens, ey, do down at that place we used by Maggie River. What I’m wondering, watching Clara, is if she’d want to go”
“Wouldn’t that be up to Melissa?”
“It was ‘Lissa who asked me to ask you, mate”
“Oh. Ronz, how out of touch have I been, really?”
“Truthfully? A shitload, Mike, but we all understand, given, you know. You’ve just been laser-locked on your family. We all get that, so no worries”
She looked across to the barbie, where Clara had an excited LC on her lap, explaining something that was obviously of huge importance, as the older girl nodded and smiled until LC jumped down and shot up her ‘climbing wall’ as if she was trying to fly.
“Got a suspicion, Mike, that Dal and ‘Lissa won’t be the only ones doing the Kings Park photo shoot”
“I’ll have a word with her, then. Can you point Melissa at me, please”
Dal’s fiancée was with me a minute later, so I waved at Clara, who walked over slowly, clearly worried that she had overstepped some mark or other.
“Clara, Melissa here wants to ask you something, and it’s about neither rain nor sheep”
“Right…”
“Ignore him, love. Got our wedding coming up, so there are traditions. We’re having a, you call it, hen’s weekend down at Maggie. You interested? Oh, and got a spare dress for you as well”
“Dress?”
“Yeah. One of my maids is due to sprog-drop right then, so I might need a spare”
The girl’s mouth was hanging open, and I could only barely imagine what she was feeling as validation hit her from every possible direction. Then she simply switched on a blinding grin and nodded rapidly. I was just about to do a tactful disappearance when Melissa called out, “Not so fast, Mike. Has Dal spoken to you?”
“I assume you mean about the stag night?”
“Jumping Moses on a blue raft! DAL!”
“Yes, love?”
“Please explain the facts of life to Mister Rhodes here, along with his diary dates”
Dal shrugged.
“Simple, really. Got your suit pressed?”
“Won’t need a suit for a stag night, mate”
“No, but you’ll need it for standing next to me”
“Oh!”
“I know you, Mike. In ten seconds, or even less, you’ll be explaining to me why it should be someone else, and I’ve already said, Dad too, what you’ve done for us. I need a best man and, apart from Dad, you’re the best man I know. Melissa understands, and we had a chat, and one way or another, we’ll have Clara as a bridesmaid, because… Hang on, wander over here”
We moved to a darker part of the garden, and I realised his eyes were damp.
“Not saying why, but Mum and Dad only had me. No brothers or sisters, but then you gave me Alys, and Enfys, and then Ish. Closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother, he is, and then I get a little sister to add to it all. Dad’s said it, Mum’s said it, we’re all family, however we got there, so Clara gets a sister pass, and you, well; I can’t have two Dads, but I can have a best man. Please say yes”
I was overwhelmed, but Dal, like his Dad, could never leave anything on a down note.
“And we’re off to the climbing wall at the weekend. Ish’s finger’s healed now, he said, so be there or be stuck on the ground. Now, I am off to ask Ish about coming with the rest of the bucks. Got a unit lined up in Rockingham”
Clara was quiet over breakfast, until Maz called her name.
“Sweetheart, I understand. Going to tell you a story, okay?”
“Yeah…”
“You know what happened to me, so I don’t need to go into that, and don’t really want to, but afterwards, all I could think was this was all a dream, that I would wake up back in a hole in the ground. Took me a while to accept that it was over, that I was allowed to feel happy again. Last night---no. Going to spell it out carefully. The doctors healed you. You and Ish, well, we all know what you do, and no, that wasn’t a criticism or a complaint. The fact that we let you share a bed is all the answer you need there.
“So, last night you got all the rest. You’re working as who you always were, and then along come Melissa and Dal, and he’s calling you his sister, just like our other girl here, and it’s bridesmaid and hen night, and you’re thinking what I thought, when does this bubble burst? Am I right?”
Clara just nodded, and Maz patted her hand.
“Well, tough luck, girl, because it is all real, and you’ll just have to put up with it”
“Does it mean I’ll have to pull some man’s shirt off, like they did with Ish?”
Her sense of humour was there, it seemed. Now just have to keep boosting her sense of worth, and how well Maz and I knew that game.
The climbing wall was reasonably busy at the weekend, and Clara surprised me by spending some of her wages on a pair of rock shoes, LC hovering as usual as Clara found her fit.
“I let her try some of the shoes the Mountain Lady sent me, but they were all too small. She’s got bigger feet than Enfys. Will I get big feet?”
“You’ll get bigger feet, love”
“Mum’s got bigger feet, but you’ve got BIG feet, Dad!”
That became a little impromptu song, and then it was HANDS AND FEET of her own up the usual jamming crack as other customers either watched her with indulgence stemming from previous encounters, or in shock, as our little girl did what she loved.