Part 3

The marking session finished early. It had been more enjoyable than Mary expected. Sitting together with the other tutors, joking and talking and drinking coffee. It seemed more like a party than work, but she was glad to be heading home. That afternoon, Rebecca, the second of her four children had been sent home with an injured wrist. It was swollen and bruised and the teachers had suspected a break. Rebecca refused to go to the hospital and insisted nothing was wrong with her arm, hitting her wrist to prove her point. And the babysitter had rung while she was working, so Liam, her youngest, could talk to her. Apparently he’d done his disappearing act and been found in the park a block away. Yes, she was definitely relieved to be heading home early.

She found her keys and unlocked the car door. A hand slammed the door shut.

She clenched her fist around the keys, so that the keys poked out between her fingers. People did get attacked at the university at night. She turned around slowly.

‘Rick? Is that you?’ He was much thinner than she remembered, and his skin looked pasty and unhealthy.

‘Who do you fucking think it is? The Easter Bunny?’

‘Rick, what are you doing here?’

‘Came looking for you, of course. Did you think you could hide from me forever?’

‘I’m not hiding from you. I work here. I’m here because I won a scholarship to do my Ph.D. Believe me, if I wanted to hide from you, you wouldn’t find me.’

‘Where are the kids? Who have you left them with?’

‘At home with the babysitter. My friend Sonya. You might remember her. The kids call her Auntie, these days.’

‘That bitch who got me arrested?’

‘You got yourself arrested, Rick. You breached the AVO. Sonya only told the police what she saw you do.’

‘She’s a fucking lying bitch. And so are you.’

Mary smiled. ‘Rick, you haven’t changed a bit.’

‘You took my kids away from me. You won’t let me see them. I haven’t seen them for four years.’

‘You had a chance to see the kids, you never took it.’

‘Supervised access. Some nosey fucking social worker watching my every move. Yeah right.’

‘Those were the court’s terms, Rick. Not mine. You had your chance and you fucked it up, all by yourself. You can’t blame me for that.’

‘Fucking well can too. You fucked up my life. You stole my kids from me, I’m broke ...’

‘In no way is it my fault that you stay on the dole so you don’t have to pay maintenance. This is ridiculous. I don’t have time for this. I’ve got too much to do.’ She turned her back on him and opened the car door.

He grabbed her arm. ‘Listen to me now, bitch. You can let me see the kids, or I’ll kill you.’

‘Really? I seem to remember you saying that before and you didn’t do anything. You knew where to find me back then. Sorry Rick, I just don’t believe you this time.’ She pulled her arm from his grasp, hopped into the car and slammed the door.

She opened the window a fraction. ‘Listen to me now, Rick. Go home and get a life. Stay away from me. Stay away from the kids. You have no right to see any of us, and you definitely don’t deserve to. You just proved that. And don’t come here again, or I’ll call security and have you kicked out.’

The car started first try. She patted the steering wheel and said ‘good girl.’ Rick was yelling abuse at her and banging on the window with his fists. She gave him a friendly smile, waved and drove away.

Home seemed fairly chaotic. As usual. Four children can do that, she thought. They all ran out to greet her as she arrived home and she hugged them just that little bit more tightly.

She flopped down on the couch beside her friend. ‘How were they?’