This is the second chapter of a twenty part story. Any feedback would be welcome.
After returning from the Morrisons early Saturday evening, Susan had the rest of the weekend with Alice to look forward to before driving her to Sydney for her flight. She found her daughter fast asleep in the sitting room wearing pyjamas, a baggy T shirt and a very contented expression. Susan picked up the newspaper and had been reading for half an hour when a huge yawn signalled that Alice was waking up. Susan watched with a smile as Alice stretched out like a cat in the sun.
"Hi mum" she purred.
"Hello sweetie, how was the maths lesson?"
"Perfect, one or two new methods tried and one hundred per cent success all round. Now I feel fine, fantastic, fabulous and thoroughly f..."
"I'm sure dear" interrupted Susan.
"Mum, I was going to say famished" responded Alice, pretending she was offended.
"Well, you told me once before what made you hungry."
"Mmm, Yes I did didn't I."
"Would you like something to eat?"
"Two fried egg and bacon sandwiches with lots of vegemite and I'll have the plastic white bread that never goes mouldy, none of your wholegrain healthy rubbish."
"Humpf" responded Susan, "you don't deserve your figure."
Ten Minutes later Alice commenced the destruction of two sandwiches, a task accomplished with dedicated and swift efficiency.
"Now tell me, how was Harry?"
"Lovely, just lovely" responded Alice dreamily.
Susan could see that she would get no more sense from Alice so gave up the attempt. She sniffed indelicately "Have you had a shower?" and without waiting for an answer said "No you haven't, you grub, come on get to it, we have lots to do tomorrow"
Alice grinned got up but instead of heading for the bathroom went behind her mother's chair and put her arms around her. "Can Mumsy smell her sexy daughter, or is it just that little trace of Harry that's bothering her".
"Alice, behave!"
"Ok mum" laughed Alice, and she turned and ran upstairs.
Sunday was taken up with packing and repacking and worrying about what might have been forgotten. Alice had never experienced a cold winter and Susan only had a distant memory of the States, a memory of freezing weather and super heated homes.
"Shall I take my RM Williams boots mum?"
"They're not really practical, but a leggy blonde in high heeled boots, jeans and a nice shirt, you'll be every American male's fantasy of what an Australian woman should be"
"Right they're in then."
Eventually with a mixture of feminine logic and inspiration, with the occasional incursion into bloody mindedness, Alice was packed and just under the weight limit. On Monday morning they made an early start on the six hour drive to Sydney. Susan was well aware of the school of thought that said if you want to cross examine your kids the best way is in a car on a long journey. They can't get away the instant the parents are distracted. However, Alice was unusually communicative with her mum and so it proved on this occasion.
"Mum," Alice looked straight ahead, she was driving.
"Yes."
"About Harry, I reckon he was a bit more smitten with me than I first thought."
"Of course he was. You're young, smart, gorgeous, you like him, you're available, and it seems, enthusiastic. He on the other hand is a typical young heterosexual male, which by definition means that he is a galloping mass of hormones, which in turn are telling him that you tick every box that counts, bar one"
"Oh, I thought that he might be falling just a teeny bit in love with me, you see he wasn't just having sex he, was making love to me and I just felt so special... she tailed off...anyway what do you mean, 'bar one?"
"You are no longer there Alice. Harry is a very nice young man but the instant some reasonably attractive alternative ticks the availability box you will be just a happy memory."
"Well mum that's a bit cynical, but maybe good because I was beginning to think he might be heartbroken, and that would have given me a terrible conscience. I don't mean to seem callous because I'll always be really fond of Harry and I loved making love with him, but I'm not in love with him, if you know what I mean. I hope that we might see each other again sometime, but not now. There are so many other things I want to do."
The women were silent for a few minutes each with their own thoughts. Susan worried a little that her daughter who always thought she was so organized and practical and down to earth was in fact much more vulnerable than she realized. Susan was afraid that Alice was so trusting that she would have her heart broken one day, but then she reflected, that is what growing up is all about. Susan's basic philosophy was that if you had good friends and family things would usually turn out alright.
She would have been surprised if she had known what was on her daughter's mind. Alice was so looking forward to her trip to the States and starting at Uni as soon as she returned. But Uni meant living in Sydney five hundred kilometres from home, so effectively; this trip was Alice's leaving home. Alice worried about her mum. Susan had been a very under age single mum before she was even fifteen and although she had great support from Gran and Gramp, the first seven years had been very tough. Then came her marriage to the man Alice had learned to call Dad. But Dad had been dead for three years now and Alice didn't think her mother should be alone.
"Mum, are you going to be alright. You'll be alone. You won't have me to look after you"
"I'll be fine by myself in fact I'm looking forward to it. There will be lots of new things I can do."
"Perhaps you should think about getting married again. You're still a young woman."
"For God's sake Alice, this is the twenty first century. Women aren't defined by their men any more. You can be silly sometimes."
"Oh alright but I don't like to think you might be lonely, perhaps you should take a lover; I love that expression, "take a lover" she pondered mischievously, "I bet you have had an offer or two". Detecting the smallest trace of a smile on her mother's face she crowed, "I knew it; I knew it, mum's in the market. Now let's review the available candidates."
"Let's not do anything of the kind you crazy girl" cried Susan laughing.
Slowing slightly behind a truck that was turning into a minor road Alice announced, "I have it, the perfect man for mum, he's healthy, smart, a good person, only available for a few months, just right for a fling, quite a bit younger, but full of all the right hormones. Best of all mum, and you said it yourself, you are definitely a reasonably attractive alternative."
Susan burst out laughing. "Alice you are outrageous, absolutely outrageous. I am not chasing after your Harry."
Alice, however, had warmed to the task. "He's not mine any more, and just think, he comes tried and tested, performs well, lots of stamina, and believe me, plenty of imagination. Grade one, highly recommended. I'll send him an Email; tell him to get stuck in."
"Don't you dare? You will not!"
"Nah, I don't suppose I will, but it is ever so slightly tempting. Harry might seem a bit well, nondescript at first, but he has a really odd ability that when he's with you he makes you feel you are the most important person in the world. It's not just charm or anything like that but it seems that his concentration on you, his interest, makes you feel really good about yourself."
"Alice, you do talk nonsense sometimes, what ever shall I do with you."
"When you're on your own next week my idea will come back to you like a little bug in the corner of your mind and you won't be able to get rid of it. See, I've done you a favour."
"Huh."
The rest of the journey passed uneventfully. In the evening they ate at a small Italian restaurant in Surry Hills, well away from the tourists at Darling Harbour and Kings Cross. They just talked about small things and enjoyed each others company. Then after a good nights sleep and a late breakfast they made their way to Mascot airport. After what seemed a hurried farewell, Susan suddenly did not feel like the shopping expedition she had originally planned, so she cancelled the second night of the Sydney hotel booking and drove about half way home, some three hundred kilometres and stopped at a motel. The long journey gave her plenty of opportunity to think, not only about Alice but her own future; she was happy for Alice but knew she would miss her dreadfully. As she lay in bed waiting for sleep she whispered quietly to herself, "Susan you'll be thirty three in a few months, you have a lovely home, good friends, financial independence, but what will you do with the rest of your life?" The question went unanswered.
On Wednesday an early start got her home well before mid day.
The next morning Susan had an early appointment with her new Doctor, Frances Gear. Thursday was also Susan's usual time for essentials and grocery shopping, and while she was not obsessed with that agenda, she knew that there would usually be one or two of her friends in Café Georgeo's around eleven o'clock who would be happy to share her admitted addiction to coffee, and her not quite so admitted enjoyment of a good gossip.
Sure enough, when she arrived Bella Mason, the high school principal was already there sitting with Carol Johnson, and to Susan's mild surprise, Harry. As Bella had some official looking papers in front of her which they were clearly discussing, Susan waved "hello," took a different table, and settled down to her first coffee and the newspaper's sudoku.
After a few minutes Bella got up to leave, Harry also prepared to go but Susan noticed that Carol had caught him by the arm and he hesitated. Carol was doing all the talking and in one of those conversational gaps that sometimes occur in crowded places Susan overheard Carol say, "Harry, when are you going to keep that promise you made, We must know, please, it's important"?
They then both came over to say hello. Carol didn't sit down, and immediately told Susan what the discussion with Bella had been about. The State Education Department was going to run a regional conference in Armidale for potentially high achieving students where they could meet former students who were already successful high achievers. Each principal had been required to nominate an achiever and as Carol had been Harry's last maths teacher at High school, she had been asked to introduce new principal Bella to him.
