FALLING INTO HER
Jodie seems to be drawing closer to Kelly but her approaches seem to be more along the lines of straight friendship than anything deeper. When Jodie tells her that she has spoken to her father about Kelly's criminal record, it is with a view to helping her apply as a volunteer fire fighter but has she got another agenda as well? Kelly's grandmother decides to step in and take her shopping for clothes, much to Kelly's concern, she hates clothes shopping but goes along with it just to please her. Their date draws them closer together but will Jodie cross the line or is she just testing the waters?
*
I've learned over the years never to argue with nanna, you'll always lose the argument even if you win. My grandmother was born in 1950 and that makes her part of the baby boomer generation. Her father fought the Japanese in New Guinea and her mother worked in a munitions factory during the war. She has no memory of her father however, he was a career soldier who went to Korea in 1951 and was killed there.
Her mother was a strict Methodist and I do have memories of a much older woman tut tutting over me when I came to stay with nanna. Apparently, my nanna had also been a single mother back in the day, about the time the then Labour government introduced the single mother's pension. It was decried at the time by Conservatives but the pension made it possible for single mothers to raise children instead of giving them up to the state. I've heard a few guys over the years rant and rave about single mothers getting money for lying on their backs, as they put it but it stopped my nanna from giving up her daughter when her husband left her in 1974.
Unlike her mother, my grandmother is an atheist, it was a bone of contention between them for years she says but to this day she still maintains that while her mother never taught her anything she learned a lot from her. In particular about survival in a world dominated by men.
Australia in the 1970s was experiencing a cultural revolution.
Cleo
was launched in 1973, the first Australian women's magazine to have a nude male centrefold. The pill had been available for several years, we got our first Labour government after 23 years of Conservative government. The Vietnam war protests led to Australia's withdrawal from the Vietnam war, young people marched for peace, women's rights, Aboriginal land rights and gay rights, whatever the cause people got out and marched.
Nanna was one of those who laid down in a Melbourne street to commemorate the lives lost in Vietnam. She has a picture of that mass rally, it's an aerial shot and she often points it out to visitors and says, "I'm down there somewhere."
She's always been a progressive, socially aware person and when I came out to her at the age of seventeen she merely shrugged and said it was good I'd made my decision. I was in jail at the time and she used to come and visit me every weekend. Prior to my conviction for armed robbery I'd always thought her a bit of a hippie, she still liked a bit of weed now and then although she hasn't had any for years now. But having her sitting across the table in the visiting hall was like a breath of fresh air in a hell hole of pent up oestrogen and rampant violence.
Nanna has worked all her life and owns her home. She never remarried after her husband left but has had her fair share of boyfriends, I used to call them 'uncles.' I would come through to her bedroom in the middle of the night to find her in bed with Uncle John or Uncle Sam and she'd slap his leg and tell him to put some pants on or sleep on the couch. I'd crawl into bed with her and snuggle up.
Nevertheless, despite the fact she's got her savings and her superannuation, I felt guilty having nanna take me shopping. I mean I work too but as I mentioned earlier, you don't argue, I managed to compromise. I bought the dinner and she bought the clothes. At the end of the night I came home with two dresses, three tops, two skirts and a jacket, that last item was one I paid for myself and I did lash out on makeup too.
That Saturday morning I wore one of the dresses she'd bought me but with black leggings on underneath. She looked me up and down and shook her head.
"I thought you wanted my help?"
"I did, what's wrong now?"
"You look like a bogan, lose the bloody leggings for Christ's sake."
"She'll see my knees."
"So what?" She folded her arms, "I thought the whole idea was to make you attractive enough for her to want to see more?"
"I'm going to meet her parents."
"Even more reason," she nodded at my legs, "lose the leggings and I'll get my makeup."
I removed them and she did my makeup but nanna was right because when I stepped onto the front verandah, Jodie was just getting out of her car and she grinned when she saw me.
"Wow, who's this hot woman?"
"I feel like I'm in drag," I looked at her white slacks, "how come you get to wear pants and she made me wear a dress?"
"I'm going to have to meet your grandmother," she moved closer and tugged at the sleeves, "very nice indeedy, you look good enough to fuck."
Which made me shut my mouth immediately.
She liked the rose tattoo transfer I'd brought with me, I had my gear in a sports bag and she held it up to the light.
"Yeah, that'll look good."
"You won't feel as much pain this time because it's on your arse cheek."
"So you get to check out my arse a second time," she grinned, "sorry, I just had to slip that one in," she spun around and flicked at her hair, "let's get out of here, I'm starving."
"I um bought your sister a present too," I took out a gift wrapped package, "it's a bottle of perfume."
"You didn't have to do that," she smiled, "I'm sure she'll love it."
We took her car that morning. She drives a V8 Holden Commodore and it's faster than my old Charger, the benefits of fuel injection. We didn't say much on the way to her parents' house in Monbulk but as we pulled into the driveway she looked across and tapped my leg gently.
"Don't be nervous, dad's fine. He knows about your past."
That made me even more nervous but Tony seemed absolutely fine with me when she introduced me and stuck out his hand.
"Nice to finally meet you in person, Jodie says you need a hand."
"Yeah, I want to join the C.F.A."
"No worries, we'll have a bite to eat first and talk later, how's that?"
"Perfect."
Tony has a similar set up to Jodie under his pergola. On one side is a gas-fired barbecue between two kitchen benches and on the other is a wood-fired pizza oven made of fire bricks. Jodie showed me the interior, it's big enough to fit a two foot pizza base.
"I can usually just manage two slices," she chuckled.
Despite my nervousness I soon warmed to her family. Her mother is one of those warm outgoing types who makes you feel 'right as rain.' Roberta admired my tattoos and instantly booked me for a session. A very pregnant Carla turned up not long after with the mystery fella, a quietly spoken guy called Josh who shook hands with everyone but he did give me the once over before shaking my hand. The kids played cricket in the back yard and wanted to know if tattoos hurt and traced the outlines while I chatted with their mother.
I think the word that springs to mind when I think about that barbecue is contentment. There were a lot of laughs, his two Heelers nosed around the pergola where we sat eating, looking for scraps of meat and bones. I downed a couple of stubbies of Vic Bitter and at some point Tony and I discussed crime and punishment without coming to any conclusions. He's very much in the old fashioned style of copper. There was a code of honour between cops and crooks back then.
"Drugs ruined everything," he mused, "in the old days if you caught some guy on the front lawn shooting a gun in the air you took the gun off him, booted him up the arse and told him to come down to the station in the morning when he was sober. Now they call in the Tactical Response boys in case he's high on something."
His advice to me was simple.
"Put in your application and when it comes to the Disclosure, write down the details and under it put my name, rank and phone number. It'll make them sit up and take notice because you're not supposed to just hand out numbers like that. I'll get a call from some pen pusher asking if I know you and I'll say I met you three years ago at a family barbie with Jodie. These guys just want to tick boxes. Half the time it's all they're bloody good for anyway. Have you got some other person not related to me to put down as a referee?"
"Yeah, my nanna's solicitor friend, Fred. He's known me since I was knee high to a grasshopper."
