I didn't ever return to our home. The neighbours brought a few personal things to the hospital, including my teddy bear, Zac's clothes and a few toys.
Then Zac and I headed straight to the safety of the Convent and Sister Jerome.
I convalesced there for nearly six months. I had regular trips to the doctors, psychologists and various other specialist until they finally all said that they had done about as much as they could for me.
I decided it was time to get on with my life and so one spring morning, Zac and I said farewell to the Convent and caught a bus. It was a long journey but in the end we were in a new city in a new state.
I found a lovely second floor apartment in a quiet leafy suburb. It had two bedrooms, one for each of us. The letting agent was concerned that I might not be able to pay the rent. He was right, lack of money was going to be a problem for me. After paying the fortnightly rent there was very little left over from my welfare payments for food and clothes. But I was determined to make this work and assured him that I wouldn't default. I had reverted to my maiden name and hoped that he wouldn't find out about the unpaid rent from our previous home.
Our street intersected with the bustling Hight Street with it's crowds of people, coffee shops and stores. Zac's new school was only a ten minute walk away.
We settled in and one morning after walking Zac to school I dropped in at a fabulous coffee shop. It had tables and chairs out on the footpath and it was so easy to sit and watch the world go by.
I soon became a "regular" and befriended the owner, Marco. Each morning I would sit in the same seat and Marco would bring me a hot cappuccino for which I would burrow into my purse and find the $3.50 to pay for it.
One morning as I sat watching everyone walk by I noticed a young girl standing on the corner across the street. She looked out of place. She was tall and thin, had long blonde hair and I guessed that she was probably about twenty years old. She stood out from the crowd because of her ridiculously high heeled shoes and her tiny mini dress, the hem of which she constantly tugged down to stop it riding up over her bottom. She carried a large shopping bag and a bottle of water. She had a routine. She would press the button at the pedestrian crossing and wait for the lights to change, but she never cross the road onto my side. She would then walk briskly back down the street to the bus stop and wait, but she never caught a bus. She repeated this over and over again and on each sweep she would try and catch the eye of the male drivers as they cruised by. If they stopped she would lean in the passenger's side window and talk. Sometimes she would get into the car and be gone for twenty minutes or so, other times she would toss her head back in disgust and continue her walking.
I had never seen a street walker before and I guessed that is what she was. I could only guess what she did once she got into a car.
As I stared at her, Marco came up behind me and softly said, "That's Chrissy."
Each morning as I drank my coffee I watched Chrissy go through her routine. I wondered how much she earned. One day when it was quiet in the coffee shop and Marco sat down opposite me and we both looked across the street at her. He must have read my mind as he suddenly said, "She makes good money, that young girl does."
I looked at him curiously.
"You know she is a hooker?" He asked
"Yes I had guess that." I replied
He smiled.
"Each car she gets into, the guy pays her $50 for a blow job or if he want he pays $100 to have sex with her. It's negotiable. They go down behind the primary school and do it there."
I must have looked shocked.
"How do you know how much she charges, Marco?" I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just know. People talk you know. I've never been with her, if that is what you are thinking."
He stood up, cleared the table next to us and disappeared to the back of the shop and the kitchen.