Chapter 10: Jennifer Chancelor, Saturday Evening

There is nothing in my life comparable to driving around in an antique car. They look different. They sound different. They feel different. They even smell different. People you go past turn their heads to look at the car. They look at you riding in the car and wonder, ‘Who are those people? What’s special about them that they get to drive around like that? Why are they all dressed up? What’s the special occasion?’

This particular antique car is a Holden FX. Her name is Mabel. She’s been in my family since before I was born. All my memories of Grandpa Chancelor are tied up with Mabel. Gramps died a year or so after Bonnie was born, and Dad took over looking after her. They brought me home from the hospital in Mabel, so I can honestly say I’ve been riding in her all my life. My earliest memory of this car was the excitement of visiting Gramps and him driving us around in her. The thrill has never faded.

Tonight, I got to sit in the front seat beside Dad since it was my birthday celebration, and I loved every minute of it. The growl of the engine, the feel and smell of the sprung leather seats, the panelling, even the old-fashioned dials – it’s all awesome.

Now that I’m driving myself, I took extra notice of the dials and the gear changes and the change in engine-sounds as Dad manoeuvred the car around. I’m nowhere near ready to drive Mabel – I’d be scared stiff of having a prang and wrecking her. But Dad has promised that once I have my full licence and I’ve been driving a modern car safely for a while, he will take me out to a quiet bit of country road and teach me how to drive her. That is going to be so awesome. I can’t wait.

Dad took us the long way to the club, taking a big loop around and through the main streets of the town so that we could show off in front of more people. Bonnie insists that we always wave to everyone when we drive past so we got to do a lot of waving.

Eventually we made it to the club. It’s a bit posh for this area but it’s not exclusive or anything. I mean, normal people can afford to go there. I think people like having somewhere they can dress up and go to for a special night.

We unloaded at the entrance and then Dad went off to park the car. He’d arranged with the club manager to park her in a special place and put traffic cones around her so that nobody would try to park next to her and scrape her or anything. We waited in the lobby until Dad came back then he took my arm and we led the way inside with Bonnie and Estelle following.

I walked into the room on Dad’s arm and I felt like a million dollars. We had a round table, right beside the dance floor. If we looked the other way, we could look through the floor to ceiling windows and out over Emmerton Lake. The view was gorgeous and there was a balcony you could go out onto. It must be a bird-spotter’s paradise because the lake attracts a lot of different birds. During the evening, the balcony became a lovely place to retreat to for some fresh hair when you got too hot from dancing.

For the whole night, Dad was awesome. He was like the perfect gentleman. He treated me like his wife or special girl or something and he treated Bonnie and Estelle like they were our children. Estelle quietly accepted it and Bon lapped it up.

The food was wonderful, even though I couldn’t finish it all. I was too hyper to eat that much. I had a soup which was Cream of Asparagus, and then I had Paprika Chicken which had a really interesting mushroom and onion sauce and I finished up with a Lemon Meringue which melted on my tongue.

They had a live band that was set up beside the dance floor. While everyone was eating they mostly played soft background music but even then there were a few people who got up and danced while they waited for their food or whatever. Then later they played more dancing music. The music was a mixture. It was mostly the kind of music parents listen to and dance to. You know, music from the ‘80s or the ‘90s or whatever. Some of it was even older stuff. A few people were doing proper waltzes and foxtrots and whatever, but most people just shuffled around. Then they played the occasional piece of modern music as well so that was good.

Dad danced with me a lot, but he also danced with Estelle and Bonnie. The brother of my friend Annie was there. His name is Jayden and he came over and asked me to dance, so I had a couple of dances with him, and then there were a couple of friends of Jayden that I didn’t know who also asked me to dance. Jayden’s a nice guy and I enjoyed dancing with him and chatting with him. He’s a couple of years older than me and he was back home visiting his family for the weekend. Annie wasn’t there though, it was just Jayden and his friends. I even danced with Estelle and then Bonnie and a few times when they played fast stuff we all got up as a family and danced together as a group. I think of all of them, the one I most liked dancing with was Dad.

Bonnie made a friend and she had a couple of dances with him and spent some of the night talking to him. He seemed nice but I didn’t get to talk to him at all. I saw Estelle dancing with a different man in one dance. Dad was nearby dancing with a woman. They both seemed familiar but I’m not sure who they were.

The only thing was that all evening I could feel that low-down hollow feeling building and building. It was probably a mixture of the drugs and the situation, but I was getting hornier and hornier and I couldn’t do anything about it. I started looking forward to getting home so I could jump in the shower and ease off some of the pressure.

By the end of the night my feet were sore and I was as horny as hell but I had such a fantastic time.

I’m going to remember that evening for a long, long time.

Bonnie Chancelor, Saturday Evening

Oh My God, I had such a fantastic night. I thought it would be hard to keep my word to Dad and be nice to Estelle all evening but she stayed quiet for the whole time and that all ended up being okay.

Getting ready was such a buzz. Jen told Estelle to do my hair so she was doing that while Jen put some eye makeup and lipstick on me. I don’t usually get to wear makeup so that was a first for me. It felt so good to have two people working on me at once like that. Then we took turns to do Estelle’s hair and makeup and then Jen’s. And all the time, the three of us were chatting about hair and makeup and what looks good for different people and so on. I learned heaps but it was all so much fun. And I loved, loved, loved the dress we found for me to wear. It did make me feel weird having nothing on my shoulders or my arms and I worried that it would look weird with my skinny little arms but Jen told me I looked gorgeous like that so I had to trust her. I even got to wear shoes with a little bit of a heel so that was a first for me as well. I stood in front of the mirror and gasped because I looked so much older. I know you aren’t supposed to say stuff about yourself, but I thought I looked really good.

Then we went out to Dad and I held back because I was nervous about whether he would like the way I looked or not, with the makeup and the heels and the dress and everything. He talked to the others and admired their outfits and then he looked at me and I could see in his eyes how much he liked the way I looked so that made me extra happy.

We drove to the club in Dad’s old Holden. We call it Mabel. I don’t know why we call it Mabel but we do. Dad and I cleaned it and stuff during the afternoon so that it would look all sparkly for the drive. Jen got to sit in the front this time but that’s okay because it was her birthday. I’ve had my turns sitting in the front but honestly I’m happy sitting in the back. I love driving around in that old car. It’s so wild. Dad drove us through the main parts of the town so that we could wave at all the people. I love doing that. Lots of people waved back too so that was awesome fun.

Jen walked into the club with her arm looped through Dad’s and Estelle and I held hands as we followed them into the room. I saw a few people turn and look to see who was that beautiful girl that Dad was with. Jen really did look awesome.

Then we sat at our table and there were proper cloth napkins and a little jar with flowers in the middle of the table and the waiter pulled out the chair for Estelle and me to sit down while Dad was doing the same for Jen.

Dad showed me the kid’s menu and he said I could choose from the kid’s menu or the adult’s menu. I had a look but the kid’s menu was all simple stuff like sausages or fish and chips or whatever so I decided I wanted something more grown up. It was so hard to decide because there were so many choices and sometimes I had to ask what things were ‘cause they used foreign words and stuff.

Then I saw a plate of food being delivered to a nearby table which looked scrumptious but it was huge. I could never eat all that in one go so I started to get worried but then Dad said I could order an entree sized version for my main course so then I wasn’t so worried because that would be smaller. I asked what the plate of food I saw going to the next table was and I got told it was Penne Amatriciana. I googled how to spell that. So I had the entree sized version of that for my mains. It turned out the sauce was a bit spicy so I spent half the meal fanning my mouth with my hand but it was still delicious. I also had an entree of Gyoza which are little dumplings that you dip in sauce and I had some berry gelati for sweets. It was all so scrumptious. My tastebuds must have thought they died and went to heaven. My tummy felt really full though. It probably stuck out so much that I looked pregnant but I don’t care ‘cause it was all so awesome.

After that there was a band and lots of people were up and dancing. That was fun too but Dad danced with Jen first so Estelle and I sat there and I looked at each other.

I shrugged at her and I said, “That’s what it means to be a little sister. You have to wait for your turn to have a dance with Dad.”

But then we got our turn to dance with Dad and we danced with each other too. Then some guys started asking to dance with Jen, so she danced with them but she kept on coming back to dance with Dad.

One time while I was sitting at the table a boy about my age came up to me at the table.

He said, “Um hi,” then he said, “Um er d ... I mean w ... I mean,...” then he started to blush and stutter and he looked like he was about to run away and I didn’t know what to do and I was getting really embarrassed and he was really embarrassed and it was all really horrible.

Then Dad was there and he said, “Young man, come here and sit down.”

And the boy sat down like he was told and I saw that Dad had more or less made him sit with his back to me. So Dad sat there and talked to him and he could look at me over the boy’s shoulder. And it was only us, so Estelle and Jen must have been off dancing or something.

And Dad said, “Am I right in thinking you were asking that young lady for a dance?”

And the boy nodded and he said, “Y ... Yes, sir.”

Then he looked over his shoulder at me and blushed.

And Dad said, “Don’t worry about her. She isn’t going anywhere. She can wait until you’re ready to try again.”

Then Dad glanced at me and his eyes seemed to say that I wasn’t going anywhere until the boy was ready to try again so I sat there and waited to see what would happen. I was worried that Dad would embarrass me but I couldn’t do anything about it. All I could do was sit there. So I did that.

Then Dad said to the boy, “It wasn’t going well, was it?”

And the boy shook his head and he said, “N ... No, sir.”

Then Dad said, “It’s a good thing to ask a girl to dance. Most girls enjoy dancing. But asking can be hard. I always found it was easier if I worked out what I wanted to say beforehand, then I would practise a couple of times.”