Chapter 13

The covid case numbers had been gradually getting better and better, and we were slowly starting to emerge from our hideouts, in a carefully staged release process. First, we were allowed to exercise outside with one other person, and the 9pm curfew was lifted.

Toni thought about it, but she was so wrapped up our family group that any practical problems became all too hard, and she lost interest. The rest of us had no one, or no interest. Except for Kat. Two of Kat’s work mates had overlapping 5km zones with us, and she’d meet them for a walk and a takeway coffee. One of them was her friend from work that she had been worried about how it would go, but fortunately they had managed financially, and she was very happy at home with her family.

Then, a big change: we were allowed to have one small family group from one other house visit once a day. Seems like such a small thing now, but it seemed like such a big deal at the time.

We made a list of candidates. Obviously my family wasn’t on the list, except for maybe possibly Lem, but Kat’s family was. Toni was desperate to have one or two friends over for a sleepover. And the other addition to the list was Zara’s family.

Now that requires some explanation. Initially, after Zara had come to live with us, her family had cut her right off. She’d sent messages to her sisters, but she only ever got one answer, telling her to stop messaging them. She’d been pretty upset by this, but then she’d slowly come to accept it. Then suddenly, around about the time she got her collar, her middle sister messaged her to ask how she was doing. Zara cautiously began messaging her. She said that they were fine. Things had calmed down after Zara left, though their mother was very quiet. They’d been told a whole lot of lies about Zara, and that we wanted to recruit them into some sex cult, and to stay away. But then, one night, the sister had been awake in the night and ran into her mother, drunk, and her mother had told her some truth for once. And no surprise, her mother drinking was a sign of deeper problems, and things were deteriorating in the house.

Now we had no magic wand to reach out and save these girls from a dangerous situation, but Kat talked to Zara at length, and they decided to try having a meeting with just her mother in a public park. Zara didn’t really want to meet her old mum, and insisted that her real mum – Kat – be there holding her the entire time. And she wanted Zach in the background for comfort too. But she wanted to try to help her sisters.

Zara set it up through her sister. I picked the location; I didn’t like this at all. I could imagine her father setting it up as a way to grab her back, which would be an awful mess. We were assured he didn’t know about it, and would never approve it, which made secrecy a life/death thing for her mother. But I didn’t trust that, so I spoke to Edeni, asking for advice, since I knew her cousin was a cop. That may have been a mistake, because the next thing I knew, he was going to be walking through the park on his break at just the right time. I don’t know what strings were pulled, but Edeni just looked at me blankly when I wondered how that happened. As far as she was concerned, you look after family. Period.

Kat told me how it went.

We told her to be waiting in a particular picnic spot. Then Zach walked around the park, looking for trouble. He didn’t see anything, so he sat on a bench a little way away, and then we approached from behind her. I had my arm around Zara, and she was shaking, she was so nervous. When we were close to the table, her mum looked around and saw us. She couldn’t stand up, she was so overcome.

We sat on the other side of the picnic table from her, and Zara said, “hi Mum. Are you OK?”

Her mother just cried. Then she slowly reached out and Zara did too, and they held hands. She looked like she couldn’t believe it. They just held hands for ages.

“Hello Zara, are you OK?”

“Yes, Mum, I’m safe, and happy, and really, really lucky. This is Mum Kat, whose family took me in.”

Zara’s mum looked at me. I wonder what she saw?

“I can see that you look great. Happy, and healthy, and a bit taller. And you’re dressed well and look beautiful. And we saw that you’re doing much better in school. I miss you so much.”

Then she started crying. “Zara, I’m so sorry that your father threw you out of the house. He shouldn’t have done that, but I couldn’t stop him.”

Zara nodded and held her hand tighter. “He hit you, didn’t he Mum?” she asked, gently.

She cried. “How did you know?”

Zara said, “Zach, my boyfriend, is a wonderful caring gentle soul who touches my heart. He’s everything a girl could want, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more, and got into trouble until he took charge of me. And then I understood you, and I understood all the things I saw before I left differently. Mum, you’re not safe there, are you?”

She shook her head. “But I can’t leave.”

Zara and I had talked a lot about this. No point pushing her to leave. Just make the offer, and make it simple and easy.

“Mum, Kat’s family didn’t like what they saw when we took my stuff. And they love me. And you’re my family. So any time you want the girls to be safe, just call me, and they’ll pay for you and the girls to go to a hotel. We’ll even get you picked up. Just a single phone call, or get Lucy to message me. Any time you want them to be safe, they can be.”

“We can’t do that! We don’t know them.”

“I know. So you don’t want to. But if they’re not safe, the offer stands.”

Her mother looked at me. “I heard something awful about your family.”

“Oh?” I said. There’s a number of things she could have heard, I suppose. No doubt, it’ll be the naked thing.

“Teri said that your daughter invited her daughter over, and then you rang her up and told her that people swim in the nude in your house, and she should let her daughter do the same!”

“I don’t remember a Teri, but that’s probably what happened, yes.”

Her mother looked back at Zara. “How can you say that you’re safe?”

Zara smiled. “Oh Mum, I do swim naked, with all of the family. It’s wonderful, and really safe. I like it a lot, and no one makes me do anything I don’t want to do.”

(“Don’t know how we could find something Zara doesn’t want to do,” Kat muttered to me as she told me this.)

Her mum swallowed. “It sounds ... lovely.”

I decided to shift the conversation to easier waters. “Tell Zara about her sisters.”

That got her mum talking, and she was still going, words pouring out of her, when they ran out of time.

“Maybe I can meet your boyfriend next time?”

“OK. I’ll bring him.”

They said goodbye, and Zara walked away, standing tall. But she collapsed into Zach’s arms. “How did I do?” she asked me.

“You did great, sweetie.”

So maybe, one day, Zara’s family will visit, minus her father who will never be welcome on our property. Since he’ll never want to come ... should be fine.

First to visit was obvious to us: Kat’s sister Tig. Jim and Edna were part of this one from the start. Kat’s sister was a couple of years younger than Kat, and it took her a long time to find the one. That meant she was later having children, and hers were five and two at the start of this year. Throw in some work challenges – she was an accountant married to a lawyer, both used to the status of a big office, and some marital stresses, and she’d had a bad year. Kat talked to her a lot. They really needed to get out, away from their kids. So we swapped: Jim and Edna went to their place, and looked after the kids, and they came to our place for dinner.

Happily for Jael, this was not a dressed visit – I didn’t want to break her streak. They came on a Saturday night, and we had a lovely dinner. We settled down after dinner for some family time, and then we were looking forward to some fun time with them in the wet area. But Kat said to me after dinner that her sister had asked if they could have the wet area to themselves – things were a little scratchy between them, and she didn’t want to play with us.

Of course, no problems. Kat quietly let the rest of us know, and then after family time, off they went. And Kat gave strong orders to our younger kids: Don’t go looking in the windows tonight. Meekly, they promised to obey.

An hour later, they came back looking much happier. But Kat had noticed her sister was walking not quite right, so Kat walked her back into the area for ‘some work’ while we entertained her husband with the Geoguessr website. As an avid traveller, he was hooked, which was good because ‘some work’ turned into nearly two hours of comfort and massage.

“They have a lot of work to do,” is all she’d say after they left.

The next Saturday, Kat’s younger brother came to visit. Todd is married to Philip, and they have two young adults who live with them. So Todd and Philip are gay, obviously. In fact, Todd was obviously gay from when I first met Kat. He started going out with Philip not long after I started with Kat. Their two young adults are Elijah, seventeen, and Sophia, fifteen. Both are also gay, strays that they picked up. Elijah is related to Philip, and things were ‘difficult’ in his house after he came out of the closet as a young teenager, so they took him in. Sophia is from Elijah’s school, and fell out with her parents over something unrelated to the gay thing, but Elijah knew her from the school’s loose LGBTQ community, and Todd offered to take her in.

They’d come before, and were quite comfortable with the naked thing, and we loved them. We sat down with Sal beforehand, to let her know. She was ... uncertain ... about the whole thing. What I said to her was simple: “They are loving sweet and generous people, and they don’t expect you to do anything with them unless you want to. You mightn’t agree with the basis for the lifestyle, but they’ve been faithful to each other and their friends for many years.” Sal agreed, on reflection, that there wasn’t a problem.