Chapter 17

Tuesday 31 May 2022

On Tuesday morning, she woke up to some messages from USA.

The first was an email from Alison, a photo of her visiting Edna in bed. Edna was smiling, and the email had a heartfelt message of thanks from Edna. There was another photo, Alison with a bunch of the homeless people outside the high school, checking on the dogs. “Doing well, much loved by the group,” was the message with that one. Larissa laughed because Jayla was in the background looking stressed.

Another was from the high school, the document the principal had promised, comments from the kids. She took a few minutes to read through it; mostly they’d commented after the shooting, so their comments mixed those things up, but she could see that the combination of what they’d said and done between the three of them had been very impactful. The final comment was from the headmaster, underlining that, and saying that she really expected that group would have better lives, fingers crossed, and her thanks again. Sweet.

She had a couple of emails from journalists asking about the White House meeting, and one also asked to interview her about the shooting. She declined politely, and referred them to Layna, and let Steph know.

At the end of the day, Suzy picked her up and drove her to the AFL club headquarters to meet the teams.

Larissa thought that she was pretty accustomed to speaking in front of groups, but standing out in front of a group of AFL players was pretty intimidating. There was about fifty men, and twenty women - the front line teams of one of the most famous clubs in the country. Many of them had partners present, which was an unusual feature, she’d been told. In addition, there were about twenty other people, either coaching staff or management and obviously some board members as well. Surely she’d seen a couple of them on TV - big shot businessmen.

The evening had started as a standard club evening, talking about the business of the club. Larissa sat at the back with Suzy, Louise and Deanna, while Sally, who’d invited her, was up the front running the meeting. The season was well under way, so they had plenty of business for the first thirty minutes or so. Then Sally sad, “OK, everyone, as you know, we have an invited speaker for tonight. Larissa, can you come out the front please.” Larissa did as she was told, and made her way out to the front, and Louise followed her. As she did, Sally said, “A couple of weeks ago, I attended a women’s evening in Canberra.” Suddenly, a bunch of shots of the evening started rolling over on the screens in the background. “It was the premier gala evening for the all the famous and powerful women in Australia. You know the types that go there, olympians, past and present - which is why I was there, and rockstars, actresses, politicians, business women, heiresses, and so on. We all go and network. The evening is actually run by a women’s organisation that runs shelters for women and families who are victims of domestic violence, and advocates for improvements in the lives of Australian women, and I’m always very happy to support their work.”

“There were three speakers for the night, Zali Steggall, Grace Tame, and someone else I had no idea about. As I expected, Zali and Grace were excellent, very inspirational. They’re great women, so of course. But the third speaker, she was knock your socks off amazing. I didn’t know her, and she turned up with a friend, and the two of them were definitely the most beautiful of the night.” A bunch of pictures of Larissa and Layna showed in the background. “Larissa, and Layna. I’ve since discovered that Layna is her own fantastic person and you should definitely be following her on YouTube, but Larissa ... I didn’t expect much when a pretty young thing like that stood up. But what she said was so impactful that I asked her to come here and do the same talk. But before Larissa starts, her talk has a big punch in the end, a proposal for something we should all do. And I’m proposing that we sign on as a club to be part of that. And if we do, it’ll have a considerable impact on your life, so please, listen very carefully. I’ll ask Larissa about it more after she does her talk. And I’ll also ask Louise and Deanna here to comment afterwards. OK, Larissa.”

Larissa stepped up and took a deep breath. “Thanks Sally for inviting me. It’s such an honour to speak at the best club in the AFL. I’m such a fan of you guys and girls. Now my story starts here, as a fifteen year old...” and she was off, trying to do pretty much the same talk. She only made one conscious difference, when she got to the alcohol bit, she expanded it by throwing in some of the awful statistics about alcohol and domestic violence, and she showed before and after pictures of herself at her worst, and herself at the White House. Also Sal - amazing Sal had said she could, since she was naked in the before shots, and also of her mum. She was certainly going for impact there, no question about it. When she finished with the kiss with Layna, there was stark silence in the room.

“Wow. Larissa,” Sally said, “That was even more powerful.” She took a deep breath. “So how much thought had you put into the war on alcohol before you said that?”

“Pretty much none. I’ve thought about the problem a lot, lived it, as you can see, and too many of my friends have too. And I’d thought how stupid it is that us women let the alcohol problem go on when we have our guys by the balls, but I hadn’t planned it beforehand. I’d hardly slept, I was awake all the night before helping my sister through a stillbirth, and I was just feeling ... I don’t know, stark, inside me. And so I said it, and it’s just snowballed afterwards.”

“You don’t drink yourself, right? Ever? And I believe you’ve convinced most of your friends to take ‘the Larissa pledge’. Tell us about that.”

“Umm, since a day early last year when I drank myself senseless after a falling out with mum, I’ve had zero alcohol, and now Julian has zero too. Instead, we’ve committed to doing sex instead. Both of us are determined to give each other our best shot in bed, and I’m enjoying that very much. And we take ‘sex instead of alcohol’ pretty literally. We have an agreement that if we’re at a party, and I’m feeling like a drink, getting encouraged to drink by people at the party, I can ask Julian to go down on me right there and then, and he has the same deal, and we’ve both made good on that several times.” She could see the amazement in their faces. “It certainly ends the alcohol question for everyone immediately. And I’ve talked lots of my friends into thinking similarly, and they’ve started calling it the ‘Larissa pledge’ which is to stop drinking at all and drown in sex instead. But the sex instead of alcohol thing is just a token, a public statement of a deeper pledge: we’ll treat each other properly, build a really meaningful relationship with each other without pretending we can mix alcohol into it. And I recommend exactly that life choice to every one of you, but note that i proposed something less for the war on alcohol: just to not get over the limit. Because I know just how deeply alcohol is embedded into our culture.”

“Wow,” Sally said, “it must be pretty wild when all your friends get together.”

“We might have had some pretty fun parties!” Larissa said. “And I really like dancing in my underwear, like I showed, so that’s always a pretty good start.”

Sally was shaking her head. “In a second, I’m going to talk to Deanna, who’s the CEO of the organisation, but first, Louise.” She described Louise’s Olympic record, and then said, “Louise, you’d like to say a few words in support of Larissa.”

“I definitely would. Like all of you, I went through my younger years knowing that I didn’t drink much because of it’s performance effects on me, and training to win glory. It’s a wonderful thing. But then, when the glory stopped, and I didn’t need to perform at that level, alcohol was waiting for me. You know, I thought I was doing well, life of the party. Larissa used Sia’s words about swinging from the chandelier and throwing them back like there’s no tomorrow and I did both of those things. Oh, I was spectacular and if you find old celebrity magazines from back in the day, I nailed it too. Almost as beautiful as Larissa. But in reality, I was sliding downhill, and I was turning into a mess inside. My marriage was a sham, maintained by increasing amounts of rum and gin, and my second daughter was born to alcohol withdrawal. But you won’t find any of that in the magazines, the spread that I did, showing off my second baby, oh how good I looked, and I said all the right words.”

“And what I saw is how many of the top sportsman and women in the country were going down that dreadful path with me. We’re both the worst and the best of Australian culture, and we were leading everyone to the same hell. Well, it all turned to shit, and just like Larissa said, it ended in a beating. So I ended up alone with two little girls, and it’s taken me years to rebuild. So that’s the first thing I wanted to tell you, because I see you in the magazines, and I hear the stories. Some of you are or have been doing the same thing I did, leading Australians to the same place.”

“The second thing I want to tell you all is that I’m having an affair with Larissa’s mum.” Wow, that was a surprise for Larissa, that she’d say that. And a surprise for their audience. “Larissa introduced us at that dinner, though us having an affair wasn’t her purpose. It’s just temporary, and it’s complicated, but she’s healing me, and it’s really helping. And she’s been clear with me: Larissa healed her, saved her life, both as a baby and then again last year. And Larissa’s whole family is in awe of her deep determination and passion to love everyone in her life, including me, when she really has no reason to. So I want you to know: the woman who stood up and said all that to you tonight is the real deal, she talks the talk, and she walks the walk. You saw her go into the water holding Lacey. She didn’t quite say it tonight, but Raychelle told me: she didn’t expect to come out of that water alive, but she took Lacey in there anyway, because that was Lacey’s only chance. So I’m going into the water with Larissa tonight, whatever the price. I’ll never drink any alcohol again. Thanks, Larissa.”

She turned and hugged Larissa, and Larissa hugged her tightly back. Wow.

“Thanks, Louise. Now, I’ll ask Deanna, who’s the CEO of the women’s organisation behind all this just what she’s planning.”

“Thanks Sally and thank you all for listening, and thinking about this. We’ve been wanting to take on the alcohol and domestic violence problem for a while, because it’s such a huge problem. Larissa gave you the high points of the stats but I can go on if you want. I can go on a long time. Larissa gave you her own stories, and so can I. So can most of you, I’m sure. But how could we take that on? Alcohol is so embedded in everything we do, and taking on alcohol ... how on earth can we sell that message? Then Larissa stood up and told us her personal story, and as Louise said, she walks that walk, and then she gave us the hook: we won’t stand for anything but your best, so give that to us, and we’ll give it back. My board all listened to her, and they met the next day and approved us going for it on Larissa’s message. So my very deep thanks for Larissa, without whom we couldn’t do this.” She went on to tell them what they had planned. “And what we’re asking of you, Sally and I, is that you join Larissa on this. That you stand up as a club and say, we’ve had enough of violence against women, so we’re backing Larissa, she’s not alone. You’ll wear the ribbons, and you’ll promise to live to what she’s saying - don’t mix alcohol and relationships, and when you take a woman to bed, whether it’s your wife, girlfriend, husband, partner whatever or just a, umm, friend you’ve made, you’ll give her your best.”

“Thanks, Deanna,” Sally said. “So that is what I’m putting to you this evening. That we, as a club, commit to doing that, and more, showing leadership in doing that. And we’re perfectly aware that this isn’t a small thing to ask. Because of who we are, you’ll be on display, and people will be watching you. People might go looking for trouble with regard to you. Now maybe you’ve lived differently in the past, got in trouble. Larissa very certainly has, as she told us, and whatever people throw at her, she’s just going to say, ‘see, that’s why you don’t drink.’ We’re just asking you to say, ‘I’m doing this now, because I believe in women’. And because it’s a hard thing to ask, a particularly hard thing for some of you, we back each other, and we support each other, like we do on the field. We won’t be the only club Deanna’s going to ask, or Larissa will talk to, but we’re first, and I’m asking you to stand up and take the plunge, and be first.” She looked calmly around the room. “OK. Any of you, players or partners or staff, you can ask any of us questions, or tell us how you feel.”

The first up was Ben, the captain of the senior men’s team, a very famous player indeed. “Larissa,” he said, and paused. “Thanks.” He turned to the team, since he was up the front. “We talk about putting ourselves on the line, but I’ve never seen someone put it on the line quite like Larissa is here. Who knows what will come her way for this? But she’s doing it anyway.” He turned back to Larissa. “I honour your commitment, and I take your pledge.” He glanced down at this wife, also a very well known famous footballing wife. “We just agreed. Your full pledge.” Wow, that was much stronger than she expected. “And I recommend to the whole team that we support this initiative. Honestly, I think you’d all be better off to take the full pledge, like I should’ve years ago, but we won’t do that as a team. Now I know, as I say this, that it’s way easier for Gina and I to make the pledge than it is for you younger guys. So just because we’ve just taken the full pledge doesn’t mean that you have to agree at all. I don’t know how we decide this, a majority vote or what, we’ll have to talk about that. So for now, please, tell us what you’re thinking, no one’s going to criticise you for not being keen to support this.”

Second up was Tamara, the captain of the women’s team, and a pretty well known TV commentator on the men’s game, since the women’s season was over. “Larissa, knock me dead, that was magnificent. At last someone’s standing up and doing something about this! Fuck I’ll stand up on TV on Friday night and take any pledge you want me to, and if they come for you I’ll stand in the way. It’s like you were talking about my own family, but I know that’s exactly the point, you’re talking about every family. Now the women’s team had some warning on this because we got asked to turn up when we wouldn’t usually, and one of us spotted Larissa on the agenda, and we did our research, so we already know: every one of us is in. Oh fuck, we’re in.” There was a loud growl of approval from the women on the team. “Guys, your move.”

Fuck this was going to happen. Larissa was almost breathless, she had no idea it would go like this. Sally must have had some idea though. The only thing she could think of to say was “Thanks”!

Another player stood, Tony, a rather well known night-clubbing player. “Sally, thanks for bringing Larissa here, and Larissa, what an awesome effort. Tamara told me about this, and I thought there was no way I’d be on board. But I am after listening to you. Though obviously I would’ve been anyway, given what Tamara just said.” Shit they were a thing, she didn’t know that. Power couple of the club, obviously. “So Larissa, want to dance in your underwear with Tamara and I?”

“Sure, I’m in, anytime, as long as you are too.” Because he was pretty famous as a dancer, had been on TV for it. And hell, dancing with him, his arms wrapped around her ... she could sure think of worse things to do. Or with Tamara. But her answer did get some laughter.

“Great. Because I’ve got an idea. I reckon we can get Synergy to do a night, no alcohol, and nothing but underwear on the floor. Would you be in? Would the club support that?” One of her favourite nightclubs from back in the day. She could imagine that too, a whole floor of hot young things in their underwear, the pickup scene in high gear. It’d be totally crazy, and surely popular.

“Julian and I don’t much go nightclubbing anymore, but we’d be in for that if it hooked up to the campaign. I know I could get most of my friends to come for that too.”

The manager of the club stood up, yet another very well known football personality. “Hang on. Let’s not got ahead of ourselves here. Larissa, that was very persuasive indeed, and I also honour your commitment. It’s like a blazing fire, and everyone here should take note of that. Sally, thanks for setting this up. And if we go for this, the club could very well support a dance night like that. But. But first, we should find out, are we all on board with this? Because this is really big thing to ask. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have signed up to this when I was younger. Hell, I’m not sure I can sign up right now, in spite of the powerful argument Larissa has made. So I want to hear from anyone who’s with me. What. The. Fuck. Are you asking me to sign up for?”

Oh. Well, that wasn’t so good. Unless he was flushing the opposition? Well, she’d find out. At least the players who objected would feel free to say so now. Another one stood up and said, “Wait. Larissa, you’re not telling us not to drink at all, are you?”

“No. I’m not telling you do anything, I’m asking. And I’m asking you to keep drinking and loving apart, like you do with drinking and driving. Not just sex, either, though that’s the focus here. So if you decide to tie one on, go for it. Get yourself as smashed as you want. But make sure that you’re not going to hurt the ones you love, or pretend that you can give them your best, or think that it doesn’t matter. But note, I’m also recommending to you not to drink at all. But that’s your personal decision, because of what I said. It’s not what Deanna and Sally are asking you to do as a club player.”