Chapter 9

It eventually took us a month to find a house we all could agree on. I found one on the first Wednesday, which was perfect no matter which way you looked at it. It had room to spare, it was near public transport and it had an excellent security system built in. True, it was on the Pacific Highway and true the second, third and fourth bedrooms were tiny and it was also true it was miles away from any of their friends. The vote was a tight one, but with their four to my one I had to accept that maybe they weren't as happy about it as I was. One disappointed real estate agent. That first Wednesday we looked at four properties, both rental and for sale and ended up with four different disappointed real estate agents.

The next Saturday we inspected almost eight properties leaving two disappointed agents in our lurch. This followed onto each Wednesday and Saturday in their turn. The reason for Wednesday and Saturday was because of the way the system is set up at this end of the world. The local broadsheet, which is, a) the only universal paper over these twin cities, and b) through long tradition, publishes all real estate advertising on those days respectively. After six weeks of this being repeated time after time we had become on a first name basis with at least eight separate agents, one of who worked surreptitiously and illegally for three different companies, she just kept on popping up. I liked her, I admired her style, and she eventually found the place we all could agree on. I think she then negotiated between her three employers to see whom she could the best commission and deal out of. I'm not exactly sure which company we bought the house through eventually but I know who our representative is. Like I said not quite legal but I liked her. There was one place I might mention that we all liked yet Melinda refused to have anything to do with. She eventually told me that though the house itself was perfect in every way, it backed onto the house belonging to the aunt who kicked her out last.

The house we all agreed on was perfect for our needs but it also had one little flaw (if one can use an unintended pun). It was all to do with our finances and my misspent youth. We had to buy it.

I ran away from home when I was twelve years of age a mess of teenaged angst and deep-seated hatred of how the world was treating me. My parents were clueless but you'd think they might have twigged with any thought at all, because their eldest son and heir did not have a single friend in the world. Not one! I barely had talking acquaintances! If Angel... No I stop there as it gets a little near to the bone. I have a few siblings, but the first was born soon after I left. Mum and dad actually learned from their first mistake and took a little trouble to take some notice of my younger sister and two brother's lives. I actually visited my parent's home occasionally over the years but from being a street kid to a modern form of swaggie for a while, I made my own way in life.

My siblings were given university educations and have become quite affluent professionals. They've got families and large houses of their own now and they are quite close to each other down in the big city in a cliquey sort of way. I'm not sure if I would recognise them if we bumped into each other in the street, I know they wouldn't recognise me, and I remember someone once said, you can never go home. My parents and I eventually made peace, I know I grew up at least and recognised where our mistakes lay. We kept in loose touch but weren't invited to my first wedding, we'd made peace by my second and they actually left the city to come and visit me for the first and last time in my complete life up to then. I'd live up here for almost fifteen years by that time. I'd spent ten years on the road and settled in this area in the early seventies. The reason for this little sob story is that both my parent died about five years ago and left most of their inheritable money to me. Dad had been a successful real estate salesman until he retired at about seventy years of age and they both virtually faded away a few years after that. One couldn't live without the other.

I didn't inherit a fortune but it left us, and I think of my four girls and myself as a family unit, with having enough money to pay for this house. I had originally been on a single parent pension and still draw on that money but it's due to lapse in a year and a half when Angel turns sixteen and I'd planned on retiring on my inheritance at that point of time. My body is full of arthritis and gout, too many reminders of past broken bones which had never been set right due to the want of any medical care, not enough home comforts far too early in life and... you get the idea, my body has become what it is because of the way I mistreated it over many years. I did what I had to do to earn a living, sometimes morally and sometimes not, and some of that work ended up crippling me, almost permanently, Christ almost fatally once or twice. If I use all the money I've got in the bank to buy this beautiful house I would be forced to go back to work and it is very likely I'll have to work until I die. The official old age pension will kick in nine years for me. (It amused me because Gail wouldn't be eligible for thirty years, oh my aching grey hairs.)