Chapter 26: Show of Strength

Saturday 18-Aug 2007

Chris woke early in the morning; he had no time for sleeping in on this day: it was entirely focused on his mum's birthday ‑ he didn't even have soccer until the next day. He jumped out of bed, eager to confront the day. Jay was already up, and the two of them listened to the radio as they started moving the furniture around in the lounge and dining area.

Midway through the process, Chris suddenly stopped, listening the news. It was a news item about a couple who'd been living in Australia for eighteen years. Though they had an intellectually handicapped child born in Australia, they were being thrown out of Australia since they were illegal immigrants. The news item was an interview with the mother of the retarded child, tearfully appealing for help organising for proper care for him since they would have to leave him in Australia.

A shiver went down Chris's spine. Eighteen years in Australia, dependent handicapped children, and still they were getting thrown out of country, denied the right and duty of caring for their own handicapped child? He had to sit down. He hadn't really believed that there was a real risk that Shahia would be forced to leave the country, but all of a sudden he wasn't so sure at all.

Chris didn't normally pay much attention to the news, and none to politics, but because of the subject, he listened while some other hothead railed against the Liberal Party ‑ which was the current party in control of federal government ‑ for its extreme policies on immigration that were so divisive in the community. Chris hadn't linked it up directly with politics before, but the community sure was divided about this subject. In fact, Chris felt as though he'd been ripped apart right at that moment.

It was several minutes before he was capable of doing anything, but eventually he forced himself to start helping Jay again. He decided that he wasn't going to tell Shahia about this; since she never had time to watch the news, she very well mightn't hear about it.

His dad had laughingly called his own job for the day "mum duty": he was the designated transport, and he was going to be busy; Shahia had given him a detailed list of where he had to be when, starting with kids sports and shopping in the morning, then moving on to a list of food and equipment pickups he needed to make through the day. Only one had been a surprise.

"I have to take the trailer to pick up your fridge? What about all your food?"

Shahia shrugged. "It's nearly empty. I've been running its contents down so I could use it here."

Chris's dad looked at her in disbelief. "Wow."

He dropped Chris at Shahia's house and took Hassan and Alyssa off to their sports.

Chris and Shahia walked to the shopping mall with Maria. They had an unbelievably long list of things to buy. Chris couldn't believe that they'd be able to fit it in two shopping trolleys. At least one of his dad's stops was picking them up, though time was tight.

As they walked into the shopping mall, they passed a small cafe.

"Hey! Chris!"

Chris turned, and saw David sitting there with some of his other teammates from the First Eleven.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

They all greeted him. "Hey, who's the babe?" Craig asked, pointing at Maria, who was up on Chris's shoulders — one of her favourite places in the world. He laughed and pulled her down, holding her against his chest. "Hey guys, meet Maria, she's my girlfriend." He kissed Maria on the cheek.

They all laughed.

"Actually, Maria is Shahia's sister." He indicated Shahia. "Do you guys all know Shahia?"

There was a chorus of no's.

"Well you guys should all know Hassan, right?" There was a round of nods, they'd all played Thursday afternoon at one stage or other. "Hassan is Shahia's brother, and Shahia's a mate. She's in year eleven along with David and me."

There was a round of cheerful hellos, and then Chris said, "Great to catch you guys, but we gotta run. See ya!" and they turned away.

As they turned, Chris was confronted by a middle aged woman with a snarl on her face. "That's a disgrace."

"What's a disgrace, lady?"

"You are. Disgusting." She was looking between Chris and Shahia, though she seemed most upset with Shahia.

Chris looked at Shahia in surprise, and then at the woman again. He could see that Shahia was starting to get upset, and he could imagine this really ruining the day.

"Getting a young girl pregnant and then showing it off like that."

Oh! It probably did look like that. And if she was that stupid, she was probably angered by the fact that Shahia was a Lebo too; in fact the way she was looking at her made this clear. For moment, his fear raised up. This was exactly the kind of crap that Shahia rightfully feared: single-mother, Lebanese, illegal-immigrant teenager trouble. But then his natural talent for trouble popped out.

He indicated Shahia and Maria. "What's not to show off? I've got me two smokin' hot babes! We're trying for another one too. Wanna try right here and now, hotbuns?" he said turning to Shahia. She looked at him in disbelief for a second, and then she smirked.

"Here? Now? Again?" Then she smiled broadly. "Great!" She turned to the woman. "Can you hold her for us while we do it?" She reached for the button on her jeans.

The woman looked at them in shock, and then stalked off in disgust, unable to even speak. Chris and Shahia both burst into laughter, and he heard his teammates behind them laughing as well.

"Too funny," Craig said. "That was just priceless."

Shahia was still giggling about it when they got to the chicken shop. "That sort of thing can be really upsetting. I know it was because I'm a Lebo. You handle Maria just like she's your daughter." When Chris stopped and looked at her in surprise, she said "You do, and I like it! Anyway, she's obviously not your sister, so she must be your daughter, and therefore I'm the mother ‑ an immoral immigrant teenager. It can be really upsetting, but I'd never have thought about making fun of her like that. How cool!"

Chris shrugged. "Stupid fools. I could never resist yanking their chain. Used to get me into lots of trouble."

By the time they'd finished shopping, they had two trolleys piled up high with stuff, and both Chris and Shahia had bags of more stuff hanging off them on all sorts of weird locations. It only just fitted into the car, and then they discovered the first oversight — his dad had forgotten to bring the baby seat.

"Hey, you go," Chris said to Shahia "you need to get going, I'll walk with Maria. It'll only take about twenty minutes."

By two o'clock Chris was exhausted. He'd moved Shahia's fridge with his dad, he'd done all sorts of odd-jobs for Shahia in the kitchen, he'd made up some marinades, and he'd washed an endless stream of dishes that Lisa and Shahia were making.

But he couldn't say that he wasn't having fun. The three of them were having a great time, laughing and joking. It wasn't detracting from their work; both of the girls had their heads down, while Chris ran around them helping, doing various forms of pre-mixing and making desserts, cakes and pavlovas. And some Peach Melbas, of course. Lisa had insisted that you couldn't have a formal dinner in Melbourne without that, much to Shahia's amusement, but since Lisa was making them, Shahia had shrugged and said fine.

Shahia's fridge was now full, and all the desserts were done. Lisa had just given Chris some capsicums to sear on the barbeque when Alyssa came in with Maria. "Shahia, she's filled her pants again."

Chris looked over at Shahia, up to her arms in some complicated flour mix she was making, and then looked at Alyssa, remembering that though she could do it now, Shahia preferred her not to - she wanted Alyssa to still be a child as much as possible. "I'll do it. Where's the bag?"

Lisa looked at him in astonishment. "You! You're kidding?"

Alyssa looked at Lisa. "No, he knows how to do it. Come on, I'll show you the bag."

At three o'clock, Shahia called a stop. "Right, progress check." She sat down with the others and they checked their progress against the grand plan. Things were going well. In fact, so well that Shahia gave them a quarter of an hour beauty break. Lisa smiled, but Chris was stuck.

"Beauty break? What about me? What do I do?"

Shahia looked at him. "Ahh, pretty boy — you need to get your tips bleached." Both Lisa and Shahia burst into laughter at that. Chris huffed and went off to find his mum. She wasn't allowed into the kitchen all day — something she was actually struggling with. So she had been out visiting friends and had just come home to do flowers.

"How's it going in the kitchen?"

Chris pouted. "They're ganging up on me! You need to come and rescue me!"

She looked at him and laughed. "You poor thing. Do you need me to come save the little boy?"

Chris laughed her off, and went out to the front, where his dad was helping Jay and Hassan prepare the rooms. That was all under control. Scary. Everything was running like clockwork following Shahia's master plan.

Janine turned up at five o'clock with formal serving outfits for Chris, Jay and Hassan. Lisa had explained this to Chris. "Well, we don't actually have a lot of money. But your mum has been a most wonderful friend to us, so we wanted to help any way we possibly can. That's why I'm here, and that's why she's really pulled out all the stops and made you proper formal outfits. It's something she can do, and it's something you guys overlooked, something that would've been a problem."

Janine gathered the three boys in Chris's bedroom. "Right, boys, strip." She saw a bit of hesitation. "Oh come on, boys, don't be shy. Just to your underwear." Once they had, she showed them how to put the suits on without creasing them and checked that they fitted okay. A few adjustments, quick work with needle and thread, and then she left. "All right, boys, take them off carefully, and then put them on around seven o'clock after you shower. I'll be here a little early to check you're okay and to do your hair."