Chapter 32: Holidays

Tuesday 25 Sept 2007

This time, Chris made sure that he was there when the inspector came for his return visit. His uncle had really wanted him to go to the farm for holidays, since Spring was a busy time on the farm, and Chris had been sorely tempted — but no, and he'd spent some tears on the phone making it clear to his uncle just how sorry he was. But being with Shahia was far more important than that.

It was kind of fun seeing the inspector's eyes boggle as he looked around the house. "How in the hell did you get all this done?"

As they followed him around the house, Chris and Shahia explained about the working bee. Chris could see that the inspector was impressed. He spent quite some time looking at the bathroom.

"You did a lot of work in here, a lot of work for a single day. Are you sure it's been done properly?"

Chris replied, "I was here most of the time, and it looked like it was being done properly to me. Hang on, here's the card of the guy who did the work."

He pulled Tom's card out of his wallet, and showed it to the inspector.

"Oh? Well, that's all right then. Tom doesn't do bad work."

When the inspector was finished, Shahia offered him a coffee, and they sat at the table. "Miss, I'm going to give your house a glowing report. You deserve it, and it will be true. Actually, your house is worth maybe thirty thousand more since last time I saw it." Chris and Shahia both looked at him with their mouths open. That much?!

"Yeah, I think so. Of course, you only find out when you sell it."

Shahia was shaking her head, trying to come to terms with that concept. Neither of them had ever thought about the working bee in those terms.

The inspector's face became sad. "I'm sorry to say that I don't know how useful that will be for you. I think they wanted to use my report to throw you out, and I was sorry to write such a report last time. They won't be using this report like that, but I fear that woman will make something else up. There's not a lot I can do to help, but if you have more housing related problems, give me a call." He gave them his card.

Later that day, the local newspaper was delivered. Chris rushed out to see that they were on the front page. At least it wasn't that photo of him; they'd led with a photo taken from out in the street showing a large group of people working. Chris was pleased to note that Tom's truck was very prominent in the photo, his name and phone number clearly legible. That was nice. It also showed Joe reversing a trailer past Tom's truck, his face screwed up in concentration. Chris laughed, recalling the way everyone made fun of Joe for screwing it up — but it was only Chris that was willing to try it himself.

The article accompanying the photo wasn't long, and at first it seemed like it was a bit short on detail about Shahia for Chris's liking, but he couldn't complain. He and Shahia sat at the table reading it together. She made it sound so exciting, and the people so enthusiastic. Actually, that was exactly how it was, he realised.

He laughed out loud at the way Caroline had quoted Malcolm's dad: "Liberal Party Branch President Andy Edwards was there lending his support to the day. He told 'The Leader' that he was thrilled to be able to help such a needy cause, and promised that he would provide whatever support he could to help Ms Esfahani-Baracat in her campaign to stay in the country and care for her siblings. 'This country must show its values by supporting people in situations like this.'"

He'd have to thank Caroline, she'd really delivered.

The article concluded by commenting on the fact that the working bee was organised and mainly done by school kids, and closed with a quote from Lisa: "We're just a bunch of normal kids who want to show that we can do adults' work well if we need to." Chris was thrilled. They put the paper up on the wall for anyone who visited to look at.

Saturday 29-Sept 2007

Once the inspector had gone, Chris and Shahia had been able to relax and actually plan their holidays. Now that Shahia no longer was living in the shadows, there was so much to do, and she was joking that she was going to need a holiday from her holiday.

They had gone to see the local member of parliament, a very nice Lebanese guy, and he had made all the right noises, said he'd do what he could; but Chris could see that his Dad was a little disappointed. They scheduled a follow up meeting for a couple of weeks time, though, which seemed pretty good to Chris and Shahia.

One day Chris had brought Maria round to his place, and Shahia had gone off to spend the day with Lisa — they'd watched a movie, and gone window-shopping in town, since neither of them had money to spend. But they'd had a great time, so it had been worth looking after Maria. Another day Lisa and Janine had looked after Maria, and Chris and Shahia had gone into Federation Square to look at the Museum of Moving Pictures for a school assignment.

As for Jay, Hassan, Bec and Alyssa, they had their own tightly interconnected social life, and Chris didn't see them much during daytime, except when they played soccer or went swimming together, though even at the pool he spent most of his time holding Maria and dragging her through the water. And, of course, admiring Shahia in her bikini.

For Grand Final day, Chris's family had a tradition that one of the extended family would host a grand party. This year it was his dad's parents, so they trooped off about lunch time. Normally Chris would be trying to duck out of this, to go see the final with his mates, but this time they'd agreed that Shahia and the kids were coming as well.

All this meant that Chris spent most of his time at the grand final party catching up with his extended family and introducing Shahia and the kids to them. It was so much easier to do that now there weren't any secrets to hide. And it was nice that they were a hit with everyone, though it was a little difficult to give a straight answer to the old aunts who took him aside and asked him pointed questions about his relationship with Shahia. The less said about that the better.

As for the football. Ho hum. After the first few minutes it was already clear who was going to win; the only question was by how much — would it be a record blow out? It was hard to be interested, even for such a significant match. Just as well, since he had no time to watch it.

That night, his mum and dad talked to him about his relationship with Shahia. It was getting ... difficult. They were close. So close. More than one person had joked to him that they were like a married couple. He'd laughed with them, but it hadn't seemed very funny inside.

He was desperately in love with her.

And he rather suspected that it went the other way too.

They'd not once spoken about it. They touched a lot more now, but there were strict barriers. They'd hold hands in public, they'd hug like brothers and sisters, and Shahia would sit on his lap — but only in public. These boundaries were never violated. But still, she was in his personal space so much! Sometimes they'd be sitting next to each other, and her face would be inches from his. All she'd have to do was turn her head and they'd be kissing...

A couple of times since the working bee he'd decided that he was going to just kiss her, but then he'd got to worrying. They'd had no response from the department, though he expected it next week, really. Now was no time to rock the boat, and he'd waited for months already. A couple more weeks. He promised himself that. Just a couple.

If he didn't lose it first. Discipline. He tensed his shoulders, working them hard. It was tough, but lately it seemed that was what he was about: hard yakka. Tough things done here. Easy things, go see someone else.

His mum could read him like a book. She pretty much told him where he was, and he just agreed. Should he be upset that she could read him that well? Nah. He was who he was.

Sometime in the last couple of months they'd stopped doing Sunday morning coffees, and she wanted to go back to them.

"I miss my adult time with my son," she said.

Chris sighed. Was she back on a get-Chris-laid campaign? He had a suspicion that she was. Well, one way to subvert that was something he'd wanted to do before anyway, so they agreed to see whether there was a way for Shahia to join them.

Sunday 7-Oct 2007

Today was St Joseph's traditional family picnic. It was actually on the grounds of the school itself, and Andrew had invited Lisa, Chris, Shahia and her siblings to come. Invited wasn't really the word — begged, perhaps; he'd certainly rather forcefully made the point that he was dead meat if Shahia didn't turn up, in particular.