Chapter 2

Anything that got us out of cooking has my vote; and Marilyn was right, her mum was asleep and probably had been asleep less than a minute after Marilyn had gotten out of the car. She's a registered nurse at Kogarah's St George Hospital, and nurses who do weird hours and even worse broken shifts can fall asleep like a soldier on duty: on their feet with their eyes wide open.

Unfortunately Gae also snores, so I put her on my car's rear seat without waking her, and drove over to their place while she snored sonorously, lying there with her head on Kim's lap. Gae was on the first day of a five day change of shift break, and at the moment, for her, it was still two o'clock in the morning from her last shift. Dinner was in the oven being kept warm: a full roast chicken with all the trimmings.

At that time fast food was still fish and chips, and hamburgers which actually tasted like food, not cardboard. A pizza was something you heard about in American movies called pizza pies. There were maybe three Kentucky Fried Chicken shops in the whole of Greater Sydney, and a home-cooked roast chicken was a treat not to be missed. Chicken and beef were two of the most expensive meats on the market, lamb the cheapest: later on it became the opposite to that, due to political and other market decisions.

Kim and I fed Marilyn so often that Gae had felt guilty. I think Marilyn was immune to our cooking, but she always helped to cook when she was staying over so she probably improved on our standard fare. What my mate and me cooked was not dissimilar to a mix between stew and what, in a lot of years to come, became known as stir-fry, which then only the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants used. Most stir frying became popular after the influx of the Vietnamese boat people.

I get along well with Gae. She was known as a fallen woman in those days before the wider acceptance of the unwed mother, and moral judgement by your peers was more common then than in later years. She often trusted me with her greatest treasure, as her mum next door to us was becoming a bit fragile in her later years. I was Gae's fall back when her schedule clashed with how the rest of humanity actually existed.

However, none of that included us singing and using our crook voices to frighten the animals. Now I'm a bloke whose opinion of women was that, no matter how good they look, at best they were shit inside. However, my opinion of Gae was that she was outwardly beautiful - in fact gorgeous - which made me keep my distance from her automatic without thinking twice about it. Inside, what little I knew of her I liked, therefore I kept even further clear of her as I didn't really trust myself. Fortunately, most people, especially women, don't much want to associate with a bloke who looks like he's been through a paper shredder, especially ex-Viet Nam veterans who weren't approved of at the best of times.

"Mum, would you like to hear something so good it sent shivers up and down my spine? Pirate Jack, can you and Kimmy sing for us, please?"

"Don't call John that Marilyn, it's really rude; if they don't want to sing, or think they're not good enough, don't make a fuss."

"Pirate Jack is used to that name mum. You've really got to hear them sing together. They are magic. I have never ever heard anyone sing so good, and I don't even like the type of music they sing. I like Queen, as you whinge about all the time. Will you, please Kimmy, please Pirate Jack?"

"It's 'sing so well', Marilyn. Wotcha think, me Mate? Wanna make a fool out of yerself?"

"It can't be worse than them hearing me sing in the shower, Pop. They're family, so it would be legal to kill 'em if they laugh at us. We can give 'em your drinking song."

"No fair, Blood Nut. You'll have em crying as they run for the hills. Okay ... one ... two... " Well they didn't run out the door screaming so we gave about a dozen or so, using our way of one of us saying a key word then three beats and into the intro. No backing music - there was a name coined for that later - and Gae was weeping like a baby during 'He Stopped Loving Her Today'. Marilyn didn't get it, but sometimes experience can be a killer. It still took a physical effort not to cry myself and I try not to include it in our quiet times together any more. "Come on kid, it's a school day tomorrow. Let's let these two girls get to bed and head off."

"John, can I be really rude and ask you to sing some more, especially that first one again? I've never heard it before."

"A few more then. Maybe we aren't as bad as I thought?"

"John, in all seriousness, I'm going to pack all my records away. That is possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. You just don't realise. Hang on, I've got a small tape recorder. I'll record you so you can hear yourselves."

We did, she did, and Blood Nut and I were shocked speechless. "I think we have got to think on this."

"You can stay the night if you like." I looked her in the eye with my one eye and she returned the look without a blink. To say I'm not pretty was truly doing me a kindness. On the left side of my face I'm scar tissue from my hairline to under my jaw, courtesy of a piece of shrapnel which also removed the back teeth on that side. My jaw needed to be wired together in a jerry-built repair effort at the time in the field unit. I still couldn't chew on anything tough on that side.

The best of this country's plastic surgeons couldn't improve on what was, without removing almost all the skin off my backside; to my unbiased eye the right side was only marginally better and it's au naturel. My whole body was a network of scar tissue and botched operation results. And she was giving me a genuine offer without strings; we had to talk. Mentally I was a basket case and not sure I could handle it. But, yeah, I get lonely too.

We talked until about one in the morning; I thought it was only fair to her. I hadn't had sex since just before I left for Viet Nam. I was a maze of traumatic psychoses which made me unable (unwilling?) to have an erection. Gae really was lovely, and I didn't want to load that kind of responsibility onto her.

She replied, "John, I haven't had sex since nine months before Marilyn was born, my first and only time; and that was a rape. There is nothing in the slightest bit sexy about rape. You'd look good to me if you looked like the elephant man, which you don't. Now shut up and fuck me! You have a far better use for your mouth I'm sure."

I did my best, but we had to stop when I had to leave to get ready for school. I'm not sure if five hours of slap and tickle was good or bad. Even so, I had to peel her mouth away from my overworked dingus so she could get some sleep. I definitely must think on all this. I really had fun, and bits of me that hadn't cooperated for a dog's age seemed to operate efficiently enough again, but then it wouldn't deflate again as was expected.

A lot of it was Gae, as she was so beautiful and enthusiastic, and I'm sure very forgiving of my inexperience. I was very rusty, but holy shit Batman, it was fun! I dragged Kimbo out of the sack where she was cuddling into Marilyn, and we had a quick breakfast at home. In the car Kim kept staring at me. "You two are really noisy. You like her don't you? Why don't you ask if she wants to see you again? Talk to me, Pop!"

"Don't you think that this is private, between Gae and me?"

"Since when is it ever just you or me? We've always been us. You know very well if you marry someone we will have to both agree. When I lose my virginity, we will have to both agree and you will still give me that lecture on birth control - again - as if that's ever going to be needed. Pop, we don't have a private life away from each other; it's the team and we will always be the team. I don't want it any other way and you don't want it any other way, so what's the kerfuffle? I like Gae. She's nice, sexy, and couldn't care less about those silly scars that worry you so much."

"Just remember, Fatty, that we've both got our hang-ups ... I'm sorry, that is both unfair and cruel. Kimbo, I'm afraid that me being attached to a woman may break us apart, and I'll do anything for that not to happen."