Chapter 10: Family Strife

In 1996, eighteen year old Jeremy decided he wanted a little independence away from his 'suffocating' family environment - see Tu and Nu. He had entered the Police Force academy, and then he moved into his sister Gypsy's Woronora house (and her bed, it was like night and day, one of course immediately followed the other), where he permanently remained much to the manipulative Tu and Nu's disgust. As far as David was concerned, as long as his children were happy he was happy, and he had had long private conversations with them on their decision. It had been brought to his notice a few times in his life that a woman in her thirties and a man in his late teens are more sexually compatible than a couple of the same age, so he thought their gamble on their privacy not being intruded into was worthwhile. The two being half brother and sister had no bearing on his thoughts no more than his two daughters becoming his wives.

Councillor/Senior Detective Sergeant Gypsy Newman, already slated to become the uniformed Inspector Newman, proceeded to pump babies out of her womb as quickly as it was physically possible to do so. She was considered lucky by her police workmates that she had her brother boarding with her to help rear the children, as well as a very large supportive family. It had been noted by all the family who knew them, that opposites must attract, as she had absolutely no sense of humour whatsoever, and her brother was the one in the family who used to create all the practical jokes. Chilli powder in the KY for instance, or all the female family's pill packets switched around. He and their father were the only people able to make Gypsy smile.

The boy had been known to make some inappropriate jokes with his older siblings about having sex with his senior officer, which went over like a lead balloon at the time, even though every one of his compatriots would have agreed with him if they had known. Her mother Maria or his, Marilyn, and often both, spent some time in Woronora minding the children when the siblings' shifts went out of sync with their children's upbringing. Their four mothers and father spent the occasional weekend there escaping the mob; they called it 'having some private time'.

Jeremy had decided that enough was enough on the practical jokes though, as chilli powder in the KY is not funny when it is applied to you. Someone very senior in his family had a very long memory, and Gypsy was less than amused. Jeremy retired from the Force after ten years and became a house husband, always being available to his children; by then numbering eight. Their children looked on their mother as their father's girlfriend, who occasionally showed up at one or another birthday party, every other year.

The Thai twins discovered, much to their disgust, that they could do anything they liked within the Newman household as long as the Newmans wanted to do it. Then the seemingly independent individualists all became myopically single-minded and reined them in. What the Thais had mistaken for controlling the family using sex as the leash, they actually learned that the Newmans had always had sex with each other and these two were just two more fresh bodies; grist to the mill as you will.

Rebecca Alison and Katherine Marie, the Possums or The Bookends, moved back into their family home when Jeremy moved out and began creating children at a phenomenal rate. They never asked their father and used the same system as Ida-May. Ida-May let them take her turn after her sixth child, as the medical advice was that the next pregnancy would probably kill her, or she would wish it had. Ida-May went on the pill and used David's body rarely for sex any more, as she was no longer trying to conceive. She now used his body, like Linus' blanket, simply for comfort.

Elizabeth ceased production with a baker's dozen, a frightening effort. Ita had married a council labourer and had produced two fine boys by the time her mother's last, Ronald David, 'Junior', was born.

The family sub-divided the bottom of their property near the water when property prices were at a premium, and then built behind their current house what looked like a mansion, but was in reality a massive boarding house for children in all stages of growth. The 'old house' was the residence for adults without current children or who had all of their children become otherwise independent. It is referred to as the Oldies House by the kids and the orgy house by its inhabitants. The 'new house' is called the Kindergarten by everyone, which is managed by the siblings who are remaining single and bringing their children up the same way. Most of the children were the progeny of David but many were the produce of the sisters' opportune matings with their half-brothers.

It finally happened: the most unlikely event caused by the least likely person. Gypsy had an outside affair. No one has ever described Gypsy as attractive: plain as an adobe brick wall was the most common description, whereas the most common description of the rest of her siblings was attractive to stunningly beautiful. Even her mate Jeremy only admired her for her level–headed demeanour and unflappable disposition. Her father never pictured her that way, but her father tended to see his whole family through rose-coloured glasses. Gypsy was still his own private bundle of joy, and would remain that way even if she was at some time proven to be a chainsaw murderer.

After two years with Jeremy as a house husband and fourteen years of 'marriage', a major rumour began emanating from the less than honest community that Patrick 'Benny' O'Loughlin was having an affair with a senior police officer, and they were being less than discrete. Jeremy's old police mates regularly dropped into his place for a chin wag and a beer and eventually the gossip spread to him. That night Gypsy arrived home just in time to say goodnight to the oldest child Nathaniel. Nat went to bed with that odd expression on his face saying 'who was that strange woman with dad?'

Jeremy poured a beer for them both and told her that Phil Messenger had dropped in and told him that it was almost guaranteed that someone in the local police upper tiers was screwing around with 'Benny' O'Loughlin, who was a reputed drug importer, and was suspected of sharing intel with him; who did she suspect? He didn't know where the fight came from, or even what it was about, but she stormed out of there twenty minutes later in a rage, and the old 'methinks she doth protesteth too much' struck him like a hammer between the eyes.

Jeremy rang his dad and talked over his suspicions. David rang Sammy 'Mouth' Marshall who owed David a favour or two and 'Mouth' shut up like a clam, which basically confirmed the involved parties and the rumour. David called a family conference of all the adults for that weekend, then rang Vera O'Loughlin who he'd known on P & C committees, local charity committees, and everything you can think of to do with the local community self-help brigades. You would have to add to that even the PCYC, as his women and he met 'Benny' and Vera at many of the money raising events. The last, David remembered Gypsy and 'Benny' were in an animated discussion and David even saw Gypsy smile, which struck her father at the time as completely out of character.

On Friday morning Patrick 'Benny' O'Loughlin's body was found stabbed to death, and Vera O'Loughlin was under guard in hospital for medical treatment, charged with murder. Police described it as a homicide and attempted suicide. Gypsy didn't show for the meeting on Saturday and hadn't been to work or at her Woronora home since her confrontation with Jeremy. David's and Maria's first born, Gypsy Alison Newman was brought up on charges of divulging police intelligence to a known criminal and illicitly cohabiting with a person known to police on the next Monday morning; she said she would rather face Internal Affairs and gaol than her family.

Vera was being held in protective custody in a psychiatric ward in St Vincent's Hospital, because she had already attempted to commit suicide twice. She had already near bled out when she and Benny were discovered, and a second time in the hospital itself by picking open the stiches holding her veins together using her fingernails and teeth. She tried it a third time when they allowed her one hand free to eat a meal: from then on she was hand fed though she was refusing all food anyway.

Gypsy was given bail with a one million dollar surety, and who should turn up on his Norton but Dad. God knows where he was able to rake up that kind of money, but he placed into the treasury a certified bank cheque for one million dollars, and they were on the way to the Woronora house ten minutes later. Frankly, even he thought she looked like she had been run over by a sheep's foot roller. She smelled even worse, and he didn't care. Gypsy couldn't look her idolised father in the eye; he just smiled at her, asked her nothing, and gave her the kind of cuddle she had received off him since she was a baby. Why? Because she is his little girl and he loved her with every portion of his being. To David's mind, his children could do no wrong.

The Woronora house was a wasteland. The house was mostly bare, not even the electricity was on. If David hadn't carried the front door key on his key ring they wouldn't have been able to get in. All that was there was a pile of her clothing sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor. Jeremy was not feeling obliged to keep anything belonging to her; everything she personally owned was in one huge pile. She figured she was lucky that he hadn't poured petrol over it all and lit it. Her Dad had picked her up on his bike again, carrying her most necessary clothing which fit into a small suitcase and between their bodies as they rode. Then they transferred to one of the family cars, which he had hidden in a family-owned house in Caringbah, as the garage had a front and a rear roller door entrance to a right-of-way laneway. He hid the bike by riding it into the front door of the house and into one of the bedrooms. In the boot of the car he had brought two empty suitcases, so after a good relieving cuddle and cry her dad did the one thing that the press wouldn't expect. He rode back to Woronora. There she packed everything she could into the new suitcases.

Her next court appearance, supposedly simply a mention, was due in a month: the Police Department weren't in any hurry to air any of its dirty laundry and she has been placed under the personal recognisance of her father. She had to surrender her passport and was not allowed to leave the state or country; other than those restrictions, she could do as she pleased with her father. The press had been all over them until Caringbah and it wouldn't be long until they were being hunted back out at Woronora again.

They left there to find Maria in Manny's old house in Bangor, over the new bridge, and Maria drove David and their daughter to Mascot airport in another car leaving the first vehicle in the Bangor garage. Sydney has a little secret place: Lord Howe Island is a little under two hour flight, about six hundred kilometres towards New Zealand over the Tasman Sea, by longitude, in line with New South Wales' Port Macquarie, and politically in the electoral district of Rockdale, a suburb half way between The Sutherland Shire and Sydney CBD.

There were five passenger planes to the island a week, and other than a long-distance-capable ship, or aeroplane, there is no other way on or off the island. Gypsy had no idea what her oldies were up to, but her mother was one of the least forgiving people she had ever known, and wherever she was being taken to, Mum was in full compliance. One of the family secrets was Maria's heroin addiction while she was carrying Gypsy - not even Maureen or Marilyn knew about it, there being no reason why they should - so all David had to do was point out Maria's own fallibility and Maria became a little less judgemental.