We arrived home from school one day to see a police car parked outside the house. When we walked in, a police woman was sitting at the kitchen table with Mum. One of Twin's friends and shoplifting buddies had been caught and she had named everyone in their gang. While I stood there feeling sick with fear, my sister calmly told the woman it was all a lie and invited her to search our room, knowing she wouldn't find her hiding spot. She told us that wasn't necessary, apologised for disturbing us and left. Twin was a very good liar!
Our 16th birthday rolled around and for the first time we had a party with invited guests! Our cakes were two matching hearts on a large board and Dad filled an enormous punch bowl with one bottle of red wine, one bottle of white wine, a large can of fruit salad then topped the mixture off with a bottle of ginger ale and one of lemonade. All the kids loved the "fruit punch", to the point where they were chewing on the fruit in the bottom of the bowl. I guess none of their parents thought it was appropriate to feed alcohol to 15/16 year olds? Unknown to anybody at the party, Twin was already one month pregnant. When she realised her predicament, she made me swear not to tell our parents. I don't know what Twin was thinking or whether she was in denial, just hoping it would all go away but she should have kept her mouth shut at school. Someone told the Head Monster, who promptly phoned Dad and told him to come to school to collect his pregnant daughter. Imagine hearing that kind of news over the phone? Mum and Dad were floored, unable to understand why Twin had kept it quiet for so long that an abortion was out of the question. They contacted K's parents and were shocked to discover that Twin had told them her parents were alcoholics ... I'm almost sure they were more shocked by this "slander" than they were by her pregnancy!
K was forbidden to see Twin again and she became a virtual prisoner trapped inside the house as Mum and Dad tried to hide the "shame" of her pregnancy. Mum actually said "What will the neighbours think!". When we would go out for a drive, Twin was hustled out to the car bundled up in an over-sized coat. She picked the perfect day to go into labour, my only day off in the middle of my final exams, 7th November 1968. She woke me up early as she tried to cope with the pains and I woke our parents. They left me at home and rushed her to the hospital. Later that night, they arrived home to tell me Twin had given birth, with the assistance of forceps, to a large 8lb+ baby boy called R. Mum had warned the nurses that Twin was not to see the baby, because he was being given up for adoption, but they had placed the baby into Twin's arms and she became hysterical, refusing to give the baby up. I don't know how, but Mum forced her to give R away ... and I think something broke in Twin after that event.
Mum and Dad told me to lie when questioned at school about the birth; I had to tell everyone the baby died! I couldn't understand their reasoning, but it didn't really matter because as soon as grade 10 finished for me, I went home and created a bonfire in the back yard to burn all my books and uniforms. We then packed up and moved to our first, purchased, newly built house in Mt Gravatt.
______________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment