The Taroona Incident by Elizabeth Long

Author:Elizabeth Long [Long, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Busybird Publishing
Published: 2022-04-20T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

In 1960 Rebecca and Tim started high school. Kathleen, as always, provided all Rebecca needed for her education.

The two young students found secondary school a bit confusing to start with. There were different teachers for different classes, for instance. There were time schedules and different classrooms for each subject. After a couple of weeks, they became familiar with how it worked and started to lap up all that secondary school offered. By all accounts this was a very good school and all pupils benefited from the subjects being taught and for the best of staff teaching them. One thing stood out – it was the encouragement to become independent thinkers and to take responsibility for homework, attendance and uniform.

Another new event took place in Hobart that year: television. It was not yet in their households but some of their friends had a set. Occasionally they were permitted to view a show on the weekend. It was an exciting time. Some pleading took place but it was quite a while before their own families relented.

By the time Rebecca and Tim were promoted to year five they had gained the reputation for being studious and responsible young adults who passed all chosen subjects very well indeed. Out of school times though, they played Beatles music. Both had record players and they, along with teenagers around the world, were swept up by this sensation. Parents and grandparents alike were worried and suspicious of this new scene. The group never promoted it but listening to them seemed to go hand-in-hand with smoking and drinking alcohol.

Bec and Timmy (as they were referred to by their peers) went along to a party held by a student friend whilst his parents were away for the weekend. They smoked a cigarette and drank some beer along with the others. Tim was sick outside and Rebecca wasn’t far behind. It was a lesson they never forgot. Rebecca had a smoke now and then at any party they attended but Tim abstained from it altogether. It was the only time they argued. He disapproved of her smoking at all.

Kathleen was now fifty-nine years old and still working hard at the shop. She continued to miss Harold; he was the only man in her life and she would never re-marry. Her hair was starting to grey and a few wrinkles appeared around her eyes but her beauty remained.

Rebecca’s father John had left two weeks after Harold’s funeral. He wrote Lillian a note saying he didn’t want this marriage anymore and said he was going to Launceston to start a new life. He took the car he had never paid off. He didn’t apologise for that or anything else, for that matter. Lillian and Kathleen weren’t surprised and Rebecca didn’t care at all. Shortly after, Lillian and her daughter moved in with Kathleen and remained there.

Lillian had the occasional suitor. She loved going to dances with them and some seemed to be serious. But none lasted for long. They found

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