Everything is Perfect by Maxine Fawcett

Author:Maxine Fawcett [Fawcett, Maxine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

I’m having the dream again, but this time it’s more vivid. Chris is lying on a bed and I’m naked and touching myself in front of him.

I open my eyes. I’m still in the tent, with a cramp in my left foot. I shake my leg inside my sleeping bag. It doesn’t help. There’s no room to stand, so I try to sit, nudging the canvas above.

‘Morning, Mum,’ yells Danny from the compartment next door.

‘Sshh . . .’ I reply. ‘You’ll wake everyone.’

‘He already has.’ Jon shuffles and the nylon smoothness of his sleeping bag slides towards mine, creating a charge of static in the enclosed space. He’s got red-wine lips and his eyes are bloodshot.

‘I’m going outside, Mum.’ I hear Danny undo the long zip on the main door.

‘Hey, sweetheart, come closer.’ Jon reaches out and grabs my waist with his hand. My voice is rushed.

‘Ellie is —’

‘Come on,’ he tries again. ‘I’ll be very quiet.’ Despite the hangover he’s got his horny face on. His eyes are half shut. I wiggle towards the door like a worm. My temple is rippling, and I can still taste last night’s garlic sausages.

‘What’s for breakfast?’ he asks, sitting. All thoughts of sex seemingly gone in an instant.

I’m not going to ruin the morning by confronting him on why breakfast is apparently my responsibility. ‘I’ll go check,’ I say. ‘Leo will have it sorted, I’m sure.’

I unzip our compartment. Danny has left the main door gaping open, inviting in all kinds of insects. I stumble out. Two blue and green Lorikeets are pecking at the ground under the table and two more swoop down from a nearby gum tree. Danny is wearing his cow onesie despite the warming day and is poking a very sharp stick in the remains of the fire. I’m so knackered, I can’t even be bothered to ask him to stop.

Leo materialises and stretches his arms high. ‘This camping lark really makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?’

I laugh and remove some sleep from one eye. Tabby appears too, wearing shortie pyjamas and thongs. Her skin in its completely natural state is not quite as bright as it usually seems, she has dark rings under her eyes. She wraps her arms around her husband’s waist.

‘Hey, lover,’ Leo whispers. ‘Would you like a cuppa?’

‘Wonderful, L.’ She kisses his shoulder through the cotton of his t-shirt. ‘You manage to sleep, Cass?’

‘For about three minutes,’ I reply.

‘Me too. Meanwhile hubby says he had the best night’s sleep in a year. You fancy a tea?’

‘Yeah, thanks.’

Leo gives me a thumbs up, places the kettle on the small gas stove and lights it with a match.

‘I’m buggered,’ admits Tabby. ‘Camping has me feeling deader than the deadest thing I can think of.’

‘You’re right,’ I agree, falling into the camping chair. ‘Flattened three-day-old roadkill is more alive than I am right now.’

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