Why Don't People Listen? by Hugh Mackay

Author:Hugh Mackay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2013-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

From Playback to Feedback

‘I told you a sort of lie.’

Kelly is curled up on the sofa, cradling a mug of coffee. Margaret is sitting in her favourite chair, half-reading, half-dozing. ‘Mmm?’

‘I told you a sort of lie.’

Not dozing any longer, Margaret sits up in her chair, then tries to relax herself, aware that this is not a moment to frighten Kelly off with a show of too-intense interest. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’

‘I said I wasn’t pregnant, and that was true, but it wasn’t the whole story. Will you tell Dad?’

‘Tell him what?’

‘I mean, if I tell you what happened, will you tell him?’

‘Are you saying that you wouldn’t want me to? Or that you would want me to? I’m not sure . . .’

‘I don’t want him to tell Mum.’

This is the first time Margaret has heard Kelly refer to Judith as Mum since she moved in. She usually says ‘my mother’ or even, in moments of extremis, ‘Dad’s first wife’. Margaret knows she must tread carefully but feels unsure of herself. ‘If we ask him not to, I’m sure he won’t.’

‘I’m not so sure. I got a horrible email from her.’

Margaret nods and can think of nothing to say.

‘If I tell you what happened . . .’ Kelly is weeping, her words almost inaudible.

Margaret moves to the sofa, sits beside Kelly and puts her arm around her shoulders. ‘If you want to tell me about it, I can’t promise that I won’t tell your dad, but I promise I won’t say anything to him until we’ve worked it out between ourselves. Okay?’

‘The night I came home late, I think I had a miscarriage. I was at Colin’s place and I felt really bad. Cramps and everything. Then I started bleeding. Colin’s mother fixed me up but I made her promise she wouldn’t say anything.’ Long pause.

‘And she hasn’t. You must have felt awful . . . Want to tell me the rest?’

‘That’s it, basically. I was stupid, I know. You don’t have to tell me.’

Margaret tightens her hold on Kelly’s shoulders, saying nothing. Her head is full of appalling questions. She’s never heard of Colin, for a start.

‘Does Damien know what happened?’

‘Oh, Damien.’ That shrug again. ‘I think one of the girls might have told him. Bitch. I’m not really seeing Damien at the moment.’

‘So you feel pretty sure it was a miscarriage. Not just a heavy period?’

‘I think it was. Colin’s mother said it might have been.’

‘And she felt that you were okay? She didn’t think you needed any treatment?’

‘Oh, she said I should see the doctor if I was worried. But everything was . . . well, it wasn’t a big deal, in a way. She’s a chemist. She’s nice. You’d like her.’

‘Kelly, I don’t think I know Colin, do I?’

‘He’s nice, too. You’d probably like him better than Damien.’

‘But he was . . . I mean, was he the boy you were involved with?

‘Colin? God, no. He’s Julie’s brother.’

‘Oh. So . . .

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