Free Life is a Parallel Universe by Alexa Aella

Chapter 1 .

    It was early
morning and the sun’s heat was a live and growing thing: competing
for space and air. On this day, early in the morning of February 3,
1980, three girls would start their very first day at school. Girls
who had never met before but whose lives would be lived in a
parallel universe of time.
     
    As we gaze down
benevolently upon these girls, whom you shall soon meet, we will
see them leaving their beds, eating breakfast and brushing their
teeth; things which are done every day all over the country and
indeed throughout the luckier parts of the world.
     
    Turn your eyes
toward the two story brick veneer home of Lisa White, as her
mother’s car leaves the stencilcrete driveway: a screech of
expensive tyres. Look closely and you can see the pooling, dark
eyes of the cleaning lady, Maria, watching the pair disappear into
the haze of heat, from behind the Harmony blinds; the current
fashionable pink shade, of course. Maria turns away to begin her
little paid job cleaning the house. This place must shine by the
time Mrs Shona White and her daughter, Lisa return in the
afternoon. Shona perfumed and primped from her day at the beauty
parlour; hair dyed a shade of blonde never seen in nature. And
Lisa: how will she be after her first day at “big” school? We will
have to wait and see.
     
    Lisa adjusts
the straps of her pink school bag, decorated with fake, shiny
diamonds and hearts. A bag, bought after much research by her
mother. It is the latest and most desirable, ‘must have’ school
bag. Lisa flicks her ash blonde hair away from her face and blinks
her rather pallid blue eyes. She is not beautiful; her nose is too
long and her eyes have a sharpness to them which is unnerving. She
doesn’t know this, however. And that is what is important.
     
    We watch Lisa
listen carefully, to the top forty songs being played on the most
popular radio station in town and see her relax for a moment
against the soft, brown leather in the top of the range Holden
Commodore: complete with matching electric, blue spoiler. The
perfect car for a Newcastle princess. For a moment, through the
glass, there appears to be two Lisa’s. But it is just a trick of
the eye.
     
    In 1980,
Newcastle, the one in the Australian state of New South Wales, is
still a town. It is still known for its industry, its coal and its
steel. And, yet, there are those who would snub their nose at such
a place. But, you would go a long way to find a spot more
beautiful. There is a luxury of beaches here and the remnants of a
once prosperous almost stately town. The earthquake that will shake
the town’s core and foundations is a few years away yet. But, now,
let us swivel the eye toward another house, a more ordinary one
this time.
     
    Wheat Bix for
breakfast: same as every morning. Then, the freshly pressed tartan
uniform is planted over a head of hair the colour of a wet tea bag.
Black, polished shoes: hard and unforgiving are pushed on pliable
feet. Sue Brown is ready for her first school day. Ever. Dad and
Mum rush into the family room and the TV is switched off. Thrumming
silence. It’s as if the life of the house goes with NBN. Aromas of
instant coffee and Ajax fill the void.
    ‘No more Romper
Room for you’ says Mum –that is Mrs Brown - with mock sternness.
‘You are a big girl now’. Sue smiles, not sure what her mother
means, but she knows that parents are always right. She is a good
girl.
     
    Photos are
taken. Sue poses, her face like a peach, next to her brother, Ian.
He is only two, but he has that same submitting stare as his
sister. The same brown cow-like eyes. Mum slips the Tupperware
lunch box into the beige Kmart school bag. The doorbell shrills and
Stephanie Strauss, a primary student from next-door appears to
escort Sue to school. Sue marches across the expanse of dust
coloured carpet and waves at her mum and brother ‘love you’ they
all sing mechanically. Did you check as I did for a wind-up key on
her