Free Lisdalia by Brian Caswell Page B

mother as she picked up the phone. She looked terrified.
    â€œHello?” She sounded like a little girl.
    She said nothing else. She didn’t need to. The way she nodded her head, and the look of incredible … relief that spread across her face said it all.
    â€œRight away … thank you.” As she hung up the phone the tears started.
    â€œMama —” I began, but she cut me off.
    â€œHe is awake. Just a few minutes ago, he opened his eyes … and spoke.” She leaned against the kitchen work-bench. Her eyes were streaming, but that smile; I had never seen …
    â€œWhat did he say?” My mouth asked the question, not my brain. My brain was racing off on a track of its own.
    â€œThey don’t know.” She giggled. “No one there speaks Italian!”
    At that moment, Miss Vegas arrived at the door. She was supposed to be taking us to the University; Dad had always distrusted women drivers, so Mum had never learned, and Miss V had said it was too far to go by train at night, so why didn’t we go with her?
    Before I knew it, they’d had everything arranged.
    Obviously, there was no way that Mum could go with us now, but she and Miss Vegas insisted it would be better if I still went. It was my big night, and … on and on.
    I didn’t want to go; I wanted to be with Mum. And Dad. But sometimes, it’s better not to fight the inevitable.
    She needed to see him. To see how he was. Alone.
    Miss Vegas packed me into the car and headed off, leaving my mother on the doorstep, waiting for the taxi. As we turned the corner, I watched her out of the rear window. The light over the door was shining down onto her black hair, and it shone like a halo. And as we rounded the curve, moving down the hill towards Elizabeth Drive, just before she passed from sight, I saw her shoulders droop, and she leaned her tired head against the doorpost.
    â€œâ€¦ She smiles,
And speaks his name
Aloud. ”
    I finished reading and there was a moment of silence before the polite applause began.
    The lecture theatre was filled with the other finalists and their families and friends, so there was a battle between wanting to sound like good sports, and being a little disappointed at not winning. I guess I would have felt the same.
    Except that I’d won.
    The professor who had presented me with the medal was saying how pleased he was with the entries, and how next year …
    But I didn’t hear any of it.
    I looked across at Miss Vegas. She held up the envelope which contained the five hundred dollar book voucher — which did make Mr Parnell very happy — and I held up the one containing the trip tickets.
    She was smiling, and I guess I was too. I had every reason to be.
    But the words of the poem were still going around and around inside my head, and I tried to force back the vision of my father, trapped forever in a world of Creature dreams, trapped in the shadows he had always driven back, unable to move upwards into the light.
    The speeches were over. I slipped the medal into my pocket and moved off the stage to join Miss Vegas and the others for supper.

22
    TANJA’S STORY
    They kept Mr P in hospital a fair while, looking for side-effects, but he was fine. And Lisdalia’s prize came in real handy.
    The factory gave her mum some time off during the September holidays, and the three of them flew up to Queensland and did all the touristy things — Dreamworld, Movieworld, Noosa: the lot. Lisdalia brought me back this daggy hat from the Big Pineapple, and she keeps threatening to make me wear it. And I keep threatening to show Michael the picture she had taken with the life-saver on Noosa Beach. I sort of … borrowed it — for insurance.
    Of course, her mum isn’t working any more. As soon as he could (which was much sooner than the doctor wanted), Mr P got back to work, and so far, he’s doing fine. Scratch one career in