Free The Bay by Di Morrissey

daughter, why?’
    Billy turned and glanced down the arcade to the Beach Hut, a small shop filled with swimwear, beach accessories, sunglasses, hats and sandals, run by Bonnie. He lowered his voice. ‘Trouble brewing, I predict. I’ve seen it too often . . . I know the symptoms. I went through it a bit myself,’ he said. ‘She’s not there a lot of the time, sometimes a pal turns up and opens the shop for her, but I’ve seen her at the Big Pub more than a little merry.’
    â€˜Paula doesn’t mind you hanging out at the pub?’
    â€˜I shut shop at four if there’s no one coming in. Pick up my winnings from the TAB, have a few ales and head home in time to walk the dog on the beach with Hope. I don’t wipe myself out. I’ve seen young Erica come looking for her mother after school. It’s not the drinking, it’s the kid Bonnie’s hanging out with.’
    â€˜Kid?’
    â€˜Young lover boy, early twenties. Nothing wrong with that,’ Billy was quick to add, ‘but the guy is a loser. A junkie. And have you noticed how Bonnie has changed?’
    â€˜Can’t say I have. Never seen her at school meetings and I don’t spend time in this arcade like you do. Anyway, it’s her business.’
    â€˜Sure, sure it is. But if my daughter was hanging out at her place I’d be worried. No one at home, mother and boyfriend on dope and whatever else. Bonnie can’t handle it. She came up here from Melbourne a few months after me, a straight up and down smart suburban divorcee. Gets bored, buys a business and being lonely she’s a target for the likes of lover boy.’
    â€˜Umm. So how has she changed? You notice these female things.’ Kimberley studied Billy, his rough good looks, heavy shoulders, a nice smile. Never pick him as a hairdresser in a million years. Men liked him too. He had as many male clients as women. Billy was blokey without being butch. Loved the horses, beer and fishing. Idolised his daughter, Hope. He was the sort of man women loved to gossip with and quietly share their feelings. He was known to his men clients as ‘The Bear’, and they found him a sensitive and comforting ear to bend about their problems. They respected the fact that he’d changed his way of life and was open enough to embrace an old culture that helped him in the present. Wasn’t their thing, but if it worked for him, fine.
    Kimberley wondered how much Billy really knew about Bonnie and her little shop down the arcade. She felt slightly guilty she didn’t know the mothers of Matty’s friends very well.
    â€˜Bonnie talks to me,’ Billy continued. ‘She confides a bit. But just look at the way she dresses now. She was always very smart casual, then casual gave way to hippy and then sloppy. The blonde bob has been let go. Now it’s mad curls, she covers the grey with henna . . . the natural look, she calls it. Looks like she’s wearing a bloody bird’s nest. She’s trying to be one of the young guns.’
    â€˜That’s a hairdresser talking. But thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out if there’s a sleepover at Erica’s planned.’
    Their coffees arrived and Billy took a sip before asking, ‘And what news of your old man?’
    Kimberley paused as she thought about Ashok. ‘Probably still has dreadlocks, wearing sandals and a dhoti and omming in some Indian ashram.’
    â€˜Is he into dope and stuff?’
    Kimberley looked at Billy’s earnest face. He could ask those sorts of personal questions without offending.
    â€˜Nah, smoked joints when we first got together. He always seemed spaced out but he’s just one of those quiet, vague kinda guys. That was when he was called Colin, before becoming a Buddhist.’
    â€˜Doesn’t he get in touch with Matty? Teenage girls need their dads.’
    â€˜Hell, Billy, don’t make me feel bad.