Free Wind in the Wires by Joy Dettman

right to believe that you’re more screwed up than the rest of us.’ She slid his five-pound note into her purse. ‘Maybe it’s a money thing?’
    Filters definitely not working today. He had to swallow it, lumps and all – or spit it out and walk away.
    He swallowed it. ‘The old man bought me a special dispensation at birth, Jen.’
    ‘Margot’s got one too, though I don’t know who paid for hers. I didn’t.’ She breathed deeply as she looked towards the south, the direction a taxi would come from, then to her watch. Took a packet of cigarettes from her pocket, struck a match. ‘I wish someone had bought one for me, or I could curl up in some dark hole and say, “Take this cup away from me”. No one else wants it, that’s the trouble.’ She got the cigarette lit before the flame died, and blew smoke towards the sky.
    ‘Margot has got a severe case of indigestion. She shoved my vegetable knife in to the hilt to let the air out.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘The little fool got herself pregnant to Teddy Hall, one of Harry and Elsie’s boys. She doesn’t want to be pregnant so she’s not. I’ve had her down with me since February and she’s driving me stark raving crazy – her and Raelene both. Vroni told me to shout myself a day off, let Raelene go to her mother for the night and she’d keep her eye on Margot.
    ‘Her doctor partner decided to make Margot listen to the baby’s heartbeat. When he finished with her, she picked up the vegetable knife and shoved it in.’
    Taxi coming. He opened the gate and she walked out to the kerb. ‘Thanks for the loan.’ That was all she said.
    Only one way out of Nobby’s street. Jim leaned on the gate, watching the driver start his three-point turn, knowing that he loved her, why he loved her – because she’d never curled up in a dark hole and given up, and never would. While he’d been hiding from life, she’d been out there living it. Knew he could survive anything if she was beside him.
    The taxi completed its turn. She glanced his way, raised a hand. He was raising his hand in a wave when the hand changed its mind and the wave became the universal sign for ‘stop’.
    Out the gate then. She wound down the window. He opened the door, and she moved over to make room for him at her side.
    *
    They saw the infant as it was being transferred to an ambulance for the ride to Melbourne. Just a glimpse of a squirming scrap with stick-thin limbs and a wrinkled old face – more monkey than human.
    ‘Margot is in recovery. She’ll be fine. The baby is struggling. Its best chance is in the city. It’s a girl,’ Veronica said. ‘Pleased to finally meet you, Jim. Now, I have to get back. Do you want to hang around here for a while, kiddo? They might let you see her.’
    ‘I’ll grab a lift back with you, Vroni.’
    The women walked to the car, side by side, Veronica filling in the hours Jenny had been away, Jim limping behind then. Had Jenny got into the front seat, he would have asked for a lift to the station. She’d got into the rear seat, with him.
    ‘Feel like joining us for dinner?’ Veronica asked.
    ‘Another time, thanks Vroni.’
    ‘Nice meeting you, Jim. I’ve heard a lot about you,’ she said. ‘Have a good night.’ Gone then, into the main building.
    Jenny led the way around the west side of the guesthouse to her rooms. No lock on her kitchen door, not much worth locking in. Plenty of space, though. She filled an electric jug, plugged it in, took half a bottle of milk from a vibrating refrigerator.
    ‘You said Jimmy was born early. Did he look . . .?’
    ‘He was a Hooper,’ she said, as if that said it all. She sawed two slices from a crusty loaf, uneven slices. She looked at one, then tossed it into the bin. ‘Granny used to say that Hoopers had a bad habit of killing their mothers. He got stuck coming out. Doctor Frazer had to drag him out with forceps.’
    She sniffed and sawed off another slice of bread, little better than the last, then