Free Henry’s Daughter by Joy Dettman Page A

towards the twins. Mavis blocks her with her bulk and Eva backs off.
    â€˜We’re booked into the motel for the night, Henry. We’ll discuss this again in the morning. Come, boys.’
    â€˜They’re staying where they belong. It’s youwho is leaving.’
    â€˜Oh, you know me better than that, darling.’ That ‘darling’ sounded like a curse word, but every word coming out of the sisters’ mouths is a curse. ‘You certainly know me better than that.’
    Then Mavis is a combine harvester coming to mow Eva down. ‘I know you too bloody well, don’t I? And that’s the trouble. I know you and that old bitch were too money hungry to leave that houseand find a bit of bloody pride. I know you hated my guts from the day I was born, too. I know a lot about you, Eva.’ The harvester has picked up a slashing blade from the bench. ‘Get! Before I shove this through the bloody bankbook you call a heart.’
    Eva is at the brown curtain. Through it she can see the passage leading to the open front door, but she’s not going anywhere until her possessionsare out, and those twins are on the far side of Mavis and her carving knife.
    â€˜You have the audacity to call this hovel a house. Do you really think you can take those boys away from me now, bring them back to this , let them rot here with the rest of you? Dear God. You don’t know me at all, Mave.’
    â€˜Do you want me to tell the kids what I do know?’
    â€˜You’re repulsive. You’re an insult to womanhood.If Mother could see what you’ve come down to, she’d roll over in her grave.’
    â€˜And if it had been up to me, she wouldn’t have had a bloody grave to roll over in. I would have left her to fossilise on the garbage dump like the hard old piece of pill-popping shit she always was. Get out!’
    Words are flying backwards and forwards now, words dredged from the past Lori can no longer follow, thoughshe’s trying hard. The twins, fingers jammed into their ears, are looking from Eva to Mavis, from Mavis to Henry. Then the harvester heads for them and they’ve got enough sense to get out of the way. They go under the kitchen table with Neil and Timmy.
    It’s a bomb shelter with strong metal legs, a house within a house. It’s spare, unused floor. Lori has done her share of time beneath that tableand today looks like a good time to see if she’s still small enough to fit.
    Eva’s high-heeled shoes make ground back to the table. They are almost toe to toe with the flattened scuffs. Then they head them off at the pass, giving the twins a clear pathway out the back door.
    â€˜Out to Alice, boys!’ Eva yells. ‘Run for your lives!’
    Those twins have been well trained. They make their break for freedomfrom either side of a table leg. And they’re through the door and running, until one falls over Mick’s bike parts and sprawls on the verandah, lies there and bellows.
    â€˜Help me, someone,’ Mavis yells. She slams Eva against the table, beats her to the door. No one is helping her, so she’s helping herself. She’s slow moving, but if she’s going through a doorway, there is no room for anyone elseto get by. And she’s on the verandah, dragging the bawling twin up by his arm; he’s probably split his head open, but she gets his head and his shoulders captured beneath her arm while Eva screams for Alice and the chooks cackle and squawk and Murphy’s dogs over the road want to eat meat but can’t get off their chains to party.
    Eva is running down the drive, looking for her reinforcements whilethe captured twin screams and his other half is bundled head first into the rear seat of the car.
    â€˜Get the other one!’ Mavis yells. All Henry is doing is trying to remove the captured twin from Mavis’s armpit. He might get the body, but he won’t get the head.
    â€˜You can’t do