Free Henry’s Daughter by Joy Dettman Page B

this, Mavis,’ Martin says, goes to assist Henry. She thumps him with her free elbow, curses him and Henry for a pair ofblind fools, then heads for the bathroom, dragging the twin with her. It’s got the only door with a key, and she’s in, throwing her weight against that door, she’s turning that key.
    Martin and Henry have a go at twin retrieval by trying to go in through the bathroom window. She slams it down, almost takes the first knuckle off Martin’s thumb. He probably won’t be doing any bricklaying for thenext week.
    Eva is in the drive and she’s bawling but there’s no help to be gained from Alice and the solicitor. They’re in the car and it’s moving, one twin safe in the back seat.
    â€˜Get in, lass. Get in,’ Alice urges.
    Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush? Eva looks at the house, sees, hears bedlam. She cuts her losses and runs after the moving car.
    It looks as if one of Henry’s twinshas come home.

The Freedom Fighter
    No one has cooked any stew. It’s after six o’clock and that twin is still screaming. He’s doing it in the kitchen now because two hours ago Henry and Martin went around to the motel to talk to Eva, so Mavis came out of the bathroom to heat up her chicken and roast potatoes while standing guard over that twin and not letting anyone else in the kitchen. She’s armed withher whip now. No one wants a dose of that so they’re giving her plenty of space.
    The twin is under the table again and he’s going to sit there and scream until Eva comes back. He’ll be ten in a few weeks time but you’d think he was about three because he’s wet his funeral pants. No one knows which one he is, either; Mavis couldn’t get his pants off to see if his mole is on the right or left sideof his bum. All of the kids are outside, even the little ones. Most of the neighbours are out too, watering their gardens so they can get an earful.
    Donny comes home from work around half past six and doesn’t know what’s been going on, but he says that the cops will be coming around here in a minute. He could hear that kid screaming from up at the corner. He’s not treating Mavis as if she’s gotthe plague, though, so they sort of get their heads together, get her Valium down from the top cupboard over the sink and crush a tablet between two spoons, mix the powder in condensed milk, then Donny grabs the twin from behind, drags him free of table legs and Mavis forces the spoon into his mouth, which isn’t hard to do because it’s sort of open in a never-ending scream. He gags and chokes,but he swallows some of the concoction and ten minutes later he’s zapped. Donny picks him up and they put him into Neil’s bed.
    The silence is so good, until Henry and Martin come home and Mavis has to go in and sit guard on the bed while she feeds Matty. She’s not modest about breast-feeding, but Martin is, because it is a seriously awesome sight – Nelly makes those tents with buttons on theshoulders instead of down the front. Martin waits until she’s buttoned before he tries kidnap. A lot of cruel stuff is being said, but the twin isn’t hearing it; nor is Henry, who is outside rounding up the rest of the kids, except for Greg and Vinnie, who are long gone. He finds Timmy asleep on Nelly’s front lawn and he puts him to bed down one end of the lounge room while Mavis and Martin are stillgoing at it at the other end.
    Donny, who has been back to the supermarket for bread and cold meat and stuff, starts making a pile of sandwiches, and saying he’s going to murder Martin if he gets that twin screaming again. He’s been at work all bloody day and he’s come home to bedlam and nothing to eat. And it’s bloody Sunday tomorrow, and Martin might be able to piss off out to his girlfriend’splace but Donny has to work again, so everybody just shut up their yelling and come out