June

Sam decided that living close to the city had to be her priority, so she needed to stretch her budget as far as she could. And she wouldn’t really know that until their house was sold. That meant telling the children.

She asked Maxine over for moral support and sat the older two down after Ellie had gone to bed. Sam didn’t want her to witness any of their histrionics. She could tell her once the others had come to terms with it.

‘Move!’ Jessica almost shrieked. ‘Why do we have to move?’

‘Because we can’t afford to stay here.’

‘This is because of Dad, isn’t it?’ Josh muttered grimly.

‘Well, it’s because of a lot of reasons, Josh. Your father’s paying more than his fair share at the moment. But he can’t keep that up indefinitely.’

‘Why not?’ Josh persisted. ‘He’s the one who pissed off.’

‘Josh, mind your language,’ said Sam, trying to sound firm. ‘This house is too big, it’s too much for me to maintain on my own.’

Jessica eyed her sceptically. ‘Do we have to move far? Will I be able to stay at my school?’

Here was the rub. Sam glanced at Max, whose eyes clamoured ‘Don’t look at me’.

‘I need to be closer to my clients, and they live mostly around the city, the eastern suburbs –’

‘So we could move to Bondi!’ exclaimed Jessica, her eyes lighting up.

‘No, we wouldn’t be able to afford Bondi, Jess.’

Her face fell again.

‘What about football?’ said Josh.

‘They play football all over Sydney, Josh.’

‘Yeah, but it’s midseason. I can’t just leave in the middle of the comp.’

‘It’ll be at least a few months before we actually move. You’ll be able to see the season out.’

‘So where are we moving to?’ Jessica whined.

Sam took a deep breath. ‘I’m looking around the inner western suburbs.

‘Where?’ Jess frowned.

‘Places like Leichhardt, or Erskineville, though they’re a little out of our price range.’

‘That’s the other side of the bridge,’ said Josh darkly. ‘It’s friggin’ miles away.’ He got up and walked towards the doorway.

‘Josh . . .’

‘This sucks, Mum,’ he muttered, leaving the room. A minute later they heard his door slam upstairs.

Sam looked back at Jess. She was scowling. ‘So I’m just supposed to leave all my friends?’

That didn’t seem to bother her when she thought they were moving to Bondi.

‘You’ll make new friends –’

‘Oh right, with tea-towel heads?’

‘What?’

‘Tea-towel heads. Mussos. Wogs. Whatever you want to call them.’

‘I don’t want to call them any such thing!’ Sam exclaimed. ‘Don’t speak like that in my house, Jessica!’

‘It’s not your house, Mum!’ she shrilled, standing up. ‘If it was your house, then we wouldn’t have to move!’ She stormed off. They heard her silly rubber scuffs thwacking on the stairs as she ran up to her bedroom.

‘Well,’ Max sighed. ‘That went well.’

Sam looked at her. ‘I can’t believe a child of mine is a racist. I didn’t teach her to be racist.’

‘But did you teach her anything different?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘All your friends and their friends are white middle class. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But they haven’t known any different.’

‘Well I can’t stand that she thinks like that,’ Sam said determinedly. ‘The move will do them good.’