Ro and Alby prided themselves as a shoplifters. Ro had been honing her skill for many years. Big stores, of course, not small ones. She had her principles.
To her delight, Julia turned out to be a very able apprentice, the right mix of cool nerve and care-for-nobody.
‘Want to come to the hardware with me?’ Ro asked. ‘I’m going to get a set of spanners for Petra’s birthday.’
They wore their efficient-home-handywoman smiles and their bib-and-brace overalls, which might have been designed for the purpose, plenty of pockets. Ro checked at the enquiry desk for directions, and stopped there again on the way out to say thank you. That was important, along with buying a small item or two.
‘Don’t ever rush out,’ she explained to Julia. ‘That draws attention. Act normal, walk slowly, smile at people, speak to them.’
On this occasion as she moved along the queue to the cash register, packet of nails in one hand, she was alarmed by a clanking between her legs. Something had slipped. But no one else seemed to hear. Back in the car she pulled several spanners out of her knickers and wiped her face.
‘That was nearly a mistake. Too many things at once.’
Julia had a set of chisels and two paint brushes. They went home and fucked. The adrenaline was always a turn on.
It was sheer bad luck that the Kombi was sick when Ro and Alby wanted to get new pillows from Harris Scarfe. The multi-storey car park opened straight into the bedding department, so they needed a car. They waited till Friday night and borrowed Sue’s.
The shop was busy and they might have succeeded if they hadn’t decided to go back in and get a doona as well. And that might have been okay, too, except that Alby couldn’t resist a set of bright blue sheets. They were hauled off to the office and handed over to the police. The car was stuck overnight in the car park and Sue had to pay a fortune to get it out.
She was furious.
‘Bit obvious don’t you think? One car left on its own all night in the car park and two people carted off for shoplifting. Oh that must be the shoplifters’ car. Oh yes, it’s registered at the same address. Oh yes and look whose name it’s registered in. Oh and look, there are two pillows in it that haven’t been paid for.’
‘Sorry.’
‘I know you do it. I don’t approve but I turn a blind eye. But I am not, NOT, going to be dragged into it in any way. And that includes using my car.’
‘What did they charge you with?’ Petra asked.
‘They didn’t in the end. I hadn’t picked the doona up so I wasn’t in possession of stolen goods. The guy gave me a stern-headmaster warning. Alby has to appear on Monday.’
Alby was duly fined. With the money it took to pay the fine, and to repay Sue for the parking, they could have furnished several bedrooms.
They made it into a good story.
It did mean that Ro’s finances were at a very low ebb, so consequently the Kombi was unrepaired when it was time to go to Victoria.
Gerry picked her up at the station in the familiar ritual. They went home to bed and Ro poured out the story of being carted off to the watch house. To her surprise Gerry was disapproving. They’d never discussed the subject, but Ro assumed that all her sisters were sympathetic, if not doing it themselves.
‘You know what happens,’ Gerry said.
‘What?’
‘They bump up all their prices to cover the loss. So the rest of us pay extra.’
They lay in silence while Ro digested this. Finally she rolled over and tried to wrap herself around a rigid Gerry.
‘Are you okay?’ A pathetic question, since Gerry obviously was not okay.
‘Sorry. I’m a bit lost.’
‘Is it Lark?’ Gerry had finally given Lark to the girls nearby.
‘No. Yes. Maybe. Lark’s okay.’
‘What are the people like?’
‘They’re good. The kids adore her. She’ll do well there. They’ll spoil her rotten.’
Ro slept uneasily and woke to find Gerry already awake. She ran her hand down Gerry’s side hopefully.
‘Your body is gorgeous,’ she murmured.
It was true, she assured herself. For that moment she banished thoughts of any other body.
‘Crap,’ said Gerry. ‘Don’t make fun of me.’
Ro moved back a little so that she could see Gerry’s face. ‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t.’
‘You think I’m a big lump,’ Gerry said.
‘I don’t. I love that you’re big.’
But Gerry clearly did not believe her.
‘Do you have any idea,’ she said, ‘how it feels to be this size?’
‘Powerful?’ Ro said, though her determination to be positive was flagging in the face of Gerry’s black mood.
Gerry snorted. ‘You know I can never go into a public toilet without having at least one woman look sideways at me. Tell me I’m in the wrong place.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘No, I’m not. They don’t always say it out loud. Sometimes they look startled and check the sign on the door.’
‘Well, they’re dumb.’
‘It’s not just toilets. Every little kid says Mummy, is that a man or a woman? And Mummy hushes them up and looks embarrassed. Every person in a shop says can I help you sir? And then they get all flustered and it’s up to me to smile and make it okay for them.’
Ro knew what her mother would say. Perhaps if she grew her hair and bought nicer clothes? She remembered her own fury about Gerry’s clothes. She was embarrassed to find herself agreeing with her mother. Bullshit of course. And anyhow she couldn’t imagine Gerry in nicer clothes. She’d look all wrong in anything but jeans and work shirt. Ro tried to picture her in a dress and failed. She’d look as though she was in drag.
Ro was sorry for Gerry. But she had that heavy deadly feeling in her gut that sorry was not enough. She and Gerry were on the irreversible slippery slope, the terrible sinking slide familiar to anyone who has ever broken up. She couldn’t shake the feeling off.
In the end Gerry spoke the words herself. That was less painful to her than waiting around while Ro dithered.
‘Looks as though it’s over,’ she said as they lay on opposite sides of the bed on the last morning.
‘No,’ Ro said. To say it out loud was to make it real. She didn’t want it to be real. She didn’t want to lose Gerry. In spite of every difficulty, she did not want to lose Gerry.
‘Yes,’ said Gerry sadly. ‘No point pretending.’
Every failure and loss that Ro had ever experienced rose up before her.
‘I won’t let you do this,’ she said, tears oozing out of her eyes.
‘It’s not actually me doing it,’ said Gerry. ‘I’m telling you what I can see.’
‘Is it about Julia? It is, isn’t it?’
‘I guess that’s part of it,’ Gerry said. ‘I don’t want to do multiples.’
‘I’ll end it,’ Ro said wildly, though as she spoke she felt her whole body turn against her in protest. She couldn’t end it with Julia. The attraction was too strong.
‘No, you won’t,’ Gerry said. ‘And anyhow even if you did it would be someone else. Sooner or later. I know that.’
‘No. That’s not true.’ Snot was running down Ro’s face but she was too desperate to care.
Gerry got up, fetched a large hanky from the cupboard and handed it to Ro.
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘It’s been good.’
Ro buried her face in the hanky and howled.
She knew Gerry was right. It was over. Her own tears told her that. They were involuntary tears, the sort that come unbidden when you finally stumble on the truth.
They were gentle with each other through the rest of the day. From time to time Ro dissolved into more tears, but Gerry was dry-eyed and stoic.
They said goodbye that night on the platform, as they had so many times. Ro had a last minute panic and didn’t want to get onto the train. But Gerry was already walking away and didn’t look back.