"Mum we don't have any milk! Or teabags!"
"Don't you shop?"
"Do your own grocery shopping stop taking ours!"
"Pass the Vegemite".
"Toast is burning!"
"Can I'va nana?"
"Toast!"
"I can't hear the news".
"Someone pass me the Vegemite, please".
It was seven a.m, and as usual the Rafter house was chaos. Coffee was brewing, the kettle was boiling, and the usual argument about how their neighbours didn't do their grocery shopping was in full force.
Julie had thought that her life couldn't have possibly gotten any more chaotic. Her then twenty five year old had left her abusive partner to move back into her childhood bedroom, her twenty one year old and his wife had moved back into his childhood bedroom (complete with the bunk bed and Star Wars posters, much to Sammy's amusement), and her father had moved into her middle child's bedroom, once the middle child was on the other side of the Colourbond (the same neighbours that didn't do his grocery shopping).
It had been a wild ride. Especially after their surprise baby, little Ruby Louise (born twenty three years after Nathan) arrived.
She was three, and their lives were even crazier.
"Ben, do your groceries", Julie instructed. "Someone's toast has popped, who wanted Vegemite? And of course you can have a banana, darling". She reached into the fruit bowl, beginning to peel the banana for the youngest. "Is that everything?"
"Fanks Mummy".
A rare silence fell over the kitchen, and Julie sighed, glancing around.
She wouldn't change her life for the world. But it was definitely crazier than the one she had signed up for.
"Bennnnnnnnn!"
Rachel's voice echoed through the bottom story of the Calamari Castle and Ben came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. Halfway down, he stopped, because Rachel was holding Ruby to her hip and dragging Nathan by the back of his jacket.
"What's going on?" he asked suspiciously.
Rachel had always been one to call family meetings, or at least family meetings between her siblings. They had been interventions against babysitters they hated, or ploys to get them out of trouble (usually caused by Ben, he was very aware of that) or planning things that they knew their parents would approve of. And now apparently she was dragging their poor innocent baby sister into things.
"Family meeting", Nathan said, breaking free of Rachel's grip. "Her idea".
Rachel plopped Ruby on the couch and Ben chucked her cheek, making the little girl giggle.
"Mum and Dad are coming up to thirty years", Rachel said, and Ben nodded.
"Wait; hold on, it's only twenty eight this year. Just chill", Nathan interrupted. "We don't need to start planning immediately".
"We do if we want to send them to the one place Dad's always wanted to take Mum", Rachel informed them.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm confused, what are we doing?"
"We're sending Mum and Dad to Rome for their thirtieth anniversary".
"We're doing what now?"
"Roma?"
"No not Roma, Queensland, Rome, Italy".
"You want us to send Mum and Dad to Italy?" Nathan said in disbelief. "Are you insane?"
"She's insane, she's definitely insane".
"Why, Rachel?"
"Because Mum's wanted to go to Italy forever, and has never had the chance and they were probably going to go after Ben moved out, only I broke up with Daniel and Nathan and Sammy moved back and Granddad moved in, and then Ruby was born".
(It had been a crazy few years. Saying it like that only determined how packed their lives exactly were.)
"We're sending Mum and Dad to Italy, whether they like it or not".
They were quiet for a moment, processing Rachel's words.
And then Ben nodded in agreement, heaving Ruby into his lap. "Alright, how are we doing this?"
Rachel pulled a piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans, laying it out on the coffee table. "One step ahead of you Benny".
"Let's do this", Nathan said firmly. "We're sending Dave and Jules to Italy".