Chapter 4: Bittersweet memories

My name is Rose Hall.-As in Stevie Hall?-She is my mom.

Tess' and Rose's words wouldn't leave his thoughts. They kept repeating in his mind again and again as he was staring out of the kitchen window. He couldn't believe that after all those years he got a message from her. Well, not really from her but from her daughter. He hadn't expected to ever hear from her again. In fact there had been times long ago when he didn't want to have anything to do with her never again.

First he was desperatly waiting for her to call him and after some time he got furious with her because she didn't. He then started to put up with the fact that he was never gonna hear from her again, that she was gone for good. But he had never stopped thinking about her, though.
From time to time he would be wondering where she would be living then. She surely would have a family by then. Kids playing in her garden. A loving husband. He often thought about how she would have looked. If she still had those red curls framing her laughing face. If her eyes were still full of passion and joy.
He would never have imagined that she was a batterd wife at the age of… wait I'm 29. She then has to be 27… He actually would never have pictured her life that way. And he never would have thought that she had a 12 year old who would go hitchhiking all by herself.

"Did you ever think that we might get news from her someday?" Tess interrupted his thoughts.
"I used to believe a long time ago." Alex sighed. He seemed to be captured in his own world, but after a short moment he asked "Is she sleeping at last?" refering to Rose.

Tess nodded. "It's been a very upsetting day for her. For all of us."
Then there was silence again which was interrupted soon, though.

"Hey! Anybody home?" Tess' husband Nick entered the room and immediately went over to his wife to kiss her hello as he always did. He stopped in his movement, though, as he sensed that something was definitly not right. "What's wrong, darlin'?" She looked at him with disbelief in her eyes.
"We've got news from Stevie today."

"Stevie Hall?" Nick couldn't really believe in what he had just heard.
"Well, we didn't talk to her personally. But her daughter visited us today. Rose. Cute girl. She is sleeping upstairs in one of the guest rooms."

"Her daughter? Really?" He was stunned.
Tess nodded. "What did the girl say about Stevie?" Nick asked impatiently wouldn't go on talking. He wanted to know how Stevie was doing. After all she had been like a sister to him when they grew up together, Stevie, Alex, Tess and himself. The four of them used to spend every free minute of their time together. Until Stevie had suddenly and without saying a word left Drover's shortly after her fifteenth birthday. He thought, well, he hoped she'd be doing great living somewhere abroad and that that would have been the reason that she never called but what Alex then told him was a total shock to him.

"The girl said that her stepfather is beating the life out of Stevie Hall." his brother announced calmly. The furious glance in his eyes gave the lie to his coolness, though, and Nick knew that it was just an attempt to try not to lose his composure.

"She came here looking for me to ask for help-" Tess told her husband. "-because Stevie was taken to hospital this morning. Her husband beat her unconsious."

"Unconsious?" Nick asked in disbelief and then in concern "Is she alright?"

Tess nodded. "Under those circumstances. She needed a few stiches on her forehead and she got a mild concussion. She'll need crutches for some time, because she also has a sprained ankle. The doc said she could leave for home in a few days, tough."

"Okay." Nick nodded relieved. "What about the girl? How did she come here?"

"She took the bus from Adelaide to Fisher. She was thinking of hitchhiking, can you believe that? But as luck would have it Alex picked her up at the petrol station there."

"Hitchhiking?" Well, necessity is the mother of invention, but still… "The girl can't be that old to have such a bad idea. How old is she? Six? Maybe Seven?"

"She's twelve." Alex stated wondering what his brother was talking about.

"Twelve?" Nick asked incredulous. "That's ridiculous. Stevie must have had her when she was 15." He said aloud what the two others hadn't even realized yet.

"That was when she left Drover's." Tess threw in and then it came to her mind as a brainwave. "Maybe that's why she left. Because she was pregnant."

Alex looked at her bewildered as if she just had announced that Jesus himself was coming to dinner. O my god!

"Do you think so?" Nick asked his wife. "Then who is the father? It has to be someone from around here, if it is true what you are suggesting. Speaking only for my part I have never caught Stevie having a boyfriend, though, have you?"

Tess shook her head.

She was pregnant. Alex thought and an idea was forming in his mind. She had a baby when she still was a half a child herself.

"Alex?" Nick's voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked at his brother and then at his sister-in-law.

"Sorry. Gotta go.", was all he said as he stormed out of the house leaving a perplexed Nick and Tess behind.