The Fence (24 page)

Frankie twists around. Where are Brandon and Silver? Why is she the one forced to sit here and listen to this?

Mrs Rayner waits until she's regained Frankie's undivided attention before continuing. ‘I have explained to Amber that using physical means to get what you want is not the Kuring-gai Public School way. Is she the same at home? With her siblings?'

Frankie draws herself straighter, these little chairs are killing her lower back. ‘Amber is a natural leader but as the eldest that's hardly surprising.' But she wonders whether the strains on their marriage have led to this. Right now it is Silver who is being nasty but it is Amber who is in trouble. Are they both acting out their fear that their home is broken?

The teacher raises an eyebrow. ‘And as the leader, how does she normally manage conflict between herself and her brother and sisters?'

Frankie reflects on this question. It's hard for her to know exactly what goes on at home. Brandon is closer to the children's day-to-day behaviour than she is. Though he always complains that the kids are different when she's around, as if she is some special visitor they must be on their best behaviour for and lavish with their attention. He says Mondays are the worst since they've had Frankie home over the weekend. Bijoux finds it hard to settle for her nap, apparently. But Brandon exaggerates. Bijoux is such an easy baby, loves her daytime naps, eats everything. She worries that Brandon's lack of adult inter­action means he invents problems with the children to impress his value upon her. It's hard to reconcile Brandon's version of the children with how they are when she's around. And to be honest, the political intrigues of the canteen mothers or literacy groups just aren't interesting. Now it seems that Mrs Rayner is inferring that the twins might be different children when they are at school.

‘Mrs Desmarchelliers?'

Frankie blinks. ‘I'm sorry, could you repeat that?'

The teacher frowns. ‘Aside from her behavioural issues, today Amber came to school with a knife in her bag.'

Frankie laughs. What a ridiculous notion.

Mrs Rayner shakes her head. ‘I'm serious, Mrs Desmarchelliers. A knife fell out of Amber's schoolbag when the children fetched their crunch and sip containers after literacy groups.'

Frankie realises she's serious. ‘A knife. Like a proper knife?'

‘Well, not a kitchen knife. Here let me show you.' Mrs Rayner unlocks her desk drawer and removes a cylindrical tube. She removes sticky tape and wads of tissue paper before tilting the tube and sliding out the knife.

She's right, it's not a kitchen knife. The top surface is curved, the blade slotted into a wooden handle where three brass pins hold it in the shaft. The blade itself is thick, smooth-edged, workman-like.

The teacher looks past Frankie. ‘Where would Amber find such a knife?' she asks Brandon.

Brandon lets go of Silver's hand and takes the knife from the teacher. ‘It's a hunting knife,' he says. ‘A very good one. You can just make out the insignia on the blade.' He holds the knife out for them to see. ‘It's a Swedish brand called Erik Anton Berg. This knife is really old, like from the 1950s or something. My dad collects them.'

‘But we haven't seen your parents in ages and your father keeps his knives under lock and key. Where would Amber find this?' says Frankie.

‘More to the point,' Brandon sits, balancing the knife in his hand, ‘what's she doing bringing it to school?'

Mrs Rayner says, ‘She said she wanted to show it to the class for news day.'

Frankie stands, the chair is almost as painful as Mrs Rayner's revelations. ‘Did she say where she found the knife?'

‘She said she just found it,' here Mrs Rayner hooks her fingers, ‘lying on the ground.'

‘But lying on the ground where? At home? Here at school?' Frankie glances at Amber who remains in the free play area pretending to read a book.

Mrs Rayner lowers her voice. ‘I don't think Amber is being completely truthful. Look at that knife. It has no rust on it, the blade is worn smooth. She hasn't found this lying on the ground. Someone uses this knife all the time.'

A furious heat rises in Frankie's cheeks. The teacher is right, Amber did not find it lying around. ‘May we take the knife?' she says.

‘Please do. Even locking it in the drawer bothers me.' Mrs Rayner returns it to the tube and stuffs the tissue paper on top before handing it to Frankie who passes it to Brandon.

Frankie says, ‘I'm sorry Amber thought it was appropriate to bring a knife in for show and tell. Obviously we'll talk to her about that.'

*

‘I thought you said Amber was dressing up as an astronaut?' Frankie seethes at Brandon as they hurry across the playground.

‘She changed her mind. Said that Billy P came as one on Monday and his mum had made him a proper helmet and everything out of a plastic fish bowl and alfoil.'

Amber and Silver race ahead, shouting goodbye to their friends as they pass.

‘But didn't you discuss it? Come up with an alternative?'

Brandon pulls a face at her. ‘Of course I did. I suggested she go as a scientist instead. I bought her a white coat and some big glasses and showed her how when you mix bi-carb and vinegar it whooshes up and makes a loud fizzing sound. Something to impress the kids. What? Why are you looking at me like that? It's harmless.'

Frankie stops. ‘Brandon, it's supposed to be something simple. They're five. We have a dress-up box. She could have been a clown, a princess or a bloody fireman, person, whatever. No effort, easy.'

Brandon flushes. ‘I was trying to make it interesting for her. You know, so she might learn something.' So typical of Frankie to put him down. Everything he did was wrong. One brief week of respite in Byron Bay and as soon as she headed back to work, this Frankie re-emerged. And he'd been dumb enough to think there was a chance they were heading back to safer waters.

Typical of Brandon to overcomplicate the simplest of tasks so he gets to be the big hero. A scientist for heaven's sakes. She says, ‘So where did the knife come into it?'

Brandon shrugs. ‘She refused to be a scientist. She said she had a better idea.'

They walk on in silence. In the car, Amber teaches Silver a complicated hand game which involves much chanting. As annoying as it is, it provides a convenient excuse for neither Brandon or Frankie to say anything more on the way home, until after dinner time.

‘You know whose knife it is, don't you?' Frankie says, the moment she closes Marigold's bedroom door.

Brandon is stacking the dishwasher. He's been waiting for Frankie to raise the knife and twist things around so she can criticise his parenting, again. Or blame the neighbours. He says nothing. What's the point?

Frankie will not be put off by his silence. Enough is enough. ‘I bet you it's Mr Hill's.'

Brandon wipes the granite benchtop, then grabs a beer and turns the television onto the Friday night football.

Surprised, Frankie hovers for a moment before announcing she'll run the twins' bath. When Brandon refuses to reply, she leaves the room.

Brandon sighs and turns up the volume. It never ends. It's like this whole fence thing has become a shit magnet. Every time something goes wrong, Frankie's looking for a way to blame the Hills. She seriously needs to wake up to herself before somebody really does get hurt.

Frankie lets Amber and Silver play bubble wars for a while, biding her time before tackling Amber. She decides to sideline the yellow cards for bullying until they've dealt with the knife. Sitting on the toilet seat, she says, ‘Amber, sweetie, where exactly did you find the knife?'

Amber fires a stream of bubbles at Silver's face.

‘Stop it, I don't like it,' he yells.

God how Frankie hates the way Gumnut drilled these expressions into the children.

Frankie takes the gun off Amber. ‘Amber, I asked you a question.'

Amber lies in the water so her hair fans out around her, stretching her legs straight and pushing Silver into the corner of the tub. Little bubbles rise to the surface.

‘Amber!' Frankie shouts.

Amber hears her, Frankie knows she does, but takes her time resurfacing. ‘Sixty seconds, Mummy,' she says proudly, although even ten seconds would be generous.

Frankie grabs her arm. ‘Amber, sit up straight and answer the question. Where did you find the knife?'

Amber won't give in. She picks up the bottle of Hush Hush Bath Bubblez and squirts some into her hands. ‘In the garden, Mummy,' she says, as if it is the most normal thing in the world to find knives littered about the yard like autumn leaves.

Frankie snatches the squeezy bottle off her. ‘Where in the garden?'

‘On the path.'

She feels like she's having the same conversation with Amber time and again. First over the chocolate, then the open gates and now this. Once again, her instincts tell her what Amber is saying is untrue. Frankie thinks of the skateboard that mysteriously appeared on the front porch. Amber said she'd found it abandoned in the gutter. A brand new skateboard, just lying there. Now they have a knife to deal with.

She's getting tired of Amber's evasiveness. Placing her fingertips under Amber's chin, she forces her eldest daughter to look her in the eye. ‘Amber, you really must tell Mummy the truth. Imagine if Marigold had picked it up. She could have really hurt herself.'

Amber wriggles free. ‘I told you already, Mummy.'

Frankie tries a few different questions but Silver starts complaining he is cold and Amber refuses to answer.

As she dresses the twins and puts them to bed, Frankie turns the problem over in her head. Whichever way she looks at it, she comes to the same conclusion. When she returns to the lounge room, she hits mute on the remote control and says to Brandon, ‘There's only one logical place that knife could have come from, Brandon. I doubt very much someone walked past our house and thought, “I know, I'll throw this perfectly good knife over the fence.” It was planted there.'

Brandon doesn't think her solution is logical at all. ‘Planted there? This isn't a crime scene, why would someone hide a knife in our garden?'

‘Precisely. It's got to be the Hills, I'm sure of it. It's their way of retaliating for the article in the
Northshore Advocate
.'

Brandon eyes the screen where Brett Stewart is once again performing magic for the Sea Eagles. ‘That's kind of a stretch, Frankie,' he says. He wouldn't really blame the Hills if they were upset about the article. After Peanut died, Frankie thought a personal and public attack the perfect revenge. To be fair, he'd agreed, until he saw it in print and realised how petty and cruel they had been. All because Frankie finds it hard to let go. There's no point raising that with her though, not unless he wants his head bitten off, again. Instead he says, ‘Mrs Hill is a recycling nut, as if she'd throw away a perfectly good knife. She's nosy, not crazy.'

Frankie warms to her theory. ‘You're right. They threw the knife into the garden, knowing that in all likelihood one of the children would find it. Hoping they'd pick it up by the blade and cut themselves.' As the potential horror rises in front of her, she adds, ‘Amber could have lost a finger.'

‘There'll be prints on it if that's the case,' Brandon says, fetching another beer, squinting as he watches the replay of the last try.

Frankie knows she's being dismissed. Brandon may not think this is serious but she does. She will not let this go. As he turns the sound back on, Frankie calls the police.

Outback + Outdoors

In the Garden with Gwen Hill

Despite the warm weather, the shorter days and cooler nights remind us that winter is around the corner. However, the soil will stay warm for some weeks yet, making this the perfect time to plant bulbs. There is something wonderfully optimistic about planting out bulbs knowing that, whilst the winter blues might get you down, in the garden these little balls of joy are readying to burst into action.

The best way to plant bulbs is in drifts. Throw a handful around and plant them where they land. If you like, you can plant bulbs in bowls for future gifts or to bring indoors to brighten the house. Simply find a bowl deep enough to fit a number of bulbs; one without drainage holes is perfect. Layer the base of the bowl with peat then cram the bulbs in before filling the bowl with moist peat so the tips of the bulbs are well covered. Once you're done, plant the bowl in the garden and cover with sawdust. As soon as the leaves and flower buds poke their way through, lift the bowl, brush off the dirt and carry it inside for a lovely early display. It can be helpful to mark the spot where you do this, especially if you have prepared multiple bowls, so you don't forget where you've put them and accidentally stick your spade in where it's not wanted!

Tip of the month

Nothing says autumn more than the glorious displays of colour as leaves turn into fiery yellows, oranges and reds. When the leaves start falling, make sure you keep them off lawns and use them to mulch your garden beds to warm the soil over winter. Most importantly, remember to check gutters and drains. Clear out any debris so that the autumn rains don't cause water damage inside and out of the home. If your drainpipes are blocked simply sticking your garden hose down them will flush them out. Adding 100 millilitres of neat bleach can also help unclog drains. Don't forget the drains on the ground too. Make sure they remain free of clutter and when the welcome autumn rains arrive, you know you'll be safe and dry.