White Light by Mark O'Flynn Read Free Book Online

would say, guiltily.
    â€˜You bet, girls,’ said Troy with a big burp.
    I would feel happy for being treated like an adult, and Mum would feel happy for being made to feel younger than she actually was. Then, inevitably, she would grow restless, as if the eye of God were glaring at her.
    â€˜Can’t sit around all day. Idle hands and all that. This is not the truth that leads to eternal life.’ She would leave Troy and me on the couch with the indentations of her bones between us.
    4.
    At the Kingdom Hall, the Pioneer took Mum aside and I overheard him ask,‘What does he do, this boyfriend?’
    (You can never keep a secret from the Witnesses.)
    â€˜He works nights,’ said Mum.
    â€˜Doing what?’
    â€˜Oh, a little of this and a little of that.’
    â€˜Is he a Catholic?’
    â€˜No, no, nothing of the sort. He’s very independent.’
    â€˜Satan is the invisible ruler of the world, Elaine.’
    â€˜I know, I know. Terrible people.’
    â€˜Sharon is at an impressionable age.’
    â€˜Sharon is a good girl.’
    â€˜Without a father to guide and instruct her.’
    â€˜I can’t help that.’
    â€˜You know, as Millennial Dawnists, we cannot condone divorce.’
    â€˜I’m not divorced. Just abandoned. And I’ll remind you that Pastor Russell was also separated from his wife.’
    â€˜That’s enough, Elaine. Leave theocracy to the men.’
    Outside in the car park, the Pioneer stared at me across the asphalt. I felt his eyes bore through my clothes and into my heart. Perhaps he knew about the champagne. Then he hopped into his old BMW and drove away, making signs in the air as he went. I asked myself, why had life been so boring until I met Troy?
    5.
    Troy let me feel his muscles. He paid all our bills. We could hardly kick him out to go back to the bus shelters. He bought me fancy chocolates with liqueur in the middle. And he bought me knick-knacks from stalls at the Royal Easter Show and Luna Park. On the rides, we pressed together going round sharp corners. It’s true I left school when I was young but then so did Pastor Russell, founder of the Witnesses.
    When I asked Troy where he went at nights he replied, ‘Out and about.’
    When I asked him what he did when he went out and about he replied, ‘A little of this, a little of that.’
    I thought, I should be taking offence at this tone, I should slap him, like a modern girl. I worried that I was going out with an agent of Satan, because at the Last Judgment, we were told, the wicked will be annihilated and I would not like to see that.
    â€˜Why do you have to go out again?’ I asked one night as he was getting ready. ‘Don’t you want to be with me?’
    â€˜â€™Course I do, Shazza.’
    â€˜I don’t want you to get annihilated.’
    â€˜I’ll be careful.’
    â€˜That’s not what I mean.’
    â€˜You know how much I love ya, Shaz. But your mum’s driving me crazy. She’s off her nut. She’s always complaining about how buggered she is, but she works her ring off doing the vacuuming. She should learn to put her feet up.’
    It was true. Mum was always cleaning the house in case the Pioneer or some of the other senior Witnesses of the Company came for a Home Visit. I thought all mothers did that.
    â€˜You could help her,’ I said.
    Troy made a vomiting noise.
    â€˜You could cook.’
    â€˜I don’t cook. I’ve got things to do.’
    â€˜What things?’
    â€˜Business.’
    I loved it when Troy called me Shazza. It made me feel like a real person. But it was that word
business
—part of the triumvirate of evil I worried about.
    6.
    Troy asked Mum if he could borrow her car, the one he had paid off. Well, she could hardly say no. He didn’t come back till three in the morning and woke me up by sliding naked into bed beside me. I didn’t mind. It was like a