Sydney's Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

still young and able to find happiness somewhere else.”
    â€œThat marriage counsellor should be shot!”
    â€œOn the contrary. He gave us very sound advice. Which we considered for two long years. Yes. This is no sudden whim, honey. We started talking about it when I turned 40. But we love you. We’ve always kept your happiness foremost in our mind. For a long time now we’ve been waiting for you to grow up before we went our separate ways. Now that you’ve completed the HSC and will turn 18 next February, you are old enough to understand. Adults have their own life too. We also need to be happy.”
    Mum delivered all that in a very kind tone. The tone of someone delicately calling for understanding. Completely the opposite of her flighty mode when she had just arrived home. The way she talked made me feel like an inconsiderate, ill-behaved, spoiled little girl.
    I turned to Dad looking for help. But there was no help there.
    â€œYour eyes. The look in your eyes… We love you so much, darling,” Dad, who had been silent, now spoke. He always waited for Mum to tackle difficult situations first. “Don’t worry. Nothing will change. You will continue to live here. As usual. We’re both moving out immediately, yes. You must understand that we can no longer live here.”
    In those kind, gentle tones I found infuriating my parents said they each loved me very deeply. This love for me would never change. They said I was an adult now, not a helpless kid. They said I should not begrudge them their happiness because their love for me would remain the same.
    â€œI’m good to leave tonight,” Mum announced later. “I’ve packed what I need now.” You bet. Couldn’t wait to jump the bones of her young boyfriend, seemed to me.
    Dad kissed Mum’s cheek with a loud smack, ruffled her hair, closed her car door and gave her a jovial wave. She waved back cheerily. And out she went. Out of the house. Out of my life. And into Ettoré’s penthouse at McMahons Point.
    â€œHow could you let her go?” I cried. Fear had roiled in my stomach as I watched them. If they had shown grief and longing, there might have been some hope, perhaps? But their cheerful indifference struck me with its finality. Everything was simply beyond my grasp. It was all very hard to understand. My perfect family was no more. “Dad, how could you?”
    â€œThe flames dimmed.” He lifted his broad shoulders. “Then went out. We’ve become simply good friends, sweetheart. So we’ve decided by mutual agreement to go our separate ways.”
    â€œThat’s it?”
    Dad dragged me to the kitchen and took some yoghurt, cajoling me to eat something. He seemed to consider what to say next. I could see him turning it over in his mind.
    â€œWe’re only in our early forties, sweetheart. Very young. We still have forty or fifty more years to live. A very long time. Shouldn’t we be happy? Should we be condemned with ‘make do’, when life could be better?”
    â€œBut yours was my model of a happy marriage. I planned to grow up to be like you guys. To have just one—one!—love for my whole life. Now it looks like I had stupidly believed that was possible.”
    â€œWhy not? Some other people are luckier, perhaps you’ll be too.Just don’t put up with crap, change your partner if you must… If you missed one train, another one will turn up shortly. Now, would you like to meet Geraldine?”
    â€œNever!” I was ashamed of my sudden waspish attitude. I never knew my placid self could be so mad with anyone, let alone my parents. But I was very distraught. All this time they had waited for me to grow up… “Why don’t you fix whatever is wrong, Dad… Why didn’t you tell me?”
    â€œBecause you’d insist we stay together when we’d rather not.” He shoved a generous slice of chocolate