Shadows Dancing in the Sun - 1. Shad Chapter 1

As I walked home from the school bus stop on Kalamunda road, with my hands grasped in my boyfriend’s hand, I was unaware that my life was soon to change forever. Unknown to me, my stepfather had driven past us while I was distracted with Kyle’s funny antics, and that he would be waiting for me when I arrived home.

My home was a little unusual for me, with my mother a widow when I was just 6 years old, she fell in love and married a man who barely tolerated me, and only made an effort to be nice to me when my mother was around. Since the age of 8 years, I was expected to do my share of chores around the house, since my younger half-siblings are too young to do anything.

Even with the oldest, Rose now aged 10, she is free to do anything she wants, and I am often the one who gets blamed by my stepfather, for things that my siblings have broken or damaged around the house. My other two siblings are Evan aged 8 and Oliver aged 6, who are both little rascals, and they love being around me, to keep them entertained, which can be very exhausting.

When I walked into the house, it was surprisingly quiet, which had me a little worried, even though my stepfather’s and mother’s cars are both in the garage. “In my study right now,” my stepfather said to me when he appeared from the kitchen area, so I turned and headed back to the first room on the right from the front door.

“I was driving back home when I see two teenage boys holding hands and laughing, and when I looked in my rear-view mirror in disgust at the scene, I find you are one of those boys,” my stepfather Addison said to me with an angry tone. “I knew at that point that things are going to change quite dramatically.

“You have until your Uncle Mitchell arrives to collect you, to pack up everything that you own, ready to take with you, everything else apart from the furniture will be thrown out with the garbage, as it will be too distasteful to allow any charity store to accept anything that you own, now go upstairs and pack, and I don’t want you anywhere near my children,” Addison said to me as he walked to the door and opened it for me, stepping away as I neared the door.

I stopped at the door for a moment then turned, “I always knew from the way you've treated me all these years that you are a heartless and cruel bastard, I feel sorry for my mother and my half-siblings, and I hope that one day they wake up and see what you truly are,” I said before walking out of the study, which at one time had been my father’s retreat when he returned home from work each day.

Since my mother had married Addison, I have received very little in the way of toys or personal belongings, and only the basic clothing requirements that I needed to attend school and do my chores at home, so everything that I owned could be packed in the one large duffle bag and my school backpack.

When I heard the sound of a car horn outside, I knew that it was time to leave, and I took one last look around my bedroom, before I headed for the stairs, with my stepfather watching me, to make sure I didn’t speak to my siblings. At the bottom of the stairs, my mother stood nearby, she had been crying and she briefly looked at me before her husband arrived and she looked away, so I just kept walking to the front door, with everything that I own in the two bags.

“Hey Uncle Mitch, thanks for coming to rescue me,” I said when I saw my mother’s older brother step out of his car, “It is a pleasure to have you stay with us nephew, and we hope that you will be happier with us than you have been here,” my uncle replied, as I loaded my belongings into the back of the car before climbing in.

“Hey Xavier, how are things going?” I asked my uncles partner, as I secured my seatbelt, “I am good thanks buddy, and I am sorry that you have had to endure this,” Xavier replied, and I just sighed and shrugged my shoulders, “I guess it was meant to be like this, in a way I am glad to finally be out of his control,” I replied.

“What do you mean by that, I thought you loved being at home with your younger siblings?” Uncle Mitch asked me, “I do, they are awesome, it's just when mum and them are out shopping or doing other things, he puts me to work doing chores and he calls me every nasty thing he can think of, he is a bigot and cruel bastard, and I am glad to be free of him at last,” I replied.

“Oh! I am sorry, why didn’t you tell me this before?” Uncle Mitch asked me, “Because he threatened to beat me and lock me in the garden shed if I ever spoke to mum or you about how he treats me,” I replied, “Did he ever beat you with a belt or anything like that?” Xavier asked.

“Only when mum took the kids to spend the weekend at Gran’s place when she was alive, so not as much now, and it was always the wide belt across my back,” I replied, “Oh, no that is not good. Has anyone at school ever suspected anything, like friends or teachers?” Uncle Mitch asked.

“Only my boyfriend Kyle knows about it, and I made him promise not to tell anyone about it,” I replied, “Wait, didn’t Elizabeth, I mean your mother take the kids to the rodeo last weekend, has he beat you again when they were away?” Xavier asked me, and I nodded my head yes. “On your back like before?” Uncle Mitch asked.

“Yes on my back, and it still stings, since it has only been two days, but I do not want to report it, as Mum and the kids rely on his support, as much as I want him to be punished, I don’t want them to suffer for what he has done to me,” I replied.

“Bastard” I heard Xavier say, “That he maybe, but we have to accept what Tobias wants, for the sake of his mum and half-siblings,” Uncle Mitch said, and I saw him smiling, which I was not sure why he was.

“What is it, Uncle Mitch? Why the big goofy grin?” I asked, “Firstly it is not goofy and secondly I am smiling because I just remembered something. “You attend a private school correct?” Mitchell replied, “Yes, so… hey wait, I know he would not pay for my tuition fees, and since mum doesn’t work, who is?” I asked.

“Your father, or the trust fund that he created for your education, I bet he is only allowing your mother to get just the basics of what you need for school, is that correct?” Mitchell responded, “Yes, how did you know?” I replied, “Because, we have noticed that your casual clothing is what looks like it is from K Mart or Target, and not from a top-notch clothes store.

When we get back home, I need to check on something, because it looks like something dodgy is going on here,” Uncle Mitch said to me. “Ok… So how are things going in the world of architecture, designed any harbour bridges or anything famous yet?” I asked my uncle who just laughed as did Xavier.

“Cheeky as ever nephew, yes everything is going very well, I have been keeping quite busy lately. Tell me what extra subjects are you taking at school?” Uncle Mitch asked, “Apart from the core subjects of Advanced Mathematics, English, Social Science and Humanities, plus Physics and Geology, I am also doing Technical Drawing, Art and Music, plus sports and I am also doing a VET course in Building design, which is a two-year Advance Diploma course,” I replied.

“Always a bright one, I am glad to hear, so what do you plan to do when you finish high school next year?” Uncle Mitch asked, “Well I want to be an architect like you, of course, that is why I am doing this Advanced diploma, so I can get a bit of a head start when I enter university and speaking of Uni, I would like to do the two day Summer school introduction course into Architecture,” I replied.

“Well, it looks like you have your future all planned out,” Xavier said smiling, “Yes, pretty much, although it has been hard to study when he was always on my back, that is why I spent most of my breaks at school in the library to make sure that I completed all of my homework assignments,” I replied.

“It has been quite a while since you last stayed with us, hasn’t it?” Xavier asked, “Yes, about three years, as he wouldn’t let me come and stay with you, as he had too much work for me to do at home. Actually, where are we? This isn’t the way to your place?” I replied, “Yes, it is, because we moved to a different area just under two years ago, we no longer live in South Perth,instead we are actually closer to your school,” Uncle Mitch replied smiling.

As Uncle Mitch drove down the Darling Range, from my childhood home in Gooseberry Hill, I wondered just how close to my school they live. When living at home, it took an hour to get to and from school each day, and by the looks of it, the travel time would be dramatically reduced. “How close exactly is your home from my school?” I asked.

“Well if you go by road it is just over 2 kilometres,” Xavier said smiling. “Wow, no more long bus rides for me, I can walk that distance?” I replied. “Yes, a lot closer, but you will have a lot more space,” Uncle Mitch responded.

“How much space are you talking about?” I asked, “Well not much more, but there is a park directly behind it that leads to the Swan River,” Xavier replied. “Sounds like an interesting place,” I commented, as we turned onto the Great Eastern Highway Bypass, then onto Great Eastern Highway, heading north towards Guildford.

After crossing the Helena River, we turned left and at the roundabout, we turned onto Market street and slowed right down before turning left into a driveway, “Holy sheep, this place looks huge and old,” I commented, as we came down the drive and stopped under the carport.

“She is indeed old, but fully restored, with a total of five bedrooms, 4 of them with their own bathrooms, the last one is my office, this used to be owned by Sir John Forrest at one time when he was the state Premier. She was built in 1924, and it has a library, drawing room, formal dining room with a chandelier, and an undercover swimming pool, which we have had heating installed, and there is a separate one-bedroom guest house included,” Uncle Mitchell announced.

“Although the street address is 19, it sits on three joined blocks because the house is so big, and we recently purchased next door number 13, which was 1960’s house that burnt down due to an electrical fault, and the owners didn’t want to rebuild so they put it on the market.

We have spent the past 3 months demolishing the ruins, and having it carefully removed, so as not to damage too much of the existing gardens around the former house, and we have made it into an additional garden space, so we have a total of 5,668 square metres of land, which is 1.4 acres,” Xavier announced, as we climbed out of the car and I grabbed my two bags of belongings and followed the men to the front door.

I like the front garden, formal but very nice,” I commented, before I followed the men inside, stepping into a very grand hallway with high ceilings. “Leave your bags here and go and explore the house, then you can decide which bedroom that you want,” Uncle Mitch said to me, so I did as he suggested.