Chapter Text
1980
Five year old Carla Donovan peeped through the hole in the fence with one eye. She spied the little blonde girl on the other side, running gleefully to the swing.
“Lisa! Make sure you don’t leave the garden!” a male voice called.
“I won’t, Daddy!” the little girl called back.
She hopped onto the swing, pushing herself backwards and forwards for a few minutes.
“Hello?” she called suddenly, stopping the swing.
Carla froze, moving back from the fence. The blonde hopped off and approached, peering through the gap.
“Who are you?”
“Um… I’m… I’m Carla.”
The little girl beamed at her.
“I’m Lisa. This is our new house.”
“I’ve… I’ve always lived here,” Carla told her.
“Do you want to come and play?” Lisa asked.
“Can I?”
Lisa beamed at her again, nodding.
“There’s a gap at the bottom,” Carla told her.
She walked to the end of the garden. Lisa followed, fascinated as Carla opened the bottom panel of the fence and sneaked through.
“Hi!” Lisa said.
“Hi!” Carla replied.
Lisa sat at the dinner table several days later, quietly eating her dinner and forcing her vegetables down like a good girl. She always did what she was told. She listened carefully to her parents, trying to decipher what they were saying.
“I’m sorry but I’m just not comfortable with it,” Jack Swain said. “I don’t think the Donovan family are our kind of people.”
“She’s a kid, Jack,” Sarah Swain said more gently. “What’s the harm?”
“She’s filthy, for starters,” Jack said, his voice hard. “Did you see the state of her earlier? Unwashed hair, grubby hands, practically in rags? The whole house brings the street down!”
Sarah sighed.
“It’s not her fault. She’s five years old. Maybe we could help her?”
“It’s not our job to give her a wash,” Jack snapped.
“Well, if her Mum isn’t doing it…”
“You know there’s a baby over there?”
“Obviously, I do. Neither of us can sleep at night for the crying.”
“Maybe we should just ring social services and be done with it…” Jack wondered.
“Jack, please? Lisa likes her. They play nicely together. Let her keep her friend.”
Lisa continued to eat. She did not like peas but she ate them anyway. She wondered what social services was. She wondered why Carla didn’t wash. She worried about her. She already loved her dearly.
Next door, Carla was struggling. Her Mum was asleep. She was in one of those sleeps that Carla knew she wouldn’t wake up from until late the next morning. There had been a man here but he had just left. Carla didn’t know who he was.
Her little brother, Robbie was hungry. Carla found it difficult to prepare his milk. She was too small to reach the counter so she had to climb on a stool and balance. But now, with the milk in a bottle, she had her one year old brother in her arms on the sofa. He settled eventually. She hoped he would be quiet tonight. She was exhausted, keeping getting up with him in the night while her mother slept. And she had heard Lisa’s parents complaining when she had gone over to play earlier today.
She didn’t think Lisa’s parents liked her. Mr Swain was a policeman. He had commented that her clothes were dirty. She didn’t know what to do about it. She had looked at the washing machine but she couldn’t figure it out. But when Robbie was settled, she was going to run herself a bath and at least wash her body. Perhaps tomorrow, her Mum would wash their clothes. Then perhaps she could be a little more presentable for the Swain family. She was worried about losing Lisa. And she adored Lisa. She couldn’t bear to lose her, to not be good enough.
Next time... Carla and Lisa start primary school and make some new friends...