The Turning Tide Read Online Free

and your grandmother. But what about your dad? Johnny’s son, what’s his name? Is he in Foster too?’ I suddenly recall she’d said she lived with her mother and pray I haven’t screwed up again.
    ‘He’s called Ian. He lives in Hong Kong.’ She looks up and sees the surprise on my face. ‘He and Mum divorced when I was ten. But now she lives with Mitch. He’s really nice.’ She sighs. ‘Dad was in the navy in Vietnam and when he came home he was different. Horrible. That happened to my friend at school’s dad too.’
    I can’t speak for shock and nausea. Johnny dead in the Pacific War and they send his son to fight in that disgusting, evil, arselick of a war? All the way with those shits who learnt nothing, nothing , from what we went through?
    I take a breath. ‘Lena, I’m sorry about your dad. That’s … Jesus, I’m so sorry.’
    ‘He visits every year,’ she says lightly. ‘And always brings me nice things. He’s happier nowadays, he doesn’t get so angry. Or sad. He’s captain of a boat. I think he likes that.’
    Ian. Ian Erikssen. Oh Johnny, how did we let them get away with it again? I feel an agony of responsibility. We tried to stop them, Johnny. Argued, joined anti-war groups, marched in demos. Dear God, your son – Helen’s baby – in Vietnam.
    ‘Mike, it’s all right,’ says Lena hesitantly. She can’t know why my face twists with pain, but it doesn’t scare her. She’s a kind girl.
    ‘We honestly thought war wouldn’t happen again,’ I try to explain. ‘But it did and it steamrolled right over you and your family, again . It’s … wrong. Wrong.’
    She looks at me, her head slightly to one side. ‘What about your family, Mike?’
    ‘Oh,’ I say. ‘Well, my wife Marion died about three years ago now. I’ve got a daughter who’s a vet and a son, a teacher. They’re my stepchildren really, but I’ve raised them since they were small.’
    After a moment she says, ‘Why don’t you come down in the September holidays and see Nana? She said she’d like that.’
    No, Lena, I don’t think she would. And I’m absolutely certain I wouldn’t.
    ‘I’m afraid I’ve got another commitment,’ I say, trying to think of something plausible.
    Lena looks at me sceptically. ‘Uh-huh. What about the Christmas break, then? Three months of it?’
    I open my mouth but can’t think of anything, so shut it again.
    She smiles. ‘I told you Nana remarried, yeah?’
    ‘Yes.’ My expression is under control.
    ‘They divorced, ages ago. She’s by herself, Mike. She’d really like to see an old friend.’
    ‘That’s very thoughtful of you, Lena. I’ll certainly try to get away for a visit,’ I lie.

Chapter 3
    In April 1940 the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway. In May, they walked into Holland, Belgium and France. In September, Japan signed a treaty with Germany and Italy and officially joined the Axis.
    Dad sent me a letter, as strict as he ever got, insisting I finish my education. An engineer would always be more useful than a foot soldier, he said. In the Great War he’d been captain of a steel sailing ship that was torpedoed by a submarine. As a child it sounded like a marvellous adventure, but when I grew older I noticed he rarely mentioned it, and if he did I could see the memory distressed him.
    So I stayed at uni. In any case, for much of second year I was still bedazzled by Kitty and sex, but not so much I suffered too deeply when our affair ended. My exams went well.
    At the end of 1940 I went home to Broome for the first time in two years. It was a journey of a few weeks in those days: steamer from Melbourne to Perth, then another ship for the twelve hundred miles from Perth to Broome. We stopped at all the small ports going north, the air hotter and dustier every day. Approaching Broome I remember the orange bluffs, the luminous bay, the shimmering heat pouring from the sky.
    I look up at a small painting on the wall and smile to myself. Dashes of turquoise