FAMILY BREAKDOWN (part 1).

They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky,
The Addams Family.

As I predicted our return from England would be far from happy.  Mum and I returned to be greeted with neither warmth or enthusiasm from either my father or my middle sister.

The following months seemed to get worse rather than better.  My father became even more irritable with my mother and me.  He seemed to be particularly jealous of the close relationship that my mother and I had developed.  This came to a head one Saturday morning when he walked into the lounge room to see my mother putting on her bra in front of me.  He called her a slut and told her it was neither moral or natural for a teenage boy to see his mother half naked.

I found this not only amusing but quite pathetic, considering I only had to go down to his shed and see hundreds of filthy pictures of women having all sorts of thing shoved up them simply by looking at his porn magazines.

My middle sister not only showed no enthusiasm at my return but also refused to have anything to do with me.  Before I had left our usual afternoon routine was to walk our two dogs together down in the bush.  From my first day back she told me she didn't want me to come and could handle both dogs on her own.

After some weeks, I decided that she obviously had a reason for not wanting me to come.  One afternoon when she went out with the dogs I went up to the back garden.  From here I could use the bush and cliff top which ran the length or our street and by clambering down the rocks intercept her along our usual walking track.  This route was to be of great comfort the following year.

By this time our street had been completely built out.  From the bottom of the hill on our side was one vacant block. From there the sandstone cliff rose steeply and there were 5 new houses built, all of which shared a dirt access road running behind their properties.  The first house was lived in by a family called the Morrison's.  

From day one they had been seen as unwelcome due to their rudeness to other neighbours and not to mention the fact that both father and son rode motorbikes.  They also owned Pitt Bull Terriers which they used to let loose on the access road in an  attempt to frighten the other neighbours from using it. They were from Northern England and my mother used to call them 'ruff as goots'.

Of course creeping down through the bush who should I come upon but my sister and John Morrison.  My sister was really angry and told me to get lost, but John was surprisingly calm and told my sister it was fine for me to stay.  He even let me take the dogs further down the track to walk them all.  This would happen every afternoon from then on.  He and my sister would stay at the start of the track, John would let me have a smoke with them and then I'd take all four dogs walking.....

I thought he was really cool.  Of course I knew he and my sister were probably having sex while I was walking the dogs, but who was I to say anything?

My parents found out by accident.  One of the neighbours happened to go walking one afternoon and spotted my sister and John kissing.  They wasted no time in telling my parents who immediately banned my sister from seeing him.

My father was particularly furious and I remember him really laying into her with the belt when she at first refused to stop seeing him.  But as my father didn't get home from work until 8pm and Mum didn't get home until 7pm my sister was free to meet him every afternoon during the week.

December 18, 1976.  A week before Christmas and we were expecting family friends over for dinner.  My sister was unusually helpful all day and spent several hours sewing a new dress to wear for the occasion.  Besides, as I have mentioned earlier, having strange feelings all day towards my sisters actions, it was even stranger to find her up in the back garden in her brand new dress, burning all her school books - she had just finished Year 10 and passed, as always, with flying colours.

I went down and mentioned to my mother that I thought my sister was acting strange.  Mum brushed it aside as she was busy preparing for our guests.  That was around 4pm.....we would not see my sister, except for a few glimpses, for another 5 years!