CHANGING DAZE.....

I still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
and every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet

1986 would be a year of big changes for me.

To backtrack a little, I had gotten back in contact with my 'runaway' sister.  Or rather she had contacted me.  This was in late 1985 and over the course of a few phone calls we had finally met up.  By now she had divorced her original husband and was dating a lovely guy whom she planned to marry.

This was kept secret from my family as she was still unsure of their feelings towards her.  Eventually I persuaded her to ring Mum at work.  She did and suddenly I was the darling of my family.  My sister still held a bitter resentment towards my father and although on talking terms, she asked me give her away at her wedding.  A tough choice for me as I knew it would upset my father but I got his consent and over the course of a few months my mother, my older sister and myself came together with Debbie to organize the wedding.

It was hard to play the role my father should have played, especially with him sitting there, but he gave nothing away during the wedding and the day was a great success.  After nearly 10 years our family was re-united and it was all because of me.

Back at Brett's Boys things were booming.  I was enjoying my position and Graham had increased my wages (along with my responsibilities).  Matty and I seemed to be the perfect couple, at least when everyone was around.  At home we would go days without sex but in all other aspects were a couple.

I mentioned earlier that Colin (the receptionist) would play some very mean tricks on me, at the time I had no idea and being my naive and trusting self assumed that his friendliness towards me was genuine.

After my attack by the client, I was told that I would be contacted by the police to appear at court to give evidence. Months went by and nothing happened.  Then one morning I received a call from the police demanding to know why I hadn't appeared at court that morning.  I was totally shocked as I had not received any summons.

After a lot of threats from the court officials I managed to contact the 'summoning officer' who told me he had given the summons to the receptionist at Brett's a week earlier.....Colin, when confronted, pretended he had just forgotten to pass the letter on as it had been a busy shift and he had been away with friends the following few days.

A week later I appeared in court to give evidence of the assault.  My attacker failed to show up and although he was given a 'suspended 2 year sentence' I was told by the judge that I would receive no compensation for my injuries or for any anxiety that had been caused. 'It's a natural occupational hazard in your game'!

Then one afternoon a friend of Graham's arrived at Brett's Boys.  Tiffany was a sex change who had worked for Graham previously and had just returned from a year in Melbourne.  Waiting for Graham to arrive we spent the afternoon chatting and she seemed like a really nice person.  Colin arrived to take over the night shift and was all praise for Tiffany.  He even asked me if I would let her spend a few nights at my house until she got herself sorted.

When Matty arrived, he also fell under her spell and was more than happy for her to come home with us and take the spare bedroom for as long as she needed.

It had only been a month in our new house in Surry Hills but I had managed to not only re-furnish but also to buy two new TV's, a stereo system, a washing machine and electrical appliances for the kitchen.  On the first evening Tiffany moved in we returned to find all the kitchen appliances stolen.  Tiffany had an alibi that she had been out working 'The Lane' (a small lane-way off William St in Kings Cross where the Trannies plied their trade).

The following day Matty and I went grocery shopping.  Getting out of the taxi with our groceries we saw Tiffany, looking distressed, coming towards us carrying one of my TV's.  She explained she had just returned to find 'two guys' robbing the house and she had chased them down the street where they eventually dropped the TV.......she was so convincing that we actually believed her story.  Going inside we found that our new stereo and the other TV had been stolen.

Later that evening at Brett's I was telling Graham about what had happened.  He told me that I was an idiot and that Tiffany was a well known junkie thief who had a reputation for befriending people, moving in with them and then stealing anything she could get her hands on in order to support her habit.

I felt like a fool.  I felt used. I was also for the first time really upset that any number of the workers at Brett's could have told me this on the first day but no-one chose to.  In a little over 3 days I had lost everything of value and probably around $1500 in money value (that was the average monthly wage back then).

The next day, with little of value to steal, Matty and I set Tiffany up.  We spent an hour or so getting stoned with her and pretending that we trusted her completely.  I eventually got up and said to Matty that I was going to my room and hiding my remaining $50.  After I returned Tiffany took less than 5 minutes to say she was going upstairs to have a rest.  Matty and  I said we would be going out and even made  a pretence of leaving the house.  Going out the front door and then quietly slipping back inside through the back door.

Upstairs the $50 note had already disappeared. Matty and I confronted Tiffany who denied everything.  I totally lost it with her.  I started punching her over and over again.  All the while Matty was egging me on and rifling her room.  We found nothing but I was still so enraged that I just kept hitting her.  Eventually we physically threw her down the stairs and then kicked her out onto the street.

30 minutes later and the police arrived.  They totally believed that she had taken not only the money but also stolen the other goods (she was apparently well known  by them) but as they could find neither the money or the goods could do nothing about it.  I was told that I could be up for assault charges if Tiffany decided to press them, but they would encourage her not  to do so.

The following morning as I walked to work up Oxford St my main worries were that Graham and the other workers would be angry with me for attacking Tiffany.  I was shocked when the two police officers appeared out of nowhere and told me that Tiffany was in no condition to press charges.  Apparently I had beaten her so badly that she was admitted to hospital a few hours later. Two weeks later I heard that she had never left the hospital and had died from complications  to the liver.  To this day I do not know if I was responsible for her death, or if my attack had just hastened the inevitable.
 
A week after that Brett moved in and life was back to it's usual fun time.  Brett and I painted the flat, bought new items to replace the stolen ones and everything was fabulous.

A few weeks later we received a letter from our real estate telling us that the house was being sold and that we had to move out within two weeks.  Aside from the fact that we still had 3 months  of our contract  left, the hassle of moving again was not what we needed.  We contacted the Rental Bond Bond Board to find out if we had any legal standing as we still were on contract.

Unfortunately, at that time, the rights of tenants were severely limited and as we were paying less than $320 rent we legally had no rights to contest.  Betty and I did a bit of investigation and found out that the house was being sold to a 'Chinese Businessman' who wanted to use the house as a girls parlour.

That was our weapon.  We confronted the estate agent and proposed that we were happy to move out in the given time frame but due to the short notice and inconvenience we were not prepared  to move unless we received our full bond back and were given $500 'inconvenience money'.  Amazingly a few hours later the estate agent called and said the buyer had agreed to our terms.

On the due date I arrived at the estate agent who promptly began writing out a cheque for the whole amount.  I told him that I didn't trust his cheque any more than I trusted his contract and wanted the full payment in cash by 4pm that afternoon.  I said I have 3 people in the house ready to lock down if the money isn't here when I return.

At 4pm I walked out of the estate agent with nearly $1000 cash in my hand.  The next few days we would all spend at Bretts, with our furniture stored in the now disused sauna room while we looked for a new house to rent.

A year of change indeed.  Over the next month some dramatic events would occur which would see me rising to the top of my 'profession' but once again lose the trust of my family.  Strangely one of them I had a premonition about but the other would strike me totally unawares and leave me wondering what had happened.  It would be 29 years before I finally found out  the truth.......