‘Yes, but –’
‘I know,’ said Tiffany. ‘Of course Clementine and Sam wouldn’t blame her. No one blames her. She’s ten years old, for God’s sake. We all knew she’d gone inside to read her book. If anyone was to blame in this family, it was me. I was the one offering lap dances to our guests.’
‘Stop that,’ said Vid quickly, predictably. He’d shut down every conversation like this since the barbeque. ‘It was a terrible accident.’
Yeah, talk about keeping things bottled up. No wonder Dakota thought that what had happened at the barbeque was a shameful secret. They’d never said a word to her about it! That must have seemed so strange and freaky to the poor kid. Of course she thought it was about her.
She remembered how the week directly after the barbeque she’d been so preoccupied with work. That bloody townhouse that had been nothing but trouble from the start had got passed in at auction, and the Land and Environment Court decision hadn’t gone her way. It had been a shit week all round, and beneath all that stress was the absolute horror of what had happened. She hadn’t given Dakota a thought. Not a single thought. Dakota had just been another job to cross off her list. As long as she had her uniform and lunch and was safely deposited at school, then the job was done. Vid had been the same. It had been a shit week for him too. He’d lost that government contract, which had turned out to be a blessing in disguise but he hadn’t known that then. By the time Vid and Tiffany had emerged from their fogs and started talking properly to Dakota again, the damage was done. The poor kid interpreted their re-emergence as her parents forgiving her.
Forgiving her!
‘I’ll get the dustpan,’ said Vid. ‘Don’t move. You have bare feet.’
He went to get the dustpan and broom.
Tiffany watched Vid’s massive shoulders as he crouched down, carefully sweeping up the glass and nuts. She thought about secrets and the damage they did.
‘I recognised one of the parents at the school today,’ she said.
‘Oh yeah, who was it?’ Vid kept sweeping.
‘From my dancing days,’ said Tiffany.
Vid looked up. ‘Is that right, eh?’
‘One of my regulars,’ said Tiffany. ‘Sort of a friend really. A nice guy.’
‘Good tipper?’ asked Vid.
‘Great tipper,’ said Tiffany.
‘Excellent,’ said Vid.
‘He booked a lot of private shows,’ said Tiffany carefully.
‘Good for him,’ said Vid. ‘The man had great taste.’ He studied the floor carefully and continued sweeping up the tiny fragments of glass.
‘Vid,’ said Tiffany. ‘Come on. It’s a bit … uncomfortable, isn’t it? Standing on the netball courts next to a guy who saw your wife strip?’
‘Why should I be uncomfortable?’ He looked up at her from the floor. ‘I’m proud of you. I probably wouldn’t want to see his wife strip. Did you sleep with him?’
‘I never slept with any of them,’ said Tiffany. ‘You know that.’
Vid studied her thoughtfully. ‘Well then, so what is the big deal?’ he finally said. ‘You weren’t a hooker.’
‘But it’s a prestigious private school. To some of those women there’s probably not much difference between a dancer and a hooker. If word gets out, if he tells his wife …’
‘He’s not going to tell his wife,’ said Vid. He stood up and moved to another corner of the floor where the nuts had rolled.
‘He might tell his wife, and then all the girls will find out, and Dakota will get bullied and that will lead to depression and that will lead to drug addiction.’
‘That drug, ice, now that’s a terrible drug,’ said Vid. ‘Let’s tell her to stick to the nice drugs, the ones that make you feel mellow, not like you want to claw off your skin.’
‘Vid.’
‘He’s not going to tell his wife,’ said Vid. ‘I would bet you a million dollars he doesn’t tell his wife. And so what if he does? All the girls will say is, “Oh, Dakota, you’re so lucky, your mum is very talented, very beautiful, very flexible.” ’
‘Vid.’
‘You did nothing wrong. Did you rob a bank? No, you did not. And if this thing you’re worried about happens, and it won’t happen, but if it does happen that Dakota is unhappy, we pull her out of that school! Easy. We send her somewhere else. Come on now. Not every man in Sydney saw you dance. We’ll find another school where no one knows you.’
‘Things aren’t that simple,’ said Tiffany.
‘They are if we want them to be,’ said Vid. He swept up the final shards of glass and stood. ‘You’re getting yourself all worked up over nothing. You’re finding catastrophes. It’s like with grumpy old Harry next door …’