I wasn’t sure at the time, but I realise now she was too frightened to say no.
Then about a week later, a strange thing happened. The engagement ring he had bought her had gone mysteriously missing. How could this be? It had only been on her finger for that one week and I know she was always very careful with it and only ever took it off when she showered so where was it? We all searched high and low for it but it was nowhere to be found. This was strange but what was even stranger was, because we couldn’t find it, he was acting so stressed and started vomiting. What the hell? It was only a ring and if anyone was to vomit, you would think it be my mother. Was he putting on an act? This was the question we asked ourselves. But why would he? In a calm and blasé voice he said, “I am sure it will turn up somewhere.” Huh? Why so blasé? Did he take it? If so why?
They say a woman’s intuition kicks in when something just doesn’t seem quite right and my Mums’ did by putting all the pieces together one by one. With him going away and the good moods he was always in when he came back started setting off alarm bells but it was the ring more than anything that got her suspicion’s really going. How could a ring which was so important simply vanish into thin air? But there was something more because he didn’t seem to be too worried about it in the end and this caused Mum to be more concerned than ever. But what was it she was concerned about? Did she have any ideas what was going on with him? Even still, we waited for a couple of days to see if it would turn up somewhere, giving him the benefit of the doubt but something was telling us it wouldn’t.
It never did. Funny that!
After Mum and all us kids talked about it, we could only come up with one solution. He had to be having an affair all this time but what was with the ring? Why would he go to all that trouble of asking Mum to marry him, give her a ring then it goes missing? It didn’t make sense at all and seemed a bit bizarre don’t you think? The main question was, if he was having an affair, who was the woman?
The only person Mum could think of was a woman they had met a couple of months prior who they had become friends with. They would sometimes go to her place and she would come to ours as well so we all got to know her fairly well. Could it be her? We were pretty sure it had to be because we couldn’t think of anyone else and apparently Mum already had suspicions about her before all this anyway. She told us kids she even suspected he was living with her when he was supposedly going away working which would make sense and we told her she could be right. We could have just been grasping at straws but we needed to find out the truth whether he was living a double life one way or another. This meant we had to come up with a plan to catch the cheating bastard out.
My two best friends Gale and Lee and I decided we would do the honours for Mum and go spy on him. We had no choice and we needed to know if he was at this jezebel’s place so Mum would finally know the truth.
We were only fifteen at the time and being rebels that we were, would do anything for a bit of an adventure. At first, Mum thought it would be too risky but we knew we could do it and hounded her until she gave in.
We chose one of the Friday nights when he was supposedly away working which was our opportunity. It was now or never!
Mum and us three girls took off on our secret mission and even though it was a bit scary, it was exciting too! At first, Mum started driving toward the house so we could familiarise ourselves with the area but she realised she couldn’t get too close because her car; being a Vw beetle, was kind of loud and he would have heard it going past. All we could do was to drive past on the highway above overlooking the house and area.
The house was the only one situated down a road off the highway and just about every light was on so you definitely couldn’t miss it and obviously someone was home. Opposite the house was a huge paddock which was a bonus. It meant we had plenty of room to run and escape if needed.
By now it was really dark so hopefully we wouldn’t be seen but the first thing we had to do was to get the car out of sight, so Mum parked in an old shop carpark a bit further up the road.
All four of us were laughing our heads off and giddy with excitement but then the three of us girls decided it was time to set about our mission so it then became a serious matter. Of course we left mum in the car as our getaway driver just in case it turned into a game of chase.
Off we walked down the road, crossed the paddock and then got to the side window of the house. We couldn’t hear much at first but the sound of a television so we knew someone had to be home. A few minutes had gone by when Gale decided she needed to pee as she always did at the most inappropriate times. She normally only ever did this when something was really funny and she couldn’t hold it and most times she would piss her pants because she couldn’t get them down quick enough. I used to deliberately make her laugh so she would. It was entertainment!
To get out of sight, we had to walk back up the road a bit so she could relieve herself before she did piss in her pants and thank God she made it. Ok! She was emptied and we were totally ready this time to go back to the house. We were slowly creeping and crouching, moving toward the window again hoping to hear something or someone in the house besides just the television. We did hear some voices and at first thought it was just the television again but then we realised it was two people talking and it was definitely a man and woman’s voice and our ears pricked. We had to listen really closely to see if we could recognise the male’s voice and bingo! We all confirmed it was Paul's and put our hands together with a high five sisters! What a proud moment it was for all of us, catching this lousy mongrel!
Once we knew it was definitely Paul, we quickly walked across to the paddock opposite the house where it was dark and we were out of sight, so we thought. At first we just stood there whispering to each other about our discovery but then in the distance, the female who was in the house was standing looking out the window. She could obviously see us standing there through some of the light shining from the highway.
We all just said, “Oh Shit!” Then we started nervously gibbering to each other, “What do we do, what do we do?” Then I said in a quick responsive voice, “Drop to the ground and don’t move!” We hit the dirt like we were in a battle field ready to be shot at and didn’t dare move. I know my heart was thumping so I knew Gale and Lee’s would be too but because we were so immature, we were trying not to laugh at the same time because of the situation we were in. We kept looking at her standing at the window looking out at us and hoped she would go away but no such luck, the bitch kept staring out. We whispered to each other and said, “We can’t get up if she keeps staring so what the hell is going to happen next?” We were trying for a solution but our worst nightmare comes true.
We saw a male figure which was obviously Paul’s appear at the window with her and together they were just standing there staring out. They stood there for at least another minute or two but then he disappeared while she stayed at the window. Where did he go or what was he doing? Panic had really set in for us and I reckon we could hear each other’s hearts thumping. This was scary shit!
Next the front door to the house flies open and outside he came to investigate. Oh my God! We just lay there near on shitting ourselves with fear not knowing what to do. We knew he wouldn’t ignore us being there and just had to watch and wait to see what he would do next. We knew it was bad when he walked over to some old scrap heap that was at the front of the house and picked something up that looked like a steel bar which obviously he was going use to hit us with it. He then began walking towards our direction, cursing and mumbling under his breath so we knew he was pretty angry. Step by step he was getting closer to us which meant less distance