The General Store

Chapter 20: a night with Penny

Dear Brooklyn,
How are you our sweet girl? We do hope you are well in such distressing circumstances. We are coping over here, your father and I are only just hanging on. It's sad to think that our profits have tripled since the death of Jarrah. I hope his death was peaceful and that his brothers and sister were by his side because he deserved to just slip away. It most certainly isn't the same without the four of you causing havoc, I miss the sandy foot steps and the rowdy games of cards. I hope the nursing is going well, your father and I are awfully proud of you. Please forgive us for not writing to you as frequently as we would like to, sometimes it just gets all to much, which is the only excuse I can give right now.
I have read many newspapers mentioning your Patrick Carmondy and I wish to apologise for what I said before you left. It was unreasonable, he seems to down to earth to be famous but he seems to love you. In the interviews I've saved from a while ago he can't speak more highly of you. He said, and I quote that "she's changed my life so drastically, I didn't think I'd make it back for the test". You seem to have become quite the duo, you and Patrick.
Anyway sweetheart, better get back to it.
All our love,
Mum and Dad xx

I missed those card games too. The four of us would sit around a table in the centre of the General store. We'd throw our towels on the ground, and with dripping hair, we'd take our positions. We dragged in at least half the beach worth of sand between the four of us, then were almost immediately ordered to sweep it up as soon as we laid the cards down at the end of the game, then we'd spend the rest of the evening chasing each other around with broomsticks and flicking sand out onto the footpath. Even at age 24, Jarrah still managed to make a joke out of it. If I closed my eyes hard enough, I could just hear the waves crashing onto the shore, and mother's telling their kids not to swim out to deep, and seagulls screeching, and kids laughing, and music blasting. That was my home, I was the luckiest girl alive but I didn't realise it until I was reminiscing in the faded darkness of a Vietnam Hospital. It was the first night I'd had off since late February, now we were well into April and I was still getting depressing letters from Mum. Dover, Ace and I had made a pact about two weeks after Jarrah was killed; it was to not tell Mum anything. To make it all up, to say that he slipped away peacefully after eating something bad, it sounded like total crap but after telling it a few times, the three of us began to believe it. The sudden realisation of the fact I hadn't cried since Dover told me, made me sit up with a hot flush. 
'You alright Brookie?' Penny asked, groggily. I shook my head and sipped at my water, fighting the emotion that flooded over me. Penny yawned and rolled out of bed, stepping her way over to me and laying down beside me.
'You're so insanely lucky, you know that.' Penny's eyes were closed and her hands were resting on her chest.
'How?' I wiped my nose.
'You have three brothers, here brother who love you with their whole heart and you have a Pat, the Pat who will forever be the one making you smile and you have me and well I mean can it get much better?' She stated, a smile on her face. I chuckled making her smile grow wider.
'Life's hard Murphy, no one ever said it was easy, we save easy for Sunday.' Penny stated. She pulled me down so I lay beside her on my back.
'You're right, I need to get over it.' I stuttered.
'No, there's no point trying, you'll never get over losing your brother but if you don't try you'll end up taking each day as it comes and eventually you won't even notice you're dealing with grief. You'll be sitting in the stands at Lords or in Adelaide with your kids and you'll be telling them about their uncle Jarrah, speaking fondly of his memory and not even recognising the bad times. I know it doesn't seem worth it at the moment but that my friend will be priceless.' Penny's eyes glistened in the now faint light that seemed to have emerged in the darkness as the clock struck five.
'Wow, Penny, I don't know what to say.' I was totally shocked at the words that had come out of her mouth.
'Don't say anything, just go to sleep, we get to sleep in till eleven o'clock so I'm making the most of this.' Penny was out like a light, her chest rising and falling with every subtle breath. She missed Johnno, she was still a little worried about Andrew and she was so over tired she could pass out at any given moment but she still managed to drop off with a snap of her fingers. I envied her skill.
"You'll master it one day!" She'd say in a refreshed and hungry for action voice that drove me up the walls. As envious as I was, I never thanked god more for anyone, than I did for Penny that night. She didn't have to sleep with me till morning, she didn't have to hold me as I bawled my eyes out, wailing for my brother who couldn't even hear me. She didn't have to attempt everything to make me fall asleep. She didn't have to count endless amounts of sheep with me but she did and I don't think I could've asked for more of a friend.