I glared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, willing my hair to behave itself for once. Right now it made me look like I’d only just dragged myself out of bed, which couldn’t be further from the truth. No matter what I did to try taming it, it stubbornly remained sticking up all over my head. Part of me wanted to break out the clippers and just shave it all off, but that would have brought back some entirely unwelcome memories that I didn’t particularly want to dredge up.

The last three weeks since I’d returned to Wollongong from Newcastle had been incredibly busy, more than they’d been in a very long time. TAFE was winding down for the term and I had three assignments due, one for each of my three subjects, and I was also busy with rehearsals for the Victorian tour. The rehearsals took place over Skype for the most part – it wasn’t ideal, but it was the easiest way for the three of us to get some work done without having to waste valuable practice time on travelling. We were now one week out from the beginning of tour and things were coming together nicely.

There was also my relationship with Ruby. We had been out on our first proper date just over a week earlier – dinner at Aqua in North Wollongong, and seeing OZ: The Great and Powerful at the movies afterward. We were both busy outside of TAFE – me with getting ready for the tour, and Ruby with her homework and various doctor’s appointments – so for the most part we usually only saw each other once a week. We were content with that, though, and right now it worked well for us.

And tonight, I was meeting Ruby’s parents. In all honesty I was more than a little nervous – I had gone through the ‘meet the parents’ routine a couple of times before, but it had always been very informal. Ruby had told me over and over again not to worry, but I couldn’t help it – worrying was something that came part and parcel with my anxiety disorder.

I had just managed to finish taming my hair when the doorbell rang, and I bit back a particularly potent swear word. Ruby was likely at the door and I was nowhere near ready to go. I quickly glanced down at myself – jeans, light blue short-sleeved button-down shirt that I’d left untucked, and bare feet was currently the order of the day, though I did have my sneakers and a pair of socks sitting on one of my kitchen chairs. I carefully ran my fingers through my hair and gave my reflection one last cursory glance before leaving the bathroom and heading for the front door.

Sure enough, Ruby was waiting at the front door when I finally opened it. She was dressed much the same as she had been for the final show of the New South Wales regional tour, with jeans in place of the black skirt and leggings she’d worn that night. Her green eyes lit right up the second I opened my front door.

“You look great,” she said with a smile, before getting up on tiptoes for a quick kiss. “Ready to go?”

“Just let me put my shoes on,” I replied, before giving her a quick smile and ducking back into the house. I had my socks and sneakers on in short order, and snagged my phone, keys and wallet from the top of my piano before heading outside and locking up. “So where exactly do your parents live?” I asked as I followed Ruby down the front steps and out to her car – she drove a purple Toyota hatchback that, I could see through the driver’s side window, had been fitted with hand controls.

“Woonona,” she replied, hitting a button on her car key to unlock her car as she spoke. “I grew up practically right on the beach.”

“Nice,” I commented.

She shrugged. “I suppose, if you like hearing trains rattling past at all hours. Was nice being so close to the beach, though. Whole reason I live in Bellambi now – it’s close to the beach and it’s not too far from my parents’.”

As Ruby drove us to her parents’ place she told me a little more about her family, with particular emphasis on those family members who would be at her parents’ house that evening.

“My parents’ names are Colin and Patricia – Mum likes to be called Trish, though. My brother Benjamin – call him Ben, he doesn’t like being called by his full name – still lives at home, but odds are he’ll bugger off not long after we get there.” She pulled up at the traffic lights at the intersection of Railway Street and the Northern Distributor. “Rest of my sibs have moved out. Gabbie’s in Stanwell Park with her girlfriend, Taleah lives in Austinmer, and Troy’s up in Helensburgh.” The traffic light for our lane turned green, and Ruby drove forward through the intersection. “I told my mum you like Italian food,” she added, and I nodded to confirm this. “Oh good,” she said, sounding relieved. “Nothing you can’t eat?”

“Nothing that I know of,” I replied. “I couldn’t eat eggs, chicken or bananas for months after I finished chemo both times, but that’s mostly because a lot of the time that was all I could really eat during treatment and I was sick of the sight of them.”

Ruby let out a chuckle at this. “I can imagine.”

Home for Ruby’s parents and youngest brother was a redbrick house with a red tile roof and a garden hedge on Corinda Road in Woonona. Ruby parked her car alongside the kerb outside. “Remember what I said,” she said as I followed her up the driveway to the front door. “Ben will do his best to intimidate you, but my parents are really easy-going. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.” She gave me a smile before ringing the doorbell.

“Ben, get the door please!” a voice I didn’t recognise yelled from inside the house. Seconds later the front door opened, and I found myself faced with a very tall, very blonde young man. This, I figured, was Ruby’s youngest brother, Benjamin.

“Mum, Rue and her boyfriend are here!” Benjamin yelled back into the house, before stepping aside to let Ruby and I through the front door.

“He has a name, Ben,” Ruby said sharply as she toed off her sneakers and kicked them next to the front door. I followed her lead, untying the laces of my sneakers before pulling them off my feet. “Ben, this is my boyfriend Taylor – Tay, this is Ben.”

“In the kitchen Ruby!” the same voice from before called out. I quickly shook Benjamin’s outstretched hand, not missing the way he squeezed my hand so hard I thought he was going to break it, before following Ruby through to the kitchen. Someone I figured was Ruby’s mother stood at the stove, wielding a wooden spoon in one hand and guarding a couple of saucepans. She looked up at us. “There you two are,” she said, and laid her spoon across one of the saucepans. “Taylor, right?” she asked as she wiped her hands off on a teatowel.

I nodded. “That’s me, Mrs. McCormick.”

“No need to stand on ceremony, it’s Trish,” she said, and gave me a cheerful smile. At that moment I was struck by how alike she and Ruby looked – their hair was the same colour, they had the same sort of smile, and they were roughly the same height. “Rue, your dad’s been out in the backyard for the last half hour – go track him down for me?”

“On it,” Ruby said, snapping off a salute, and gave my hand a quick squeeze before wandering off out of the kitchen.

“Okay, so Ruby has said you like Italian food,” Trish said, and I nodded. “Excellent. Any specific preferences?”

“Nope,” I replied. “I’ll eat pretty much anything – I’m not picky. Not allergic to anything edible either.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that.” She picked her spoon up again and gave the contents of one of the saucepans a stir. “It’ll be a little while before everything’s ready, so how about you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Instead of answering straight away, I climbed up on one of the bar stools that lived underneath the overhang of the kitchen bench. “Well, I’m from Newcastle originally. My dad’s job meant that my family got moved around a bit when I was younger, though – spent most of the first five years of my life in Mount Isa, up in Queensland, and Port Hedland in Western Australia for a couple of years after that.”

“How long have you lived here in Wollongong?”

I quickly worked out just how long I’d called Wollongong home. “Almost seven years all up. Lived here for just over a year between 2002 and 2003 while I went to uni, and I moved back here for good in the middle of 2007. It’s a lot different to Newcastle but I love it here.” I twisted my Hanson ring around my right ring finger, almost as a way of settling the anxiety I still felt. “Everyone else in my family – my parents, all of my siblings, my niece and nephews – they’re still up in Newcastle.”

“Needed a change of scenery?” Trish asked.

“Something like that, yeah.”

Ruby reappeared in the kitchen a few minutes later, followed by someone I knew could only be her father, and I immediately slid down off my bar stool. “Dad, I would like you to meet my boyfriend Taylor Hanson,” Ruby said. “Tay, this is my dad.” I couldn’t help but note the pride in Ruby’s voice as she introduced her father to me.

“Call me Colin,” Ruby’s father said, holding out one of his hands for me to shake. “Ruby’s told us so much about you – she’s very taken with you. Has been for years, isn’t that right Rue?”

“Dad,” Ruby groaned, before shooting me an apologetic look.

“It’s okay Ruby,” I said, before shaking Colin’s hand. “It’s good to meet you, Colin.”

“If you three are finished gossiping, I need someone to set the table,” Trish said from her spot at the stove. “Dinner will be ready soon.”

“I’ll do it,” Ruby volunteered, and headed over to the refrigerator. She opened the cupboards above it and took down four placemats. “Just four places?”

“I think so, yes,” Trish replied. “Ben, are you going out?” she called out.

“Yeah, in a little bit!” Benjamin yelled back.

“Four places,” Trish confirmed. “Cutlery is in the dishwasher.”

“I’ll help,” I offered. “I don’t mind, really.”

Ruby’s response to this was to hold the placemats out to me. I gave her a smile and went to put them out on the table.

Dinner that evening was agnolotti (filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, I discovered when I cut open one of the agnolotti in my bowl) with a sundried tomato sauce, and garlic bread to go with it. “I bloody hate spinach,” Ruby mumbled, picking at her dinner with a disgusted look on her face.

“It’s not that bad,” I said. “You can barely taste it.” As if to prove my point, I speared some of my pasta with my fork and popped it into my mouth.

“Well, at least someone appreciates my cooking,” Trish said, her tone teasing. “Now, the two of you are heading off to Geelong next Saturday, right?”

I swallowed my mouthful of pasta and nodded. “Yeah. We’re all booked on the ten past four Jetstar flight to Avalon from Sydney. We get back to Sydney on the twenty-ninth. I can write out the tour itinerary if you’d like me to.”

“We’d appreciate it,” Colin said. “Ruby, we just want to make sure we have an idea of where you’re going,” he said when Ruby opened her mouth. “Just in case something happens while you’re away.”

“I’m not a fucking child,” Ruby grumbled. “I’m almost twenty-nine for crying out loud.”

“No, but you do have a fairly serious chronic illness,” Trish reminded Ruby. “We’re just watching out for your wellbeing. And watch your mouth.”

“Taylor knows what to do when I have a flare-up or a crash, or if he notices I’m about to have one,” Ruby said. “He also knows about my meds and that I need to stay on track with them. I will be fine, Mum. Dr. Marsden would have nixed the whole thing if she didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to go.”

“We’re not trying to stop you going,” Colin said. “And we know Taylor will look after you when he isn’t working. We just want you to be careful, that’s all.”

Ruby let out a quiet sigh. “Yeah, I know.” I found one of her hands under the table and gave it a squeeze. “It’s just…this is my first proper holiday since I got sick. I don’t want anything to screw it up.”

“Nothing’s going to screw it up,” I assured her. “I’ll make sure of it.”

She looked at me. “You promise?”

I lifted her hand up and kissed it. “I promise.”

---

A week later, I found myself standing at the front door of Ruby’s caravan. My car was parked next to the kerb, something made possible by Ruby loaning me her spare keycard for the caravan park’s security gate – it would make it a lot easier for Ruby to load her gear into the boot of my car, for one.

The first time I’d come here, nearly two months earlier, I’d been concentrating on making sure Ruby got inside rather than having a proper look at the exterior of her little home. Now that I had that luxury, I was taking full advantage of it. The caravan and its attached annexe were the same off-white colour, and there was a small garden planted at the front of the annexe. Right now it was a riot of tiny pink and white daisies. A sign next to the front door made me laugh out loud – it read All Guests Must Be Approved By The Dog, and had paw prints surrounding the text. Hanging from the roof of the little verandah outside Ruby’s front door was a set of windchimes.

I fished my phone out of my pocket, unlocked it, and opened the text message that Ruby had sent me the night before. Spare keys in fake rock in garden – rock has a purple paw print on it. Let yourself in if i don’t answer. :)

Ruby answered my knock with a wave and a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth, light blue foam dripping down her chin. “Almost ready,” she said around her toothbrush. “Have a seat, I won’t be long.” She gave me a grin and ducked into the bathroom that I knew was attached to the side of the annexe, and I sat down on the lounge to wait for her.

She was as good as her word. Barely five minutes after she had vanished back into the bathroom she came back out, carrying a bundle of clothing under her left arm and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that had a silver elephant on the front. Her feet were bare, and she had pulled her hair back into a neat plait.

“We’re getting the train from Wollongong, right?” she asked as she pitched the clothing bundle into the laundry hamper I could see sitting just inside the bathroom door. “Because I called them a little while ago and told them to expect us.”

I nodded. “That’s the plan. I’m going to park my car in the carpark next to the station – I’ve done it a few times for tour, it’s better than being ripped off for parking at the airport.”

“Okay, sweet.” She ducked up into the caravan, coming back out with a pair of socks and her sneakers, and sat down next to me to put her shoes on. “And we’re meeting everyone there, yeah?”

“Yep. Isaac said he’ll meet us just after the ticket barriers at the station,” I replied. “Everyone else will be near the Jetstar check-in desks.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ruby’s hands shaking a bit as she tied her shoelaces. “Hey, you okay?”

“Just a bit nervous,” she replied, and clenched her hands into fists to stop them shaking. “I’ve never been on tour before.”

“It’s just like being on a road trip, really,” I said to reassure her. “Except that I’ll be working about half the time.”

“That’s not why I’m nervous.” She was quiet for a little while. “Taylor, I know what my fellow fans are like. A lot of them are catty bitches, to be blunt. There’s been catfights at almost every Hanson show I’ve ever been to. If they find out we’re dating they’re going to have a field day. I-I don’t want that to happen.”

“I’m going to do my best to make sure it doesn’t,” I assured her. “I’ll pull Joel aside when we get to Sydney and talk to him – he should be able to keep things from getting too far out of control. Okay?”

I could almost see the wheels turning in Ruby’s head as she considered this. “Yeah, okay.”

We hit the road not long after that. Ruby’s suitcase, crutches and folded wheelchair had fit nicely into the boot of my car alongside my suitcase, and the rest of her gear – her backpack and a long black garment bag labelled with her first and last names – went in the backseat with my own backpack and the case that held my DSLR. Just about all of my instruments, all save my harmonica and tambourine, were already on their way down to Geelong – with everything that I needed to keep track of, adding my guitars and keyboard was just asking for trouble. “Sadie’s at my parents’ for the next couple of weeks,” Ruby said as she stuck her disabled parking permit to the inside of my car’s windscreen. “I don’t think it’s fair on her if I take her on tour with us – if I’m stuck in bed and you’re off doing interviews or rehearsals, there’s nobody to walk her.”

“I’m sure either Kate or Nikki would have been happy to do that,” I said.

Ruby gave me a smile. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

My phone rang just as I was pulling my car away from the kerb, the opening bars of My Happiness by Powderfinger blasting out of its speaker and Isaac’s name on its screen. I tapped on the Speaker button to answer it. “Hey Isaac.”

“Hey Tay. Just checking in to see how things are going,” Isaac said. I could hear the unmistakable sounds of Sydney’s Central station in the background – announcements over the station PA, trains arriving and departing, and passengers milling around on the platforms.

“Just leaving Ruby’s place now,” I replied, and put my car into drive before heading up to the caravan park entrance. “We’re planning on catching the twelve-forty-two train from Wollongong – we’ll probably get to the airport at around twenty-five past two. You’re getting the train as well, right?”

“That’s the plan,” Isaac replied. Almost to confirm this, I heard Nikki yell out in the background of the phone call, “James Monroe Hanson, you get away from the edge right now or so help me you won’t be able to sit down for a week!”

“Kids being brats again?” I asked as I wound the driver’s side window down so I could swipe Ruby’s keycard at the security gate.

“You have no idea. Nikki is this close to dumping the boys on the next flight to Brisbane so they can spend the next two weeks with her parents.”

I bit back a laugh. “She’d do it too.” The security gate went up, and I drove out of the caravan park. “Any word yet on how Zac’s getting there?”

“He reckons he’s driving. I haven’t seen him here yet so unless he catches a later train that’s probably still his plan.”

“He’s mad. You’d never get me driving there. I like my money where it is, thank you very much.”

We kept up our conversation the whole way into Wollongong, only stopping when I pulled my car into a disabled parking space on the ground level of the train station carpark. “I’d better go, we’re at the station and our train’ll be here in” I eyed the clock on my car’s dashboard “about twenty minutes. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“See you then,” Isaac replied, and the two of us hung up. I looked over at Ruby and gave her a smile. “Well then, shall we?”

The time between getting to the station and catching our train went by almost in the blink of an eye. We bought our tickets to the Domestic Airport station – a full-fare ticket for me, and a pensioner ticket for Ruby – Ruby checked in with the stationmaster to let them know what train we were planning on catching, and settled in to wait near the ramp up to the station’s kiosk. Ruby had positioned herself next to the end of the bench I sat on, still in her wheelchair, with her suitcase sitting beside her and her backpack’s straps looped over the handles on the back of her wheelchair. Her crutches were balanced on one of the footrests, and her garment bag was folded neatly in her lap. The bright April sunshine shone on the wheelchair’s frame, making the paintwork gleam – like her car, Ruby’s wheelchair was purple, but a much brighter shade that almost glittered in the sun. “It’s your favourite colour, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Pardon?”

“Purple. It’s your favourite colour. Right?”

Ruby nodded – she seemed pleased that I’d noticed. “Yours is blue, right?”

“Yeah.” I tugged on the hem of my T-shirt – it was a deep, dark blue, almost black. “A really dark blue though, like my shirt.”

“You look good in blue,” Ruby said. “Brings out your eyes.” At this she went bright pink and ducked her head a little.

Anything I might have said after this was interrupted by the announcement of our train’s imminent arrival over the station’s PA. “The next train to arrive on platform one goes to Bondi Junction via Wolli Creek. First stop North Wollongong, then Thirroul, all stations to Waterfall, Sutherland, Hurstville, Wolli Creek, Redfern, Central, Town Hall, and then all stations to Bondi Junction.”

“That’s us,” Ruby said, her voice sounding a bit strained. Almost on cue, the stationmaster came over to us – they carried a folded-up portable wheelchair ramp by its handle.

“All right there?” she asked us, and Ruby nodded. “The stationmaster at Wolli Creek will meet the two of you on platform three when your train arrives – they’ll take things from there. Okay?”

“Okay,” Ruby replied with a nod, one that I copied. “Thanks.”

“No worries.” The stationmaster gave us a cheerful smile and walked over to where the train was pulling up alongside the platform, unfolding the ramp as she walked. Ruby unlocked the brakes on her wheelchair and made her way over to the train, leaving me to handle both of our suitcases, my backpack and my camera case. I managed to finish loading our gear onto the train about half a second before the carriage doors slid closed, and hurried over to sit down next to Ruby before the jolt of the train could knock me off my feet.

“Still nervous?” I asked Ruby as the train started heading up the line toward its next stop.

“A bit,” she admitted. “And it’s not just the fans I’m worried about now either.” She started twisting the hem of her T-shirt around in her fingers. “What if your brothers end up deciding they hate me?”

“Ruby, they don’t hate you. Okay, yeah, they’ve teased me about you – I copped a hell of a lot of shit off Zac because seeing you at the UniBar show almost made me pass out onstage” Ruby went pale when I said this “but I know they like you. You’re an easy person to like.”

“They’ve only met me once,” Ruby mumbled.

“Yeah, and you made a really good impression on them.” I started playing with the tail of Ruby’s plait. “Just be yourself around them. They know you’re a fan, and they’re totally fine with it.”

“If you say so,” Ruby said. I couldn’t help but notice that she sounded a little doubtful.

“I do say so. Believe me, if neither of them liked you they would have said something. Zac definitely isn’t shy about telling people he doesn’t like them. Neither of them have said anything like that, especially not to me.” I pushed a few stray curls behind Ruby’s left ear. “I promise Ruby, they like you. They like you a lot.”

“I hope they still like me when the tour’s over,” Ruby said quietly. “That’d make things really fucking awkward otherwise.”

I let out a quiet laugh. “No kidding.” She smiled at this. “But aside from being nervous, you’re looking forward to the tour?”

“Yeah, I am. Never been to Victoria before. Plus I get to go to a bunch of Hanson concerts for free, and I get to spend time with my boyfriend. How could I not be looking forward to it?”

I grinned. “Right answer.”

I settled back into my seat and watched the scenery go by. As much as I liked going to TAFE and being relatively anonymous, it was always good to get back out on the road. My music was what gave my life its most basic of meanings – I would be a very different person without it. I was intelligent enough to acknowledge that.

“Tay?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for inviting me on tour.”

I smiled and leaned over to kiss Ruby. “You’re very welcome.”

<<

| chapters |

>>