The Happy Birthday Song ✓

Chapter Four

Friday, May 19th 2006

Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

3:29 PM

The sun sat perched at its highest point in the sky and its heat beat down on her bare shoulders as she walked home. Her hair, brighter than the sunshine and the vivid colour of burning fire, had escaped from its ponytail and was now flowing down her back in red waves.

Her breaths came fast and heavy and her heart was still hammering in her chest. She had been running for almost twenty minutes from a pack of dogs and she would be lying if she said she wasn't exhausted. She didn't know why she kept taking that shortcut. It just wasn't worth it with those dogs lying in wait. 

The first thing Junie noticed, upon entering her house and shutting the door behind her, was the abnormal silence.  Her house was never silent, silence was a stranger. It was always filled with either Audrey's loud cackling laughter, an eighties song blaring away or the incessant voices of Audrey arguing with another one of her male companions.

"Audrey?" She said tentatively stepping further into the hallway. "Audrey, Audrey are you there?"

Junie called her mother's name several times but the irritated quip she always gave in answer never came. She wasn't in the kitchen, living room or the back yard, and so she proceeded to look upstairs. She wasn't in her bedroom or Junie's.

Junie walked down the corridor and pushed open the door to the bathroom. She froze. Her brown eyes widened and fixed on her mother's motionless form.  She was lying on the marble floor, passed out and surrounded by dozens of bottles whiskey and vodka. For the first few seconds all Junie did was stare before she snapped out of stupor and rushed to her mother. 

"Mum!" She gasped she dropped to her knees beside her. Panic clawed at her as she shook Audrey by the shoulders and patted her cheek. She almost cried in relief when she saw her mother's eyelids slowly flutter open.  

Audrey let out a groan.

"Oh my God," Junie breathed, "Mum, what have I told you about drinking so much?"

Audrey brushed strands of red hair from her eyes and groaned once more. She blinked dazedly up at Junie and a grimace formed on her lips. She batted away Junie's offer of help and lazily pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Her fingers rubbed her temple in slow circles, "I have a blinding headache."

"What were you doing?" Junie asked.

Audrey glanced at her daughter and gave her a weak smile that only increased Junie's worries. "Nothing, just...got a bit carried away, I'm fine, love."

Audrey looked like the definition of awful. Dark circles painted her tired and bloodshot eyes. Junie noted that she had been wearing those grey sweatpants and tank top for three days now. After a few moments, Audrey stood up and walked over to the cupboard.

She pulled out a bottle of vodka and a packet of cigarettes before she promptly left the bathroom, leaving Junie to sit on the cold marble floor and process what had just occurred. She gulped and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

She couldn't stay here, she couldn't stay here as her mother drunk herself to death. Junie left the bathroom and entered her room. She found a spare scrunchy and pulled her back into its usual ponytail. Grabbing her skateboard, Junie hopped out of her house and headed to Dylan's house.  

4:11 PM

Junie pressed the doorbell and hoped he was in. Last time he had been at his grandmother's and she'd had to spend the three hours in the library in order to avoid going home. She could faintly hear the sound resonating throughout the house. She had not just travelled thirty-minutes on her skateboard in the sweltering heat for the fun of it.