Delicate Touches Pt. 08 - Epilogue

"No, what's happened?"

"They got together, like Stevie and I, it was kind of weird they got together on Saturday night."

"Like Mia and me," Nicki looked past her, "talk about spooky."

"Things happen in threes," Mei Lin nodded.

"That's the bad things," Nicki eyed her.

"It's just a superstitious saying, there's nothing to say that good things can't happen in threes, but what is happening between you and Mia?"

"That's the part I'm trying to get my head around," Nicki confessed, "she's running the show and I'm only too aware that she calls the shots. We're together but there's been no grand plan and it's all on a casual basis."

"So, what would happen if she suddenly revealed her grand plan?"

"I'd run for my life."

"Me too," Mei Lin looked thoughtful, "anyway, I'm off to bed," she squeezed her leg and rose, "we should have a house warming party for Linda."

Nicki chuckled at that.

"I love the way your mind works, just random sparks and casual detours. Never a dull moment."

Nevertheless, the casual throwaway line about a house warming party grew arms and legs when Mei Lin mentioned it to Stella and Evie over a quick lunch in the Bourke Street Mall the next day. Stella was initially hesitant about it due to the fact that no one had asked Linda but when Evie then suggested including the other two house mates as well she warmed to the idea.

"Although if we've got AA members there we need to show a bit of consideration when it comes to alcohol."

"So, I'll be the barmaid," Evie declared, "just point out the alkies to me and I'll refuse to serve them anything alcoholic and Nicki can be the bouncer."

"At her own party?" Stella raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?" Mei Lin replied, "I'm sure she'd love to volunteer."

"I'll think it over," Stella glanced at her phone, "well, I've got to love you and leave you," she eyed Evie, "you coming back for dinner?"

"Yeah, I'll hitch a ride with you."

"And what are you doing after uni?" Stella glanced at Mei Lin.

"I, um, I've got plans for tonight," she stretched, "I'm going to my parents' joint first and then it's off to Stevie's joint."

Stella was going to ask the obvious question but decided against it as they prepared to part company Mei Lin had been somewhat reluctant to talk about Stevie and yet she had a feeling that Mei Lin was about to do the unexpected. This was confirmed some fifteen minutes later when Mei Lin caught the tram heading south towards St Kilda instead of the other direction. So, she wasn't going to uni after all.

***

The train doors opened and the occupants spilled out onto the platform at Bayswater train station, they were a mixture of office workers, shop assistants, manual labourers and two mothers with their children. Some of the men paid attention to Mei Lin as she made her way to the ticket barriers. She had donned a skin tight pair of jeans that looked as if she'd been poured into them, the white blouse accentuated her large breasts and the black leather jacket and boots completed the outfit. She walked with the confidence of a woman who knew men were checking her out and didn't seem to care where they looked. The odd few men who came up the incline to the taxi rank and bus stop a few minutes later paused to see the woman approaching a woman on a Harley Davidson.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Stevie handed her the helmet.

"I'll tell you in half an hour," Mei Lin put the helmet on, "help me do this up."

Stevie chanced a glance at the passersby, wondering if any of them knew Mei Lin but the younger woman didn't seem to notice them as she zipped up her jacket.

"Nice shirt."

"Thank you, but it's an old school shirt."

"I burned my old uniform."

"I gave the skirt and blazer back to the school but kept the shirts, they're just white shirts."

"Well in my defence, I was making a statement," she replied, "okay, you've been on the back of a bike before?"

"Yeah, Nicki's bike. Why? What's different about this bike?"

"Um, nothing, same rules apply."

It was different being on the back of a Harley though Mei Lin mused on the short ride from the station to her parents' home in Bayswater North. Drivers tended to give them more room, perhaps fearing that there were more Harleys behind them. No one wanted to have thirty or forty outlaw bikers roaring past them on both sides of their cars. Perhaps it was coincidence, but they passed one of her mother's friends, Tina as Stevie twisted the throttle. Tina didn't recognise her of course due to the full face helmet she was wearing but it made Mei Lin smile as they roared up the hill. Tina was from church although of late she hadn't been seen at mass, prompting her mother to comment that perhaps she should pop in on Tina.

Her only fear however was that her father wouldn't be home yet, but thankfully his car was in the driveway and as she touched the bonnet she felt the heat from the engine. Stevie chanced a glance at the street as she took off her helmet.

"So, what's the plan?"

"I've got some clothes in my wardrobe," she fluffed out her hair, "just pack them into the backpack in the bottom of the wardrobe while I talk to dad and mum, whatever you hear don't come through to rescue me. I have to do this on my own or not at all."

Despite her reassurances though, Stevie still felt nervous as she stepped into Mei Lin's bedroom a few minutes, leaving Mei Lin alone with her parents. The plan to just out herself like this hadn't been on Stevie's radar at all. She'd imagined a somewhat winding path to outing herself. She could hear a raised voice speaking Malaysian? It had to be her mother.

Mei Lin didn't flinch when her mother recited a verse from the Old Testament about the evils of homosexuality, which was backed up by St Paul's condemnation of homosexuality but as she drew breath Mei Lin spoke up when she heard Stevie approaching from the bedroom.

"Speak English and stop hiding behind your language."

"You have shamed me," her mother hissed, "and you have shamed your ancestors."

"You are the one who built that cross," she snapped back, "and my ancestors are dead, their bones are buried in Malaysia. This is my life not yours, if I choose to be with a woman what right do you have to shame me?"

"This is not how I raised you," her mother switched back to Malaysian.

"This is how you raised me," Mei Lin replied in English as Stevie stepped into the room, "you raised me to tell the truth and so I am telling you the truth. I am gay, I have been this way for years but because I was afraid of facing up to you I hid the truth about myself," she folded her arms and stared through her.

"But that ends today. I am what I am. You are my mother and I am your daughter but if you choose to treat me as a leper then that is your loss not mine," her eyes shifted to take in Stevie.

"Stevie is my girlfriend."

Mei Lin's mother took two steps back, bumped into the bench and then winced as she put a hand to her chest. Her face screwed up in pain as she stared at Stevie.

"What's wrong, mum?" Mei Lin asked her.

"My heart."

"If that is where your heart is then you are unique," Mei Lin's father spoke from the doorway, he was still wearing his tie but it was dangling loosely about him as he undid his cuffs, "your heart is on the other side of your chest," he winked at Mei Lin.

"I have been watching the You Tube," he glanced at Stevie, "and you are my daughter's girlfriend," he smiled.

"I am," Stevie finally found her voice.

"How can you do this to me?" Mei Lin's mother wailed, "your own mother."

"You are doing it yourself," her father replied, "our children are now adults and it is up to them how they live their lives now," he moved further into the kitchen.

"Now I have something interesting to say at work," he paused.

"One of my colleagues has a gay son and another has a daughter who is in a rock and roll band, and one has adopted two children from Somalia. So, tomorrow I can go to work and tell them I have a gay daughter?"

"You can, dad," Mei Lin nudged her glasses.

"Good," he put his arm around her and looked at Stevie, "that makes me happy," he glanced at his wife as she suddenly stormed from the room and a wry smile nudged his lips.

"She will come around in the end."

It was a fitting end Mei Lin mused as she settled onto the back of Stevie's bike. Her father had taken a picture of his daughter and Stevie beside the bike, he was going to update the Facebook he told them.

"None of my friends have a Harley Davidson on their Facebook."

"So, where to, your place or mine?"

"Your place, but I have to work tomorrow, which is why I had to pack a few clothes here."

As they rode away Mei Lin had time to reflect on her coming out. Despite her projections, it had gone surprisingly well, she slipped her arms around Stevie's waist.

Well, that went well.

***

When people think of Australia a number of things pop into their mind ranging from the Sydney Opera House and the bridge locally known as the coat hanger through to offshore detention centres, crazy serial killers, Uluru, white sandy beaches and the barbecue. The barbie is an Australian icon and whilst they didn't invent it they've certainly made use of the better climate and cheaper meat to make the barbie an Aussie favourite. The barbecues have evolved from a hot plate sitting on bricks to the upmarket gas-fuelled barbecues that can be literally wheeled out onto a back patio. The fare has also changed from charred chops and snags (sausages) to hamburgers, onion rings, seafood and other types of meat.

But the reasons for having a barbie in the first place haven't changed a bit, it's just a chance to get together with friends to share food, drink and a bit of a laugh. Friendships and love affairs are born and die at barbies, complicated political problems are solved at barbies and somewhere in the midst of this people get fed and watered.

Stella had bought a barbecue in the first few months of sobriety and used it once at a solo barbie just to prove she was on the program, with every intention of having real barbies with actual guests but all that had gone by the wayside as she struggled to adjust to life without Queen Alcohol, the bitch who had dictated her every move. Eventually she'd rolled it back into the shed and left it, only taking it out today when she was expecting an influx of visitors. She'd been a little anxious that after years in the shed it might not work but thankfully it had fired up okay after hooking up the gas and then realising she had to turn the cock on the bottle to on.

She'd been intent on helping the girls tidy the house but they were in full flight and thus she'd been relegated to sweeping the patio and the cobwebs on the pergola. She'd half considered fetching the ladder to get up to the roof and hose the leaves and dirt off the corrugated plastic roof but decided against it when Linda told her not to worry about it.

"There's fuck all up there anyway by the looks of things."

"Even so," she frowned, "it does look dirty."

"I'll clean it next week, I've had to cancel a few clients anyway until I can arrange new times for them anyway and besides, you've got meat to buy."

"Shit, and the rest," she checked her watch, "what was I thinking?"

"It's a journey not a destination," Linda smirked, "I'm done in there, I'll ride shotgun and help you carry the bags."

In true alcoholic style they didn't just bring home a few packs of lamb chops, it was a whole side of lamb that the butcher cut up for them, along with a few jumbo packs of sausages, a couple of boxes of burgers and that was just the meat. The girls just stared as Stella dumped most of it into the chest freezer in the laundry.

"How many are coming again?" Mei Lin asked.

"A couple of dozen or so, last I counted but you can never have too much of anything."

It was an eclectic mix of people who turned up sometime around four o'clock, AA members, friends of Nicki and Mei Lin and Mei Lin's father, the absence of her mother was somewhat softened when he brought a lampshade that she'd insisted would bring her good luck.

"Okay," Mei Lin nudged her glasses, "she had it on the bedside lamps in your room until I broke one when I bumped into the drawers."

"I remember, now we are finally rid of the rogue lampshade."

"How is mum?"

"She is still angry and upset," his eyes shifted as Stevie came up behind Mei Lin and put her arms around her waist, "but she will come around."

Mei Lin smiled at that as she leaned back into Stevie, feeling the warmth from her body and her eyes shifted as she took in the sight of Mia getting ready for her first unplugged session with the band. Stella was flipping burgers and talking on the phone at the same time whilst Evie chatted with Linda's new girlfriend Caroline.

If it never gets any better than this then I can still be happy.

The End.