“Blast!” He thrust open the car door and started the engine with a rev.
The spinning tires sent a shower of loose gravel against the motel wall. Ping. Pang. The clatter alone would have woken the deepest sleeper.
“What? John, what’s going on? Where are we going?” asked Stephanie’s mum.
Her father drove off, red-faced and with his mouth clamped shut.
“Diane, girls, this is it,” he said as he pulled into a driveway.
“Our new home?” Diane said.
John nodded as he climbed out of the car.
“You’re not even sure of what our new home looks like?” Stephanie stared at her mother.
“I’ve only seen pictures, you know that.” Her mother shook her head.
“We don’t pick up the key until tomorrow.” Her father drew in a deep breath. “And it appears the whole of Toowoomba is booked up, including our room which they gave to someone else because we didn’t get here before closing hours. It’s rodeo season.”
“What? That’s just not good enough.” Her mother’s voice bounced off the car windows. “Wasn’t there something you could’ve done?”
“They gave our room to someone else. What did you want me to do? Go and tell them to get out?” Her father’s mouth formed a thin line. “One thing I do know … I can’t spend another minute in the car today. I’ll wait under the porch ’til morning. Try and get some sleep girls.”
Stephanie yawned and watched her father walk away from the car. Before she could get comfortable, April spun in her seat and kicked her feet up to stretch out.
“April, stop kicking me!” Stephanie shoved her away.
“Oh, Stephanie, stop it.” Her mother levered the front passenger seat down as flat as it would go. “Move here, to the front. April, put your pillow on the door. Here like this.” She fussed over April until she was comfortable.
“It’s too cold to sleep.” Stephanie’s teeth chattered in between words.
“Try wrapping this around you.” Her mother handed her a woolly jumper then stepped away and looked at their new home. Diane shivered in the chilly mountain air, then walked up three steps to sit beside her husband on the porch.
Stephanie wound her window down to listen to her parents.
“I’m sorry. I know there was nothing you could have done.”
Her father stared at the ground in silence.
She wound the window back up to keep the cold air out. April breathed heavily in the back, asleep already. Stephanie focused on her parents sitting on the porch with their backs to the wall and a picnic blanket wrapped around them until her eyelids fell.
The next morning, she shuddered, stretching her cramped body. She straightened her neck and blinked away the early sun. Rubbing her finger on the damp windscreen, she formed a circle in the condensation. Her parents weren’t on the porch. With April snoring in the back seat, Stephanie crept out of the car and rested the door closed without letting it click. Pulling the woolly jumper tight, she breathed white fog in the still morning air.
No one was in the front yard. She spun around as her chest tightened. Surely they wouldn’t have walked to the real estate office to get the key?
