Colleen walked free from the Easternvale Women's detention centre on an overcast Wednesday morning in late September. Her personal belongings had been packed into the one small bag she had taken into prison. On departure, the prison provided her with five hundred dollars in cash and a weekly train ticket to see her through the first week on the outside.
The past fifty-two days in jail had not been easy and yet Colleen paused at the prison gates, not quite ready to leave. She looked back, and although it did not make any sense, felt a reluctance to move on. It was a tough city to survive in without money and friends. Colleen let out a deep, frustrated breath, and thought to herself. Where am I going to sleep tonight? The feeling of helplessness seemed to increase with every breath. Think, Colleen, think, she told herself.
She and Ted had only lived in Melbourne for a short period of time as they had tended to move around quite a bit in the past five years. There were no friends or family there who would take her in, that was for sure.
Colleen needed to find out for how much longer Ted would be locked up. Her court-appointed lawyer had refused to find out. The young girl in her smart suit and fancy high heels had said she wanted to concentrate on her case, and not Ted's. Fat lot of good she had done anyway, thought Colleen, having lost the case, causing me to get locked up for something I didn't even do.
There was really only one choice left. Colleen had contemplated this option numerous times before, but had never gone through with it. There was a man from her past who lived in Melbourne. It was a past so distant that it felt like a dream. However, as she stood there, the realisation struck, that there really were no other places to go. Colleen made her mind up right there and then to go. She would try her luck today.
Once the decision was made, calmness swept over her body, and she moved away more confidently from the prison gates towards the nearby train station. The train would take her into the city where she would find him, and he would help her. She had no doubt. It was time to speak to Tom Bradley again.