It was Thursday and Jason and Malinda had looked all week for accommodation that they both liked, but were having trouble agreeing on something that suited them both. Jason wanted something small and easy to look after and Malinda wanted a large place with a pool. Jason argued that they would seldom be home with the band being busy and he would be unable to afford a large place with the fluctuating cash flow from being a rock musician. Malinda informed him that she was very well off and money was no problem. Jason had objected strongly to the idea that she supply money for them at all and insisted that he should be the breadwinner. Malinda fought on, saying the money was there and it seemed pointless not to use it as she had worked very hard to earn it. For the first time their different worlds were in conflict and Malinda found it necessary to tell Jason more, or their lives may drift apart and they would again be alone and without their love for each other.
They sat in the parklands opposite Jason’s unit in the warm afternoon sun. "How much money are we talking about? Hundreds?” asked Jason.
“More,” replied Malinda.
Jason frowned, “Thousands.”
“Warmer.”
Jason shook his head, “Not millions.”
“Yes. I have a modelling and cosmetics organisation and my first husband left his estate to me, and my second husband whom I’m divorcing now is filthy rich and I may get some of that too. My partner Savanna is looking after the business from Paris at present as I need some time to get over the violence of my second husband; and I need you Jason so please don’t let the money come between us.”
Jason looked at the ground and drew circles in the sand with his shoes. He struggled with the news that her husband was violent to her but put off dealing with it until he knew more. “I love you more than anything. I’m sure of that now, but I don’t know how to handle our slight financial gap. Money, money, money, that’s all my father was interested in. He never had time for me or mum. He’s got more money now than he ever had and still tries to get more! Some people are so rich all they have is money. I have a problem with that and I guess, I shouldn’t let it come between us.”
“Jason there’s something else, I have a daughter to my first husband, Tammy, she’s six now.”
Jason looked up and smiled. Because of his lifelong rebellion against his father with his music, one of the setbacks was that he had never married and had a family, which he had always craved. “Where is she? Does she look like you; when can I see her?”
Malinda was a bit taken aback by Jason’s reaction, as she expected the opposite. “You wouldn’t mind us all together then? As a family?” Jason was thinking of his increasing luck, obtaining a daughter to father. For some reason he felt this child was close to him and that it was his burning desire that he father her.
“Can I take her to the circus and the zoo and stuff? My father never took me and I’ve always wanted to go there, but it would be boring by yourself. But with a daughter, that’s different!”
Malinda was feeling so relieved, as she feared that it was the biggest thing for Jason to accept, but he was embracing it. “We better go and find a place for three then.”
Jason jumped up and took Malinda’s hand and headed for the car, “We’ll need a place near a school and away from busy traffic, and a puppy dog. My father wouldn’t let me have one. Kids love them.”
As they drove around looking everywhere they thought would fit Jason gradually learnt that Malinda’s second husband had taken Tammy and hidden her recently, but Malinda’s father had managed to find out where and had gone and got her back. They were keeping Tammy at Malinda’s parents’ place in Sydney under twenty-four hour guard. Malinda went on opening up about her second husband; the beatings and keeping her and Tammy locked away for days on end, only coming to see her for sex. A year ago she took Tammy and ran to Paris and when she returned a month ago her husband found out and snatched Tammy. Then her father had hired some people and got her back. Jason was wondering why they hadn’t called the police, but as Malinda went on he found that this man was extremely dangerous and unpredictable. He wondered how he could hate someone he hadn’t even met, but he was building a hatred against Malinda’s second husband, he had never experienced the emotion. He fought with the feeling inside himself as he had never had to deal with it before; hatred was a new experience for him. Their divorce case was to be heard in court next month and her second husband was desperately trying to get at her before it came up, to put her off claiming part of his large estate.
“What’s this guy’s name?” asked Jason.
“Sly Morgan. Don’t ever go near him, he’s very dangerous Jason. He’s a living devil.”
Jason suddenly stopped the car outside a stone cottage on a small acreage in the hills overlooking the city. It had been renovated, had a pool and was close to a school and shopping centre. There was a large ‘for rent’ sign out front. Malinda approved and they had a closer look and on deciding this was it they called the land agent. The agent was coming there shortly to see someone else who had enquired, but nobody had signed a contract as yet. The place had only come up for occupation the previous day.
The agent came straight over to see them. Whilst signing a contract on the bonnet of the agent’s car, there was a loud roar as an immaculate Harley Davidson pulled up alongside the kerb. The agent thought it was another interested person who had rung, who had mentioned he would arrive on a motor cycle. Malinda was terrified as the tall, well built, muscular rider climbed off and approached them.
“Jason. Fancy running in to you here, bros,” the large figure said in a broad American accent as he hugged Jason. “Who is the mean looking lady?”
“Malinda, this is Zup. He’s the president of the Pagan’s motorcycle club and a pretty good blues harmonica player.”
Zup picked Malinda up clear off the ground with one hand under her arm and kissed her on the cheek. “Pleasure to meet you ma’am. I saw this place for rent and came to check it out with the agent.”
Jason smiled at him. “This is the agent here Zup and we were just signing a contract on it ourselves.”
Zup put his arm around the agent, an attractive middle aged woman.
“That’s no problem ma’am. Look’s like I missed out. You couldn’t have rented it to a nicer person. Was a nice ride anyway.” He walked towards his machine putting his helmet on. Before he climbed on he spoke. “Say Jason, I read in the paper today that you gave up that pussy band you were in and you’re gonna play R’n’B again. Tell me I ain’t dreaming’.”
Jason laughed. “You’re not dreaming Zup.”
Zup kicked his machine into life. “Sounds like good times coming again. I’ll be there man!” he shouted as he drifted the rear end of his machine across the road and disappeared over the crest of the rise in a flash, leaving Malinda and the land agent with their fingers in their ears.
The land agent removed her fingers from her ears. “I take it that you know that gentleman.”
Jason nodded. “Yes, have done for years. I’m a musician and I’ve done a lot of work for the bikers over the years. Zup has a band too, I have great respect for him. I’ve seen him pay us out of his own pocket when shows he ran didn’t make enough money. Some promoters wouldn’t do that. They just tell you your cheque’s in the mail and you never see it. I’d go half way round the world to help him if he needed me and so would all his friends. He’s like my big brother, his kind are like that.”
The land agent looked relieved. “I thought they were barbaric, beer swilling criminals, but I think my theory just got squashed.”
“They like a cold beer on a warm day and some of their dealings aren’t exactly legal, but they try and keep to themselves. They’re not the kind of people you stir up,” said Jason.
Malinda had said nothing as she was still petrified by the experience and clung to Jason’s side like a leech; she had struck people like Zup before with far less manners and contemplated the difference. They finished the paperwork for t
he lease and Malinda gave a cheque to the land agent for the bond and six month’s rent and said she would pick up the key Monday next week as they were busy over the weekend. The land agent drove sedately away and they spent a little more time looking in windows discussing where everything was going to go. Darkness was setting in; they made their way back to Jason’s unit. Malinda felt more confident about Jason and their relationship, but she was still feeling guilty about what she had not yet told him. Tammy was on her mind, she felt there was one thing she could never tell him, but it was the one thing she should. She felt so ashamed.