Wine O'Clock

 

‘Just the one’ Julie told herself, playing with the frost that had gathered on the wine bottle,

staring at the label, wondering whether it was grown on the right side of the hill – the joke

she and David used to share after their membership of the local wine club when they first

moved here. It was a way of getting to know people, David had said. You had to be a joiner,

if you wanted to win in life. It had certainly worked for him, as a sales director. For Julie,

she wasn’t so sure.

‘It can’t hurt.’

 

These excuses swirled around in Julie’s mind every time she got to ‘Wine O’Clock.

Nowadays you didn’t have to bother using the corkscrew and worry that the cork would get

stuck and you’d have to dig the thing out with your nails or a knife before you could even

take a sip.

 

No-one in Julie’s family ever drank, and because she was so painfully shy, her first glass of

champagne at a works Christmas party, gave her a confidence that was quite seductive.

Her friend Mandy’s husband was a lawyer in the city and they lived in modern concrete

boxes with manicured lawns and well-behaved shrubs behind traditional picket fences.

Whose turn was it to be under the limit to pick the kids up? They joked – they lived in the

same cul-de-sac and their husbands had good jobs. It wasn’t as if they lacked for anything.

 

Julie’s pigeon pair, Alex and Jessica, were the loves of her life. Alex was fourteen and on the

debating team. He always spoke the truth, or his truth as he saw it. Jessica who was only

eight, took after her mother, David was fond of saying – that meant pretty and compliant,

although that wasn’t quite the way he put it. Sweet and loving were the words he used.

Now it was Mandy on the phone. Julie let it go to message. She (Julie) needed to call back

urgently and she didn’t say why. Why didn’t she just call Triple O? Although, right now,

Julie was feeling headachy and she knew that just a sip would calm her down and restore her

equilibrium. She poured just half a glass. She filled up the glass and took a long gulp. Oh my

goodness, that felt great. Now she had the energy to call Mandy.

 

‘Hi Mandy, it’s Julie.

‘I just don’t know what to do. I’m beside myself.’

Julie braced herself for listening to another domestic disaster and took another sip. Julie

wanted to throttle her, making herself a mental note to avoid looking at Mandy’s throat the

next time they met, lest she be tempted to carry out the deed.

 

The kids were in bed and David was working late, so it seemed easy to pour another one

while watching the latest Scandi Noir. She’d never been particularly introspective, but

nowadays when she was alone, a pattern of asking herself how she had ended up here

emerged. It was a feeling of disconnectedness, going about her daily tasks in a robotic

fashion with an apathy she’d never encountered before. No-one had noticed, thankfully,

certainly not David, Mr Pollyanna himself. Life was a bed of roses, he himself a ray of

sunshine. It was only when the dog scrambling to the door, scraping the floor noisily with his

claws to greet his master, that she awoke with a start, realising she had finished the bottle.

She stashed it under the couch.

 

‘Oh, you’re still up love, sorry I’m so late.’

She yawned and said.

‘Oh, I just had to watch another episode, you know. They get you hooked. Do you want

anything?’

 

The sun streamed through the curtains like lightning rods at her waking eyelids making her

blink rapidly – Julie had overslept. She reached over to find David’s side empty. Where were

the kids and when had David left?

 

She stumbled down the hall to find Jessica and Alex glued to the television and crunching

through cereal. Pulling her dressing gown around her, she nonchalantly put the coffee

machine on. The children gave each other furtive glances, which she pretended to ignore.

‘So what’s happening today? I seem to remember you had a book day, Jessica? Have you got

everything packed?

Jessica grunted and kept chewing. Julie poured herself a milky coffee and drinking in large

gulps, smiling and waiting for her children to make conversation, to fill the morning silence.

‘Oh well, just give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll drop you off.’

Alex looked up from his plate, his hair flopping in his eyes.

‘Do you think you should drive today, Mum?’

She bristled.

‘Don’t be ridiculous. What do you mean?’

‘Buddy dragged the bottle out from under the couch this morning. Don’t worry, I put it in

next door’s bin.’

‘Oh well, he’s always finding strange things around the place, that dog. The cleaner probably

chucked it under there.’

 

The school route was jammed as usual with Range Rovers and the odd Porsche, clogging up

traffic as kids were deposited mothers lingered to chat. Julie was trying to keep up her usual

morning patter.

‘What have you got on today, Alex?’

He was glued to her phone, the earbuds firmly in place. Julie briefly looked back.

‘Mum!’ What are you doing?’ Alex screamed.

A little boy of about seven or eight was crossing the road aimlessly, far from the zebra

crossing. Julie braked hard.

She shot out of the car. She’d stopped just in time, the boy was walking away, the bonnet

having only nudged him. One of the mothers came racing over.

‘What are you doing, you crazy cow? I’m calling the police.’

‘He just ran out. I stopped. She said to the boy:

‘Are you OK? Where’s your Mum?’

 

The police were indeed called and Julie was under the limit. No charges were laid, but she

was given a verbal caution. Julie drove home very slowly. She spent the rest of the day

cleaning. She was good at putting everything out of her mind if she concentrated on one task

mindfully and expertly and exactly. After that, she re-ironed David’s shirts and then went out

and trimmed the already trim hedges at the front of the house.

 

By the time it came to pick the kids up – it was Mandy’s turn – she was sitting in the kitchen

watching the steam curling up from her cup of tea.

The children rumbled through the house to their bedrooms and Mandy threw her bag down.

‘Had a rough day?  I heard all about it from that snitch Bec at the canteen. Storm in a teacup.

So that’s what you’re drinking now? Tea? Where’s that marvellous Pinot Grigio you had?’

‘I just thought I’d take it easy.’

‘Oh, come on, what’s wrong with unwinding from a stressful day? I’ve got just the thing.’

She produced a bottle from her bag.

‘Not as good as the one we had last week, but just grabbed this one from the bottle-o. You

need cheering up. Come on, Julie, live a little!’

After that, Julie was honour-bound to produce said Pinot and poured them both generous

glasses. The kids were all rowdily enjoying video games upstairs and David wouldn’t be

home for ages and she ordered in a pizza. The beauty of all of them living in a cul-de-sac was

that Mandy could just walk home.

 

The following morning she asked David to drive the kids to school because she had a raging

headache. Alex looked at her strangely, grabbed his backpack and slumped out the door after

his father.

‘Bye, sweetheart, see you this arvo.’

 

She cleaned the house in a jiffy. Watching Dr Phil at lunchtime, her headache lingered. When

she saw those dysfunctional characters and their woes, she felt somewhat superior.

No, she could never see herself as that kind of victim, she who never drank before the

afternoon. She had a lovely house, a lovely husband and lovely children. Well, Alex wasn’t

so lovely these days. These days, he appeared to sneer. In fact, he’d become quite combative

and judgemental. He was meant to be learning, not judging.

She discovered the remnants of last night’s pizza. There was an unopened bottle of wine that

looked like it should be drunk. She resisted the urge and put the pizza in the microwave.

Julie sat on the deck, nibbling it. A hefty magpie was eyeing it off, edging closer. He was

about to overturn it, when Julie dropped the whole thing on the grass.

‘There you go’ she said. She went inside and took the wine from the fridge, pouring herself a

generous glass.

 

Julie entered the School of Arts building, all peeling paint and metal chairs that scraped, a

cough or two from the participants. She sat at the back while they spoke, wondering once

again why she was here, and praying for a new beginning but still feeling thirsty.