A Reason to Exist

Chapter 42

When we arrived back at dad's gallery, we found the front window had been smashed and there was a police car parked out the front. I walked in to the gallery and two police were talking with dad.

'What's going on?' I asked.

'Someone broke into the gallery last night and slashed a few of Rex's paintings.' He pointed at a wall where three of Rex's paintings had been slashed in a big x. The canvas had rolled over the frame and was hanging towards the floor.

'Who would do this?'

'Rex,' Tucker said, standing beside me. 'Sabotage.'

'He couldn't have. They're his own paintings. Dad?'

'He was my first thought too,' dad said, reluctantly. 'But I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions. Kids, why don't you go into the kitchen and get some biscuits, while I speak with these officers?'

My perfect day had self-destructed. Fun expires. The exhibition had been trashed, payments for his new apartment jeopardised, dad's life, once again, a cruel target for battering. I felt so sorry for him, for everything he tries to achieve is lanced. The future of happiness keeps her hands in a stranglehold around his neck and tightens her grip whenever prosperity is possible.

'What does this mean?' Tucker asked, sitting down at the table.

'That's three paintings he can't sell. Three commissions he can't make. But worse, it was half an exhibition already. So now it's even less. It's embarrassing to have an exhibition open with only a portion of the show. It doesn't look good to the collectors.'

'Where's those biscuits?' Tucker asked. I'd lost my appetite, but I found the biscuit tin. He ate three in quick succession, while I sat at the table trying to eavesdrop.

'So you don't have CCTV cameras set up here?' one of the officers said.

'I looked into it last year,' dad said, 'as it would bring my insurance down. But look, I got overwhelmed with all the choices, from cheap to really sophisticated systems. I don't know. I kept putting off making a decision. Damn it.'

'We'll speak to the stores next door and across the road. Sometimes other cameras capture activities nearby,' the officer said. 'We won't speak to the artist until we've tried to view some footage. We'll give you a call tomorrow morning.'

There were more words mumbled that I couldn't quite work out. I leant against the wall with my arms across my chest trying to listen. It was a few moments before I heard the officers walking out the front door and dad came into the kitchen looking pale and worried.

'How was your day?' he asked.

'It was great,' I said, smiling. 'We went rock-climbing and to the zoo.'

'You, rock-climbing?' dad asked, a smile wrinkling out his troubles. 'That I can't believe. Remember when you were little and you wouldn't even walk across the cracks in a pier?'

'Tucker is like the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz, trying to give me some courage.'

'We all need courage,' dad said, as if to himself.

Tucker stood up. 'I better get going,' he said. He turned to dad. 'Sorry about the break in. I hope they catch the bugger.' He looked at me and smiled.

'Thanks for today. It was awesome.' Our eyes locked in the greatest cliché. We felt like we were the only two beings who existed in the world, that there was no break in, no homework, no school pressure, no war, no crime, no disease, no poverty, no famine. We were one capsule with protective coating. We existed in the flight cabin of our own mission to space. Explorers orbiting each other. Our launch status checked.

'See you next time,' dad said, jolting us back into reality.

'Yeah, next time,' Tucker said. 'Hope it all gets sorted.'

He walked out of the tiny kitchen and let himself out the front door.

I looked back at dad. His lips were dragging at the corners. His eyes were pressured. His thought patterns radioactive. He forged a smile. 'I'll call Sandra to pick you up. I have to wait here for the window repairers.'

'Sure.'