Everything or Nothing at All

16. Jolin

When Jo and her sister arrived home, they found their mother chatting in the front yard with a woman who lived two streets away. Their neighbour was wearing a t-shirt with a smiling cow on the front; a familiar sight in the neighbourhood ever since a dairy company parked a truck nearby to give out free milk and merchandise.

Lena approached them as her mother pulled some tangled fairy lights out of a box. "What are you doing with that?" her sister asked. Their mother explained that the lights were from when their neighbour's granddaughter had her party. They could look nice for Jo and Lena's birthday celebration as well. "Absolutely not. We have better taste than that," Lena said.

Their neighbour didn't argue with her. In fact, she agreed that her parties were usually a lot more colourful than Lena's, and chuckled at her silliness of her having brought them over to begin with. Jo observed the entire interaction, knowing that, had she been in Lena's place, the lights would be up around the house by the end of the night.

The adults continued to talk outside as Jo headed for the living room couch to deal with the aftermath of her all-nighter. She was exhausted. But, if everything went well with the quiz that day, she would earn one per cent of the final score in that subject. Christopher and his friends would have laughed at it—the idea that she was so invested in one tiny per cent. They were always telling her to lighten up, even when she knew that they took the course more seriously than others.

Earlier that day, she had made a great effort to engage with them during their shopping trip. She had even made an unprompted comment about an LED they thought of buying. The act itself felt brave, and she basked in the moment when Filbert made fun of how she had used the word 'superfluous'. She imagined that she'd connected with them, but then, on their walk back to campus, the group started making plans to go to a food festival in the next suburb—just the boys.

As she was about to drift off to sleep, she heard her mother taking her slippers off by the front door. "Why are your eyes closed?" came her mother's voice.

Jo sighed. "I'm very tired."

"From what?"

"From studying."

"But you've never been this tired before," her mother said, settling onto the opposite end of the couch.

Jo's eyes flew wide open. Her mother wasn't wrong, but Jo didn't want to think about what it really meant. "I took a job today," she said, deciding to sit up.

"What kind of job?" Her mother sounded sceptical. "Is it engineering-related?"

Jo snorted. She couldn't imagine anyone hiring a first-year student who had barely grasped the concept of steady state. "No."

"Then why would you take it?"

"Lena said I had to."

Her mother didn't look convinced. It was a bare-faced lie after all.

"Where did everyone go?" Lena asked as she came into the house. "Whatever. I finally got rid of her for you all. You're welcome."

"Don't be silly. She loves talking to you. She's always asking me about your work even though I always tell her we find out at the same time as everyone else," their mother replied.

Lena ignored the insinuation. "I don't know why you bother entertaining her. Do you know that she brings up how she was almost cast in a TV series every single time I see her? It's as if she doesn't have anything else to talk about."

"Would you rather she talks to you about her grandchildren?"

"Not particularly. She's just always asking me about my 'connections'." Lena paused and looked around the living room. "I thought Auntie Mollie was supposed to be here."

"You missed her. She was here yesterday," Jo said. Lena didn't react, but Jo knew exactly what was going through her sister's mind, so she added, "Dad should be home soon."

Their mother nodded. "Your father is out buying drinks, but he said that he'll be back in 10 minutes."

"Oh, there he is," Lena said, sounding relieved at the noise their father's car made when it heaved into their small driveway.

"Are you sure a job in the entertainment industry is suitable for your sister?" Their mother continued seemingly out of nowhere.

Lena looked at her confused. "What sister? Oh, I didn't give her a job in the 'entertainment industry'. I asked her to come work with me in the cafe."

Her sister went on to describe the job. Jo listened intently as the only thing they had discussed so far was how many hours Jo would be willing to commit to it. They'd spent most of their time in the car listening to Lena's playlist, which always seemed to be a mix of songs that were on the edge of being cool; nothing too obscure, and nothing that had been overplayed on commercial radio. "She'll have to take orders from customers," Lena said, which sounded like the least favourable aspect of the entire undertaking. There was also mention of cutting fruit which Jo didn't mind—she already spent half her weekends chopping and dicing produce for her mum.

"How's the cafe business doing?" Their father walked in balancing several packs of boxed drinks in his arms.

"Good."

"What is it that you sell again?"

"Acai bowls and cold-pressed juice. Health foods," Lena replied.

Their father grunted dismissively.

Lena had been working at the cafe for a while, but Jo wasn't sure that her dad had worked out what acai was since the first time he asked. Jo didn't think that he was disinterested in their lives or anything like that. It just seemed that knowing the girls didn't need his help was all the information he needed. He asked if he had time for a smoke, which prompted their mum to go and finish the dinner preparations. Jo followed after her mother; and Lena followed after her dad, even though Jo knew her father would never let her sister touch a cigarette.