The Better Woman by Ber Carroll

grandmother’s wrinkled hand squeezed hers, ‘seeing your mother with someone else, but you wouldn’t want her to be on her own, would you?’
    Jodi, still unable to utter a word, shook her head. Grandma loosened her grip. Jodi was free to go, but she stayed. She desperately wanted to tell her grandmother the truth. She was old and wise and very brave. Maybe, just maybe, she could think of a solution that didn’t involve Bob killing them all.
    â€˜Bob’s come –’ she began.
    â€˜Jodi, come here for a photo,’ called Auntie Marlene. ‘Quick, while the baby’s smiling.’
    Jodi took the interruption as a sign that she shouldn’t tell. She swallowed the truth back down. It left a bad taste in her mouth. But still she crossed the room and smiled into the camera when Auntie Marlene called, ‘Cheese!’
    The party went on late into the evening. Auntie Marlene, who was breastfeeding and not allowed to drink anything more than a small glass of wine, had to do three runs in her station wagon to get everyone home.
    Jodi slipped away to her bedroom after a mumbled goodnight to her mother and Bob, who were still drinking out on the deck. She brushed her teeth, ran a comb through her hair and put on clean pyjamas. She hadn’t worn a nightie since that night; it had been far too easy for Bob’s hand to slide inside the flimsy material.
    She climbed into bed and said her prayers.
    â€˜God our Father . . .’
    She recited her bedtime prayer in a solemn whisper. Then it was time to pray for special intentions.
    â€˜Please, God, please let Bob break up with Mum, so I never ever have to see him again, and please let her find someone else, someone
really
nice . . .’
    Jodi leaned across and switched off the bedside lamp. She lay in the dark, straining her ears to listen for sounds of Bob and her mother coming in from the deck. Bob was very drunk. Earlier on, he’d accidentally knocked a photo frame from the bookshelf and the glass shattered on the tiles. Her mother had been affectionately cross as she swept up the debris.
    â€˜Bob! You’ve had far too much. You’ll bring the house down around us if you’re not careful.’
    She’d steered him back out to the deck and into a chair.
    â€˜Sit,’ she’d ordered.
    He’d pulled her onto his lap. ‘I’m the luckiest man alive to have this woman as my wife,’ he’d told the family, a big grin on his bulldog face.
    Tears smarted in Jodi’s eyes and she turned on her side in the bed.
    Why did Mum marry Bob? Why did Dad leave her? She’s much nicer than Grace.
    Her father had married Grace no sooner than the ink was dry on his divorce papers and Jodi had a baby stepbrother now.
    She slid one hand under her pillow and pressed it to her face to soak her tears. Her hand touched against something foreign beneath the pillow: paper. She sat up and turned the lamp back on.
    It was a sheet from a lined copybook, like the ones she used for school. She unfolded it.
    I’m so proud that you won the race. I love you, Golden Girl
.
    Bob
.

Chapter 10
    1984
    Jodi looked at her reflection dispassionately. She’d been kissed for the first time. Did it show? Unlike most sixteen year olds, she rarely looked in the mirror.
    Who are you? Who is Jodi Tyler?
    She saw a round face framed by wavy blonde hair that was parted in the middle. Her skin was tanned and clear but for the shadows under her eyes. Her recently kissed lips looked the same as ever: too full at the bottom. Her school uniform, a plain white shirt and blue checked skirt, hung loosely on her body.
    Yesterday, after the sausage sizzle at the surf club, Nicholas Green had told her she was ‘cute’. Nicholas was the Under 18s runner-up. He had tousled hair and piercing eyes. His lips had tasted like sea salt when he’d kissed her.
    â€˜Jodi, you’re going to be late. What’s keeping you?’ her