Read Online Tiddas by Anita Heiss - Free Book Online

couldn’t take the step without Spencer.
    â€˜Then I think you should investigate how to go about it, and if it’s right for you, then go for it.’ Veronica appeared fully supportive as she dug deep into her granola.
    Xanthe felt happy, positive, supported and mostly grateful to Veronica, and expressed her gratitude with what she thought was a compliment: ‘I want to have a healthy family like yours.’
    To everyone’s surprise Veronica burst into tears.
    â€˜Oh God, what’s wrong?’ Izzy asked, quickly grabbing a tissue from her tote and handing it to Veronica.
    â€˜What did I say?’ Xanthe felt guilty – and perplexed – at inadvertently upsetting her dear tidda.
    â€˜Everyone’s healthy, but there’s no family anymore. I’m so sad all the time. I have no life. I have no purpose. I have nothing.’ Veronica cried harder and put her head in her hands; her wedding, engagement and eternity rings still on her left hand looked like they’d just been cleaned.
    â€˜I signed the divorce papers recently,’ she sniffed, ‘and it was as if the marriage meant nothing.’ She blew her nose hard and reached into her handbag to search for a hanky. ‘I’m sorry, Xanthe,’ Veronica took a breath, ‘I didn’t mean to interfere with your conversation this morning.’
    â€˜Don’t be silly,’ Xanthe said, touching her tidda’s forearm. ‘I’m worried about you. We’re all worried about you.’ Xanthe looked to the other women for support, which they returned with smiles, nods and words of agreement. ‘It’s just that you seem so much wiser than me, having kids so young and raising them and making a home life while we were all still at uni or working. It just feels like you’re the big sister I never had.’ Xanthe was sincere, and for the first time articulated what the other tiddas had also always felt about Vee. The role of the ‘wise one’ was not something Veronica had ever considered, but it was a mantle that gave her some strength now. Not one to hog attention, however, she wanted to turn the spotlight back on Xanthe.
    â€˜Please, let’s talk about you, about you having a baby,’ Veronica managed to get out in one breath. ‘At least you’redoing it the right way around, Xanthe,’ Veronica added, sounding more like her mother – or the big sister, as it were. ‘Not like me, getting married because I was pregnant.’ She burst into tears again.
    â€˜You loved each other when you got married, Vee. You know that, he knows that. You had two decades of marriage which many people today don’t have.’ That was what Xanthe was thinking about when she said she wanted a family like Veronica’s. The foundation was there, even if Alex had decided to walk away from it later on.
    â€˜And the kids turned out great, they’re perfect,’ Izzy said.
    â€˜Perfect!’ the other women echoed seriously.
    Even though they all got bored over the years hearing about how ‘perfect’ Vee’s kids were, they knew that her success as a mother was the most important thing in her world. She measured her own self-esteem by how her boys were doing; and her tiddas all acknowledged Veronica’s sons were well-mannered, wonderful young men because of their mother. Apart from leading sporting and debating teams at school, as Veronica’s sons matured into young men, they would do anything around the house she asked them to without effort or argument. They always offered a seat and a cuppa to the tiddas when they visited, and would often take the time to yarn with their mother after their father abandoned her. By most standards of Australian males, Vee’s boys were perfect, and all the tiddas knew it.
    â€˜Yes, but there’s no family left now,’ Veronica sniffed some more. ‘He’s gone, they’ve gone and all I have are