9 SEAN

9 Sean

Sean could feel the surprise—or was it anger?—emanating from Heath at Ethan’s interjection. But really, that wasn’t unusual: Heath was as bad as Charlee. They both hid their grief—and at a guess, he’d say guilt—behind animosity. Charlee’s was more overt, while Heath was sullen and withdrawn. The problem was, while Charlee had some right to her emotions, Heath had moved into wallowing territory. Because of Sophie’s sacrifice, he was idolising her instead of admitting that their marriage had been less than ideal for years. Not bad, not rocky, but a bed of pebbles had certainly accrued.

‘Excellent,’ Sean said, ignoring Heath’s glower. ‘Lynn’s right, if we want to cater to a broad demographic, there’s no point us oldies having all the say. I mean, for me, a good cafe selling some local baking—’ he took a homemade Monte Carlo biscuit from the tray in front of them, admiring the raspberry and cream–striped filling ‘—is pretty much all I need. But other than Ploughs and Pies, there’s probably not a whole lot in Settlers to catch the attention of anyone below sixty.’

‘Why would we want to attract anyone younger? They aren’t cashed up, and we’d just be asking for trouble,’ Dave countered.

‘I think the last census lists the largest disposable income in the state in the under-forty age bracket,’ Sean remarked mildly. It amused him how fond people were of making declarations with no research to support their point of view. ‘And they’re also the ones we can most likely persuade to travel, look at somewhere new, try something different.’

‘You’re right,’ Tracey agreed. ‘Folk around your age—’ she indicated Heath and Ethan, and Sean hid his chuckle, knowing how his son would resent that pairing ‘—are exactly who we need to attract. You’re in your prime. Any younger, you’re too busy to enjoy life; when you’re older, you’re too tired.’

‘ You still manage to enjoy life, Tracey.’ Roni looked concerned.

‘Of course, love. It’s just a different perspective when you’re counting down. You don’t look for the same kind of excitement. Easier to please, us old ones.’ Tracey chuckled as Christine snorted. ‘Some of us, anyway. So … Ethan, was it?’ She looked questioningly across the table. ‘What was your idea for making Settlers Bridge more appealing to tourists?’

‘Sorry, I wasn’t thinking so much for tourists,’ Ethan said, ‘although there would be a flow-on effect. I was talking with some of the local kids when we came into town during the week. Saw them again just now.’ He inclined his head toward the front of the building. ‘And they were complaining that there’s nothing to do around here—’

‘Nothing to do!’ Dave exploded. ‘They’ve got everything we ever had, plus that streaming rubbish to keep them inside all day doing nothing productive.’ Each time he spoke, Dave snatched something else up from the tea tray, putting away in quick succession a generous wedge of cheesecake, Anzacs, coffee cake and apricot slice. Sean almost regretted chairing the meeting, which somewhat precluded him from sampling more. For years, corporate meetings had only been made bearable by the morning or afternoon tea provided. Eventually, the food had given way to shots of scotch in the boardroom, regardless of the time of day. That was before he’d found his way to sobriety and a new career.

‘That’s partly my concern,’ Ethan said, facing Dave squarely. ‘A few of the kids were skateboarding, but they said they can only do it down the streets, and there’s always someone cutting crook about it. So I was thinking, if the RAG was to invest in the locals before setting their sights further afield, something like a decent skatepark would keep your kids off the street, but also attract a wide age range from further afield.’

‘Are you mad?’ Dave was on his feet, palms on the table, shoulders hunched. ‘That’s the last group we want here. You’d have every wall graffitied in a week and drug paraphernalia littering the streets. You won’t get support for that kind of Greenie thinking in here.’ The veins in his neck throbbed alarmingly with each word.

Sean had tensed at the drug references, careful not to look at Charlee. He and Heath trod carefully around her, aware of her addiction but never facing it openly. Instead they paid for all her expenses directly, so she’d have little money to feed the habit. It was a dirty secret that was no secret.

He spoke slowly, careful to keep his voice level, hide his personal involvement. ‘I’m not sure how political affiliation comes into it, but I thought we’d managed to agree that the focus of the RAG is to determine a long-term direction for the town. Ethan raises a good point, in that it makes sense to service our own population before catering to tourists. And if it’s a plan that has potential to do both, surely that’s win–win?’

‘But the drug addicts,’ Christine hissed, as though they’d keep the issue clandestine. ‘We don’t want that element here.’

Charlee snorted contemptuously.

‘Sorry to puncture your bubble.’ Dr Hartmann’s expression was grim. ‘But Settlers Bridge isn’t a perfect little Brigadoon. I can assure you that, same as everywhere, we have drug issues. I’m not saying that something like a skatepark doesn’t conjure an image of hoons and booze and drugs, but I’m not sure how accurate that image is. What I do know is that there have been multiple studies done into the mental health benefits of encouraging teens—and, increasingly, twenty- and thirty-year-olds—to get out of the house, do some physical activity, pursue a hobby, a sport. And I can confidently say that increased drug use is not tied to increased activity.’

Sean was grateful for the young doctor’s eloquent support. ‘Besides which, not all drugs are illegal,’ he said flatly. ‘I’m sure that lots of you enjoy a drink after a hard day. Just like I did.’ Hell, he needed one right now; he didn’t have the stomach for confrontation anymore, that’s why he clung to being gently entertaining, flirting with the ladies, getting the blokes onside. ‘But we act like being addicted to booze, cigarettes—’ he gestured at Dave’s nicotine-stained fingers ‘—whatever your poison, is a choice, and think that makes us superior to someone hooked on drugs. Yet an addiction is an addiction, no matter the substance.’

‘Never heard of anyone committing murder for a packet of fags,’ Dave grumbled.

Sean ignored him. ‘I’m not arguing in favour of a skatepark or against it. I’m saying that we have a duty to fairly consider anything that is tabled.’

‘Here,’ Charlee interrupted, brandishing her phone, ‘the beauty of having internet.’ She shot a dark look at Heath, as though the crap service out at the farm was his fault. ‘Murder in North Adelaide related to an argument over cigarettes and alcohol. Not drugs.’

Ethan nodded. ‘Dead right. Well, so to speak,’ he added with a grin. ‘Christine, was it? If you want to reduce drug use, you have to provide alternatives. The root of addiction is grounded in disconnection and fertilised by the desire to disassociate, whether that’s from people, your life, or from something so painful that you simply don’t want to face it.’

The look he landed on Charlee was so tender, Sean’s breath caught in his throat. This guy got his granddaughter. He knew her pain, understood it. Could he untangle it?

‘So it makes sense that if you want to limit drug issues, you need to provide connection for the people who live here. What better way than creating a positive space for the local kids, somewhere to go, a focus, a place to hang together?’

‘Isn’t that what school’s for?’ Heath said flatly.

Ethan shook his head. ‘For all its benefits, school is compulsory. Even university—’ again, that look at Charlee, as though he was reinforcing a conversation they’d already had ‘—can have an element of compulsion. That negates any sense of self-actualisation. Humans need to be provided with choices and rewards of their own making.’

‘How would a skatepark provide a reward?’ Amelia set down the iPad she was taking minutes on. ‘Surely kids here already have places to hang out? I mean, we’re right on the river front. A skatepark is no different than a playground, just angled at a slightly different age group.’

‘Well, I’d argue it’s a wide age group,’ Ethan said with a grin, leaning down to pick up the skate deck wedged against his chair. He held up the battered, scratched piece of wood. ‘The reward is in achievement. See, you try a trick—you fail miserably. You probably trash your deck and have to save up for a new one. You fail more times than you can count, and you end up bruised and beaten. And then, when you’ve just about given up, some other kid will give you a tip, show you a new technique, and you’ll land the trick. And you feel like you’ve just invented the cure for cancer or solved world hunger, because, yes, it is that bloody big: this is something you wanted to do, something you set out to do, and through sheer hard work, practice and perseverance, you’ve achieved it.’

‘They’ll be too high to even know they’ve achieved ,’ Dave sneered. ‘All we need to do is keep drugs out of Settlers. Full stop.’

‘That’s not even possible,’ Taylor interjected, her tone adamant. ‘Addiction is complex; it’s not a black-and-white, one-size-fits-all issue. It’s caused by a gap, by an unfulfilled need, by a yearning. So maybe we need to pre-empt issues by addressing them from that angle.’

‘How ridiculous,’ Christine sneered. ‘In my day, we did as we were told when we were told, and drugs weren’t an issue.’

‘But your generation had their own addictions, Christine,’ Taylor said. ‘Smoking. Alcohol. Originally those were considered social behaviours, limited to events where people got together with friends. But as we become an increasingly consumerist society, always wanting more, bigger, better, it takes a lot less work to have a relationship with a substance, than with other people who are just as busy trying to build their empire.’

‘But we have so many opportunities for relationships here—’ Lynn started.

‘Well, you and Ant certainly do,’ Tracey said with an earthy chortle that made Sean wonder at the gossip behind that affair.

High colour shot into Lynn’s cheeks. ‘Well, yes, that. But I mean we’ve footy, tennis and netball clubs, the CWA, Apex. Monica has a book club, if you’re brave enough.’

As knowing laughter rippled around the table, bringing the arguing factions together for a moment, Sean raised both hands in question.

‘Monica chooses all the books herself,’ Tracey explained. ‘And you aren’t permitted to disagree with her reviews.’

‘Ah. Perhaps I’ll steer clear of that one, then. But I get what Ethan is saying. None of those are things that will appeal to some teenager who’s not old enough to have a licence to escape the town and isn’t into team sport. Where do they go, what do they do?’

‘That doesn’t make the skatepark a solution,’ Christine snapped. ‘You’re trying to make it sound as though performing some silly child’s trick on a toy with wheels is an achievement and will magically stop the kids hanging around, smoking or snorting, or whatever it is they do.’

From the corner of his eye, Sean caught Charlee tug on the sleeve of her shirt, covering the track marks on the underside of her arm. Although empathy flared through him, it was edged with excitement: Charlee had flaunted the scars previously, intent on claiming her right to do whatever made her feel better. This embarrassment, the disowning of her addiction, was new.

‘You’re not getting it.’ Ethan sounded disappointed. The grimace he flashed at Heath seemed to invite his camaraderie. He was definitely barking up the wrong tree there. ‘This is why I need to study more on how to teach.’ He frowned down at his hands, clenched on the table. ‘See,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘it’s not so much about what the achievement is, it’s about the focus required to get there. There was a study done years ago where they put a rat in a cage. It had a couple of water bottles, one with pure water, the other laced with cocaine. The rat preferred the drugged water and died within a couple of weeks.’

‘You just proved addicts can’t be redeemed,’ Tracey said, sounding horrified.

‘No, wait, I know this one.’ The doc sat forward on the edge of her seat. ‘This was Bruce Alexander’s experiment?’

Ethan nodded. ‘Actually, the original experiment was from the early twentieth century. I can’t claim to be smart enough to have read that or Alexander’s papers, but I’ve practically memorised Johann Hari’s TED Talk. He makes the information more accessible. Anyway—’ he straightened, looking around the table to catch everyone’s attention. ‘—in the seventies, Bruce took another look at the original experiment. He pointed out they were putting the rat in a cage with nothing to do, no stimulation, no entertainment, literally nothing but a choice between the numbing effect of drugs or drinking plain water and living with his misery. So then Bruce built this place he called Rat Park. Supplied the rat with food, friends, enrichment toys. Everything he imagined a rat could want. Plus the two water bottles. And here’s the thing.’ Ethan leaned in excitedly. ‘In Rat Park, the rats overwhelmingly avoided the drugs. They were happy. They were busy. Their environment provided everything they could need. They were connected .’

Taylor Hartmann twisted her necklace around one finger, a crucifix glinting in the tired yellow light. ‘I think Bruce’s takeaway was that he believed addiction is an adaption to your environment, not a reflection of your morality or a fault in your brain,’ she said.

Sean shot her a quick glance to make certain she wasn’t targeting him. As his GP, she knew his background. And misery had certainly provided him with an environment rich for breeding addiction. One that the constant stress of worrying about Heath and Charlee threatened to recreate.

‘But kids have everything they could possibly want now, don’t they?’ Lynn reached for the platter of cakes and offered it around the table, as though intent on doing her best to fill any ‘gap’ in their own needs.

‘That’s just it,’ Ethan said. His gaze fixed on Charlee. ‘Like Taylor said, we’ve become a consumer-driven society. So now we try to show our love and care by purchasing things for others. We’re emotionally isolated, we buy our kids everything we think they could want, but we fail to give them what they really need: connection.’

‘“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety—”’ Taylor started.

‘“The opposite of addiction is connection,”’ Ethan finished firmly. ‘Hari is completely right.’

‘It’s a fair argument,’ Heath said, his forehead deeply creased.

Sean wasn’t fooled by his son’s apparent agreement. He knew that, later, Heath would dissect what Ethan had said, looking for the accusations directed at his parenting. And they were most definitely there.

‘Or at least, this Hari guy makes a point.’ Heath’s words seemed to come easier as he shifted any inferred accolade away from his daughter’s lover. ‘But obviously this needs more discussion. It’s not something we want to jump into. I’d suggest the next step would be to investigate how skateparks have worked in other rural towns; whether they’ve been used and whether that usage comes hand in hand with undesirable behaviours, or if it’s had a measurable positive effect on local youth. There’s a skatepark in Murray Bridge, so I suggest we speak with council about that one. But I’ve not been in the area long enough to know if there’s a similar instalment in a comparable town anywhere else.’

‘I’ll stick my hand up for that,’ Ethan said. ‘My workload is reasonably light this semester, so I can fit in some research.’

‘Ah, yes, uni,’ Heath said, derisively. ‘Mature-age teaching, right?’ Perhaps he’d already unpacked the accusation hidden in Ethan’s words.

‘Not exactly,’ Ethan said, with a shrug that seemed almost apologetic. ‘I’ll finish my Master’s this year.’