Back to Lewis and Edward. It was about ten days after I went to the dance that I got a call from Lewis asking how I was? It was very hard to hear and to talk on a public phone and I felt embarrassed talking in a hall where everyone could hear. Anyway it was worked out that Lewis would come to visit the next Saturday and take me out to dinner.
When he arrived all dressed up we went to a small cafe for a meal and a chat. Lewis was quite taken with my story up until now and I am sure he felt sorry for me. He also told me it was Edward who had picked me out on the dance floor and reflecting back I think I looked like his mother, whom he had not seen for quite a while so that is why Edward picked me for his father.
After quite a conversation and another date was arranged for the next week. Little did I know I was to be discussed about with his son and a proposal was put to me the next time we met.
Lewis arrived and we sat in the car and he asked me if I would come to live with him and take care of Edward and he would pay me. I was quite taken back but I was young, alone and had nobody so I guess I thought then why not what did I have to loose. The day I moved in with all my stuff from the boarding house I was surprised to find out he put me in the spare room not in the main room with him.
I felt confused as his actions and his words were not going together and I felt a little unsettled at sleeping in the spare room. After a couple of weeks I confronted him as I had begun to have feelings for Lewis and was very fond of Edward and asked why we had to sneak from room to room and why did I have to sleep in the spare room? Lewis said it was because he didn't want Edward to know we were sleeping together, yet all along Edward already knew what was going on. So after about six weeks of this I eventually ended up in the main bedroom with Lewis. Edward was quite happy about it and was not surprised.
It was quite hard to suddenly be a stepmother to a child who was only ten years younger than myself and I did my best to make his life happy. I became the typical house keeper, cooking, cleaning and being involved with Edwards schooling. Lewis laid concrete and worked for an Italian company. He made friends with a mate called John as Lewis and Edward had only been in Australia a year after arriving from England and his marriage had broken up on arrival. They suddenly decided to go into business on their own. So I helped print out posters and pamphlets and then walked all around the neighborhood delivering them. I became the one who answered the phone and went out on quotes with Lewis. Soon they became very busy and the business went well. Lewis also was paying off his house.
After a while I felt I had done enough of being home and wanted to get a job of my own, so I ended up getting a job with Holden's which was just down the road. I did afternoon shift so had the morning to get the meals ready for when Lewis came home form work and Edward from School.
Lewis had left his wife in Brisbane and came to South Australia as he had a brother who lived in Gawler not far away. I used to find letters from Edwards mother in the post but Lewis would get them first and rip them up so poor Edward thought his mother did not care. This started to get to me so I confronted Lewis about it and how it was affecting Edward and how it had affected myself not knowing my own father. So after sometime Lewis relented and allowed Edward to contact his mother and the next school holidays he went to Brisbane to see his mother and sister Lisa. To Edwards surprise and more so for Lewis it was discovered there was a little baby girl who was Edwards little sister and the child had been conceived aboard the boat on the way out from England. But Lewis would have nothing to do with this child and has completely disowned her. I felt so sad for all concerned and especially for Julie the young child left without a father. Lewis could be cruel like that and had no emotional feelings at all. He believed in Hitler and blue eyed men and was homophobic and also very racist. I found all of this hard to cope with. But I had nobody and had just begun to make a few friends and I just didn't know what else to do.
I wanted to learn to drive but Lewis would not teach me so I decided to save up for a scooter so I could get myself to work. The day I got the scooter I was told by Lewis not to ride it until he came home. Well rebel me I had already done a few kilometers by the time he came home and I loved me little yellow fifty cc scooter. I became more independent and decided I wanted a better job so I ended up getting demonstration work and used to travel from Elizabeth to Adelaide about twenty Kilometers and would fix my hair and make up up and go into stores and demonstrate in various stores. I quite enjoyed this type of work. Then something came up and it had to end for awhile?
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