Sketches (2020)
A collection of very short stories by Bronte Cormican-Jones
1] My Second Bedroom
As a child I slept in many bedrooms in many houses and in a few beds. We moved around a lot. My second house was on a side street off a main road in Epping. It was made of red bricks, had stained glass windows and mandarin trees that were too young to bear fruit yet. We walked to the end of the street every day to visit Martelli’s, the greengrocer. We’d pet the sausage dog in the neighbour’s yard as we passed.
As a child I slept in many bedrooms in many houses and in a few beds. We moved around a lot. My second house was on a side street off a main road in Epping. It was made of red bricks, had stained glass windows and mandarin trees that were too young to bear fruit yet. We walked to the end of the street every day to visit Martelli’s, the greengrocer. We’d pet the sausage dog in the neighbour’s yard as we passed.
In the Epping house I shared a room with my sister. We both slept in cots. Our bedroom had two yellow walls, a pink wall and a sunken window seat. On the wooden floors my sister taught herself how to do up her own nappies. She’s been independent since before she could walk.
When I was four, my dad’s friend Michelle came over to eat dinner. She brought a fancy cake with coffee in it for the adults. After dinner we played a game of hide and seek together. I instructed her to wait for three minutes before coming in to see my bedroom. I hurried into my room, climbed into my cot and hid under the covers, curled into a lump. She pretended not to find me until she could hear giggles. She leant into my cot and tickled the blanketed protrusion.
2] The Ensuite
The ensuite was where I experimented with lighting matches and promptly dunking them into a sink filled with water, and where I learnt that nail polish is much harder to remove from your cheeks, lips and eyelids than my mum’s other makeup.
The ensuite was where I experimented with lighting matches and promptly dunking them into a sink filled with water, and where I learnt that nail polish is much harder to remove from your cheeks, lips and eyelids than my mum’s other makeup.
3] The Bump
My mother was pregnant with her third. I was worried for her when she cried at the ultrasound. I was worried for myself as I cried at preschool. I didn't want a baby brother.
4] Father’s Day
My father’s fourth Father’s Day was the day I cut my fringe into a staircase with the preschool scissors and gifted him a portrait complete with neck-tie and penis.
5] Bed Sheets
Whenever I got to sleepover at Aunty Bronwyn’s house she’d ask if wanted to make up my mattress with blueberry flavoured sheets or chocolate. We’d open her linen cupboard, filled with sheets folded in a rush but sorted into colours and pick out a set. After she turned out the lights, I’d lie awake sucking, convincing myself that my brown sheets didn’t just taste of residual washing powder.
6] A Day’s Work
Before I was old enough for school, I’d sit with my Nana on cane lounges on their front veranda, under her frangipani tree. I’d collect the waxy flowers that had fallen to the ground, trying to find one without browning leaves. I’d tell her I knew it was called a frangipani tree. She’d tell me I had a good memory. We’d count the cars on her street. How many red cars were driving past. Then how many blue and then how many white. And when we were tired of counting cars we’d go into Pa’s bedroom to update him on the day’s stats, and for a butterscotch.
7] You’re my Little Pet Lamb
I was my Nana’s little pet lamb. She’d whisper that in my ear whenever I sat on her lap for a cuddle. Being her little pet lamb meant that I was loved. Whether or not I was loved more than my cousins wasn’t the point, but it was our secret. When I grew too old to sit on her knee I would greet her with a kiss. She’d reassure me with a whisper in my ear. I was still her pet lamb.
When my cousins grew older we sat in a circle on the bed in the spare room. We felt old enough to chat sometimes and not always play games. We gossiped about our aunties and uncles and Nana. Josh laughed that she used to call him her little pet lamb too.
8] The First Day at Big School
On the first day of big school we sat in a big circle and the teacher read us a story book. One girl fell asleep in the corner and I got in trouble for taking off my heavy leather school shoes.
On the first day of big school we sat in a big circle and the teacher read us a story book. One girl fell asleep in the corner and I got in trouble for taking off my heavy leather school shoes.
9] Bandaged Knees
The kindergarten playground was lined with benches made from old tree trunks with rough flaky bark. No one sat on them for fear of getting splinters in their bums. I’d seen some older kids walk along the logs, using them as balancing beams. I wanted to be grown up and prove that I could do the same. Lunch time after lunch time, without fail, I would walk part way along, fall and scrape my knees on the bark. The office ladies were worried that my daily bandaged knees would one day scar. My determination was unwavering.
10] The Easter Hat Parade
My osteopath has a son a few months older than I was. When we were in kindergarten she helped us make hats for our Easter Hat Parade using her fancy cutting machine and tools to twirl strips of paper into ribbons. When the day of the Easter parade came around I was sure my hat was the best of my class. At the assembly, the teachers chose Marley’s hat to win and I felt robbed. As we carried our plastic chairs back from the Easter assembly to our classroom, Benjamin was walking behind me. I told him my hat was the best in the class and I should have won the parade. He placed his chair down on the ground and told me to sit on it. Oblivious to his motives, I did as I was told. As I was sitting down he pulled the chair out from under my bum and I sat with a thud onto the concrete. He ran back the classroom with his chair. My bum hurt and Marley had a pretty certificate but at least my hat was the best in my class.
My osteopath has a son a few months older than I was. When we were in kindergarten she helped us make hats for our Easter Hat Parade using her fancy cutting machine and tools to twirl strips of paper into ribbons. When the day of the Easter parade came around I was sure my hat was the best of my class. At the assembly, the teachers chose Marley’s hat to win and I felt robbed. As we carried our plastic chairs back from the Easter assembly to our classroom, Benjamin was walking behind me. I told him my hat was the best in the class and I should have won the parade. He placed his chair down on the ground and told me to sit on it. Oblivious to his motives, I did as I was told. As I was sitting down he pulled the chair out from under my bum and I sat with a thud onto the concrete. He ran back the classroom with his chair. My bum hurt and Marley had a pretty certificate but at least my hat was the best in my class.
11] Balcony Gymnastics
Outside my third house my big toe was stung by a bee. We waited whilst mum climbed on Dad’s shoulders, over the balcony railing and through the house to lets us in when she forgot the key.
Outside my third house my big toe was stung by a bee. We waited whilst mum climbed on Dad’s shoulders, over the balcony railing and through the house to lets us in when she forgot the key.
12] Chewing Gum
My father banned us from eating chewing gum in the car because one drive my five year old brother lost a piece from his mouth and found it fifteen minutes later in his armpit.
13] Candy Canes
I was given a box of pink and purple candy canes with princess bows tied around them for Christmas. I wanted to share them with my next door neighbour but when I rang her bell she wasn’t home. I left them on her doorstep for us to share later. When I went back to check if she was home I found the box filled with ants. She wasn’t.
14] A Versatile Wardrobe
When she gets a cold bum, my Aunty Mina removes her infinity scarf from her neck and wears it as a skirt over her jeans. She gave me a nightie for Christmas, delighted that it was so nice I could also wear it out to dinner.
15] We named our cat Mum so we could say
Mums stuck up the tree again.
Has anyone fed Mum tonight?
Mum killed a lizard.
I slept with Mum curled up on the end of my bed last night. Mum’s gaining weight. The vet said we should put her on a diet.
Mums stuck up the tree again.
Has anyone fed Mum tonight?
Mum killed a lizard.
I slept with Mum curled up on the end of my bed last night. Mum’s gaining weight. The vet said we should put her on a diet.
16] Ramekins of Soup
For Christmas dinner my Nana always makes a fancy entrée. One year she piled her zucchini fritters high with a dollop of homemade relish on top. Some years she makes tarts with her homemade shortcrust pastry. A couple of times she has served slices of tomato with mozzarella and a fresh basil leaf.
One Christmas, Nana made two soups for our first course. Pumpkin, and a Potato and Leek. Apparently there is a fancy way to serve two kinds of soups in one bowl. If you carefully and simultaneously pour the soups into the ramekin from opposite sides, they are able to stay separated. So my Nana carefully poured our soups to create perfect half-moons of Potato and Leek against orange Pumpkin skies. Eager to start Christmas dinner, I picked up my soup spoon as soon as we said grace and stirred them both together.
17] Tea with my neighbour
We called my house The Barn. Its walls were the kind of red-brown weatherboard of a 1920s prairie barn in the United States. It sat three houses from the end of a dead end street, on a medium sized suburban block that sloped downwards to the street below. It didn’t have a back fence. From the backyard you could see the end of the suburb and the start of the bushland. It didn’t have a front door. The two side doors and back door made us think that the builders had read the plans wrong when constructing the house. Large glass windows lined one side of the house downstairs. Because the house was built in the wrong direction, they faced a view of my neighbour’s squat white house. One small upstairs window caught the view of the gully where the suburb met the bush.
We called my house The Barn. Its walls were the kind of red-brown weatherboard of a 1920s prairie barn in the United States. It sat three houses from the end of a dead end street, on a medium sized suburban block that sloped downwards to the street below. It didn’t have a back fence. From the backyard you could see the end of the suburb and the start of the bushland. It didn’t have a front door. The two side doors and back door made us think that the builders had read the plans wrong when constructing the house. Large glass windows lined one side of the house downstairs. Because the house was built in the wrong direction, they faced a view of my neighbour’s squat white house. One small upstairs window caught the view of the gully where the suburb met the bush.
Beyond the glass-windows lay a slab of untreated concrete that made a poor excuse for our side veranda. When we moved into the Barn, my neighbour greeted me on that veranda.
“Hello. My name is Betty, Betty Walker, Walker’s my last name. I won’t come in for a cup of tea.”
She never did.
18] Learning about death
My mother’s cousin Larry had a fifteen year old cat who loved sitting in front of their heater so much that it took them four days to notice it had died.
My mother’s cousin Larry had a fifteen year old cat who loved sitting in front of their heater so much that it took them four days to notice it had died.
Shortly after Larry found his dead cat still sitting in its favourite spot, he went on a first date with a nice girl called Donna. He was nervous. Before their date, Larry met Donna’s parents for tea in their loungeroom. He shook their hands and went to take a seat on their lounge. He sat on Donna’s cat which was sleeping on the lounge and killed it. She didn’t think it was a good opportunity for bonding.
My sister had a hermit crab named Tiger that crawled out of its shell and died from depression.
Our guinea pigs were called Ginger, Nutmeg and Cinnamon. Getting dressed one morning, through my window I witnessed the next door neighbour’s dogs find them tasty.
When we said goodbye to my grandfather he was already too dead to respond. The doctors assured me he knew we were there. The next day was a Sunday. We were playing polly pockets in the morning in the loungeroom when Dad told us his father had died during the night. I wanted to cry and I wanted so badly not to cry. I kept playing with my polly pockets as my parents explained death to my four year old sister.
His funeral was a Tuesday. We cut green ribbon to short lengths, folded and pinned them with safety pins. Whether my Pa liked the colour green other than because it was the colour of Ireland, I do not know. I wore a ribbon pinned to my shirt to preschool. The others wore theirs at his funeral. I wasn’t allowed to go. My parents told me I was too young to understand.
Rosie the hen turned out to be a rooster and so we gave her to a farm and she was eaten by a fox.
19] The Sprinkler
At nine years old I told my mum I was too old to run under the sprinkler in the front yard wearing only undies. She told me not to be silly. No one would see me, except her unexpected friend calling in with her twelve year old son.
At nine years old I told my mum I was too old to run under the sprinkler in the front yard wearing only undies. She told me not to be silly. No one would see me, except her unexpected friend calling in with her twelve year old son.
20] Moving Houses
Our fourth house was going to be demolished so we painted my bedroom walls purple, threw a party and didn’t vacuum before we left.
21] Stickybeaks
My brother and I were never caught as spies snooping in our neighbours’ yards but we tactically carried with us a tennis ball in case we were found, to say we’d lost it over the fence and had come to collect it.
22] Car Yards
New cars smell like tired legs, boredom and wanting to fall asleep in any boot in the car yard to escape the rest of the day.
23] Driveway robbery
We had a tall basketball hoop with a plastic base that you filled up with water to stop it toppling over. We placed it out the front of our house and one day it was no longer there. My Dad went on the hunt, found it lying down in a neighbour’s driveway the next street down, stole it back, dragged it home and chained it to our tree.
We had a tall basketball hoop with a plastic base that you filled up with water to stop it toppling over. We placed it out the front of our house and one day it was no longer there. My Dad went on the hunt, found it lying down in a neighbour’s driveway the next street down, stole it back, dragged it home and chained it to our tree.
24] Parking tickets
We wrote our neighbours tickets and placed them on their dash for parking ever so rudely out the front of our house and preventing our games of basketball.
25] Basketball
On my sixteenth birthday we went out to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner with my grandparents. We played a game of hangman on the paper tablecloths as we waited for our meal. My brother went first and chose a ten letter word. After a few minutes we correctly guessed it was basketball. My grandfather was next to choose a word. His also had ten letters. My family guessed letters, a few right and a few wrong until my mother and I got the giggles. Forgetting my brother’s word and unsure why it was in his head at all, my grandfather had also chosen basketball. We politely guessed the rest of the word, one letter at a time.
On my sixteenth birthday we went out to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner with my grandparents. We played a game of hangman on the paper tablecloths as we waited for our meal. My brother went first and chose a ten letter word. After a few minutes we correctly guessed it was basketball. My grandfather was next to choose a word. His also had ten letters. My family guessed letters, a few right and a few wrong until my mother and I got the giggles. Forgetting my brother’s word and unsure why it was in his head at all, my grandfather had also chosen basketball. We politely guessed the rest of the word, one letter at a time.
26] Carrots
I thought that my high-school boyfriend was my soulmate when I texted to ask him what he was having for afternoon tea and found out we were both eating carrots.
I thought that my high-school boyfriend was my soulmate when I texted to ask him what he was having for afternoon tea and found out we were both eating carrots.
27] Raspberries
A guy in high-school told me he had never eaten a raspberry because he heard they give you testi-pops.
28] A Mistaken Gesture
In my first year of high school I joined the Ultimate Frisbee team. After our first game, my teacher spread his arms out, signalling my friend and I to finish our conversation and collect the witch’s hats. Mistaking his wide, open gesture, I gave him a hug.
In my first year of high school I joined the Ultimate Frisbee team. After our first game, my teacher spread his arms out, signalling my friend and I to finish our conversation and collect the witch’s hats. Mistaking his wide, open gesture, I gave him a hug.
29] Boundaries
We always leave our side door open. You just never know who might need access to the house.
When the clouds threatened rain and we were still half an hour away mum realised we wouldn’t be home in time to bring in our washing before the rain hit. She reached for her phone to call our new neighbours.
“Could you please bring it in? The basket is in the laundry. Don’t worry, the side door’s unlocked.”
30] Never give up on your dreams, but always reserve the right to change your mind
You enter the small office block on busy Belmore Street in Burwood. It was built in the ’70s and has a tiled arcade on the ground floor. The tiled staircase echoes your footsteps even though you’re wearing sneakers.
You enter the small office block on busy Belmore Street in Burwood. It was built in the ’70s and has a tiled arcade on the ground floor. The tiled staircase echoes your footsteps even though you’re wearing sneakers.
A sweet, powdery, antiseptic scent fills the second floor. At the end of the tiled hallway, a familiar door with yellow privacy glass sits closed with the words Browne & Son Bio-Chemics embossed in gold lettering. As you open the door it hits a bell to notify the receptionist of your arrival. She can already see you clearly from her desk. Her name is Julie. You’ve known her since you were four years old. She looks the same as the last time you visited. Her curly copper fringe is flicked to the side of her face. Her pink necktie matches her thick glasses. Maybe you actually are in the ’70s.
You wait for the doctor on a brown plastic seat. Julie asks you how your day has been. You tell her you’re enjoying the weather. She asks you about your mother. You tell her she’s working hard. She asks you what you want to do when you grow up. You tell her you’re thinking about becoming an architect. She sighs.
“Oh lovey, I always wanted to be an architect too. I think everyone wants to be an architect at some point in their lives. But we all give up on that dream, don't we? I don’t think you’ll be an architect either, but you find something that you enjoy doing now, won’t you?”
And you will give up on that dream. You will decide not to become an architect. And you will wonder if Julie was insightful or influential.
“The doctor is ready to see you now.”