29. Float
“Sweetheart, you can’t wear your jiffies to the disco,” Loretta says softly.
“Why not?” Jane asks, flexing her little feet in the sparkly ballet flats.
“Because they don’t go with your dress,” Loretta replies, fishing out her daughter’s strappy white sandals that are decorated with daisies.
“Okay,” Jane shrugs, fiddling with her skirt as Loretta changes her shoes.
“Alright, stand up for me,” she instructs. Jane props up from her seat and does a little spin.
“Perfect!” Loretta smiles. Jane giggles.
The car ride is filled with piercing screams. After Loretta wrangled her youngest, Henry, into his car seat he proceeded to have a tantrum for the first half of the trip. Jane quietly watches the clouds floating by and points out which ones look like Mickey Mouse. Loretta can barely hear herself think as she drives along the country lanes to get into town.
“Should we put some music on? Do you think that will calm Henry down?” Loretta asks Jane. In the rearview mirror, she can see Jane’s little face smile at the suggestion.
“Yeah!” she replies enthusiastically.
“What should we play?” Loretta asks, grabbing the CD album with one hand.
Jane shrugs as Henry lets out a new pitch of shrieks.
“Christ,” Loretta groans to herself. She grabs the first disc she can find and turns the volume up. Bat Out of Hell roars through the car’s stereo and immediately Henry falls silent.
She looks back at Jane and asks, “What do you think?”
“Who is this?” Jane asks. She has a curious expression on her face as she stares at her Mum’s eyes through the mirror.
“Meat Loaf,” Loretta answers.
Jane’s face twists into a mixture of confusion and amusement.
“Meat Loaf? What the?” she giggles.
“It’s rock music,” Loretta laughs as Jane starts nodding to the song happily.
The rest of the ride goes smoothly, the music calms Henry and keeps Jane entertained until they arrive at the school.
When Loretta pulls the van into a space in front of the school she can see that Jane looks nervous.
“You’re going to have fun darling,” Loretta reassures her, “and Henry and I will be right there with you.”
Jane smiles and gives her Mum a little nod, then unbuckles herself from her seat.
Kids in sparkly dresses and gel-spiked hair are running all over the place, all gearing up to go to their first school disco. When they arrive at the school’s auditorium Jane's teacher Miss Poarch is standing at the door.
“Well, hello Jane, you look lovely in that dress,” Miss Poarch smiles.
“Thank you,” Jane replies shyly.
“Go on in, I hear that the DJ is taking requests from the kids if there’s a song you’d like to hear,” Miss Poarch tells her. She winks at Loretta as they head inside.
Inside the auditorium, kids are running around and dancing to Aqua while the parents chat by the snack tables with their smaller kids in pushers. Loretta spots a couple of parents she’s gotten friendly with over the term.
“I’m going to be right over there with Anne,” Loretta points to the snack tables, “okay?”
Jane nods, “I see Emma!”
Without a second thought, Jane runs off to play with Emma. Loretta wheels Henry, who exhausted himself on the way over, to Anne and the other parents.
As Barbie Girl finishes blasting from the speakers and fades into S Club 7, Loretta notices Jane lingering around the DJ’s table. The guy can’t be older than 21, but Loretta is surprised to see his face light up as he talks to her daughter. She can’t make out what they’re saying but after a moment, Jane skips off back to Emma.
Anne catches Loretta up on her work drama and how her youngest, Luke, has figured out how to scale the couch the second she starts on dinner. Just as Loretta is about to ask when Luke started walking she hears a familiar sound. In the middle of the dancefloor, her six-year-old daughter is flailing around and headbanging to Bat Out of Hell. Loretta looks at the DJ who is laughing as the other kids all join in. The parents at the snack tables are stunned. When Jane catches Loretta’s eye she runs over smiling from ear to ear.
“I picked this one!” She happily yells. Loretta laughs as her child runs back to the swarm of kids who are spinning around dancing to Meat Loaf at the St. Anne Catholic Primary School Summer Disco. She’s lost for words, but filled with love for her wild, wonderful, child.
