CHAPTER FOUR: CHARLOTTE
Wednesday 1 August 1990
The title of Chapter Four presents the reader with another unfamiliar name: ‘Charlotte’; however, it doesn’t take too long for the reader to orient themselves in terms of the context and setting (and piece together how she fits into the broader story) because of the significant ground that’s already been covered in the first three chapters. By this stage, the reader is familiar with the narrative’s patterning and it’s much easier to start putting together the bits of the narrative puzzle. This chapter presents Charlotte’s perspective on a lifechanging day—the day she decides whether or not to terminate an early pregnancy (she is ‘two weeks late’) and whether or not she should tell the child’s father. Charlotte’s story is set in 1990. This is made clear by the frequent references to important world events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison (pages 121–2). References to Charlotte’s yoga classes and corporate clients, as well as her work in an organic food shop, also help paint a portrait of a more modern world for the reader. Charlotte is in her mid-twenties (page 132) and it is quickly established that she is Stanzi’s sister (page 123). Charlotte is very different from her sister and this chapter enables the reader to develop their understanding of Stanzi and how her life has progressed since the end of Chapter Two, whilst developing their knowledge and understanding of Charlotte. According to Charlotte, ‘Stanzi’s going places’ (page 127) and is ‘only working as a counsellor until she saves up enough to do her PhD.’ It’s interesting to note how Charlotte’s perceptions of her sister differ from Stanzi’s negative view of self presented in Chapter 2. By contrast, according to Charlotte, Charlotte’s life is a trainwreck: ‘I have two casual jobs, no qualification, no money...I live in a share house’ (page 127). The sisters are close, though, and Stanzi is the first person that Charlotte turns to when she suspects she is pregnant. Charlotte’s boyfriend, Craig, is a musician who also works at the organic shop. He is younger than Charlotte and resents her lack of commitment to their relationship. Like Charlotte, who grew up in the middleclass suburb of Malvern, Craig grew up in Brighton, another affluent suburb of Melbourne. Craig is a mass of contradictions, even though he pretends to be otherwise. His ‘school tie still hangs in his wardrobe’ (page 121) and his friends drink Crown Lager at his gigs, another indication of his comfortable middleclass background. However, even though Craig is from a wealthy and respectable neighbourhood, he is determined to reject this way of life and romanticises notions of class, telling Charlotte that he loathes ‘people like that’ (p.120) or the ‘bourgeois’ (as he calls them). This enables Jordan to hint at the differences between generations: Charlotte’s grandmother was desperate to ensure her children grew up to be ‘respectable’ and would escape their working-class origins, and yet for Charlotte and Craig, the great prize of being middle class is viewed as a pretentious ideology Craig’s cynicism about the ‘middle class’ also extends to children (page 121) which creates further confusion in Charlotte about what to do. She is much more hopeful about the times, believing, ‘We are...only one decade away from a pristine millennium’. Her sister’s pragmatic advice, ‘It’s a short operation. No fuss. Besides I’m too young and beautiful to be an auntie’ (page 133) also complicates her dilemma. Charlotte also wrestles with the question of whether or not Craig has a right to know and whether or not having a child would impact on his career, even though Stanzi tells her, ‘Your body, your choice’ (page 134). Another motif is introduced to complement the shilling—her mother’s ‘amethyst pendant on a gold chain’ (page 123). Like the shilling, this motif also serves as a cohesive device but as yet its significance is only hinted at. Further details about its provenance are provided on page 142. Charlotte uses this pendant to tell if she is pregnant and its prophetic powers are revealed when she declares, ‘I’m pregnant’ (page 123). Charlotte’s chapter also adds further layers to the Westaway family story and provides more rich location detail about the Westaway home in Rowena Parade (page 131) where Charlotte’s uncle Frank still lives. Connie’s fate is revealed very swiftly, resolving the question that remained at the end of Chapter Two: Connie is not in any of the photos because she is dead. Another mystery is also resolved—Mr Westaway died from falling out of a tram and it is revealed that he and Connie ‘both died within a few years of each other’ (page 131) but the explanation for her death is a red herring. Charlotte’s family’s success, despite the difficulty of Kip and Frank’s childhood, is suggested via her descriptions of Kip’s family home in Malvern—a ‘sprawling Federation triple-fronter in Malvern’ (page 132), a world away from working-class Richmond, therefore underlining the possibility of social mobility over generations. Stanzi’s reaction when Charlotte insists that they visit their mother, ‘Oh my God...Dad’ (page 129) acts as another hook. Charlotte and Stanzi’s visit to Uncle Frank’s house establishes further key information— Frank lives alone and has never married or had a family (page 137), their mother is Annabel (possibly the same Annabel from Chapter One) and Charlotte and Stanzi are twins (page 129). Further details are provided about how Kip and Annabel came to live in Malvern and why it is that Frank still lives in the family home (page 140) but no conversation ensues about Charlotte’s pregnancy. The chapter closes with Charlotte using the pendant to help her decide if she ‘should...keep the baby’ (page 142) but finishes on a cliffhanger, the reader unsure which way the pendant circled. We don’t know if she will tell Craig and if she will tell her family about the pregnancy.