Crisis of Identity

Mum pushed herself up from her seat and moved towards the kitchen. ‘After you told me about Dawes,’ she said back over her shoulder. ‘I called Mandy to tell her what happened. She reassured me there is no evidence to prove Dawes’ theory and it would all go away.’

‘How wrong she was. She clearly underestimated Dawes.’

‘Clearly.’ Mum opened a drawer in the kitchen and removed a mobile phone. ‘Mandy and I have one of these pre-paid phones each. I think your generation calls them burner phones. Whenever we want to contact each other we use these. Contact is only kept to an absolute minimum. Like an emergency. We use these so there is no record or connection to our two families. It was Mandy’s idea.’

‘She thought of everything.’

‘You have no idea.’

‘Wait… So when I visited Mandy in Queensland… She already knew I was in Queensland…?’

Mum nodded. ‘I called her to tell her you were there and she called me back after your visit…’

I shook a disappointed head. ‘She is a convincing actor. OK then. What about the birth mark she mentioned her son had…?’

Mum’s smile was as if I missed an obvious punchline. ‘She said that to throw you off. There was never a birthmark.’

‘It worked…’ I said with my ego taking a hit.

‘You believed what you wanted to believe, Kade. Listen to this…’ Mum said resuming her seat. ‘We moved to Karratha before you were born.’

‘Was that part of the grand plan?’

‘It was. We chose a job for your father in a remote mining town because, one…’ Mum pushed back a finger. ‘The population is small and most families keep to themselves.’ She pushed back another finger. ‘And two… Once the kidnapping made the news, no one in Karratha would recognize you. Most didn’t even have televisions out there because of the poor reception.’

‘Thought of everything, didn’t you…?’

‘Not me… Mandy,’ mum clarified. ‘Anyway, after you were born, we took photos … You know the ones. The typical proud new parent photos. Dad holding you. Me holding you. I even put on one of Mandy’s nightgowns and climbed into her bed to pose for a photo of me holding you…’

‘Amazing…’

‘We took photos of you in your developing years all to perpetrate the charade, should anyone question your birth, never believing anyone would.’ She gave me her ‘fuck Dawes’ expression.

‘Tell me… That photo I saw in the album… The one with the familiar mantle over the fireplace… I thought it looked like the one I saw at Mandy’s…’

Mum nodded. ‘It was Mandy’s.’ I shook a disappointed head. ’I never realized that was there. Anyway… after we moved we made a point to destroy any connection between our two families… photographs, anything at all connecting us, ceased to exist.

‘Not everything… Not that seven by five in dad’s photo frame.’

’We wouldn’t be discussing this right now if it had been destroyed…

’Clearly… I’m not sure that is bad thing, though, from my perspective. I’m starting to understand my life was a complete lie and that is something I should be aware of…’

Mum ignored my unfavourable comments. ‘After we moved, you spent your first two, or so years flying back and forward to Karratha. In fact, you probably spent more time in Karratha with us, than back with them on the Coast.’

‘Was that so I would get to know you as my parents?’

‘That… and we wanted to wait, to make sure Mandy didn’t change her mind and decide she wanted to keep you. Plus… you understand, we lived in a remote pop-up mining town, so the few people who lived there needed to see you as our son…’

‘Did you have the fake baby bump and everything?’

‘Sure did. We spread the word around the small community that we were having the birth back in Queensland, to cover you suddenly appearing.’

‘So how do you explain the birth certificate…?’

Mum nodded once as she sat back in her chair. ‘That was a lot easier than you might think…’

‘So... You bribed someone at the birth registry…?’

Mum’s expression broke out into a devious grin as she slowly shook her head. She seemed to be enjoying this. ’Because the mining towns are so far from civilization, they are required to provide a qualified senior nurse in the town.

‘Our Nurse was Marilyn. She wore many hats, which included midwifery…’

‘I see where this is heading…’

’Not sure you do, but I’ll continue. We became very good friends with Marilyn. Over time I discussed quite openly with her, all my problems conceiving and how badly I wanted a child. She was genuinely sympathetic. I discussed my frustrations at how my friend was pregnant and she didn’t want the child and the Australian government won’t let us legally adopt it.

’You can imagine my amazement when Marilyn suggested, “then, illegally adopt it”. When I asked her to explain what she meant by that, she explained how, as a midwife, she uses a Midwives Notification System that records all births. Because we were remote, she said she would be the Responsible Person under the Western Australia law. Usually this is the Doctor who delivers the child, but in the absence of a Doctor, she became the Responsible Person.

She explained how, as the Responsible Person and midwife present at the birth, she was required to give notice of the birth to the registrar.

’When she registered your fake birth, she recorded all the details, as if you were born in Karratha in January 1991. She said registration of outback births by midwives, particularly those in remote Indigenous communities are common, so she was confident it wouldn’t be challenged.

‘I ran it passed Mandy. She made a few discreet inquiries to verify everything, then she gave the go ahead for Marilyn to register the birth.’

’So, 16 January, 1991 is not my actual birthdate… You guys made that up?’

‘Correct. Your actual birthdate, as per your Jayden Evans Queensland birth certificate, is 25 February, 1991.’

‘So my birthdate, the day I celebrated for the last twenty-eight years, is a lie. My name is a lie. Essentially, I don’t exist. Kade Miller is a lie, so my life…is a lie.’

‘You shouldn’t look at it like that… We gave you a life. We wanted you. We loved you. Your birth mother did not.’

‘How does that change anything? You made me up so you could illegally take me as your own child. I can’t accept that, mum. I’m sorry.’

‘I’m sorry too… I’m sorry you feel like that. Marilyn went to lot of trouble to make this work for us. She did a great job registering your birth. No-one knew any different.’

‘Why did Marilyn risk her job and jail for you?’

‘She was in her sixties and on the verge of retiring, so she wasn’t worried about losing her job. Plus, she felt my pain and was sympathetic. She was confident it wouldn’t be detected and she was right. Even the recent court hearings verified the birth record’s authenticity.’

‘How many people were in on this?’

‘At the time… there was just me, your father, Mandy, Graham and Marilyn …’

‘At the time…?’

Mum’s jaw tightened. Her lips straightened. ‘Poor Marilyn was killed in a car accident a few years after your fake birth…She—’

‘Please tell me the accident wasn’t an arranged accident to silence a witness…’

Mum’s mouth fell open. ‘What. Oh God, no… We loved Marilyn.’ She shook a firm head. ‘No. Nothing like that at all. Poor Marilyn and her husband were driving down to Perth on holiday.’ Mum’s eyes fell to the floor as several beats passed by. She rubbed a hand across her forehead. Tears were welling when she lifted her eyes. ‘A truck driver… fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the centre line and…’ Mum’s head rolled sideways. She caught a tear. ‘They never stood a chance.’

‘That is tragic… But I am a believer in Karma. I believe the universe has a way of correcting wrongs. Maybe that was what happened to Marilyn.’

‘We were all involved… Why hasn’t this universe you speak of, done something to us?’

‘How do you know it hasn’t…?’ Mum’s curious eyebrows arched. ‘Well, dad, while being fit and healthy, passed away suddenly. Graham Evans, fit and healthy passed away suddenly. I go to Queensland on holiday, even though I didn’t want to go, and run into Dawes. I could’ve gone to any bar that night… but I chose that one.’

‘I think that is a long bow, Kade… Those things are just coincidences.’

‘Are they? Add Marilyn to that list, then tell me it is coincidence that everyone involved in this fake kidnapping has been, or will be punished in some way, when your lies are discovered.’

‘Yes, but we have covered all bases to ensure our adopting you cannot be discovered.’

‘But you didn’t account for me…’