Beth Teller Character Analysis

The ‘when’ didn’t matter so much though, since I didn’t count minutes or hours any more. Days began when the sun rose and ended when it set. In between, the connections I made—like the ways I helped my dad, or didn’t help him—were what told me if I was moving forwards or backwards. As my Grandpa Jim had once said to me, Life doesn’t move through time, Bethie. Time moves through life.

Dad said his old man thought the law was there to protect some people and punish others. And Aboriginal people were the ‘others.’

My science teacher said that just because two things happened together didn’t mean one was because of the other, or as she put it: ‘correlation does not imply causation.’

But Dad said that was scientist-talk not police-talk, and if two things happened together you’d suspect the first thing caused the second until it could provide you with an alibi.

And it’s OK to be sad, but you can’t love someone only with tears. There’s got to be laughter too.

“Maybe I didn’t see anything. Or maybe I did. Depends.”

“Depends on what?”

She looked at me—or, no, she didn’t, she looked into the space I was standing in for a second, then away again. “On if you’ll believe me.”

When your Nanna was little the government took her away from her mum. They had a law back then that let them take Aboriginal kids just because they were Aboriginal . . .

“Catching wasn’t lying. I know she wasn’t.”

“I don’t think she was lying, precisely. Just telling the truth in a different way.”

“That’s your plan now? Hang about and hold your dad’s hand for the rest of his life?”

“No. Not exactly.” Even I could hear the lie in my voice.

She pointed to the door. “Get out of here, Teller. Come back if you ever want help doing what you’re supposed to be doing and move on.”

“It seems to me he might be a little like my father—the kind of cop who thinks the rules don’t apply to everyone equally. He could’ve been too deferential to the Sholt family, given them special treatment . . . maybe let a few things slide about that home that he now sees he should have looked into.”

“Oh, it was a long time ago. Twenty years . . . seven months . . . six days. Not that I’m counting!” She tried to laugh, but it broke in the middle. “Sarah just vanished a week before her fifteenth birthday. She got off the bus from school, same as always, but she never made it home.”

[…]

Twenty years, seven months, six days . . . Was Dad going to be like this, decades from now when he talked about me? I didn’t want him making my death some kind of depressing mathematical reference point for his life.

“We’re police officers,” he said, and I heard the pride in his voice. “We never stop looking for the missing.”

“I told you what I thought about your dad, didn’t I?”

I wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. “Yeah.”

“So we’re friends. Because friends always tell each other the truth. Even when it hurts.”

“I’m not telling you what happened to ask for help,” she said.

“Then why are you telling it?”

Catching drew her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “To be heard.”

I was silent for a moment, thinking about that. Then I said, “Well, that kind of sounds like asking for help.”

Mum had been there my whole life, helping me be a butterfly girl.

Maybe all hopeful thoughts were just someone who loved us, reaching out from another side. Which meant I could be there for my family even after I’d crossed over!

“You taught me to be fair, Dad, and what you’re doing’s not fair to anybody. Especially me. How do you think I’m going to feel if I’m the reason you make everybody miserable? And if you can’t see how wrong you are—how unfair you’re being, to yourself and everybody else—then you’re not the dad I know.”

I couldn’t bear to say that the colours weren’t real.

People can time travel inside their heads.

Remember into the past.

Imagine into the future.

But sometimes you can’t escape the now.

“If you can name it, you can catch it,” she calls. “If you can catch it, you can fight it. Everything has its opposite. Remember!”

“Of course you’re here at the end. So what? It’s the beginning that hasn’t happened yet.”

And wherever we went, we went together.

The ‘when’ didn’t matter so much though, since I didn’t count minutes or hours any more. Days began when the sun rose and ended when it set. In between, the connections I made—like the ways I helped my dad, or didn’t help him—were what told me if I was moving forwards or backwards. As my Grandpa Jim had once said to me, Life doesn’t move through time, Bethie. Time moves through life.

Dad said his old man thought the law was there to protect some people and punish others. And Aboriginal people were the ‘others.’

My science teacher said that just because two things happened together didn’t mean one was because of the other, or as she put it: ‘correlation does not imply causation.’

But Dad said that was scientist-talk not police-talk, and if two things happened together you’d suspect the first thing caused the second until it could provide you with an alibi.

And it’s OK to be sad, but you can’t love someone only with tears. There’s got to be laughter too.

“Maybe I didn’t see anything. Or maybe I did. Depends.”

“Depends on what?”

She looked at me—or, no, she didn’t, she looked into the space I was standing in for a second, then away again. “On if you’ll believe me.”

When your Nanna was little the government took her away from her mum. They had a law back then that let them take Aboriginal kids just because they were Aboriginal . . .

“Catching wasn’t lying. I know she wasn’t.”

“I don’t think she was lying, precisely. Just telling the truth in a different way.”

“That’s your plan now? Hang about and hold your dad’s hand for the rest of his life?”

“No. Not exactly.” Even I could hear the lie in my voice.

She pointed to the door. “Get out of here, Teller. Come back if you ever want help doing what you’re supposed to be doing and move on.”

“It seems to me he might be a little like my father—the kind of cop who thinks the rules don’t apply to everyone equally. He could’ve been too deferential to the Sholt family, given them special treatment . . . maybe let a few things slide about that home that he now sees he should have looked into.”

“Oh, it was a long time ago. Twenty years . . . seven months . . . six days. Not that I’m counting!” She tried to laugh, but it broke in the middle. “Sarah just vanished a week before her fifteenth birthday. She got off the bus from school, same as always, but she never made it home.”

[…]

Twenty years, seven months, six days . . . Was Dad going to be like this, decades from now when he talked about me? I didn’t want him making my death some kind of depressing mathematical reference point for his life.

“We’re police officers,” he said, and I heard the pride in his voice. “We never stop looking for the missing.”

“I told you what I thought about your dad, didn’t I?”

I wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. “Yeah.”

“So we’re friends. Because friends always tell each other the truth. Even when it hurts.”

“I’m not telling you what happened to ask for help,” she said.

“Then why are you telling it?”

Catching drew her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “To be heard.”

I was silent for a moment, thinking about that. Then I said, “Well, that kind of sounds like asking for help.”

Mum had been there my whole life, helping me be a butterfly girl.

Maybe all hopeful thoughts were just someone who loved us, reaching out from another side. Which meant I could be there for my family even after I’d crossed over!

“You taught me to be fair, Dad, and what you’re doing’s not fair to anybody. Especially me. How do you think I’m going to feel if I’m the reason you make everybody miserable? And if you can’t see how wrong you are—how unfair you’re being, to yourself and everybody else—then you’re not the dad I know.”

I couldn’t bear to say that the colours weren’t real.

People can time travel inside their heads.

Remember into the past.

Imagine into the future.

But sometimes you can’t escape the now.

“If you can name it, you can catch it,” she calls. “If you can catch it, you can fight it. Everything has its opposite. Remember!”

“Of course you’re here at the end. So what? It’s the beginning that hasn’t happened yet.”

And wherever we went, we went together.