I picked my daughter up from school and drove her straight to maths tutoring.
HSC was getting close.
She felt confident about most of her subjects.
Maths Standard 2 was the exception.
She wasn’t trying to be brilliant at it.
She just didn’t want one simple subject to pull everything else down.
“How’s everything going today?” she asked as she got into the car.
“Not bad.”
I told her I had done a few hours of casual work and sent out another job application in the morning.
“What kind of job?”
“Admin.”
She nodded.
“You’ll find something.”
She said it so easily that, for a second, I almost believed her.
At the tutoring centre, she picked up her school bag.
“One and a half hours,” she said.
“I know.”
“Don’t be late.”
“I’m never late.”
She gave me a look and closed the car door.
The Korean grocery shop nearby was the obvious place to spend the time.
It was already close to dinner, and Korean supermarkets are very good at solving problems you don’t feel like solving yourself.
I picked up some japchae, marinated beef and a few side dishes.
Then I went through the fruit and snack aisles.
Mandarins.
Seaweed.
Rice crackers.
A packet of chocolate biscuits for my daughter to eat while studying.
By the time I reached the checkout, dinner was ready and her study snacks were sorted.
Not bad for one and a half hours.
I went back to the car and waited.
Parents slowly began arriving.
One by one, they parked, checked the time and looked towards the tutoring centre door.
It occurred to me that my daughter and I were both preparing for something.
She was preparing for HSC.
I was preparing for whatever came after casual work.
The difference was that she had an exam date.
I didn’t.
When she finally came out, she climbed into the car and immediately looked at the shopping bags.
“What did you buy?”
“Dinner.”
“And snacks?”
“Of course.”
She smiled and opened the seaweed before I had even started the car.
On the way home, she was quiet for a while.
Then she asked,
“Mum, what are you going to do after my HSC is over?”
I looked at the road ahead.
The light turned green.
And I started driving.