Episode 121

Extended Summary

After the confrontation in the street with Brett’s lawyer, Alf and Roo head back to Celia’s house and have a chat with both Celia and Barbara about the situation they now are faced with and why Roo signed the legal papers in the first place. Roo explained that she had done it so that she could get Brett off her back and right after she signed those papers, Roo then told Brett that she had already terminated the baby, although she secretly kept the baby. She didn’t want to sign the papers and didn’t expect that Brett would have kept the papers so that it would come back to haunt her one day. She still wanted to fight it out in court the claims that she won’t be an unfit mother and Alf was willing to support her right through the ordeal. Alf’s suspicions were that Morag was behind the legal proceedings.

Ailsa showed Narelle around the flat that had three bedrooms, kitchen and furnished living room at the back of her shop. Ailsa mentioned that the rent would be too steep for just one person so Narelle said that it would be idea for her and a few mates to share the rent. Narelle asked Bobby to move in with her but she declined saying that she couldn’t because of Welfare and that she couldn’t afford the rent.

Celia chatted to Ailsa in the shop about Roo and the legal papers whilst she bought a carton of milk. Celia was minding the store while Alf is in the City and she didn’t want to forego her morning cupper. Ailsa mentioned to Celia that Narelle was to start working in the Bait Shop and Celia started to speak her mind about Narelle saying that she’s “a common trollop” and questioned why Alf employed her in the first place. Little did Celia know that Narelle and Bobby had just come from the flat and were both listening to the conversation between Ailsa and Celia. Ailsa noticed that the girls were listening and tried to steer the conversation away from that topic but Celia continued to gossip about Narelle, her family background and what happened at the Beer and Prawn night when Narelle interrupted and startled Celia. Narelle was fifteen minutes late for work and Celia reprimanded her so Narelle cheekily said that she was also late so it was “even Stevens”, much to Celia’s dismay. Once Celia had left the store, Narelle told Ailsa that she would be taking the flat and would be talking to her later.

At Summer Bay High, Barbara found Donald Fisher working away in his office on a weekend. She made some remarks, Donald took offence to them and so Barbara apologized for her sharpness. She mentioned that Alan was coming to stay in Summer Bay and stay with Celia. Donald asked about his schooling and Barbara didn’t know all the details but imagined that all would be revealed once Alan arrived. Barbara was worried about Alan as he seemed down and wanted Donald to mend some bridges with Alan, to make an effort to talk to his son and to get to know him. Donald didn’t see the point in that.

At the Bait Shop, Narelle started to rearrange the wine rack but Celia told her that she should concentrate on her tasks as stated in her Statement of Duties which were to sweep the floor, stock the fridge and look after the counter. Celia told Narelle to put the sherry bottles back where she found them whilst Pete the fisherman came into the shop looking for Alf. He had with him an octopus which needed to be cut up for bait for which Alf normally did. Pete told Celia that Alf could fix him up with the money for the octopus later and handed her the octopus. Celia struggled with the smell and the sliminess of the octopus and tried to offload that particular duty to Narelle but she proclaimed that cutting octopus wasn’t in her Statement of Duties.

Roo and Alf arrived at Morag’s mansion with Alf threatening to knock Morag’s block off about the legal papers. The three talked about why the papers were served to Roo, what part Morag initially had played in it, what role Brett could still play financially and as a father figure in the baby’s life. Morag suggested that Roo speak to Brett to reach some sort of compromise so that the matter wouldn’t reach court. Roo agreed to see Brett but without his lawyers present. Alf and Roo had a heart to heart outside about not being pressured into anything, love, money and happiness then he compared love and money to what Morag had, her mansion and that her husband was always away so she lived all on her own.

Narelle and Bobby sat on the beach and ate lunch while Narelle was talking about working with Celia when she spotted “Tom Carroll” in the surf and Bobby doesn’t believe her. Narelle said that the surfer was just as good as Tom Carroll and mentioned that he was a “spunk” but not a local. Bobby started to bag Narelle out for liking surfers when he came out of the surf, strutted towards the beach and started to take his wetsuit off before lying on the beach with only the bottom half of his wetsuit on. Narelle wanted to chat up the surfer and was worried that she would be late back to work so Bobby offered to cover for her. Narelle went over to the surfer’s panel van and started to chat him up but he was only interested in the girl who was with Narelle.

Back at the Bait Shop, the surfer walked in and told Bobby that he was back but she had no idea who he was apart from him being the surfer that she just saw down at the beach. He knew about the pranks that Bobby had gotten up to when she was a kid and how much trouble she had caused but she still had no clue as to his identity. He looked forward to her figuring out who he was when Narelle walked in.

Brett arrived at Morag’s mansion and was very pleasant towards Alf and Roo. Brett assumed that only he and Roo would be chatting but before Alf could let him go inside he punched Brett on the cheek and his lip drew blood. Alf explained that that was for all the suffering that he had caused Roo. Once inside Brett did his best to smooth things over with Roo as he talked about how she tricked him into believing that the baby was gone and that he wanted to be a father all while he kept calling the baby a “he”. Brett said that he had grown up and how things were more important now than they were before. Brett tried to persuade Roo that he would drop the court cases, no contracts and that he could be a part of their child’s life by giving him the best of everything, to help look after him and to see him now and again and for Roo to let him be the child’s father.

Bobby was talking to Ailsa about the surfer jerk she saw beforehand and that Ailsa seemed to think that he made an impression on Bobby and that he might fancy her as she hadn’t seemed to have stopped talking about him. Bobby said that she had never seen him before in her life and she called him a moron.

Roo told Alf and Morag that Brett could see the baby when he wanted to and that he could help out with the financial side of things. Alf doesn’t see how it could work out but Brett mentioned that it was the principle of the matter and that Roo said that she would figure things out when the time came. Morag was making sure that Brett was okay with all that was discussed and agreed upon whereas Alf didn’t seem to think that it shouldn’t have gotten to that stage in the first place but Morag pointed out to him that it was a victory for reason. After Alf and Roo left, Brett said that the agreement wasn’t enough and that he wanted the baby for himself. Morag reassured him that it would take one step at a time. Brett was glad about the scheme to eventually take the baby from Roo and that although Morag was on his side she loved her niece but never wanted her to have a second rate existence in Summer Bay.

Bobby mentioned to Ailsa that there was still a lot of bread left when the surfer rang the bell above the doorway to the store. He thought that Bobby still pretended that she didn’t know him and she told him to “rack off”. He said that she was a snotty nosed brat the last time that he saw her, they used to kiss quite regularly and he demonstrated when he took Bobby into his arms, while she protested that she would kick him where it would hurt, and quoted Shakespeare to her. It turned out that they were in the Year 6 school play as “Romeo and Juliet”. Bobby realised who it was and that he played the part of Romeo and giggled with glee before Fisher caught them in the act. The guy mentioned that Fisher was his Dad whilst holding onto Bobby and that Fisher had a look of horror on his face.