A biography of sorts… David Paul Laing III

 

Hey, my name is David,

I am going to attempt to start from the start, this may take some time……

 

I lived with my two biological parents and my grandmother on my father’s side from the time I was born until after the tragic death of my identical twin brother, John, in 1984.

After John’s death, my parents, stricken with grief, turned to alcoholism. This led to a childhood surrounded by domestic violence and endless parties. A few years later, my siblings George and Marion were born, after which my parents, though legally divorced, tried unsuccessfully to reconcile. Their attempts only led to more severe conflicts, including violent arguments and even knife attacks from my mother towards my father, which eventually forced my father to move to McCorkindale Crescent.

While my father temporarily took custody of George and Marion, I stayed with my mother. He had promised her that after losing one son, he wouldn’t take another away from her.

When my mother found a new partner, I moved to live with my father. During this time, my mother became pregnant again and had another daughter, Danielle, named after her father, Danny. Living with my dad, who was now a single parent, I became a latchkey kid. Every day, I came home from school to prepare dinner, waiting for my siblings to be brought home from daycare so I could look after them while my dad socialized with the neighbours.

I remember the neighbours well; they often heat spoons on the stove and inject some substance. They seemed happy and funny for a while after that, but you had to leave before the high wore off to avoid trouble, especially if we made too much noise.

At one point, my mother had to stay in a specialist hospital for a few months. During her absence, I stayed with various families in another town. I’m not sure where Lisa stayed, but George was able to go home after a short while. I was moved between four different homes, meeting many new faces, but we were never allowed to return to our own home in a different town, so I couldn’t even attend my own school. Eventually, when I returned to my dad’s home, he decided to move to Australia. Without much notice, he packed everything up one day and left with George and Marion.

Left with no choice, I moved back in with my mother, her new partner, and my new sister again. For the first time ever, I had my own room, although it was also used as a storage room.

I once visited my old house and found everything as it was left, which made me doubt whether my dad and siblings had really moved, especially since I was there when we dropped them off at the airport. I still hold onto a photo from that morning—a photo of myself, George, and Marion before we began the long drive to the airport. In the picture, we stand in front of a white wall covered with a piece of fabric to hide a hole from an earlier domestic dispute. I vividly remember watching their plane take off, crying for hours, fearing I’d never see my brother and sister again.

Danny, my mother’s partner, was often harsh. During one of their fiercest fights, when he hurt my mother, I bit his arm so hard that I got into serious trouble. Fortunately, I was able to call my uncle, Joe, who came to help us.

When Joe arrived, Danny left the house immediately.

I spent that night at Uncle Joe’s, and when I returned the next day, I found all of my mother’s records broken and scattered all over the living room. Danny blamed me for the previous night’s chaos and even threatened me with a gun, proclaiming that I wouldn’t be able to cause trouble or get in the way ever again!

In 1994, my mother said I couldn’t stay with her anymore, which forced me to move to Australia too.

Upon arrival, my dad picked me up from the airport, and we drove for nearly two days to reach his new home—a farm in the middle of nowhere. I was reunited with my Nanna there; we lived in a simple picker’s hut with no hot water, just a rainwater tank outside. The town was so small that the local supermarket was smaller than the plane I had arrived in.

There is one high school, one primary school, and a Catholic primary school that goes up to year 8.

We lived on the farm until Dad married my new stepmother. Following their marriage, we moved to a house in the town centre. At the same time, my biological mother in New Zealand also found a new partner. Over the next seven years, I lived with my dad, stepmother, and siblings George and Marion, as well as my half-siblings Billy, Tash, and Kira. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, my biological mother remarried and had two more children—Mark and Michael, who then became a widow. She then another set of twins, Dylan and Aaron, with another partner, who sadly aren’t with us anymore either…