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Jack stretched in his chair in the study at Wardlow, taking a deep breath in and reaching his arms over his head. He rolled his head back, trying to stretch out the ache in his neck. He had been working almost all morning on documents for the accountant, and he was beyond relieved to be almost done. Phryne and Jane were expected back soon from whatever errands they were up to, and then it would be a delicious lunch for everyone, courtesy of the talents of Mr. Butler. Jack’s stomach began to rumble as he focused on the delectable scents wafting in through the door and -
“Oh is this it? This is it! Mum!”
Jack heard it, clear as a bell from the bathroom down the hall, but the words and source were the only clear things about it. The meaning was...less clear.
Jack had certainly been more than happy to get his hands dirty (literally) as a proud, if slightly anxious, first-time father of a toddler. He and Jane had long since settled into a wonderful father-daughter relationship, but she had been thirteen when they met and had not needed, well, this kind of help. Emmy had been considerably younger when she had joined their little family at Wardlow, but she hadn’t needed assistance in the bathroom in quite some time. Still, he wasn’t that much less anxious when it came to his daughters now as he was then, and he quickly rose from his chair and started towards the sound.
He approached the bathroom and spoke to the door. “Emmy? Are you alright in there? Mum’s not here right now...but do you need anything? Emilia?” He didn’t want to intrude, but needs must, and he would obviously get over any discomfort he (or she) might feel if something were seriously wrong. That said, he had noticed she didn’t seem...distressed, exactly.
“Dad! My monthlies have started! Mum’s going to be so excited!”
Jack was...not expecting that. After fourteen years with Phryne Fisher, not to mention sixteen years in a marriage before that, he was long past any awkwardness when it came to menstruation...or so he thought. With Phryne, it barely even affected their bedroom (well, any room, he noted with a chuckle to himself) activities. But he wasn’t sure how to handle the topic at the current moment. He was perhaps a little more protective over Emmy than he had been with Jane. Some part of him never quite forgot the tiny, bloodied body he’d pulled from the wreckage of a train car, and the relief he felt at seeing her eyes open to meet his own. The potent reminder that the same little girl was now on her way to adulthood was a shock, but he was a modern man and a dedicated father and his daughter could well be in need of some encouragement and support; he wasn’t about to let her down.
Before he got too far though, Phryne and Jane could be heard coming in through the front door down the stairs. He breathed a sigh of relief as he heard them come in.
“Darlings? We’re back! Have you eaten yet?” Phryne called from the front hall.
“Hi Dad!” Jane’s greeting followed as she and Phryne got settled, hanging up coats and hats. Jack never took for granted being called “Dad” by either of his daughters, after almost reaching the age of forty and figuring parenthood just wasn’t in the cards for him, and he’d heard it from each of them in the last five minutes. His heart warmed at the sound.
He was pulled out of his reverie by Emmy rushing out of the bathroom, right past him, down the stairs, and in a whirlwind of breath and excitement right into her mother and sister.
“Mum! Jane! I got my first period!” Emmy announced to the household, plainly thrilled at this development.
“How marvelous! And you know what this means?”, gushed Phryne, ever the proud mother as she gave Emmy a tight hug and kiss on the top of her head, who then went to Jane for more of the same.
“I do know! My red ragger party! And I already know who I’m inviting!”
Jack would have spit his tea out had he been sipping it at that moment, long turned cold and forgotten on the desk in the study.
“A party? A...a what kind of party? What?” Jack sputtered, incredulous. He was speaking mostly to Phryne, but wanting an answer to his questions badly enough he would have been happy to have any of them reply. If he thought he was in over his head a few minutes ago, he had no doubts now.
Jane had already grabbed Emmy’s hand and started pulling her up the stairs, excitedly planning guest lists and activity ideas, as they passed Jack on the staircase. He’d started to come down to ask Phryne what in the world everyone was talking about relating to such a mundane bodily function, that really should be kept private, or so he assumed.
“Jack?” Phryne said quietly. “Let’s go talk upstairs before lunch, shall we?” She sounded...resigned perhaps? It wasn’t often that he couldn’t read her, even just by voice after all their time together. But he wasn’t sure here.
Jack was further surprised at her demeanor when she came into view from around the staircase. He had expected one of two reactions, as were typical when Phryne had an idea that she didn’t expect Jack to like immediately. She either displayed amused evasiveness, or blatant provocation. She was showing neither now, but looked serious, and even a little sad. He was caught off guard, and despite his increasing confusion with the situation at hand, he hoped he hadn’t made too much of a misstep already.
“Of course, love. Come.” Jack smiled softly as he reached his hand out to her and they started up to their bedroom.
They stepped through the doorway, Jack standing aside to let Phryne in and to take her direction on where she wanted each of them to sit or stand for this conversation, her apparent mood not lightening. When she said nothing, he sat at the foot of their bed and ventured to open the discussion.
“Phryne? Could you tell me more about this?”, he asked sincerely.
Phryne softened at that. She had taken off her shoes and sat on the window seat, her feet curled under her as she looked out the window. She turned towards him then, and he patiently waited for her to gather her thoughts on what was clearly an important topic to her.
“You know that I’ve travelled, Jack. I’ve seen many places and met many kinds of people from all over the world.”
“Yes.” He wasn’t sure where this was going, but he was eager to hear her out.
“Did you know in some parts of the world, women and girls are banished from their family homes or communities while they’re menstruating?”
Jack gaped, mouth opening and closing a few times while no sound emerged. “Excuse me?”
“There are such cultural taboos around menstruation.” Phryne got to her feet and began to pace the small floor space in their bedroom not taken up by furniture. “Girls miss school in some parts of the world for a week each month, missing out in a quarter of their education, because of local beliefs about periods. Women are kept out of important cultural rituals, not allowed to prepare food or sleep in the same hut or tent as their families.” She was getting more agitated as she explained, and Jack realized she had put a lot of thought into this. A lot. “It’s seen as shameful and dirty, thereby making people who menstruate, half the population, shameful and dirty. Can you imagine being nine or ten, or thirty or forty for that matter, and believing that about yourself?”
Jack thought about it. He couldn’t imagine it, he knew. He felt ashamed to have been so ignorant on the whole topic, and he said so.
Phryne softened further and came to sit next to him on the bed, taking one of his hands in hers, kissing his palm and then tracing his hand and fingers with hers. Of course Jack hadn’t needed much convincing, darling man.
“Jane got her first when she had been living with me for a few months. She wasn’t familiar with the idea and had been confused and horrified. I felt awful for her. Then I had an idea that could not have turned out better. I called Mac over for some games, desserts and...physical education, no awkwardness or shaming allowed. Jane was allowed to ask any question she wanted. By the end of the evening, we were all laughing, and I knew I had managed my objective.”
Jack had never heard this story, and listened with interest. “Leave it to Phryne to think up a totally new idea to put someone at ease,” he thought, amazed.
Phryne continued, “Jane mentioned that some of her friends would appreciate the same opportunity. I invited them, and Mac, over the following week. Even if we didn't have time to get to all their questions right away, I was glad to just introduce them to Mac, a trusted adult who could give them accurate information now and in the future.”
Jack absorbed and processed what she’d said. “Why didn’t I know any of this before? About Jane?”
“Well, you and I weren’t on quite such personal terms yet when this happened. I haven’t purposely kept it from you since then, I assure you. When Emmy joined our family, I knew we would do the same for her.
“I suppose I knew it was a radical idea and expected pushback from you, and while I could have and would have handled it, I just figured we would cross that bridge when we came to it. You know,” Phryne digressed, her eyes leaving his for the first time in a number of minutes to focus on her memory, “I met an anthropologist once who had very interesting thoughts on this. Her theory was that menstrual taboos come from deep seated misogyny. Who menstruates?” Phryne recalled the conversation. “Women of reproductive age, post puberty and premenopause, who aren’t currently pregnant already. Women who haven’t done their ‘womanly duty’ by getting themselves pregnant that month, and so we shame it. And heaven forbid you’re a woman who doesn’t menstruate or can’t have children, then the pitchforks really come out. I found the whole thing so interesting, and horribly aggravating.”
She turned back to him. “I know how cultural messages work, Jack. About menstruation, about sex and shame. If I don’t insert some positive messages into their heads about these topics, society’s horrible ideas will fill that vacuum. Ergo, a party. An informational, funny, light hearted, empowering, party. Your body is nothing to be ashamed of, and you are normal. And wonderful. And I can’t wait to do it for her.” He melted a little to notice tears in her eyes, but she subtly wiped them away before they disloyally escaped down her face. “Just some school friends, Jane and Mac of course. And Dot.”
Jack pondered all of this. “May I respond?”, he asked.
Phryne smiled. “Please do.”
It was Jack’s turn to take her hands in his, and he gazed at them intertwined. “I know when Emmy joined us, you were very nervous.”
Phryne nodded in recollection of her anxiety and no small amount of panic. She had been surprised at that - she hadn’t had the same reaction to welcoming Jane into her family, but Jane had been so much older, and Phryne didn’t have to consider anyone else but herself and Jane in that decision. It was two “not so nice girls” together to take on the world.
Emmy, on the other hand, was at first so small and still so physically dependent; and unlike before, Jack would have to be on board with the decision as they were a committed family by then. The derailment at Flinders Street had fallen on Phryne’s birthday, her party disrupted by the need for all hands on deck as the police searched in vain for survivors. Jack, shaking and pale, had brought the little bundle home whilst they tracked down family to take her in. She had none. By the time he had confessed that he’d become enamoured with the idea of taking her in permanently, Phryne had fallen head over heels for the little terror herself. Still, she had had her doubts. Jack would be the best father a child could hope for, but she had felt unsure she could rise to the occasion. “I didn’t have a smooth childhood, and I didn’t think I’d know how to be a good mother,” she admitted aloud.
Jack looked her straight in the eye. “I never doubted you for a minute. You are passionately loving and protective, and you value honesty and respect above social station or other arbitrary measures. And you have somehow managed to exceed even my sky-high expectations of you. Thank you for being such a wonderful mother to our daughters, and such a wonderful friend and resource to their friends.” He paused. “I do have one more question,” he said with a smirk, “before I help stuff invitation envelopes and hang up red streamers.”
Phryne laughed through her sentimental tears at that. “Ask away.”
“A red ragger party?”
She laughed again. “The name was Mac’s idea. Isn’t it a riot?”
Jack chuckled as they rose from the bed to go down for lunch. “One suggestion. When you want to share this idea with Cec and Alice for when their daughter gets old enough, consider changing the name.”
Phryne cackled now as she turned in front of him and gave him a tight squeeze and ran her hands over his back. “I’ll tell you what. Since it’s your suggestion, you’ll have to come up with the new name.”
“On second thought...the name is fine how it is.” He gave her a kiss full on the mouth, and then dashed around her to beat her out the bedroom door to the table. He was starved, which meant he could only imagine how hungry Emmy was. She was a growing girl after all.