Jillaroo

by Rachael Treasure

  ‘Bec, behave,’ growled Sally.

  Trudy motioned for them to park in the driveway, a wide stretch of grey concrete lined with neatly edged lawn. Before they could open the back door of the car to help Harry out, Trudy was there, bustling and fussing. She undid Harry’s seatbelt and manoeuvred him from the car, keeping up a constant banter all the while.

  ‘How are you all? So lovely to see you. Danny, say hello to Auntie Becky and her friend Sally.’ She pushed Danny forward gently and Bec stooped to look into the little boy’s eyes.

  ‘Hey groover,’ she said as he looked back at her shyly.

  ‘Let’s get you all inside,’ Trudy said. ‘Danny, you grab Grandpa’s walking stick, honey, and hold it up for him. Mick’s just in the office, he’ll be out shortly. Did you have a good drive down?’

  When she had them on the verandah she gave them all a hug and a kiss.

  ‘Ooops!’ she said as she bumped Harry with her stomach.

  ‘Not long to go,’ said Harry, nodding at her belly.

  ‘Waiting, waiting,’ said Trudy, patting her stomach. She ushered them into a vast parquet-tiled foyer which echoed with their footsteps and voices.

  ‘Rrrrrrrr!’ Danny said as he pushed his yellow truck down the echoing hallway. They followed him into a large kitchen–dining area.

  Trudy motioned to the couch. ‘Sit down! I’ll put the kettle on.’

  Harry pulled out a straight-backed chair from the table and sat down, grimacing a bit as he bent.

  ‘That’d be great, thanks,’ Rebecca said, looking up at the clock on the dresser. She was shocked to find it there. It was the clock from the Waters Meeting kitchen. The tick sounded different in here. An old thing in a new home.

  ‘What time are Mum and Peter getting here?’

  From behind her new kitchen bench Trudy stood smiling. ‘Any minute now,’ she said. ‘Tea or coffee?’

  Rebecca was about to answer when the doorbell rang.

  ‘There they are now,’ said Trudy. ‘Spot on time. I’ll go.’

  As she walked down the hall Mick came in from another door, smiling as he entered.

  ‘Mick! How you going?’ said Bec brightly, glad to see him. He sauntered over and gave Bec a big bear hug. He’d put on weight.

  ‘Hey Sal,’ he said with a wave.

  ‘How you doing, Mick?’

  ‘Great!’ he said, patting his tummy. ‘I’m in seventh heaven. But you’ve been keeping me busy lately with your succession planning meeting … I’ve set up the whiteboard and everything in the dining room for you. That okay? I even pinched a few new textas from work so these business plan diagrams you’re going to draw for us will look flash!’

  ‘Good on you. That’s great,’ said Sal. ‘We should get started soon, though, because we’ve got an appointment this afternoon.’

  ‘Yes ma’am,’ he said, saluting her. Mick looked beyond Sally and saw his father sitting uncomfortably in the chair.

  ‘Dad,’ he said and walked over and put his hand on his shoulder. ‘Good to see you. Glad they let you out. You’re looking just fine.’

  The chatter along the hallway signalled the arrival of Frankie and Peter. Danny roared about their legs with his truck as they stood in the kitchen greeting one another with kisses, handshakes and awkward hugs. Frankie looked flushed and nervous. When she saw Harry leaning unsteadily against the table she sucked in a breath. Her anger towards him eased a little to a feeling of pity when she saw the sleeve pinned over his stump. Harry looked at her blankly, taking in her city clothes and tidy hair. He nodded at her and mumbled a greeting. It was Trudy who smoothed the situation, offering biscuits, making hot drinks and saying all the right things. That was until she let out a screech.

  ‘Ohhhhh! Michael!’ All of them looked up. Danny held in his little fat fists two textas and was making wild slashes of red across the walls of the hall.

  ‘I told you to keep the door closed!’

  ‘It’s okay, Puffin. It’ll wipe off,’ Mick said to his wife as he picked Danny up in a sweeping motion and tucked the yelling child under his arm. ‘I think it’s time we got the meeting underway. I’ll just go and put this one on the street to play in the traffic.’

  Sally sucked a breath in. It was her cue to take over. She gathered up her briefcase.

  ‘Show me the way.’

  In Trudy’s dining room Sally stood facing the Saunders family as they sat around the glossy wooden table. She held in her hand the proposal she, Tom, Gabs and Rebecca had compiled. On the whiteboard she drew an outline of the proposed enterprises, which included export hay production, prime lamb production, direct sales of high country labelled domestic beef, forward contracts of export beef and a producer cooperative. As she talked she listed the costs. The income. The return on investments. She talked casually, yet formally. She had been the mediator at many farming family meetings, so she was cool and well practised. But this time she found it hard to stop her hands from shaking and her voice sounding thin from nerves. A lot was riding on this meeting for Sally. It wasn’t just her childhood connection with the place, it was Tom, it was Rebecca. She even felt a pang of concern about Harry’s future in it all. She swallowed down her nerves and talked on, tapping her index finger on the tabletop to indicate just how strong the business proposal was. How it all made sense.

  Even though Rebecca knew her friend so well, she didn’t detect Sally’s nerves. She sat in the straight-backed chair and marvelled at how fantastic Sally was at putting forward their project to the toughest of audiences. Rebecca looked around at her family as they sat in the plush, almost plastic-feeling dining room. At one end of the replica antique table sat Harry. Next to him was Mick. Next to Mick sat Frankie and Peter. Trudy seemed to come and go with cakes and biscuits and fresh pots of coffee and tea. She was content with her house and safe in the financial care of her family. It seemed the farm was something she had left in her past. She hovered on the periphery of it all, happy to stay out of it. Trudy came into the room now and sat down, elegantly crossing her legs, listening out for Danny in the hallway. Rebecca smiled at her and she smiled sweetly back.

  For Rebecca it felt so strange to have them all here in the one room. Everyone’s eyes were focused on Sally, as if looking at one another was too hard a thing to do. Rebecca resisted the temptation to throw in comments when Sally went through the plans to revamp the farm. Instead she scribbled incessantly on a piece of paper, drawing flowers, stars, horses’ heads, lightning bolts and gum trees. She was too nervous to consider the outcome. What if her family said no to the plans? She longed for Charlie to be by her side and for Dags to be sitting at her feet. She was out of her comfort zone in this strange, clean, plush-carpeted new home. Her palms sweated and her mouth was dry.

  ‘Now you can see from this,’ said Sally indicating the diagram on the whiteboard, ‘that Tom and Rebecca really did their homework well. I’m not saying you have to accept this. It is, after all, only a proposal, but the gathering here today is not just about keeping Waters Meeting in the family, it’s about keeping the family together through open communications. Now I think I’ve said enough, it’s your turn.’

  She swiped the whiteboard clean. ‘You’ve seen what the business plan contains, we now need to find out what each of you want for this family farm.

  ‘What I need each of you to do is to give me a list of goals you have for your future. It doesn’t matter whether they’re dreams or not. It’s what you want to happen in your life in the next ten years.’

  Harry squirmed in his seat, pulling a face and muttering. Sally thrust a fist full of coloured textas in front of him.

  ‘Pick a colour,’ she said.

  ‘Black,’ Harry said.

  She offered the pens around, Rebecca took red, Mick and Trudy green, and Frankie and Peter blue.

  ‘The purple marker is Tom’s,’ said Sally. The name cut through the uncomfortable air in the room. ‘We can’t forget him. He’s the reason we’re all here. He’s the reason
we have to lay our cards on the table and set a common goal. He’s why we have to start talking.’

  ‘Harry,’ Sally said, ‘we won’t start with you. I know this process will be the most difficult for you. Mick, we’ll give your father time to think, let’s start with you.’

  ‘No, Sally,’ Harry said almost too loudly, ‘you’ve said this meeting is about communication, so it’s about time I spoke.’ His voice wavered a little.

  Sally smiled encouragingly at him and pulled off the lid to the black marker, ready to write on the board.

  ‘I’d like to see the proposal go ahead. I’ve hung onto the reins for too long and we all know what trouble that’s caused. I’d like to see Rebecca take on the farm and put the proposal into place … that’s if the bank will give her the go-ahead. It seems Mick and Trudy have set themselves up here nicely. Mick, you don’t seem to miss the farming life.’

  Mick shook his head, ‘Never been better off, Dad.’

  ‘See,’ said Harry. ‘It’s solved.’ He set his hand on the table and spread his large fingers out on the smooth wooden surface. ‘Rebecca can take on the farm. She’s welcome to it.’

  ‘Hold your horses, Harry,’ Sally interjected kindly. ‘It’s not that simple. We need to hear from each of you what your individual goals are. Every one of you in this room has to have input. Now Harry, it’s all very well for you to decide that the future of the farm lies in the hands of Rebecca, but you haven’t said where you sit in the next ten years. What are your goals? Rebecca’s not part of that question.’

  Harry shifted in his seat, uncomfortable again. He put his hand to the back of his head and scratched slowly at his scalp. The room was silent for a time.

  ‘Landcare,’ he said suddenly. ‘I’ve always wanted to join Landcare,’

  ‘Good, that’s good,’ said Sally as she wrote the words neatly under Harry’s name on the board.

  ‘And the river, I’ve always wanted to get the community going downstream about cleaning up the river … and of course I’d like to still help on the farm, when I can,’ he said, moving his stump forward a little.

  The black marker began to fill a corner of the whiteboard with words, linking Harry’s future up into a picture. Rebecca could see an excitement in his eyes, something she’d not seen for years.

  When Harry finished speaking, Sally began to ask Mick for his goals. He too took some time to speak.

  ‘Well. I’d like to move up in real estate, get up the corporate ladder. Maybe invest in a holiday house on the coast. As far as the farm’s concerned, I’d like some share of it financially one day, but not till it’s secure and profitable again. But I want to support its recovery mostly as a place to take my boys on holidays so I can teach them fishing, how to shoot …’

  ‘Excuse me!’ interrupted Trudy.

  Oh no! thought Rebecca, Trudy was about to unravel the progress of the meeting.

  But instead Trudy continued with a smile. ‘You said “boys”. Boy-ssss,’ she said, exaggerating the ‘s’ and rubbing at her stomach. ‘You don’t know this is a boy! She might be a she, after all! And she might want to go fishing and shooting at Waters Meeting just as much as Danny!’

  ‘Good point, Trudy,’ said Sally with a smile and the rest of the family laughed.

  Mick threw up his hands in mock defeat and continued on with his comments while Sally wrote them up in the green pen. Rebecca felt a wave of relief sweep through her, and for the first time a feeling that Trudy wasn’t a bad sort after all.

  As each family member talked through their goals the whiteboard became a colourful picture of words which made up a painting of dreams for the future. The atmosphere in the room began to change, with each of them beginning to feel the excitement of what the next few years could bring. Rebecca, in particular, sat on the edge of her seat as she felt the energy of her family swirl about her. It was a new feeling. A good one.

  Finally, when the meeting seemed as though it would draw to a close, Sally raised Tom’s purple texta.

  ‘Let’s see what Tom makes of all this,’ Sally said. She began to circle the words that were the same in every case, and then connecting them altogether with a purple line. Each family member had wanted access to Waters Meeting for their children or for themselves. Frankie and Peter, Mick and Trudy, all of them wanted Waters Meeting to remain a family farm to visit. Not one of them had suggested it be carved up or sold for cash. Rebecca knew it was the river that ran through all their hearts. Even though she was the only one who had the real passion to farm the land, each of them still had that common thread. The Rebecca River. She was the key to holding it all together.

  ‘See the pattern here,’ Sally said. ‘Tom wanted this. He wanted you all to come and go freely and happily from that place. But,’ Sally said sternly, ‘it’s not all sunshine and cups of tea on the verandah. The property is in terrible debt and unless we can sway the bank manager, it will have to be sold.’ Sally’s words cut the air and dampened the atmosphere of excitement and reconciliation.

  ‘One meeting isn’t going to fix everything,’ Sally said. ‘We need to draw up a letter now, signed by Harry, in support of the proposal and our push for refinancing. We’ve got an hour until our appointment with the bank, so we’d better get our skates on.’

  Outside the house, with the freshly printed and folded letter safely tucked in Sally’s briefcase, the family gathered to wish Sally and Rebecca luck at the bank and to wave them away. Rebecca hugged Trudy and whispered, ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Thanks to you too, Becky. I think we’re all feeling a lot better, don’t you? Like the air is cleared or something,’

  ‘Sure. It’s great. Anyway, we’ll be back this evening after the bank to pick up Dad. We’ll see you later.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night? He seems awfully tired.’

  ‘Might be a good idea. And you never know, if the meeting goes well with the old crusty at the bank, we could have something to celebrate,’ she said with a wink.

  Rebecca turned to see Harry offering an awkward left to right handshake to Peter who was about to take Frankie back into the city. Frankie smiled at Harry and kissed him lightly on the cheek, then she looked over towards Rebecca.

  ‘Rebecca. Can I talk to you for a minute?’ Frankie called out.

  ‘Sure, Mum,’ Rebecca said frowning, thinking that all the talking had been done for the day. Her mother stood on the pavement looking a little tired, but still excited by the meeting. They walked a little way down the driveway.

  ‘I want you to have this.’ She handed her daughter a piece of paper. When Rebecca unfolded it she gasped. It was a cheque for $350 000.

  ‘Mum! Where the flock did you get that? And why are you giving it to me?’

  ‘Shhh! Put it away before your father sees. It’s the money from the divorce settlement. I’ve had it sitting in a fund … I’ve never wanted to use it. I never could.’

  ‘But Mum, your surgery … You could use it to –’

  ‘Take it, for the farm, put it all back into the farm. I insist. That money came from your grandfather’s estate anyway. It belongs with Waters Meeting, not with a Saunders divorcee. You know my parents looked after me financially after the divorce. It was their money which started me off in my surgery. Now it’s my turn to help you and this money belongs with you.’

  With tears in her eyes Rebecca hugged her mother.

  ‘Thank you. Thank you so much, Mum. You won’t regret it, I promise. By this time next year, you won’t recognise the place.’ Just then Danny ran headlong into Rebecca’s legs with his truck.

  ‘Crash, crash, crash,’ he screamed as he battered the tip-truck on her shins.

  ‘Jeezus!’ said Bec. ‘Danny! You’re looking for a right hook from your Auntie Bec.’ Mick stood back with his arms folded and laughed while Trudy put a hand to her mouth.

  ‘You told him to do that, didn’t you,’ said Bec to Mick with a growl in her voice and a twinkle in her eye. Rebecca scooped Danny u
p in her arms and simultaneously tickled his belly and blew fart noises on his neck as he screamed and thrashed his legs.

  As Bec slammed the door and fastened her seatbelt she raised her eyebrows at Sally. ‘Phew. Kids,’ she said, rubbing her shins. ‘Danny seems pretty full on! Give me pups over kids any day!’

  Sally dropped the sunglasses down from the top of her head, over her eyes. ‘So you’re like me – not even close to wanting kids? I don’t know, when on earth are we ever going to get clucky, Bec?’

  ‘You’ve got to get truck’n before you get cluck’n, Sal. Let’s face it, you and I are in a drought phase again. El Nuno.’

  Sally stopped at a red light and looked over to her friend. ‘You know, you’re a real feral, Bucket-mouth. How on earth are we going to convince a bank manager to lend you a squillion dollars.’

  ‘I know,’ said Bec. She began to unbutton her shirt and push her cleavage out. She stuck her tongue out as far as it would go and ran it around her mouth.

  ‘Ew! Stop it!’ said Sally, slapping her arms and hands.

  The balding driver in the black BMW next to them looked over and kept his look there. He ran his tongue across his top lip.

  ‘Ew! Yikes! Yuck!’ said Sally. ‘Go green. Quick, go green!’

  Rebecca sunk down in the car seat, shaking with laughter as Sally floored the automatic away from the intersection and the man.

  ‘You’re back to your old self, Bec … and it scares me!’

  ‘I’m just on a high. I know we’re going to kick arse today at the bank. Just like you kicked butt in that family meeting.’ Suddenly serious she said, ‘You were fantastic today, Sal. You really pulled the whole family together. I didn’t think it was possible. How can I thank you enough.’

  Sally turned to her, pulling her shades down the bridge of her elegant nose and looking her in the eye. ‘I’m not just doing this for you. I think Tom had something to do with it. I owed him one.’

  Bec smiled at her friend as they merged through the traffic towards the city. ‘It’s going to work out for us all, Sal, I know it. Look what Mum gave me.’ She held up the cheque while Sal tried to read it and drive at the same time.