by Lucy Clark
‘I’m interested, all right. I just wasn’t as curious then as I am now.”
‘So you haven’t heard the gossip, then?’
‘There’s gossip about you? No. I guess I must have missed it—although Bub did mention that you were quite reserved when you first came to town. How when you wouldn’t go to the pub to have a drink with them, they brought the pub to you.’
The smile which crossed his lips was a slow one, and he nodded as memories returned. ‘They did at that. I’d forgotten. It was a defining moment for me. One when I knew I needed to start letting go of the past if I was going to have any sort of decent future.’
‘You’re a man, all alone, working from dawn to dusk, and people only throw themselves into their work when everything else has gone to the dogs.’
‘Gone to the dogs?’
‘Or down the toilet. Choose the expression you like best.’
‘How about up in flames?’ Joss was sort of joking, but she heard the hint of pain behind his words. His hands gripped the steering-wheel tighter, his knuckles going white.
‘It was that bad?’ Melissa’s tone was one of instant concern and compassion, and she couldn’t help but reach over and give his hand a little stroke.
Joss was startled by her touch, but he didn’t ignore it either. He glanced over at her, a multitude of pain reflected in those gorgeous blue depths, and she felt for him. ‘It was.’
‘Joss. I’m sorry.’
‘For what? You didn’t do anything.’ He focused his eyes back on the very long, very straight road, not a house in sight, and pushed his foot down on the accelerator. The sooner they got to the next house, the better—because being confined with her like this, with her scent driving him crazy, with her gentle and soothing words affecting him, with her touch breaking through his reserve, was simply dangerous.
‘I’m sorry for the pain you felt. Pain is never easy to go through—both physically and psychologically. After my adoptive parents died I was forced to do a lot of growing up. I learned the hard way about regrets, about life in general. We only have one life. One life which can end so quickly. Is the angst and frustration of fighting with the past really going to help with the future, or is it simply easier just to let it go and move on?’ Melissa spoke as though talking to herself, perhaps trying to convince herself to let go of her own past.
They were quiet for a while, both seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Once more Melissa broke the silence. ‘I thought we’d see a lot more kangaroos out here.’
Joss relaxed a little at the general topic of conversation, his hands loosening on the wheel, holding it more comfortably now. ‘You’ll see plenty of roos while you’re out here, and emus. They love to race along with the car.’
‘Sounds scary and fun at the same time. Don’t they ever run into the car?’
‘It has happened, but only on the odd occasion. Generally, I think they just want a race. Show-offs.’
Melissa smiled at his remark. The atmosphere in the car had returned to a more normal level of tension. They were able to chat more freely and relax a bit more. She asked him about the town and the patients they were going to see, the car eating up the kilometres as they talked, and it was nice and friendly, with neither wanting to spoil the sort of truce they’d found.
When Joss’s cellphone rang it startled them both, but he quickly connected the call by tapping the earpiece connection around his ear. ‘Joss here.’ He listened intently, then checked the clock on the dashboard.
‘We’re about five minutes away from you.’ A pause. ‘Right. If you think it’s that bad, then call Dex at the clinic and get him to liaise with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Put them on stand-by for now, until I can take a look at the situation.’ He disconnected the call and put his foot down on the accelerator. There were no speed limits out here—just long straight roads which seemed to stretch on for miles.
‘Problem?’
‘Murphy’s Farm. One of the bulls has broken free from its pen and is on the rampage.’
Melissa’s eyes widened. ‘Bull? Rampage?’ What was she doing out here? What if she’d been alone doing these house-calls? She didn’t have experience with rampaging-bull wounds! ‘Is it safe? Should we be driving around here? This fast?’
Her feelings must have been apparent because Joss quickly reassured her. ‘Relax. You won’t need to do any bull-wrangling today. Maybe next time, but not today.’
‘Any casualties?’
‘Yes. Two of the station hands have been injured. Rich thinks their wounds will require surgery, but we can assess that when we get there.’
She nodded. ‘Sometimes there’s more blood than injury.’
‘Exactly.’ Joss started to slow the ute, before turning onto what looked like a dirt paddock with a few tyre tracks on it. ‘You all right with this?’
‘What? The new road you’re intent on making, or the rampaging bull we might literally run into?’
He chuckled again. ‘I meant the injuries we’re going to assess. Your résumé said you’d worked in A&E, so you should be experienced in emergency situations, right?’
‘I’m highly proficient—although I will say that I’ve never treated a patient with rampaging-bull wounds.’ She put out one hand to the dashboard and one to the ceiling as they bounced around; the ground was highly uneven.
‘Aren’t you glad I brought the ute with the good suspension?’ Joss was clearly enjoying himself.
‘I am. Where are we going?’
‘Short cut. This way you’ll only need to jump out and open two gates instead of five.’
‘Out? Gates? Do I need to remind you there is a rampaging bull out there?’ She went to point, to indicate the area they were driving through, but needed to hold on instead.
‘He’s heading in the other direction, if that makes you feel any better.’
‘How do you know where the bull is?’
‘Because Rich has a chopper in the air, tracking the animal. That bull is worth an awful lot of money, Lis, and whether it’s angry or not Rich isn’t going to let it out of his sight. So, unless you see a chopper in the sky, we’ll be as right as rain.’ Joss glanced up at the sky. ‘And, speaking of rain, it looks as though we might actually get a few drops here and there.’
Melissa also peered up at the sky, and saw that there was quite a lot of cloud coverage out here—and they weren’t the nice white fluffy ones. ‘Is that what they mean by scattered showers?’
Joss chuckled. ‘I just hope Dex hasn’t been doing his rain dance.’
‘His what?’ She was clearly intrigued and surprised.
‘Rain dance. Once he went outside first thing in the morning and did an official rain dance along with Nev and Kev, in the hopes that the roads would be so impassable that he wouldn’t have to do his house-calls.’
‘Did it work?’
‘Amazingly, it did. That afternoon, when he was supposed to leave, Didja had its first rains in about five months. It rained for three days straight. Roads were impassable everywhere.’
Melissa giggled in disbelief at the antics of her brother. ‘That’s astounding. You could hire him out to those remote areas of the country which are most affected by the drought.’
Joss grinned at her, and she almost melted at the sight. ‘I’d never thought of it that way before.’
‘Well, here’s hoping he hasn’t been doing his rain dance. The last thing we need today is a bucketing downpour.’
Because if that happened, it could mean that the roads would become impassable, and if that happened it could mean that she and Joss would have to alter their plans for the day, and if that happened they might find themselves alone and in a highly secluded situation. And if that happened there was no telling exactly what might happen!
CHAPTER FIVE
WHEN they finally pulled up in front of the homestead, Joss was out of the ute like a shot. He grabbed the medical kit from the back of the tray as Melissa came around to stand beside him. ‘We’
ll examine the station hands, and if necessary we’ll get the RFDS out here. Chances are those men will need a transfer to the clinic’s hospital.’
‘Bub will have two new patients to fuss over.’
Joss smiled at her words, pleased she was getting to know the staff at the clinic. ‘Yes, she will.’ He was heading up the front steps of the homestead as they talked.
‘OK. So where do we find our patients?’ Melissa asked.
‘No doubt around the back. We can take a short cut through the house.’ He opened the front door and just walked right in, leaving a more hesitant Melissa to follow. She glanced up at the sky, noting the still gathering clouds as well as a sort of far-off buzzing noise. It was as though there was a giant mosquito around, yet she couldn’t see it.
‘The chopper,’ she realised aloud as she went through the front door of a stranger’s house. She wasn’t sure where Joss had gone, so made her way tentatively through the comfortably furnished rooms.
‘Oh, there you are, Melissa. Come this way. Joss told me to keep an eye out for you.’ She was bustled through the house by a petite pregnant woman with lovely blonde hair and smiling green eyes. ‘I’m Amanda, but everyone calls me Mindy. Come through. They’re out the back.’ As they went through the house, Melissa heard the chopper getting closer. ‘I hope they find that bull, because I want to give it a piece of my mind.’
‘Really? You want to tell a bull off?’
‘Oh, he’s really not that bad—and we do need him. He’s a good source of income—breeding-wise,’ she finished as they walked through the kitchen towards the back door. ‘I could tell he was going to fly off the handle. Rich thought I was mad—kept telling me that I couldn’t read a bull’s mind.’
‘And can you?’ Melissa was intrigued by this woman as they headed outside to the rear of the homestead. She shielded her eyes from the glare of the sun as she looked around, searching for Joss. Mindy kept on walking so she kept on following.
‘I have this intuition thing where animals are concerned.’ She turned and grinned brightly at Melissa. ‘Rich says that’s why I married him. He’s such an animal. Anyway, it’s just a thing. I can tell when the animals are jittery or a bit off.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ve always had it, and my dad came to rely on it. Rich still has a lot to learn. We’ve only been married for three years, but he’ll get there.’
‘Perhaps after today he’ll listen more carefully and we won’t have more casualties.’
‘True.’ Mindy was serious again. ‘I hope the boys are all right.’
‘Boys?’ Had some children also been hurt?
‘The two guys who just weren’t fast enough when the bull decided to have a temper tantrum. You’d think they’d be a little bit quicker on the uptake.’ They rounded a corner near the back shed and there were the ‘boys’. Joss was kneeling down next to one of them; the other man was propped up against the side of the shed in the shade, a bandage around his upper arm and shoulder.
‘Do you think we’ll need the RFDS?’ she asked as she knelt down on the other side of the patient.
‘Yes. I’d like the patients in at least overnight for observation.’ He gestured to the medical kit. ‘I need Vicryl sutures, double zero and zero.’ He’d pulled on gloves and was just finishing injecting a local anaesthetic near the wound site. ‘James here has been very lucky indeed. That bull only gave him a bit of a love nick.’ Joss indicated the gash in the station hand’s abdomen. ‘A little to the right and you might have lost a kidney, mate.’
‘So long as he wasn’t initiating a mating ritual, I’ll be right,’ James added with a laugh, then winced in pain.
‘Take it easy,’ Melissa soothed. ‘What analgesics have they been given?’
‘I’ve just given them both morphine,’ Joss answered. ‘James here is worse than Andy, and Mindy’s had a good look at Andy and applied bandages.’
Melissa went and took a closer look at Andy, checking his pupils and reflexes, listening to his heartbeat, taking his blood pressure and counting the beats of his pulse. ‘You’re doing just fine, Andy,’ she reassured him when she was finished, then stood and looked at Mindy. ‘Good work,’ she praised. ‘Nice pristine bandaging.’
Mindy shrugged. ‘I’ve had experience.’ At Melissa’s raised eyebrows, Mindy elaborated. ‘This is my farm. It’s where I grew up. Rich was the foreman for years—that’s how we met—and when my dad passed away last year Rich just took over. Growing up on a farm like this, out in the middle of nowhere, means you have to be prepared for anything. So I’ve done first aid courses and cooking courses and bookkeeping courses and several other courses to make sure I can handle anything that’s thrown at me.’
‘Impressive.’
Mindy wrinkled her nose and rubbed her stomach. ‘I just wish they offered parenting courses on line, too.’
Joss looked up from where he was getting ready to debride James’s wound. ‘Given the way you keep all these blokes in line, I don’t think you’re going to have any trouble being a parent, Mindy.’
‘That’s what Rich says.’
‘Then you should listen to him. I’m almost ready, Lis.’
‘OK. So how do I contact the RFDS? Do I just call Dex and get him to organise it all?’
‘Yes. Murphy’s Farm. Two patients requiring transfer. Give him the particulars of the injuries and he can organise Phemie and her crew.’
Melissa nodded and made the phone call, giving Dex the particulars, all the while quite excited about her first contact with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She’d heard so much about the people who ran it—most of the Didja locals heralded them as true Outback heroes—and now she was delighted at the opportunity to meet them. Although she most certainly wished the circumstances were different.
‘Right.’ Joss turned his attention to Melissa. ‘Ready when you are, Lis.’
Melissa came over and knelt down on the opposite side of James, pulling on a pair of gloves. ‘Ready, boss.’
She wanted to ask why they couldn’t move James to a more sterile location. She wanted to know how they were supposed to keep the multitude of buzzing flies away from the patient, the wound and themselves as they treated him. However, Joss was ready to do what he did best, and as he had obviously done it quite a few times before, she wasn’t about to question him. She’d come to an Outback clinic, and all of this was about learning how to do things the Outback way. If it meant improvising then they would improvise, and she would learn how.
‘OK. If you can start by putting an IV line in. Saline is in the medical kit. Mindy, we’re going to need something to hang a drip bag on.’
‘I can hold it,’ Mindy offered.
‘No.’ Melissa and Joss spoke in unison.
‘You need to be in the shade if you’re outside, and preferably off your feet. Get me a chair or, better yet, stick a pitchfork in the ground. Anything we can use to hook the bag over but keep it elevated.’
‘I’m on it,’ she called as she waddled off to the shed. By the time she returned Melissa had the needles and tubes in and was ready to connect it all.
‘How are you holding up, James?’ she asked.
‘All the better for looking up at you,’ he murmured, with a silly grin on his face.
Melissa raised her gaze and looked at Joss, who smiled back. ‘I’d say the analgesics are working just fine,’ Joss said.
‘Why? Because he’d have to be out of it to find me attractive?’ She pretended to bristle.
‘No.’ Mortification laced his words, but then he relaxed as he realised she was teasing. ‘I only meant that usually James isn’t one to speak like that—especially to a woman he’s only just met.’
‘He’s right,’ Mindy clarified. She shooed some flies away as she sat down on the ground near James’s head. ‘Mind if I watch?’
‘Not at all,’ Joss replied, and, now satisfied that the local anaesthetic had taken effect and that James was not in any pain, he began the procedure of tidying things up and stitching them c
losed.
Melissa noted that even with the less than ideal circumstances Joss was being quite thorough. His careful thoroughness suggested that he was an excellent surgeon, and she wondered how many times he’d had to treat patients in such remote circumstances like this. As she took a quick second to glance around, it struck her just how far away from ‘civilisation’ they really were. It was one thing to come all the way to a small Outback practice to try and get to know her brother, but now that she was here there was a small niggling doubt that perhaps she’d bitten off more than she could chew. Would she be able to last twelve months as an Outback doctor? And what would happen after that?
‘That will do him for now. I’ll take a closer look later, once he’s settled at the hospital.’ Joss looked down at their patient. ‘How are you doing, James?’
‘Sleepy.’
‘Any pain?’
‘Nope.’ They all smiled at the way he said the word.
‘OK. I’ll check Andy again, if you wouldn’t mind doing obs on James.’ Joss changed his gloves and crouched down near Andy.
‘How are you doing?’
‘Fine.’
‘No pain?’
‘I’m cool. Just a nice gentle buzz.’
‘No. That’s the flies, mate.’ Joss grinned at his patient, then looked at Mindy. ‘Mindy, I’m loath to undo your clean bandaging, so if you could tell me what the wound looked like, that would be great.’
‘The gash to his arm was fine once I cleaned it with a bit of saline. I had some special bandage stuff which is supposed to be good for things that might only need one or two stitches.’
‘Steri-strips?’ Joss asked, and she nodded.
‘That’s what I put on his arm, and then the bandage. His head was a similar story, but the gash wasn’t as deep. James took the major brunt as far as gouging goes, but Andy whacked his head pretty badly.’
‘You saw the whole thing?’ Melissa raised her eyebrows as she finished James’s observations.
‘I did. I was at the kitchen window and I can see out as far as the paddock. They were bringing the bull in and he was just in a bad mood. You know—we all have bad days. I told Rich this morning that I’d come and help, but he forbade me to go anywhere near the bull—because of the baby.’