‘Your grandad okay?’
‘Physically, you mean?’ Soretta gave a half-strangled laugh. ‘The doctor says he’s slowly healing. But it’s going to take at least weeks in here, if not months.’
Daphne had suspected that would be the case. ‘How are you managing out at the station?’
‘I’m doing good.’ Her tone was all defiance. ‘But apparently not good enough to stop Grandad thinking we need to sell.’
Daphne could see the hurt in her eyes. ‘Did he say that today? When you arrived?’
‘It was the first thing he said. If the rain came he’d be fine. We could sell some lambs for a decent price and start the cash flowing again. But we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel now. I don’t have enough to pay Klaus. Grandad’s decided we’ll lose all the sheep and the station anyway so we may as well sell now.’
Daphne tried to lift her spirits. ‘He’s probably worried about you working too hard.’
Soretta shook her head despairingly. ‘He’s never worried before.’
‘Sure he has. He’s just been there to make sure you didn’t overdo it. Now he can’t physically be there. It’d be hard for a man like your grandad to watch his granddaughter do his work.’
She saw Soretta consider that and take it on board. She looked even less happy. ‘I guess.’
Daphne didn’t know what to say. ‘What can I do to help?’
Soretta shook her head at the magnitude of the problem. ‘You do enough just by coming to visit.’ She glanced around at the grey hospital corridor. At Daphne. ‘I don’t know why you bother to come after a day of flying all over the country in a hot aircraft.’
Daphne saw the look Soretta gave her. No doubt her hair had slipped into ‘bad hair day’ hours ago. It had been uncomfortable today, but she was used to it now.
‘I know you’ve had a huge day at work already. I heard the nurses say you brought in a premature baby today. You’re marvellous.’
Daphne could feel the heat in her cheeks and she brushed the compliment away. ‘I’m just one of the team. Everyone does a good job.’ She paused. Changed the subject back to where she wanted it. ‘But I’d like to be on your team, too.’
There was a pause. When Soretta didn’t answer she tried again. ‘So cash is the problem. And a little would help?’
Soretta’s head jerked up. ‘I’m not borrowing money.’
Daphne smiled. Of course she wouldn’t. ‘I wouldn’t offend you by offering.’ Though maybe she could just move out to the station and offer the rent she was paying here to Soretta.
‘I was wondering if you’d thought about renting out part of the homestead? Even if you were looking for people like me? I’d love to live on a station instead of in town. You could put all those extra rooms to good use, like a boarding house.’ Daphne had thought of this yesterday.
‘A boarding house?’ Soretta stared, and Daphne felt like saying, it’s not that mad an idea. Then Soretta said, ‘Why on earth would anyone want to do that? Why would you?’
She wanted to help. Loved helping. But she also wanted to experience for herself what it was like to live on a station. ‘I’ve been lonely,’ she told Soretta. ‘And I’ve always wanted to live on the land. That’s why I came out here in the first place. You’re alone and we get on well. I wouldn’t bother you and it could work for both of us. Think about it. The money might be enough to at least pay the backpacker’s wages and stop you slipping further into debt. It might even buy you time with your grandfather because you wouldn’t be alone out there. That’s probably part of the problem for him.’
Daphne saw the flare of hope rise and then die in Soretta’s eyes. ‘Except, I couldn’t let you pay anything. You’ve already been so good to me.’
Daphne shook her head. ‘I pay rent where I am now. And it’s a dingy, dreary place to live.’ She thought of Billie’s dilemma. About Mia’s lack of supervision after school. The doctors had their rent paid but Billie might still think it was a good idea. Mia might even be safer on a property. ‘Maybe even the new doctor and her daughter would like to come? Imagine if you had three boarder rents coming in.’
She’d actually run the idea of living out of town past Morgan yesterday and he’d raised his eyebrows. Commented on her strange ability to seek out lame ducks and the fact that the wildlife could be a problem if she was driving in dim light. But reluctantly he’d agreed that it was on the perimeter of permissible. While the homestead itself was not far out of town, the station boundaries stretched back to the South Australian border for another hundred kilometres, so the house was just close enough on this boundary.
After hours she needed to be on base within twenty minutes so they were ready to fly forty minutes after the call came in, though often the pilots had the aircraft ready sooner.
‘The homestead is under the limit allowed so I can still do on-call from there.’
‘It’s a nice idea.’ Soretta ran her fingers through her hair slowly as she thought. ‘But Grandad would never agree.’
‘If he didn’t then of course that’s it.’
They were both silent until Daphne said, ‘But you know, I’d almost be away more than in.’ She thought about on-call again.
Realistically, call-outs happened a couple of times every week. ‘If it did look possible, would it disturb you if I come in and out some nights?’
Soretta frowned. ‘Of course not. The spare bedrooms are at the other end of the house from ours.’
Soretta glanced down the corridor towards the room where her grandfather lay, her gaze troubled. ‘I’ll ask him. At least it’s something different to talk about. He’s asleep at the moment.’
‘Then I’ll go and you think about it. But only if it seems like a good idea.’ She waved the brown paper bag she held. ‘Can I leave these savoury muffins with you?’
Soretta laughed. ‘Take them off your hands, you mean? Because they’re being a nuisance in your house?’
Daphne was pleased to see a different face to the one she’d witnessed when she’d first arrived and she felt her heart expand with relief. She so admired Soretta.
Soretta never complained, but it wasn’t much of a life for a young woman running a station single-handedly. It was a big job for anyone, and knowing now that it could be in vain must be soul-destroying. Just maybe, another person’s company around the house would help as much as the little cash it would bring in.
She hoped Lachlan saw that. If he didn’t . . . she might just have to visit one day when his granddaughter wasn’t here and help him see it!
FIVE
‘It sounds like a perfect solution, Daphne.’ Lorna was sitting forward in her chair with the Royal Doulton teapot suspended in the air. Daphne had called in after the hospital because Lorna had still been sitting on the verandah when she’d walked back past.
Lorna sighed. ‘That poor girl.’ Her hand started to shake with the weight of the pot and she grimaced in annoyance before putting it down.
Daphne didn’t comment. ‘I think the no-frills station lifestyle could be fun, Lorna, I’ve never lived on the land. And apparently the homestead is quite large. It’d be a nice change from town.’
Lorna nodded enthusiastically. ‘I remember the homestead. It’s huge. Almost like the lodging houses we used to have in my day. Originally there were two families living there and after a couple of really bumper years they added a lot of rooms. If she could get a few hundred dollars a week it could make all the difference. And you say the new doctor and her daughter might be interested?’ Lorna took a delicate bite of her scone. ‘I envy you all.’
‘I haven’t actually broached the subject with Dr Green yet, but maybe it could work out well for her, too. Maybe not,’ Daphne said. ‘But I’m going out the day after tomorrow to talk to Soretta, have a look, and see if it could work. I’ll go before lunch, before Soretta comes in to the hospital to see her grandad.’
Lorna sniffed. ‘I always said that duplex you’re in now was too poky for staff. Our flight
nurses and doctors deserve better.’ Lorna put her cup down. ‘When you go,’ she hesitated and Daphne tilted her head to pay attention. ‘I don’t suppose I could come for the drive with you. Get out of the house?’
Daphne’s mouth twitched. They both loved company. ‘I’ll mention it to Soretta and I’m sure you could. Nice for me, too, to have someone to drive out with.’
Lorna sat back with a happy sigh. ‘You’re very kind. I haven’t been out to Blue Hills Station since Lachlan’s wife went into labour with Soretta’s father nearly fifty years ago.’
Daphne laughed. She could just picture Lorna arriving with a bag at the homestead, ready to help. ‘I keep forgetting you know these places so much better than I do.’
Lorna smiled with the happy memories. ‘A lot has changed since my day. Not least being able to get into a car as comfortable as yours and arrive in less than fifteen minutes.’ She grinned. ‘You know, my husband’s old black saloon is still in the garage out the back. I keep threatening to polish it up and go for my driver’s licence again. I won’t let them sell it.’
Lorna sank back with a reminiscing gleam in her eye. ‘But in those days it was horses. I rode the most cantankerous horse that day. The darned thing knew only two speeds: flat out or dawdle. Took me two hours to gee it up out there.’
Daphne laughed and shook her head. ‘I’ll remember that when I think about complaining about the heat in the parked aircraft next time we take off.’
Two days later, Daphne, with Lorna beside her in the passenger seat, drove the nine kilometres of tarred road to Blue Hills with purple Paterson’s curse and yellow native bushes that were in flower at the side of the road.
Daphne thought it looked like native jasmine, very pretty, but it was probably a weed like Mr Paterson’s bush.
The heat haze shimmered in the distance. Trees seemed suspended in air above the earth in the gap where the mirage lay on the horizon.
‘Look at that emu, Lorna,’ Daphne said. ‘He’s totally unconcerned by the heat. He’s just munching at the side of the road. Smart Alec.’
‘Cheeky blighters, emus.’ Lorna scanned the paddocks. ‘I always forget there are very few trees out here. Those that pop up close are stunted and small. Look at those few cattle huddling with their heads in the shade and their rumps out to the fierce sun.’
Daphne slowed the car as the gates to the station appeared. They grinned at each other before Daphne steered up Blue Hills Station’s twin strips of dirt driveway and the women craned ahead to the homestead on the hill.
Commandingly situated with the long dry paddocks arrayed like a dehydrated swathe in front, the house stood with the blue stone hills in the distance, the peaks turned up like a ruffled collar behind the house.
The homestead, silvered by the years, was surrounded on all sides with covered verandahs, secret spaces of shade depending on the direction of the sun. In every direction the paddocks disappeared into rock- and saltbush-strewn lots.
Across the yard a windmill rasped slowly in the gentle hot breeze as the car pulled up. When Daphne opened the door she thought fancifully that the creak, creak from the windmill sounded a lyrical welcome as she got out.
Then Soretta opened the screen door and came out to welcome them up onto the main verandah. Daphne looked across to check Lorna had her seatbelt off but discovered the door open and her travel mate walking with sprightly energy towards the steps.
Soretta met her at the top. ‘You must be Mrs Lamerton. Daphne tells me you came here to help deliver my dad?’
Lorna nodded. ‘Now that is a true story. I didn’t imagine one day I would meet his daughter in the same place.’ She’d reached the top without using the rail, or losing her breath, and shook Soretta’s hand with enthusiasm.
Daphne suppressed her smile. She was a goer, that Lorna, she thought, as she carried a plate of scones, kicked Lorna’s door shut, and followed the older lady’s example and hurried up the stairs. They all paused and turned to look back over the dry paddocks and the driveway.
Daphne said, ‘It’s wonderful, Soretta.’
Soretta’s gaze rested on the dry paddocks in front of the house. Drifted across to the empty dam. ‘It can be. You should see it when it’s not in drought.’ Her eyes skimmed every direction as if her heart was breaking. ‘I don’t want to lose it.’
‘Of course you don’t,’ said Lorna. ‘I think this boarding-house concept is a wonderful idea to bring in some income.’
One hundred kilometres west of Mica Ridge another windmill pumped water from the hard ground in the red afternoon sun. Barbara Tomkins, lean and sun-browned like all her family, absently folded the clothes from the swaying wire and ran over in her mind the jobs she needed to complete before nightfall.
Barb flicked a glance at the darkening horizon, looking for the men from the camp. Lifting a corner of her apron, she mopped the bead of sweat on her brow, until a sudden gasp from her four-year-old daughter, who was sitting in the shade, spun her around.
‘He bite me!’ Gwyn’s lip dropped as she stared at the twin red marks on her hand and sick horror exploded in Barbara’s brain as the words sank in. Her worst nightmare. The men weren’t in yet and she was alone.
Dropping the basket, she frantically scooped Gwyn from the play rug, scattering homemade farm animals and tiny fences, while the unmistakable slither of a snake disappeared under the tank stand.
‘Shit. Shit.’
Her daughter whimpered as Barbara bolted for the back steps of the verandah. ‘Stay still. Don’t move.’ Of course Gwyn began to cry and struggle in response to the fear in her mother’s voice.
Immobilise the limb. Bandage, bandage! Barbara spotted the fruit bowl where her husband always kept the wide roll of elastic bandage and she sat her daughter on the table. She picked up the wooden spoon she’d left there earlier when she’d been making the dough. With a superhuman effort she tried to make her voice more reassuring. Even tried a wobbly smile that didn’t fool either of them.
‘If you sit really quiet, it won’t sting as much, and Mummy needs to wrap it up with this spoon to keep it still. Can you do that?’
A trembling nod and a tear glistened at the edge of those huge eyes that were so like her father’s. Barbara couldn’t contemplate a reality of Gwyn not being there, but the sickness of deep fear coiled in her belly. ‘Mummy’s going to ring the flying doctor. Then Daddy.’
The colour suddenly leached from Gwyn’s face as her eyes rolled back and she began to shake.
In Mica Ridge Flying Doctor Base the phone rang and Billie reached for it. It had been a slow day for her, though not for Daphne who was off late, and she picked it up with excess energy. ‘Mica Ridge Base. Dr Green. Can I help you?’
‘Doctor. Thank God. It’s Barbara Tomkins from Golden Ridge Station. My daughter’s been bitten by a snake.’
Billie switched the phone to loudspeaker and wrote swiftly as the words poured from Barbara. Gwyn, bitten by unidentified snake five minutes ago. Her stomach tightened. Had she seen that name on the immunisation list last week?
She quickly switched her mind back before she missed anything. Bandaged hand. Splinted. Already vomited. Pale. Shaking. Not good.
‘That’s fine, Barbara. You’re doing everything right. Firm bandage, not too tight, enough to compress the lymphatics but not the blood flow, that’s good. A splint is good. Try to keep Gwyn calm. Maybe even lie down with her. Hold on and I’ll give you a time to expect the aircraft.’
She shot a look across at Morgan and Rex. They’d moved swiftly to stand in front of the large map pinned to the wall and were working out the direction and flight distance. Daphne arrived back from re-checking the aircraft drugs and took in the situation in a glance. Billie saw the moment Daphne’s face paled as she realised this was the family she’d stayed with.
Morgan turned to watch Billie and his gaze narrowed. ‘I’ll come with you and Daphne. It’ll be tight for space but there’s enough room. You’ll still be in charge of the m
edical decisions and Daphne will ensure the aircraft cabin is secure as always, but you might need help.’ He nodded at the phone. ‘Thirty-five minutes tops. We’ll be on the ground around five p.m. Get Barbara to drive to the strip with the child when we fly over the house. It’s best not to move her until just before we get there.’
Rex strode from the room to start his pre-flight check of the aircraft and Daphne disappeared in to the medical supply room to gather extra equipment. Morgan picked up another phone as Billie repeated the instructions to Barbara. Then Morgan said, ‘Tell her I’m onto the consultant at the Children’s Hospital in Adelaide and he’ll connect us with a venom specialist from his end.’
Barbara listened as Billie repeated the information. Her voice cracked as she lost some of her control. ‘Hurry.’
Billie mentally hugged the woman. ‘Hang on. We’re on our way.’
After she hung up, Billie followed Daphne into the supply room while Morgan made the next swift call to the consultant and arranged a call-back number on the satellite phone in the aircraft, then he nodded as they reappeared with the extra equipment.
‘There’s a strong chance we’ll need to intubate or, failing that, we’ll put the LMA in and Daphne will be managing the rest. While she’s experienced at placing the laryngeal mask and either bagging or connecting the ventilator, I can be the extra hands when you need help. Daphne will sort us all into the best spots.’
Despite her pale face, Daphne’s voice was calm as she explained. ‘Adelaide will have the antivenom ready when we get there.’ She didn’t say that there was a chance they wouldn’t get there in time, but Billie understood and grabbed the extra paediatric resuscitation kit Daphne thrust into her hand before she took off at a brisk trot after Rex. Barbara’s daughter could die if they didn’t get out there fast enough.
As Billie glanced around to see if she’d forgotten anything, Morgan had switched the base over to Broken Hill. She shot past him out the door and heard his ‘Slow down,’ as she came out into the afternoon heat. Billie obediently slowed her pace to a safer hurried walk and followed Rex up the steps into the plane.
The Homestead Girls Page 6