The Homestead Girls

by Fiona McArthur

  They looked at each other, sharing a mutual admiration for the logistics of the pioneers of the service and their larrikin ingenuity. ‘We’ve got it easy.’

  ‘Easier,’ he agreed.

  She shrugged, and looked admiringly at the plane again. It was a no-nonsense little ripper. ‘Were there many models of Auster or just this one?’

  ‘A few. This is a J5 Autocar. Took me two years to have it pass the regulation requirements because it had run out of flying hours. I’ve got a licensed engineer friend in Broken Hill who helped me rebuild it from scratch, and it’s got nearly a thousand hours on it to go. It’ll see me out for all the recreational flying I do.’

  He handed her a gloriously old-fashioned leather helmet that strapped under the chin. ‘I won two of these off a guy with a Tiger Moth. I have the windows open a lot of the time and wear mine. Would you put it on? I’ve always wanted to see a woman wear one in my plane.’

  ‘I’d love to.’ His eyes twinkled at her as she pulled on the helmet and now she felt like Amelia Earhart. This was very cool.

  Rex checked the integrity of her seatbelt buckle again and stepped back. ‘You’re set.’ He jumped down. ‘I’ll just do the walk around again and then swing the prop.’

  During the next ten minutes Daphne adjusted her helmet and put on the headphones Rex had pointed out. They were decades older than the ones she was used to, but it was all part of the fun and the leather helmet kept them in place. She studied the instruments in front of her and the two half-steering wheels for the two front seats. The whole aircraft was just so immaculately maintained.

  Then Rex called out to the empty tarmac, ‘All clear!’ He sent her a look that warmed her all the way down to her flat shoes, then swung the wooden propeller.

  The engine started first go, which was always reassuring, she thought with an inward smile, pleased she wasn’t at all nervous. Just exhilarated at the noise and air rushing at her from the propeller because Rex had all the front sliding widows open to let out the heat.

  She twisted her head to see him come around the rear of the aircraft to the opposite door and climb in. Rex. Gorgeous Rex, who she’d admired from afar, was sharing his love of flying with her.

  His eyes twinkled as he pulled on his own leather helmet and earphones, and she heard him speak to the tower, then he put his thumbs up and revved the engine. She felt like the female lead in an adventure movie and her mouth was so widely stretched with the joy of it all she thought her face might split.

  They took off with the sun behind them, and she glanced out at the view she’d seen so many times before: the airport shrinking in their wake, the rows of houses and the main street with its big and small roofs and gardens. Further out there was the quick transition from green to brown flat land, with rocky outcrops punching through the earth like dinosaur backs. And to the left were the darker wriggling lines of dried creek beds. Even the empty dam below the homestead at Blue Hills Station looked wonderful.

  Rex tapped her on the shoulder and pointed down and she leant to peer below again. She could see the sheep yards, and a vehicle beside them, and someone on a quad bike, probably Soretta. She sat back as they fell behind and looked out the front into the clear skies ahead with a sense of everything being right in the world.

  Their plane bore noisily onwards. Even through the headphones, the wind rushed into her face as the cabin cooled, until finally Rex gestured for her to shut her sliding window. The noise died down marginally and Rex crackled in her ear.

  ‘She’s different to the King Air.’

  She nodded at him and pressed her reply button. ‘Much more fun.’

  He gave her the thumbs up and they angled away towards Broken Hill and a wicked weekend. She hoped.

  The house seemed empty without Daphne. Billie hadn’t realised how much she’d become accustomed to her friend’s company. And it wasn’t just the cooking. It was the debriefing of the day from their systems at night or a worry that could be shared.

  Like Lorna being sick. She was ready to run into town, but she was waiting for Mia or Lachlan to come in before she could leave.

  Mia bounced in. ‘Hey, Mum, whatcha doin’?’

  ‘Is that hey, or hay, Miss Farmgirl?’

  ‘Wish we had hay, to give to the ewes dropping late lambs.’

  ‘Who are you? Where’s my daughter?’

  Mia gave her a hug. ‘I’m here. Maybe I’ve just grown up a bit.’

  ‘You’ve grown up a lot and I couldn’t be more proud of you. Has Soretta got anything planned for you this weekend?’

  ‘There’s a gymkhana on Sunday over at Menindee. I was going to ask if we could go tonight instead of tomorrow morning. She’s going to show me more of what’s involved. Trent’s sister’s in it, too.’ She looked at her mother thoughtfully. ‘Will you be okay if I go? With Daphne away?’

  Billie felt the rush of love for this girl-woman, who she would lay down her life for. ‘Why thank you. It’s very kind of you to be concerned but I might just take Lorna and go on an adventure.’ Or Lorna might take her on an adventure neither of them wanted to go on. ‘Watch Lorna for me, will you? Just until Lachlan comes back. She’s not well and I’m running into town to get her some more medication.’

  Billie saw the concern on her daughter’s face as she replied, ‘Of course.’

  ‘She’s fragile,’ Billie added and Mia nodded her understanding.

  Half an hour later Billie drove into town to the hospital pathology department with a frown between her eyes and dropped off Lorna’s samples. She hadn’t thought about the pharmacy closing for lunch, but this was the country not the city and they had only one pharmacist.

  ‘Billie?’ An unexpected relief coursed through her at the sound of Morgan’s voice.

  Excellent. This could be a wonderful chance to talk to Morgan about her worry for Lorna. ‘Morgan. It’s so good to see you.’

  He took her arm and steered her across to an alcove. ‘You too.’ He leaned close and looked searchingly into her face. ‘You okay?’

  ‘Oh. Yes. I guess I am.’ She almost blurted it out there and then. Something happened this morning! But she didn’t know where to start.

  ‘Would you like a coffee?’

  She checked her watch. The hand had only moved five minutes and she had twenty-five to go until the pharmacy opened.

  ‘Sure. Thanks. Why are you at the hospital?’

  ‘Just checking on Jack Fortescue. He came off his quad bike and broke his hip.’ He steered her as he spoke and within seconds she found herself sitting at a corner table that afforded a tad more privacy than you normally found in a hospital cafeteria.

  ‘Poor guy.’

  ‘Yep.’ He said, piercing her with this dark eyes. ‘What’s up?’

  She grimaced ruefully. ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘To me it is.’ The words were flat and didn’t invite comment, as if he wasn’t comfortable with his own perception.

  ‘It’s Lorna. She woke confused this morning. Didn’t know where she was.’

  He frowned. ‘She’s all right now?’

  ‘Seems to be. I think she’s quite shaken by the thought that she might be heading to dementia.’

  ‘I imagine so. Something everyone jokes about but only because they’re terrified.’ He grimaced. ‘They reckon it’s the number one concern for anyone over fifty. It ranks higher than worries about financial security.’ He shook his head. ‘But is this the first sign she’d noticed? It’s a bit too soon for that conclusion, isn’t it?’

  ‘That’s what I said.’ The waitress arrived and they ordered their coffees, declining food. Billie picked up a paper napkin and began to smooth it out.

  His hand came over and stilled hers momentarily, before he took it away again. ‘It was bad, then.’ His touch broke into her thoughts.

  ‘She said her daughter-in-law mentioned she might need placement if her memory got worse. I think she’d brushed that off until now and suddenly it seems real. But she woke
disorientated and I guess she’s thinking of her husband’s illness.’

  She folded the napkin again and looked at him. ‘She’s just been so happy, and settled, and we all love having her. It’s a horrible thought and I want to dismiss the idea that Lorna could have early signs of Alzheimer’s.’

  ‘There could be other causes.’

  She nodded. ‘I know. I told her sometimes it was an infection that could send people off. So I took some bloods and a urine sample and I’ve just dropped them in.’

  ‘That’s good. Sensible.’ His voice softened and his hand came across and patted hers. ‘Did you offer the five-minute test for dementia?’

  ‘Yes. I sat her down, explained about the Mini Mental Status Examination, and we talked through it.’ She frowned as she told him the result. ‘Lorna scored really high considering her level of education. But I think there’s a marked deterioration from her previous clarity of thinking.’

  He squeezed her hand as his eyes stared at a point on her collar. She could tell he was running through his own knowledge of mental deterioration in the elderly for something that would help her. It felt good to know that he cared. It felt even better to know he was a fabulous resource she could rely on. The need to hug him was sudden and fierce in its intensity.

  Finally he said, ‘Then something is going on there.’ She didn’t think he noticed her pink cheeks from her uncomfortable thoughts. ‘But you’re right. It could be as simple as an infection. We brought a drover in with the same thing last year. Turned out he’d been brewing a huge ingrown-toe infection and hadn’t told anyone until he went silly and started getting lost on the way between the bunkhouse and the homestead. Totally confused. Initially they thought he was drunk.’

  He sat back and sighed, and with the movement his hand slid away. She instantly missed his warmth and sympathy, which was silly.

  She talked to cover the loss. ‘We’ll do proper testing later, but in the meantime I’ve started Lorna on antibiotics. I’m just waiting for pharmacy to come back from lunch to get the full script filled.’

  Her fingers drifted back to the serviette. ‘I’m praying that’s the reason Lorna is muddled. It’s unbearable to think of someone so vibrant and caring being lost to confusion and, even more heartbreaking, I think she’s terrified.’

  Morgan voiced her own thoughts ‘Dementia is such a mongrel disease. But this is sudden and I think you’re jumping too quickly to the dark answers.’

  She nodded. ‘I keep telling myself that.’ She sat back, feeling measurably calmer. And remembered something she should have thought about earlier. ‘We had a sad case, too, now I think about it. A high-profile philanthropist at my last medical practice. She wasn’t one of my patients but I knew her well. A lovely woman in her early seventies, very prim and proper and perfectly mannered at all times. They found her walking up the street naked and brought her into the surgery.’ Billie shuddered at the memory.

  ‘It was lunchtime on a market day and kids took photos on their mobile phones. It was splashed all over the internet. Her husband, another high-profile individual, had her admitted to a mental health care facility, where the first thing they did as a routine ward admission was a micro-urine test.

  ‘When her UTI was corrected they discovered that her dementia had resolved as well, but her marriage crumbled. It was dreadful. Her embarrassment at being admitted to a mental institution and her behaviour took her months to overcome.’

  They looked at each other and winced. Morgan sighed. ‘A tough thing to recover from. Especially for a woman.’

  She put her hand over her face. ‘My worst nightmare!’

  He grinned. ‘So if you did strip off here and now you’d mind if I took a picture?’

  She smiled at his teasing, some of her black mood shifting. ‘I might forgive you if you didn’t put it on the internet.’

  ‘So I could arrange a private viewing?’ he asked wickedly.

  She shook her head. She appreciated his attempts to lift her mood, but enough was enough. ‘Maybe another time.’

  ‘That’s better than nothing.’ He smiled fully into her eyes and she forgot to breathe there for a moment. ‘Tell me.’ His voice softened. ‘Was there a good ending to your lady’s experience?’

  Billie nodded. ‘The other doctor in our surgery asked me to speak to her and finally we suggested she tell her story publicly. Give an interview to help others. She was so brave. The subsequent newspaper article resulted in a flood of support and congratulations on her courage in going public. She and her husband were friends, at least the last time I heard.’

  ‘It gives you the shudders to think of the outcome in the old days. Must’ve been asylums full of sane people driven mad by their circumstances.’ He took her hand again. ‘That’s not going to happen to Lorna.’

  Billie felt an enormous weight lift off her. She cared about Lorna and Morgan was showing he cared, too. ‘Thanks for being here. I was wilting under the burden without Daphne. Though I had a word with Lachlan and he said he’d keep an eye on her in case she became confused again. They get on well, but I don’t like being away too long.’

  ‘Where’s Daphne?’

  ‘It’s her and Rex’s weekend at the races.’

  He raised his brows. ‘I’d forgotten about that.’ He stared out the window and then nodded. ‘Rex has fancied her for a while.’

  ‘Has he? I never noticed,’ she said, tongue in cheek.

  ‘Women aren’t the only ones who notice these things,’ he said smugly. ‘He’s got good weather for it.’

  ‘Good weather for what?’

  Innocently he shrugged. ‘The races, of course.’

  They smiled at each other. Then, unexpectedly, he said, ‘Invite me out for the afternoon. I could come with you back to the station. Spend the day out there. Be in the background. A second opinion.’

  The instant clutching of the life line felt disproportional to the offer. Either Lorna’s confusion had distressed her more than she’d realised, or she wanted Morgan’s company more than she realised. Maybe both. Definitely both. ‘I’d like that. Thank you.’

  When they arrived at the station Lachlan and Lorna were listening to the races. Lachlan had a crease of worry on his brow and he seemed to be hovering beside Lorna’s chair as if he was afraid she’d run away.

  ‘Billie. Morgan. Good to see you both.’ His relief was obvious and Billie felt her heart sink. So Lorna was getting worse.

  Lorna squinted in their direction, as if she didn’t know them. ‘We have visitors, Wallace.’

  ‘Hello, Lorna, I’m back.’ Billie crossed the verandah and sat in the chair vacated by Lachlan. Lorna clearly didn’t know who she was so she prompted, ‘It’s Billie. I’ve brought you some medicine for your tummy.’ She indicated Morgan. ‘You remember Morgan?’

  ‘Of course,’ Lorna said, displaying some of her trademark spunk. ‘I’m not senile you know!’

  Billie smiled but her chest was tight. She stood up again and motioned for Morgan to take her place. ‘I’ll just get you some water for your next tablet.’

  Lachlan followed her inside to the kitchen and all the way over to the sink, where he leant towards her and lowered his voice before the words poured out. ‘She’s been totally off with the fairies,’ he said sadly. ‘Calling me Wallace. Can’t remember which race or what horse.’

  Billie put her hand on his arm. ‘I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you, but I wanted to get her more antibiotics. It’s come on very suddenly, which makes it even more likely she’ll be right as rain when the tablets kick in, but we won’t leave you again.’

  ‘I’m not worried about me.’ Lachlan was offended. ‘I’m worried about her. She’d hate to think she was losing her marbles. Like Tootles, in Peter Pan.’

  It was such a funny thing to say that Billie laughed. Lachlan continued to surprise her. ‘I’d forgotten about Tootles. And Peter Pan. But give us twelve hours and we’ll see how she goes.’

  Lachlan shook his hea
d. ‘I’m no doctor, but can’t you stick it in her vein or something? Make it work quicker?’

  Billie had thought of that, but it meant transferring her to hospital for a full work-up. ‘I could, but she’d need to go into hospital and the unfamiliar place might make her worse before it makes her better. She could really go off in there and she’d hate that. I can’t justify that without a thorough work-up. And I think it would upset her. Disorientate her more. I’m waiting for an early report on her pathology, which will give us a better idea of how to treat her.’

  Lachlan nodded resignedly. ‘I shouldn’t be trying to tell you how to do your job.’

  Billie patted his hand. ‘Hey. I’m always happy for suggestions. You care. We all care.’ She filled the glass and took another tablet from the pack on the windowsill to give to Lorna. She’d started her with a double dose. ‘We’ll take it slow today. Hopefully everything will get better.’

  When they returned to the verandah, Morgan appeared relaxed and even Lorna looked more settled.

  She took the pills. ‘Thank you, Billie.’ She glanced around. ‘I think I’m a little off today.’

  ‘The antibiotics should help. And it’s Saturday. We all have the day off and can relax. Morgan’s come to spend the day with us. ’

  ‘So how does that work if both the doctors are here?’ Lachlan scratched his head.

  Morgan answered. ‘One of the locum doctors flies in to cover from Friday night to Monday morning. And Billie and I cover the rest. I’m still on call twenty-four hours a day, five days a week, but now Billie takes some of the workload off me.’

  Lachlan shook his head. ‘You all work too hard,’ he suggested with a knowing look. ‘You should take him up to the ridge later when Lorna has her rest. It’s a great place to watch the sun go down across the Barrier Ranges.’

  SIXTEEN

  They did have a leisurely day. Lachlan won a couple of races and even Billie chose one with a name she liked. Lorna was muddled but not upset and everyone began to relax somewhat.

  Later that afternoon, when Lorna had lain down for a nap, Morgan and Billie took that drive up to the ridge on the quad bike. It was bumpy and slow, but Billie decided the beauty of the landscape was best appreciated that way anyway, and they had a bit of time.