But the surfers and beach-goers and campers didn’t seem to think so. They seemed to think it was cheap and cheerful. It was right on the beachfront, so they didn’t have to cross back over the road to buy things. The service was quick because there weren’t heaps of selections and the food was already prepared. The pies, not homemade, were only two dollars, the fish ’n’ chips were three dollars, the hamburgers were three dollars with the lot.
‘Of course you can’t compare it quality-wise,’ Kay announced to all and sundry. ‘My seafood pies are homemade with quality products and butter pastry, and my beef patties are made with lean choice topside steak. You pay for what you get.’
But when the surfers took a break or the swimmers and beach-goers decided that they were hungry, it was easier and cheaper to stroll up to the van and buy instant greasy takeaway than put their shoes on to walk across the gravelly side road, or take off their wetsuits, or put on a T-shirt and shorts over their bathers because Kay wouldn’t allow people wearing wetsuits or bathers in her premises, but they could sit outside at the tables and chairs. The van was also closer to the camping ground, which meant a lot of the campers didn’t have so far to walk to get their takeaways.
Fortunately the buses still rolled in and a lot of the holiday house owners still patronised Kay, but business was definitely down in the hot food, cool drinks and ice-cream area.
‘We need to have a gimmick, but what?’ Kay frowned as she stared out the door at the queue of people lining up at the hot food van.
‘I can paint you a new sign,’ Liz offered. She’d been doing a special arts course and was dying to try the paints she’d been given for Christmas. ‘I could do a beach scene with Coolini Beach General Store and Kayah Cafe in curly writing.’
‘How are you going to climb up on the roof and do it?’ asked Braden.
‘No, I’d make it like a sandwich board so it could be put on the roadside so that the travellers can see it before they get to the van, and they’ll pull in here.’
‘That’s a great idea,’ said Flick. ‘I can help.’
‘I’ll pay you,’ said Kay. ‘That is, if it’s a good job.’
‘No, it’ll be a gift,’ said Liz, squeezing Kay’s arm. ‘You’ve had a bad time lately.’
Kay pressed her lips together. She was thinking not only about the decline in business but about her husband Cam who was home with the flu, and Roxie, who was refusing to live there. Roxie said she didn’t want to look after her father in case she caught the flu. She was supposed to be working in the cafe but said she had migraines, and the latest was she’d been detained in the police lock-up two nights before for being drunk and disorderly at a pub in Lorne. Right now she was sitting on a stool drinking strong black coffee and looking decidedly seedy.
Flick had moved back in with Liz, which suited Roxie just fine because she was now living temporarily till Monday in Flick’s van and entertaining Nathan and a few other guys in instalments. Roxie was a good worker when she hadn’t been drinking too much, but she could also be immature and selfish, and she nearly drove Kay demented with her wild ways.
Josh was supposed to come back on Monday from his surfari. He’d phoned Liz to say he was staying an extra two days because the surf was fantastic. And Tim had phoned from Surfers Paradise to say how much he missed Flick but that the waves were awesome. She hadn’t heard a thing from Kiev at all. So much for his promise to keep in touch!
‘We could work on the sign over the weekend,’ said Flick. ‘We haven’t got anything else to do, have we Liz?’
‘Not really.’
‘I’ve got it!’ said Roxie suddenly, making them all jump.
‘Got what?’ Flick and Liz looked at each other. Did she mean some sexually transmitted disease? Or the flu?
‘An idea. The pub had this big cocktail contest.’
‘I heard about it,’ said Kay in an ominously quiet voice. ‘You were in it.’
‘I was a tester,’ said Roxie. ‘And don’t start nagging, Mum, or I won’t tell you my idea.’
She ran her hands through her dyed bright red hair which she’d had streaked blonde. To Flick she looked like an exploding firework on New Year’s Eve.
‘What’s your idea?’ Flick perched on an adjacent stool.
‘We run an Invent a Drink competition.’
‘What?’ Kay’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
‘I don’t mean an alcoholic drink. I mean a shake or a smoothie or a soda or something.’
‘That’s crazy.’
‘No, it’s not. Think about it. A special Coolini Beach shake or smoothie. It’d bring the crowd in to watch the contestants preparing their entry. The winner gets … I dunno … two nights in a posh Melbourne hotel.’
‘And how am I supposed to afford that?’
‘No probs. I know the manager of this swanky hotel right in the heart of Melbourne and he owes me. That’s my contribution. Now, all you lot have to do is make the notices and advertise in the local papers. We don’t want it small: we want it big.’
Roxie unpeeled herself off the stool. ‘I’m going to lie down,’ she announced in a bored sort of voice. ‘I think I’m getting chronic fatigue syndrome or something.’
‘You need a good feed and a good night’s sleep,’ snapped Kay. ‘You’re —’
‘Oh, spare me the crap.’ Roxie sauntered out, crossed the road and strolled towards Flick’s bus.
Kay looked at her staff. ‘What do you think?’
‘It could work,’ said Angela. ‘The pub was really jumping when the cocktail contest was on.’
‘We’d have to hold it indoors for health reasons,’ said Kay. ‘We wouldn’t want flies dive-bombing the drinks and posing as passionfruit seeds.’
Everyone burst out laughing. Kay had a dry sense of humour which she hadn’t used much lately. She always liked a challenge and this was a way of getting publicity for her business without compromising her standards.
‘Yeah. Well, we could open up the double doors at the end and put the contestants there,’ said Flick, pointing. ‘And the audience could sit outside. That’d mean we could still run the cafe and shop while the contest was on.’
‘When would we have it?’ Kay pondered.
‘Well, it’d take a few days to advertise, so —’
‘No, I meant the time of day.’
‘It’d have to be either after the lunchtime rush and before the Devonshire teas, or after the Devonshire teas and before the evening rush,’ stated Liz firmly. ‘A lot of people sleep-in, so it’s no good having it early in the morning.’
‘I agree.’ Flick frowned. ‘Probably after the Devonshire teas, because the weather’s cooler.’
‘What about after the evening rush?’
‘We’d have a problem with outdoor lighting and mozzies.’
‘I reckon about four thirty,’ said Flick. ‘The crowd’s leaving the beach and has to pass here, the residents are usually strolling about before they start dinner, and the surfers often have a quick break round that time.’
Kay was busily scribbling down notes. ‘We’d need the recipes and names of the drinks in before the competition,’ she said. ‘We might have to limit the entries.’
‘That’s true. We might have to run heats,’ said Liz. ‘We might even have to run the contest through the week and then have the semis and grand final on Thursday and Friday.’
She always had a vivid imagination, and in her mind’s eye she could see this developing into a state-wide contest, then maybe even a national, then …
‘And of courth we mightn’t have any entranth,’ said Braden, who was the eternal pessimist.
‘Good one, Braden.’
‘As if!’
‘I’ll start on the notices,’ said Kay. ‘I think I’ll put one on the window and see what sort of a reaction we get.’
‘Maybe we should just advertise it locally and see how we go, then extend it later in the year,’ said Flick thoughtfully. ‘I mean, if it was suddenly
huge, we wouldn’t be able to cope. And if it’s local we can develop some civic pride — what do you call it, community spirit.’
‘Good idea. And Flick and I will start on the sandwich board tonight,’ added Liz.
Kay did a quick notice on the computer, printed it out and stuck it on the window:
COOLINI BEACH SHAKE CONTEST
To be held at 4.30pm on Monday 23rd right here at the Coolini Beach General Store. Invent a unique milkshake or smoothie and win a weekend for two at a plush Melbourne hotel. See Kay to enter.
When Roxie heard the news that the contest was only going to be advertised locally, she pouted and carried on, but as Kay pointed out, they didn’t have the expertise to run something enormous, it had to be done quickly and cheaply, and the prize didn’t warrant extending the contest far and wide. And seeing as Roxie wasn’t going to bust her guts doing the hard work, she had to cave in and shut up.
The rest of the day buzzed past happily because everyone was buoyed up and felt that they had something purposeful to do. Even the constant empty feeling that Flick carried with her in her heart seemed to have eased slightly. She’d come to the conclusion that Kiev had merely been toying with her feelings and had no intention of getting in touch with her. They were, as Kay would say, just ships that passed in the night. And just as well, because she could concentrate on her relationship with Tim when he got back.
‘Let’s take a stroll over to the hot food van and get a look at the competition,’ said Liz when they both finished for the day. ‘It’s still open.’
‘Okay. We might even buy some of their greasy fish ’n’ chips. For experimental purposes only.’
The two girls sauntered across the road, admiring the beautiful pink sunset over the calm waters of Bass Strait. Flick had on her navy shorts and red top while Liz was wearing hipsters and a brief blue top. Being so slim, the style suited Liz, whereas Flick always felt that her thighs and butt were too big and her waist too small for hipsters. She had a classic pear-shaped figure, or so she thought. That style needed a small butt and lean thighs.
‘Red sun in the morning, shepherd’s warning. Red sunset at night, shepherd’s delight,’ quoted Flick.
‘But it’s pink.’
‘I know. But I don’t remember any pink poems.’
‘I know one. ‘Little Miss Pink fell down the sink. How many miles did she fall? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You’re out!’ It’s one of those counting-out rhymes.’
‘Remember “One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more”? I mean, how dumb is that, counting potatoes?’
‘Little kids today probably say french fries or chips,’ giggled Liz. ‘Like, “One chip, two chips, three chips, four.”’
‘Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.’
They’d arrived at the hot food van and both girls studied the menu. Flick looked at the three guys behind the counter. No, they weren’t the same men she’d overheard when she was serving their food. These were young guys, confident and good-looking.
But then rich men who drove a late-model Merc probably wouldn’t lower themselves to work at hot food vans — they’d employ young people and pay minimum wages.
‘What’ll you have?’ Liz asked Flick. ‘My shout.’
‘Um … I think I’ll just have some chips.’
‘We’ve got a last-minute special on hot dogs,’ one of the guys said. ‘Dog with cheese, coleslaw and sauce for a dollar.’
‘What?’ Flick’s eyes widened. A similar hot dog at Kay’s would cost two dollars fifty. No wonder this mob were stealing the customers.
‘We’ll take two,’ said Liz, looking up at the guy serving.
Then Flick saw her double-blink. The guy stared back. He was about eighteen, with a blond fringe that flopped over one eye and the rest was cut really short. He had deep brown eyes, a golden tan, and the whitest teeth Flick had ever seen on a human who was not on TV. They were even whiter that Kiev’s.
‘Hi,’ said the guy. ‘Have we met before?’
‘Er … no,’ stammered Liz. ‘Um … we’ll have two of the hot dog specials please.’
‘Coming right up.’
But he didn’t move, just kept staring at Liz. It was like watching one of those tableaus on ice, where the characters seemed to be frozen in time. Liz stood there, mesmerised. Finally, he winked then turned to the steamer and extracted two hot dogs which he expertly popped into two warmed buns, dabbing on grated cheese, coleslaw and sauce. Both went into long white bags.
‘Here you go.’
‘Oh, um, thanks …’ Liz’s voice trailed away.
‘Do you guys own this?’ Flick asked, waving her hand vaguely round in the air.
‘What? The van? As if. Nah, it belongs to the Martini brothers. We just work for them.’
‘Ah, I see. Do they by any chance drive a big black Merc?’
‘That’s them. Why?’
‘Oh, just asking.’
He turned his attention to Liz. ‘Will I see you tomorrow?’
‘Um … well … I’ll see.’
‘I’m here from ten in the morning till six tomorrow. My name’s Danny.’
‘Um … I don’t …’
‘What’s your name?’
‘Liz.’ She hung her head and scuffed her feet in the sand.
‘How about you come just after six? We can go for a walk on the beach or you can come over to the camping ground, site 14 if I miss you. It’s behind the ranger’s hut.’
‘Well, I —’
‘See you tomorrow then.’
Flick and Liz strolled away nibbling at their hot dogs. A few surfers were out catching a late wave in the dying rays of the sun. The air was still. Smoke rose from the camp fires and a slight breeze wafting inshore stirred the tips of the trees.
‘Well?’
‘Well what?’
‘I saw the sizzling going on between you and that guy Danny.’
‘We weren’t sizzling, we were just chatting.’
Flick turned and faced her friend. ‘Level with me, Liz. You felt this magnetic attraction for Danny, didn’t you? And now you’re feeling confused because you and Josh are an item and you’re not supposed to feel like that about anyone except Josh. Right?’
Liz stared at her hot dog. ‘You know, this tastes heaps better than what Kay makes, doesn’t it? They must use a different cheese or maybe it’s the bread. You know —’
‘Would you shut up about your hot dog and stop evading the question?’
‘What question?’
‘You’re deliberately acting like a dumb bimbo,’ Flick shouted, causing several couples who were strolling past to turn their heads. Liz blushed.
‘Look, let’s sit here for a minute.’ Flick indicated a seat facing the sea and pulled Liz down beside her. ‘I’m not accusing you of anything, Liz. What I’m trying to get you to admit is that you felt a strong attraction for Danny even though you love Josh. And that’s how I felt about Kiev even though I love Tim.’
‘Maybe we’ve got cheating genes in our blood,’ said Liz miserably.
‘No. I think we’re sort of normal. I reckon you can love one guy in a particular way and get this magnetic attraction thing for another guy in another way. But most people don’t talk about it even if they feel like this. They grit their teeth and ignore it. Or they cheat and run round behind their partner’s back. Or they daydream about the other person. Or they break up with their partner. Maybe that’s why heaps of marriages break up.’
Liz stared at the beach. Then she nudged Flick. A girl about fifteen and a guy about eighteen were strolling along in the shallows: she was wearing a brief blue bikini and he was in board shorts. Every now and then he’d kick up some water and she’d give a little squeal and run away. Then he coaxed her back and they stood hand in hand and gazed at each other. As Liz and Flick watched, he drew her into his arms and kissed her. Their two bodies welded as one as the sun sank into
the sea.
‘So is that magnetic attraction?’ asked Liz. ‘Is what they’ve got between them this wild dizzy breathless helpless thing? Or is it romantic love? Or what?’
‘Dunno.’ Flick studied the couple as if they were on a glass slide under a microscope. ‘It could be a holiday romance. It could be a sexual attraction. It could be a love that lasts for life. That’s the rotten part. I don’t know. But then I guess nobody does. However, falling like a tonne of bricks for Kiev while I’m in love with Tim taught me one thing if nothing else.’
‘What?’
‘I understand how Todd, my ex, must have been feeling when he was cheating on me. Confused as hell. But the best thing is, now I don’t think that he rejected me because I wasn’t good enough, or that other girl was somehow better than me because he preferred her. I think he met her and zap — the rest is history. And hopefully now you won’t judge me so harshly for falling for Kiev, because you’re on the brink of doing the same thing and falling for this Danny guy.’
Liz bit her lip. ‘The thing is, do I turn up tomorrow at six or not?’
Flick sighed as she swallowed the last of her hot dog. ‘Liz, I don’t know. If you do go, you’re asking for trouble, because Josh will find out if you start cheating on him.
‘And if you don’t go, you’ll never know what would have happened if you had. It’s a sort of win–lose situation, but it could be a win–win if you do what’s right for you. Like stay with Josh and ignore Danny. Or break off with Josh and go with Danny. Or a lose–lose because this Danny could dump you and Josh won’t want you back.’
‘It’s so complicated,’ Liz groaned.
‘You’re telling me. But mine’s easier to cope with because Kiev hasn’t got in touch. So I don’t have to make a decision, do I?’
‘Yeah. You’re cool bananas. But me? I don’t know what to do.’
‘Well, there’s one thing we both have to do,’ said Flick, jumping up and hauling her friend to her feet. ‘Let’s forget about guys and all the hassles they bring. We have to make Kay her new sign!’
They hurried up the hill to Liz’s place. The holiday house was built on the hill overlooking Coolini Beach, set among the tall gums, and there was a magnificent view of the beach, the point, the store, and the winding road further up the coast. For the past ten years Liz’s parents had always brought their van to the camping ground, but then her father had decided it would be good to have a house, so he’d bought the land and had the beach house built by a local builder. This was their first summer season in it.
Cool Bananas Page 6