by Gover, Janet
Chapter Eight
There was no choice. She was going to have to walk back to the garage and collect her things. Katie rinsed her mouth out with water and looked down at her rumpled clothing. She looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards. Sometime today she was probably going to meet her new boss and this was not how she wanted to look when that happened. When she’d left her car at the garage yesterday, she had been too exhausted to think straight. And she had expected to be able to return for her things. It hadn’t worked out quite like that. She wanted a change of clothes, some face cream and most of all, she wanted her toothbrush!
Katie avoided even glancing at the couch where Scott had spent the night. He’d been gone before she woke. She certainly didn’t want him to see her looking like this, but if he’d still been here, she could have asked him to drive her back to the garage to pick her things up. That would have been a lot easier than walking.
She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about last night.
Scott being there had certainly eased her first night and driven away any fear or loneliness. The food and beer had been good. Not only that, Scott had actually listened to her when she talked and treated her like a real person. She hadn’t had a man do that for a very long time. The only men in her recent past were the doctors at her hospital, who seemed to think that the nurses were simply there to serve them … in more ways than one.
Scott was different. When he looked at her he saw her, not just a nurse. And when she looked at him, she felt the occasional flutter in her stomach. She didn’t believe in love at first sight, or course, but was such a thing as like at first sight? Like a lot …
She left the flat and walked through the hospital, hearing her footsteps echo in the empty hallway. It was a sound she had never before heard in a hospital. She stopped when she reached the hospital veranda. There was no lock on the door … should she just leave it? And was it right to leave the hospital totally unattended? What if someone needed help? Or broke in trying to steal drugs?
Even as the thought formed, a car appeared at the hospital gates. A small cloud of dust followed behind as it drove up and parked just a few yards away. A man got out and approached her.
‘You must be Katie. Sorry about all this. I’m Adam Gilmore.’
On no! She took her boss’s outstretched hand, mentally listing all the ways in which this was NOT going to be the best job interview she’d ever had.
‘Dr Gilmore. I … I … Um …’
‘Call me Adam. We’re all very casual out here.’
‘Um. Thank you Dr … Adam.’
‘I’m sorry you were stranded last night, but we had to fly to the Isa. And I hear you had car trouble too. Ed Collins will soon get that fixed. But still, I guess it wasn’t the best welcome to town. But if it helps, I’ve brought your things from the car.’
If it helps? How could it not help?
‘Oh, that’s really good of you … Adam. Thank you.’
The doctor turned back to the car and began pulling her bags from the back seat. Too late Katie realised that he’d brought everything from her car, including the empty water bottle and the loose shoes she had strewn across the back seat.
‘Perhaps you’d better take these.’ Adam was holding up a couple of shopping bags containing a swimming costume and some flip-flops that she’d bought the day she’d left Brisbane and headed for the outback.
She almost snatched them from his hand.
‘I hope you’re comfortable in the flat,’ Adam said as, oblivious to her discomfort, he began carrying her two large suitcases up the stairs. ‘I used to live there. I liked it, but if you don’t, we can maybe come up with somewhere else.’
‘No. No. It’s fine.’ She scurried after him, trying not to think that she was sleeping in her boss’s bed.
‘Good. Well, here we go.’ He pushed open the door to her living quarters and strode in for all the world as if he owned the place. Which, Katie thought, he did, in a way.
The doctor carried her things through to the bedroom and unceremoniously dropped them on the bed. He returned, running his hands through his dark wavy hair.
‘Were you all right last night? I asked Trish at the pub to look after you.’
‘I didn’t meet her,’ Katie said. ‘Scott brought some food over though, which I think she had cooked.’
‘Scott?’ Adam frowned. ‘Oh yes. Ed Collins’s son. I just met him.’
His words caused Katie to do a double take. Ed? Wasn’t that the name of the old man at the garage? But that meant Scott …
‘Adam, give the poor girl some space.’
Before Katie could sort out the thoughts spinning in her head, a beautiful woman with short dark hair joined them.
‘Hi. I’m Jess Gilmore. I fly the air ambulance and have the utter misfortune to be married to this crazy man here.’
The look the two shared put a lie to the latter part of that statement.
‘Nice to meet you Jess.’
‘I’m just going to drag Adam out of here, to give you a chance to settle in a bit,’ Jess said. ‘When you are ready, drop in to the office. I’ll show you around and we can get the paperwork done.’
Jess ushered Adam out and began to pull the door closed behind her, then paused. ‘Adam,’ she called, ‘we need to get Jack around to put a lock on this door.’ She raised a hand and disappeared.
Katie stood in the middle of the room, still holding her bag of recent purchases, wondering if Coorah Creek was always like this. People coming and going, without due regard for … well for anything really. It appeared the people here were as foreign as her surroundings. And there were obviously things she had yet to find out; relationships and where Scott fitted in to the picture.
She shook her head. She’d feel better after a bath – or rather, a shower. There was no bath in her tiny bathroom. She took a couple of steps towards the bedroom and paused. Turning, she placed a chair under the knob of her door. She had no idea who this Jack was. If he was going to put a lock on her door, that was all to the good, but she didn’t want him wandering in to do it while she was in the shower.
About an hour later, feeling much refreshed with clean skirt and shirt and teeth, she set out in search of the hospital office. It wasn’t that hard to find. The hospital wasn’t very big, and she could hear voices.
‘Katie, come in,’ Jess said when she spotted her loitering outside the office door.
‘We were just chatting. Ken Travers, this is our new nurse, Katie.’
The middle-aged man was tall and thin, with receding hair and the slightly haunted air that Katie instantly recognised. This was a patient.
‘Hello,’ she said.
‘Ken and I are just setting up his next appointment,’ Jess said. ‘He’ll no doubt be pleased to have a real nurse here again, instead of putting up with my inexpert help.’
‘Jess, you’ve been great,’ the patient said with a smile. ‘And welcome Katie. We are very glad to have you.’
With that he left.
Jess closed the appointment book as she watched him leave. Then she turned her attention to Katie. ‘It is so good to have you here. I help Adam when I can – but I’m a pilot and he needs a real nurse.’
Katie remembered the young mother’s words the night before. Jess had helped deliver her baby. They certainly did need a real nurse.
‘What happened to your last nurse?’
To Katie’s discomfort, a shadow of grief fell over Jess’s face. Her eyes dimmed for a minute and she appeared lost in memory. Then she spoke in a voice that was infinitely sad. ‘Sister Luke was our nurse for a long time. She was a medical nun. She and Adam were very close and when she died, Adam refused to look for a new nurse for a long time. Then he hired a couple, but they didn’t work out. It takes a special kind of person to work all the way out here. But,’ Jess took a deep breath and the sadness left her face, ‘I’m sure you’ll be great. Adam was up all night with a patient, and he’s sleeping now, but I�
��ll show you around.’
The hospital was small, but very well equipped. Jess explained that the money came from the Goongalla Uranium Mine – the town’s main employer. There was a small and immaculate theatre where minor surgery was performed. Anything major and the patient was flown to the nearest big hospital at Mt Isa. The half-unpacked box of Christmas decorations sitting in the reception area was testament to the fact that the patients’ needs came first. At least, that’s how Katie chose to interpret it.
‘You’ll encounter all sorts of things here,’ Jess warned. ‘I could hardly believe it myself when I first arrived. You’ll have to be ready to turn your hand to almost anything. We can’t just call for extra help if the going gets tough. There is no-one else, just this community.’
‘Do you like it here?’
‘I love it,’ Jess said warmly. ‘It’s a unique place … full of interesting people. In fact, why don’t you come and meet some of them this evening? We can grab a counter meal at the pub and introduce you around.’
‘Okay.’ Katie wasn’t sure exactly what a ‘counter meal’ was, but she knew about eating in pubs. She had often eaten at the centuries old London pub near her home. She imagined Coorah Creek’s pub would be very different, but she was willing to give it a go.
‘But first things first,’ Jess added. ‘I need to get you introduced to the paperwork.’
Chapter Nine
Scott sat alone at one end of the long polished wood bar, staring morosely at the glistening tinsel on the Christmas tree. The cheerful decorations seemed almost to mock him as he lost himself in memories of Christmases past. He should have happy Christmas memories, but any he did have were overshadowed by the darkness of those later years when he and his father had lived alone, barely speaking to each other. Times when the holidays had been barely acknowledged in the house behind the garage. Dark times.
There was movement in the corner of his vision as his father walked into the pub.
A flash of surprise crossed Trish Warren’s face as she looked up from pouring a beer and saw who her new customer was. Scott guessed his father didn’t make a habit of going to the pub. Ed had never been the sociable type. Scott turned his attention back to the cold beer in front of him, running a finger through the wet droplets of condensation running down the glass onto the beer mat beneath.
‘I guess I could join you for a drink.’
‘I guess you could.’
Ed parked himself on the next bar stool. Not too close, but close enough for a conversation that would be as private as any conversation could be with Trish in the same room.
Scott took a pull on his beer, and watched out of hooded eyes as his father did the same with the glass of Fosters that Trish placed in front of him.
A palpable silence settled over them.
Where did you start, Scott wondered. After so many years, where did you start trying to reconnect? There wasn’t going to be an apology on either side. Eight years was far too long for that. But there had to be some way to start rebuilding some sort of relationship. Ed was the only family he had and this was the only chance they were going to get to put the past behind them. But what could he say that wouldn’t seem banal, or critical or at the very least draw attention to the huge gap between them?
‘So. You’re staying at the pub.’
It wasn’t a question.
‘Yes. I …’ Scott let his voice trail off. He didn’t want to say that he thought he might not be welcome in his father’s home. He also didn’t want to say that he wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to set foot inside that house again. Neither comment was going to help the two of them cross the enormous gulf that lay between them.
Silence settled again.
‘That your Prius outside?’
‘Yes.’
‘Hybrid?’
‘Yes.’
‘Any good?’
‘Yes.’
Maybe it was genetic. This thing about cars. In those dark years after his mother left, the only real conversations he and his father had shared had been about cars. The arguments had been about everything else. So Scott guessed it wasn’t really surprising that this, the closest thing to a conversation they’d had in so many years, would be about a car.
The silence was back.
Scott was very conscious that his father was making some sort of effort. He was the one who had sought Scott out. And if his conversation has been stilted, at least he’d said more than just one word. But what could he say that wouldn’t bring back the past?
The bar door swung open and some people walked in. Even before he looked up, Scott knew that Katie was one of them. He heard her laugh. She was with the doctor and an attractive dark-haired woman. As the three of them greeted Trish and found seats at the bar, the dark-haired woman and the doctor seemed to be always touching each other. A casual brush of fingers together, a hand on an arm. That spoke volumes, and Scott found he was secretly a little relieved. He didn’t like the idea of Katie being around that doctor too much, but if he was already spoken for—
She saw him and her face lit up. His heart did a little skip when that happened. It dropped into a different rhythm as he watched her excuse herself from the doctor and start towards him. He was very conscious of his father’s eyes moving from Scott, to Katie, and back again.
‘Hi Scott!’ She sounded pleased to see him.
‘Hi Katie. Are you starting to feel a little more settled?’
She nodded, her blonde fringe bouncing in a most beguiling way. ‘I wanted to say thanks for last night. For the dinner; and for staying. It really did help.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Scott said, wondering what the rest of the people in the room would make of that exchange. They were so obviously all listening. This was the Coorah Creek he remembered, where everybody knew everybody else’s business, especially if it involved who was sleeping with whom.
Katie hesitated for a moment. She looked from Scott to Ed and back again. Scott could see the question in her eyes. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t ready for that just yet.
A few moments passed in tense silence before Katie spoke again.
‘Anyway, I’d like to return the favour sometime soon. Cook you dinner. If you’d like to?’
Of course he would. Those lovely blue eyes peeping out from under that fringe would entice any man. ‘That sounds great,’ he said.
Katie looked extremely pleased. A touch of colour lit her cheeks. ‘Well, I guess I had better get back. I’m having dinner with the boss.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Scott said reassuringly. ‘I only met him today for a few minutes, but he seems like a good bloke.’ An even better bloke if he was safely married.
Katie nodded. As she turned to go, she spoke to Ed for the first time.
‘I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.’
‘No.’
She hesitated. ‘I hope my car’s—’
‘It’ll be ready Wednesday afternoon,’ Ed said with a brusqueness that was all too familiar to Scott.
‘All right.’ Katie sounded very uncertain. She looked quickly from Scott to Ed and then back again, before smiling at both and turning away to re-join Doctor Adam.
‘Ashamed of me, are you?’ Ed said as she walked away. ‘Didn’t want to acknowledge me in front of the girl?’
Scott wanted to say yes, he was ashamed. He didn’t want Katie to know he was the son of a man who cheated on his wife and hit his son. He didn’t want her to know the blood that ran in his veins. But he’d come back to Coorah Creek to make some sort of rapprochement, so he remained silent.
‘I see. Well, you’ve got no grounds for moral superiority. Not if you spent the night with that girl when you barely knew her name.’
‘It wasn’t like that.’ Scott got to his feet. He wasn’t defending himself. After all these years, he didn’t expect his father to have a very high opinion of him. And he didn’t care either way. But he didn’t want Katie’s reputation damaged before she’d
had a chance to establish herself in her new home. ‘I was just helping someone who needed a friend. It’s called kindness, but I don’t expect you would know much about that.’
He walked away.
Leaving the pub by the back residents’ entrance allowed Scott to avoid everyone – his father, Katie, Trish. All of them. Because right now he was in no fit state to talk to anyone. It was partly anger at his father. And partly anger at himself.
He cut through the back yard of the pub and leaped the low fence. Years ago, the land around the pub had all been empty. Now there were houses facing the road, but he was still able to skirt the back fences. That left him facing another low fence. He leaned on it and looked over into the school grounds. The school was a lot bigger now than in his day. There were new blocks of classrooms, a small swimming pool and what looked like a big hall. So much had changed. But not him.
That’s why he was angry with himself. He’d come all this way seeking to heal the rift with his father. If not heal it, at least build some sort of bridge over it. While he still could. Because in a few weeks, he’d be travelling to the other side of the world. And he might never come back.
He wasn’t an angry teenager any more. He was a grown man who should be able to put old hurts aside and at least have a civil conversation with his father. But every time he looked at the old man, he felt that angry boy rise back to the surface.
He closed his eyes, picturing the town as it had been. The school ground as it had been. He tried to remember the last time his mother had come to watch him play cricket on the dry cracked pitch just in front of where he was now standing.
His mother had been beautiful. He still remembered the pretty white dress she’d worn on that last hot day. He still remembered the long brown hair that she pulled back into a ponytail. He still remembered; but he didn’t. The hardest thing he had to do, even harder than talk to his father, was admit to himself that he no longer remembered his mother’s face. Or the sound of her voice.
And for that, he would never forgive his father.