“I might go and have a little lay down,” she said. “You’ve got me craving chops now, so I’ll cook us some dinner in an hour or so, ok?”
“Ok love.”
Maggie had forgotten how much a good cry can sap your energy, so her lay down turned into a nap and when she woke and stretched she was surprised to see the sun had almost set for the night and the walls of her room were bathed in an orange glow from its dying rays. She rolled over and checked the time on the clock beside her bed, just after seven. As tempting as it was to curl back up into a ball and stay there, she knew her father would be getting hungry so she made herself get up. In her ensuite she splashed cold water on her face and was dismayed to see the damage her earlier crying fit had done. She had dark, puffy pillows under her eyes and the whites of her eyes were tinged red.
“Attractive,” she remarked dryly.
She expected her father to be asleep in front of the TV but it was switched off and silent in the dark corner, as no lights were on.
“Dad?” she called up the stairs. No answer came.
“Odd,” she thought, and going through the kitchen she went out the back door and crossed the yard to the shed. No lights were on in there either and there was no sign of him when she opened the door. Growing slightly alarmed she went back to the house and this time she noticed the piece of paper tacked to the fridge.
‘Gone out. Be back later. Leave my dinner in the oven. Love you.’
“Oh dad,” she sighed, guessing he had gone to talk to Jack despite what she had said earlier. Then a thought occurred to her. “Oh no, surely he didn’t-,” she muttered, hurrying back outside to the shed. But indeed he had.
“You stupid, stupid man,” she stomped her foot crossly.
Her parents shared the one car and as her mother had taken it with her yesterday Ray had taken the farm bike. She stomped back into the house and set about cooking some dinner, anything to take her mind off what her father was doing. She was worried, both about what he might say to Jack, and also that he might end up in a police cell or, worse, in a ditch on the side of the road.
She ate her dinner alone out on the porch, fretting about all her family members; her mother and daughter in a cave in the hills and her father loose on the town on a dangerous bike. She hoped her baby girl was ok, as even though Maggie had been to the cave only once before she knew she had no hope in hell of ever finding her way back there if she ever needed to. She decided she was going to insist her mother buy some kind of hand held radio or cellphone with long ranging service. Dot needed to be able to contact them if, god forbid, something ever went wrong on one of her trips. Maggie already knew her mother would be heavily resistant to the idea, but too bad. Maybe she’d go into town tomorrow and see if she could find one. If she gave it to Dot as a Christmas present she’d have no choice but to accept it.
In the distance the storm was gathering strength over the hills. Occasionally there was a stark flash of silver streaked across the dark sky and the low rumble of thunder building to a climax. Anticipation fizzed through the air and she could smell that rain wasn’t far away.
Closing her eyes, Maggie sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening to keep her family safe then she went back inside to watch some mindless TV for a few hours while she waited for her father to come home. Sometime later she woke with a start at a loud noise, and it took her a moment to realise it had come from the TV. Placing a hand on her chest to still her racing heart she pushed the button on the remote to switch the TV off. Yawning, she walked to the kitchen to check the time; it was just after midnight.
She made her way upstairs and peered into her father’s room but the beds were as empty as they had been that morning. Thunder boomed above the house, sending her sagging against the wall and her heart into a sprint once again.
“Oh dad,” she whispered. “Where are you?”
Back downstairs in the kitchen she made herself a cup of coffee and drank it standing up against the sink. With the house lights off she could see the storm had finally landed, rain lashing against the windows. She couldn’t shake the ill feeling that was tapping lightly on her shoulders. BOOM! Thunder made her jump again. “That’s it,” she muttered. Pouring the rest of the coffee down the sink she grabbed her keys off the hook and ventured out onto the porch but the driving rain sent her scurrying back inside. In the laundry she found some boots her mother wore while gardening and she pulled them on. The only jacket in sight was Willow’s hated strawberry one and seeing it made Maggie long desperately for her daughter, but she couldn’t worry about her now. She would just have to trust that her mother was looking after her. Maggie needed to find her father. Wearing the jacket she made her way out into the storm again, the boots and jacket little protection against the almost horizontal sheets of water that came sideways at her. In the car she turned the heater on full and headed off carefully down the driveway as visibility was limited to only a metre or so in front of the car, even with the headlights on full.
Maggie drove the route to and from town four times; there and back, there and back. Each time she drove slower and on the last trip she kept the window wound down so she could call her father’s name. Where the sides of the road dropped off into deep ditches she stopped the car, flicking the hazard lights on, and got out, using the torch she always kept in the glove box for emergencies to scan the ground for any sight of him or his bike. But she saw nothing.
Arriving back home the fourth time in tears she finally admitted to herself that she needed help. It was one thirty in the morning and it seemed the rest of the world was tucked up in bed to ride out the storm. But she couldn’t rest until she had found her father. She hadn’t wanted to alarm anyone but now she had no choice, so one by one she called and roused his friends from their beds. None of them had seen him and all she succeeded in doing was worrying them as much as she was worried.
“What can we do?” they all asked. Trying to hide the fear in her voice she told them there was nothing they could do and that she was already doing everything that could be done.
“I’m sure he’s just had a few drinks and is sleeping it off somewhere,” she assured them. They didn’t agree with that though. If Ray was to drink with anyone it would be them, and they hadn’t seen him.
Finally, knowing he was her last resort, she called Jack. It seemed to take a long time for him to answer his phone and she worried that maybe he’d stayed at the O’Neal’s because of the storm but finally his sleepy voice came on the line.
“Hello?”
“Jack.”
“Maggie?”
“Yes it’s me,” she choked back a sob.
“What time is it?”
“It’s late, I mean early. Just after one.”
His voice became more alert as he heard the urgency in her voice. “What is it, what’s wrong?”
“Have you seen dad?”
“Ray? No, not since the night of the carols.”
And with that Maggie started to cry and babble. “I thought he was coming to see you, because he was upset with you because of me, you see, because I was upset and he wanted to tell you off, even though I told him not to, but when I woke up he was gone so I figured that’s where he went. But if he’s not there and he’s not here and his friends haven’t seen him then where is he? There’s a storm and it’s raining and he’s old and he hasn’t come home.”
“Maggie, slow down. Your father was coming to see me to tell me off?”
“That’s what I thought, but if you haven’t seen him where is he? Jack I’m so worried.”
“Maggie, take a deep breath, I’m sure he’s fine.”
“He took the bike Jack, he’s on that stupid old farm bike out in this storm.”
“Ok,” he said. “Right.” Maggie could hear in his voice that he was thinking, and his voice had become authoritative. She relaxed into it, happy to let him take control because she herself had no clue what to do next.
“Stay put,” Jack said. “I’ll come t
o you and check the roads, see if there’s any sign of him along there.”
“I already drove along the roads, four times.” Then she exclaimed loudly, “Oh! Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Think of what?”
“Sometimes he takes shortcuts across the farms to avoid Geoffrey. He might have done that tonight.” Her voice choked up again. “Oh Jack, what if something bad has happened to him? What if he’s lying out there in the rain and the dark all by himself, hurt?”
“Maggie.” He spoke sternly to snap her out of the deep hole she had been about to descend into. “We’ll find him. I promise.”
She nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see her.
“My car won’t go on the farm,” she said. “It’ll get bogged down.”
“My truck can do it. Just stay put and I’ll be there shortly.”
She nodded again.
Jack was as good as his word and not long after she saw headlights turn into the end of the driveway. Before he had even pulled completely up in front of the house she was out there, yanking on the door handle and climbing into the passenger seat.
“Nice jacket,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. But Maggie didn’t laugh, she couldn’t even summon a smile. She just looked at him, all wide eyed and frightened and he felt the urge to reach over and pull her into his arms and kiss all her worries away. He knew though that the only thing that could make her feel better right then was having her father home, safe and sound. So he kept his hands on the steering wheel and quizzed her, “Which way?”
She pointed down the driveway, “down there and turn right. There’s a farm about a half a kilometre along, he cuts through there.”
Jack drove where she directed. When they reached a gate she told him to stop, then she jumped out of the truck and held the gate open for him to pass through. Then she closed it behind him and climbed back into the truck, pointing him forwards. So started a pattern, Jack driving through the paddocks, headlights on full beam and both of them calling out the windows into the rain, and when they reached the next gate Maggie would jump out and open it. They had driven through six paddocks and Jack was just starting to wonder how big this farm actually was and whether they were going to find themselves on the other side of the country when Maggie grabbed his arm.
“Stop! What’s that?” she said, trying to peer through the rain.
Jack stepped on the brakes and tried to follow the direction of her finger. “Where?” he asked, but then he realised she was already out of the truck and running towards something lying in the grass twenty metres away. He stared at it for a moment and realised it was the wheels of a bike, lying on its side. Maggie was sprinting towards it.
Cursing, he reached for the door handle. He wished that he’d been able to get there first, just in case of the worst case scenario. He wanted to protect her from what she might find, and he was scared that if Ray had met his fate no amount of comforting from Jack or anyone else would help Maggie forget what she was about to see.
She was on the ground next to her father when he reached them and for the longest five seconds of his life he thought his fears had been confirmed. Ray was pale and still, eyes closed and body limp. He was wet through and covered in mud, and his legs were trapped beneath the bike. Maggie had dropped to her knees in the mud beside him and was staring at her father in horror.
“Dad?” she whimpered, but the wind snatched the word and carried it away.
“Move over Maggie,” Jack shouted, “I have to get this bike off him.” It took all Jack’s strength to lift the bike and drop it to one side. While he did Maggie moved around to her father’s head and lifted his shoulders into her lap. She leant over him to try and keep the rain off his face and stroked his hair.
“Dad,” she said it louder and shook his shoulders.
Ray groaned and moved a hand weakly.
“He’s alive!” Maggie cried out with relief, “Jack, he’s breathing.” She leant down to her father’s face, “Dad! Dad can you hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you, you’re screaming right in my ear,” Ray grumbled.
“Oh dad, whatever possessed you to take the bike out? You could see a storm was coming.”
“I was going to give that young man of yours a speaking too.”
Maggie was acutely aware of Jack beside her. “He’s not my young man, dad. And I told you to leave it alone.”
“I just hate seeing you upset my girl.”
Maggie kissed her father’s forehead. “I know, and I love you for it. But you could have been killed. What would I have told Willow? And can you imagine what mum would say?”
Rays opened his eyes then. “Eh, we don’t need to mention this to her do we?” There was genuine fear in his eyes. “She’ll kill me for sure.”
“Well you’re still alive for now sir,” Jack cut in, “and I think we should save this conversation for somewhere a little warmer and drier. We need to get you checked over at the hospital.”
“You,” Ray’s eyes focused on Jack over Maggie’s shoulder. “You’ve got some nerve showing your face here. This is all your fault you know.”
“Dad, you can’t blame Jack for your own stupidity. Besides, if it wasn’t for him I would never have found you so you should be thanking him.”
“Thank you,” Ray mumbled grudgingly.
“You’re very welcome,” Jack said with a smile. Water was running down his face and his hair was plastered against his head. “Now let’s get you to a hospital.”
“I don’t want to go to a hospital,” Ray protested as Jack lifted the old man into his arms. Maggie couldn’t help but admire how strong he was, and then rolled her eyes and mentally scolded herself for thinking such thoughts at such an inappropriate time.
“Hey, you’re a doctor,” Ray pointed out as Jack carried him to the car. “Can’t you just check me over? I’m telling you guys I feel fine.”
“I’m a veterinarian. I deal with slightly different patients.”
“We all share the same basic parts.”
“All the same,” Jack said as Maggie opened the back door of the truck and he laid Ray out on the back seat, “I’d prefer you checked out by a doctor.” Jack reached over into the back and pulled out the blanket he kept there for when Rufus rode with him. “Sorry about the smell,” he apologised to Ray as he tucked it around him, “but it will keep you warm at least.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition while Ray grumbled in the back. Jack had just backed the truck around to head back the way they had come when Ray shot bolt upright.
“Wait,” he said, “what about my bike? We can’t just leave it there.”
Jack looked sideways at Maggie and lifted one eyebrow in question as if to say, ‘are you going to deal with this?’
“That damn bike can stay there until it rusts into a scrap heap for all I care,” Maggie said hotly to her father. “And I’m pretty sure mum will feel the same way.”
Ray subsided on to the seat again. “You’re not going to tell her about this are you love?”
“I don’t really have a lot of choice do I? It’s serious this time dad.” She shivered; the adrenaline and the cold from the rain had caught up with her and she felt chilled to the bone.
“Traitor,” Ray grumbled.
“Here,” Jack shrugged off his jacket and passed it over to Maggie, “Drape this over your knees, it will help warm you back up.” He fiddled with buttons on the dashboard and soon hot air was blowing from the vents and filling the inside of the truck, making it cosy. When they got back onto the main road Ray closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, lulled like a baby by the rhythm of the trucks wheels. Maggie, who had been half turned in her seat to keep an eye on her father turned to face the front again, adjusting her seatbelt.
“Thank you,” she said quietly to Jack.
“No problem,” he took his eyes off the road for a brief moment to flash a smile. “It all worked out well in the end.”
/> “Thanks to you. I wouldn’t have been able to find him without your help. God knows how long he would have been lying out there,” she shuddered.
“He’s fine,” Jack said soothingly, “he’s a tough old guy.”
“He is,” Maggie nodded, “but at the same time he’s also my frail old dad. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”
“Don’t think like that. He’s strong, I’m sure he’ll be with us for awhile yet.”
“I hope so.”
“I’m guessing he’s where you get your strength from,” Jack commented.
She turned to him in surprise. “Me? Strong? I don’t think so. I nearly fell apart tonight, remember? I just don’t cope well in situations like this.”
“Hey, not many people could cope with a situation like tonight.”
“You did.”
‘That’s different. As fond as I am of the old guy, he’s not my father.” He flicked a glance in the rear view mirror at Ray and was satisfied to see him roll over a bit in his sleep. “Who knows how I would have handled it if it had been my father. I probably would have been just as upset as you were.”
“Your dad is still alive?”
“Yes.”
“And your mother?”
“Yes she’s very much alive and well, not together with my father though. No she’s currently on,” he paused to work something out in his head, “husband number five, if I’m correct.”
Maggie whistled. “Phew, that’s quite a lot of husbands.”
“Tell me about it. It’s also more than enough step fathers. I have a feeling he won’t be the last though.”
Maggie was quiet for a minute and then she apologised softly. “I’m sorry I never took the time to find out more about your life. I’ve been pretty self centred haven’t I?”
“It’s fine, you had a lot on your plate. Besides,” he smiled sideways at her again, “there’s plenty of time for all that.”
A Roast on Sunday Page 19