Twice Lucky

by Mardi Alexander

  Chapter Four

  It was just gone seven p.m. when Mac headed out the station door to her truck. She had a parcel tucked under one arm. Martha had left her a sample of a new spicy Cajun creation to try. She planned to quickly duck into the hospital to get an update on Rob and Bella, go home, have a nice hot bath, heat up dinner, and enjoy it with a nice chilled glass of wine, vowing to deal with the chief’s curveball tomorrow.

  At the hospital, she discovered they had moved Bella up to the maternity ward. The report was that Bella and the baby were doing okay. The bleeding had stopped about an hour after Bella was brought in, and she had been closely monitored for most of the day while her labour progressed. She and Rob were now upstairs in one of the delivery rooms. She left a note with the ward clerk, wishing them well and that she would call in and see them tomorrow.

  It was strange—she hadn’t gone with the intent of searching out a certain pair of strangely fascinating brown eyes, but as she walked out of the hospital to her vehicle, she had a brief moment of disappointment, realizing she hadn’t seen that face again. There was something about the good doctor that made her curious, but she didn’t really know exactly what it was.

  *

  Mac slept like a baby for the first time in many weeks. Martha’s wonderful dish of chicken and deep, earthy spices had enough bite to it that the wine she had chosen had been the perfect accompaniment to settle the edge of the spicy buzz. This new dish would definitely be a favourite. A hot bath, food, and wine had done their job, and she didn’t remember much after turning out the light until the alarm woke her at five a.m.

  Curveball day. Sighing, she tried rationalizing the change to herself. The time period wasn’t too horrendous—it was only for four weeks. She’d get it organized, get it done, and get back to normal. Sounded easy enough, right? Crap. Who was she kidding? Okay, she needed to break it down. Hand over truck and swap for official department car. This was not a bad trade—the heater worked better in the car than it did in the fire truck: one positive tick. Next, swap turnout and work clobber for the office uniform. Bugger. She hated wearing the dress blues. The shirts made her itchy and she would have to iron her uniform every day: a definite big cross.

  When she wasn’t out doing inspections or giving a class, she would probably be in the office doing paperwork and designing classes. She was not a fan of paperwork or sitting still. Another cross. On the positive side, the hours would be regular, with set start and finish times, if planned well enough. It had been a while since she had last done anything other than fire stuff. She hadn’t done any sculpting in months now, and if she wasn’t on call-out duty, getting overtime, she could do with some more money coming in. She’d never had any problem selling her work, and she had several dealers and reps who would get in contact a couple of times each year and ask if she had anything to sell. Possible tick.

  Mac donned a tracksuit and runners and headed out the door. Part of her morning routine, when she could, was to run to the local cat and dog refuge five kilometres down the road to help out. Some days she helped with the feeding or cleaned out the runs or took dogs for walks, and sometimes she just enjoyed cuddle therapy with a kitten, puppy, or another animal that just needed some unconditional love. When she was done, she would jog on home, have a shower, get changed, and head off to work. Some mornings, because of call-outs, she didn’t get there, but whenever she could she was always welcomed as an extra pair of hands. She had been so busy lately that she hadn’t been in a while, and she was really looking forward to putting it back into her morning routine.

  The run to the refuge felt comfortable, and as she made her way around to the back of the shelter, she saw Maree come bounding up to her with a huge grin on her face. Maree and her long-time partner Terri had once owned a very successful string of restaurants in Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne. Five years ago they sold up and moved to the country to set up the refuge. They were busier than ever and happy as pigs in mud. They had an excellent rescue and rehoming record, provided education sessions for schools, and helped out with behaviour education programs for troubled animals.

  She’d first met Maree and Terri not long after they moved in. There was a fire in the old farmhouse shed on the property, and Mac and her fire crew were amongst the first on scene to help put it out. Ever since then, the girls had all been firm friends, spending many a dinner party together with wonderful food, wine, and company.

  Maree threw her arms around her. “Mac, how are you? We haven’t seen you for forever. What’s your news? Walk and talk with me, huh?” Maree was already on the move with Mac following in her wake. She loved coming here, and seeing Maree again made her realize how much she had missed these last couple of weeks.

  “Hey, Maree, it’s great to be back. Sorry I haven’t been around much. Been a bit busy of late. You know how it goes.”

  “Yep, sure do, girlfriend. But boy, I’m glad you’re here. As you can probably tell, we have close to a full house.”

  Funny, she hadn’t really noticed the racket before, but now Maree mentioned it, there were cries, excited yelps, and loads of barking. “Well, put me to work, boss. Where do you want me?”

  “We haven’t fed the dogs in run six yet. Can I get you to start with cleaning out the kitten pens inside? We should be finished feeding the dogs by then, and then if you could clean out run six, that would be great.”

  “Too easy. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Once inside Mac headed to the kitten wing of the cat section. Lots of little mewling noises greeted her as she walked past the pens. “Hello, everyone. Ooh, aren’t you all delicious.”

  She continued through to the utilities room, got all the necessary cleaning gear and fresh paraphernalia needed for the task, then moved cheerfully from pen to pen cleaning, talking, and cuddling all the tiny bodies. They had obviously not long had breakfast, as most were sporting fat, full little tummies.

  After packing and washing up the gear, next she made her way back outside to the dog wing. Run six was on the end and was reserved to house dogs that were young, shy, abused, or not socialized and showing signs of nervousness. Normally Maree preferred to handle run six herself, so that she could provide them with a consistent person for the first few weeks, so it was a bit of a buzz to be asked to clean the run solo. She collected a broom, dustpan, pooper scooper, and a mop and bucket. She left them outside the pens and walked the path outside of the run to establish and observe who was in residence.

  There was an old female cattle dog with one eye who watched her warily. “Good morning, my lady,” she softly crooned. She walked over to the pen, squatted down, and placed her hand on the wire door. “You look like you’ve seen some adventures, old girl.” At the sound of her voice, the old dog stiffly made her way over to cautiously smell her hand. Mac had grabbed some cat biscuits earlier and offered them up as pungent, yummy treats. The old dog, although licking its lips in anticipation, didn’t make a move to take them from her hand. Mac left them on the floor inside the door. “You have those, princess, and I’ll be back soon to clean your parlour. How does that sound, hmm?” The old dog just looked at her, not sure what to make of her.

  She did the same in the next two pens for a badly scarred hunting dog and a young mixed-breed terrier. When she went to the last pen on the end, she initially thought it was empty. She couldn’t see any animal inside. She started to turn to walk away when she noticed the soft doughnut-shaped bedding moving slightly. She looked again, not sure if the bedding really moved, or if she only imagined it had. No, there it was again, just the smallest of movements at the edge of the bedding. There, in the back recess of the pen, barely visible from underneath the bedding, was a pair of eyes blinking at her.

  She squatted and made soft nonsense talk. “Hey there, little one. Looks like you’re today’s scaredy-cat winner. You want to come out and say hello? Come on, pumpkin, I won’t bite.” The only movement from the bed was more blinking. “Tell you what, little one. I’m going to clean up you
r neighbours’ penthouses, and then I’m going to come on back and make your house feel nice and clean and cosy. How about that for a plan?” More blinking. “Okay. You sit tight and I’ll be back in a little while.” She left a few nibbles as a peace offering before heading back to start cleaning the pens.

  Mac quickly ascertained that the old female cattle dog was fine, provided Mac didn’t move too quickly. Any sudden movements, and the dog growled and backed into a corner nervously. Mac slowed, trying to move rhythmically, chatting away the whole time until she was done. She left a few more treats as a thank you to the old girl for letting her into her space.

  Second pen along belonged to the hunting dog. Most of his kennel had to be cleaned up using the dustpan and brush. It became pretty obvious the broom freaked him out, so she didn’t even bother with the mop, opting instead to wash and wipe the floor with some rags. Mac guessed that he had more than likely been beaten with sticks of some sort. It ended up being a bit slower to clean his pen, but worth the effort when, as she went to leave, he approached her, wagging his tail tentatively. She didn’t want to push him though, so she didn’t make any move to touch him, opting to leave him some treats on the ground not far from her feet. As he timidly made his way up to pick at them, she told him what a lovely and brave boy he was.

  Then there was the mixed-breed terrier. Mac was able to go into his cage and clean and tidy it up without too much hassle. The dog made no move towards her. Instead he was a constant blur of motion as he paced incessantly backwards and forwards. Sometimes he watched her while he paced; other times it was like he was in a trance. Mac vowed to ask Maree about the history of this one when she had finished up.

  Finally, it was time to clean whoever was hiding in the last pen. Quietly, Mac walked into the pen, leaving the equipment on the ground near the door. She never looked directly at the bedding but kept talking away, saying nonsense things like, “Well, today is a bit of new start for me too. I know a bit about what you’re feeling. Been shoved into a place you don’t want to be, and you don’t really know what’s going on. It’s a bit scary, isn’t it?” Slowly, while she was talking, still not looking at the bedding, she started to clean the pen. As she picked up the mess, she maintained the dialogue. “But the way I look at it is that we’re both here, in these situations. They don’t look like they’re going to go away, so we just have to figure out, you and I, how we’re going to get our heads around this, huh?” As she walked past the bedding, she didn’t stop, moving smoothly past, dropping a few tasty morsels as teasers about an inch from the edge of the bedding.

  She continued over to the doorway for the mop and sneaked a glance over her shoulder. She caught sight of the blinking eyes and what appeared to be a twitching nose starting to poke out from under the bedding. She kept mopping the floor. “Well, little one, I’m as good as done here. I tell you what, though, this wasn’t too bad now, was it? How about I come back again tomorrow, hey? Would you like that? Hopefully tomorrow I might get to see a bit more of you, hmm?” Now when she looked up at the bedding, the eyes were still watching her. “I’ll be off now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Quietly she picked up her gear and headed off to put them away. Then she would try and find Maree and get a quick rundown on what the dogs’ stories were before heading off back home for a shower. But by the time she packed her gear, time was getting away, and she ended up leaving a note for Maree and Terri on the counter, promising to call later that night.

  Just as she was heading out the gate, Terri wolf-whistled and gave her the call-me sign. Mac nodded and gave her two thumbs up in acknowledgement and headed off for the run home. Once home, she quickly showered, grabbed a bite to eat, changed into her office dress blues, and jumped into the truck. She gripped the wheel tightly for a brief moment and squared her shoulders. Curveball: day one. “Let’s get this started.” Putting the truck into gear, she pointed it towards town and let the engine eat up the distance before her.

  Chapter Five

  Sarah was finally sitting down finishing off notes from the night shift, ready for handover. She glimpsed an official memo in her mail tray alerting her that her attendance, along with every other employee at the hospital, was required for the annual series of workplace health-and-safety training sessions. As the doctor in charge of Emergency, she was also required to be involved in the WH&S fire safety inspections.

  Sarah was tired. It had been a long night. One case after another had been brought in, ranging from run-of-the-mill injuries, such as a broken nose from a bar fight and a broken collarbone from boisterous football tackling practice, all the way through to the more demanding cases like an overdose, electrocution, a baby scalded with hot water, and an infant with fever-related seizures. It meant that Sarah had been on her feet fairly constantly now for nearly sixteen hours. The last thing she wanted to do, let alone think about, was the annual time-consuming, mind-numbing compulsory classes.

  She saw that the inspections were first up on the Monday morning. Terrific. At least she could do them after shift. The classes looked to be scheduled during the day over the next two weeks. She would need to do a swap with Don, her second in charge. Sarah left a note in Don’s mail tray suggesting he take the first class at the end of the first week and she would do the later class midway through the following week.

  Sarah was watching the time closely. She had the monthly case review meeting in an hour, which should take her up close to lunchtime, and then she had four luxurious rostered days off. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a couple of days off. Her first day would no doubt be spent catching up on sleep, shopping, and doing chores around the house. After that, apart from catching up with family, she didn’t have any firm plans. The thought made her giddy. She felt positively schoolgirlish, waiting for the holiday bell to ring.

  Sarah liked living in the country, and an added attraction to the move was being closer to her only family—her sister Jean and her little boy Thomas. Jean was a single parent, having divorced and moved away from a domestically violent relationship. Sarah loved having her sister close by, and she liked nothing better than to have Thomas come and stay over when she had time off. It had been nearly eighteen months now since they had moved into town. Sarah had talked to Jean about getting Thomas a kitten for his sixth birthday, the following week. Over several dinners they had talked about it, and Jean felt that they were settled enough now that it would be good for Thomas. They both agreed it might help bring him out of his shell a little bit and give him someone to love and look after. The plan was to pick both Jean and Thomas up tomorrow night, and they would have dinner somewhere, come back to Sarah’s for a sleepover, and head out to the animal shelter early the next day to look for kittens. Sarah looked again at her watch and realized it was time to head off to the meeting. Smiling to herself, she couldn’t wait for the day to be over already.

  *

  As Mac walked into the station office, Martha stood and took her glasses off, looking Mac up and down, smiling and nodding in approval.

  “Look at you—you should wear the dress shirt more often. You are looking mighty fine in your pressed officialdom.”

  Mac rolled her eyes, pulled at her tight collar, and grimaced. “It makes me itchy,” she grumbled.

  Martha came out from behind her desk and walked around her making clucking noises. She stopped in front of Mac, straightened her tie, and tilted her chin up to look straight into her eyes. “Itchy be damned. You should wear that get-up more often. Much better than that other shapeless stuff you live in.”

  Mac felt herself blush a little and laughed, then kissed Martha on the cheek. “Thank you. Is the chief in?”

  “He said to tell you to go straight in.”

  “Thanks.”

  Mac walked down the hall, pausing to tap on the chief’s door. Looking up from his paperwork he smiled and waved her into his office to sit in the chair. There were several folders on the desk.

  The chief tapped the files. “Eddie ha
s files on the hospital and two schools for inspections, maps, people to contact, et cetera, and the other folders are the education programs, one each for the two schools and the aged-care residence, and another separate series for the hospital. The hospital is the biggest challenge, as you will need to run several classes across two weeks to give everyone a chance to attend and organize their shifts. Eddie’s roughed out a series of timetables that all the places have agreed to. It’s just a matter of making contact and confirming that you’ll be there on the agreed date. I’ve included the latest state recommendations for you to look over. Feel free to add your own touches where you want to on the programs. Any questions, you know where to find me.”

  Mac spent the next couple of hours working on the files in her office. She looked at the inspections and tweaked a few things to hopefully make it a bit easier, based on the maps of the various buildings. With her eyes and brain weary from the concentrated paperwork, she closed the files, pleased with what had been accomplished. She’d planned on heading over to see Bella and Rob on her way home. Tapping thoughtful fingers on the topmost file containing plans of the hospital, she decided she could kill two birds with one stone. She took the hospital inspection maps with the aim of giving herself a quick head start by doing a walk-through and locating some of the outer facility buildings that she was not familiar with.

  After a short drive across town, Mac had the hospital plans in her hand and was standing outside the Emergency staff entrance bay, looking at the signs pointing out the directions of the various buildings. Wanting to find and identify the facilities maintenance buildings, she headed off around the corner, only to walk smack bang into Dr. Hot Chocolate Eyes. They bounced off each other lightly and stood momentarily still in shock.