‘I get the idea he had some sort of road to Damascus experience. I know he was wounded in Vietnam, might be something to do with that …’
‘I noticed he had a nasty scar on his leg.’ Nell spoke of her ignorance over this war, though did not divulge the fear that her son might have been involved. ‘So, your sons must have been in it too, Millie?’
‘No, luckily their birthdays never came up.’ She quickly explained that selection had been on a lottery system.
Hearing that not every young man had gone to war, Nell relaxed a little, and, noting that her daughter was getting restless, said, ‘Well, it’s time we were going too. Thank you very much for your hospitality, Millie.’
‘And thank you for coming all this way to bring me this rubbish from Mary. Dear me, what a long way –’
‘Hopefully your sister might be able to come and see you herself one day.’
‘I hope to God not! I can’t bear to be in the same room as her for more than two minutes.’
Laughing about this as they went on their way, Nina said to her mother, ‘Whilst I’ve got you in a good mood … I told Millie about William.’
‘Oh, Neen!’
‘Well, I thought she might be more inclined to help if she knew the reason.’
‘I suppose you’re right.’ Nell appeared to be reconciled to her secret being leaked. ‘What does it matter in this day and age? I’m just a silly old fool.’
‘No, you’re not.’
At the same time as Nina made this declaration, Romy took her grandmother’s hand and patted it. ‘And didn’t I always promise I’m going to find him, Nana?’
Whilst not pertinent to their search, there was plenty to investigate during their time here: the sulphurous mangroves at the northern end of town, where the creek opened her mouth in a passionate kiss of the sea, to the mournful cry of the curlew; the breathtaking estuary across which they roamed when the tide went out, to marvel over the prehistoric sand dollars, and the big red starfish marooned amongst the swirling patterns of its watery flats; and the sanctuary beyond, where turtles came to lay.
And, like the turtles on their mission, under cover of darkness, at the same time every evening Romy would tiptoe off to make contact with her lover.
Nell was relieved to see the anxious wraith gradually dispelled, and in its place a happier glow, which was partly enhanced by the sun-bleached hair, and the limbs turned golden brown, but in the main stemmed from a decision being reached. Romy could now see her future, and was eager to be home to it. And though she was still quite emaciated, Nell was doing her best to remedy this with liberal servings from the barbecue. None the less disapproving, but resigned to her daughter’s intentions, Nina had begun to relax too. The insect bites dealt with, her body had taken on a similar healthy glow, as had Nell’s.
After a few more days at this glorious oasis, all three felt refreshed enough to return to Brisbane and start trawling through records again.
‘Though much good it’ll do,’ came Nell’s pessimism.
‘Ah well, you’ve got Millie to help now,’ said Nina. ‘She might unearth something after we’ve gone.’
Having packed up and paid the bill the night before, they set off in the early morning. Before turning off the esplanade, Romy paused the car and gave a forlorn little wave to the sea, ‘Farewell lovely place …’ Though barely up, already the sun was glittering the waves, the ocean sighing answer, as if sad to see them go.
Despite the sentiment, Nell sensed a new purpose as her granddaughter steered them away from the view, and, before long, home to Patrick. It was sad to think that another family would be rent, but she was glad all the same that Romy had been delivered from the slough of despond. Driving slowly whilst they were amongst the houses, the young woman put her foot down once they reached the open road. Birds of prey hovered over the verges, the sun behind the gum trees casting their shadows across the road like stripes on a long straight snake. Romy put on some music, and was about to sing along, when from one of the shadows on the tarmac a grey kangaroo popped up, looking straight at them as the car slammed into it with a sickening crump of flesh and metal.
There were yells and screams, the screech of brakes, the tinkling of glass, then silence.
‘Romy!’ Nina instinctively turned to check on the driver.
‘I’m all right, Mam!’ Her daughter’s pale face emerged from a curtain of hair, shaken but uninjured, then immediately they both turned to Nell in the back.
‘Yes, I’m all right,’ a dazed Nell hurried to tell them, though the seatbelt had wrenched her shoulder and the pain went right across her breast.
Romy staggered out then, and went around to the passenger side. ‘Help your nana,’ ordered Nina, exerting herself from her seat, and between them they assisted Nell from the back.
First examining each other for signs of injury, ascertaining that none of them needed to go to hospital, then came the car. It was a mess, one of its wings completely dished in, its driver having only managed the slightest of veers before the impact had sent the kangaroo into the air, glancing off the bonnet – which had also received a dent – and over the roof. A bloody carcass lay several yards behind the skid marks on the road. Romy clasped her hands to her face, squashing her cheeks as she saw the extent of the damage.
Nell tried to limit her concern. ‘Ah well, it can’t be helped …’
‘It could be if the fucking kangaroo hadn’t been lying in the middle of the road – sorry, Mam, but really, what a stupid place!’ Nina was furious at the thought of any harm coming to her daughter or her mother.
‘It could have been worse had it come through the windscreen.’ Nell rubbed her upper chest, which had begun to throb.
‘I’m really sorry, this is going to cost a bomb to fix,’ said Romy, to her mother in particular. ‘I’ll have to ring the hire firm and get a replacement. I wonder where their nearest depot is …’
‘Oh, never mind the bloody car, as long as we’re all right,’ said Nina, and made as if to get back in. ‘We’ll have to turn round and go back, though – are you all right to drive, Romy?’
Though her hands were shaking, Romy said she was, but a buckled front wheel arch prevented the wheel from rotating. Nina looked up, and then down, the long, deserted road, saying it was too much to hope that someone would come by. The farmsteads were set so far away from the road that it would be as easy to walk back to the town than to one of them. Then she glimpsed something in the distance. ‘Is that one of those emergency phone boxes down there?’
Whilst the other two stayed where they were, Romy went to use it.
Her trek proved a success. She came back to say there would not be a replacement car coming yet, but, given Millie’s number, the nice person at the other end had promised to phone her to come and collect them. Then, for a while longer, the three stood to wait as the sun’s heat increased.
Millie’s arrival was not such a triumph as hoped, for her car was tiny and had only two doors.
Nina uttered a note of dismay. ‘It’s going be like the Guinness Book of Records trying to fit us all into that …’ However, help was close behind, its little driver jabbing a walnut thumb over her shoulder at the utility vehicle that had just rattled to a halt alongside the roadkill. ‘I phoned Shane when you said you’d hit a roo! He can take one of you.’
‘That’ll be you, Mam.’ Nell felt two coaxing hands on her shoulders, pushing her towards Shane.
However, the ranger said not a word until he had bent over the corpse. ‘It’s a female. Somebody should’ve had a look in its pouch –’
‘Oh, my pardons!’ offered Nina. ‘We were a bit preoccupied.’
Shane ignored her sarcasm. ‘Yes, there’s a joey in here …’
His audience craned around his wide back to see, making a unified, ‘Ah!’ as the naked pink alien was gently removed from its dead mother and cradled in outsized hands. ‘There’s a woolly hat in my cab, can somebody get it?’
Nearest to th
e vehicle, though still displeased by his tone, Nina rummaged about in the cab and finally came up with the hat. Telling her to hold it open, Shane gently poured the contents of his hands inside. Then, all of a sudden, she was left holding the baby, its pink nose jutting from the knitted folds.
‘Will it be all right?’ enquired Nell.
‘Not sure. I know somebody who’ll do a good job with it.’ Shane removed the mother’s corpse from the tarmac, then said, ‘You need to take a bit more care along these roads. They lie in the shadows and you’re on them before you notice.’
‘She didn’t do it on purpose!’ Still cradling the joey, Nina saw her daughter’s upset and was quick to defend her. ‘And she wasn’t driving like some of the maniacs round here – if you’re interested in humans, by any chance, we’re all in one piece, thanks for asking!’
The burly figure looked awkward, and asked of her, ‘Are you coming with me?’
‘No, you can take my mother.’ Carefully holding her woolly parcel to her breast, Nina squeezed into the little car along with Romy.
Opening the cab door and helping Nell to climb in, Shane threw their cases in the back of his utility, then went to push the wrecked vehicle onto the verge before turning his own around, and setting off with the little car behind.
‘Anybody’d think we mow down animals on purpose,’ muttered Nina from Millie’s rear seat.
‘I don’t think he meant to blame you,’ said Millie. ‘He just sees some sick things done to animals.’
Then everyone fell silent as they headed back towards the sea.
Dropped at the holiday villa from whence they had earlier departed, Nina handed over the orphaned joey to the ranger, then turned her back as he drove away. They found the owner of the villa about to strip their beds, and spared her the trouble, asking could they move back in. Being low season, they were invited to stay as long as they liked, though Nina said it would only be a few days whilst they organised a replacement car. She was to wince at the cost of the latter, even having taken out extra insurance for such an eventuality.
‘Every cloud has a silver lining,’ said Romy. ‘Now I can get a few more photos.’
‘We came to Australia so’s your Nana can look for her son,’ rebuked Nina. ‘Not going to find him stuck here, are we?’
But Nell waved this aside. ‘I don’t think another few days will make a difference.’
And they were such lovely days, strolling on the beach in the morning, perhaps sitting for a few hours under a large parasol, with intermittent dips to cool off, then just relaxing indoors after lunch, to read the stack of novels that holidaymakers had left behind.
Forty-eight hours after their accident, it was all but forgotten as they wandered along the sands towards the headland about three or four miles away, occasionally pausing to watch vast battalions of sapphire-blue soldier crabs sweep across the wet sand, or bobbing into the sea to cool off – until they saw the ranger’s vehicle heading towards them from the other direction. Nina very quickly wrapped a brightly coloured sarong around her bikini-clad figure, though Romy seemed unconcerned at being seen half-naked, Nell’s busty outline already clad in a gauzy dress. Upon recognising the three, Shane made a detour across the beach, his engine ticking over as he called through the open window of his cab, ‘How’s the car going?’
‘Same as you, a bloody nuisance,’ muttered Nina, which was masked by her mother’s cheery reply:
‘Oh, they’ve fixed us up with another – how’s the little joey?’
‘He’s doing okay! That mate o’ mine has a pretty good success rate with them.’
Seeing Shane was in no hurry to drive off, one thick bronzed arm leaning out of his cab, Nell came right up to stand beside his utility truck, a smiling Romy doing likewise, whilst Nina hung back, forced to wait for them or be dubbed impolite. A usual it was Nell who upheld the conversation, though Romy inserted one or two questions about the kangaroo’s habits, which Shane seemed glad to answer – then Nell suddenly stopped to point along the beach, ‘Oh look! There’s one …’
Shane turned his head, Nina too. A large kangaroo had come bounding out of the bush towards the sea, stopping abruptly at the curl of the tide to scrape one of its ears along the sand. Hovering uncertainly for a moment or two, it launched itself into the water and began to swim, at one point disappearing beneath the surface, the watchers able to see his dark form kicking out neath a turquoise wave. Nell held her breath. Then his nose broke the surface again, and on he battled against the force. Occasionally he would disappear, then come up to shake his head and twitch his ears, finally to disappear into the blue beyond.
Shane was happy to discuss the animal’s behaviour, and turned off his engine for a while. ‘They often go for a swim – get these mites that drive them mad, and try to wash them off.’
Nell and Romy were similarly pleased to be enlightened, exchanging looks of fascination.
‘It’s not always mites,’ added Shane, looking not just at them but at Nina as he spoke, as if to include her in the conversation. ‘They just like to go for a plunge for the fun of it. Go island-hopping too. Known them swim miles.’
‘I never knew kangaroos could even swim!’ Nell laughed at Romy.
‘Yeah, they’re strong swimmers.’ Shane then proceeded to deliver more on the marsupial world.
Whilst Nell and Romy seemed rapt, Nina gave hint of her boredom by moving on, picking up shells here and there and examining them.
‘Watch out, that’s not a cone shell,’ Shane called after her. ‘They’re deadly.’
‘Yes, I have read the guidebooks,’ came a haughty retort that was issued without a glance in his direction.
‘Well, better let you folks get going.’ All of a sudden Shane started his engine, and, with a cursory wave, drove away.
‘Wasn’t that fascinating?’ said Nell to her companions.
Romy agreed. ‘Looks like he’s forgiven me for making an orphan of that baby the other day.’
‘He’s very wrapped up in his kanga-bloody-roos.’ Still draped in her sarong, Nina bent to pick up another shell.
‘Well, he obviously likes animals – and knows an awful lot about them.’
‘Yes, and wasn’t he keen to bore us all to death with his knowledge?’
‘Don’t be mean, he’s a really nice bloke,’ said her mother, Romy echoing this.
‘– blaming my daughter for the animal’s fault.’
‘He seemed very keen on you,’ teased Nell.
Romy laughed at her mother’s protestation. ‘Yes, I noticed that too, Nana!’
Then both began to rib Nina unmercifully about the ranger’s crush on her.
With a mischievous look in her eye, Nell burst into song with her hands clutched to her heart, trilling, ‘Hold my hand, I’m a ranger in paradise . . !’
Romy swiftly cottoned on to the idea, pretending to waltz. ‘Rangers in the night, exchanging glances …’
This setting the ball rolling back and forth, Nell and her laughing granddaughter adapted the words to every love song they could think of.
‘You pair of daft buggers, leave off,’ chastised Nina with a toss of her blonde hair. She had laughed along with them for a while, but now it grew tedious. ‘This sun must have got to your brains – come on, let’s be heading back, I can feel my face burning.’
And of course this drew more mockery. ‘The blushing bride,’ teased Romy.
‘Stop being silly now.’ Her grandmother adopted the air of level-headed dowager, pretending to agree with Nina’s request for good behaviour, before saying. ‘Lead the way, Kimo Sabi,’ and bursting out laughing. Though a little comedic impact was lost, in having to explain to Romy that these were the words used by Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick. It was not, however, to prevent more of the same all the way back to their accommodation.
‘You’re right,’ announced Nina to her mother on their final day, as they sat in the turquoise shallows cooling off. ‘About the lack of stimulation here.
I’m bored to tears.’
Nell laughingly agreed. ‘Yes, Shangri-La’s all right in small doses.’
‘I suppose it would be different if you lived here,’ mused Nina. ‘You know, go out to work in town, then come home to this. That would be lovely. But to be here day after day, each one identical, the same temperature …’ As her voice trailed away she peered up the beach to try to catch sight of her daughter, who had taken to walking to the promontory every day. ‘That looks like Romy on her way back.’
Nell craned her head around the figure beside her, waved, then lay in the shallows, enjoying the feel of the water lapping over her plump thighs. They were still lazing there on the long, deserted shore, no other human in view, save for Romy coming ever nearer, when Nell felt eyes on her, and, with a little difficulty, rolled over onto her stomach.
Instantly alert, she gave an excited murmur of delight. ‘Oh, look, Neen!’
Her daughter rolled over too, both of them mesmerised by the narrow-gutted dingo, who raised his muzzle and sniffed the air, then stood looking back at them with eyes that were amber and bold. In no hurry, he stared a while longer, before melting back into the bush.
‘I saw him earlier!’ panted Romy, as she finally splashed into the water to join them, the three talking excitedly. ‘It would be on the day before we’re leaving. All week I’ve lugged my camera around with me, and the only day I don’t, I’ve seen all sorts! There were dolphins surfing down near the point. I might come down later and sit around for a while, see if he comes back.’
But once she had eaten lunch, having done five or six miles in the torrid heat that morning, Romy declared herself too knackered to go out again, and spent the rest of the day by the pool. In the evening, with packing to be done, she did not manage to get out again with her camera – as usual going along to the phone booth where yet another ten dollars’ worth of card was eaten up on sweet nothings to Patrick – though she swore to try for a shot of the dingo the next morning.
That night, something disturbed Nell’s sleep. Pricking her ears to the horrible, bloodcurdling howl on the darkness, which caused her hair to bristle and her heart to palpate, all of a sudden she became truly aware of how isolated was her little bed, twixt the sea and the thousands of acres of wilderness, and with only a fly-wire screen to deter whatever might be out there …
An Unsuitable Mother Page 60