The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots

by Hill, Loretta

  ‘You’re not going to ask?’

  She heard, rather than saw, the amusement on his face. ‘I didn’t want to be rude.’

  ‘Oswalds, the company I used to work for, is being sued. I’m a witness.’

  ‘Oh okay.’ She nodded. That was a relief – for her, anyway. For him – not so much. ‘That must be rough.’

  ‘You have no idea.’ His tone was harried, not insulting, so she nodded again with understanding. He had to be so stressed out. She couldn’t imagine working twenty-four-seven as well as being caught up in a lengthy court battle. She’d heard terrible stories about people, stuck in litigation for years, suffering depression or even mental breakdowns. She frowned. It was no wonder she hardly ever saw him smile, with this constantly in his thoughts. Before she was aware of what she was doing she had launched into a series of concerned suggestions.

  ‘You know, you should really take your R and R. You need it. Recharge your batteries. Go on a holiday. Get your personal stuff figured out. People will understand. It’s not worth pushing yourself so hard.’

  He tore his gaze from the road to glance at her briefly. ‘Trying to kick me out?’

  ‘No. I just –’ Lena broke off. She just what?

  Cared?

  She swallowed. Don’t go there, Lena.

  She couldn’t care about Dan Hullog like this. It was wrong, dangerous and inappropriate on so many levels. It was too late, though: her feelings for Dan were already – more than a colleague – no, a subordinate – should have. The hairs on the back of her neck were prickling in warning. This is not happening again. I refuse to be a party to it. I refuse!

  Dan pulled into the camp parking lot, found a spare bay and killed the engine.

  The silence was deafening.

  She scrambled for the doorhandle and hopped out. If she didn’t mess around she could be in the safety of her donga within minutes. He came around to her side of the car, stalling her escape. His eyes were on her face and she could almost hear his brain ticking over as he studied her, a gentle breeze rustling his black locks.

  ‘There’s no need to worry about me, Lena.’

  She shuffled on her feet and snorted in what she hoped was a convincing imitation of surprise and dismissal. ‘I’m not worried about you.’

  He moved a little closer. All her blood went to her head as awareness coiled around her like a boa constrictor preparing its dinner.

  ‘Of course not, my mistake.’ His voice was wry. He lifted a hand and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She felt the brush of each individual finger against her hairline and almost fainted from the shock of it. The mood had suddenly shifted.

  His eyes glittered in the moonlight and he wasn’t taking his hand away.

  Is his face moving closer?

  Her heart bounced into her mouth as his breath whispered across her cheek.

  Was she going to slay her dragon?

  The earth tilted on its axis.

  The fingers behind her ear moved down her neck, causing her bones to liquefy. Involuntarily, her eyes fluttered closed and she rocked forwards towards him . . .

  ‘I hope your boyfriend makes it up to you.’

  It was amazing she didn’t fall. She certainly stumbled, embarrassment flooding her senses.

  She straightened quickly, trying to pretend nothing had happened. Because nothing had. She rubbed newly wet palms down the front of her jeans, nerves making her babble. ‘As to that, Gavin and I are –’

  ‘Goodnight, Lena.’

  ‘Okay, yeah, goodnight,’ she responded clumsily to his retreating back. ‘Thanks for the, er –’

  But he was at least five feet away from her by now. Cold and distant.

  A chilly breeze whipped into her hair. She folded her arms protectively across her chest. He didn’t look back and she watched him until he disappeared into the darkness.

  The next morning, Lena did her best to put Dan Hullog out of her mind and focus on the things in her life she had a better chance at fixing.

  Like her relationship with Sharon.

  The passing of the night had fizzled her anger and strengthened her remorse. After all, Sharon had feelings for Gavin. Seeing him kiss another woman, especially a friend she thought she could trust, would have been a devastating experience. Lena was resolved to make it up to her.

  The first thing she did when she arrived at work was go in search of the bus driver. Unfortunately, she soon found out that Sharon was delivering supplies to the end of the wharf and would be unavailable until seven am when the bus returned. It was a hellish hour. She felt like everyone was watching her. Twice, she caught the secretaries whispering behind their hands.

  No doubt everyone knew what had happened at Point Samson and they were all enjoying a good gossip about it at her expense. The only thing that occurred to break up the focus on her was that the yard manager, Tony, had had a haircut. Radar and his band of merry men had been spreading it around for weeks that he wore a toupee. The new cut certainly laid these rumours to rest and various amounts of money had been changing hands all morning as bets were settled. She would have felt sorry for Tony if his hour of fame hadn’t coincided nicely with hers.

  In the end, Lena didn’t catch up with Sharon until nine am due to her own work keeping her in the office. Sharon was unloading boxes of paper from the bus when Lena found her.

  ‘Sharon, could we talk for a minute?’

  Sharon slowly put down the box she was carrying and nodded. ‘Okay.’

  ‘I just want to apologise again for last night,’ Lena began quickly. ‘I don’t want this whole Gavin thing to ruin our friendship.’

  Sharon folded her arms and examined a scuff on her boot. ‘I appreciate that and I apologise too for leaving you at the pub last night. I shouldn’t have done that.’

  Lena’s body started to relax. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘But can you see why I was so upset?’

  ‘Yes, of course I can,’ Lena immediately declared, glad they were already making progress towards a reconciliation. ‘I totally understand why you were hurt by me. Who wouldn’t be in a situation like that?’

  ‘Well, good,’ Sharon nodded, still not looking at her. ‘So . . . I guess you can understand then why I might want to keep my distance from you for a while.’

  The statement took the wind out of Lena’s sails. ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I can’t be around you while you’re with him.’ Sharon’s hands dropped to her sides. ‘Just for the moment anyway; it’s too awkward for me.’

  Lena’s eyes widened. ‘But I’m not with Gavin, Sharon. It’s all a big misunderstanding – just like I said last night. I don’t like him that way.’

  Sharon’s brow wrinkled as she finally lifted her eyes. ‘If you can’t be honest with me, Lena, then what’s the point of this conversation?’

  ‘I am being honest with you.’

  ‘Everyone knows you and Gavin are an item now.’ Sharon shook her head. ‘It’s all over site.’

  ‘It’s just gossip.’ Lena couldn’t believe Sharon was taking their word over hers.

  ‘It’s not just gossip,’ Sharon said. ‘I saw the boys laying into Gavin about it this morning on the bus. They were all laughing about his new girlfriend and he just went red and smiled.’ Sharon’s voice wobbled, but she got herself in hand immediately.

  Lena faltered. ‘He w-what?’

  With a sigh, Sharon picked up the box at her feet again. ‘When you’re ready to admit the truth, Lena, we might be able to talk properly.’

  Outrage with Gavin and frustration with Sharon rendered Lena temporarily speechless. In the end, it didn’t matter because her friend had already walked away. Lena would have followed her, if Radar hadn’t chosen that moment to stroll by.

  ‘Heard Gavin’s on cloud
nine this morning. Must have been some night.’

  Outrage floored frustration and Lena pounced on him like a woman possessed.

  ‘Hold it right there!’

  Radar looked back in surprise. ‘Something got your goat, Madame E?’

  ‘Don’t give me that,’ she growled. ‘You’re the king of gossip. Tell me what the hell is going on here.’

  ‘With what?’

  ‘These rumours about me and Gavin.’

  ‘Oh ho ho.’ He leered at her. ‘Calling them rumours, are you? A little too late for that with all the eyewitnesses floating about.’

  ‘Radar, are we friends?’ she demanded.

  ‘’Course we are.’

  ‘Then be straight with me.’

  ‘I’m straight with you all the way, baby.’

  Her fingers itched to strangle him. He wasn’t her friend. He was just another teasing, hormone-driven male who would never be sincere with her.

  ‘I’m serious.’ Her voice broke as she turned away.

  She didn’t expect her pain to have much effect on him. In fact, she’d been speaking more to herself than to him. But her words seemed to get through because he sobered suddenly and put a hand on her shoulder. A friendly hand.

  ‘No one means any harm by it, Madame E.’ His voice was gruff. ‘In fact, I think it’s great you and Gav got it together. At least nobody thinks you’re gay no more.’

  ‘Great. Lucky me.’

  He took his hand away. ‘Look, er . . . what’s the problem?’

  ‘Gavin did kiss me last night, but I had no idea he was going to. I told him to back off,’ she explained. ‘We’re not together; we never were. He should be telling people that.’

  Radar shrugged. ‘Don’t see why he should.’

  ‘But it’s the truth.’

  ‘It’s an opportunity is what it is,’ Radar said wisely. ‘Everybody’s been watching out for who you’ll get with. He probably wants to enjoy the fame a little longer.’

  ‘For Pete’s sake, why does anybody care?’

  Radar choked and looked away. ‘Have you seen yourself?’ he mumbled.

  ‘I know exactly how I look,’ Lena replied tartly. ‘I put a lot of thought and effort into creating this look. Do you think I enjoy the frumpy uniform, the lack of mascara and the hair untouched by product? I haven’t filed my nails in days.’ Her hysteria increased in intensity as she warmed to her theme. ‘The only thing I don’t deliberately apply is the dust. Lucky for me I attract the stuff along with every other loser on this job without any effort on my part at all.’

  His cough sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. ‘All the same, I think he’ll risk your anger for a couple of weeks, just to show off.’

  ‘So what you’re saying is, this is all male pride and testosterone. Testosterone, at the expense of my professional reputation.’ And my friendship with Sharon, she added silently.

  ‘Yep.’ Radar nodded in a manner which made her think that he considered testosterone a good enough reason.

  Her anger reached its peak. ‘Yeah, well. Two can play at that game!’

  Five days passed.

  Sharon went on R and R, a circumstance that Lena was actually grateful for. Gavin’s rumours were still flying free and fast and she hadn’t figured out a way to scotch them yet. The man himself was proving to be singularly unhelpful, avoiding her whenever possible. The one time she managed to corner him, they got whistled and heckled at before she could get a word out. He made his escape while she was still glaring at the perpetrators.

  Meanwhile, work that needed to be done for the skid team was piling up fast. She knew that instead of focusing on her personal life, she should be concentrating on what she’d come to the Pilbara for. She did her best to clear the colossal list of tasks she had on her plate, but there was not a single move she did not question, what with Kevin sitting on her right shoulder shaking his head and Sharon perched on her left, repeating the words she couldn’t seem to get out of her head.

  ‘You’ve been a disaster zone since you got here.’

  It was true on all fronts, including her engineering.

  She tapped a pencil on her notepad. What she needed was some firm goals – a road map she could use to avoid the personal traps laid for her by Mike and Gavin . . . and Dan. Something that would prove her worth, not by getting Dan’s approval or even Carl’s but something tangible that she could hold up and say, ‘That’s what I did and that’s why I’m good.’

  Lena knew it would be nice if the guys looked past her inexperience and sex and said, ‘She’s a great engineer.’ But what would be better than all that is if she actually believed it herself.

  She flicked through her drawings, ran her finger down the index and shuffled them into a pile again.

  They were twenty per cent behind and setting up a night shift. So what if she could catch the skid boys up? What if she could make it so that they didn’t need a bloody night shift to keep the skid on track? What if –?

  ‘Todd, you fuckin’ daydreamin’?’

  Shit. Can I cut a break around here?

  She glanced up and saw Carl peering over her shoulder. ‘Hey, Carl.’

  ‘I hear your R and R is coming up end of next week.’

  It is? She nodded anyway, not wanting to appear ignorant.

  ‘Have one of the girls book a flight for you,’ Carl instructed.

  ‘Sure.’

  She turned back to her work, shocked that she’d actually forgotten she had a holiday coming up. It was amazing how quickly her five weeks on site had almost disappeared. Despite the welcome knowledge, she suddenly wished she had more time. As it stood, she had just over a week left to make some sort of headway with her new goal: zero per cent behind.

  Lena worked solidly for the rest of the day, her new goal adding an extra layer of stress. As if that wasn’t bad enough, at about three o’clock Tony from the yard called.

  ‘Hey, Madame E, the first of the trusses have arrived.’

  The trusses were her next task. They sat on top of the headstocks and made up the layer that widened the jetty.

  Glad for an opportunity to stretch her legs, she went outside to have a look at them being unloaded off the truck. The trusses were like steel-framed building blocks. They were eighteen metres long, 1.5 metres deep and weighed about eight tonnes each. Once installed, the new conveyor would sit inside them.

  All up, Lena knew there were one hundred and seventy trusses to be installed. Of these only five had arrived and the sight of them being placed on the red dirt behind the dongas did nothing to assuage Lena’s stress levels. In fact, it only served to increase them. One problem that had been lying quietly in the background of her mind leaped noisily to the forefront.

  She hadn’t quite figured out how to install them . . . exactly.

  I mean, how do you get an eight-tonne piece of crap two kilometres out to sea and welded to the side of a jetty?

  Her heart sank even further as she reached one that was already resting on the dirt. The paint job was terrible! Nowhere near acceptable. Dan would chuck a fit if she tried to install them in this condition.

  With a sigh she returned to the office and hit the phones to the fabricator. She wanted an explanation and also a repaint. They must have known she’d be after them because she had to chase their manager for the next couple of hours. Some idiot in their office kept foiling her attempts to make contact. The first time she called he said, ‘I’ll get the manager to call you back.’ The second time she called he said he’d forgotten to pass on the message and the manager had since gone out. And the third time she called he said the manager was actually home sick for the day.

  What the –?

  The manager was called Neville Smart, which only infuriated Lena further. After all, if you were going
to go around publicly passing yourself off as ‘Neville Smart’, the least you could do was actually be smart, she reasoned. If she had to call him again, he’d have to settle for her calling him Neville Dumb. By knock-off, her mood was acid. There was nothing like going backwards when she’d just made all these plans to go forwards, to really make her jumping mad.

  Lena went to dinner early, not looking forward to her meal, given there was no Sharon to sit next to and she was fed up with all men in general. She noticed Harry sitting on his own and decided to join him. Perhaps she could tell him about her zero-per-cent-behind goal and see if he had any more brilliant suggestions.

  He jumped as she sat down next to him.

  ‘Whatcha reading?’ Her eyes flicked to the pink leaflets scattered on the tables. He had picked up one and was reading it.

  He reddened. ‘Oh, just some . . . propaganda.’ He cleared his throat. ‘See for yourself.’

  She picked up one of the pamphlets and read the title on the cover. Prevention of Suicide. Do you know someone who’s thinking about it? ‘Geez,’ she muttered.

  ‘Yeah.’ Harry went silent.

  ‘Do they put these out often?’

  ‘Once a month.’ Harry swallowed a mouthful of food. ‘The isolation gets some guys down. You know, being away from family and everything.’

  She felt goose bumps on the back of her neck. ‘There haven’t been any suicides on this job, have there?’

  ‘Oh no.’ Harry’s Adam’s apple jiggled in his haste to reassure her. She saw Dan walk in at that moment, looking equally weary. Immediately, the weight of his brooding touched her.

  ‘I guess it’s easy to lose touch with your loved ones out here,’ she said, watching Dan’s progress across the room, remembering the long phone calls he made to his lawyer instead of talking to his family.

  She hadn’t seen him since their . . . what could she call it? Near miss? She cringed every time she thought about herself standing there with her face up and her eyes closed waiting for his lips to meet hers.

  What an absolute idiot!

  Maybe it was even a plus that he thought she was with Gavin. At least that indicated that she wasn’t, as he might think, pining for him. Even now she wriggled uncomfortably in her seat trying to banish the disturbing thought from her mind. Thankfully he had not noticed her, but was also engaged in reading the pink leaflets on the table. She watched his brow darken even further before he screwed up the paper into a tight ball.