by Dale Furse
‘During.’
‘Oh, Nell. You’ve been told a million times not to race. Wait ‘till I see Sam. He’s supposed to look after you, not get you killed.’
‘It’s not his fault. I took off before he could stop me. The beach was so still and quiet, I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, Sam’s already ripped into me.’
She shook her head but a small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Nell knew she wasn’t really angry. She had never seen Annet say one cross word to anyone.
‘But I was so close to beating him this time.’ The crocodile’s image sprang into her mind.
Annet eyed her. ‘What’s wrong?’
Nell threw her a smile. She had to learn to watch her expressions around Annet. The woman had a weird sense of what others were feeling. ‘Nothing. I was just thinking how close to winning that race I was, that’s all.’
‘Never mind. Eat up. We still need to put some meat on your bones.’ She leant against the kitchen bench.
‘Aren’t you sitting down?’ Nell said.
‘No. I don’t want to get colour all over the back of the chair.’ Bzzzz. Her timer sounded. ‘About time. I still have packing to do.’ Annet put the timer on the bench and started out the door.
Packing? ‘Wait,’ Nell said. ‘Are you going somewhere?’
‘We have a six am flight to Melbourne tomorrow so we’re staying in Cairns for the night.’
‘Sam didn’t say anything.’ So that was the reason for the hair colour.
‘He doesn’t know yet. Carl only got the call this morning. His publisher wants to see him, something about a movie deal. You know what it’s like. They make me so mad sometimes. They never give him any notice. Don’t worry; you and Sam aren’t coming with us this time.’
‘You’re leaving us both here? Alone?’ They’d only ever gone away without her when her father was home.
‘No. No. Didn’t I tell you? Your father will be back from his business trip today. Only Sam will be staying here alone, and I think he’s old enough to cook himself a meal or two.’
‘Now that, I want to see.’ Her mind whirred. Her father was coming home but he’d only been gone for a couple of weeks. She wished she knew what he did. All she knew was that his trips took him to far away places.
Whatever he did, she never knew whether to be excited or depressed at his return. She loved him, but sometimes, she wasn't so sure how he felt about her. His trips away from home had become more frequent and much longer during the last year. When he was at home, he spent most of his time in the library.
‘Make sure you remind Sam he has to clean up afterwards.’
Nell stood. ‘I will. And I’d better get home and make sure the house is tidy for Dad. Can you tell Sam to come over when he’s finished scoffing all the pikelets?’
Annet laughed and nodded. ‘Sure.’ She turned to go, but stopped and looked at Nell, all laughter had drained from her face. ‘Don’t forget to tell your father about your acceptance into University. He needs to give the final go ahead. And, sweetie, tie your hair up off your face before you go home. It’s all straggly.’
CHAPTER TWO
NELL PEDALLED HER BIKE SOUTH THROUGH THE THICK line of coconut palms that bordered the path and separated the beach from the rainforest.
Glad of the shade, she stopped and gazed back at the beach. More images from her nightmares floated across her mind. The crocodile and Shrewdy joined them. They were just dreams from Carl's stories. Sam's father told his stories in such amazing vivid detail. Science Fiction intertwined with Aboriginal tales would give any girl nightmares.
‘Koo koo koo kaa kaa.’
Nell started and only just managed to keep her bike from tipping as the kookaburra's rollicking laughter seemed to mock her.
‘Oh, be quiet.’ She regained her balance. The bird looked different. His eyes were black and way too big. The same as the crocodile’s eyes.
The bird cut short his call. His gaze appeared despondent as he sat on the power line. As if in a sulk, he buried his beak into his puffed out white-feathered chest without taking his eyes off her.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead and laugh if you want.’
He seemed to brighten and broke into song.
Nell shook her head. Now she was talking to a kookaburra. A sulky kookaburra at that. She gazed up. His eyes were the usual brown and smaller. She let out a laugh. It must have been the light.
She propped her bike in the bike rack at the corner of her two-storey house and noted the white weatherboards needed painting. Why hadn’t she ever noticed the peeling paint before and why did two people need such a big house anyway? She shrugged. For some reason, she seemed to notice a lot of things that day.
She strolled along the short path to the front stairs, picking the little purple flower heads off the weeds that poked out from under the house.
Once on the front veranda, she could just see the roof of the Frederick’s house. She decided follow the veranda around to the ocean side of the house where she blew the flower heads off her palm towards the ocean but the breeze caught them and took them high above the house.
The French doors to the living room were open which meant her father was already home.
She took her boots off and kicked them against the wall.
‘Is that you, Nell?’
‘Yeah, Dad. Be there in a tick.’
She peeled of her wet socks and threw them onto her boots. At least the rest of her was dry. She touched her hair. Oops, except that. Plucking off a hair-band from her wrist, she tied as much of her curls back off her face as she could and walked through the doors.
Her father had just entered the living room from the foyer. At the sight of her, his pace picked up. ‘Hello, love,’ he said as he took Nell in a hug.
She hugged him back. ‘Hi, Dad.’ When she let go, she said, ‘Sorry I wasn’t here when you got home. Annet only just told me.’
‘That’s all right. I haven’t been here long.’ He turned and sat on the sofa. ‘Come and tell me what you’ve been up to while I’ve been gone. Are you enjoying your holidays with Sam?’
‘Yeah and a heap of people came up to ride the horses last week. That was fun.’
‘Yes. I’ve been thinking how lonely it must be for you here. Maybe we should move somewhere where you can have friends close by all the time.’
‘Leave here? Oh, I don’t think I’d like to leave here forever. I mean, I like going away sometimes, but I love coming back. And I love the Fredericks. I’d miss them way too much.’
He smiled. ‘I know you do, love. I do too. However, you are getting older and you can’t stay isolated all your life. Never mind, we’ll talk about that later. How about you make some coffee and I’ll join you in the kitchen after I wash up.’
She pushed her hair behind her ears.
‘I think we need Annet to trim those curls of yours.’
‘No. I like it long and I’ll keep it neat. Promise.’
He smiled. ‘We’ll see.’
Not for the first time, she wished she had a mother who was there to take her side. However, her mother, Asisa, had died the night Nell was born and her father never took the time to find anyone else. She sighed.
Her father put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up to him. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yeah. I was just thinking about having a mum.’
‘I know, love. It’s hard with only two of us. You need more females in your life. I’m hoping that will change in the future and I won’t have to spend so much time away from you.’
‘How will it change?’
‘Hold any questions until I get back.’ He rose to his feet and headed for the foyer.
She stood up and called after him. ‘Okay, but don’t be long.’
Nell walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. Annet had helped decorate the whole house, but the kitchen was the only room where she had full rein.
The curtains above the sink opposite were full of vividly coloured parrots. J
ars of every colour in the rainbow lined the bench top on both sides of the stove and a sturdy wooden table stood against the side wall. Nell and her father ate there when they were by themselves. No. She couldn’t stand not spending some of her life in that room.
While she waited for the water to boil, she poured herself a glass of lemonade and sat down. The jug clicked off. ‘Hurry up, Dad,’ she mumbled. Leaving the coffee unmade, she sat back and drank her drink. By the time she’d finished, her father still hadn’t joined her. What was keeping him? She had so much to tell him and especially wanted to let him know about university. He would be proud of her.
Humph. Annet was worried when Nell asked her to help her with the enrolment form. She said they should get David’s permission first. Nell had pushed though. She said she’d spoken to her father about uni and he was all for it. It wasn’t really a fib. At the start of grade twelve, she had asked if she could go on to university and his reply was vague as usual. He said, ‘We’ll see when the time comes.’ That wasn’t a no.
Nell wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there but it seemed like forever. She decided she would go and hurry him up.
The doors to the foyer were closed. That was strange. Her father’s voice floated through from the other side. He was probably talking to Carl.
A man spoke. His voice was the deepest Nell had ever heard. Not Carl.
She breathed out. Goose bumps sprang up all over her skin. No one ever visited them. She reached for the doorknobs, but hesitated. She hadn’t fixed her hair. Blast. She pulled the band out and hurried in front of the wall mirror above the sideboard in the dining room. Using her fingers to comb her hair back, she pulled it as tight as she could into a ponytail and tied it. Not bad.
Back at the doors, she couldn’t make out any words the throaty stranger said but he sounded agitated.
Maybe she shouldn't interrupt. She shrugged, opened the doors wide, and stepped in front of the internal stairs. Her father's eyes darted over the visitor’s shoulder in her direction and the visitor promptly concealed what looked like a dark-green beret on his head with the hood of his lime-green cape. Who wore their hats so tight over their heads? She didn’t see the beret properly, but it looked like it had crooked lines all over it. And what was with the cape and the weird brown uniform? Now that was the weirdest fashion she had ever seen, especially during summer in the tropics.
The men stood in front of the palm-filled alcove created by the sweeping staircase. Her father was tall but his visitor was a full head taller.
‘Hello,’ she said to the man’s back.
Her father combed his fingers through his golden hair. ‘Wait here. I will see to my daughter.’
The man let out a low chuckle as her father stepped around him and clasped Nell's hand to turn her around.
‘Wait,’ she said, pulling up. ‘Can I meet your friend?’
‘Not now.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I said, not now.’ He yanked her towards the living room.
Her presence appeared to annoy him. Too bad.
Before her father could guide her out of the foyer, she pulled her hand away from his and moved in front of the man. She gasped at the sight of his green, scarred face.
The man spun away and wrapped his green cape around his body.
‘Sorry,’ she said. So that’s why he didn’t want her to see him. Poor thing. He must have been in some horrific accident and he was embarrassed by his appearance. Yeah. That would explain the scars but why was he green? Maybe he had been burnt by some sort of chemical.
The stranger gave another low laugh, ‘It's all right, sweet child.’
His accent was one she had never heard before, not in Cape Hollow or on television, not even when she went down south with the Fredericks. She wanted to talk to him more.
Her father guided her into the living room. ‘Wait for me in the kitchen,’ he commanded.
She turned back to the foyer and looking up, she blurted, ‘Would you like a drink?’
‘Nell,’ her father said loudly.
She jumped. He’d never yelled at her like Sam’s father yelled at him. But that was probably because Sam was always ignoring him when he was busy doing something other than what Carl wanted him to do.
Nell’s father moved back to the visitor. ‘I see we have to cut our conversation short, friend.’ He put an arm around the man’s shoulders and showed him to the front door. ‘I'll speak to you soon,’ he muttered into the man’s hood.
Without a word, the stranger nodded and left.
When her father turned towards her, he smiled. ‘Come on, young lady. It’s time we had that talk.’
She followed him into the living room and through the dining room. A low rumble of thunder sounded over the ocean and she glanced through the open French doors. A storm brewed on the horizon.
In the kitchen, her father gently guided her into a chair. She sensed his anxiety but when his brows knitted together, he looked angry. A cloud must have blocked the sun because the room darkened. Even the vivid curtains failed to brighten the room.
Relief washed over her when her father's expression softened.
Nell pointed to the front of the house. ‘Who was that?’
‘Kandar. A friend. He … Don't worry about him.’
A green, scarred man dressed in strange clothes visits and her father tells her not to worry about him as if she was an annoying child. And what about that name? Where did a name like Kandar come from?
‘But his face was green.’
‘There’s a logical explanation for it appearing that way. We’ll talk about him another time, when you get a little older.’
Nell frowned. They were getting along great before the stranger turned up. Now it was all different. He acted as if he didn’t know she was old enough to go out into the world on her own and she was more than old enough to talk about some poor man’s accident.
He patted her knee.
At his touch, the atmosphere surrounding Nell prickled. Her senses had definitely heightened. Maybe an electrical storm was on its way.
Clasping his hands, he rested his forearms on the table. His shoulders appeared heavier than the last time she saw him.
‘Nellen, it's important that you listen to me.’
He rarely used her full name. She lifted her head. He looked tired and troubled all of a sudden. She couldn't remember detecting other people's moods before. Maybe it was because she was about to turn seventeen. People probably gained a type of sixth sense as they grew older.
She wished he would hurry and tell her what was going on so she could tell him all her news.
A frown reappeared between her father's brows.
She wondered if he had more than the visitor on his mind? He probably didn't want to hear anything she had to say anyway – about university or especially, her dreams. The last time she told him about them, he was more irritated than worried. He didn't want to hear how she flew with four magnificent wings or swam with strange sea creatures. If she told him those dreams had become nightmares, he'd probably dismiss them and tell her to forget about them again. It probably wouldn’t matter how old she got, he’d still treat her like a child.
Bored, she studied his hands. His fingers were long and smooth like a pianist. She inspected his other features.
She wasn't sure how old he was. If she asked him, he would shrug the question off and say, ‘Forty-something.’ She sighed. He never really answered any of her questions.
He moved his chair closer and Nell breathed in his aroma. He always had the scent of the ocean around him. Sometimes she wondered, was it cologne or did he naturally smell of the sea – clean and salty?
‘You need to stay close to the house from now on.’ His blue eyes didn't flicker. ‘I don’t want you to go any farther north than the Frederick’s house and no more than fifty metres south.’
That meant she would be stuck there with nothing to do. ‘Why?’
His lips narrowed. He wasn
’t going to answer that question either.
‘Because I said, that’s why.’
‘Have I done something wrong?’
He smiled. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong.’
Great. Grounded without a reason. ‘How long? From now until I go to uni?’
Her father’s expression was confused. ‘University?’
‘JCU of course. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I got my acceptance just before Christmas.’
‘I’ve never given you any reason to believe you would be going to university. Why would you think such a thing?’
‘Because pretty well everyone goes now days and Annet helped me apply.’
‘She shouldn’t have done that. You will continue to be schooled at home by correspondence. If Annet can’t spare the time to help you anymore, I will.’
The kitchen dimmed even further at her father's words. Not go to uni? Stay at home? Her insides were as empty as the beach and hot tears pooled in her eyes.
‘You’re treating me like a child, Dad. Do you even know that I’m nearly seventeen?’
Through the haze, the anguish on her father's face confused her. Why would he look like that? He was hurting her, she wasn’t hurting him. Her hands shook as she rubbed them together so she wiped them on the sides of her jeans hoping the movement would quell her tears. She didn't want to cry. She wanted to be angry.
‘I'm sorry, love. I probably should have told you sooner, but you will begin to notice changes in your body and mind this coming year.’ He placed his hands palm down on the table and pushed himself onto his feet as if his body was a great weight.
Nothing he told her made sense. He was a bit late for ‘the talk’. That was how much attention he took. He hadn't even noticed she had already changed.
‘That's no reason to keep me here. Annet already told me everything years ago.’ Rage flared through her. ‘You can't stop me from going. I am old enough to do what I want. And you don’t have to pay. I’ve applied for a government loan.’
‘Nell.’ His voice was low, but commanding as he leant forward.
She held his gaze.
Finally, he sighed. ‘We'll speak more when my sister arrives.’