by Lily Malone
‘He used to strip a stick off the willow tree in the paddock and pretend it was a whip. Then he’d whack the tree trunks and strip bark from them.’
‘Doesn’t sound like much fun for the poor tree,’ Ella said. Her head filled with a picture of Jake as a boy, racing from tree to tree, striking out, working off all that pent-up fury. He’d have been a skinny kid probably, like Sam. A young ninja, quick, lithe and fast with that whip.
‘Trees don’t have feelings,’ Sam scoffed.
‘They do! Trees are magic things. You think about those huge tingle trees we saw with Erik yesterday on the Tree Top Walk. They’re so old. I bet they have magic.’
Sam looked at her like she’d gone a bit loopy, but he didn’t argue and a few minutes later he said, ‘Sorry about the rocks and about the bowling green, Mum. I won’t do it again.’
‘Thank you, Sam. I’m glad to hear you say it. Next time you feel like you’re getting angry, walk away from it, okay? Burn it off some other way. Jake’s way doesn’t sound too bad. Not really.’
‘Okay. I’ll try.’
Coming down off the hills, the lights of Chalk Hill beckoned. Ella was thinking how pretty the town was, and how good it felt to be connecting with Sam again when her mobile phone rang, the screen lit up and she saw the name: Henry Graham.
CHAPTER
14
Jake left a message about Henry Graham’s offer with both Brix and Abe overnight, and it didn’t surprise him that it was Abe who was first to get back to him, bright and early Monday morning. Jake was driving into the hardware shop, watching the world brighten around him, and Abe had always been an early riser.
‘We got an offer on Nanna’s house?’ Abe said, a full two seconds after asking how Jake was and being satisfied with ‘good’.
‘We did. $429,000,’ Jake said, adding, ‘cash.’ He could hear Abe splitting the pot three ways and coming up with …
‘That’s about $143,000 each,’ Abe said, right on time. He’d always been good at maths. ‘It’s not as much as you thought we’d get, but it’s a start.’
Jake’s hackles rose. ‘It’s not a start, Abe. I won’t sell it for that, and Henry Graham’s not going up a hundred grand anytime soon.’
Abe said, ‘So if the offer was $529,000 you’d take it?’
Big mistake, Jake thought; now he’d given Abel a sniff. ‘Maybe I’d look at it for longer than four seconds, yeah.’
‘If you’d take $529,000, why the hell are we asking $649,000? You think buyers are mind-readers? You’ll scare ’em all off.’
‘I don’t want to sell Nanna’s place at all, Abe. You know that,’ Jake said, slowing at the Chalk Hill town boundary. A dog wandered the street and Jake thought the mutt was out on his own until Irene Loveday trotted around the corner of the gift shop, following the ball of white fluff.
‘Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to sell it either,’ Abe soothed. ‘But it’s no use to Nanna now, and it’s no use to us just sitting there. All we’re doing is paying rates on it, and everyone says it’s getting pretty run down, needs a paint, that it’s an eyesore. Who has time for that shit?’
Had Abe been sneaky talking to Ella? You’d think so by the way he was going on about paint and maintenance and eyesores.
‘We could rent it out,’ Jake said. ‘That’d be my preference. Wait till the market picks up.’
‘Just sell the fucking thing,’ Abe flared. He softened straight away. ‘I can’t be arsed with renting it—’
‘I know you can’t be arsed. I’d handle it through here. Not much for you to do.’
Abe kept right on going, talking through him. ‘… and you hear so many stories. Just our luck we’d get someone in who trashed the place …’
‘Why are you so keen to sell it, Abe, hey?’
‘Can’t see the point having it sit there is all.’
Jake tried to prise the information from him. ‘Are you in trouble? I’d help, you know.’
‘What makes you think that?’
The fact that Abe switched straight into defensive mode told Jake a heap. ‘What have you got to keep track of now? The Perth tapas restaurant. The place in Dunsborough. You started something new in Broome last season, didn’t you, with that cocktail bar? That’s a lot to keep going. Lot of rent. Lot of staff.’
‘It’s a rough patch, but we’ll trade out of it. Everyone’s in the same boat. It’s the whole end of the mining boom thing. People aren’t spending.’
Jake waited for more, but maybe Abe thought he’d said too much because he repeated, ‘It’s nothing we can’t trade out of. We’ve done that before and we can do it again. So how’s Nita going, and Ollie?’
Nice change of the subject. ‘Both fine. Ollie let Irma’s bird out the other month. Guess where he flew?’
Abe chuckled. ‘I bet he flew right up to Nanna’s verandah like he still owned the place.’
‘You got it.’
Jake scanned the shops stretched along the highway. There were cars lined up outside the bakery: tradesmen’s cars he recognised, some he didn’t, all stocking up for the day ahead. More than usual for Chalk Hill at this hour. Probably workers heading out to a shift at Pickles’ new dam.
He turned off the highway and into the drive that led behind the brick and tin building that had housed Honeychurch Hardware and Timber for more than thirty years. ‘Alright then. I better let you go, mate. I’m at the shop.’
‘Catch ya,’ Abe said.
Jake ended the call but his thoughts stayed with his brother.
Abe had been pushing for the sale of Irma’s house since Nanna died. His other brother, Brix, didn’t care one way or the other—he’d moved on from Chalk Hill—and in the end Jake put the property on the market because the more Abe pushed for it, the more curious Jake got about why. And Abe wouldn’t say.
Abel had always been the risk taker, into stocks and shares and business ventures. Jake and Brix were far more salt of the earth when it came to where they put their money. Jake liked living off the land: farming, land, lumber, stuff you could see in front of you, stuff you could touch and feel. Brix was much the same. Brix had his vineyard.
Of the three brothers, it was Abe who put his trust in bits of paper and a promise. Right now, Jake was pretty sure his youngest brother had a whole fistful of paper nothing and a bellyful of ache. Jake meant it when he’d told Abe he’d help him out if he could, but until Abe asked for it, there wasn’t much point barking up that tree.
* * *
‘So how did Henry’s offer go down with Jake yesterday?’ Harvey Begg called out to Ella, before she’d even got far enough into the office to put her handbag on the floor of her space.
‘Like a lead balloon, I reckon,’ Bob Begg said from his room, steepling his fingers, then extending his arms above his head so his fingers cracked.
From the door of Harvey’s office where she had a view of them both, Ella tried not to wince at the cracking sound. ‘He didn’t have much to say at all.’
Bob’s elbows came back to his desk with a soft thud.
‘Did he counteroffer?’ Harvey asked, head down, trawling through a report, ticking off items with a pen. His bald spot stared from the top of his head like a baleful eye.
‘No.’
Harvey’s head came up. ‘So you’re back to the drawing board? Have you talked to Henry Graham?’
‘He rang last night wanting to know where it was at. I said I’d presented his offer to Jake but he wasn’t interested in any counteroffer other than full asking price at this point.’
‘What did Henry say?’
‘He said something along the lines of that’s what he expected.’
Actually, he’d said it a bit more brusquely than that, and Ella had needed to take the phone a few centimetres back from her ear.
‘Let the pair of them sit on it for a while, chew it around,’ Harvey said. ‘What about you, Bob? Got anything out of the weekend?’
Here it comes, Ella thought. Ring a d
ing ding. How many sales for Bob?
Bob shuffled the pile of files on his desk, straightening some cut-out newspaper adverts that spilled from the blue manila mouth. ‘Actually, it was pretty quiet. I don’t have much going on.’ He glanced at Ella and added, ‘For once.’
Well, how do you like that.
‘We’ve got some work to do if we want to make budget for the month,’ Harvey said, ticking off a last line of his report and eyeing Ella where she stood in his doorway. ‘What about new listings? Got any prospects there? We’re short of stock, and I don’t like rumours that Leo Vesper and Son are thinking of setting up a new branch here. They’ve got Albany and Mount Barker, and we’re the next logical step, though heaven knows why they think a town this size has room for another real estate agent. Maybe they know something I don’t.’
Ella dutifully huffed at the thought of anyone in real estate knowing something Harvey didn’t.
‘I don’t like those whispers. I don’t like it at all.’ Harvey shook his head. ‘So let’s get on top of it, hey? Let’s do a real clean-up of our contact lists. Get in touch with people. Talk to people. Okay?’
Bob puffed out his chest. ‘I’ve got a few potential listings out there. Caught up with the Deiners at the bowls club on Friday. They’re thinking of selling their farm through the winter while it’s green. Ginger and Dusty Wiseman are talking about a move to Perth to be nearer their kids. Their place on Violet Rise could come up.’
‘Good,’ Harvey said, through the wall between them. Then he looked at Ella.
‘Nothing for me, sorry, Harvey.’
‘What are you doing to try to get new listings, Ella?’
‘I did that business card and letter drop in January, like you suggested. I’ve followed up anyone who ever called about the Honeychurch house.’
‘What about the school? You’re the only one of us with kids at the school … start talking to the school mums, hey? Lots of teachers up there too. Teachers need a place to live.’
Harvey meant well, but if she tallied her contacts with school mums and teachers right now, unfortunately she’d have to report most of her conversations were to do with making Sam apologise for pushing a kid at handball or not listening in the classroom. It wasn’t a great stepping stone for chatting about whether they were interested in buying or selling a house.
She forced a smile. ‘I’ll do that.’
‘Okay, everyone, onwards and upwards, hey? Let’s get to it.’
Ella retreated to her space, and managed this time to get her handbag under the table and pull out her chair. Bob’s office door stayed open and Ella could see him on his phone.
She opened her email inbox, looking for any new enquiries on the Honeychurch house.
She desperately needed a plan C, D and E … and as she rocked back in her chair and gazed up at the fluorescent light glaring at her from the ceiling above her space, hoping for inspiration, plans C, D and E felt as far away as Olympic gold.
C’mon, Ella.
She let the feet of her chair drop to the floor.
This isn’t me. This isn’t how I roll!
She sucked in a deep breath and thought it through.
Henry Graham is a buyer. He has at least $430,000 to spend in or near Chalk Hill and he told me he’s looking for something with commercial zoning, preferably to build a backpacker lodge.
And yes, she did wonder which backpackers by the thousand were flocking to Chalk Hill, but that was not her problem. Her problem was to find Henry a potential site.
She closed her eyes, running through everything they had on the Begg & Robertson books, coming up blank. Then she thought about Mount Barker, their largest neighbour to the east, and Manjimup, to the west.
When she ran out of options, Ella turned to other property websites, putting in her search parameters. A couple of commercial properties came up with other real estate agents. Ella jotted the details down and got on the phone.
Doing something positive made her feel better because it put her back in control. It might not mean she sold Irma Honeychurch’s house to Henry Graham, but it could mean she sold him something else that was suitable for his needs.
And that meant she was doing her job.
CHAPTER
15
Ella felt better about her world when she left the office a few minutes before four. She’d emailed the various property options she’d discovered to Henry Graham and she’d cleaned up her client database, contacting people she’d spoken with in her first three months on the job. Some said they weren’t interested in buying a place anymore, and she’d had to wipe them off her precious (and very short) client list, but a few were still interested and nothing gave Ella a better feeling than hearing one of those people say, ‘I’m so glad you called … I was just thinking that we should get in touch with you again …’
Those were the people Ella could kiss.
Her car was warm from being out in the sun and because she only had a two-minute drive to her house, Ella had buzzed the window down rather than put the air conditioner on. That meant her first action when she saw Jake’s Landcruiser parked outside her place was to run her hand through her hair to straighten the wind’s tangles.
Her second thought—and it rushed right after the first—was a fervent wish that she’d gone with air-conditioning instead because not only was she now wind-blown, her face was rather flushed.
As she slowed before her driveway, Ella couldn’t be sure whether the flush was due to the heat in the car or the sight of Jake lifting Sam’s BMX bike out of the back of his Landcruiser.
The muscles in his back and arms flexed under a Honeychurch Timber and Hardware polo shirt. Tendons rippled the length of his arms as he extended Sam’s bike out and over the fence, bending at the waist to compensate for the bike’s weight in a way that made the material of his work pants hug his backside as he handed the bike to Sam.
Ella edged into the carport, lifting her index finger to acknowledge Jake as she passed. A check of the rear-view mirror showed him talking with Sam, and Ella stole the moment to waft air across her throat and face, hoping the carport shade might cool her cheeks before she’d have to get out.
Strains of conversation reached her as she opened the door.
Jake’s rich voice. ‘… he’s in the back seat.’
Sam’s reply. ‘Can I take him out?’
Ella blinked as she came out of the carport shade into bright afternoon sun. ‘Hi, Jake. Thanks for bringing Sam’s bike.’
Jake turned to her and Ella got caught in one of those moments that belonged in a movie. Time did a strange little slip shift, like she was about to get two seconds of the same life to live all over again, only they’d be better.
‘Ella,’ he greeted, eyes crinkling at the corners. ‘No problem.’
‘Hi, Mum. Jake brought Perk—I mean Jake brought Percy. He’s in the car. Can I get the cage out? Please?’
‘Oh, I don’t know, Sammy. Jake might not have time …’
‘Do you have time?’ Sam pleaded.
‘Sure. If your mum doesn’t mind.’
Ella blushed, she couldn’t help it. ‘I don’t mind.’
Sam let out a whoop and clanged out of the side gate, running to Jake’s car. Ella and Jake watched him open the rear door and pull the cage out carefully from the back seat. It wasn’t heavy but it was an unwieldy shape for a young boy, and by the time he’d got the cage back to where Ella and Jake stood, he was flagging.
‘How about I give you a hand with that, hey?’
Ella had the pleasure of watching new, different muscles in Jake’s shoulders bunch and roll as he took the cage’s weight.
‘Could you get the gate for me?’ Jake asked.
‘Sorry.’ Ella jumped to open the gate to let Jake and Sam through. ‘Why don’t we take him inside so you can let him fly, if Jake doesn’t mind?’
‘Sure,’ he said beside her. ‘Percy’s been stuck in his cage all day. He’ll appreciate some wing time.’
‘You don’t take him to work with you every day, do you?’ Ella asked.
Jake looked straight at her. ‘Nah. I admit to an ulterior motive when I brought Percy into the office today.’
That ulterior motive was her. New awareness brushed over her limbs.
‘He’s like my good luck charm when it comes to you,’ Jake said.
‘Run in and check the doors and windows then, Sammy,’ Ella said, and she added quietly for Jake’s ears only, ‘Can’t have your good luck charm flying away.’
Sam ran into the house. Ella followed with Jake and the cockatiel.
She reached the front door first and held it wide. Jake eased the cage inside, making sure he didn’t bump her or scrape the house. Sam had been home from school long enough to rid the place of that closed-for-the-day feel. He’d also made raisin toast—the house smelled of toasted fruit.
Inside, Sam scampered from room to room. He burst back into the kitchen as she and Jake got there with the cage.
‘All clear, Jake,’ Sam said.
He put the cage on a low sideboard in front of the windows that overlooked the back garden, opened it and stood back so Sam could reach in to bring Percy out. Clasping the bird around his wings, Sam straightened and put Percy on his shoulder. The white bird fluffed his feathers and seemed in no great hurry to leave, and Sam stood there, craning his neck to look at Percy, his smile a mile wide.
‘Stay there, Sammy. Let me take a photo.’
He smiled, and Ella clicked the camera on her phone.
Jake gravitated towards Ella’s collection of vinyl records in her bookshelf, pushing through the titles.
‘Would you like a beer or a wine, Jake? Or there’s tea or coffee.’ She hesitated. ‘That’s if you’d like to stay for a while. We can sit outside.’
Percy flew a loop from Sam’s shoulder to the top of the kitchen cupboards across the open plan kitchen/living, cutting a hard right at the bookshelf before arrowing across to the lounge. He landed on the edge of the flat screen, barely touched down as if he didn’t like the metallic feel on his claws, and was off again.
‘I wouldn’t have picked you for a David Bowie fan,’ Jake said.