Bilgarra Springs (3 page)

She pushed her way through the people and headed over to Burger King. If she was going to be in the middle of nowhere for the next month, she may as well have one last junk food fix and if you were going to have a fast food hit, in her opinion Aussie Burgers were it. Simple order really — Aussie Burger, no tomato, definitely no onion, no fries, no Coke. Keep it simple.

That had become her mantra since she came back to Sydney nine years ago — keep it simple. Her unit wasn’t overcrowded with furniture: what she needed she had, but nothing just for the sake of having it. The art on the walls was minimal — whatever brought the space to life, but the walls weren’t overcrowded. Even photos were carefully considered and placed. Aurora had wanted the interior of her home to be uncluttered and harmonious.

This attitude even extended to her office at the university. The books that she needed were placed on the bookshelves along with a few memento pieces that she had collected over the years, some of them gifts, but she had never followed the track of some who had filled their office space with books, books and more books in the hope of appearing more learned. She was what she was and she knew what she knew and as far as she was concerned, she didn’t need to prove herself to anybody. Her doctoral thesis had been published, she regularly published articles in prominent journals and had a book on the history of legal jargon in the pipeline. In a professional sense, she was more than comfortable with who she was. In a private sense, she was very closed off from nearly everybody and that was just how she liked it too. Although she had to admit that her insular existence was not so good now that Gran was gone.

A pimply, young kid, who looked about ten, handed over her order with a big smile. She thanked him and couldn’t help wondering why everybody looked so bloody young. Made her a bit twitchy that maybe it was just that she was getting older. How ironic though, she still felt the same as she had at twenty-one.

Aurora sat and people watched as she demolished the burger. She realised as she took the last mouthful that she had forgotten to have breakfast this morning. That at least accounted for the fact that she had practically inhaled the burger — quite out of character for her, she usually ate quite slowly. As a child she had been constantly scolded by Gran for taking twice as long as everybody else to finish her dinner. She smiled as she remembered the look that her Pop would get on his face. He’d look at her when Gran wasn’t looking, peering over the top of the newspaper that he read each evening. Every time the look was the same. He’d ever so slightly roll his eyes as if to say here we go again and smile from ear to ear with the faintest chuckle. The same routine every night with neither party giving an inch. Aurora still took forever to eat and Gran scolded and urged, bustling around her trying to get her to hurry up so that she could wash up and get the kitchen cleaned up for the evening. Pop even made the comment one night as he left to take a shower that if either party ever changed their habits the roof of the house would probably cave in. Her grandparents had both been very good people, each with a lively sense of humour, and she had been extremely lucky to have them.

Aurora quickly checked her watch. Ten minutes until the plane boarded. Just enough time to have a quick toilet stop and make her way to the boarding gate. She collected her rubbish to put in the bin, grabbed her hand bag and set out for the nearest toilet. Her philosophy for public toilets was quite simple, get in and get out as quickly as possible. She did briefly pause after washing her hands to check herself out in the mirror. Overhead fluorescent lights made everybody look so washed out. Although in her case it was probably an accurate picture. She hadn’t slept well all week, especially last night. She’d tossed and turned all night and it felt like she hadn’t slept for ten consecutive minutes. She’d be really glad to arrive there. It couldn’t be any worse than this horrible waiting.

She’d only been sitting in the lounge for a few minutes when the first boarding call was announced over the P.A. system. She’d been people watching, trying to fit stories around the groups of people and individuals that were gathered. She enjoyed watching the different dynamics between people and how they interacted. People watching was one of the benefits of her job — she had a new batch of faces and personalities to work out each year.

She suddenly realised that she would be the new face at the station and that it was her personality that they would all try to place rather than the other way around. She generally wasn’t nervous when faced with a whole stack of new faces, but this time was proving to be the exception. As she stood in line waiting to have her boarding pass scanned, the tension was turning her stomach and she was starting to wish that she’d ignored food altogether.

Eventually the queue moved along and she made her way to her seat. She’d come this far but she couldn’t ignore the fact that a large part of her felt trapped into the situation. She could, of course, still back out. There were any number of opportunities over today and tomorrow where she could simply change her mind and go home. She’d feel like a complete fool though if she failed to turn up at the last minute. Not that pride would stop her if she decided that it was really the wrong thing to do, but she had to admit that, yes, even though she did feel that things had taken on a life of their own and were even a little out of control, there was a tiny part inside her that actually wanted to do this, as crazy as that sounded.

As she settled into her seat and fastened the seat belt, Aurora decided to go with that small part. Surely a positive outlook and attitude could carry her through this. She just needed to ignore that tiny seed of fear. Eventually everybody was seated, the doors locked and the plane started to taxi out to the runway while the cabin crew did the standard safety demonstration. Aurora’s mind was too pre-occupied with what to expect over the next couple of days to be able to focus for even a short amount of time on what they were saying. She didn’t even notice when they weren’t saying anything and had gone to their seats for take-off.

As the plane’s engines roared, its speed increased and the nose lifted off the ground, Aurora couldn’t help wonder whether this next month would give her an exit out of her no-man’s land existence of the last few weeks since Gran’s death. She couldn’t have been said to have been living, more existing. To be completely honest with herself, it had started well before Gran died. A general dissatisfaction with the nothingness of it all had settled in, almost like she were constantly waiting for something, treading water, but it seemed to be something that never arrived. As the plane banked over Sydney Aurora hoped like mad that setting out to meet whatever her grandmother had in store for her would provide the means of escape from the discontent that seemed to be permeating everything.

three

N
ew
H
orizons

Aurora was amazed at how different it was to drive out here. Sydney was always wall to wall cars. She hadn’t seen any car at all for about half an hour on this road. Even driving in Townsville had been much more relaxed; no need for the assertiveness that you had to have in Sydney just to get anywhere. When she had first picked up the hire car she had felt like a bit of a mad thing compared to the other drivers, who weren’t hell bent on lane changing and position grabbing. By the time she had worked out that it was all cruisy, she was at the motel where she had booked to stay and the next morning it was only a very short drive until she was on the road headed for Charters Towers. This style of driving could almost be considered relaxing.

She couldn’t wait to tell June at work about the first road train that she had come across. June was a really timid and scared driver who couldn’t deal with normal trucks or buses and who would arrive at the university shaking if she had encountered even one in the five minute drive from her home to work. The fact that the lanes in inner Sydney weren’t wide enough to accommodate a bus didn’t help. Aurora smiled to herself — a semi with multiple trailers would give June a heart attack. To be truthful, the first one had scared the daylights out of Aurora too, but she would only tell June that at the end of the conversation!

Aurora’s thoughts wandered over the events of the last two days as she headed towards Greenvale. So far, so good: flights hadn’t been delayed, no baggage stuff-ups, no fellow passenger problems (actually no passenger beside her at all which must be the bonus of flying mid-week), no hire car stuff ups, nothing to complain about at all really. The staff at the motel in Townsville had been friendly and accommodating and the trip so far was fairly uneventful. The scenery, however, was something out of the ordinary.

Aurora couldn’t stop being amazed at the way the dirt beside the bitumen kept changing colours from red, through the palest of pinks to a grey. The rock formations were something else too. The closer she got to Greenvale the more stunning the scenery got. So different to the harbour and cityscape that she was used to. If this month brought nothing else, it would provide some fantastic photo opportunities. She was already itching to be out there snapping away.

She checked the tripmeter — approximately ten kilometres until Greenvale — and her turnoff was roughly eight kilometres this side of the little township, so shouldn’t be too far now. She was on the lookout for a white post with six signs on it, one of which said Bilgarra Springs. White station signposts had been popping up randomly once she was a few kilometres out of Charters Towers, a place she wouldn’t mind having a poke around in if she got the chance. There was some lovely old architecture and it had aroused her curiosity.

She had been hoping like mad that the Landcruiser GXL wagon that she had rented wasn’t going to give her any trouble on the trip as her mobile phone had lost signal not too far out of Charters Towers. So far so good, though. She slowed the car as she saw another signpost, quickly trying to check if this was the one that she was looking for. Sure enough, there it was,
Bilgarra Springs 11km
, second sign from the top. She turned onto the road and zeroed the tripmeter. Eleven kilometres to go. She had already travelled a few thousand but the butterflies started in her stomach as she made her way down the very badly rutted road. Clive had advised her that the station owners had been very adamant that a conventional car wouldn’t cope with the road into the station, especially if it had rained.

The Fairleys had originally offered to collect her from Charters Towers and whilst it was a lovely gesture, Aurora had felt that she needed the escape route that her own car provided. They had then suggested that she make sure that she had a sturdy four wheel drive vehicle to cope with the road to Bilgarra Springs. Apparently September wasn’t the wet season and they hadn’t received much rain, so the road wasn’t too bad, but it still would be impassable to anything except a four wheel drive. She snorted to herself, fat lot of good a four wheel drive was going to do if things got too bad — she didn’t have the foggiest idea how to drive one in an off-road capacity. Up until now she had strictly been a city or main highway driver. They were expecting her for dinner and she hoped that if something happened and she hadn’t arrived by nightfall then they would come looking for her.

Being inexperienced on these roads gave her a bonus in that in going slow she got a much better view of the countryside and any wildlife. Kangaroos and wallabies look so much more attractive in the wild than they do at Taronga Park Zoo, not to mention the birds and the odd lizard or two. Hooting along the highway all you got to see were the dead ones. The live ones that were popping up now were so much better.

Aurora took a mental note — she had just passed the turn off to Springvale Station and the turn off to Bilgarra was the next road on the left about another kilometre and a half further along. The butterflies in her stomach were now having a party. She wiped her sweaty palms on the legs of her jeans. She never had been the most social person, but to have to pull up in a place where she knew nobody, in a situation outside of her element, was twisting her stomach into knots. Who knew, maybe the knots would strangle the butterflies…

The turn off appeared on the left. With a huge sigh she indicated and turned. The fact that she bothered to indicate ripped a self-deprecating snort out of her. Like there was any other driver to care which way she was turning. She guessed old habits died hard. She just hoped that nobody had seen her indicate; she could just imagine the jokes that would give rise to. She was already going to be the brunt of a few no doubt, purely by being the new kid on the block, without fuelling the fire.

She was still thinking that she was a prize idiot when the homestead came into sight. Oh crap, this was it. No backing out now. She quickly checked the clock — 2:13 p.m. She had made good time considering that she had stopped for an early lunch in Charters Towers, although lunch had been more of a delaying tactic than hunger driven.

The homestead was a sprawling white, timber building with a large verandah that went across the front and half-way along both sides of the house. A cluster of other buildings could be seen behind it. In checking out the house her attention hadn’t been on driving, or what was in front of her, and she didn’t notice the pair of blue cattle dog pups until the last moment. They had come bolting around the side of the house as soon as they had heard the car, barking their little heads off. Because her attention had been elsewhere, they well and truly took her by surprise and she hit the brakes hard, partly due to fright and partly due to not being used to dogs flying at the car. Dust flew around as the car skidded sideways in the gravel and then stalled.

Oh shit!

Aurora only ever blushed when seriously embarrassed and this fit the bill. Her face went red in mortification — she had just made herself look like a complete imbecile. Way to go girl. Her heart was beating like mad. She sat very, very still wishing that there was rock nearby that she could quietly slip under. Now she really, really didn’t want to get out of the car.

Through the clearing dust she could see that an older lady had come out onto the verandah. A young woman and two youngish looking girls were hovering in the doorway. She fought the urge to drop her head onto her hands on the steering wheel. This just kept getting better and better: not one, but four people to witness her humiliating entrance. The older lady was making her way down the steps over to where Aurora was still sitting in the car.

Aurora’s heartbeat was starting to slow after sky rocketing from the adrenalin rush as a result of the fright caused by the dogs. There was no other option; the woman was just about up to the car. She had to get out and face these people, no matter that she would have given her right arm to hide. She took a deep breath, opened the door and swung her legs out. The style of her arrival may not have gone to plan, but she could at least pretend that she had meant to come to a screeching halt. Didn’t they say that attitude was everything — pretend that you owned the room and suddenly you would…

The minute that her feet touched the ground and she stood up the two rogue puppies that had flown at the car raced from between the old woman’s legs. The slightly larger one attached itself to the leg of her jeans and started playing tug of war, complete with sound effects. The second puppy soon joined in the game. Aurora was too stunned to react. The woman stepped forward, extended her hand towards Aurora and at the same time gently used her foot to shove the puppies out of the road.

‘Tumble, NO! Rough, NO!’ came out in a short, sharp and not to be messed with manner. Aurora decided in that split second that if she were the puppies she would run for the hills. Come to think of it, the run for the hills option was mighty appealing at this particular point in time. Instead, she smiled, extended her hand and grasped the other woman’s hand, whose grip was sure and firm. No floppy fish handshakes from this woman — her handshake matched the no-nonsense attitude to the puppies. Aurora met the other woman’s eyes and got a genuinely friendly smile in return.

‘You must be Aurora. I’m Fiona Fairley. Welcome to Bilgarra Springs. My apologies for Rough and Tumble,’ she said, her hand making a vague gesture in the direction of the two puppies, ‘Everything and everyone is fair game to them at the moment.’ The voice delivering this was much gentler than that which had delivered the rebuke to the now sitting puppies.

Even with the warm welcome, Aurora was still feeling a little hesitant.

‘Thank you. It’s lovely to meet you Fiona,’ she replied, mentally noting that she must sound completely pathetic. She couldn’t even manage to come out with something even remotely original as a greeting. For a woman who had delivered academic papers to professors from Oxford, why was she faltering now? She was really not off to a very good start. Why had all that hard earned self-confidence decided to desert her all of a sudden?

Fiona took a step closer to Aurora and briefly laid a hand on her shoulder, looking her squarely in the eye.

‘I was really sorry to hear about your grandmother. She was a lovely lady.’

Fiona’s gaze slipped to some point in the distance before she continued.

‘We grew quite close while she was here and we made sure that we kept in contact over the years. I will certainly miss her.’

Fiona’s voice faltered ever so slightly at the end. Aurora was stunned by the news that her grandmother had spent time here, miles away from her home. She realised that Gran must have known the people, but she had assumed that they had met in Sydney. She never for an instant thought that her grandmother had been here. Gran had never, ever mentioned Bilgarra Springs, or the Fairleys.

Her mind was positively whirring, questions and thoughts tumbling haphazardly over one another. She was trying to think of a polite way to ask about Gran’s visit when Fiona’s eyes slid back to Aurora’s.

‘Come inside and I will introduce you to my grand-daughter-in-law and great-grand-daughters. The rest of the crew won’t be back until tomorrow, all going well.’

With that, Fiona made her way back to the steps leading onto the verandah. She moved with an assurance that let everyone know, including the puppies circling her feet, that she knew exactly who she was, the parameters of her role and that it best just be accepted. Aurora couldn’t help but admire that in a lady who had to be over eighty years old. No sweet, little, knitting granny this one. Both blue heelers fell in behind her. Aurora hesitated only slightly before following, both puppies doing crazy eights around the two women. Aurora was glad she hadn’t blurted out any questions about Gran’s visit — she had a whole month to ask whatever she wanted to know, and there would no doubt be other chances when the timing was better.

As Fiona, the puppies and Aurora reached the top of the steps the others emerged from the doorway. All three of them were smiling, but the two younger girls were still sort of hanging back, seeming more uneasy due to shyness than scared as such.

Fiona paused on the verandah and turned to address Aurora.