The Last Mile Home (15 page)

Phillip went to his desk and got his pay packet and handed it over . ‘I've enjoyed our chat too. Thanks for your help, you came at just the right time.'

Mr Richards merely smiled. ‘Give my regards to Mrs Holten.'

At the McBrides', breakfast was under way, orchestrated by Gwen's fine sense of timing and skill. Porridge was served, as toast, eggs, bacon and bubble and squeak were readied for the second course.

‘Where's Colleen?' asked Abby, taking away Brian's empty bowl and handing him a piece of Vegemite toast.

‘She went to get a fresh egg for herself,' said Gwen, putting Bob's loaded plate in front of him. ‘Yesterday's eggs wouldn't do.'

‘Well tell her she can boil it herself. Sit down, luv, your porridge is getting cold,' said Bob, shaking tomato sauce over his eggs and fried leftover vegetables.

The door banged as Colleen rushed in, her eyes wide. ‘Lookit
this
!' she exclaimed, showing them a very large egg. ‘ Tom Turkey laid an egg!'

They all burst out laughing. ‘

I told you it was a hen. It didn't have the dangly bits on its face,' said Kevin in a know-it-all voice.

‘Better call her Tomasina,' said Gwen. ‘Pop the egg in the saucepan, Col.'

‘I want a big egg too,' wailed Brian.

‘And me,' added Shirley.

‘Tomorrow. Tomorrow,' said Gwen, restoring order. ‘ Who knows what tomorrow will bring.'

‘That's the motto for today. Make every day an adventure,' declared Bob.

Gwen grinned at Abby. ‘I don't know that I can stand the excitement.'

Abby chuckled and tucked into a hearty breakfast, now understanding the expression ‘eating for two'. But in her heart she was thinking about the things Mr Richards had said to her over the weeks he'd been with them. Would she be missing out on life's little adventures, tied down with a baby and the responsibilities being a mother involved? She wished for a second she was free as a bird and could simply take to the sky and fly where the winds took her, and alight in some magical land. A land where dreams came true and life was as you wanted. Was there such a place?

‘What are you thinking, Ab?' asked her father, seeing the faraway look in her eyes.

‘I was wishing I could fly away to some magical land where there aren't any problems, but I don't suppose there is such a place.' She gave a small laugh.

Gwen, carrying plates to the sink, dropped a kiss on top of Abby's head. ‘Yes there is, luv,' she said . ‘It's right here, here at home.'

Bob lifted his arms, holding knife and fork aloft. ‘
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there's
a land that I heard of …'
He got no further as Gwen stuffed a piece of toast in his mouth and the children took up the chorus, drowning him out.

Abby and Kevin took up their stations for washing and drying up duty. ‘Meal times are never dull round here, are they, Ab?' he commented drily.

‘Family life at the McBrides'. Wouldn't miss it for squillions,' she laughed. ‘I wonder if other families are as daffy as us?'

A
BBY AND HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS WERE
playing in the swimming hole. Abby floated in the cool brackish water, watching Kevin and the girls take turns swinging on the old tyre. Brian sat at the edge of the creek making pies, his body, face and hair caked in the dark yellow mud.

Abby found the water a refreshing relief from the heat. She also liked the feeling of lightness and buoyancy it gave her, for now she was only a few weeks off giving birth and her bulky shape was cumbersome. Drifting in the water, swathed in one of her father's old shirts, she felt comfortable.

The delighted shouts, dares and laughter of the
youngsters were infectious. Abby closed her eyes, feeling the baby turn and kick inside her womb. It seemed impossible to believe that she would soon hold a small human being in her arms. A living symbol of her and Barney's love. How she ached for him. She longed to be able to rest her head against his shoulder, feel his arms about her, to feel his strength, his warmth and to hear his comforting words of love.

She tried yet again to push the fears and concern about him from her mind. Three weeks had passed without word, which was so unlike Barney for he had been devoted in sending her notes, postcards and long passionate letters whenever he could. He'd phoned a few times, but the calls had been unsatisfactory, lacking in privacy as well as being bad outback connections. But how she treasured his letters. So full of love, and of interesting details about the places he'd been, the people he'd met; always full of the hope they would be together, that'd he'd find just the right job.

This silence was worrying. Doubts crept into her mind. Had he given up on her, and decided he liked his life of freedom? Had he met someone else, or had it all become an impossible dream? She knew she had to hang on as she had been doing all these months, drifting in limbo, only thinking of one day at a time. She sighed and opened her eyes, the day of reckoning would soon arrive.

She dragged herself from the water and asked Kevin to take Brian into the water to rinse off at least some of the mud.

‘I'm not having a bath with him tonight,' declared Colleen.

The wet group trudged towards home.

‘Wish I had a bike,' sighed Kevin. ‘I'd be home by now.'

‘Ask Santa,' said Shirley.

‘Oh sure,' muttered Kevin. ‘I think Santa Claus is going to bring baby stuff this year,' he said, giving Abby a wink.

‘Santa doesn't bring babies, that's the stork,' said Colleen.

‘What do you want for Christmas, Ab?' asked Kevin.

‘A healthy little baby.'

This set the girls off on their favourite game — would it be a girl or boy and what would ‘it' be called.

When the letter finally came, Abby turned it over in her hands, smoothing it, looking at his handwriting and the postmark, Katherine. For a moment her heart flipped, then a warm feeling came over her. This had passed from Barney's hand to hers. She read it slowly.

Abby handed the letter to her parents after dinner. Gwen read it first, pausing a couple of
times to look briefly at Abby and give a hint of a smile. She handed the letter to Bob, who read without lifting his eyes, then handed it back to Abby.

‘I get the impression the bloke's in love with you, Abby,' said Bob, leaning back in his chair, and the ice was broken. The three of them laughed, but for Abby the laugh only masked the internal conflict that the letter refuelled.

‘Katherine? That's a long way from here,' observed Gwen, sensing how Abby felt and trying to get her talking. ‘Way up in Never Never Land . . . Well, that's what we learned to call it in school. Remember reading
We of the Never Never,
Abby?'

‘Yes, Mum. You don't forget books like that. Never thought it would come into my life though.'

‘Has it?' asked Bob quietly. ‘Has it really come into your life in the way Barney wants it to?'

Abby turned the letter over and over in her hands and looked from one parent to the other, her eyes filling with tears. ‘I don't know . . . I don't know.' She stood, pushing the letter into her pocket. ‘Mum . . . Dad . . . I do love him . . . so much . . . but I just don't know. I'm going out for a walk for a little while.'

Gwen and Bob watched her go . ‘Poor girl,' said
Gwen, reaching out for Bob's hand, ‘ it must be torture for her.'

It was a clear summer night. The smallest of breezes danced lightly around the garden and Abby felt it with surprise because it was unusual. There were no clouds. Oh Barney, how I wish you were here, she thought as the breeze lifted a strand of her hair.

She walked down the track to a small rock that was a favourite spot for all the children to sit and yarn and hatch mischief. She climbed up and sat hugging her knees, trying to sort out the churning emotions that had her head in a whirl.

She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there when she again became conscious of a little breeze, the slightest surge of air that died away almost at once, but it was enough to stir her. She stretched out her legs, leaned back and looked up at the sky.

The Southern Cross constellation came into focus. She smiled in recognition, and found the star that she and Barney had made their special star that wonderful night on the ridge nearly nine months ago.

‘Hello, star,' she said softly. ‘Have you got the answer?'

An hour later, as Gwen and Bob were settling down to listen to the wireless, Abby came inside
and stood at the door of the living room. They looked at her and she at them. No one spoke. Bob turned down the radio play.

‘I'm going to marry Barney,' announced Abby quietly.

Gwen rushed to her daughter and they hugged each other. ‘Oh, Abby, my darling. Oh Abby.'

Bob came over. ‘Might as well make it a family hug to mark the occasion,' he said, and kissed both of them.

Gwen and Abby sat on the lounge holding hands. ‘What decided you?' asked Gwen.

Abby smiled at her mother. ‘I suppose you could say I had guidance from the stars. I was looking up at them and I suddenly remembered a chat I had with Mr Richards. It was about listening to the heart, the importance of love and things like that. Every detail of that talk came back to me and suddenly I felt very calm, and everything was very clear.'

‘Well, Barney said he'd put you first and he'd get a job so you could be together and independent. The letter proves he means what he said. He'll make a good husband, Abby. You're a lucky girl,' said Bob.

‘And he's a lucky man,' countered Gwen.

Bob went to the Silent Knight refrigerator and took out a bottle of beer. ‘I reckon a couple of
toasts would be in order.' He raised his glass. ‘ To Barney.'

‘To Barney and Abby,' added Gwen. ‘All the happiness in the world to both of you.'

Long after Gwen and Bob had turned out their bedroom light Abby was still at the table in the kitchen writing to Barney. She told him everything about the day and the evening, from the moment his letter arrived to finding their star and how Mr Richards' ‘sermon' had come back to her.

The strange thing about it, Barney darling,
she wrote,
was that I had this feeling he was really there with me.

The crackling, tenuous thread of the phone connection finally brought Barney and Abby together. They both cried and promised to love each other forever.

Abby held the bulky black handset in both hands, cradling it to her lips as she listened to Barney confess how painful the waiting had been, not knowing if Abby would change her mind and agree to marry him.

‘Perhaps it happened this way for a reason, Barney darling.'

‘Maybe it has been for the best,' he agreed. ‘We've certainly been tested and we were both prepared to make sacrifices for each other, but it's been hard. I've missed you so much, Abby . . .'

‘Me too. Oh Barney, if you only knew how much.' She started to cry again.

‘Abby, that's all in the past now, let's think about the future. Start making wedding plans. I should be there just before Christmas Eve and, Abby, don't make me wait. I want to marry you straightaway. I'm not letting you escape this time.'

The line buzzed and faded and Abby spoke quickly, afraid the poor outback connection would be broken . ‘Barney, it will be just a simple ceremony . . . I'm not sure where, we're going to have problems with the church . . . but don't worry, we'll sort something out.'

‘As long as it happens, I don't care if we get married in a tree wearing gumboots!' The line dropped out for a second and Barney found himself shouting, ‘I love you, Abby,' as if she could hear him directly across the miles that separated them.

‘I love you too, Barn . . . forever!' the line hummed and neither could hear the other, but at the far ends of the phone line both were reluctant to let go of the handpiece that had, for a few brief minutes, linked them. Abby closed her eyes, seeing the man she loved and longing to feel his firm strong body wrapped around hers.

In the hurly-burly of plans and organisation, Abby, who'd been feeling weary, decided to take some time out for herself. So she packed a picnic, threw a blanket and a Thermos into Betsy and, kissing her mother goodbye, set out.

‘I might be gone all day, Mum, don't worry. I'm going back to a place Barney and I went once for a picnic. I need to do some quiet thinking and planning.'

Gwen was unsure about this idea but could see Abby needed time alone and she was a sensible girl.

It took more than a hour to reach the remote spot that she and Barney had found on one of their Sunday drives. It was down a fire trail made by the local bushfire brigade, in the shade of a cool grove of river oaks. Abby settled down with her picnic and a writing pad on which to make lists. After a while she felt drowsy and she stretched out to nap and dream of Barney.

Abby had no idea how long she had been asleep when she was woken by a sudden tightness across her belly. She felt as if her skin would burst open. Wide-eyed she lay there, hands clasped on her bulging stomach, staring unseeing into the treetops.

‘Oh God,' she whispered.

The spasm passed. She sat up and reached for
the bottle of water in the basket, drank, and leaned back thinking, It's not due for a fortnight. I must get home. Don't panic. That's the worst thing — panic. Stay calm. She began packing up and was leaning over when she became aware of rippling sensations across her abdomen. Oh, oh. Here we go again. Don't panic, girl. Deep breaths.

She somehow packed the car and began driving up the fire trail, aware that she was sweating profusely.

‘Where's the nearest farmhouse?' she said out loud. ‘ Ca n ' t remember. Thought there was that old pioneer place round here.'

The sensations grew stronger and time seemed suspended. She didn't dare speed and every bump on the trail was frightening. She felt like she was looking at the world through wet blurred glasses. A sudden cramp made her gasp and the car swerved off the track. She braked hard, skidding into a steep ditch. The motor stalled. Breathing heavily and holding her now painful belly, she got out and walked to a little rise and looked over the open country. She could see a small cottage, just a shack really, its corrugated-iron chimney topped by a thin wisp of smoke.

‘Thank you, God, thank you,' she gasped.

She knew before she turned the key that the car
wasn't going to start. When she did turn the key and nothing happened, she was hit by another spasm, as if it had somehow been triggered by the key. She collapsed over the steering wheel until it passed. Then she put the key in her pocket and set out for the shack, which looked about a mile away.

In a trance, Abby plodded along the track, trying hard to take her mind off the pain. ‘Funny, I never noticed the shack when we were here before. Doesn't matter, so long as they can help me get to hospital. Not much shade now. Keep going. Ignore the heat. Think snow. Snow . . . that's crazy.'