Christmas at Coorah Creek (Choc Lit) (9 page)

It wasn’t that
she was afraid of flying. She was quite happy in a big jet with hundreds of other passengers. But that little plane… She could open a window and put her hand out - into nothingness. The plane was totally vulnerable to the wind and the clouds. The mere thought of running into a storm made her shudder. She
never NEVER wanted to go up in that plane again.

But she had to. It was part of her job, and she loved her job. At least, she had loved her job. Once. She loved being able to help people – watching someone regain their health and strength. But working in a large hospital had taken that away from her. She had hated the overwhelming workload that left her exhausted. Hated being too busy to really connect with any one patient. It was so impersonal. And there was also the mad scramble for advancement. The politics of the place had involved a much greater degree of back stabbing and bitchiness than she had ever expected.

And there were the doctors. She shuddered as she remembered a couple of confrontations. One in particular. A senior consultant. She’s seen him miss something and had tried to bring it to his attention. She’d been tactful and done it by asking a question. He’d simply dismissed her. Only when she’d been insistent had he realised his mistake. Katie had saved the patient some unnecessary discomfort, but that doctor had never forgiven her for finding his flaw. Nor had the doctor whose advances she had refused. They weren’t all like that, of course. There were good doctors as well as bad. It just seemed to her, in the pressure cooker of a large hospital, the bad seemed to surface more often.

Katie had no illusions. She understood the need for rules and regulations and order in a big hospital. She didn’t mind the hard work and she could even cope with the doctors who stepped over the line. But that wasn’t the sort of nursing she wanted to do. That’s why she’d left and come here. As far from that London medical machine as she could get. Here she had hoped to find a more personal approach to medicine. And she was right. This was more personal, more rewarding. Except for the flying. That was a nightmare. She hated herself for the fear that had left her either paralysed – or being violently sick. But hating herself was not going to make it any better.

And now look at her, lying on a couch wallowing in self-pity! What sort of behaviour was that? It was time she pulled herself together.

She opened her eyes, brushed away the moisture and stared up at the ceiling. Above her, the big fan was going round and round, in long slow sweeps. And round. And …

Katie sat up quickly, her hand on her stomach. She stood quickly and made a bee-line for the bathroom. She opened the door and her eyes fell upon a monstrous spider, all black and hairy, poised on the edge of the toilet seat. It seemed to be watching her. Its beady eyes glinted as it raised its front legs in a menacing fashion.

Katie screamed.

Almost instantly there was a pounding on her door.

‘Katie! Katie! Are you all right?’

She spun away from the bathroom and its fearsome denizen and flung herself across the room to her door. She struggled for a few seconds with her newly installed lock, before reefing the door open and literally falling into Scott’s open arms.

‘Hey. What’s wrong? Are you all right?’

She nodded wordlessly into the front of his shirt.

‘Come on. Sit down and tell me what’s going on.’

She shook her head, digging her toes in and refusing to be led back to the flat. She struggled to get control of her breathing and finally pulled herself together enough to speak.

‘That giant spider from Lord of The Rings is in my bathroom.’

‘Oh. Well, I guess I had better deal with it, then.’

‘Please!’ To her own ears she sounded pathetic.

Totally unconcerned, not to mention unarmed, Scott headed for her bathroom. He vanished through the doorway. She heard some scuffling noises, and then what sounded like the window being opened and closed.

‘There you are,’ Scott emerged smiling. ‘Just like Frodo. I did the hero thing.’

‘Frodo didn’t fight Shelob. Sam did.’ Katie automatically corrected him. ‘And he didn’t kill her.’

‘That’s all right. I didn’t kill this one either. I just put it outside.’

‘But it might come back!’

‘It’s just a huntsman. Totally harmless you know.’

‘It didn’t look harmless.’ Katie’s breathing was starting to return to normal. ‘Sorry I overreacted. I’ve had a rough day.’

‘Sorry to hear it. Well, I have good news for you. Your car is fixed. I brought it round for you in case you needed it.’

So – you’ve rescued me again. This is becoming a habit.’

‘Always glad to help.’

He smiled and Katie’s heart did a little flip that had nothing to do with the spider.

‘I’ll tell you what,’ Scott said, ‘if you’re up to it, there’s a place I’d like to show you. It’s one of my favourite places. It might help cheer you up.’

Katie looked into his handsome and eager face. She had no idea where he was taking her, but one thing she did know. Spending a bit of time with Scott would certainly put a little bit of joy back in her day.

‘Okay,’ she said.

‘Great.’ He handed over the keys to her car. ‘You can drive this time.’

Chapter Thirteen

The track to the creek looked just the same to Scott. It was just two tyre ruts in the rough ground. It may have become a little deeper over the years, but nothing else had changed.

‘Are you sure?’ Katie had pulled up just off the main road, and was staring down the dusty track, her brow wrinkled in a frown.

‘You’ll be fine,’ he assured her. ‘Good Aussie cars are built for roads like this. Just keep your wheels in the tracks and take it easy.’

Katie’s response was a dubious sigh, but she put the car in gear and edged forward. ‘If I do any damage, it’ll be on you,’ she said.

Despite her misgivings, Katie handled the rough going well. The car travelled smoothly, if slowly, down the track towards the line of gum trees that marked the creek bank. Scott suppressed a smile as he watched the concentration on her face and the careful way her hands gripped the steering wheel. Katie might be out of her depth here in the outback, but she wasn’t about to let it beat her. She had strengths and abilities that maybe she hadn’t even found yet. He liked that about her.

He liked watching her. He liked the way she bit her lower lip as she concentrated. He liked the way she could laugh at herself and he really liked the way her blue eyes sparkled when she did.

Finally, they reached the creek. Katie didn’t need his guidance as she instinctively parked the car under the trees, out of the hot sun. The bare dirt and a few bits of litter indicated this place was more frequently used now than when young Scott Collins used to come here. Before he was old enough to drive, he’d ridden a pushbike. Once or twice he’d used his father’s car, hoping not to be caught. Now the town had grown, he imagined many more kids would be seeking this place out.

As Scott opened the door and got out of the car, he saw movement in the long dry grass as a snake slithered away. It was just a carpet snake. Harmless. But he decided not to mention it to Katie. She’d seen enough of the local wildlife already today.

They moved to the front of the car and looked down the sloping bank to the creek.

‘There’s not a lot of water.’ Katie sounded disappointed.

‘Not at this time of the year,’ Scott said. He took a couple of steps down the bank then turned to offer her a hand down. It wasn’t that he thought she needed his help. In fact, he was sure she didn’t. He just wanted an excuse to hold her hand.

Katie started to shake her head, then her eyes met and held his. Understanding passed between them and she placed her hand in his. It felt good to curl his fingers around her small hand and offer her whatever strength he had.

They made their way down the slope. She sat down on an old tree trunk that had washed down the river in some flood many years before. It was hard and bleached to a pale grey by the sun, but was a convenient place to sit overlooking the slow-moving shallow waterway that was Coorah Creek.

He sat next to her. Close enough that he could hear her breathing.

‘I had imagined a deep river, with a tyre on a rope that local teenagers use as a swing to jump out into the water,’ Katie said.

‘There’s never enough water for that,’ Scott said. ‘And when I was growing up here, there weren’t that many teenagers either.’

‘But the school looks quite large,’ Katie said.

‘It’s grown since the mine came. Back then, there was one building and one teacher. The teacher dealt with the little kids. In a separate room, the older kids did School of The Air.’

‘What’s that?’

‘We did our lessons via radio with a teacher somewhere else.’

‘That’s very cool!’

‘I suppose so. There were only five or six of us. Not enough to justify another teacher. And we were the kids whose parents were too poor to send us off to boarding school. I guess some places still do it now … although I imagine the internet has changed things a bit.’

‘I guess a lot has changed since then.’

Yes, Scott thought. A lot has changed. But a lot has stayed exactly the same. He cast a sideways glance at Katie. She was swinging her feet above the ground. She looked so young. And sweet. For an instant he could imagine she was one of the teenagers who so obviously came here now. He could imagine that he was younger too. The boy he’d been before circumstances, and his father’s fists, made him grow up so very very fast.

That sat in silence for a while. Scott had expected Katie to ask about his past. But she didn’t. She seemed content with the person he was now. And to let him tell her what he wanted at his own speed. Somehow that made him more willing to tell her.

‘You know Ed? Who fixed your car. He’s my father.’

‘I know.’ Katie turned to look at him, her blue eyes shadowed. ‘Adam told me.’

‘I should have realised. Nothing stays private for long in this town.’

‘I did wonder why you didn’t say anything. Particularly when we were in the pub together.’

‘It’s a long story. And not a good one.’

Katie frowned. ‘Something happened between you?’

‘Yeah … Before this week, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since my seventeenth birthday.’

‘That’s a long time.’

He knew that. That day seemed an eternity ago. It seemed like yesterday.

‘My mum was gone.’ The words came of their own volition. ‘She left when I was about twelve. I didn’t understand it. I loved her so much and I just couldn’t believe that she would go away without me. My father has never really been a cheerful or demonstrative person. After she left, he become positively sullen and withdrawn. He put away everything in the house that reminded him of her. He wouldn’t talk about her, even though I really needed to. I managed to keep just one photo. I guess that was the advantage of those old photo prints. I hid one where he couldn’t find it. I used to look at it and wonder where she was. I vowed that one day, when I was old enough, I would go and find her.’

‘Did your father ever tell you why she left?’

‘For a very long time I thought it was me. I thought I’d done something wrong to chase her away.’

‘No!’ The exclamation wasn’t loud – but it was passionate. Katie’s hand reached out to cover his. ‘It wasn’t that. I am sure of it.’

His fingers and hers intertwined and he held her tightly.

‘I know that now. Just a few days after my seventeenth birthday, I was at the shop, buying some food for my dog, Candy. I thought Candy was the only one who loved me. I heard someone talking. About my father. He’d had an affair. That was why my mother left.’

‘Oh, Scott.’ The compassion in her voice seemed to envelope him and warm him, even as the flood of words continued.

‘I went back to the house. I was just a kid and I was so angry. I demanded to know why he did it. As I confronted him I realised for the first time that I was as big as he was. I yelled at him. I blamed him for everything. He just stood there and said nothing. Then I hit him.’

‘What did he do?’

‘He hit me back. Knocked me down. I got right back up and hit him again.’

‘And …’

‘He knocked me down again. There was something on his face. A blankness. When I got back up the second time, I just walked away. I grabbed a few things and walked out that door.’
      

‘Where did you go?’

‘I went across the road to the pub. My head was spinning and my hand hurt like hell. My knuckles were bleeding. I tried to buy a beer. I figured I was a man now and could handle it. When Trish Warren wouldn’t serve me, I put my fist through her window. Guess that shows how much of a man I really wasn’t. And it left my hand hurting even more.’

She smiled. It was a slow sad smile, but to Scott it felt as warm as the sun.

‘And …’

‘I left Coorah Creek that night. Hitched a ride on a passing truck. I was determined to find my mother. I haven’t been back since – until you and I drove into town together.’

‘And you never found her?’

‘No. I eventually got a job and started working. With cars. That’s irony for you. Then I went to night school to finish my education.’

‘And now you’re back.’

Scott hesitated. He didn’t want to say that he was leaving. Going to England. That seemed some sort of betrayal of this moment. Of this strange intimacy that had suddenly come to pass with Katie. He closed his hand even more tightly around hers. ‘I just felt it was time to see if
—
Well, maybe we could make amends.’

‘And are you?’

That was a very good question. ‘We haven’t hit each other,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘I guess that’s something.’

‘It’s a start.’

‘Yeah. There’s a lot to make up for. The years between Mum leaving and me leaving were not good. Dad was in a bad place. I can see that now. He took me there too. There was no joy in the house. And none for me anywhere else either. Dad made sure I was fed and clothed, but that was it.’

‘That must have been horrible. But a lot of time has passed. You have to at least try to mend the bridges. If you don’t, and you lose him too, you will come to regret it.’