Gone Fishing (34 page)

‘I'm scared, Sam. Terrified that being a mother will make me mean and jealous and cruel and competitive like Emily. That I'll end up bending a pure new life into something bruised and broken because that's how I've been programmed.'

‘Nah. You're smarter than that. Truth is, you're a realist. That doesn't make you a bad person. Me? I'm an optimist, a dreamer. We're not a bad combination if you think about it.' He rubs her back, unaware he's doing it. She leans into his chest. Looser now. Like the glue holding her tight is melting. Her eyes close. Black lashes fan on her pale skin. He sees the small hard roundness of her stomach under her pyjamas and feels a surge of pure joy. ‘You'll be a great mother, Kate,' he whispers. ‘You'd be a great wife, too.'

She twists towards him, eyes wet, a tentative smile lifting the corners of her mouth: ‘Is that a proposal, Sam Scully?'

‘Yeah. I'm not saying we'd have a smooth run –'

She puts a finger over his lips: ‘What about you? A great father? A wonderful husband?'

‘I'll give it my best shot, love.'

‘Then so will I.'

Back on the
Mary Kay
, Sam calls Ettie and tells her Kate's fine and she'll be in later to explain what's going on.

‘She's pregnant, isn't she?' Ettie says.

Sam sighs. ‘Jeez, Ettie, she was going to surprise you with the news.'

Ettie's voice softens. ‘You and Kate, you'll be magnificent parents. And that little baby's going to be loved, cherished and fought over by the whole community. A café baby, how wonderful . . .'

‘Barge baby, love. Boy or a girl, it'll be a barge baby.'

‘We'll see what Kate says. Early days yet. I might paint the penthouse pink. Or blue. Depends.'

‘I was thinking the wheelhouse of the
Mary Kay
might be due for a facelift. A pale, gender-neutral lemon to blend in with the hull might go well.'

‘Marcus and me, we'll be honorary grandparents, of course. Pretty dresses for a girl. Boat shoes for a boy. Do they make baby boat shoes?'

Sam laughs. A kid of his own. Not quite the way he thought it would happen, but in four months, he'll have a tiny Scully to hold in his arms. To point out the stars, the moon, the sea and the infinite secrets of the natural world.

Ettie adds: ‘By the way, Jimmy's here and waiting for you. Says you're running late for a couple of pick-ups.'

‘Tell him they're cancelled, will you? And then give him a slap-up brekky with plenty of spinach. And ask him to give his mum a call. We're going to need a baby-size patchwork quilt the same colour as the
Mary Kay
by October. Jeez. I'd better get a list going. Oh, and inform him that I've put his name down as number-one babysitter. It'll be good practice for when he has his own kids. After that, tell him . . . tell him I've gone fishing and I'll see him and that lollopy mutt of his first thing tomorrow. And Ettie?'

‘Yes, love?'

‘You'd better start thinking about top nosh for a mega wedding. You might start with a few sauso rolls, eh?'

 

 

 

Recipes from The Briny Café

 

 

Ettie's roasted potato, zucchini, pumpkin and capsicum oven-baked frittata

Serves 6–8

2 red capsicum

4 zucchini

4 cups butternut pumpkin

4 large potatoes

12 fresh eggs

2 cups pouring cream

½ cup grated cheddar

½ cup grated parmesan

½ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Chop all vegetables into bite-size chunks and tip into a bowl. Sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt, then toss with your hands. Line a shallow roasting tray with non-stick baking paper, spread over the vegetables and pop into the oven until soft and golden, about 35–45 minutes depending on your ‘bite' size.

Beat together the eggs and cream. Stir in the cheeses and parsley. Pour over vegetables and cook until centre is just wobbly. Time varies according to depth of mixture.

Ettie's Brown Sugar Shortbread

450 g plain flour

½ cup rice flour

Pinch salt

500 g unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

 

Put all ingredients into a food processor and whizz together until it forms a dough. Remove.

Press dough gently into a large tray lined with baking powder and mark mixture into bars with the back of a knife. Chill for half an hour, then poke the top randomly with a fork.

Place tray in an oven at 160°C and bake for one hour. If it's not quite crisp enough after it's cooled, whack it back in the oven for a while longer. The recipe yields a huge amount; the mixture can be halved.

Marcus's Quick-and-Easy Coq au Vin

Serves 6–8

12 chicken thighs on the bone

20 small brown onions or, even better, shallots

20 button mushrooms

½ kg good-quality smoked streaky bacon, cut into wide strips

1 cup red wine

½ cup brandy

1 bunch baby carrots, washed and trimmed

Chicken stock
 

Splash of olive oil

Brown thighs in oil in a deep, heavy-based frying pan. Remove and set aside in a bowl. Brown peeled shallots. Add to bowl. Brown button mushrooms. Add to bowl. Fry bacon until golden. Replace all ingredients in fry pan.

Tip in brandy and carefully set alight. After flames dissipate, add red wine and enough chicken stock to keep ingredients moist – don't flood them. You want the juices to reduce.

Simmer until chicken is cooked through and the juices have reduced to a rich consistency. Serve with garlic mashed potato and beans or a green side salad. (Note: You can use whole thigh fillets but reduce the cooking time.)

Marcus's Prawns in Tamarind Chutney

(Wonderful finger food)

 

2 tbsp tamarind chutney (Goan Cuisine brand is good)

¼ cup water

Uncooked peeled prawns – fresh or frozen

 

Place chutney in a bowl and add water to break it down. Toss in prawns and leave for a few minutes. Stir-fry in a very hot wok or frying pan until just cooked through.

Ettie's Delicious Puttanesca Sauce

Serves 6–8, generous sauce serves

2 cloves garlic

½ tsp chilli flakes

8 anchovies

Olive oil

800 g tin chopped tomatoes

Handful pitted black olives

1 tbsp baby capers

 

Heat olive oil until just warm and add garlic, chilli and anchovies. Stir for a couple of minutes or until the anchovies have dissolved. Turn up the heat and add tomatoes. Simmer for about half an hour.

Just before serving, add olives and capers. Serve like a gutsy gravy alongside slow-roasted shoulder or neck of lamb.

Acknowledgments

This is a work of fiction but it owes much to the courageous and single-minded environmental warriors all over the country who fight so hard to preserve our bush, beaches and, now that coal seam gas is looming, our drinking water and backyards. And of course, to the legendary Jack Mundey, one of the greatest soldiers of all, who kindly allowed me to take some real moments from his life and insert them into make-believe. I should also add that the inspiring story of Kelly's Bush is based on fact. How often I smiled when I read and re-read a slim green volume that explained how thirteen twinsets-and-pearls housewives, sneered at by businessmen and politicians, sweetly and politely managed to redefine the environmental battlefront worldwide. We are all deeply in their debt; they have shown that anything is possible if you refuse to back down or accept what you're told is a
done deal.

The story of Bruce Robertson is also fact. Bruce Robertson, a softly-spoken cattle farmer from sleepy Burrell Creek on the mid-north coast of NSW, proved – with the help of the Manning Alliance – that escalating electricity bills were prim­arily the result of over-investment in electricity networks and that the power industry was essentially misleading the State Government by predicting rising energy ­consumption. In fact, energy use was falling. In a desperate, bullying bid to gag him, Robertson suddenly found that and he and his young family were being sued by six state electricity giants. The public outcry was thunderous. As it turned out, corporations are prevented by law from suing individuals for defamation anyway. The lawsuit was withdrawn within twenty-four hours and plans to build a massive power grid in the Manning Valley were shelved.

The other tilt towards truth is the story of Delaney, which is, in effect, the story of Paul Dougherty, my first husband, who died of a brain tumour in 1993. The tabloid he worked for was the
National Enquirer
, when it was under the tyrannical rule of the late Gene Pope. I used as reference a story by one of those young editors, Shelley Ross, who went on to become a much-awarded executive producer for
Good Morning America
. It was titled ‘How the
National
Enquirer
Blew a Chance for a Pulitzer Prize – 30 Years Ago'. I have no idea why it suddenly seemed so important to tell this story, but, like Sam, I have learned to trust my instincts. Perhaps it will resonate for all the right reasons with a reader somewhere. Or perhaps it was simply to reinforce that truth is truly stranger than fiction.

Beyond the fictional storyline and the fictional characters of fictional Cook's Basin, the underlying purpose of
Gone Fishing
is to provide a blueprint for anyone who wakes up one morning to find his/her immediate world under threat in ways that seem undemocratic and destructive. I hope it helps or, at the very least, suggests a way to start any action.

Many thanks to author Amanda Hampson (
The Olive Sisters
,
Two for the Road
) for her invaluable advice and input, Toby Jay (who runs the real-life
Mary Kay
, the
Laurel Mae
, with his partner, Dave Shirley), and the Western Foreshores community of Pittwater for their generosity of spirit and many day-to-day kindnesses. Thanks also to Nikki Christer, Beverley Cousins, Kate O'Donnell for her clever edit, and the team at Random House. As always, thanks to Caroline Adams for her sensitive and intelligent reading of the manuscript.

Most of all, thanks to my husband, Bob, for his quiet, unconditional love and support.

 

 

The Briny Café

Brimming with warmth and wit, Susan Duncan's first novel is a delicious tale of friendship and love, and the search for a place to call home . . .

Ettie Brookbank is the heart and soul of Cook's Basin, a sleepy offshore community comprising a cluster of dazzling blue bays. But for all the idyllic surroundings, Ettie can't help wondering where her dreams have disappeared to. Until fate offers her a lifeline – in the shape of a lopsided little café on the water's edge. When Bertie, its cantankerous septuagenarian owner, offers her ‘the Briny' for a knockdown price, it's an opportunity too good to miss. But it's a mammoth task – and she'll need a partner. Enter Kate Jackson, the enigmatic new resident of the haunted house on Oyster Bay. Kate is also clearly at a crossroads – running from a life in the city that has left her lonely and lost. Could a ramshackle café and its endearingly eccentric customers deliver the new start both women so desperately crave?

Available now

 

 

Salvation Creek

The unputdownable true story of tragedy, courage and love, that grips like a bestselling novel.

At 44 Susan Duncan appeared to have it all. Editor of two top-selling women's magazines, a happy marriage, a jetsetting lifestyle covering stories from New York to Greenland, the world was her oyster. But when her beloved husband and brother die within three days of each other, her glittering life shatters. In shock, she zips on her work face, climbs back into her high heels and soldiers on – until one morning eighteen months later, when she simply can't get out of bed. Heartbreaking, funny and searingly honest,
Salvation Creek
is the story of a woman who found the courage not only to begin again but to beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life – and love – in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside world. Combining all the sweeping, rollercoaster style of a bestselling novel with the very best – and most inspiring – human interest story,
Salvation Creek
is a tour-de-force that will stay with the reader long after she has turned the last page.

Available now

 

The House at Salvation Creek

The wonderful second memoir from Susan Duncan, which picks up where Salvation Creek ended.

Continuing the story of Susan Duncan's bestselling and much-loved memoir,
Salvation Creek
,
The House
picks up after Bob and Susan marry and, two years later, move from her Tin Shed into his ‘pale yellow house on the high, rough hill', Tarrangaua, built for the iconic Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar. Set against the backdrop of the small, close-knit Pittwater community with its colourful characters and quirky history,
The House
is about what happens when you open the door to life, adventure, and love. But it's also about mothers and daughters, as Susan confronts her mother's new frailty and her own role in what has always been a difficult relationship. Where
Salvation Creek
was about mortality – living life in the face of death –
The House
is about stepping outside your comfort zone and embracing challenges, at any age. In turn funny and moving, Susan Duncan's beautifully written sequel reminds us to honour what matters in life, and to disregard what really doesn't.

Available now

 

A Life on Pittwater

Discover a magical place where the only way home is by boat.

Susan Duncan came to Pittwater when she impulsively bought a tumbledown, boxy little shack in Lovett Bay. The move changed her life forever, as she describes in her bestselling title, Salvation Creek. Now Susan lives in
Tarangaua
, the gracious house built for Dorothea Mackellar in 1925 and is a well-loved member of the small Pittwater community.
A Life on Pittwater
takes the reader on a memorable trip to this beguiling place and presents all aspects of its distinctive way of life. There is Susan's lovely home with its gorgeous verandah; the lush surroundings, the bush and the bays; the wildlife and the ever-present dogs; the tinnies, the ferries and the peculiarities of living somewhere without cars; the boatsheds and the working boats; the bushfires; and, above all, the close community life. Welcome to Pittwater where neighbours stop their tinnies to have a quick chat. No-one ever dresses up. The kids take the ferry to school. Goannas wander into kitchens and leeches attach themselves to ankles. Everyone has time for a cup of tea and a slice of homemade fruitcake. It's a place like nowhere else in Australia; and it's also quintessentially Australian. Susan's text describes the life with warmth and heart and the stunning photography by Anthony Ong captures its unique beauty. This glorious book will make you smile as you turn the pages and lose yourself to the magic of Pittwater.

Available now