Queen of the Road (24 page)

Angela sat and stared at the phone in her hand long after her father rang off. The business seemed to be doing okay from her point of view, but she never saw any of the final facts and figures. Her father’s praise was unexpected, leaving her with mixed feelings: happy that the business was doing well, regret that she’d soon be leaving it to someone else to take over.

Claudia moaned again and twisted in the bed. Angela put away the phone and climbed in beside her. Claudia’s forehead was warm but not excessively so. Angela lay on her side watching her beautiful little girl breathe and realised that if it wasn’t for Claudia, she would stay on in Munirilla. There was little to attract her back to Melbourne. Kate and John were most likely moving to the country. Her father was the only person she’d miss – certainly not Janice, who was getting weirder by the day, and Nigel’s parents had never been interested in keeping in touch. They hardly saw Claudia and didn’t send birthday cards or Christmas greetings.

Nigel was the youngest of four boys. He was spoilt by his mother and manipulated by his father’s wallet. Angela sat up.
Nigel was weak
. Why hadn’t she realised this about him before? He didn’t deserve Claudia, but Angela still felt compelled to give them a chance at a relationship. She didn’t want Claudia to ever accuse her of keeping Nigel away. He’d done that himself. Maybe one day Claud would understand.

Angela turned off the light and lay listening to the traffic outside. If she didn’t stay in Munirilla, maybe she could work for her father in Melbourne and still give her office job the flick. Her spirits lifted at the thought. If Janice and Nigel were so keen to see Claudia, they could babysit while Angela drove. And her father had mentioned a bonus. She hadn’t expected one, but maybe this would be the start of her cutting back her debt. Nigel could pay some support for Claudia and Angela would finally make some headway with her finances.

She thought some more about her father’s call. It was strange that he’d rung tonight – they’d only spoken this morning. He’d obviously rung Shell at the office to know that Angela hadn’t come back for the truck. She frowned. Twice he’d mentioned she should relax and have a few drinks, as if he’d known that she had. But all Angela said in her message to Shell was that she wouldn’t be back
till the morning. She hadn’t mentioned lunch with Jeremy, much less the wine.

Claudia groaned and sat up. ‘Mummy, my throat hurts.’

Angela flicked on the light and looked at her daughter’s glowing cheeks and bleary eyes. Claudia wrapped two warm arms around her mother.

Damn
, thought Angela. Her first aid kit, complete with painkillers, was in the truck.
Why do kids always get sick in the middle of the night?

Angela hugged Claudia close, shielding her from the cold wind as they hurried from the taxi to the truck. There was no sign of anyone in the yard but the gate was unlocked. Maybe Terry was inside, in a shed somewhere, but it wasn’t like Shell not to be here by now. Angela climbed into the cab and started the motor to get the heater going. Behind her, the taxi driver tooted his horn. His wheels spun up some gravel as he roared out the gate. He hadn’t been pleased to take such a short job and he wanted to be out on the road again.

‘Have a nice day,’ Angela muttered, jumping down and hurrying over to collect their bags. When she climbed back into the truck, Claudia was rummaging in the fridge. ‘Do you want something to eat?’ she asked. Angela had plucked the child from her bed at the motel and bundled her straight into the taxi.

‘Can I have this? My throat hurts.’ Claudia pulled a small bottle of lemonade from the fridge and waved it at her mother.

‘Don’t shake it. Wouldn’t you rather have cereal?’ Angela knew she had a stock of little boxes and that the milk was fresh.

Claudia tipped her head to one side and pouted her lips. ‘I just feel like lemonade.’

A vehicle turned into the yard behind them. Angela looked out the window to see Shell emerge from it and give a beckoning wave.

‘No.’

‘Awwww!’ Claudia whined. ‘I just want lemonade.’

Angela took the bottle and cautiously twisted the top until she heard the gas release. She handed it back, not wanting to think about the trouble that lemonade for breakfast was going to cause. ‘Sit in your seat and drink it carefully while I go and see Shell. Don’t get out. We have to leave as soon as I’m back.’

Claudia nodded as she tried to tighten her lips around the mouth of the bottle.

The phone in Angela’s pocket rang. She pulled it out and Nigel’s name appeared on the screen. She looked from it back to Claudia. Damn Nigel. She tossed the phone onto the console. He could leave a message.

Back on the ground Angela shut the door, shaking her head at the ongoing complications of her life. It would be better if Nigel just went away again. At least when he was overseas he didn’t make any demands.

Out of the blue, Angela had a longing for her mother, for someone who could share the load and offer advice. Kate often told her she was lucky not to have a mother to boss her around and interfere. But Angela had grown up listening to Kate’s mum, a woman who always had her kids’ best interests at heart. Angela knew Kate’s slagging off was just a cover so that she wouldn’t miss having a mother of her own.

In the office, Shell was huddled behind the desk. She had her coat on and a small blow heater was working flat out at her feet.

‘Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday arvo,’ she said. Her voice was husky and she was bleary-eyed. ‘I felt lousy and had to go home.’

‘Doesn’t look like you should be here now,’ Angela said.

‘I’ll see how I go. Someone’s got to keep an eye on things.’

‘What about Terry?’

‘Hmph!’ Shell snorted. ‘He’s not even here yet.’

‘The gate was unlocked when I got in.’

‘Maybe he drove round the back. He usually leaves his bomb of a car down the side there. How did the service go on Big Red?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t come back yesterday either.’

‘I told them to leave the report in the cab.’

‘I didn’t see it but I’ll have another look. Should have been fine. Just a tyre change and I can see they did that.’

The door swung open and they both jumped. Terry stuck his head in. ‘You want me to start loading?’

‘Yes thanks,’ Angela said. ‘I’ll get going as soon as possible.’

Shell stood up. ‘Why wasn’t it done yesterday, Terry?’

‘Those mechanic fellas were fiddling around till after lunch. Said they’d be a while so I went home. Nothing else to do.’ He pulled the door shut behind him.

‘Except keep an eye on the place.’ Shell shook her head. ‘I knew he wasn’t in earlier. That’s his car there now. He’s only just arrived.’ She pointed out the window. Angela could see an old ute parked between the fence and the shed. ‘I don’t know why they took so long on the truck,’ Shell continued, shaking her head again. ‘And the yard would have been unlocked all night.’

Angela felt a pang of guilt. She wasn’t that taken with Terry but she had said she’d return in the afternoon. ‘Terry probably thought I’d be back before the service crew left.’

‘No excuse for him to leave the place unlocked though. He knew I wasn’t coming back. He’s never one for doing more than he has to.’

Angela didn’t want to get caught up in any yard politics so she held her tongue. Shell was the manager and there was only one chief needed in this section of Ranger Transport.

‘I’d better get going,’ she said. ‘You should go home if you’re not feeling well.’

Shell’s only reply was a loud blow of her nose.

Angela hurried back over to the truck where Claudia had taken a few more sips of lemonade and was now sitting on the bunk with an assortment of toys. She turned her attention to the slow-moving Terry. She wanted this load aboard fast so she could pick up the rest and head for Munirilla.

***

By the time they left Port Augusta, Angela was feeling more positive they’d get back to Munirilla by early evening. Terry had been relatively efficient and the additional freight she’d collected had been quick and easy to load.

She rolled her shoulders and glanced at Claudia. The little girl had dozed away in the front seat before asking to go to bed. She’d climbed into the bunk after their last stop. Now, even though she was stripped down to her undies, her cheeks were glowing. Angela had given her a dose of fever relief, but there was no doubt she was coming down with something. Once again, Angela found herself wishing she’d left her daughter in Leanne’s care for this trip.

The wake-up alarm sounded, startling her back to the task at hand. She flicked her eyes across the dash. Everything was steady, including her speed. She checked her mirrors. A dashboard light came on. She kept an eye on it as she drove. All was fine for a moment, then the seatbelt light came on and again the wake-up warning sounded. This time she knew her speed hadn’t varied.
What was going on?

Up ahead was a parking bay, the last one before she turned west onto the Eyre Highway. She pulled in to give Big Red the once over. No one else was parked in the large expanse of red dirt so she had plenty of room to manoeuvre the truck. She edged up close to the first of a row of huge cement tanks graffitied with all kinds of messages, from ‘Marry me Mary’ to ‘Panthers Premiers 2012’ to ‘Save the Boat People’.

With the engine idling and the radio off, she heard her phone ring. She patted her pocket but she hadn’t put it back there after the call from Nigel. It was no longer on the console, where she’d left it. The noise seemed to be coming from lower down. She climbed across and felt down the side of the passenger seat. Only papers there. She ran her hand along the back of the seat. Her phone stopped ringing but she felt the edge of it wedged in the gap.

Angela tugged it out. There were several missed calls, all from the Adelaide office. She dialled the number and within seconds Shell answered. Casting a wary eye over the lights flickering on the console, she cut off Shell’s Ranger Transport spiel.

‘Have you been trying to ring me?’ she asked.

‘Angela, where are you?’

‘In a parking bay, just past Port Augusta.’ Angela blinked as she heard a muffled curse come from the otherwise polite yard manager. ‘Listen, Shell, what do you need? I’ve got a bit of bother of my own.’

‘The maintenance guy arrived mid-morning with a replacement wire. Something to do with your electronics.’

Except for the blinking light, the dash was now without lights and sound. Maybe this was the problem but it seemed more of a nuisance than anything else. ‘We can arrange for them to replace it when I–’

‘You can’t keep going,’ Shell’s voice croaked at her. ‘It could affect your driving.’

Angela looked around. Another truck rolled south along the highway, while the giant tanks stretched silently to her northern side. Other than that, there was nothing out here but red dirt smattered with low bush. She glanced back at Claudia. Her cheeks still glowed.

‘If I can’t go back and I can’t go forward, what am I to do? I’m in the middle of nowhere.’

‘Just sit tight. The maintenance guy’s on his way. I gave him your route and sent him off after you. Now that I know where you are, I’ll let him know. He should only be a couple of hours away.’

‘A couple of hours!’

‘He said he left a note in the truck telling you not to go anywhere. I tried to ring as soon as he turned up. Your phone kept going to message bank. You’re lucky you got as far as you did in one piece.’

Angela looked around the cab and let out a sigh. The passenger seat and the floor were strewn with the debris of Claudia’s early morning play.

‘Angela?’ Shell’s voice echoed in her ear.

‘Yes, I’m here.’

‘You can’t keep driving.’

‘I get it, Shell. Just keep me posted.’

‘Keep your phone close.’

Angela ended the call and placed the phone securely in her shirt pocket. Behind her, Claudia gave a small cough and a moan but didn’t wake up. Beyond the truck there was little sign of human presence between them and the horizon. Angela gripped the steering wheel and leaned forward. Just before she lowered her head into her hands, she noticed that someone had written, ‘Cassie, you’re the wind beneath my wings’, in large blue letters on the side of the nearest cement tank.

She gave a snort, jerked herself upright and got out of the truck. Nigel had said that to her back in the early days. He’d even played
the song on his clarinet for her. Just another one of the sentimental tricks he’d used. Now she understood just how gullible she’d been, and hoped Cassie, whoever she was, wasn’t so easily charmed.

She jabbed at one of the new tyres with the toe of her boot. Bloody Nigel, if he hadn’t kept Claudia out in the rain she wouldn’t be sick, and if he hadn’t rung this morning Angela’s phone would have been in her pocket when Shell had tried to call. Angela jabbed at the next tyre. If she thought about it long enough, she was sure she could blame him for the electronics failure in the truck too. She shook her head and sank down to her haunches, using the wheel as a back rest. She knew it was a waste of energy following this train of thought.
Damn Nigel!
Why should she be dancing to his tune when he was the one who walked away? It was over between them. If he wanted to keep Claudia in his life, he needed to make formal arrangements.

Angela paced around the truck for a while then used her energy to give the inside of the cab a once-over. She found the note about the wire amongst the papers and pencils on the floor. It must have got caught up in Claudia’s things while she was playing. Angela berated herself for not taking more care when she’d bundled the little girl into the truck. By the time the maintenance guy arrived, Angela had given plenty of thought to the mess she was in. Not just today’s mishaps – or yesterday’s – but to her life in general.

It took him longer than he thought to replace the wire and test it with his computer. Claudia woke up while he was working and Angela coaxed her to eat and drink and swallow some more medicine. Before they left the parking bay, Claudia had been happy to get back into the bunk and she quickly fell asleep again.

Now the sun had set and there was little moon. Big Red’s high beams lit up the road but beyond their range, the world was black as ink. Angela risked waking Claudia by putting the two-way radio on. It was going to be another late arrival into Munirilla and she
needed some company in the cab, even if it was only the disjointed voices of other truckies. There was usually someone whose antics were entertaining.

Her thoughts strayed to an idea that had been forming back at the parking bay. If she was honest with herself, the glimmer of it had been niggling away since their last picnic with Coop. He’d asked questions she wasn’t able to answer at the time, but they’d stayed with her, floating on the edge of conscious thought ever since. Today she had given them some proper consideration and the answers didn’t surprise her. Apart from a job she didn’t like and a father who was busy a lot of the time, there was little to take her back to Melbourne. There was no reason why they couldn’t stay in Munirilla. Not forever, that was too big a thought, but maybe for a couple of years. She could drive for her father and see how it worked out. The Melbourne firm she worked for was downsizing and would be happy to have her resignation – one less redundancy to pay out. She wouldn’t miss it either, she realised. Driving Big Red was much more enjoyable. Today’s problems were rare, and becoming rarer as she got the hang of things. The maintenance guy had said so himself. He’d never had to replace that particular wire on a truck as new as this one.

Angela was comfortable behind the wheel and not daunted by the distance. Claudia was the only sticking point in the equation, but maybe they could work something out with Leanne so that the little girl didn’t need to make every trip.

As for money, Leanne and Jim appeared to manage on one wage with three little boys. Jim was Ken’s right-hand man but Angela didn’t imagine it was a high-paying position. Leanne had mentioned their mortgage before, so they earned at least enough to cover that. Maybe they lived on credit, like she did. In reality, she had no idea what their financial situation was, but she made a mental note to work out some kind of payment for Leanne’s regular childcare. She should have insisted on paying something much earlier.

Angela shifted in her seat. She turned off the radio as a burst of static crackled from it. They were passing through the last town before Munirilla. Another thirty minutes and they’d be home. Angela smiled at the thought of the shabby little flat. It wasn’t what she imagined she’d ever think of as homely, but she’d turned it into a cosy space for the short periods they spent there. Even the scratching in the wall had become a comforting sound in the night when all other noises ceased. Not like the city, where she couldn’t remember ever knowing silence.