The Outback Heart (6 page)

‘Hi, Troy,’ said Tegan, giving him a wave. ‘We met at the Telecentre a while back,’ said Tegan.

‘Hi, Tegan. I remember.’

Indi watched as Troy smiled at Tegan. Maybe she’d have more of a chance catching Troy’s eyes if she dressed like Tegan? Thank god Tegan was dating Jaffa.

When the boys spotted Tegan, wolf whistles rang out in the night air. Jaffa grumbled at them all.

As the other players started on the next drill, Jaffa stepped towards Tegan and pulled her in for a hug, kissing her lips. ‘Hello, babe. Did you see that last kick? Not bad, hey?’

‘Yeah, good one,’ said Tegan, nodding eagerly. Jaffa smiled before sprinting back to the drill.

‘You two are so cute together. How long have you guys been together now?’ Indi asked. Jaffa, with his styled hair, sleeve tattoo up his left arm and designer clothes, seemed like the perfect match for Tegan. He’d been working for local farmer Bill Harrington for the last two years and seemed happy in Hyden. He originally came from a town south of the city.

‘Just cracked over a year,’ said Tegan.

‘Wow. You do make a great couple.’

Indi felt Tegan stiffen slightly, her head nodding slowly. ‘I guess.’

Tegan turned and smiled at her. Indi wondered if she’d imagined the pained expression on her best friend’s face.

‘I can’t wait for Saturday. Should be a fun night. I have this fab dress you should wear.’

‘Oh, I don’t know, Teegs.’ She was about to decline when she remembered her earlier thought. ‘Actually, I haven’t got dressed up in ages.’

‘Now you’re talking.’

Indi watched Troy as he chatted to Jasper. The muscles on his arms flexed as he gestured to the other side of the field. A slow burn began in her lower belly. Maybe she should get some lessons on how to flirt, too? Her flirty smiles just didn’t seem to be working.

Jenny had already let half of the town know that Troy was single. Indi sighed, trying to expel all her crazy thoughts. Time to focus on football.

2006

TROY
paused and leaned against the wall. Just walking from his room to the boarding house dining area had worn him out. This had been his life for the past few days, confined to his room. He’d been too sick to go to any classes, barely able to get around.

‘Troy, you tosser. Come on, we’ll miss out,’ said Freddie, his bright-red hair flopped across his forehead as he stopped beside him.

Troy shook his head and pushed himself off the wall. ‘I don’t think I can make it.’

‘Yeah? You don’t look so flash.’ Freddie sounded concerned. ‘Actually, you’re kinda pale. Maybe you should go back to bed. Didn’t your mum just take you to the doctor?’

‘Yeah, she’s been staying in the city while I’ve been sick but they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. She’s booked me in with some other doctor,’ he managed to whisper. Breathing was hard; he felt like he was being suffocated. ‘She’s coming to pick me up just after lunch.’

‘Well, you look like shit now and you’ve hardly eaten all week.’

Troy felt the room start to move. He reached out for Freddie as he fell.

‘Troy, are you okay? Troy?’

Troy felt he was fading. The room was fading. Freddie was fading. Everything was slipping away.

Somewhere he could hear Freddie calling out for help.

‘Troy? Good to see you’re with us. I’m Dr Matthew Brown. Do you know where you are? You’re in hospital. Intensive care. You will be feeling a bit groggy and weak, we’ve given you some sedatives.’

Troy blinked at the doctor. He was in a bed, hooked up to machines. His body hurt and the room seemed so bright. He could hear a loud thudding, like a heartbeat. He tried to string some words together but nothing happened. His eyes shifted to the person holding his left hand so tightly. His mum was looking down at him with tears in her eyes. What was she doing here?

‘It’s okay, Troy. We’re here,’ said his Dad.

Troy’s eyes scanned across to the other side of his bed.
Dad? How come they’re here and not in Geraldton? What’s going on? Am I dying? Am I dead?

‘Son, the drugs you’ve been given for the virus weren’t working.’ Troy had never heard his dad so quiet and gently spoken. His face looked more stressed than ever, the lines on his face like furrows in the paddock back home.
Thank god Dad’s finished harvest
, Troy thought.

‘That’s right,’ said the dark-haired doctor. ‘You have Viral Cardiomyopathy. Your heart was weak, very enlarged, and your vital organs were starting to shut down. That’s why you were so unwell. And the reason you couldn’t eat, or didn’t want to, was because your heart was enlarged and pressing on your stomach. You were shutting down there and then.’ The doctor paused to shake his head. ‘We rushed you straight into surgery. We’ve connected a device called an LVAD, a Left Ventricular Assist Device, to your aorta. It’s designed to support your heart.’

‘It was a long operation, honey, about eight hours,’ his mum said, giving Troy a weak smile. She looked exhausted, her eyes red and swollen. ‘And you were so sick. All night we were worried but the cardiovascular team brought you through it.’ She squeezed his hand so tightly that it started to hurt. Her dark hair was hanging around her face, messy and unwashed.

‘You have a driveline coming out through your abdomen that is connected to the mains power supply at night, and during the day you have a battery pack to keep it going. But we can go over that in detail later, when you’re up to talking and asking questions,’ said the doctor.

Troy kept staring at the doc’s white shirt and dark pants. Shouldn’t he have a white coat?

‘Now, you lost a lot of blood during your operation and we’ve been giving you transfusions,’ added the doctor.

‘Son, so many nurses and staff here have donated blood for you. So many,’ Owen cut in. ‘Apparently fresh blood clots easier than stored blood – so, you’re well known around here already, mate.’ His father spoke proudly. His rough hands held Troy’s. It was nice having him so close.

‘You contracted an infection underneath where the pump is placed, so we’re giving you high doses of antibiotics.’ Troy was hearing the doctor’s words but still not able to respond. ‘Hopefully in a week you’ll be shifted to the coronary care ward to recuperate.’

Trish turned to the doctor and then glanced at the big machine in the room. ‘How long does he have to stay connected to the life support machine?’

‘We’ll have to play that by ear. Hopefully not too much longer. Look, that’s probably enough for you to take in right now. I’ll pop back later when the sedatives have started wearing off.’ The doctor raised his hand. ‘I’ll see you later, Troy. Just rest.’ With a nod to Troy’s parents, the doctor left the room.

‘How are you feeling, darling?’ his mum said as she leaned over him, stroking his face. ‘I’ve brought a pen and some paper, one of your nurses said you could probably write things down later, as it may be easier than talking. I know this must be daunting for you, but you’re going to be just fine.’

Troy closed his eyes. He was confused and scared but her words were reassuring.

‘That’s it, just rest for now.’ His dad’s voice was faint, drowned out by the sounds of the machines in his room. But the loudest noise of all was the
whump whump
in his chest that wasn’t from his heart.

Eight days later, Doctor Brown entered Troy’s room in the coronary care ward.

‘Hey, doc,’ said Troy. Nurse Niki was checking that his driveline was sterilised before redressing it. She was his favourite nurse. He liked them all but Niki was young, cute and blonde. She was upbeat and full of smiles. She’d tell him jokes or they’d talk about music.

‘Troy, you’re looking good today,’ the doctor said. ‘Great to see the artificial heart is working well. Won’t be long and you’ll be heading home.’ Matt leaned over to check the area around the driveline. His eyebrows rose as he smiled and nodded to Niki. ‘Great. Well, I’ll leave you to it. See you, Troy.’

‘Bye, doc.’

Niki finished dressing the area before pulling off her gloves and smiling at Troy. ‘So, I know this girl, Peta, who has asked me if she can come and visit you. She’s a previous patient and she might be able to help you understand what living with the LVAD will involve. She likes to help out around here if she can. Also she’s cute,’ Niki said with a wink. ‘What do you think? Can I bring her in?’

Troy shrugged his shoulders. ‘Yeah, okay, I guess.’

‘Great, I’ll go let her know she can come up. I think you’ll like her. She’s something special.’ And with a sly smile Niki left.

Troy sighed. Anyone was better than his mum. She fussed so much. Thank god Dad had gone back to the farm – he’d taken his sister Geraldine so she could go back to school. There was no point them sitting around a hospital room, and it was Gerry’s last year in primary school. It had been really touching to have them all there for him. It was all still a bit new and weird. Trying to sleep with the noise from the LVAD had been difficult, but at least the noise let him know that his heart was pumping and that he was still alive. He’d never forget Freddie’s expression when he first saw Troy lying there in the hospital bed. His face was even paler than usual.

‘Far out, Troy. You gave me a heart attack.’

‘Yeah, well, I almost lost mine,’ he’d replied and they’d both cracked up laughing.

‘So, you need to have this device in until you can get a donor heart, right?’ Freddie asked.

‘Yep. I have to wait for the right donor though.’

‘Shit, mate. That’s heavy.’ Freddie had run his hand through his thick red hair, a forlorn look on his face. ‘What about sports? Can you still play . . .’ The unspoken word had hung in the air like a thick fog.

It had been one of the first things Troy had asked when he had come around. Could he still play? He hadn’t liked the reply.

‘Ah. I can play sport, just not contact sports.’ Troy watched Freddie waiting for it to register. Freddie looked confused. ‘It means no more football.’

‘For real?’ Freddie went silent, trying to process the news. He was the one person who really understood the love Troy had for football. ‘Dude, I’m so sorry. We were going places in footy, mate. You at the Eagles, me at Freo.’

As much as it hurt Troy to talk about it, he knew Freddie would understand what a cruel blow this was. Nothing could have hurt Troy more. His dream of becoming an AFL star had died the moment his heart had.

‘You have to focus on the fact that you’re alive,’ his mum had said. ‘You can still watch a game of football, and you might even take up cricket.’ Her words had done nothing to stem his tears that first night he’d realised his dream was gone.

Now he was just numb from it all. Somewhere in the back of his mind he still believed he could get back out on the grass and play. And it helped that Freddie had been in to visit often, sometimes bringing other mates from school. He had heaps of cards and messages from everyone at school and back in Geraldton.

When he could finally talk the first thing Troy had said to his parents was, ‘I’m sorry.’ He’d felt tired, he’d felt responsible for pulling his parents away from the farm and all the way down to the city, and he felt he was to blame for their sleepless nights and their worried looks. In the first week they had hardly left his bedside – and Troy knew just what damage a week away from the farm could do.

‘You have nothing to be sorry for, son. This is not your fault,’ his dad had said. ‘And your mother’s right. We’ll get through this. We’re just so happy that you’re here with us. Nothing else matters.’ He’d sniffed back his tears and smiled.

A soft knock at the door snapped Troy out of his deep thoughts.

A girl with raven hair and a big smile knocked on the door again but she was already standing inside his room. ‘Um, Troy, right? I’m Peta. May I come in? Is now a good time?’

‘Sure, come in. Hi. Niki told me you would be coming by.’

Peta bounced in on her toes. She dragged a chair up to his bed and sat beside him, leaning on his bed like they were old friends. She did it with such ease, not like everyone else that had come to visit him with their hands fidgeting, all anxious, eyes searching the alien room. Peta was different. She was calm and comfortable, just like the nurses around here.

‘Hiya, Troy. So I hear that you had an LVAD put in. Nice. I had one too.’

‘Have you got a donor heart now?’

‘Yep and it’s working beautifully,’ she said, tapping her chest gently.

She smiled again and already Troy was smitten. Peta had to be older than him but by only a year or two. She’d been through the exact same thing, and she was alive. Her deep ebony eyes sparkled with life. She moved to sit on the edge of his bed, putting her feet on the chair she’d just vacated.
No wonder she was so comfortable,
Troy thought,
she’d probably spent so much time here.

‘How long did you have your LVAD for?’ he asked. It was exciting to have someone to talk to who knew what he was going through.

‘Well, I was sixteen when I had mine put in and I had to carry that battery pack around for just over two years before a donor heart became available.’

‘Wow, that long?’

‘Yep. Oh, and I had some close calls in that time too,’ she laughed as she flicked her hair back.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Times that the battery had run down and I had to get back to a power supply and plug myself in. I tried to think of myself like Iron Man. Needing my power source to survive. This place is like a second home for me. I know everyone; Niki is my favourite, don’t tell the others.’

‘She’s mine too,’ he agreed.

They both laughed.

‘What was it like when you got your new heart?’ Troy asked.

He listened with rapture as Peta spoke, and he found himself asking her things not even his parents or the nurses had mentioned or known. He didn’t even know what questions to ask but Peta was answering so many things he’d never thought of. Little things, like he was getting the inside scoop on how it really was going to be for him with an LVAD. From the looks he’d get to simple things like getting dressed around his line. No one knew that better than Peta. They even discussed the hospital food. Before too long she had to leave. ‘I’m sorry, I have to drive back home. Mum’ll be worried.’

‘Will you come visit again?’ he asked, and then felt embarrassed for begging. Heat filled his checks as he added, ‘I just have so much more to ask you.’

‘Sure, I’d like that. I have heaps more to tell you.’ She jumped down from his bed, tapping his hand quickly and then waving. ‘I’ll see you again soon, Troy.’

As she walked out of his room Troy thought that having a new heart mightn’t be so bad after all. He never would have known Peta had a new heart, and she was so beautiful and energetic. Who needed football when there were girls like her.