Alex was screaming his head off when I woke up the next day. It made my head hurt. I’d slept in my clothes and I felt real hot. I sat up and threw the doona off. I felt weird. After a minute or two I decided to get out of bed and went into the dining room. Sissy was sitting at the table having a cup of coffee. I said, ‘Can’t you make him quieter?’ Sissy stared at me. She had the same look on her face as she’d had the night before when she’d walked me back to the house. ‘Sore head?’ she asked and then carried on drinking her coffee.
Aunty Ve came through from the kitchen wearing a dressing gown, with her flabby feet tucked into a pair of little pink slippers. Her hair was stuck straight up at one side and she looked like her eyes had just opened for the first time. Aunty Ve said, ‘If only God made babies with a volume control, eh, Siss?’ Sissy looked away and didn’t say anything.
Aunty Ve picked Alex up and rocked him for a bit before putting him back in his seat. She told me to talk to him, to see if that might calm him down. She told me to sit with Alex while her and Sissy made us all some bacon sandwiches.
Emily came out of her room, rubbing her face and scratching her leg. ‘He’s noisy,’ she said. I couldn’t be bothered to speak to her, so we sat in silence while Alex screamed at us. Bacon smells came from the kitchen and my stomach rumbled. I was perishing.
Everyone was there for brekkie, except Mum, Dad and the Pommie. She was packing, and Mum and Dad were still in bed. Aunty Ve reckoned that considering how late some of them had stayed up, she was very surprised to see them before lunch time. Elliot, Lloyd and Bobbie just grunted. They looked a lot like I felt.
As Aunty Ve put the plates of bacon sandwiches down on the table and swapped them for Alex, it felt like years since we’d had anything like that for brekkie. After she’d set fire to the kitchen, the Pommie had only ever made us toast and everybody jam. When I thought about the fire it seemed like a long time ago.
Mum and Dad got up while we were eating our brekkie. Mum reckoned the smell of bacon worked better than any alarm clock. Elliot reckoned it was the best hangover cure too, and everyone laughed a little. Aunty Ve went back into the kitchen and cooked us a load more.
Not long after we’d all finished eating, we heard the roar of a truck in the yard. It was Reg’s mob. They’d come to the house to say goodbye. We all went out to see them and I went to get Buzz. That was when I saw the Pommie. She looked tired, her eyes seemed real small compared to normal. She waved when she saw me, so I smiled back.
She had her bag on her back like a little snail. She was saying goodbye to Mum and Dad. She said she’d had the best time ever at the station, and Mum and Dad reckoned she should come and visit again – next time she was in Australia. The Pommie hugged Bobbie and said she’d keep in touch. She nodded and smiled at Elliot and Lloyd and said, ‘Thanks for putting up with me.’ Aunty Ve gave her a real big hug – so big, the Pommie nearly disappeared. Emily gave the Pommie the picture she’d drawn of Elaine flying in the sky. That made the Pommie blub. Emily asked her if she liked it and the Pommie coughed and said, ‘Very much.’ She rubbed Sissy’s arm and told her to take care, as she kissed her little finger and touched Alex’s head with it.
When it was my turn to say goodbye to her, we just stood there.
I couldn’t think what to say.
Liz said she’d miss me and Buzz most of all. I nodded, but I didn’t say anything. We stood there looking at each other for what felt like ages. Then I held my hand out for her to shake. She took it. Her hand felt warm and small, but it was a pretty good handshake for a girl. That made me smile – and she smiled back.
When Liz climbed into Reg’s bull catcher, he was already in it waiting for her. ‘See you all next year,’ he said and waved. He revved the engine and led the others out of the yard. As they passed through the gates Reg’s horn belched and Alex woke up again. Sissy sighed and shut her eyes, so Mum picked him up and gently rocked him from side to side.
I watched the Pommie go. She waved at me, so I lifted my hand to wave back, but Buzz wanted to run along with them, so I had to grab him and hold him still.
I dunno if she saw me wave or not.
Everyone walked back to the house then, but I stayed where I was with Buzz, until the dust cloud Reg and the fellas had left behind them had settled and I knew the Pommie had really gone. That’s when a fat drop of water hit my head making me look up at the sky. Then another hit me on the cheek. It felt cold. I wiped it off and looked at the wet on my fingers. More drops peppered the ground around me like slow machine-gun fire.
I reckoned Jonny must have been in the heaven above Timber Creek, after all, so I looked up again and smiled at him.