‘You will hurt yourself if you don’t take it easy on that thing,’ Sidney called. ‘I know that expression of yours, Jake.’ She was busy wiping morning dew off the ceramic pots lining the ramp leading to the gallery veranda. The last week had even delivered a few overnight showers. ‘Quad bikes have killed even experienced riders, so don’t even think about hooning around.’
‘Relax, sis, I’ve ridden one of these babies a million times. They have them at the Sydney Fish Markets.’
‘You haven’t ridden that bike and you haven’t ridden one on winding dirt tracks on forty-degree mountain slopes.’
‘The boss wants fresh supplies of bananas and avocados down at the gate and I need to check the honesty box before the tourist group arrives around noon. If you prefer I could take one of those cables and swing through the trees like Tarzan.’
‘Hmm, a big, bumbling ape. I can picture that.’ Sid knew Jake was only goading her. He might like extreme adventures, but he wasn’t silly about his safety. She’d already heard Pearl explaining to him that the flying-fox cables, once used to convey enormous bunches of bananas from all over the hillside to the packing sheds below, were old and unused now, and possibly dangerous. Sid had noticed the highwires crisscrossing the hills and valleys and wondered about their purpose herself.
Jake had taken to his role so easily. Sid guessed it was from having had so many jobs. Jake loved his seasonal work. A new employer, a different challenge, something to learn, to inspire. Maybe her brother was the smartest one in the family after all, whereas once she would have agreed with her mother–and Cindy Cooper’s parents–that Jake was going to turn out a no-hoper. Instead, here he was teaching Sid about starting over and being brave.
‘Improvise, adapt, overcome,’ he had told Sid the other day. ‘Think that way and you can do anything.’
She was too ashamed to tell Jake at the time that there’d been a moment when the thought of doing something different and leaving Zeus Design Studio after seven years had made Sid contemplate staying with Damien, even though she knew what that would mean for the baby.
‘You okay, sis?’ Jake was asking. ‘You’re rubbing that belly of yours. You feeling all right?’
‘Oh, yes, sure. What were we saying?’
‘I was telling you I’m in a bit of a hurry to get done and get out of here.’
‘Why? Where are you going?’
‘Me and Pearl have a date.’
‘I sure hope she’s a women of simple tastes.’
‘Very funny.’ Jake hooked up the trailer to the back of the quad bike and double-checked his pocket, drawing out a key. The honesty box key, Sid assumed. ‘I like her, sis.’
Sidney bit back her next smart alec remark. She’d never seen her brother sound and look so serious when talking about a girl. Every Monday, as he waited for his laundry to be done, he’d usually regale Natalie–and Sid, if she was there–with tales of the one that got away. He spent weekends clubbing with his friends, but had so far failed to hook a girlfriend. Even after a hot shower and a gallon of aftershave, his fish-market fragrance lingered, and once the pub or nightclub heated up, most girls started commenting on a disagreeable odour. One day their mother had taken matters into her own hands and added a good dose of lavender oil to the rinse cycle. The next day at work the blokes had ribbed Jake about smelling like a ladies’ loo.
As the daughter of an oyster farmer, maybe Pearl was used to fishy smells. From what Sid had seen these past couple of weeks, the girl certainly seemed nearly as keen on Jake as he was on her.
‘I’m just asking you to take it easy, Jake.’
‘Quad bikes are the safest ride around. Who falls off four wheels?’ he called over the roar of the engine as he took off.
‘Just. Be. Careful.’
Sid stopped her polishing and settled into a chair, closing her eyes to allow the warmth of the winter sun to wash over her face. She was tiring more easily these days, but she felt surprisingly calm and happy for the first time in months. Getting away from her mother had been a good idea. Staying alone at the Blue Mountains gallery, most likely with police crime scene tape still in place, hadn’t really been an option anyway. Natalie had been very insistent that Sid accompany her to Aunty Tasha’s. But Sid couldn’t bear the thought of going back to Melbourne. She knew her mother was hoping that she’d get back together with Damien, and whisking Sid off to Melbourne was likely the first step in her plan. Natalie was nothing if not manipulative, and she was adamant that the baby needed a father. They had been fighting about it bitterly for weeks.
‘This is the twenty-first century, Mum. Single mothers are no longer shunned by society and the authorities don’t take babies away from a woman who’s failed to snare a husband.’
‘I’m not suggesting you snare a husband.’
‘And you’re surely not telling me to beg Damien to take me back?’
‘Begging is not what I’m suggesting. Sometimes a man doesn’t know what he wants until you make him see. You’re a beautiful and talented woman, Sidney. You can make a man do what you want.’
‘Are you kidding, Mum?’ Sid could hardly believe her ears. ‘That is exactly what snaring a husband is. In case you hadn’t noticed, those heady decades of women batting their eyelashes to get ahead, and have guys swoon at their feet, are no more.’
‘Don’t you be facetious.’
Sid reared up. ‘Don’t you be ridiculous, Mum. I’m not going to make a man do anything he doesn’t want and that includes being involved in his child’s upbringing. Damien’s made his choice. If he has a change of heart five or ten years from now he can be involved, but he’ll have to fit in with my life, wherever I am and whatever I’m doing at the time.’
‘In that case, cut all ties now and move on,’ Natalie said matter-of-factly, clearly unperturbed by her daughter’s rage. ‘That option has to be better and less confusing for the child. Make a decision, Sidney.’
‘Mum, I can’t think of a sadder thing than stopping a child from knowing their father. Nothing that’s happened between me and Damien should interfere with that. But I will be the parent making the decisions for this child until they’re old enough to make their own.’
Her mother had ended the discussion at that point, leaving Sid still seething.
Sitting in the sun on top of this mountain, staring blithely at two yellow masked plovers, knowing both birds were responsible for choosing and preparing the nest location and notorious for fiercely defending their patch, seemed to put things into perspective for Sid.
‘You’re a lucky lady,’ she spoke to the birds as the buzzer chimed, announcing the imminent arrival of customers. Sid sat there a moment longer, happy to have customers to distract her, but reluctant to give up her spot in the sun. Then she hoisted herself up out of the chair and headed into the gallery.
Crossing the polished floor, she caught sight of herself in the huge, highly-polished steel sculpture at the centre of the room. Was her bump finally getting bigger? Turning sideways to inspect her profile in the reflection, she rubbed the palm of one hand in small, soothing circles, the way she’d seen so many pregnant women do.
‘So you like that piece?’
Sid jumped at the sound of a man’s voice and flicked her shirttails loose so they draped over her jeans.
‘You seemed very intent,’ David added, smiling.
‘Oh, ahh, yes, I . . .’
‘Hmm, well, hopefully you’ll be slightly more articulate should one of these customers ask you a question.’
Outside, five elderly ladies of varying size burst from the confines of a tiny hatchback car that must have struggled on the drive up the mountain.
‘Come on, Pablo, that’s our cue to disappear.’
To Sid’s amazement her boss skedaddled faster than any able-bodied man she’d ever seen–not counting Damien after hearing her news, of course.
She greeted the ladies with open arms, grateful for the laughs their antics provided, and after an hour chatting she was out on the veranda to see them off.
‘Four out of five ain’t bad, Sid,’ she said through a false smile as four arms eagerly waved goodbye, one cardigan-covered arm flapping out each window of the car. She watched the little hatchback drive off and called out, ‘Thank you. Take it slow–and be careful!’