‘When do we start?’
‘Monday. You’re on leave until then.’
Michael nodded at his father as he got his head around the fact that he was still in the army, though wouldn’t be going to war for some time. That and the fact that his father was his drill sergeant.
His father wasn’t really drinking, sitting on the one, almost untouched, beer the whole hour they’d been here. Michael wanted to ask why. He wanted to ask a lot of things – questions about his mother and questions about Davey – but he supposed they would answer themselves eventually. Besides, right now he felt too numb to ask them. However, there was one question he did feel compelled to ask now, although the answer was bound to be painful.
‘How are the girls doing?’
Rory almost smiled. ‘They’re on a Hollywood Holiday, apparently.’
‘A what?’
‘Katie Burgess has taken them to her uncle’s shack at Burning Palms. Bob and Ernie are there for most of the time. I wasn’t sure about your mother being on her own but she wanted them to go.’ Rory shrugged. ‘Said there’s not much happiness in life, they should grab it while they can.’
‘True enough.’ Michael struggled to ask the next. ‘Are you… is she…’
‘She’s a good woman and I’ve let her down,’ Rory said in a quiet voice. Tears formed in his father’s eyes and Michael watched him blink them away, unable to absolve the guilt that caused them. ‘But never again.’
There was something in his tone that Michael recognised from earlier years and, for the first time since Rory’s arrival, he reached out to shake his father’s hand. ‘I’ll hold you to it.’
‘Make sure you do,’ Rory said, and there was so much promise in his words, Michael believed him.
Rory rose to leave. ‘Best be off. Train leaves in ten.’
Michael nodded and stood to watch as his father made his way to the door. ‘Dad,’ he called. Rory turned and Michael hesitated before blurting, ‘I’m glad you’re going to be here.’
Rory rewarded him with a fleeting smile, the first he’d worn these past few days. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Get those mates of yours and have a good break. I’m not going to be soft on you lot come Monday.’
‘I’d better grab some happiness while I can then.’
Rory smiled again, then he was gone, and, as he watched his father disappear onto the city streets, Michael wondered exactly where on earth that could be found.
Beryl was halfway down the beach but even so, Junie could tell she was crying. She wanted to comfort her but there really was nothing she could say to make it better – losing a brother was a pain that couldn’t be cured. Besides, Beryl probably needed a good cry. Dorn had done so earlier, when Katie said something about Anzac biscuits; they were always Davey’s favourite. Seemed they all needed time to mourn and what better place than here, at the great lady’s side?
Junie had to hand it to Katie, she was certainly doing her best to make everything as much fun as humanly possible. Bob and Ernie had left an hour ago and already she was rummaging around inside, planning some kind of party for tonight when it would be just the four girls on their own.
There was a loud thump and Junie raised her eyes at Dorn across the card table they had set up outside.
‘Sure you don’t want any help?’ Junie called.
‘I’m fine! Oh bugger…’ came the reply.
Dorn giggled, picking up a card. It was hot but the afternoon breeze was picking up once more. Ernie had told Junie it was to do with the air over the water heating differently to the air over the land. He knew a lot of interesting things about the ocean and had piqued her interest to the point that she was looking forward to devouring whatever information she could find on the subject in Ernest’s library.
Thinking of her fiancé made her feel depressed, and she let out a deep sigh.
‘Penny for your thoughts,’ Dorn said.
‘Owing the pennies is the whole problem. That’s what’s got me in this mess.’
‘Ah.’ Dorn nodded in understanding. ‘Still, if you don’t mind me saying so…well, if you have to marry him, at least it’s some small comfort to have money and be able to help your family. I wish I could. I’ve lived without it my whole life and it’s a hard road.’
Junie didn’t like to consider that. She didn’t like to consider there was anything redeemable about the whole nightmarish situation. ‘Can’t see what difference it really makes in the end,’ she said.
‘It’s actually very different. You don’t know what being poor is like, Junie. Not really. Having to save coupons for dresses isn’t real poverty. It’s…it’s watching your friend be allowed to finish school when you have to go to work and…having to ask the butcher for the ham bone to make a soup to feed the family. And keeping the peel on the potatoes to stretch a stew – or just going hungry. I’ve watched Mum – it’s hard, like I said. You don’t want it believe me.’ She was almost crying and Junie’s annoyance faded to be replaced by a sense of shame. She’d been vaguely aware of what the Rileys had been through over the years but now it seemed she’d also been far too indifferent.
‘I don’t really know, that’s true. I’m sorry Dorn, I should have…’
‘No, no, it’s fine,’ Dorn said, holding up her hand. ‘I didn’t mean to say so much. I’m just missing Mum I think – never been away from her before.’ Dorn wiped at her face and Junie found a handkerchief, passing it to her.
There was a crash from the shack and a very unladylike exclamation that changed the mood, causing them both to laugh a little, but as they continued playing, Junie couldn’t quite shake the feeling of being ashamed. After all, God had provided. She just didn’t want to pay the price.
‘Slow down!’ Michael yelled, rolling to the side with the luggage as they turned another hairpin bend. ‘Bloody hell – floorboard!’ He grabbed the piece of timber as it bounced into the back of the car and handed it to Jake, who placed it back under Cliffy’s feet, but not before all of them had copped a lungful of dust from the road.
‘I told you we should have gone to the Blue Mountains,’ Jake spluttered, coughing over the straining engine. ‘At least there’s sealed roads.’
‘You said your cousin only works as a waiter at the Hydro Majestic. There’s no way he would have got us a room for free,’ Michael yelled back.
‘Well, at least it’s a fine hotel. Even if we slept in the bloody kitchen. This is Woop Woop!’ Jake called with disgust as they passed a bunch of fishermen whose truck looked almost as dilapidated as the car they were driving, an old Austin borrowed from Cliffy’s uncle.
‘You’re a drover, for chrissakes!’
‘Not on holidays. A man likes a few comforts then.’
‘I told you,’ Michael said, ‘there’s a shack –’
‘Probably the Fibro Majestic by the sounds of it.’
Michael and Cliffy laughed.
‘Very funny. You should be in show business,’ Cliffy said, turning to look at him.
‘Watch the road!’ Jake and Michael yelled in unison.
The little car narrowly missed a tree and bounced back onto the track, losing its floor once more. ‘Floorboard!’
There was a minute of madness as Michael saved Jake’s bag from falling under the car and they replaced the timber.
‘Least we might have lived through a trip to the mountains,’ Jake complained.
‘Same driver,’ Michael pointed out.
Cliffy turned around to object. ‘Hey, at least I’ve got my licence –’
‘Watch the road!’
‘No appreciation,’ Cliffy said, changing gears before swerving out of the way of a dead wallaby.
Michael fell into the corner holding his nose while Jake held on to the door, straightening the floor again with his feet.
‘Corr, that stinks!’
‘Just quit your bellyaching. You’re going on a holiday to the beach, for God’s sake,’ Michael reminded him as they turned the corner and saw the sign for the parking area at last, glimpsing the ocean through the trees.
‘And I’ll get to see Katie Burgess. I remember meeting her once. Nice assets, if you know what I mean,’ Jake said, nudging Cliffy.
Michael was less than impressed. ‘Just watch yourself. Bob Burgess is a big fella.’
‘Killjoy,’ Cliffy muttered, parking the car. ‘All I can say is these sisters of his better be worth it.’
‘I heard that,’ Michael warned. ‘Off limits, you hear? You can fish, drink beer and – fish. That’s it.’
They were silent as they started to unpack, but the tension was soon broken by Jake. ‘Dart throwing in Parramatta is starting to look like a bloody good idea.’
It was hot, sweaty work making their way down through the bush, and there really wasn’t any kind of actual track to speak of, but the sight of the beach and the ocean drew them on. Their packs were heavy, stuffed as they were with beer and food, but it wasn’t far now. Michael guessed Cliffy and Jake felt the same relief he did at being away from the city and back in nature, especially the novelty of having both the bush and ocean to enjoy. They’d all been to the beach a few times, mostly due to some coastal droving work, but never for a holiday. Now Michael couldn’t wait to get down there, to throw himself into the water and battle some of the scars of the past few weeks; see what he could wash away.
‘Look,’ Jake called out, and they peered down to see a few haphazard fibro constructions edging the sand.
‘Told ya,’ mumbled Jake. ‘Bloody Fibro Majestic.’
‘Better view over there,’ Cliffy said and they turned to see girls lying in the dappled sun in front of the last shack.
‘Beer and fishing,’ Michael reminded them.
‘Waves look nice and small. Think I might go for a swim,’ Junie said, stretching and putting down the book she’d been reading, Lost Horizon. It had been her favourite movie a few summers back when it was on constant replay at the local cinema, in fact on the day she first met Michael and his sisters she was on the way out of one such viewing. Even then she’d felt drawn to him, despite barely mumbling two words in his direction, skinny and shy as she’d been.
As much as she’d loved the film, the book was even better, and she truly had been lost in it; the perfect distraction as she, Beryl and Dorn had a lie down on blankets in the mottled shade beneath the palms. Katie, meanwhile, was continuing her mysterious preparations in the shack.
‘Have fun,’ said Beryl, half asleep.
‘Hmm,’ mumbled Dorn.
The salted breeze was fresh on Junie’s face as she stripped down to her bathers and ran into the water, which embraced her in a sudden cold that soon warmed to just right. She dived under waves as Katie had taught her, careful not to go in past her waist. Fortunately the small break only reached her hips, so she could relax into the rhythm of the tides, the push and pull, the dance.
Floating on her back, she thought about Shangri-La, the fictional, heavenly place in Lost Horizon where people didn’t grow old and everything remained perfect. Where happiness was a permanent state of being, never to change unless you left. She knew she was a long way from that kind of happiness because change was the only thing giving her hope. She needed it like air, welcoming it like the cool of the sea on this hot afternoon.
Junie closed her eyes, taking this little taste of happiness anyway, immersing herself in the lady who was as unpredictable as the future. The sun touched her face and she smiled, feeling its warmth, safe in the knowledge that Michael still felt that too. And while that remained true, she’d take her chances on change. It was the last piece of reassurance she had.
‘Junie!’
Katie was calling her.
She thought about ignoring her for a while, keen to float in that rare happiness a little while longer, but that wouldn’t be fair. Katie was obviously in a state of excitement about whatever plans she’d made so Junie reluctantly made her way back to the beach, waves crashing against her legs.
As she stood on the shore, shaking the water from her hair, the breeze carried her name once more, only this time it wasn’t Katie’s voice. It was a man’s.
He’d run out on to the beach, throwing his pack down to have a swim straight away, ripping off his sweat-soaked shirt, not seeing her as she floated just beyond the break. He still hadn’t seen her as he kicked off his shoes and threw himself into the water, the cool incredibly refreshing after the hot track. Even when he did see her, walking past him only a few feet away, he had a moment of pure shock and didn’t quite register that the vision was real. How could it be?
Junie Wallace emerged from the ocean, swimsuit clinging to every part of her body, the dark blue material glistening against golden limbs. She shook her hair and the curls stuck against her upper arms and back, mesmerising him. Then he called her name and she turned, the blue of the ocean in her startled eyes as she recognised him. She spoke his name too, then she was moving towards him and he was moving towards her and the ocean was drawing her so close he couldn’t help but reach out his arms.
And then she was in them. In that skin, with that hair tangled in his fingers, and he was kissing her.
And then every single rational thought was gone.
Junie was on fire. It spread across her damp skin to every part of her being, especially where Michael’s body was warm against hers. Never had she imagined it could feel like this, and she’d imagined it a lot. His burning kisses drugged her like an elixir from the gods that she had to drink. Soft yet strong. More, more, she begged him silently. She craved him, wanting whatever it was that happened next to happen now. Then he pulled back, running his hand along her arm and holding her chin.
‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered and so he kissed her again and pressed her close, wet skin meeting wet skin.
Michael pulled back once more and smiled with happiness so great her eyes stung with tears as she traced his face with her hand.
‘I love you,’ she said softly.
‘I love you,’ he replied and she could feel the actual force of it.
The sun shone in warm approval as they continued to make their bond at the feet of the great lady, uncaring of what might happen in the future. Because whatever happened now, nothing could ever wash this moment away.