The filthy haul truck groaned and shook to a stop. The machine was massive in every sense of the word. The tyres had a diameter of over four metres, the trailer alone could hold over five hundred tonnes of iron ore and dirt. The driver sat bored as the latest offering from mother Earth began filling the vast empty tray.
Helena slipped out her mobile phone while she waited. Yes, they were strictly forbidden during work hours, but what was the alternative? Stare at the dashboard in a brain-dead stupor for twenty minutes? No thanks. She jumped on Facebook to scroll through the usual nonsense; peoples’ babies, adverts, last night’s meals, the occasional funny cat video, more adverts, pretty much nothing of consequence.
This is the slowest shift ever! Helena sighed inwardly and checked her emails. Nothing. Just the latest deals from Light Weights, a gym she joined and never went back to. Maybe she could play a game of Captain Candy before the load was complete?
“Red, you there?” Her radio sprang to life with the crackling voice of Sam, Helena’s line manager. Guiltily, she pocketed her phone and picked up the receiver, “Righto Sam, how’s things?”
“Slow and steady. How is the load?”
“Yeah, pretty slow, mate.”
“Listen Red, can you do a double shift tonight? The night team needs a driver. They’ve got a bug going around the whole crew.”
Helena’s head dropped as she looked out at the endless pit of dirt and rock. “How desperate are they, Sam?” she asked.
“It’s pretty bad. You don’t have to do it, but if you do, you’ll get double-time and a half. Alex is a good bloke; he’ll take care of you. It’s up to you though?” Sam knew not to push it. Helena wasn’t the one to be pushed into anything. She shrugged. There was nothing else to do in this shithole anyway, two days and she would be off and back home. A bit more money wouldn’t hurt, especially with her and Jim’s trip to Bali coming up soon.
“Alright,” she decided.
“Cheers Red, you’re a lifesaver. I’ll let Alex know.”
She had heard of this Alex guy but never met him. He was on the opposite shift with her being on days and him on nights. At least she would find out what all the fuss was about. According to Lucy, he was hot, but then again, Lucy thought Jim was a hunk, so what did she know? Jim was not a hunk. He was barely a man. While she ran trucks and fixed cars in her spare time, her best friend taught primary school kids and worked on his paintings. Talk about soft. She shook her head as she imagined Jim teaching the little grommets to paint, yelling, “Don’t mix that colour!” at some unsuspecting five-year-old who accidentally put their paintbrush in the wrong tub.
She smiled at the thought of her housemate and closest friend. She reproduced her phone and flicked to recent calls. Nope, no calls. That little weasel. She knew that getting a girlfriend would be the beginning of the end. It wasn’t that Helena didn’t like Kelly. It was just that, well, Helena didn’t like Kelly. How could she? Kelly was so… boring. Helena supposed Kelly was pretty—definitely too pretty for the likes of Jim—but the girl was about as interesting as a piece of unbuttered toast. Worse still was watching Jim become completely dull when he was around her. Helena didn’t mind her best friend getting laid. God only knew he was due. Despite his amorous boasting, she doubted he had slept with more than three girls in his entire twenty-five years of life. Not that Helena was that experienced herself, but it just seemed more pathetic for a guy. She thought about sending him a message but shook her head. If he didn’t want to contact her, to hell with him. He could go back to eating his unbuttered toast. A visual image hit Helena, forcing her to gag a little. Damn her sick mind. Her brothers were right; she was too clever for her own good.
*****
Helena had been very tempted to have a couple of quick beers between shifts but thought better of it. If this Alex was as good a line manager as they said, then there was a good chance he would pick up on it. He could even breathalyse her. She opted instead for two Red Bulls and sprayed herself with copious amounts of deodorant, just in case Lucy had been right about this one. She raked a brush through her wild red curls and watched them spring back like a curling ribbon. What was the point? Helena touched up her mascara. She might work with lots of blokes, but she’d be damned if she was going to look like one. She looked at the time. “Shit.”
*****
Helena made the shuttle bus by the finest of margins. The others were already in conversations and no one seemed willing to involve her. That was fine. She knew how cliquey teams could get and she was just a ring-in. It really wasn’t worth the effort.
“Hey, ah, Helena, thanks for helping us out.”
She turned in her seat, “Don’t call me…” Grey eyes, lightly stubbled, square jawed, tall, built, youngish, no more than a couple of years older than herself, neat hair, smiling at her. “Alex?”
He seemed confused. “I don’t think I called you Alex, I’m Alex.” She nodded dumbfounded.
“Are you okay? If doing two shifts in a row…”
She shook her head and interrupted, “No, it’s fine. You just surprised me. Why aren’t you working back at control?”
He shrugged, “I’ve got three out with gastro and figured I should do my bit. I’m probably getting a bit rusty. It will be good to get back out in a truck again. Thanks for helping me out.”
His earnest expression brought heat to Helena’s cheeks that she prayed would not be visible in the darkness of the moving shuttle bus. “That’s okay. I’m glad I could help… You. I mean, I’m glad I could help all of you, and you too of course.”
Helena cringed inwardly at her incoherent psychobabble. The silence that followed made her wish she could bury herself at the bottom of the mine-site.
“You’re not exactly what I expected, Helena,” he emphasised her name, questioning whether she was okay with it.
“You can call me Red, everyone else does around here. What do you mean? Not what you expected?” It was better if he talked. The less she said the better.
He looked uncomfortable. “It’s just Sam said you were a bit, um, a bit of a toughie.”
“Toughie?” She laughed, thinking it highly unlikely Sam would have used the term toughie. “That bastard; when I see him, I’ll slap the prick silly. I bet he didn’t say toughie, what did he actually say?”
Alex checked that the others were deep in conversation then leaned into her, Helena found herself moving closer too as he whispered, “He said you’re a bit of a ball buster.”
“And you believe him?” she challenged, raising her eyebrows.
Alex shook his head laughing. “I’m not sure, you don’t seem that scary. But I wouldn’t want to find out.”
“You’re a wise man.”
“You look different to how I imagine too,” Alex admitted. “Oh?” she queried.
“Most girls who work up here, well it’s hard to tell, you know, that they’re girls. But not you. You definitely look like a girl.”
“Thanks, I think.” Helena checked her reflection in the back window and hoped she hadn’t put too much mascara on. Nope, all okay. “Well, what about you, you seem a little too…” she chose her words carefully, “too well spoken to work up here, I don’t think I’ve heard you swear once.”
“I don’t like swearing at work,” he admitted.
“That’s what I mean, most guys around here only know two words, fuck and-”
“I don’t allow my team to swear either.”
Helena laughed. “Allow? Are you serious?”
Alex sat up straight, his face grave. “Sorry, Red, I just believe in being professional, when you’re off work, you can say whatever you like. But here, we need to have respect, to work as a team and be good to each other. I hope you can handle that.”
Helena blinked in disbelief. She sensed it wasn’t a question. Jesus, was he for real? Good looking, respectful, intelligent and strong, she mused. No wonder he was already in management. “How old are you?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in curiosity.
“Why do you want to know?” he asked.
She shrugged unable to meet his eyes. Was he flirting with her? And more to the point, was she flirting with him?
The shuttle bus came to a stop all too soon and Alex motioned for her to exit the vehicle before him. Fuck me, she thought, it’s like he was from another time, or planet. He did look a bit like Superman. What planet did Superman come from? Jim would know.
She quickly stifled the yawn and hoped no one saw, but there he was, Prince Charming a.k.a. Alex standing a head taller than her, his eyes watching her with concern. “I’m fine,” she declared.
“You shouldn’t be doing a double…”
“Well, I am and you’ve got no one else, so it’s all good.”
He shook his head, “Maybe you shouldn’t…”
“Alex, I’m fine, truly, I’ve been doing this for two years now; I won’t let you down.”
He watched her, looking for even a hint of weakness. “Okay, I trust you,” he said simply.
Helena had no idea why, but at that moment she started smiling, so much so that she had to cover her mouth with a hand. What was wrong with her?
“Okay. I’ll tell you what, Helena, how about after we finish, I’ll buy you coffee?”
She shrugged, “Um okay, but you do realise all meals and coffee are free up here?”
Alex shook his head, “I wasn’t talking about up here.”
“Oh,” was all she could manage.