Zac sat outside the clinic on the tiny verandah and waited for Ava to finish handing over Jessamine and her babies to the flight staff from the RFDS. Jessamine had wanted to breastfeed and he’d left them to it. Denise had collected a bottle of red soil for Jessamine to take with the boys as a symbol of country.
Above him the sun had drawn closer to the horizon. Thinking of celestial movement made him feel remarkably blessed to have been present for Jessamine’s babies’ smooth arrival. The young mum had held it together so well, helped by Ava’s calm action and management, which kept him shaking his head. His girl had been like the conductor of nature’s incredible symphony of birth. How had he been so lucky to have been there to see it all?
In Sydney he’d seen twins born by caesarean section but had never witnessed a natural twin birth. Although those times were special, the absolute amazement of seeing a first-time mother achieving what could have been a very complicated birth without any unnecessary hands interfering had truly blown him away. And made him rethink his medical-school risk-management ideas. His new motto was going to be: go natural birth until proven otherwise. The only vaginal breech birth he’d seen had been fraught with drama and declarations of what could go wrong, and he wondered now if that had been so dramatic because everyone had been hands-on when they should have been hands-off.
It was a pivotal moment in his life, showing him that things could turn out well if he gave them a chance. He could see luck played a part. Ava had been here, obviously, and he had been backup in case the twins were compromised. But maybe you made your own luck.
For some reason, the arrival of the twins au naturel reminded him that he should trust the arrival of Ava in his life. His Ava, who continued to astound and astonish him with her clarity of purpose, her intuitive skill and warmth when dealing with crises, and her unconditional generosity to allow him to enter her private world, dealing with his crisis, too.
He could hear the dull murmur of voices from inside the little clinic, and he stood up and walked down the steps to the native gardens laid out like small green artworks of nature’s design all around the resort complex.
Soon he would have Ava to himself. Someone in Alice Springs had suggested they attend the Sounds of Silence dinner between Kata Tjuta and Uluru, and he’d booked that for tomorrow night. Apparently, one of the local Aboriginal elders shared Dreamtime stories from the night sky while the attendees looked through telescopes. It would be marvellous to just sit out under the starlight with Ava and soak it all in with the stories. He decided he liked the sound of the traditional names more than ‘The Olgas’ and ‘Ayers Rock’, which had been given by the Europeans.
But not tonight. Tonight he wanted Ava. Just Ava. Considering his plans for tonight, it was strange that tomorrow would be their first real date. He was just grateful for all they’d had up until now.
The gratitude word had become his biggest lesson since meeting Ava May. To learn to be grateful for the blessings instead of bitter about the pills in life. It wasn’t new or groundbreaking, but he’d missed that basic truth in the rush and drama of his world away from here. Life before Ava.
She’d gently suggested he shift towards being grateful for the good times, the friendship and early excitement with Roslyn, and that he’d had the time to say an extended goodbye, despite his ambivalence about her parents’ decision to continue life support. He certainly needed to be grateful that he’d been able to share the exhilaration of today.
But now he’d like to have time with Ava to resolve their future, to put his feelings out there and be sure she felt the way he did, because if she didn’t then he needed to move on from here before he was so far in love with her he’d never recover.
They needed to talk about whether they could both fit into each other’s lives, and that conversation required privacy for him to present his ring and ask to marry the woman he knew he was falling more and more in love with every day. He’d shifted the ring to the zipper compartment on the back of his wallet. He had no loose change and it couldn’t fall out, and he hadn’t wanted the bulky box to give away the surprise. He’d been hoping for a few hours before sunset, but they were running out of time.
‘You do draw drama.’ Ava’s voice came from behind him and he turned to look at her in the afternoon light. Her face was haloed by the sun, and every line and shadow seemed precious to him, making his chest ache with emotion.
‘Look at you in this light.’ It was an effort to keep his voice level. ‘I want to carry you away and learn your magic.’ He was very glad he’d made arrangements before he’d come to see her. ‘I don’t suppose I could invite you over to my hotel room for some contemplation of …’ he pretended to search for inspiration ‘… the afternoon view from our verandah?’
She laughed. ‘It would be nice to have some alone time with you that didn’t include babies or medical emergencies.’
He reached for her hand, and once they were joined he felt ridiculously complete to have her fingers in his. Hip brushing hip, they walked up the curved footpath towards the hotel. The sun cast long, thin shadows away from them and he waved his other hand back at the health centre. ‘All good on transfer?’
‘Amazing. Jessamine’s breastfed the boys twin fashion. She’s calm about the flight now. The pilot told her how many thousands of safe landings he’s had.’
She squeezed his hand, her mind obviously on other things, but that was fine by him. He loved the way her mind roamed. In fact, he loved everything about her.
‘It’s five years away,’ she said musingly, ‘but when these babies go to school, I’ll talk to Jessamine about looking at a scholarship in health. She’d be an incredible nurse. Maybe even a midwife if it isn’t too far for her to travel for study.’
Five years. She expected to be here? Of course she did. That was food for thought but not unexpected. Given his feelings, there was a big chance he’d be here too. For the moment, he only said, ‘You’re a midwife. From here. Nothing stopped you.’
‘No, it didn’t. But everyone is different. I do think she’d be such a great resource. We don’t have enough Indigenous midwives, and her inner strength shines. That’s where the change will come from. When Indigenous midwives can support Indigenous women in communities, we’ll see more outreach births. More babies born on country.’
There was a long road to travel and a lot of red tape to cut through before that would be a reality, but if anyone could encourage it to happen, Ava and the friends she had here could. ‘No matter how good your set-up became, you’d not get twins booked to be born on country,’ he commented with a small laugh.
‘Yes. Except for today.’ They both smiled again at the thought. ‘Jessamine was brilliant with those babies coming out so well. Probably the long walk did it.’
He’d thought about that. ‘She’s lucky she didn’t have them on the way.’
Ava pretended to punch his arm. ‘Stop. I don’t want to think about it. Having you here helped a lot, too. If you hadn’t been here, I’d have been terrified the babies would need more than I could give them.’
He laughed at that. Ava terrified? He seriously doubted that could happen. But at least he’d been useful. ‘Thank you.’
Ava was still chewing over the problem. ‘I don’t know. I think she’d get a lot of help from Denise in finding support and assistance to study, too. She has a long-term goal for helping remote pregnant women, not just Jessamine. I’ve read about the Inuit women, where a system of local maternity support showed better outcomes for births at home, so I’m sure it could work here too.’
He leaned in and kissed her. ‘Absolutely.’ Then he kissed her again and stepped back to re-tuck her hand into his arm.
‘I’m ranting again,’ she said with a sheepish smile.
‘You do it beautifully. If enough people feel the way you do, things will change. But I’m more selfish and wonder if I can entice the desert midwife to hurry a little faster across to my hotel room.’
He felt the tension ease out of her and she touched his cheek. When their eyes met, her expression grew teasing.
Tonight. I’ll tell her tonight, he thought. The declarations were threatening to burst from him.