Two months later
Stella looked across to where Zac stood in the centre of a red sandy knoll. He’d been positioned directly in line with Uluru’s blessing under a white metal archway that fluttered with ribbons. He’d been instructed where to stand by Ava, with Poddy as best man, as they waited for her to arrive.
The archway, intricately welded together by Mim, would later be returned to stand in the rose garden at Setabilly Station. Stella and Lorenzo had already made good use of it at their own wedding a month ago.
In a few minutes, Ava and Zac would celebrate their nuptials on one of the many ochre-red sandhills between Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
The whole event would be framed by the benevolent ancient mountain range in the distance and the endless plains filled with promise. This was all the Anangu people’s country, stretching away forever. An orange-brown dusted land, with the sage of desert foliage, between two magnificent icons glowing as the afternoon prepared for sunset. A land that Stella, and many other people here today, loved with a passion.
Round tables had been set below the sandy hillock, white chairs and linen tablecloths in the desert, waiting to seat the guests who stood with rounded eyes, awestruck by the venue, turning this way and that at the desert beauty around them.
They’d arrived from Sydney like vivid birds in their colourful shirts, hats and dresses, streaming from the resort bus along the maroon carpet walkways. Others had arrived from the stations around Alice Springs, from the hospitals, big and tiny, and remote health centres. All were waiting for the bride, and Stella enjoyed the excitement of Ava’s friends, the respect she’d earned from her workmates, the warmth of the smiling faces. Most of all, she enjoyed the expectation of the groom.
A whisper of noise heralded the long black car as it slowed and stopped beside the carpet at the base of the hill. Stella clutched Lorenzo’s hand.
Jock stepped out in a dark suit, tall and sturdy, a quirk of a smile on his handsome face as he moved to the rear door. My baby is well again. Whole. He opened the door and Denise, Ava’s best friend, stepped out dressed in a magnificent maroon strapless dress, Australian wildflowers in her hand and her thick dark hair coiled like a crown.
Then Jock reached in to give the bride his arm and Ava stepped out.
Ava’s white dress fell simply from the top of her breasts to the tips of her silver shoes and she drew a gasp from the onlookers as she came to stand behind Denise. Her face radiated a serene, glowing joy that softened the faces of everyone she touched with her emotion.
Stella felt the tears sting her eyes and she heard Mim sniff beside her. ‘Bella Ava,’ Lorenzo’s whisper carried to his wife, as his daughter-in-law stepped onto the carpet and stopped, waiting. ‘Così bella,’ he whispered.
‘Così?’ his wife looked at him. ‘So beautiful?’
‘Sì. Like her mama.’
The crowd hushed and silence fell over the sands until the low, growling sounds of the didgeridoo filled the air with rumbling cadences, drawing emotion with a command that carried to the rear of the assembly. The wedding party began their entrance. Denise’s husband had offered to play the didgeridoo when Ava had asked Denise to be her bridesmaid, and the pulses of sound lifted the hairs on Stella’s arms as her daughter walked up the red carpet to the top of the sandhill.
It’s perfect, Stella thought.
Denise trod the carpet in a stately walk, and on the knoll ahead of her Zac’s gaze fixed on his bride.
Ava seemed to float behind her bridesmaid in a shimmer of white light until, finally, she stopped beside him. The delicate grevilleas in her bouquet didn’t shake as her gaze held his with a wealth of love.
Just before sunset, with the burnished copper of Kata Tjuta glowing like the heart of a fire, they pledged in front of family and friends until husband and wife turned to face the desert and those who loved them.
Zac raised Ava’s hand and the magnificent pink diamond flashed in the light, along with the wedding ring beside it. ‘I introduce you to my wife, Ava May-Logan.’ His voice resonated deep and clear and full of pride, and those who watched applauded and cheered. The sound of the didgeridoo rose strongly, swelling with the joy of the moment above the cacophony, and promised in vibrating throbs the fullness of their life to come.
As they descended into the throng, Zac held firmly onto his wife’s hand. Stella saw Ava pause and dip her head as she pointed to the ground, and Mim and Stella laughed as they both saw the subtle movement in the dirt as a thorny devil lizard wandered away. Ngiyari. Ava’s desert friend had come to watch the ceremony.