Another hot day dawned.
The sky was bleached of colour and the air shimmered with heat as Bella drove the ute over the bumpy back roads to Redman Downs to collect the dogs. Unfortunately she had to admit Gabe had been right about the fire danger. The country was scarily dry. The grass was brown and patchy, and the cattle were trying to escape the sun by lying in the scant shade of the straggly scrub.
As soon as she got the dogs home, her first priority would be to check the Mullinjim bores and water lines and make sure the cattle were still getting enough to drink, then she would have to finish the breaks.
She was surprised her dad hadn’t seen to the breaks, but perhaps he’d slowed down since his first heart attack. Luke’s departure wouldn’t have helped. And I certainly wasn’t offering to lend a hand, she thought guiltily. At least she could make up for that now.
As she drew closer to the Mitchells’ homestead, her stomach started jumping again. She’d always been nervous around Gabe’s mother, Leila, but in the past she’d at least had Gabe on her side. Now she felt as if she was entering enemy territory.
No one answered, however, when she knocked at the front door, even though it hung wide open, giving her a view down the long hallway to the old-fashioned kitchen at the back. She was standing on the verandah, wondering what to do next, when a voice called.
‘Hoy! Bella!’
Old Roy, the retired ringer who’d stayed on in a small cottage as the Mitchells’ gardener and handyman, hobbled across the front yard on stiff, bandy legs.
‘Long time, no see.’ His grin was broad as he held out a gnarled brown hand. ‘Welcome back.’ They shook hands. ‘S’pose you’ve come for the dogs.’
‘Yes. But it seems there’s no one home.’
‘Leila and the girls are away at Noosa, escaping the heat. Lucky beggars.’
Lapping up the good life while Gabe does the hard yards here alone, Bella added silently.
Gabe’s mother had always been different from other outback mums. Delicate was the polite adjective, although Bella had heard others.
When she was little, there’d been a stretch of years when Leila Mitchell had actually gone away to live in the city, leaving Gabe and his father to manage on their own.
Bella had heard her mum muttering with other women over cups of tea, their voices a blend of concern and suspicion. As a child, she’d never understood. Later she still hadn’t been sure if Gabe’s mother had had an affair with a city man or if she’d been ill. Gabe had been tight-lipped about it.
Now Roy shrugged. ‘Gabe’s around here somewhere.’
‘I don’t really need to see him,’ Bella intervened quickly. ‘I spoke to him yesterday and I told him I’d be over.’
She wasn’t sure if she was incredibly relieved or deeply disappointed by Gabe’s absence. ‘Anyway, how are you, Roy?’
‘Not bad.’ He grinned again. ‘You know how it is. Getting stiffer. Lost a few teeth. Still offering advice and bullshit to anyone who’ll listen. But they’re bloody few and far between.’ His expression sobered suddenly. ‘How’s your old man?’
‘Making slow but steady progress. Fingers crossed, he’ll be fine.’
‘Poor bugger. Let’s hope he’s a cat. Nine lives and all that.’ Roy squinted back over his shoulder. ‘The dogs are over at the stables. I’ll take you there, if you like. Old Gus’ll be pleased to see you. He’s been pining.’
Gus was her father’s blue heeler. ‘Gus won’t be happy till Dad’s home again,’ Bella said, but then she was distracted by the sight of a gorgeous kelpie puppy bouncing over the grass towards them.
‘Roy, what a darling!’ In a heartbeat, Bella was squatting to greet the eager pup, rubbing his ears. ‘Aren’t you a beautiful boy?’ He truly was the cutest thing with a rich brown coat and ginger points above his huge, bright blue eyes. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beauty. What’s his name?’
Roy scowled. ‘That’s a sore point.’
‘Why? What’s he called?’
With a hefty sigh, Roy stuck his thumbs in his belt loops and rolled his eyes, dramatically, skywards. ‘George bloody Clooney.’
Bella stared at him in laughing disbelief. ‘George Clooney?’
The puppy leapt to attention, tail wagging madly.
‘See?’ scowled Roy. ‘He won’t bloody answer to anything else.’
‘How hilarious. How did that happen?’
‘Sarah and Ellie fell in love with him. He’s supposed to be a working dog, but the way they’re carrying on they’ll spoil him useless.’
Bella smiled. It was very easy to imagine how smitten Gabe’s younger sisters must have been.
‘At first young Ellie wanted to call him Justin Bieber,’ said Roy.
‘Justin Bieber doesn’t have blue eyes.’
‘Doesn’t he?’ Roy shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘Neither does George Clooney, for that matter.’
‘Well, the girls were sure the pup needed a celebrity name, and for some flamin’ reason, George Clooney stuck.’ He grunted his disgust. ‘Now it’s the only bloody name the mutt will answer to. If we try to shorten it to George or call him anything sensible, he plays deaf.’
Bella couldn’t help laughing. The pup was truly beautiful and somehow George Clooney seemed ridiculously right for him. ‘Ooh, you gorgeous fellow.’ She rubbed her nose against the dampness of his. ‘I can tell you now, you had me at woof.’
It was only as the puppy bounced away again that she noticed a second pair of boots had arrived to stand beside her in the dust. Startled, she looked up to see Gabe.
From this angle he was all denim jeans and belt buckle, but she didn’t miss the emotion in his eyes – a fleeting flash of pain laced by a flare of heat.
The impression was gone in a blink, but Bella felt its impact deep inside and she was swamped by unexpected confusion. She was blushing as she stood and the laughter that had been bubbling evaporated. ‘Hello, Gabe.’
‘Good morning.’ His face was once more a careful mask.
Roy was watching them both with wide-eyed curiosity. Bella supposed that even an elderly outback bachelor could sense the sudden crackle and tension in the air.
Despite the scorching heat she felt a chill.
‘As you can see I’ve had the privilege of meeting George Clooney.’ She dredged up a jaunty smile and to her relief Gabe almost smiled in return.
‘He’s quite a show-off,’ he said.
‘So I guess he suits his name.’
‘I guess. But it’s going to be crazy when we’re out mustering, calling to George Clooney.’
Bella laughed. ‘Heel, George Clooney. Get behind, George Clooney.’
This time Gabe smiled properly, and for a moment, his eyes were lit from within. The skin at their corners crinkled and Bella caught a glimpse, at last, of her old friend.
Out of the blue she found herself remembering another Cute Animal Moment from years and years ago, a happy flashback to their childhood, when her father had brought her over to Redman Downs.
While her dad and Gabe’s father had discussed cattle business, Gabe had taken her round the back of the homestead, to a corner of the back verandah and a box lined with straw. Even though she was a girl and years younger than Gabe, he’d always treated her with way more respect than Luke ever had.
Inside the straw-lined box a pale spiny bundle had curled, asleep.
‘What is it?’ Bella had whispered.
‘An albino echidna,’ Gabe told her, wide-eyed.
‘Wow!’ When Bella looked again, she could recognise its quills and its pointy little face, but the colours were all wrong. Pink and white, instead of brown and black.
‘I’m feeding him termites,’ Gabe told her. ‘Dad said we could keep him here for a bit and I can take him for Show and Tell at school.’
‘That’s so cool.’
Bella hadn’t yet started school, but Gabe was a weekly boarder at the tiny primary school in Gidgee Springs. In another year he would head off for fulltime boarding school in Townsville.
Back then Bella used to think he was practically a grown-up. But when he’d shared the echidna with her, he’d simply been a happy kid.
Now he was looking almost as happy as he had that day.
It felt good.
Too good surely? Their more recent past was still an ugly, ugly mess.
‘Roy was about to take me over to our dogs,’ she said, wondering if Gabe would offer to come instead.
Gabe didn’t offer. Already his face had morphed back into the serious mask as if his happy smile had been a regrettable mistake. He simply nodded to her and took two steps back, clearly in a hurry to head off, to go about his business.
‘Thanks for looking after the dogs,’ Bella said.
‘Roy did the honours. They’ve been well behaved.’
With that Gabe more or less dismissed them, and it was Roy who walked with her to the barn-like room attached to the stables where the four Mullinjim dogs, all blue heelers, were housed.
Of course, when Roy opened the door, the cattle dogs barked madly, but it was Gus, the house dog and her father’s old mate, who trotted straight up to Bella. In many ways, the dog was an extension of her dad. The two of them were always together.
Gus sniffed at Bella’s boots then lifted his face, his hazel eyes searching the doorway for a sign of his master. Then he looked at her with pleading eyes as he gave a soft whine.
‘I’m sorry, Gus.’ Her throat was tight as she gently stroked the soft fur between his ears. ‘Dad’s not here, mate. It might be a while before you see him.’
She glanced back to Roy, caught the soft sympathy in his eyes, and looked away again quickly, before she started to blub.