Bilgarra Springs Page 2

  She tidied the piles on the bed and turned to check the time on the clock on the bedside table — 11:22 a.m. Her plane was due to take off at 2:30 p.m. which meant that she had to be out of here in the next hour in order to be at the airport the required hour before. She’d already booked the taxi for 12:30, so she definitely had to be out of the house in the next hour.

  She had to admit that she was finding it very hard to muster the momentum to organise the clothes inside the suitcase and get herself out the door and over to Mascot. It hadn’t seemed such a scary prospect during the week when she had organised it all. Now she was wondering whether she had lost her marbles completely to be even contemplating going.

  The relevant university bigwigs had not taken her request particularly well, especially as she wouldn’t disclose the exact nature of the situation that required the emergency leave. She understood their need for clarification, but bloody hell, she had been working for the University of Sydney for eight years and not once had she ever asked for anything. Aurora had always made sure that she stayed out of the usual political back-stabbing and back-biting that went on and did her own thing. She minded her own business and taught her students to the best of her ability. She couldn’t help chuckling at the irony that she, of all people, taught family law. After her ridiculous farce of a marriage that had ended so dramatically, fate certainly had a sense of humour in landing her teaching that subject. She plonked her backside down in an empty spot on the bed and mentally pulled her thoughts up.

  Don’t go there.

  Focus on today.

  Today — the whole estate scenario remained grossly unreal. She still couldn’t believe that she was going. In the week since she had visited Clive’s office she had, of course, tackled the university to get her emergency leave, booked airfares from Sydney to Townsville return, organised a four wheel drive rental car, not to mention all the small jobs that need to be taken care of to be able to leave the unit for a month — mail, pets, plants, food. And all this accomplished in that disjointed fog that seemed to have descended over her life with the death of her grandmother.

  Noticing that Aurora was now sitting on the bed, Orinoco made her way down from her spot curled on the pillows. Ever the opportunist, she had seen the empty lap and was making the most of it. Aurora ruffled the cat’s fur as she settled in her lap. It just didn’t seem fair. Her grandmother and grandfather had been all she’d had since the age of seven. Losing both of her parents in a train derailment had meant that they had of necessity stepped in and seen to her upbringing and what a fantastic job they’d done. Pop hadn’t been around too much. His law practice had kept him incredibly busy, but Gran… A small smile tilted the corners of her mouth. Gran had done a better than fantastic job. Maybe everyone did it better when they got a second chance at it — get all the big mistakes out of the way the first time round — who knew?

  Aurora scooped the cat up tucking it under her chin and dropped her head on to her now loudly purring Siamese. At 32 years old, Aurora’s life had seemed satisfying and full until the death of her grandmother had rocked the foundations. Isabella had been 88 years old when she died. She wasn’t a young woman and her death wasn’t a surprise but no amount of forethought seems to prepare you for the reality of it. As far as deaths go, it hadn’t even been a bad one: no drawn out illness, no pain, no dementia, no wasting away, she just quietly slipped away in her sleep one afternoon. A death in good circumstances didn’t change the fact that it just plain sucked; there was simply no other way to describe it.

  Aurora lifted her head, placed Orinoco on the bed, scrubbed her hands over her face and rose to her feet. The damned suitcase wasn’t going to pack itself and there was nothing to be gained by sitting there feeling sorry for herself. She started placing the clothes in.

  ‘You know what Orinoco, I guess this is one of those ‘welcome to the real world moments’ when you decide that, yes, life does suck as much as everybody keeps telling you that it does,’ Aurora muttered as she placed more piles of clothes into the suitcase.

  Aurora gently closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  ‘Oh jeez girl, you soooo need to lose this crappy attitude.’

  Orinoco jumped down from the bed and left the bedroom, chocolate tail high in the air, to all intents and purposes signalling her complete agreement.

  Aurora gave a small chuckle.

  ‘Smart ass cat. My attitude must be worse than bad. Snap out of it sunshine.’

  Aurora’s smile turned wistful. ‘Snap out of it sunshine’ had been Gran’s favourite response to all the childish tantrums and teenage drama that

  Aurora had dumped on her over the years. Gran had very rarely lost her cool, took most things in her stride and very much called a spade a spade. This time, however, it was Gran who had gotten Aurora into this mess.

  With a decisive huff, Aurora placed the last of her stuff into the suitcase and closed the zipper. She grabbed it off the bed and made her way to the front door, leaving the suitcase beside her shoes and handbag, ready to go. She checked her watch — 12:11. The taxi was due in nineteen minutes. She rechecked the list that she had made for another colleague, Tim, who was going to house-sit while she was away.

  She so hoped that Tim and Orinoco didn’t cross swords. Orinoco could be quite the ‘Little Miss’ when she chose to be. She couldn’t worry too much about it though; they would have to sort it out for themselves. The academic grape vine had worked to her advantage in snagging Tim to house-sit. She had helped him out of a tight spot too. He and his girlfriend of two years had just split up and he had been living at her place and as a result of the split was now ‘homeless’. The month would give him a chance to get himself together and organise himself without any pressure. It was a win-win situation.

  The list seemed complete; she could think of nothing that needed to be added to it. As a last minute check she moved through to the guest room. It all looked to be fine but Aurora couldn’t shake the feeling that she had missed something important. Then again, she got that feeling before she went anywhere and hadn’t forgotten anything major before. Best ignore it. Orinoco was weaving herself through Aurora’s legs in an attempt to snavel some attention. Aurora picked her up and cradled her in the crook of her arm, tickling her belly.

  ‘You make sure you behave for Tim. It’s get along with him or the cattery for you my friend, and we know how much you enjoyed that last time. So you just make sure you’re a good girl.’

  Orinoco titled her head ever so slightly backwards and closed her eyes. Aurora wasn’t sure whether that meant she was being ignored or not. She moved out into the hall, gave the cat a quick squeeze and placed her on the floor. A brief glance at her watch showed that it was not long until the taxi arrived and Aurora made her way to the front door. Orinoco perched herself on the arm of the lounge chair and watched as Aurora slipped her feet into her shoes, looped her hand bag over her shoulder, gave a final glance around, picked up her suitcase and went out the front door. By the time Aurora had closed the door Orinoco had lost interest in whatever was happening and was cleaning her stomach. Aurora chuckled. That cat seriously thought the world revolved around her little self.

  In the lift on the way down, Aurora mused that the only thing wrong with a penthouse unit was the constant travel to and from ground level. Weighing it up though, the view was probably worth the inconvenience. She glanced up as she exited the complex, hoping like mad that the sky didn’t open up while she was waiting for the taxi. It had been stormy looking all morning but in the last hour the clouds had become dark and heavy. Drenched would not be the best way to leave for the airport.

  Aurora had only just made it through the landscaped grounds of the unit complex to the pick up and parking area when her taxi arrived. An early taxi had to be a good omen, stormy skies notwithstanding. The taxi driver was a surprise — it had to be her lucky day. Not only did he understand English, he had the good manners to put her suitcase in the boot for her. As far as starts went, th
is was a good one. Maybe this month wasn’t going to be such a disaster after all.

  With a decidedly brighter outlook she closed the car door and as the taxi moved off she took a last look at the windows to her unit. Orinoco was now cleaning herself on the wide, window sill in the lounge, appearing not to have a care in the world. With the assurance that all was as best as she could make it, she relaxed, settled in and decided to enjoy Sydney from the back seat of the taxi. It wasn’t very often that she had the chance to just sight see, so she may as well enjoy it.

  The airport, as usual, was overflowing with people. Crap. She hated crowds of people. Aurora studiously avoided any situation where there were going to be wall-to-wall people. She hated that crammed in feeling. Shopping in December in Sydney was like that. She hated it with a passion. It infuriated her that much that she made sure that any Christmas presents that needed to be bought were done by mid-November and any grocery shopping for December and January she did over the internet. It may be a little more expensive to do it that way, but heck, whatever she ordered was delivered to her door. As far as she was concerned, the silly season was just that and as for school holidays, don’t go there!

  She pushed her way through the people and headed over to Burger King. If she was going to be in the middle of nowhere for the next month, she may as well have one last junk food fix and if you were going to have a fast food hit, in her opinion Aussie Burgers were it. Simple order really — Aussie Burger, no tomato, definitely no onion, no fries, no Coke. Keep it simple.

  That had become her mantra since she came back to Sydney nine years ago — keep it simple. Her unit wasn’t overcrowded with furniture: what she needed she had, but nothing just for the sake of having it. The art on the walls was minimal — whatever brought the space to life, but the walls weren’t overcrowded. Even photos were carefully considered and placed. Aurora had wanted the interior of her home to be uncluttered and harmonious.

  This attitude even extended to her office at the university. The books that she needed were placed on the bookshelves along with a few memento pieces that she had collected over the years, some of them gifts, but she had never followed the track of some who had filled their office space with books, books and more books in the hope of appearing more learned. She was what she was and she knew what she knew and as far as she was concerned, she didn’t need to prove herself to anybody. Her doctoral thesis had been published, she regularly published articles in prominent journals and had a book on the history of legal jargon in the pipeline. In a professional sense, she was more than comfortable with who she was. In a private sense, she was very closed off from nearly everybody and that was just how she liked it too. Although she had to admit that her insular existence was not so good now that Gran was gone.

  A pimply, young kid, who looked about ten, handed over her order with a big smile. She thanked him and couldn’t help wondering why everybody looked so bloody young. Made her a bit twitchy that maybe it was just that she was getting older. How ironic though, she still felt the same as she had at twenty-one.

  Aurora sat and people watched as she demolished the burger. She realised as she took the last mouthful that she had forgotten to have breakfast this morning. That at least accounted for the fact that she had practically inhaled the burger — quite out of character for her, she usually ate quite slowly. As a child she had been constantly scolded by Gran for taking twice as long as everybody else to finish her dinner. She smiled as she remembered the look that her Pop would get on his face. He’d look at her when Gran wasn’t looking, peering over the top of the newspaper that he read each evening. Every time the look was the same. He’d ever so slightly roll his eyes as if to say here we go again and smile from ear to ear with the faintest chuckle. The same routine every night with neither party giving an inch. Aurora still took forever to eat and Gran scolded and urged, bustling around her trying to get her to hurry up so that she could wash up and get the kitchen cleaned up for the evening. Pop even made the comment one night as he left to take a shower that if either party ever changed their habits the roof of the house would probably cave in. Her grandparents had both been very good people, each with a lively sense of humour, and she had been extremely lucky to have them.

  Aurora quickly checked her watch. Ten minutes until the plane boarded. Just enough time to have a quick toilet stop and make her way to the boarding gate. She collected her rubbish to put in the bin, grabbed her hand bag and set out for the nearest toilet. Her philosophy for public toilets was quite simple, get in and get out as quickly as possible. She did briefly pause after washing her hands to check herself out in the mirror. Overhead fluorescent lights made everybody look so washed out. Although in her case it was probably an accurate picture. She hadn’t slept well all week, especially last night. She’d tossed and turned all night and it felt like she hadn’t slept for ten consecutive minutes. She’d be really glad to arrive there. It couldn’t be any worse than this horrible waiting.

  She’d only been sitting in the lounge for a few minutes when the first boarding call was announced over the P.A. system. She’d been people watching, trying to fit stories around the groups of people and individuals that were gathered. She enjoyed watching the different dynamics between people and how they interacted. People watching was one of the benefits of her job — she had a new batch of faces and personalities to work out each year.

  She suddenly realised that she would be the new face at the station and that it was her personality that they would all try to place rather than the other way around. She generally wasn’t nervous when faced with a whole stack of new faces, but this time was proving to be the exception. As she stood in line waiting to have her boarding pass scanned, the tension was turning her stomach and she was starting to wish that she’d ignored food altogether.

  Eventually the queue moved along and she made her way to her seat. She’d come this far but she couldn’t ignore the fact that a large part of her felt trapped into the situation. She could, of course, still back out. There were any number of opportunities over today and tomorrow where she could simply change her mind and go home. She’d feel like a complete fool though if she failed to turn up at the last minute. Not that pride would stop her if she decided that it was really the wrong thing to do, but she had to admit that, yes, even though she did feel that things had taken on a life of their own and were even a little out of control, there was a tiny part inside her that actually wanted to do this, as crazy as that sounded.

  As she settled into her seat and fastened the seat belt, Aurora decided to go with that small part. Surely a positive outlook and attitude could carry her through this. She just needed to ignore that tiny seed of fear. Eventually everybody was seated, the doors locked and the plane started to taxi out to the runway while the cabin crew did the standard safety demonstration. Aurora’s mind was too pre-occupied with what to expect over the next couple of days to be able to focus for even a short amount of time on what they were saying. She didn’t even notice when they weren’t saying anything and had gone to their seats for take-off.

  As the plane’s engines roared, its speed increased and the nose lifted off the ground, Aurora couldn’t help wonder whether this next month would give her an exit out of her no-man’s land existence of the last few weeks since Gran’s death. She couldn’t have been said to have been living, more existing. To be completely honest with herself, it had started well before Gran died. A general dissatisfaction with the nothingness of it all had settled in, almost like she were constantly waiting for something, treading water, but it seemed to be something that never arrived. As the plane banked over Sydney Aurora hoped like mad that setting out to meet whatever her grandmother had in store for her would provide the means of escape from the discontent that seemed to be permeating everything.

  three

  New Horizons

  Aurora was amazed at how different it was to drive out here. Sydney was always wall to wall cars. She hadn’t seen any car at all for about half an ho
ur on this road. Even driving in Townsville had been much more relaxed; no need for the assertiveness that you had to have in Sydney just to get anywhere. When she had first picked up the hire car she had felt like a bit of a mad thing compared to the other drivers, who weren’t hell bent on lane changing and position grabbing. By the time she had worked out that it was all cruisy, she was at the motel where she had booked to stay and the next morning it was only a very short drive until she was on the road headed for Charters Towers. This style of driving could almost be considered relaxing.

  She couldn’t wait to tell June at work about the first road train that she had come across. June was a really timid and scared driver who couldn’t deal with normal trucks or buses and who would arrive at the university shaking if she had encountered even one in the five minute drive from her home to work. The fact that the lanes in inner Sydney weren’t wide enough to accommodate a bus didn’t help. Aurora smiled to herself — a semi with multiple trailers would give June a heart attack. To be truthful, the first one had scared the daylights out of Aurora too, but she would only tell June that at the end of the conversation!

  Aurora’s thoughts wandered over the events of the last two days as she headed towards Greenvale. So far, so good: flights hadn’t been delayed, no baggage stuff-ups, no fellow passenger problems (actually no passenger beside her at all which must be the bonus of flying mid-week), no hire car stuff ups, nothing to complain about at all really. The staff at the motel in Townsville had been friendly and accommodating and the trip so far was fairly uneventful. The scenery, however, was something out of the ordinary.

  Aurora couldn’t stop being amazed at the way the dirt beside the bitumen kept changing colours from red, through the palest of pinks to a grey. The rock formations were something else too. The closer she got to Greenvale the more stunning the scenery got. So different to the harbour and cityscape that she was used to. If this month brought nothing else, it would provide some fantastic photo opportunities. She was already itching to be out there snapping away.