ii

Kate pulled up outside number 12 and they all got out of the car. She was about to knock when the door opened from the inside, “Kate! So great to see you, you look well, come in, come in, sorry about the mess!” Michele opened the door and they all trooped in. Michele’s cat eyed Benny critically and then she skulked away, her head erect and tail stuck straight up in the air. Kate and Michele laughed, “she’s a little haughty, her name is Sheba.” She lifted a load of papers off the couch so that Kate and Jo could sit down. “So, how are you? What are you up to these days?” Kate sat down, “I’m fine. I just got a job with a big law firm in Sydney so I’m heading up there. I don’t start till next month so I thought I’d take the scenic route,” Kate lied. “Oh, really? And is Jo your son?” Michele asked, indicating Jo. Kate laughed, “Jo? My son? No, I’m looking after him for a friend. She’s overseas on business and will be returning via Sydney. So what are you doing these days?” Kate asked in return. She didn’t really want to talk about herself, as it could get complicated. “Oh, nothing’s changed much. I’m still the rental coordinator at the real estate agent in town and I’m still engaged to Richard,” she waved her finger displaying the engagement ring. “Still? Are you guys ever going to tie the knot?” Michele laughed, “we just haven’t found the right time,” she began, “first his mother died, then his older sister got married, then my sister got married, but we plan to do it next February,” she finished. “So, you’ve actually set a date then?” Kate asked. “Well, not exactly, but I’ll send you an invitation when we do!” Kate gave Michele her e-mail address, “I don’t have a permanent address for Sydney yet,” she explained.

“Do you see much of Bess these days?” asked Michele, “you two were practically inseparable at Uni!” Kate laughed, “Yes, we’re still friends. Actually, she was down here for the weekend. We all stayed at my brother’s girlfriend’s place.” “Colin has a country girl?” asked Michele incredulously. “Colin? No, Josh. Her folks have a dairy farm in Devon, South Gippsland.” Michele hadn’t heard of Devon, but she tried not to look ignorant, “and what’s Bess doing there days? She was always so driven.” Kate nodded, “Yes, she still is. She works for Starship, in advertising. She’s probably going to be executive in a year or two at the rate she’s going. She loves it.” Michele raised her eyebrows, “well, I suppose I’m not all that surprised. Is she with anyone? She always seemed to net the cutest guys!” They both laughed, “yeah, her current man is named Alex, she met him when she directed the campaign for his family business.” “And is he gorgeous?” Michele asked, digging for more details. “Of course!” Kate grinned, “He’s tall, dark and handsome.” “Aren’t they always…?” Michele asked enviously. Kate laughed, “Yes, I suppose they are. He’s Russian.” Michele’s eyes widened, “Russian? How exotic!” Kate could barely control her mirth, “so what’s Richard like?” Michele shrugged, “oh, he’s tall I guess, but you’d hardly call him handsome. He’s the local Vet. Actually, you’ll get to meet him later. He was meant to be here, but he was called out to an emergency, I expect he’ll be back soon.” Kate nodded; she was looking forward to meeting the man who had lured her friend to the country.

They sat talking for some time, Kate had asked if Richard always worked weekends and Michele had gone into a lengthy explanation of Richard’s business. She sure knew how to talk, Kate had forgotten about her tendency to over explain things. She looked around the room, it resembled Michele’s old dorm room, she noted with interest. ‘Some people never change,’ she thought to herself. She was bored of the ins and outs of the veterinarian business, “so you live together then?” She interrupted. “Oh yes, this is actually Richard’s place. We moved in soon after his mother died.” Now it was Kate’s turn to raise her eyebrows, “he grew up in this house?” Michele nodded, “his father moved into a nursing home soon after she died and we moved in soon after that. His sister….” Michele was off again. Kate relaxed and sat back for the tale. She wished Richard would hurry up and get here. She was starving….

“Michele? Honey, you in?” a deep voice called from the hall. Kate sighed with relief. At last, Richard was here, she was afraid that they’d never get to eat! “Oh, hi Honey,” Richard kissed Michele on the cheek, “you must be Kate, Michele’s been talking about you non-stop since you called yesterday. I’m Richard, pleased to meet you.” Richard stretched out his hand and Kate took it in hers. He had a firm, countryman’s handshake. “Richard, hi, yes, pleased to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot about you as well!” They laughed. “Have you eaten?” Richard asked, “I’m famished!” he sat down heavily. “No, Richard sweetie, we’ve been waiting for you.” Michele got up and began bustling around the kitchen. “Anything I can do to help?” asked Kate. “Oh, no, it’ll only take a minute, it’s just cold meats and salad. I prepared it earlier.” Michele emerged from the kitchen and unceremoniously removed the junk from the table. She returned to the kitchen and re-emerged moments later with two gigantic salads. “How many are you expecting?” Kate asked, “You’ve prepared enough to feed an army!” Richard laughed, “My fault I’m afraid!” They got up and made their way to the table. “It’s nothing much,” apologised Michele, “but I thought a cold lunch was best as I figured that we might have to wait on Richard.” They all sat around the table, “it looks great,” Kate, commented, “no need to apologise.”

Eating didn’t seem to prevent Michele from talking and she managed to fill Kate in on all the history of the last five years. Kate was bursting to hear from Richard though, so when Michele paused to chew on a piece of meat, Kate broke in, “so Richard, exactly how did you lure a born and bred city girl down here?” Richard laughed, he had a rich, deep laugh. “I guess she just fell for my country charm!” Michele, of course, had a great deal more to add to the tale. “Oh Richard, you make it sound like it was a piece of cake! Really, you know he practically begged me to do it for months. I finally relented when he told me he’d found the perfect job. You remember Kate; I wasn’t having any luck on the job front in Melbourne, so I figured I might as well give it a go. Plus, it was so tiring us having to commute so far to see each other. We alternated weekends. Ugh, you should have seen his digs back then, bona fide bachelor’s pad…!” Michele rattled on. Richard caught Kate’s eye and rolled his. She laughed but managed to turn it into a cough. Michele paused, “Kate, are you alright?” She was concerned that Kate had chocked. Kate recovered, “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just swallowed before I’d chewed enough.” Michele resumed the story where she’d left off and Kate rolled her eyes at Richard, he winked in reply. “Any dessert, love?” Michele kept talking as she got up.

It was nearing six o’clock and the sun was setting when Kate and Jo were finally able to escape. Richard had promised to give the puppy a once over in the morning if Kate could bring him to the surgery first thing. ‘At least the afternoon hadn’t been a total write-off,’ Kate mused as they drove back to the hotel. They had stopped to pick up fish and chips on the way back, even though Kate wasn’t particularly hungry. She was exhausted though. She’d forgotten how much Michele could talk and her head was spinning. She would have an early night tonight. She had ordered their breakfast for six am so that they could get away early. She’d promised Richard that they would be at the surgery by seven thirty. She put Jo to bed and he fell asleep almost instantly. She hadn’t even read him a story. Kate went to bed directly herself, she was too tired to even write to Ben. She hadn’t realised how tired all that jabbering could make her. ‘How on earth did I keep up with her?’ she wondered to herself as she drifted off to sleep….

Kate turned over and looked at the clock, two am. She sighed and switched on the bedside lamp, it was hopeless. She’d been tossing and turning for at least the last hour, ‘why can’t I sleep?’ she wondered. She padded into the bathroom and washed her face with warm water. Benny was sitting on the threshold wagging his tail when she emerged from the bathroom. She smiled and scratched behind his ears. She put the kettle on. She had just made a camomile tea and was discarding the teabag when she heard a crash outside the window. She jumped and almost spilled the full mug of tea. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up on end and a shiver went down her spine. She put down her tea and crept to the window. Her heart was beating hard and fast when she peeked out. She replaced the curtain and leant against the door. She took a deep breath; it was just the man from the room next door. He had obviously been out on a bender and had knocked over a rubbish bin as he tried to re-enter his room. Her heartbeat gradually returned to normal and she picked up her mug and returned to bed. Benny jumped into her lap. She would usually shoo him off, but she could feel his heartbeat and it was comforting. She sipped her camomile tea meditatively and patted the dog. When she had finished it she reached for her writing pad and pen and put Benny at the end of the bed. She thought that perhaps she would sleep if she wrote a few lines first. “My dearest Ben,” she began….

Ben wasn’t asleep either, nor was he working night shift. He had also been tossing and turning since he’d gone to bed earlier that night and now he too gave up and got out of bed. He flicked on the lounge room lamp and fixed himself warm milk by the light of the fridge and the microwave. He turned on the television and sat on the couch. He couldn’t get Kate out of his head. He would have given anything to drop everything and follow her, but he knew it was hopeless. He didn’t even know where she was. He figured that she would have at least reached Geelong by now. He hadn’t received any of her letters yet, so was unaware of her new plan. “Kate,” he said to himself softly, “where are you, my love?” He flicked over the channels, infomercials and weather watch or an old movie on the ABC. He opted for the old movie. He sipped on his warm milk and tried to figure out the plot. By the time he had, he’d finished his milk and was dozing off. He woke up when the ABC theme came on after the movie. He staggered up, flicking off the television and lamp, and stumbling back to bed. He slept fitfully….

Kate woke with the birds pre-dawn, and looked at the clock, it was five am. She got up and had a shower. She felt like she stood underneath the almost scalding hot water for ages. It was five forty five when she gently woke Jo and steered him to the shower. At six am there was a light knock at the door and Kate opened it to discover their breakfast tray had been left on the threshold. She knelt down and picked it up. It was still cold outside and her breath fogged up. By the time Jo was dressed, she had fed the dog and was eating her muesli. Jo had cornflakes and a piece of toast. Kate had packed up their few belongings and they were ready to roll at seven am. She paid the bill at the office on their way out and they made their was back into town. She found the surgery easily from the directions Michele had given her yesterday. It was 7.23am.

A pale light emitted from the veterinary surgery windows. Kate knocked at the door as it was still locked. Richard opened it, “Kate, Jo, come in.” He knelt down and patted Benny, while also inspecting his face and paws, “he’s young, had his shots yet?” Kate shook her head, “I don’t think so; he was only weaned last week.” Richard picked him up and laid him on the table in the next room, “well, I can fix that up for you.” Kate and Jo followed him into the room, “do you always start this early?” Kate asked. “Mmmn, generally, I’m the youngest partner so I get all the crappy jobs.” Kate laughed, “I suppose that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.” Richard nodded and smiled as he drew up the inoculation. He expertly stuck it in Benny’s hind leg and Benny didn’t even flinch. “He must barely have felt that,” Kate remarked, impressed. “No, probably not, that’s the idea anyway.” He checked Benny’s heart, eyes and ears and then put him back on the floor, “He’s fine and right to go. I’ll just charge you for the injection.” Kate thanked him and they left. It was almost eight o’clock now and Richard’s first real customers would soon be arriving. Kate wanted to hit the road, but she knew that both Jo and Benny could do with some exercise first so they headed to the park where they’d spent yesterday morning and an hour soon passed. “Come on Jo!” Kate called and headed back to the car.

Kate found the turn off for the highway and they headed towards Bairnsdale. She had studied the map while Jo had been playing in the park and had found a back way about thirty kilometres from Sale that would take them back to the Latrobe Valley. She had almost missed it as she sped along at 100 kilometres per hour. ‘Perfect,’ she thought, as she turned up the narrow road. It was partly concealed from the highway by shrubbery. She had given her most recent letter for Ben to Richard, and asked him to post it on Wednesday. She felt like the plan was going smoothly so far. She had made it very clear to all and sundry in Sale that she was headed for Sydney and had contacted another Uni friend up there to spread the word that Kate was expected. She smiled and turned up the radio, she loved this song.