Bella's Run (33 page)

Yes, but do you love him?

In the end she left him a note.

Dearest Warren,

I am so sorry to tell you in this way, but we never get a chance to sit down and really talk. I’m leaving. I need time to sort out what I want to do with my life. You have been so good for me these past years but it’s not enough. I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I need the time and space to find it. I’m so sorry.

I’ve resigned from my job, and where I’m going doesn’t matter. I don’t want you to wait for me and so have left the ring in your dressing-table drawer. Forgive me, Warren. I just can’t keep doing this, living your life and your dreams. I need to find my own.

Bella

Her father picked her up at the Narree station mid-afternoon. He gave her a big hug and grabbed a trolley to load the luggage she’d booked into the guard’s van at Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station. She helped him lift cases and numerous packages into the back of the old HiLux ute, all the while trying to stop herself crying at the mess her life was in.

Getting into the passenger side, she clipped on her seatbelt and waited for her father to do the same. He clambered in beside her and then reached down into his old workpants to pull out a huge brown-and-white striped men’s hanky, dropping it into her lap. ‘Thought you might need this.’

In the privacy of the ute, Bella finally allowed the tears to pour down her face. ‘Thanks, Dad. It’s been a bit difficult. Leaving Warren and . . . well, everything.’

‘I know, love, I know. Just hope I’ve not put you where you don’t want to be?’ Frank frowned as he looked at his daughter’s reddened, tired eyes and tear-soaked cheeks.

‘No, Dad. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t where I needed to be.’

Frank patted her hands, noting the missing diamond ring. He then cranked the ignition and slowly selected first gear.

‘That’s good, Hells Bells. You had me worried. For what it’s worth, I think you’ve done the right thing. A time up at Maggie’s in those hills will do you the world of good.’

‘Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.’ At least I bloody well hope so, Bella silently added.

‘I’ve pulled your old ute out of the shed, had it checked over, given it a wash. It’s all good to go.’

So she was back to driving a ute.

A voice in her head started singing out of tune.
She’ll be comin’ round the mountain when she comes . . . she’ll be comin’ round the mountain when she comes . . . Yee ha!

Chapter 31

The shadows flung by roadside gum trees were long. The interior of the ute flickered alternately light and dark as the vehicle made its way through the gentle rolling hills of the Burrindal Valley. Bella clutched her left hand to the back of her neck, massaging the stiffness that had gathered at its base. Lately, all she seemed to be doing was driving. She had got out of the habit, living in the heart of the city with public transport at her door. Her right hand gently steered the ute around another bend and she spied the turn-off a hundred metres up ahead.

Burrindal’s former school stood sentinel on the far corner of the intersection abutting the main road. Some arty type had bought the land from the education department years ago and gone about remodelling and constructing a building that looked like it was straight from a fairytale. The three-storey rectangular structure, complete with two high turreted windows peering down from the top, lurched into the air and stayed there seemingly in defiance of gravity. Patty had often joked that the brightly painted building only needed a rounded toe piece and a chimney pot to make ‘The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe’ come to life right in the mountains of East Gippsland.

Bella sighed as she flicked on her left indicator and slowly swung her ute past the fairytale house. So many memories just waiting to jump out and eat her up.

The gravel road adjoining the tar disappeared around a sharp bend after a few hundred metres. The last twenty-five kilometres to Aunty Maggie’s property at Tindarra, an hour and a half drive from Narree, were the most dangerous of the trip. It was lucky it wasn’t dusk – tucker and water time for the creatures of the Australian bush. Even now she could see a wallaby bounding across the gravel right on the bend. She eased the accelerator to a comfortable speed and settled once again into her lamb’s wool seat cover to enjoy the beauty and peace of the final part of her journey. Driving her old Holden ute, which her father had kept parked in the machinery shed all these years, was exhilarating – taking her back to the wild years of her youth, making her feel young and free again.

It had been a very long time since she’d ventured Tindarra way. It used to be a well-beaten track for her and Patty in years gone by. Patty’s parents’ property circumnavigated her Aunty Maggie’s four hundred acres. Spending all her school holidays up in the high country of Tindarra, her childhood had been idyllic, full of work and fun, helping Maggie on her farm. And Patty and Bella, in particular, reaped the benefits working on both the O’Haras’ place and Aunty Maggie’s next door.

Wonderful summers riding horses and motorbikes, swimming in the river and playing make-believe games around the sheds. Long days mustering and moving stock, helping to ensure paddocks weren’t overgrazed. As a kid it had all been such fun, with no adult worries like drought and low commodity prices to cloud the days. Or sorrow and grief to prey on the mind.

The chiming of a mobile phone interrupted Bella’s thoughts. Slowing the ute to a crawl, she scrambled for the phone her father had given her before she left Merinda.

‘Better take this, me girl,’ he’d said as he shoved it through the open window of her ute. ‘That digital citified thing of yours won’t work in the hills. This one here is a new-fangled country phone.’ He read from the label. ‘Certified to work in all country areas.’ He snorted in disgust. ‘That’ll be the day! There’s a trick to getting it out of its holder, but you’ll be right.’

Bella had taken the phone, knowing it was useless to argue. When her father had that look on his face, he meant to get his way. It was a look Bella hadn’t seen in her own mirror for a while. And she did feel better on those remote and lonely roads in the hills knowing she had some method of communication should anything go wrong. And – something she hadn’t told her father – she’d thrown her ‘digital citified thing’ into the bush somewhere around Pakenham a few days ago!

Now she knew what her father meant about the bloody holder. Placed face-in to the hip holster, the phone stopped ringing as she scrabbled to pull it loose. Finally finding the magic button on the enclosing plastic, she extracted the phone with a curse.

The ute ground to a halt just as the ringing started again. Bella was ready this time. ‘Hello!’ she snapped.

‘Bella, darling heart, is that you?’ Without stopping for an answer, the honeyed tones of Caro Handley, now Eggleton, oozed across the mobile airwaves. Marriage was obviously good for her. ‘Thank goodness I got you. Listen, my love, can you do us a favour?’

Bella managed to squeeze in a yes before the honey started dripping again.

‘Darling, I really need you to pick up . . .’ the voice trailed off. ‘What’s that, Trin?’ Bella could hear Trinity’s voice in the background, followed by Caro’s voice back in Bella’s ear, interrupted by static as she spoke. ‘Yes I’m getting to that, darling. Bella, sweetheart, Trin needs you to pick up a parcel from Janey at the post office. He’s going across to . . . to a cattle . . . and can’t . . . down there himself. It has to be picked up tomorrow so . . . release . . . straight away. What’s . . . Trin?’

‘Caro, I can’t hear you. Say again?’ said Bella.

The conversation came back on line but wasn’t directed at her. ‘But Trinity, I can’t!’ Caro sounded incredulous. ‘I’ll do most things on this farm of yours but not
that
!’ Trin’s calm voice could be heard again, followed by Caro. ‘Well, okay, if they
have
to be released as soon as they get here, I’ll just have to ask her to do it. Darling?’ Caro was back to Bella in the ute. ‘You haven’t had your nails manicured or anything, have you?’

Bella looked down at her short, straight nails with half-moon cuticles a manicurist had never touched. ‘No, Caro, was I supposed to?’ she asked with a grin.

‘No, darling, you’re fine just the way you are. Would you mind driving the parcel up to Ben Bullen tomorrow? We’d just love to see you, and do you think
you
could release Trin’s dung beetles into their piles of cow poo for me? I just
can’t
stick my hands into gooey, slimy cow shit
on purpose
! I’ll do most things, but not
that
.’

Bella grinned into the phone.

‘
Please
, Hells Bells?’

There wasn’t much Bella could say other than, ‘Okay, but it’ll cost you.’

She was back in the bush.

Spinning the ute around, she retraced her drive towards the Tindarra Road intersection and clicked down the indicator to head into Burrindal. Pulling up in front of the general store, she parked the ute and got out to stretch her cramped muscles in the sun. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for Shelley ‘Jelly Bean’ Lukey, and was surprised to see Shelley’s mother Janey appear from the timber screen door instead.

‘An-GUS! An-GUS!’ The ‘gus’ was delivered at an octave higher than the rest. Bella looked around to see who Janey was hailing.

‘An-GUS! Come here this minute, you naughty man!’

Bella scanned the street. Not a person to be seen. It was very quiet for a Saturday afternoon.

‘Ah, there you are, you naughty little boy, Mummy’s been looking for you everywhere!’

Bella swung back just in time to see Janey scoop up a fluffy rat-like creature that came running along the verandah. Two little eyes peeped out from mountains of white and tan fur, twin butterfly ears revolved like satellite dishes searching for a signal, and a tiny pink tongue came from an even tinier mouth to lick his mistress on the cheek.

‘Oh Angus, you are a love.’ Janey buried her face into the ball of fluff.

Bella smiled and moved forward onto the step as Janey looked up.

‘Bella, how good to see you!’ Janey flung her arms out wide and Bella found herself wrapped up in a tight and furry embrace, Janey’s arms around her body, Angus’s fluff in her face. Then she felt a wet little lick on her right cheek.

She detangled herself gently and moved back to the sanctuary of the verandah rail. ‘Hi there, Janey. How’ve you been?’

‘Marvellous, Hells Bells, bloody marvellous. Meet Angus. He’s my gift to myself now all the kids have left home.’

‘Janey, I thought you were supposed to get the puppy
before
the kids left not after.’ Bella laughed at her old friend.

‘Yeah well, going soft in me old age.’

‘You didn’t make Caro’s wedding?’

‘Nope, Tom and I had a date with one of those Winnebago van things in Queensland. We’d booked the holiday already when we found out Caro and Trin’s wedding date. Thought, bugger it, we haven’t had a holiday in ages and I didn’t want to bail out then. I’d never get Tom to agree to it again. He had a break in his motorbike tour dates, so I decided to just book the bloody thing.’