Bilgarra Springs (2 page)

As she put the car in first gear and manoeuvred herself into a small opening in the traffic she decided that she actually didn’t care what they thought — what was the worst they could do, sack her? She flattened her lips. The way she felt at the moment, her job was just another unimportant blip on the radar of her odd life. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any weirder, along comes another curve ball. She huffed out a breath and as she accelerated with the other cars through the intersection she mentally toughened herself up, and headed towards the university: no time like the present to tackle this issue and may as well do it while she was doing the ‘power dressing’ thing. Even the smallest advantage in the circumstances would be helpful.

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Piles of clothes surrounded Aurora’s open suitcase sitting on the bed. She stood with her back to it, her forehead pressed against the cold glass of the floor to ceiling windows, staring aimlessly at Sydney Harbour, oblivious to the small whitecaps and the stormy beauty of the day. With a loud sigh she straightened up and turned to place the shirts that she had in her hand on the bed, adding yet another pile. It was hard to focus on the job at hand.

The clothing for this trip had been a nightmare. She was a city girl, born and bred. She had spent a brief 6 years living in Brisbane, but aside from that short period, Sydney was it. As an adult, there were not even any real vacations to speak of. Long weekends to the Blue Mountains or Canberra, but basically no further away from home than that. Hadn’t taken a honeymoon either… That thought and the avoidance of where it would go snapped her attention back to the present.

She was amazed at the array of clothing spread out on the bed. Luckily, or maybe unluckily in terms of the VISA card bill, Russell, one of her colleagues at the university, came from a cattle property outside of Rockhampton. The good, old, academic grapevine had alerted him, and she assumed the rest of the departmental staff as well, to her sudden emergency leave and all of the usual ‘why, when, where and who’ sticky-beak questions had followed.

Being very private by nature she had tap-danced as best she could, but she had figured it would die quicker if the mystery that surrounded it was squashed. In the end she had settled on a limited version of the truth – due to a family situation she would be at a cattle property in Queensland for the next month. In his good natured way, Russell had offered her any assistance that she may need.

So, over dinner at her place with Russell and his life partner Heath, they had discussed what to expect and what she would need. The upshot, in terms of clothes, was that in addition to the usual t-shirts, shorts, singlet tops, bathers etc. that normally are packed, she was now the proud owner of seven pairs of jeans, seven long sleeved cotton shirts and a pair of boots versatile enough to do almost anything in, including ride a horse should she be so inclined.

Ride a horse — that was laughable, last time she had been on one was a pony ride when she was seven at Floriade in Canberra, one of the last family outings before her parents had been tragically killed in an accident five weeks later. Due to extreme lack of experience, maybe best to stay away from horses if she could, for her own preservation, not to mention the fact that their very size scared the daylights out of her. Russell of course, was an accomplished horseman. No choice really when he had grown up with a dozen or so of them.

Russell possessed a very active sense of humour and had found the whole situation incredibly funny. Of course, he didn’t know that it was a condition of her grandmother’s will. She had told him exactly what she had told everybody else. Even after his help, Aurora didn’t give him any further details as to the true nature of the trip. They weren’t that close and she figured that it was nobody’s business but her own and quite frankly this situation that her grandmother had created had become more than a little embarrassing.

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, this 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!