Out in Nowhere, page 4
Her mother-in-law had smiled happily when they’d first walked through the house together. ‘This house has a personality, Hallie,’ she’d said, almost in a reverent tone. ‘It speaks to you, with every creak and groan. I loved it when I lived here.’
‘Stuff the personality,’ Hallie had said to Alex after the first snake. ‘There must be air vents or holes or something to let a snake that size in. And the dust, let’s not forget the dust.’
‘Not a chance, sweetness,’ he’d said, taking her hand in his.
Hallie had realised within the first two months of dating Alex that he only called her ‘sweetness’ when he was calming her down. Distracting her. Now, five years into being married to him, she was aware of his tactics and called him on them.
‘I know what you’re doing! Don’t “sweetness” me, Alex, you’re only distracting me,’ she would say when he called her that tonight. ‘I might be a city slicker, but I know that it’s not normal to have a snake in a well-built house, even out here in the bush. There must be holes somewhere. I can’t put Ruby on the ground, and I’m too scared to even walk without shoes! What if it had a friend?’
Alex would smile in the unflappable way of all good country blokes. ‘If he had a mate, I reckon you got it a few weeks back. Wear your shoes in the house if it makes you more comfortable.’
Ruby hadn’t been on the ground since that first one and there was no way that was going to change now. The poor child was sick of going from the cot to the pram to the highchair. Even after Hallie had killed the snake today, Ruby had asked to be put down in her funny, little toddler way.
‘Down. Down, down!’
Hallie couldn’t put her daughter on the ground.
She glanced at her sturdy boots, which she’d washed to make sure she didn’t track dirt inside. Why had she bothered? Because when the lazy easterly from the desert blew under the door, the kitchen filled with dirt that crunched underfoot.
The door into the office was tightly shut with a rolled-up towel placed at the gap with the floor even if, as percentages would have it, there probably wasn’t another king brown anywhere near the office. But that wasn’t a risk Hallie was prepared to take. Images of the serpent curling its thick body around her daughter as it struck her face, once, twice and a third time, made Hallie shudder and want to throw up.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby-girl, that’s a no-can-do.’
‘Dadda!’ Ruby called, wriggling in her arms and pointing at the office door. ‘Dadda!’
‘I know you want to see Dad.’ Hallie fought to hold the little girl upright as she threw herself backwards and screamed. ‘But I can’t let you down, Ruby-girl.’
‘Dadda!’
Hallie felt like growling, ‘Yep, he’s all yours when he gets back tonight, Ruby. You can have him.’ Instead, she said everything in a singsong voice that would hopefully calm Ruby down. ‘You can tell him how much you’d like to crawl around on the ground like a child without a house that has resident creepy-crawlies.’
Unlikely, but she could always hope.
It was time for a distraction. ‘I know.’ Hallie made a face as if she’d had the best idea in the world and opened her mouth like the clown in sideshow alley games. Then she put her head into Ruby’s chest and shook it, trying to make her laugh.
The reward came when Ruby stopping fighting her and let out a surprised giggle.
‘Let’s go outside and put the sprinkler on. Let’s get you all cooled down because, Miss Ruby-girl, you’re looking mighty hot to me!’ She put on a very bad American accent.
Hallie spun around and half walked, half ran to the outside door then stopped, taking a breath before she yanked open the door.
Loud buzzing rose around her and she felt the flies hit her face as they swarmed, parting ways so she could get through. For a moment, Hallie felt like having a temper tantrum just as Ruby’d had. Never once, while she carefully planned her life, attended the Australian Academy of Fashion and fought her parents, who insisted she study marketing or ‘something that will set you up for life, Hallie!’, did she think she would end up killing snakes and swiping flies that were bombarding her head, while the sun slowly cooked her.
Funnily enough, Hallie didn’t want to cry. A few years ago, she may have, but not now. Living out in nowhere had hardened her, just as the sun had hardened her skin. She shrugged at things that, before she moved out in nowhere, she hadn’t known of. Certainly the journalism degree she’d managed to study while she also studied a fashion designer postgraduate certificate was strangely not useful when it came to battling against mice plagues and feeding shearers or bore runners or fencing contractors. Or marrying her wonderful, gorgeous, annoying husband.
Ruby reached out just like Hallie, except she was trying to catch the flies with wild swipes of her hand. She giggled when they hit the windows with a light popping noise, all the while buzzing angrily as they were dislodged from the coolest place they could find.
Hallie closed her eyes, hoisted Ruby a little higher on her hip and ducked her head before heading towards the edge of the verandah. She didn’t even stop to peer over the edge in case there was another snake sunning itself against the hot cement wall. Instead, pretending her age wasn’t twenty-eight but five, she leaped onto the lawn. They landed heavily, stunning Ruby into silence momentarily, then she put her head back and laughed.
‘Me fyy!’
‘Fly? I don’t think so!’ Assessing the lawned area, Hallie turned on the tap and waited for the fffft, fffft, fffft of the reticulation sprinklers.
‘’Arter!’ Ruby struggled to be let down again. Hallie set her on the ground and she crab-ran along the lawn to sit under the closest sprinkler, her face awash with pleasure.
‘How about we sit under the tree?’ Hallie said, pointing to the bench. She gasped as the cold water touched her boiling hot bare legs. Bliss! ‘Away from the sun. Come on, you don’t want to get burned.’
Toddling over, Ruby gave Hallie a toothy smile, just as a round of barking started from the team of mustering dogs Alex hadn’t taken with him. Which was unusual, because he always took at least one, if not two.
Hallie glanced at the gate that cordoned off the house yard from the wide-open paddock and saw a plume of dust with a white speck at its base.
‘Well, you’re only about half an hour too late,’ she said to herself.
Ruby clapped her hands and squealed as the water hit her body with a thwack. Hallie, knowing her husband was nearly home, relaxed and closed her eyes, grateful for the cold arc showering her. The sun, fierce and unrelenting, dried her thin t-shirt in a matter of seconds and she was left wanting—wanting more cool water, a husband that was around, or at least close by, more often than Alex was, and a house without snakes.
When Hallie opened her eyes, she saw a white Toyota LandCruiser identical to Alex’s, covered in the same red dust and aerials. The red toolbox on the tray was the same, as was the bar spotlight.
‘This baby,’ Alex had told her, patting the spotlight as he walked around to the driver’s side door, ‘is a 24-inch, 130-watt insurance policy against kangaroos, cattle that turn up in the middle of the road and the occasional camel.’
Hallie had been incredulous to hear camels were part of the bush out here. How naive she’d been.
However, this Toyota wasn’t Alex’s.
And, thankfully, it wasn’t Rod’s. If it had been, Hallie might get a talking to about having the sprinklers on during the day.
‘No point in watering while the sun’s up, Hallie,’ he’d say. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard of evaporation. Just a waste of precious resources.’
The number plate made Hallie realise her visitor was their neighbour, Danny Betts. That and his big grin through the insect-splattered windscreen. His hand was up in a pointer finger wave.
She instinctively looked to the passenger’s seat in the hope that Maggie was with him. Some friends were just what she needed right now. Her heart sank a little further at the emptiness.
Danny parked and ambled over to the fence, adjusting his hat before leaning on the white-painted post underneath the pepper tree. ‘G’day there, Hallie. And you, too, Miss Ruby. Looks like you’ve got this hot weather sorted.’
‘Hi, Danny,’ Hallie said, not moving from the seat. ‘Is it always so hot?’ Then she waved her hand in a don’t worry about it gesture. ‘Don’t reply to that. I already know the answer.’ Closing her mouth quickly, she bit down on the words, Please, there’s a massacred snake in my office, can you get rid of it for me? Alex wasn’t one for involving the neighbours when it wasn’t needed.
Ruby came up, now, sucking her thumb, and climbed into Hallie’s lap. ‘Sweep, Mumma.’
Smoothing her daughter’s wet hair back, Hallie kissed her hot forehead and, as the water sprayed over them again, thought maybe they could both go to sleep out here in the shade, with the sprinklers going.
‘Alex around?’ Danny asked, looking towards the workshop and then the car shed.
‘He’s gone out on a bore run, should be back any time. Actually, I thought you were him.’ Hallie didn’t ask if her husband knew Danny was coming. That might seem rude. Everyone in the bush was welcome at any kitchen table, at any time. Nicole had made that clear when she had arrived unexpectedly one morning about a month after Ruby had been born. Hallie hadn’t managed to do the dishes, or sweep the kitchen, because she’d still been in bed. Recovering from a sleepless night.
‘That’s no excuse, Hallie,’ Nicole had said firmly. ‘People in the bush arrive unannounced and unexpectedly. You don’t want to be thought of as a slovenly housekeeper and wife, do you? And make sure you have something in the freezer you can just pull out for smokos when people arrive. Banana cake freezes well. Get yourself out of bed, shower and clean the kitchen. I’ll watch Ruby for a while.’
It was about then that Hallie would gladly have murdered her mother-in-law—not for the first time. But what was the point in reminding her it might be weeks before someone called in? Nicole would just say it was better to be prepared than not. ‘Imagine what the neighbours would say if they arrived to see this mess in your kitchen, and there was nothing to eat.’
‘I’d hope they might understand that I have a new baby and offer to help,’ Hallie had snapped.
Her words had been water off a duck’s back. ‘That’s not how we do things out here.’ Nicole’s back had straightened and a look of irritation had settled on her face.
Danny glanced at his watch. ‘I was supposed to meet him here about half an hour ago but I was running late in leaving home. Bloody dingo killed the chooks last night and I needed to clean out the pen. Didn’t want Maggie to have to.’
‘That wouldn’t have been a nice job in this heat.’ Hallie stroked Ruby’s hair and wondered where the pram was. If Ruby would sleep in that, then Hallie wouldn’t have to keep watch over the cot in her bedroom; she could wheel Ruby everywhere she had to go.
‘Doesn’t take long for the blowies to find the carcasses.’ Danny glanced at his watch again and then at the house.
‘There’s a snake in the office,’ Hallie blurted out. Danny would think her rude if she didn’t invite him inside soon. ‘That’s why we’re out here.’
‘You’ve had your dramas this morning, too, then,’ he said. ‘Where’s your shovel? I’ll get it.’
‘I got it.’ A hysterical giggle erupted from her at the same time tears sprang to her eyes. ‘I shot it. With the .410.’
Raising his eyebrows, Danny said, ‘You shot it? Good job! Any holes in the wall after that effort?’ He gave a soft chuckle, his fingers rolling the leaf in his hand back and forth.
‘No, I didn’t make a hole in the bloody wall,’ Hallie snapped, trying to get up with Ruby heavy in her arms. ‘The only hole in the wall is where these bastards get in. Do you have any idea what it’s like living with snakes in the house?’ Red fury seeped out of her now as she stomped towards the house. ‘Why the hell should I have to do that?’
The creak of the gate indicated Danny was following her.
Shit, shit, shit! Hallie thought. Now he’ll tell Alex I’ve been completely emotional and unreasonable.
‘The hormones were running wild today, Alex old lad,’ Danny would say.
Except Danny wouldn’t because he was kind and thoughtful. Those words would be from Rod.
All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball or sink down at the kitchen table and cry. With a large glass of wine. A bottle even. Hallie wished Maggie had been with Danny.
‘Snakes shouldn’t be in the house, Hallie,’ Danny said quietly. ‘I’ll get rid of it for you. Is there a shovel around?’
‘Around the back, next to the laundry door.’ Hallie cast a long glance at the kitchen floor before she set foot over the threshold, realising she sounded terribly ungrateful. ‘Sorry. Thank you. Would you like a cup of tea?’
‘No bother,’ Danny said with a nod and a look at the sleeping Ruby. ‘That’d be nice.’
He disappeared around the edge of the verandah and, moments later, Hallie heard the back door slam shut. His familiarity with the house had unnerved her at first. Danny seemed to know more about her home than she ever would; he and Alex had spent loads of time together as kids, then as teenagers at boarding school, and then again at ag college. They were blood brothers, Alex had told her when he’d introduced them.
Hallie placed Ruby in the pram, which she’d found in the walk-in pantry, and lit the gas stove.
From the office, a scraping sound echoed through the rambling homestead and then the back door slammed again. Hallie imagined the snake, still wriggling as Danny tried to scoop it up, then it falling off, the actions being repeated until finally, it was still.
Some moments later, Danny appeared at the kitchen door and let himself in. ‘All fixed. Did Alex tell you what time he’d be home?’
Hallie shook her head, getting the cups out of the cupboard. Something moved next to the bench and she screamed, jumping backwards.
Danny darted forward as Ruby started to cry at the noise, her hands clamping over her ears.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay.’ Hallie raced to the pram and snatched her daughter out, spinning around at the same time to see what Danny had killed.
He stood there, grinning, a long, wet piece of bark dangling from his fingers. ‘Don’t reckon this will hurt you. Musta hooked a ride when you came in.’
Hallie couldn’t say a word. She patted Ruby’s back in a slow, calming manner and wished someone was doing the same for her.
CHAPTER 5
‘Are you sure that Alex said one o’clock?’ Hallie asked as she laid out tomatoes, lettuce, white bread and cold lamb. For what seemed like the hundredth time, she glanced at the clock, which was now reading nearly 3 p.m. ‘It’s so unlike Alex to be late for anything. What did he need to talk to you about?’
Her heart had finally settled and Danny had kindly rocked Ruby back to sleep before depositing her in the pram and pushing her under the air-conditioner vent. The little girl’s cheeks were still tinged with heat, despite the cool air blowing on her.
Danny took the knife Hallie offered and buttered a piece of bread. ‘Not sure what he wanted, just asked me to come over because he had something he needed to talk to me about.’
As he finished speaking, the dogs set off another round of barking. Hallie glanced at Ruby, hoping she wouldn’t wake.
‘Finally! There he is,’ Hallie said. ‘Must’ve got held up somewhere.’
The gate creaked and then Hallie heard footsteps on the verandah. She flicked the kettle on, then went to the fridge to get out the jug of cordial. Alex was the only adult male she knew who still loved green cordial with ice. And just like when he’d been a kid, it made his tongue green and he loved poking it out at Ruby and listening to her giggle.
A loud knock and the buzzing sound from the flies disturbed from their cool place reached Hallie’s ears. Confused, she turned to look at the door, expecting to see Alex but also knowing he wouldn’t have knocked.
The door swung open and, not waiting for Hallie’s invitation to enter, Rod walked in.
‘Bloody hot out there,’ he said by way of greeting. ‘G’day, Danny, Hallie.’ He looked from one to the other and across to the sleeping Ruby. Pulling out a chair, Rod sank into it, wiping his forehead. ‘There’s another six days of this bloody heat forecast before it drops back into the late thirties. I always used to say that I didn’t think there was much difference between forty degrees and about forty-five, but I’m not so sure now. Cup of tea on the go there, Hallie? Thanks, love. Nothing like a cup of tea to quench the thirst.’
‘Hello, Rod. Do come on in.’ Sarcasm laced her words. Clenching her teeth but making her mouth smile, Hallie rounded back to the cupboard and pulled out another cup.
‘How are things at your place, Danny?’ Rod asked. The scraping sound told Hallie he’d grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and was turning them in his hands. She couldn’t clench her jaw any tighter so, instead, she mashed her lips together and breathed in heavily through her nose. Not that her father-in-law was a bad person. Rod was quite nice mostly, until he got heavy-handed with what he thought his rights inside her house were. His assumption that he could walk into where she lived and treat her like a … well, housewife, annoyed her.
Annoyed was too nice a word.
It pissed her off. She was not just a wife or mother, Hallie wanted to shout so often. Ever heard of Anthea Crawford? No? Well, google her. And while you’re at it, google me and then you might realise who your son has married, not the other way around. Her in-laws would have no idea how many people listened to her podcast nor that she coordinated her trips to Adelaide and Sydney around invitations to fashion-house launches. Hallie was a big deal in the industry.
‘You’re looking well, Rod,’ Danny said with a grin.
