CRYSTALLINE - 15. A Land of Drought and Flooding Rains

“No, I’m not going all that way on the back of a bike” stated Thomas

“You’ll love it, the freedom of the open road rolling out before you, the scenery passing by just for your pleasure and nothing between you and the sheer natural pleasure of speed”

“Yeah, and what about the hard tarmac inches from my feet and possibly on my face if I fall off”

“You won’t fall off, just hold on tight to me, you don’t get to do that while driving a car”

“Yeah, and what about those eighteen wheelers that don’t see you in their blind spot”

“I’m a very careful driver and avoid those situations”

“Yeah, but...”

“No more buts, just let yourself relax into it and you’ll love it”

“Yeah, but...what if it rains?”

“That’s part of the feel of nature”

“No way”

“Ok...wait, I’ll borrow Patrick’s leathers for you”

“They probably won’t fit me”

“You’re about the same size, and I think you’ll look really hot in leather”

“Hot is not the name of the game, I’m thinking more about my safety”

“That’s what leather provides in the event of a fall”

“That’s it! I’m not doing it”

“I’ll go and get Patrick’s leathers and when you see yourself in them you’ll change your mind”

“Not likely, but it might be fun to try them on”

“See you’re giving in to pleasure already”

“Be gone” Thomas ordered.

***

When Dante asked Patrick for use of his leathers, he was surprised at the reaction.

“No you can’t borrow anything of mine”

“They’re not for me, it’s for Thomas. I’m trying to encourage him to ride with me and he’s very nervous about it. If he has good quality leathers then he might feel more comfortable about the experience”

“The answer’s still no. I might need them”

“But I care about Thomas and want to share this experience with him”

“So now you care about Thomas”

“Of course I do, why do you doubt it?”

“You know”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about”

“Then think back a few weeks”

“Look I know you’ve been cool towards me lately and I have no idea why, but let it slide because I guess you’re just in one of your moods or jealous about something. Quite frankly I don’t care, but at least you could do this favour for Thomas”

“I think you need to tell Thomas what you really are. Maybe you could do that while driving his car, instead of riding”

“Ok have it your way and by the way...get fucked Bro!”

***

“Well it looks like you get your way, we’ll drive to Mallacoota. Patrick won’t loan his leathers”

“Although somewhat relived, I understand if he doesn’t want to lend something so personal and valuable to him”

“Yes, that’s it, of course”

***

Thomas and Dante set off the next morning for Mallacoota, stopping only once for food and petrol at Ulladulla on the NSW south coast.

“Virginia recommended this place, says the fresh seafood is amazing”

“Sounds like a good recommendation”

“Yeah, but her memories of this restaurant are tinged with a little fear, as that was the very carpark where they first smelled the smoke of that dreadful bushfire season”

“I remember that year, a horrible time for this country. Has she been back to Mallacoota since then?”

“I don’t think so”

“So this garden she mentioned when we had dinner at Potts Point, could be a bugger of a challenge”

“But you like a challenge, don’t you?” asked Thomas

“Well I took you on”

“Oh, so that’s how you see me”

“Sometimes”

“And how am I a challenge. I’m hardly a radical, or way out there, or difficult to get along with. I have a good job, free accommodation and share all that with you. Where’s the challenge in all that?”

“Ah, that is my challenge to bring you out of your safe little world. Mr uptight, straight laced, always playing it safe, never taking risks, that’s you”

“And that’s why I’ve lived to the ripe old age of 29”

“So the big 3 0 next year, that’s almost middle age”

“I beg your pardon, middle age is a long way off”

“Hey, maybe you’ll have a mid-life crisis and do something daring”

“Like ride a motor bike?” Thomas cracked.

“It would be a start”

“And could be the end, but I’ll tell you what I will do next year. Do you know I’ve never been overseas?”

“Never?”

“Not unless you count New Zealand”

“That’s no more overseas than Tasmania”

“Then I’ve never been overseas”

“That is something we will certainly have to work on. Hey let’s do Europe and I can show you where my Dad’s family come from. You can even meet my Nonna, she’ll just love you and vice versa”

“Will she make salad dressing for us?”

“I’m sure she’ll do anything you ask” Thomas raised his eyebrows and Dante added “Within reason”

“Ok, it’s a plan, but first I have to get this resort up and running then I’ll have time to travel”

“So if we live in a resort is going on holidays, really a holiday?”

“Interesting thought. Now let’s order” suggested Thomas.

<>

After lunch they walked into the carpark and barely made it into the car before the rain started. It rained heavily all the way to Mallacoota, which prompted Dante to say “This is much different weather to when Virginia last came here”

“Yeah, like that poet said, A land of drought and flooding rains”

“Who was that?”

“Didn’t you study Dorothea Mackellar in English class?” asked Thomas

“I must have been away that day”

“Or not listening. More likely day dreaming of motor bikes”

“Or sexy men...on motor bikes”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you think riding a bike makes a man sexier”

“It certainly helps”

“Ok, food for thought. So tell me, when you see a man on a bike, which to you notice first, the man or the bike?”

“Ahm...probably the bike makes me look, then I check out the rider”

“Good to know”

***

As they drove through town, the aftermath of the devastating fires was still evident. Most of the shops had been saved but there were till burnt out shells of buildings on the fringes and people living in caravans and mobile homes in various parts of town.

Both hotels had survived the fires and as they drove by one, known simply as The Pub, Dante noticed the bikes parked outside the local watering hole.

“Looks like there are some keen bikers in this town”

“More likely the Hell’s Angels on their way to cause mischief somewhere”

“No, I can tell they’re not bikies. There is a difference you know between bikies and bikers”

“Well I learn something every day”

“Maybe we should drop in here one night and meet the local riders”

“And what would I do while you lot talk about turbos and saddles and leather and kickers and hogs and Harleys and choppers and whatever”

“So you do know about bikes”

“Only what I learn from movies”

“Oh, and here was I thinking you were showing a genuine interest”

“Not at all, I have no intention of becoming a white line crawler”

“Humf!”

“We’re almost there. I think the house should be at the end of this road, by the lake”

<>

As they pulled into the driveway, Dante said “Are you sure there’s a house behind this jungle?”

“The garden’s not that bad”

“Well it’s not that good either”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you”

“Now I am worried. It took me months to knock the Crystalline garden into shape after you and Lachlan managed it”

“Oh, so you think I can’t garden. Ok Costa Georgiadis, I’ll take the challenge”

“You’re on, and he’s just a TV gardener, but who knows what he’s got growing in that beard”

<>

They put their bags on the veranda and Dante went looking for the power board while Thomas fumbled through the keys trying each one in the front door.

“Hey the power’s already turned on” called Dante.

“They must have forgotten to turn it off in their rush to keep ahead of the fire”

As Thomas turned the front door key Dante said “We didn’t buy any groceries on the way”

“So what do we do for dinner” asked Thomas

“How about the pub, I saw a bistro sign outside”

“The one with the bikies?”

“Bikers please, but yes that one”

“I’d rather stay in. I don’t know about delivery around here, so let’s get settled in and later we’ll pop out for take away, get a couple of bottles and just relax on our first night” suggested Thomas.

As they entered the house, Dante said “Hey this place is pretty flash”

“Would you expect Virginia to choose anything less?”

“I guess not, but they must have left in a hurry, there’s bits and pieces still on tables and shoes under the table” observed Dante

“They probably thought they’d be back” then as Thomas walked in the kitchen, planning to open a window to allow the house to air, he noticed dirty dishes in the sink and realised the house, despite being locked up for almost a year, didn’t smell musty. “Hey, something doesn’t feel right here”

“Why, you said you haven’t been here before”

“That’s true, but the dishes in the sink are not mouldy, the air is not musty and if there was a bushfire nearby, surely there’d be some smoke damage and dust. There’s not even a spider web anywhere”

“What are you suggesting?”

“That somebody’s been living here recently”

“Very recently” Dante said after he opened the fridge and noticed the milk in the fridge was still two days short of its use by date”

“Fuck! There must be squatters living here illegally” concluded Thomas.

They then went to the master bedroom and found the bed freshly made. In the second bedroom one of the single beds was made up with a few teddy bears decorating it and children’s toys scattered around the room.

“I don’t like the look of this” Thomas said.

“You should let Virginia know”

“Not yet, I don’t want to worry her until I get to the bottom of this”

“What will we do?” asked Dante.

“Given there is fresh food in the fridge, then I expect someone will come back soon, so we’ll just wait for them”

They put their bags in the third room, thereby staking their claim, made a pot of tea and settled down to wait.

It was only twenty minutes later when they heard a key in the back door. As the door opened a woman stepped in, closely followed by a young girl. The woman didn’t immediately notice them waiting, as she was busy putting a couple of grocery bags in the kitchen. Then the child screamed and yelled “Mummy there’s some strange men in the lounge”

“Who are you?” the woman asked

“More to the point is, who are you?” Thomas demanded “You have no right to be in this house without the permission of the owner”

“Are you the owner?”

“No, but the owner is a friend of mine and has given us use of the house”

“Oh, I s s suppose I thought this would happen sooner... if not later”

“You’re right, and now it’s happened you need to explain yourself”

“Yes, of course. Um...we have nowhere else to live and m m my husband found this place, so we’ve been staying here for six months. Our house was destroyed in the fires”

“But that was almost a year ago”

“We were in the caravan park for a while, but had to leave”

“So you thought you’d squat here, because it was empty. You do know breaking and entering is a crime, not to mention unlawful use of property”

“I s’pose it is. But can you wait till my husband comes home to explain all this. I just popped out to collect Amy from school and finding you here is a shock”

“Ok, I understand. In the meantime, I’m Thomas and this is Dante”

“Hello gentlemen, I’m Denise, this is my daughter Amy and Trevor, my husband should be home soon. In fact, I’ll give him a call now and make sure he comes home as soon as he finishes work”

Denise made the call from her bedroom after making sure her daughter went to the safety of her own room.

When she returned, Denise asked the boys “Can I make you tea or coffee while we wait?”

“Thank you” Thomas replied.

While they waited they chatted about the fires of the previous year and Denise filled them in on how the town’s people set about recovering and rebuilding their town.

***

When Amy heard her father taking off his work boots at the back door, she rushed out and said loudly “There’s strange men in our house Daddy”

“What men, is your mother alright?”

But before Amy could answer, Denise joined them and explained the situation to her husband.

“Have they been hassling you, or laid a hand on you or Amy?”

“No, they’re perfect gentlemen, and as far as the other, I think they’re gay”

“Poofs, that’s all I need to deal with”

“Don’t be like that Trev, they were as surprised as me to see each other here”

“Ok, so I better get in there and set them straight. Mmm bad choice of words, hey?”

<>

“Hi guys, I’m Trevor, my wife tells me you’re not happy about us being here and I suppose you’ve reported back to the owner to have us thrown out”

“Hello Trevor, I’m Thomas and this is Dante”

“Dante eh, that’s a pretty fancy name, but then again maybe not for a bum buddy”

“Ok Trevor, before we discuss your situation here, which I might add is tenuous, to say the very least, we need to get something sorted. There will be no more personal insults. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sorry mate, it’s just a bit of a shock to find strange men in my home with my wife and daughter. But I guess you’ve already shown some understanding by waiting for me to come and explain our situation”

“That’s better, now we can have a rational discussion”

“Would you like a beer, or is that not the preferred drink for....?”

Before Trevor dug himself any deeper, Thomas interrupted and said “Beer would be great”

“Denise luv, can you get us some beers?”

“Yes Trev” said the dutiful wife.

Then as Trevor looked seriously and with a touch of humility, at Thomas, he said “Can I explain how we come to be here and plead my case to stay?”

“Of course, I’d love to hear your story”

“We have a few acres on the edge of town. We built a small house there and established a vegetable garden as well as planning a few fruit trees and Amy looked after some chooks as her contribution to our sustainability”

Amy smiled proudly, then her father continued “But we lost all that in last year’s fire. It spread from the forest so quickly, we had no time to pack anything and drove away with little more than the clothes we were wearing. We spent a week in the evacuation centre, sleeping on the floor of the indoor sports stadium. I work for the council, so I spent all my working hours and personal time cleaning up public infrastructure. Denise was one of the volunteers who helped restore the caravan park to working order, so she got first shot at one of the on-site vans. We moved from the evacuation centre to the van park. We thought we would only be there a few months till our insurance paid out on our house and we could start rebuilding. But the insurance company was overwhelmed by claims and building materials are still in short supply so we stayed on at the park until tourists started to return in the school holidays. The park owner put up the rent to holiday rates and we could not afford that so we had to leave”

“And was the evacuation centre closed by then?”

“Yes, the council wanted to help children get back to some sort of normal so they encouraged the local sports clubs to recommence competitions. While I was working in this street repairing roads, I struck up a conversation with some guys living here. Anyway, when I told them my family had nowhere to live they invited us to share here”

“You mean people were living here before you?”

“Yes, a bunch of hippies who were living on an informal commune out of town took over the place a few days after the fire. They didn’t own the land they had been living on. It was just a collection of illegally built shacks and a few clapped out caravans. They were completely burnt out as well. So we shared the house with ten others for a few months. The house was a mess when we came here. They broke some windows to get in and jimmied off the deadlock on the back door. They trashed the place, never cleaned up and were always stoned out of their minds on some illegal substance. I couldn’t have them shooting up around my daughter and Denise was out of her mind constantly trying to clean up after them”

“But the place looks well kept at present”

“That’s thank to Denise, she can’t stand a dirty house”

“So what happened to the hippies?”

“Oh...they packed up their bongs and hitched on up to Nimbin”

“Why so far away”

Trevor gave Thomas a cheeky smile and replied “I may have let them believe that dope was free up there, so they set off for that great commune on the NSW north coast that is perpetually in a cloud of hallucination inducing smoke”

“Good work on your part”

“Thanks, then when they left I repaired the windows and other items they had damaged. I also replaced the lock on the back door. We only use the back door as we don’t have a key to the front door”

Denise then added “I thoroughly cleaned the house, washed all the curtains, which still smelled of smoke from the fires and cleaned the upholstery as best I could by hand. Tell them about the rent Trev”

“Oh shit I forgot about that. Since the hippies left we’ve been putting aside some money for rent because we didn’t know who to pay it to. It’s probably not as much as the owner would want for a fancy place like this, but it’s all we could manage. Each pay day I put aside the same amount as we were paying at the caravan park, so we didn’t miss it really. We don’t expect to live anywhere for free. We’re not scroungers”

“Thank you for doing that. You’ve kept the house very well maintained. I appreciate your efforts and so will the owner when I inform her”

“So will you give us some time to find somewhere else before you throw us out?” Denise asked. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”

“What do you mean?”

“As far as I can see you have kept this house well and even repaired damage caused by others, so I am not going to ask you to leave immediately, but I will have to talk to the owner before I can promise anything else”

“Thanks” said Trevor “You’re not such a bad dude after all, despite being...No forget I sad that. Thanks mate”

“You’re welcome, but I would ask you stop these unfinished sentences and accept us for who we are”
“Of course he will” said Denise on her husband’s behalf, “Won’t you Trev?”

“Um...yes...of course” Trevor replied distractedly while he was trying to work out what Thomas meant.

“Now we have to make some arrangements to share this house for the next week, because Dante and I are here for a break and to get the garden under control”

“Oh sorry about that, but I couldn’t find any garden tools. They may be in the garage, but I didn’t want to break in”

“Understandable and Dante here is a professional landscaper so he’ll whip it into shape. With my assistance of course”

“I’d be happy to help” offered Trevor.

“I think you’ve got enough on your plate, holding down a job and looking after a family and volunteering” replied Dante.

“Thanks mate, but just ask if you need me”

Denise then said “There’s still a spare room, it’s only got a double bed...is that all right? If not I can move Amy out of the room with two singles”

“Thanks Denise, the double room will be fine”

Trevor showed a look of confusion but dropped the face when Denise gave him a disapproving look.

“I’ll make it up for you” Denise offered.

‘No need for that”

“Nonsense, it’s the least I can do. You being so understanding and all that”

“Now that’s settled, we need to get out of your way and go find somewhere to eat in town”

“No no, be our guests for dinner. It’s only simple fare but wholesome”

“Maybe another night; I think we all need time to digest what’s happening here and we’d like a walk around town”

“Ok, but keep tomorrow night free to dine with us”

“And I’ll do a barbie on the weekend” added Trevor.

“Sounds like a plan” agreed Thomas.