Page 69 of Birds of a Feather

‘Nick! Who’s Nick?’ Jarrah squealed, clapping her hands like she’d won a prize.

‘Nick is Gerry’s great-nephew,’ I said, my head halfway into the saucepan cupboard, trying to hide my mortification. ‘He was nice enough to hang out with me for a few days.’

‘From what I saw, it was a bit more than that,’ Gerry said, arriving with the salt and pepper shakers from the table. ‘I think he was quite taken with you.’

‘Urgh. Where are you all coming from?’ I moaned, feeling overwhelmed that the attention of everyone in the room was on me.

‘We had a good time together,’ I said, directing my words to Gerry. ‘And I was grateful he was happy to hang out.’

Four pairs of wide eyes stared at me from under raised eyebrows.

‘And that’s all I’m going to say about that.’

‘Oh come on, Bethie,’ Jarrah said with an irritating whine as she stroked my arm patronisingly. ‘Give us something.’

‘Fine, then. I’ll just tell you this one thing,’ I said, leaning in towards her as if preparing to share a juicy tidbit. ‘It’s none of your business,’ I whispered.

‘Argh. You’re no fun,’ she cried. ‘No matter. I’ll get it out of Gran.’

She winked at Gran who replied by making a zipping action across her lips and throwing an imaginary key over her shoulder. As always, Gran had my back. What on earth would I do without her?

Chapter 31

Elise

‘It’s okay, I suppose. If you like this sort of thing,’ Gerry said, smiling, as she scanned the nature reserve next to Woodside Ridge. It was as magnificent as ever.

The field trip to monitor the orchids was scheduled early to avoid the heat of the day, but the air already felt dry and warm. The insects called loudly into the morning.

‘Here,’ Elise said, taking her phone from her pocket. ‘Let’s send a pickie to Beth. After all, we’ve got her to thank for you being here.’

The two women huddled together and snapped a shot. When Elise looked at the photo, she saw it had captured her looking at Gerry in profile. It reminded her of the photo she’d kept in the box from all those years ago.

She held up her hand to catch a signal and sent it to Beth.

Gerry walked towards one of the grass trees and cupped a handful of its long green spines, which exploded out of its ancient charred black trunk like prickly fireworks.

‘You won’t want to spend too much time touching that,’ Elise said, nodding towards Gerry’s hand. ‘Ticks.’

Gerry recoiled sharply.

‘Oh, God! That’s right,’ she said, inspecting her hands. ‘I forgot everything in Australia is trying to kill me.’

‘Not everything,’ Elise said with the blasé casualness of an Australian who has spent their life navigating venomous snakes, spiders and jellyfish, and dodging sharks. ‘But you probably should watch out for snakes on a day like this.’

Gerry did an impressively vigorous dance for a woman of her age, lifting her knees on the spot like an Irish dancer. It was the same manoeuvre she’d done sixty years ago when she, Elise and a group of friends had ridden their bikes to a lake a few kilometres from the city. The wetland was a haven for waterbirds – black swans glided across the water’s surface, swamphens stalked around the grass looking for invertebrates, and regal white egrets picked amongst the reeds. Tiger snakes thrived there too.

The group had set up a picnic on the grass under a weeping willow when Gerry spotted a juvenile tiger snake sunning itself about 10 metres away. She jumped around as though the ground was on fire, screaming ‘get it away from me’ before hopping on her bike and cycling off. It took Elise about ten minutes to catch up with her and flag her down, and a further thirty to convince her to come back and enjoy the picnic. She returned, but insisted on eating her sandwich from the safety of one of the middle branches of the weeping willow tree and leaving as soon as the last mouthful was finished.

‘They won’t bother you …’ Elise started, smiling at the memory.

‘I know, I know, “unless you bother them”,’ Gerry finished the well-known mantra. ‘Then we shouldn’t have any trouble …’ she shouted into the bush, wagging her finger wildly, ‘if we both stay out of each other’s way.’

As the insects fell silent, Elise heard a rustle coming from a small scrubby bush to her right. She hoped the snakes had taken heed.

A short-beaked echidna waddled into sight. Its stocky legs and inwards-angled feet made easy work of moving across the leaf-littered ground. The tip of its pointed nose was covered in dirt, suggesting that it had been digging for food before it was startled by an old English lady shouting into the bush.

The two women watched with their mouths agape as it passed between them and into nearby bushes to their left.

---