Page 28 of Birds of a Feather

The shrieking ring of her phone, which she still had tucked back into her dressing gown pocket, catapulted Elise from her thoughts.

She gasped in anticipation and fished out the phone.

The phone face illuminated with ‘No caller ID’. Elise swallowed deeply.

‘Hello,’ she said cautiously, holding the cold, flat screen to her face. There was a pause, and Elise wondered if it was one of those scam callers that she’d heard about on A Current Affair.

‘Elise …’ the voice annunciated in perfect Queen’s English. ‘It’s Gerry.’

Chapter 17

Beth

On my drive to work, I tried hard to refocus on the busy day ahead. First up was a meeting with representatives from the state’s environment agency and a local Aboriginal land council, to talk about joint management of a tract of bush.

I walked into the meeting room and selected a chair to Geoff’s left.

‘Good morning. How’s things? How’s your day going?’ he asked. I had noticed he’d been a little more attentive since my early finish the other day, which I assumed meant he thought I did have a job interview.

‘Good thanks,’ I said as I sat down and poised my pen above my notebook, ready to take notes. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this meeting. This is a special patch of bush.’

The area provided the setting for many older residents’ memories of the good ol’ days, when they’d spent from sunrise to sunset building forts and climbing trees. Today, people cherished it as one of the last remaining natural areas for miles. The bush also offered refuge to some endearing native animals, such as the honey possum and quenda. And a couple of western grey kangaroos persisted there despite all the odds.

Most importantly, the area had particular significance to First Nations peoples, as it contained a number of plant species that were used for bush medicine. These meetings were an important part of ensuring that the Traditional Owners were central in conserving this natural apothecary. But, as hard as I tried to focus on the numerous ‘action items’ being captured and promises made to ‘circle back’, my mind kept wandering to thoughts of Gran and whether she’d heard from Gerry.

‘Oh, hi there,’ Alannah said, looking up from their screen when I returned to my desk after the meeting. ‘You’re popular today.’

‘What do you mean?’

I had never in my life been described as popular.

‘Your phone has been buzzing nonstop for the last hour.’

‘Oh, sorry.’ I launched my hand into my bag to retrieve it. I loathed it when unattended phones buzzed away or, worse, rang, in open-plan workplaces.

‘It’s fine. It was a nice distraction from having to listen to that lot dissecting last night’s episode of Married at First Sight.’ Alannah nodded their head towards the group of twenty-somethings from the events management team, who were huddled over a screen trawling through a gossip news site, whispering and giggling.

I tapped on my phone to illuminate the display and gasped. There were sixteen missed calls from Gran.

‘Everything okay?’ Alannah asked.

‘I hope so,’ I said. I hurried outside and hit redial. Gran answered after the first ring.

‘You took your time,’ she huffed mockingly down the line.

‘Sorry, Gran. What’s wrong?’ I asked, slightly breathless from the worry that something terrible had happened and from the exertion of dashing outside.

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she laughed. ‘In fact, everything’s great.’

‘I take it you heard from Gerry, then,’ I said, my breath rate calming.

‘I sure did.’

‘So?’ I probed. ‘What did she say? Did she sound the same as you remembered?’

‘More or less,’ Gran replied pensively. ‘A little more … mature, perhaps. But her voice was still as lovely as ever. I always loved the way she said my name. Elise. Elise. Elise.’ Gran repeated her name in a plum English accent, emphasising different syllables each time as she experimented with the sound.

‘What did the two of you talk about?’ I asked.

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