Page 108 of A Home Among the Snow Gums
‘I’ve been thinking about the campdraft, Dad.’
‘Yes?’
‘I’m thinking we go big.’
‘What do you mean? The plans are up and running; if you mess with Lynette’s system she’ll have your guts for garters.’
‘I mean the off-paddock entertainment. We’ve got food stalls and market stalls sorted already … but I’m talking about stepping that up.’
‘The riding’s the entertainment, son.’
‘What about a band for when the drafting’s done? Country music. Coloured lights strung up above the barbecue area and the bar. Maybe a dance floor. A real, old-fashioned country party with a campfire cook-up.’
‘Sounds like a bloody circus.’
‘It’ll be as great as anything they’ve ever run up north at Paradise Lagoons. It’ll be the stuff of legend.’
Bruno’s eyes sparked, as he’d known they would. The brothers who ran the campdrafts out of Rockhampton were legendary.
‘A band? You reckon we could get one?’
‘Sure. And we organise a couple of minibuses to do the run from Hanrahan out here, so the locals who want a beer can join in.’
‘Have Mrs LaBrooy bake some sweets. No-one bakes as good as her, not even that new woman at the café in town.’
Tom chose his words carefully. ‘True, but maybe we could send Mrs L an invitation so she knows she’s a guest and can relax. I can call The Billy Button Café and ask them to cater. Salads, trays of potato bake, apple pie.’
‘We’ve enough beef to supply the barbecue. I want the Ironbark Station brand on every carcass. Get us a few of those spits, son, the ones they do pigs on.’
‘That’s a great idea.’ He didn’t bother telling Bruno he’d already asked Kylie if she could rig up a few in her workshop.
Tom took the hand his father held up to him. Twenty years ago, they’d had plenty of chats like this. Easy conversations about school, about footy, about horses and girls and the epic stack he’d taken off his BMX. They’d have walked the paddocks in summer, checking on the horses, with a dog snuffling along beside them. In winter they’d have crunched through the frost and talked about whether they had enough hay baled up to get through the winter.
So much had changed. His dad’s health, for one, and the only sign of the kelpies that had once ruled the paddocks was a row of graves beneath the hydrangeas.
‘Why did you come home, Tom? It can’t have been easy. Not after the way we left things.’
Wow. That was as close to an apology as he’d ever heard. And he was ready to accept it, which meant this would be the moment to come clean to his father about his injury, but … he didn’t have the heart.
The burden was bad enough for him to carry. His father needed to be preserving his strength for himself.
‘I came home to Ironbark because I wanted to be here, Dad,’ he lied gently. The fact that he’d come to realise this was exactly where he wanted to be was just a bonus.
CHAPTER
41
Hannah worked the next few days with only half her head on the job. She dragged herself around, cried in the shower a bit—well, a lot, but who was counting? Then she’d come up with a new plan to celebrate her newfound adult way of looking at the world.
It was going to require Kylie’s expert assistance.
‘Earth to Hannah.’
She frowned at her brother. ‘That’s earth to Boss Hannah to you, handsome.’
‘Vera’s doing a roast beef special tonight up at The Billy Button. Fancy having dinner out? My treat.’
It was tempting: Vera’s cooking versus her usual weekday dinner of a glass of wine in the bath followed by a tin of warmed-up soup.
