CHAPTER 64
The double garage had been a sound choice. When we had narrowed our search to a couple of properties, that had been the clincher. Our estate agent (neither of us believed in imaginary estates) had been full of humour, repeating a phrase I had heard more than once before.

When the original houses were built, he said, you’d sometimes see your next door neighbour. As time went on, that compressed to hearing them, and with the current developments, where there was what seemed like six feet or so between your own eavesdrop and next door’s guttering, you could just about smell those across the property line.

CHAPTER 63
There was a place to leave the bike at Soapy Joe’s, just behind Kul’s car. I did the multiple lock thing, and slipped into the back seat behind Maz.

“No butts today, mate, even if they are cool. Did you mail head office?”

“Not yet. Wanted to make sure we can tie this one down before potentially looking stupid. Talk me through it again, please”

CHAPTER 61
Things did settle down after that fortnight’s busyness, for the simple reason that even the best management magicians can’t come up with a new and revolutionary idea every day. We almost gave up on the sausages idea, for example, because there was no feasible way to fly out a sample pack to the east coast, and by definition anyone renting a van in Perth was likely to be heading over that way, so wouldn’t exactly be in the area for a repeat purchase.

Instead, Chad had a word with Rhona, who was definitely SWMBO in that business, and breakfast packs for their camping sessions started being ordered from a former miner. And Maz bought a helmet.

CHAPTER 59
We made a sizeable group in Rod’s workshop, but Rhona had brought some spare folding chairs, so at least we didn’t have to stand. This was Chad’s baby, we had decided as a group, so he was the one on the mobile phone, passing directions to our visitors from the East Coast. Eventually, he walked out to the road.

“Yeah, I’m on the road, and I’m waving… Got you! Kettle will be going on, boys”

CHAPTER 57
Our massive picture window faced West, so our morning was lit up by the light falling on jarrah and sheoak foliage. Kookaburras were cackling away as the sun rose, and as Maz stirred she mumbled something about bloody introduced species. I kissed the tip of her nose.

“Morning, you”

A smile.

CHAPTER 55
Friday morning duly arrived, and we made a fine group as we entered the conference suite in the boatyard’s business centre. Maz was in her very best suit, sharp enough to slice whatever you might need paper-thin, Chad was amazingly neat and both Kul and I had done our best to match them. We’d picked up Martin and Trudy from the biodiesel company at the reception, and once inside, we were introduced to three suits from the ferry company, along with another pair I gathered Kul hadn’t been expecting. Just as I was bracing myself for a typical stuffed-shirt meeting, the leading Ferry Suit simply grinned and held out his hand for a shake.

CHAPTER 53
I actually felt nervous as I opened the front door. This wasn’t like the interplay between Caro and me, as that had largely been on our own turf, at her place or mine, before… I shut that memory down hard. As I closed the door behind us, Kul called from the front room.

“We’re eating off our laps, you two. Tea’s fresh, though, or there’s some cold ones in the fridge, he hinted in an obvious way”

I led the way into the room, to find the family shuffling seats to leave the sofa free.

CHAPTER 51
I opened the front door as quietly as I could manage, and she was there, a small holdall in her left hand. I didn’t know whether I should step forward, or aside, so I did the latter, and she slipped in and headed straight for my room. I stood at the open door for a moment, then closed it, once again as quietly as I could manage, before following her. When I arrived, she simply undid her coat and let it fall, to reveal her pyjamas. I lifted the covers on her side, and as she slipped into bed, I did the same on my side.

CHAPTER 49
Sunlight was bright through the curtains, and my head was a little muzzy. I stretched to full length, and realised I wasn’t alone, and my T-shirt was gone. What… Oh. Right.

She started to stir as I moved, and then turned her head to look at me.

“Morning, you”

CHAPTER 47
I let her walk in before me, and not so I could get another view of her rear end. This was all going too quick, or so one of the Greek chorus of voices in my head was proclaiming, while another was insisting that going at any speed at all, over any period whatsoever, would remain too quick. Did I not love my wife? How could I even think of heading down that path?

CHAPTER 45
I had no answer to that, none that seemed adequate, so I simply reached across and squeezed the back of her hand, just as her mobile chirped from the glove box. I opened the cover and passed the phone across to her. A quick glance, then a shy smile, rather than the beam I was used to, or the brittle near-grimace I feared.

“Kul, Mike. They have all plumped for fish and chips, and he says not to bother with the bottle shop. His words: ‘Me real man, haz gotz booze’, and yes, all zeds, no esses”

She checked her face in the rear view mirror.

CHAPTER 43
I didn’t sleep that well that night, and probably came across as a little grumpy over breakfast. Chad and Maryam were off quickly, Kul and I following a little later. The drive into work was a bit tense at first, as Kul clearly picked up on my mood.

“I never met her, Mike. Wish I could have”

“Sorry?”

“Me being silly. If I had been given the chance to meet her, you would never have ended up in Sheffield, so we’d never have met, us two that is, and well, yeah. You’re thinking betrayal, aren’t you?”

CHAPTER 41
I was up early. Still slightly out of synch with local times, and also a little sore in the forearms. The routes with Vern had been fine, apart from the need to fiddle about for ages with those lunatic Aussie bolts. I could imagine how that must push local climbing grades: if you can climb E4 while gibboning like an idiot to place pro, then the silly grades must be that much easier.

I took my laptop down to the kitchen, sneaking past the sleeping beauties and brewing a cuppa as I searched for details about those granite cliffs near ‘Maggie River’. I found a site called ‘The Crag’, which gave decent photo topos as well as rather abbreviated route descriptions, but, well, beggars and choosers. Kettle boiled, tea poured, bowl of cereal before me, and Maryam walked in.

CHAPTER 39
The rest of the week was less scenic than my first visit, as I followed Kul around a number of businesses that included more than a few of that old favourite from Sheffield, the waste cooking oil account. Kul was quite bullish about them, which surprised me, for he had never pushed himself so far forward back in Yorkshire. I slowly came to understand how deeply he felt that the Australian venture was his own particular baby, and it would grow his way.

CHAPTER 37
It hissed at a couple of walkers on the path, no teeth visible, and then ambled back into the long grass. Kul waved at the nodding stems. Kul waved at it from our perch on some railings.

“You’ve probably guessed I am actually serious about the snakes, mate. Always, always check grass and that before you walk into it. Avoid the long stuff if you can. Don’t step over dead logs, walk round them. Don’t peer into holes. Whatever you do, even indoors, don’t poke your hands into somewhere you can’t see”

CHAPTER 35
It was a twisty road getting to meet the real Alys, for while she had known herself as long as she had been self-aware, the rest of us had to dismantle almost everything we had known or assumed we knew about her, and her fear of rejection kept its teeth in her for so very long a time. It was hard work indeed, but that metaphor of bends on a road became my mantra.

CHAPTER 33
I spent another couple of days in Bethesda, kipping in the bunkhouse, which wasn’t a problem, especially when Keith made sure I got the ‘private’ room, which would give some respite from the usual night music of the nasally impaired. Evening meals were taken in both houses as a sort of extended family, and each time we ate, Alys was in what was clearly ‘her’ dress. The morning after that first appearance dressed that way, Keith collared me after breakfast.

CHAPTER 31
Vic stared hard at me for a few seconds, before his gaze dropped to his plate. He pushed a few bits of chicken around with his fork before looking back up.

“Did Dafi really say he was frightened of us?”

Slowly, Rhodes.

CHAPTER 29
I was caught, well and truly. It wasn’t solving a puzzle, it wasn’t confirming my guesses, but rather receiving the two-edged gift of the hand grenade of Dafi’s confidence. That phrase actually ran through my head, and as one part of my brain ran off arguing about whether grenades had edges, the rest of me simply sat and stared, trying to work out a much more important question: what the hell to do now?

CHAPTER 27
Work was a bit of a cold shower after the weekend, but Betty had enough pictures on her digital camera to keep our colleagues happy at our first post-work visit to the regular place for drinkies and pisstaking. There were the usual dreadful-but-traditional joking comments about rain and sheep, plus far more serious ones about the shots of the Hiatt’s bunkhouse.

I was just cleaning one of the bunkhouse toilets when the shout came via my mobile.

‘Pick up Glan Dena soon as’

“Dad! Got a call-out! Gotta go!”

He nodded, passing me my grab-sack and lid, the gloves sitting inside.

“At least it’s a decent day for it, love. Any idea where?”

“No, just get to the hut and meet up. Get briefed there, I assume”

CHAPTER 26
I found myself struggling to keep my grin down, as Betty had clearly planned on shoving Pam in my direction. Shaun’s comments about his local lizard were still at the front of my mind, though, and I took a moment to think it all through.

Was I pleased at Pam’s shift of focus onto Shaun because I was one more roadside lizard waiting for the squish, or for other reasons? She was far from unattractive, and seemed good company, at least so far. Was I tuning all women out, or just her? Was I waiting for someone to enter my life, or just for the next car?

CHAPTER 74
“Minibus is leaving, love. You need to get down the hill”

“Mam, I don’t know! I’m sure I’ve forgotten something—just can’t think what it is!”

She stepped forward for a hug, bringing a smile with her.

The hotel was on a steep hill, which left the basement neither one thing nor the other. Uphill, it was indeed underground, but on the downhill side it had windows open to the sun. The hotel entrance, therefore was sort of ground floor, sort of first floor.

“Hello. Booked in for two nights B and B”

“Name, please?”

“Anderson”

“Mark?”