CHAPTER 21
The departure from Perth was quite emotional, Terry and Kylie fussing over Jim as we waited in the security queue. Finally, we had to let them go, and a short while later were in the air in a DC9 heading for Cairns via Uluru. Jim was asleep in his window seat shortly after take-off; the excitement of being in the air fading quickly as we droned over a continuous waste of red dirt and bush.

The runway at Ayers Rock airport is amazing, a single strip of tarmac set in the red, unfortunately with a large number ‘13’ at the ends. We got our view of the rock, coming and going, either side of a short walk in silly temperatures to the terminal building. Would it be as hot on the coast? A barman answered that as we had a coffee and sandwich.

“Just as hot, mate, but a lot more humid. Watch the young’un, keep him hydrated and he’ll be right”

One of the advantages of being a biker chick with a biker ..what word can I use for Tony? Partner? Other half? Boyfriend? (NO!). Lover?

The best word that came up was ’mine’.

Anyway, as we wore helmets, I knew his head size, and so when my (see?) two men returned from a toilet visit, they had a souvenir each. I mean, you can’t leave Oz without a hat, can you? They weren’t Akubras or other top quality stuff, but they were well made, and crush proof, and Jim’s face lit up when he saw it. Yes, of course I bought one for myself. I wouldn’t have matched, otherwise!

In all the travel we had been doing, even though I was on a passport that said “Sarah” together with that letter ‘M’, nobody had questioned me at all. I had the letter ready, but it seemed that we made such an obvious family group that it simply went below the radar. As we continued on towards Cairns, I decided to sound Jim out.

“Darling, did your daddy ask you to call me mummy?”

“No, it was the boys at school, they said you were my mum. I know I had another mum, but you do all the things she did, and daddy says you are going to marry him.

He suddenly looked a lot older than he was.

“I really miss my first mummy. I wish she hadn’t gone away, but she did. You’re not my real mummy, I mean sorry, you are my real mummy, but my first mummy was my mum, and you are such a nice mummy I don’t miss her so much. I love you and want you to marry my dad soon”

I dug the sense out of that, and it was all I could do not to cry. He knew I hadn’t given birth to him, and he missed his mother, but he loved me and wanted me there in her shoes. From an eight year old, it was stunningly mature. I wished I could have had the chance to have met his mother. She had produced a joy and a treasure. My job, now, was to keep him from harm.

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There was a downpour in progress as we came into Cairns, and we grabbed a taxi for the run out to our room, in a motel built round a courtyard with a small pool in the centre, just off the Bruce Highway near the Portsmith Road junction. There was a regular bus service, and it seemed less frantic than the city centre.

You don’t want to read a long travelogue of tourist sights, so I shall play a verbal slide show.

Jim, in a midget wetsuit and flotation ‘noodle’, snorkelling as if he was born to it, out on the Reef and swimming with turtles.

The three of us sunning ourselves at the artificial town beach, my worries about the costume seemingly unfounded.

Eating in an open-fronted cafe, while tiny, tiny pigeons hopped around our feet like sparrows.

The sheer din of roosting lorikeets in the evening at the bus station.

Jim’s confusion over the town centre warning signs: “Crocodiles inhabit this area. Attacks may cause injury or death” (no shit, Sherlock)

The cable car ride up over the rainforest, butterflies like birds, followed by the old train down again.

Swimming n a flooded volcanic crater over towards the Atherton.

Seeing my man in budgie smugglers and knowing every inch of his body by touch and taste.

Being treated as any other family, though I had to bite my tongue when some old lady suggested Jim had my eyes….

But, all things come to an end. It was a steady anti-climax as we first flew down to Brisbane for the transfer to our flight home via Singapore and Dubai. Jim was blasé about long haul flights now, and was into the games almost as soon as we were airborne. I just settled against my man and tried to get as much sleep as I could.

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I felt like shit as we landed in England, on a grey and wet day. We queued to disembark, queued for passports, and I queued for the ladies’. I had a perverse giggle at the thought that I could theoretically have walked into the gents’ and peed at a urinal, but I screwed that idea down as tightly as I was holding my bladder.

We went down to the baggage reclaim, and I spotted a familiar face. I must have stared too obviously, because she came up to me.

“Do I know you? You seem to find me interesting to look at for some reason”

I switched to our own language. “Na, ond dwi’n dy cofio di” (no, but I remember you, my friend)

She laughed. “Cymres arall!” (Another Welshwoman!)

“Cymro, fel ti….roeddwn ni” (A Welshman, like you, my friend…we were)

“Cachu!” (shit!)

Tony was at my shoulder by then. “Hi Stephanie. That’s who you are now, right?”

“Steph. How the hell does this woman know about me?”

I smiled at her. “We saw your coming out in style after the inter regional final. Think about what I just said to you. Think, and II meant no offence”

Tony was shaking his head, Jim hanging onto his hand and looking puzzled.

“Steph, this is my fiancée Sarah. Sarah, this was my hardest ever opponent on the pitch.”

I could see the gears turning in her head. Close up, I could easily see the man who had been there, but then I knew it was there to look for. Startling eyes went with the auburn hair, no visible make up, and a nose that showed the signs of more than one break, but she was still female. As I peered at her, with hindsight rather rudely, she put two and two together with an almost audible clunk.

“You said ‘we were’ ; gwybod y dyn?” ( you said ‘we were’… the man know?)

I laughed out loud at that, which relaxed Jim, and pulled Tony to me. “Yes, Tony knows everything about me. I didn’t mean to upset you, just to wish you luck, coupled with rather a lot of understanding.. Tell me, who was that skinny bloke you were cuddled up to?”

I have never seen anybody blush that much.

“That was my friend Geoff”

I couldn’t help it, and pushed a little harder. “Friend…..?”

She blushed even harder. I quickly hugged her. I realised that despite the mad courage on the rugby pitch, this was a girl with far less experience of life than me, and she was terrified. Despite that, she was pushing herself into her new life, which showed true courage. Those who don’t know fear can’t be brave.

“You had the courage to come out to a roomful of rugby players, and I saw him there for you. I think you are even more like me than I realised. I let this one go for a while, but he’s going nowhere without me from now on.”

“Have you had, you know, small ears?”

“After Christmas”

She hugged me back. “Your bags are up on belt 8. Tony…you look after this girl.”

Tony smiled. “Steph, trust me, you have no need to ask. I love this woman”

By the time we had our luggage, she was deep in the bag of another passenger, but I got a wink from her, as Tony was hailed by various other players.

I thought of poor Alice…..two of us seemed to have struck gold, and there she was, alone and hurting. Meeting Steph simply confirmed me in my need to give Alice the best we, as her friends, could manage.