All day I had been thinking about my dream, that's if it was a dream. I never knew the aboriginal Elder's name, and in any case it would be disrespectful to write it down now, since surely she is in the spirit world. I remember the other time I met her so many years ago. I was in the Station kitchen and distraught. I had fallen in love with John, and he with me, but my body was still that of a youth and confused by his feelings, John was going to send me away. Suddenly she was there and she offered me advice which changed my life, and then just as suddenly she was gone. Now my life is in crisis again, and again she has come to offer advice.

Her words keep resounding in my ears “Go to him, go to him.” and suddenly I thought 'Well, what are you waiting for?' It was like a load had been lifted off my shoulders.

The Cessna is always kept flight-ready in case of an emergency, so I rang a couple of the men and asked them to bring it out of the hanger. Then I rang Mary and told her I was flying to Charleville.

“About time, if you don't mind me saying so,” she replied and I laughed.

“Mary,” I replied, “You are the only person on this station who would speak to me like that, but you are perfectly right of course.”

I didn't tell her about my dream. She might think it was time I was locked up in a padded cell!

I went to the bedroom and pulled out a suitcase to pack some clothes, and I had just finished when the phone rang. I have long since ceased to think that every call might be from James, so I no longer leap to the phone every time it rings, but something made me hurry to it and lift the receiver.. It wasn't James, but Jim, his friend with the small property outside Charleville.

“Is that you Lesley? It’s Jim here, James's friend.”

“Hello Jim, how are you?” I replied. My heart was starting to pound, Had something really happened to James after all?

“I'm fine Lesley. Look I hope you don't think I'm interfering. I gather that you and James are no longer seeing each other, and of course it's none of our business, but something has happened and Jean thought I should ring you. Hang on, I think I'll put her on, she can explain it better than me.”

There was a pause and then I heard Jean's voice.

“Hello Lesley,” she began, “look, we knew something happened between you and James because in the last month he has looked so miserable. I suppose I shouldn't tell you that, but after you first met he was over the moon and now it's quite the reverse.”

I felt tears start to sting my eyes as I listened to her.

“We didn't want to interfere, but something has happened and we decided we should. The fact is that James has gone missing.”

“Missing? What's happened?” I gasped.

“Well, James likes to 'go bush' occasionally as you know. He's always very sensible of course and he's made a habit of telling us where he's gone and when he's due back. He always takes plenty of food and water with him, and also has a mobile phone and one of those satellite phones that works almost anywhere. He said he was just going for the weekend to 'get away from it all' as he put it, and he said he'd be back late Sunday.

“Well, the library phoned us this afternoon. He didn't turn up for work and they had rung his house but had no answer. We drove down there and he wasn't home, and Stella his dog wasn't there either. We waited a few more hours, but now we've reported him missing. You may have had some disagreement, but we really thought you would want to know.”

“Oh yes!” I responded, “Has a search party gone out to look for him?”

“Well that's the problem. James went north, and there's a party of overseas tourists who went missing over the weekend. They headed south, and the police think they are in more danger than James since they don't know the area and might not have been very well equipped. So, the search party has gone out looking for them. They said they thought James would probably turn up or contact someone soon, but we're not so sure.”

My heart was racing now – James missing, maybe lying injured somewhere, maybe even...but no, I wasn't going to go there.

“Jim is going to drive out now for thirty minutes in the direction where we think he went. It's a bit too late to go very far now. We've got a satellite phone too, so I'm going to stay home in case he needs me to pass messages on.”

“I'm going to fly down immediately, Jean. He might be found by the time I get there, but if not, I can at least start an aerial search.”

“I'm so glad you said that Lesley,” she replied. “Jim will be back by the time you arrive. Would you like to stay with us tonight? We have a spare room.”

“Oh yes please. That is so kind of you.” I didn't fancy staying in an hotel room on my own and worrying about James.

Jean asked me to let Charleville airport know when I was about 30 minutes from landing and they would ring Jim to let him know to come and meet me. That's what I love about living in the country. I couldn't imagine the tower at Brisbane passing on personal messages.

In less than forty-five minutes I was in the air and heading east. I had contacted the Charleville tower and lodged my flight plan with them. I decided to make a broad sweep around to the north in the hope of seeing something, although I knew I didn't have too much time as the sun was already low in the sky and I needed to land in daylight. I suppose it was too much to hope for that I would find James so quickly in that vast empty landscape, and so it proved.

Jim was waiting for me when I landed, and I arranged for the Cessna to be refueled so that I could take off early in the morning. Then we drove to Jean and Jim's place. Jean had already cooked tea for us, and while we ate we discussed what we should do in the morning. I suggested to Jim that he might like to come with me as an extra pair of eyes, but he said he thought it would be better if he went out in his car. I was a bit surprised by his response but I said nothing more and just agreed with him. Later, when he was out of the room, Jean explained why he had refused.

“When Jim was a teenager he went up in a light plane with a slightly older friend of his who had just got his pilot's licence,” she said, “We never found out the cause but they crash-landed. His friend was killed and Jim had concussion and a broken leg. He swore then that he would never fly in a light plane again.”

I nodded sympathetically, “I understand. You can give all the statistics in the world about the safety of light planes versus cars, but if someone has made up their mind, that's it.”

Later, we spread out a map of the area surrounding Charleville for about 300 kilometres each way. It was unlikely that James would have driven further when it was just for a weekend. Jim showed me where he thought James might have been heading, and I worked out a grid pattern to search from the air while Jim said he would head up the most likely track. We both had first aid kits and food and water with us, mine in a special container that should resist being dropped from the air if necessary.

Since we had all decided to have an early night, Jean showed me to the spare bedroom not long after dinner. It was a very pleasant room, and the bed turned out to be very comfortable, so it was not long before I was fast asleep.

Tuesday morning

I awoke at dawn, but Jean and Jim were already astir. After I had a quick shower and dressed, we all sat down to breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes and fried bread.

“I haven't had a breakfast like that I was last in England,” I said.

“My mother was from the Old Country and reckoned a good breakfast starts the day well, especially when it's going to be a busy one,” she replied, and she was right of course.

We spread out a map of the surrounding area once more to confirm what we would be doing, and then Jim and I drove to the airport. The maintenance crew had fueled the Cessna and it wasn't long before I was in the air and heading north to start my search. I flew over Jim's car which was heading in the same direction on a well-defined track. We had decided that I should follow the track to the edge of the search area and if I found anything then I would radio back to the tower and they would notify Jim and also the Royal Flying Doctor Service if necessary.

Having found nothing on my original run, I checked the map and turned to start searching in a grid pattern. The country below me was mostly scrub with an occasional tree, more of them dead than alive. After some years of drought, there were no cattle to be seen, indeed no sign of life anywhere. I flew the first leg and then turned back, making sure that each leg overlapped the previous one. The hours passed by and I saw nothing. It was time to return to Charleville and refuel.

I had an hour's break and a snack while the Cessna was being refueled and then took to the air again. It was mid-afternoon by now and my eyes started to sting from staring at the ground – willing myself to see something. I had checked with Jean while at Charleville and she had been in touch with Jim. He had followed the track until it petered out. He was hoping to find tracks which might have belonged to James's Landrover, but there were a lot of tracks heading off in all directions, probably belonging to roo shooters, so that was no help, and now he was on his way back.

By now I had completed the search area, so I decided to head a little further north and try again, praying that I had not missed James. I had never searched for a vehicle from the air before. The sun was starting to sink and the shadows were lengthening which might obscure his Landrover and I felt a sense of panic. James was out there somewhere, but where?

“Oh Aunty!” I cried out loud, “You told me to go to James, and I'm trying, I really am, but where is he? Please help me to find him!”

There was no answer of course – just the hum of the engines and the timeless land below me stretching out to infinity. And then it happened. I was heading east and my despair grew with each mile; and then, within a couple of minutes of turning south for Charleville I saw a flash of light ahead of me, just for a couple of seconds. It was too bright to be artificial, it had to be the sun reflecting off something. I turned the Cessna slightly and headed toward where I had seen it. Then suddenly there it was! James's Landrover lying on its right side, the bonnet hard up against a large rock. I circled and flew low, looking for signs of movement and there was Stella his dog, standing by the Rover and looking up at me barking, but there was no other movement. I gulped and radioed Charleville.

“Charleville, this is VH 59 Victor Lima Foxtrot, over.”

“Victor Lima Foxtrot, receiving you, over.”

“Charleville, I've found James Taylor's Landrover, lying on its side, no sign of movement except for his dog, over.”

Charleville tower asked for my position co-ordinates which I gave. They also told me that the tourists had been found and a helicopter was bringing them back to Charleville. The Flying Doctor Service only uses fixed wing aircraft, so they must have hired the chopper.

“Would you believe those tourists ran out of fuel?” he said, “Anyway once he's landed and refueled we'll send him out to you with a RFDS doctor and a couple of assistants, estimated arrival time two hours.”

Two hours! It would be dark by then. While this conversation was taking place, I had been circling the area, and it was flat and almost clear of bushes, so I made my decision.

“Charleville, I'm going to land and see what I can do.” The tower dropped formalities and I could hear the concern in his voice.

“Are you sure Lesley? We don't want two patients out there.”

“Yes I'm sure, base,” I said with a confidence I did not feel. The ground looked smooth enough, but what if the wheels hit loose sand and the nose tipped up? I have always been extremely cautious whenever I fly. The one time I had run into trouble was years ago when I lost an engine due to fuel contamination – not my fault of course, but now I was proposing to put myself into possible danger. Aunty's words were still ringing in my ears “Go to him, go to him!” If I had told anyone that I was relying on words I heard in a dream they would say I was mad, but somehow I felt totally cool and calm as I turned the Cessna once more, lined up the non-existent runway and started to lose height.

I felt the wheels touch and employed reverse thrust. The Cessna slowed rapidly and soon I was taxiing towards the Landrover, stopping about a hundred metres away, and switching off the engines. It was only in the silence that followed that I could hear Stella barking in a strange strangulated way. She was standing there looking at me with her tongue hanging out. Poor thing, she must be so dry. I quickly radioed Charleville to let them know I had landed safely, then I collected my first aid kit and a couple of bottles of water before stepping out of the plane. Stella raced up to me, still barking, and I patted her. I had a tin bowl in the plane, I've no idea why, so I quickly filled it with water and set it down before her and she eagerly started to gulp it down. Then I started towards the Landrover. I resisted the temptation to run, but I didn't dawdle either. There was no sound other than the crunch of my footsteps on the ground and Stella panting as she trotted beside me, and only silence from the Landrover. My heart was pounding with fear. Surely James would have heard the Cessna landing, so why wasn't he calling out? My heart was in my mouth as I reached the Landrover, terrified of what I might find.

To be continued.

Image credit: Australian cattle station by Harris Walker reproduced under Creative Commons licence with attribution.