CHAPTER 40
It was a superb evening, to follow a great day, and as the skies darkened, Chad spotted me looking up.

“You’ll be looking for the Cross, Mike. Won’t see it from here. Too much light pollution”

He laughed ruefully.

“And here’s me, from a place that’s all forest, clouds and bloody rain. Hey, Maz? Think we should take this one out for a night in the bush?”

She swallowed a mouthful of some beer I hadn’t ordered, called ‘Toohey’s Extra Dry’, and frowned at him.

“Nobody’s taken ME out for a night in the bush yet! Anyway, what bush? This is all wheatbelt and city, And NO, I am NOT sleeping in a bloody tent wondering what’s going to climb into my sleeping bag. Hang on… read something in the papers the other day… Pass my phone, Geeta?”

Dal perked up at her request.

“You want to search the net? Easier on my laptop”

Oh dear: the puppy love was so obvious I had to bite my lip to avoid laughing. He bounced from his chair, and in less than a minute had his laptop open on our ’bar’ table. Maryam pulled her chair over, as did Chad, and she started tapping at the keyboard, a moment later giving an expansive, and slightly inebriated, wave at the screen.

“Now, this is what I’m talking about!”

I joined them for a look at the result of her search, and it was a picture of a sort of Swiss-style wooden hut or chalet with an immense window almost covering the entire front of the building. The caption read ‘Earth, Calm and Fire’. Maryam started to read out the details, so I dropped back into my chair with another bottle of beer.

“It’s mostly locally sourced materials, it says. Rammed earth walls, jarrah wood for the rest of it”

Chad said his piece, about all the glass, and Maz nodded.

“Give you that. But… Three bedrooms, and the mezzanine. Behind that big window, there’s a raised deck with another bed. And there’s a kitchen, and a big TV and sound system… and a hot tub”

Another swig from her bottle, another grin, with dimples. Dal was fully focussed on her every move.

“This girl, well, it’s down by Margaret River, so we have these units in woodland, clear-felled in front of the big window and each cottage separated from the others. Barbie out the front, days spent on the beach at Gracetown after a little tour around Certain Establishments”

I noted the way she emphasised the last two words, and she caught my slight frown.

“Mike, it’s all wineries down there. Day at the beach, lunch at a winery, then sample their output in the hot tub after that barbie, or a proper restaurant meal in Maggie River. I mean, the units are shaped like tents, but that’s as close as I want to get to one”

She turned her attention directly to me.

“I also saw, while I was looking on the… I turned maps on, then zoomed in on Maggie so I could see exactly where the place is, and I spotted something else. Have a look…”

She clicked on another tab, and brought up a site for sea cliff climbing.

“Can’t… hang on..”

She started typing and clicking, and eventually laughed.

“Got it! Long granite ridge makes the cliffs, limestone behind it makes the caves around Maggie”

Chad looked up from the lamb chop he was savaging.

“How do you know there’s caves there, Maz?”

“Cause the road is called ‘Caves Road’, young man!”

She turned to me, after looking at both Sikh men.

“Today was superb, Mike. Never done anything like that before, and never thought I would, or, to be truthful, that I could. That Vern, well: do you always just walk into people like that?”

I smiled, remembering my first meeting with Carolyn, as well as my reintroduction to Steph.

“Honestly? I suppose I do. Just lucky”

“No. Not lucky, you. Got a way of skinning… You’re good at getting under people’s skin, in a nice way, not nasty. Anyway, my prosposal, proposal, is we look at a time when we might all be out, on a Friday and a Monday, get Ronnie to cover any callers, or have our mobiles, anyway, and we make a long weekend of it. And I get a bird tick out of it”

Chad almost spilled his drink, he jerked so much.

“I didn’t realise you were into that as well! I’d have dragged you down to King’s Park!”

“You silver-tongued Romeo, you”

The man actually blushed.

“Not like that, Maz. Just lots of good birds there. What’s the tick?”

“Red-tailed tropicbird. They nest on a sea stack near there. Southernmost bit in the world thingy. How many beers I had? Don’t answer; don’t care. Yeah, so we look up the place, and we get a proper weekend’s relaxing. Sound good? Anyone got another cold one?”

I walked into the house to see what was left in the fridge, and was followed by Sangeeta, who made sure that her son was still sitting outside before she spoke.

“Dal’s got a big crush on her, Mike. First time she’s ever been relaxed this much around him, so Kul and I are keeping a close watch”

“I suspect she’s more, er, relaxed than she planned”

“Pissed, you mean? No. Tipsy, yes. Tipsy’s fine. I’ll ease her to bed if she starts getting too wrecked. Chad’s odd, though: he’s really watching what he drinks”

She chuckled, all of a sudden, and grinned.

“Here’s me being all sneaky, and I’m just wishing he could open up. Him and that other lad, oh dear me”

“Sorry?”

“Men! What did God give you eyes for, you never use them! That Vern boy; I suspect Dal’s not the only one with a crush”

“You saying Chad’s gay?”

“Could dance both sides, I think. What I hear about Tasmania, only to be expected he’s a bit shy. Then there’s you”

“What about me?”

She settled herself against the kitchen cupboards, arms folded, and smiled sadly at me.

“My husband and me, we talk, love. I heard about how you were the other day, but trust me, I am the only one he will ever share that sort of confidence with. We both know some of what happened. How you lost her, yes? Remember his words, about healing and not forgetting? Yes, he told me what he said, and I was so proud of that. I chose a good man. Pissed off our families, but that’s tough. I think this evening’s helping that along”

I smiled at her, admiring her openness.

“So that’s all of us except Maryam analysed”

“Oh, she’s an easy one. Only got one problem, as I see it”

“Go on?”

“Not now, but there’s other stuff. Not exactly observant for a Muslim, what with the pork sausages and alcohol, so I suspect that there might be a similarity there, between her family and ours”

“You sure she’s a Muslim?”

“The name’s a clue, love, and besides, she’s Malaysian. It’s automatic”

“People can change, Geeta”

“Not there they can’t. It’s the law. Anyone who is what they call an ‘ethnic Malay’ is Muslim from birth. One of my own cousins, doesn’t matter how many times removed they are. We’re worldwide, us Sikhs, just like Kul said. Anyway, relative, he gets married to a Malay girl. She converts to our faith, they have a couple of kids, she goes home on a visit, and they take the kids from her and put them into care. Two more automatic Muslims because of their Mam, and her marriage is annulled in Malaysia because of the conversion to Sikhism”

Geeta stopped suddenly, drawing in a couple of long, slow breaths.

“Sorry. I was a lot younger when it happened, and I spent many nights wondering when the police would come for me. I know, but I was a LOT younger, and that’s how kids think. Rant over, but that’s my take on Maryam. So: got her that cold beer?”

I grabbed a couple of bottles from the fridge, as she did the same ‘for her boys’, and we settled ourselves in the garden once more, where Dal was showing Maryam and Chad a set of pictures on his laptop. Maz waved me over, so I moved my chair closer after handing her the fresh bottle.

“Where’s this pic, with the two little girls and the train?”

Kul looked up sharply, and made a shushing gesture to his son. I answered for us all.

“Right… That’s me”

“I know that, Mike!”

“That’s Dal and Kul”

“Stop teasing!”

“Okay. Keith and Penny Hiatt, and that kid is their daughter Enfys. Means’ Rainbow’ in Welsh; that lot are all Welsh speakers. Other couple are Vic and Nansi Edwards, and their little girl Alys. That’s A-L-Y-S”

“What’s that mean?”

“Alice”

“Bloody tease! Where was it taken?”

I looked to Dal, and he answered for us.

“Got a tourist to take a snap, so we’d all be in. That’s Cwm Idwal”

“Looks wet”

“It often is, in Wales”

I tapped his shoulder.

“Not always. Got some of Crib Goch, mate?”

He grinned, in an evil way.

“Oh yes indeed!”

That got the expected reaction from the two climbing newbies, and then Dal surprised me with one showing him on the second part of Flying buttress at Stanage, immediately after the high step up.

“Geoff, Mr Woodruff, he took that. They sent me a USB stick with a load of pics on. That’s trad climbing. I was leading, and what you do is slip some of those things hanging from my waist into cracks…”

I couldn’t see the blush, but it was clearly there, so I took over.

“Those are called ‘nuts’, and you jam them into cracks to stop falling off, or rather falling too far, which is why they are called ‘protection’. Being serious, it’s a bit like those Aussie bolts, but you have to look for somewhere to place them, and get the right size. And you might have to fiddle with them to get them to stick”

Maryam whispered something to Chad, and that time I could see the blush very clearly. He gasped, “Maz!”, and she grinned.

“Well, it’s true! Fiddling with nuts to make them sticky is important. To climbers. And other people who don’t want to get pulled off”

She started to laugh, and when I asked, “How many beers?”, she simply said “Safe place to let go, isn’t that right, Chad?”

He nodded his agreement, and immediately changed the subject.

“This weekend away sounds like a goer, but, well, I’m thinking about getting some of my own kit. Harness, for a start, and some rock shoes. Got any ideas?”

Dal had recovered from his blush by then.

“Simple, Chad. The place Dad and me go, they sell kit, and there’s a proper climbing shop near the Park. Want to meet us there one arvo?”

He turned to me with a shrug and a grin.

“Not just Dad trying to use local words, but me, well, I try and use them properly”

Chad was still curious for details.

“Do they just sell climbing wall stuff?”

Dal shook his head.

“No; proper outdoors shop, from gas canisters for stoves to family sized tents”

Maryam called out, “Do they do hot tubs?”, and we all found ourselves laughing together, because she was right. We were in a safe space, having fun, and if one or more of us were a little worse for alcoholic wear, what did it matter?

In the end, we sent an e-mail to the place with the cottages asking for more info, gathered up our debris and started to prepare for bed, Chad and Maryam settled in the living room. I took a few moments outside to finish my last bottle, trying to make sense of the stars I could see, when Kul appeared.

“Geeta’s settling the two guests down, mate, but she told me what she said to you, as well as what she didn’t, so here it is. Neither of us can be sure what’s going on in Maryam’s life, so be careful”

“Why me in particular?”

“It’s you she’s flirting with, mate!”