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”

“Nothing more than I’ve already said, mate. My interviewer’s wife and her boss. Oh, and their son is a regular at Vern’s place. The wife works for the education department or whatever it’s called, the State one. Oh; their son works for one of the whale-watching companies, so we’ are more than on their radar. Oh, yes: my man said his mate’s got your case, love, but he was absolutely ‘need to know, allowed to know’ on that subject. Now, I need to stay a pace back from this one, because of hubby, so I’ll keep my gob shut after the pleasantries, if that’s okay”

Kul gave a sharp nod.

“Let’s go to work”

There only three of us, two in suits, one a woman, one in bike boots and another in a turban, but we did our best. As we entered, Des’ face lit up.

“Maz, Mike! And the head honcho as well—what have I done? Got it! You heard I’ve sourced some real boerewors, ey? Or was it the roo pies? So what can I get you?”

Maz was looking at the ornate ‘specials’ board, forehead slightly wrinkled.

“Could I try a berry whatever sandwich?”

“I can do you a boerie roll. Like a hotdog. Meat’s beef, minimal fat content, so best leave the snags uncut. You two?”

We both asked for the same, as well as tea, and Des nodded to a corner of the dining room, where a man and woman sat, both dressed in ‘smart office’.

“Your colleagues are over there. Asked for you when they came in, Mike. Look a bit bloody Fed Tax Bastard to me, to be honest. Not like your boat people. Oh, Kul: this is where you CAN say ‘she’ll be right’ without sounding like a tit”

“You wound me, Des!”

“Ah, I know how you mean it, so no worries, ey? They’ve just ordered pie floaters, so I’ll bring it all over in one go”

I wondered what on Earth a ‘floater’ was, but followed the old adage of opening gob, saying something stupid and proving your own stupidity, and simply followed the other two over to the table set aside for our ‘colleagues’. The woman looked up first, smiling straight at me.

“Mike Rhodes?”

“Yes. Colleen Burns? You recognised me?”

“A certain video, Mr Rhodes. In which you were wearing rather less clothing”

Her friend nearly spat out his tea, while I mentally sent for some virtual popcorn for what was clearly going to be a dominance battle between her and Mr Butt. She was seamlessly into the introductions, though, before he could get any momentum.

“This is Bobby Nguyen, my boss. I believe my bloke gave you some idea of what we were looking for. Grab seats; here’s the munchies and brews”

We settled ourselves as Des dished out three very large hot dog-style items and a couple of shallow bowls holding meat pies sitting on what looked very like mushy peas. If that was traditional Aussie cuisine, no wonder Shaun had adjusted so well to Sheffield. Bobby called me staring, and smiled.

“Real traditional Ocker food, this. Supposed to originate in South Australia, but we can ignore that bit”

I nodded.

“Looks very like one of ours, which is just called ‘Pie and Peas’ because it’s, well, a pie. With peas. Mushy ones”

Des was back with pots of tea, and his head was shaking.

“Not the same, Mike. Mushy peas are dried marrowfats, while this is a different sort of pea altogether, and it’s meant to be soup. Got to keep it thick, though, so the pie doesn’t just sog into the liquid. I’m getting some black peas in next week, though, so it’ll be carlings and…”

He was off on some strange description of legume-based cuisine, and most of us were lost, though Colleen was asking questions that must have been relevant, seeing how Des was responding. In the end, he looked at the pots, grinned, and said he was off to replace them, as they’d be stewed. As he walked away, Bobby looked straight at me once more.

“I’m officially talking to Mr Butt here, Mike, but as you were the one speaking to Colleen’s old fellah, so I am keen to include you, if we can do so without casting any shade on your citizenship application, or indeed Maryam’s. Beau, I am informed, says you have a neat way of cutting through layers of crap without coming across as nasty or patronising, so please: give us your take on the idea”

I settled my thoughts into some sort of order, then nodded.

“Simon was quite clear about separation of State from Commonwealth, and that you are both State people. Biggest Aussie State, about a third of the whole country, so a lot of geography to cover. A lot of schools just in Perth, and then there’s the rest of WA. I am looking at Kul here, but apart from one other staffer, this is what we have in terms of available people. Green Dream is expanding, but a state-wide influx would strain them as well… What’s the joke?”

Bobby stopped chuckling, and held out a hand for a shake.

“Mike, we have a tradition here of what we call the ‘fair go’. Means letting someone have a try at something big, and not looking down on them if they don’t pull it off. I think you got a slightly garbled message from Simon. Talbot and Swan--- Kul?”

“Yessir?”

“You were thinking of Flinders and Swan, weren’t you?”

Familiar grin.

“Guilty!”

“Right. Well, Mike here was just setting himself up for his own ‘fair go’, but we came prepared with enough background info to see us right. No, we are not talking about you going on a school run to the RFO every day… Mike, out there, the stations are sometimes miles from the road. Parents drop their kids off at a bus stop, and kids are picked up the same way. We have a lot of school buses for that. We are not, as I said, looking for you to do all that. What we ant is you on board as consultants. We have our own paper pushers, and there are several biofuel people we are assessing on a regional hub basis”

Kul looked relieved.

“Glad I didn’t send that e-mail to Sheffield, now. Would have been a bit embarrassing, to say the least”

Bobby nodded enthusiastically.

“Only reason I was sniggering, Mike. Sorry if it came across wrong. What we would like from you is a model process, tailored to fit with our existing accounting system. Would that work for you?”

Kul was on the ball before me.

“So what you want is for us to sell you a package? Not oversee its delivery?”

Colleen was shaking her head now.

“Not quite, Kul. What we are after is something we can fit into a particular niche in our budget. We don’t want to buy a package, we want a licence for one. Expenditure control and cost centred systems. You write us a package, you deliver some training, we pay you an initial fee. You then get a regular licence fee, and we get you on call if there’s a problem. Our funding system works in silos, so we have money in one pot but none in another, and this system plays on that”

Maryam was nodding and smiling at the same time.

“Chad will be best at sorting that one out, but could you answer a quick question?”

“Go ahead”

“What does RFO mean?”

Colleen tutted, and turned to Bobby.

“Go on, you. Explain it to her”

The man grinned.

“Some people talk about the real rural Australia, others about the Red Centre. Lots of us just prefer RFO. Right, er, effing Outback”

He turned a little more serious.

“Another phrase is ‘Beyond the Black Stump’. People get deceived by us being one country, but we’re a whole bloody continent as well. WA even declared independence a couple of times, so it’s a very different world RFO”

Colleen coughed for attention.

“Before he gets all misty-eyed, there’s another aspect we’d like to look into. Simply put, if this works out, would you be happy to be consulted on other issues? It’s what my boy said, Mike: you see things clearly, and that’s a precious talent”

“What sort of other issues?”

An even brighter grin from Bobby.

“Who knows? Be fun as, finding out, ey?”

We finished our lunch, which turned out to be a little spicy, Maz nodding in eyebrows-raised appreciation, details were exchanged, and Colleen ‘prattled on’, as Simon had put it, about their son.

“That video, ey? Beau says it’s the problem they all want to solve. Calls it ‘Rhodes’ Reach’, so you’ve left a legacy here already. We’re making a proper sandgroper out of you”

Bobby snorted at that, before dropping another bombshell.

“And Mike? My sister sends her best”

“Sorry?”

“I believe you met her family near Cowaramup? Old fellah does cabs?”

“Val? Bloody hell, is there anyone in Perth who doesn’t know everyone else?”

“Ah, it’s an isolation thing, Mike. Most isolated capital city in the world, we are. We look after our own. The only big city, right on the edge of everything, so we still act like it’s a small town. Also, if you’re in the fuel trade, even peripherally, then transport businesses are going to notice you. I know Rod up at Canning as well; went to school with him. He gave me a very full account of what you’ve done for him. Made my research a bloody sight easier than it usually is”

He turned serious again, business head firmly in place.

“We have rules on tendering, Mike, when we employ outside people, private industry, ey? This way, I see a few other possibles, but when I sign off on the deal, I have a full dossier of testimonials and that to justify it. Phil’s a bloody good bloke, and I will leave it there before I get too personal about our family. Expect to see the kids down that climbing place along with Colleen’s”

Kul looked up from his plate to explain that it was a local term for local people, as he put it, then spoilt the effect by corpsing. Too much even for his sense of humour, it seemed. Papers were exchanged, along with phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and after a quick call to his office, we had a meeting with Bobby and his crew arranged for the following week. I did ask for a couple of favours, which were to see both a school kitchen and a bus garage, on the basis that I might see something to trigger a fresh idea, which left Kul sniggering once more, as Maz quite casually sat with her hand on my thigh.

That weekend, we had a full team camping weekend at the Gracetown site, complete with more routes on the granite. I was living once again, fully alive, especially when lowering a surprisingly sweary Maz down from a toprope problem she had failed on six times before finally cracking it. Once back at the Butts’ place, with not a word to each other, we each started a property search on the internet.

I knew full well that there would be another shoe to drop at some point, we would deal with that together, whatever it might be.