Previously:

Dr Ryan then spoke with Mummy about when my next trip to Brisbane is going to be and he will ring Mummy as soon as he finds out.

Mummy then took me home so she could go to work, but when we got back to the house there was a new car in the driveway that I did not recognise. Mummy got out of the car and said, “You stay in the car Carla till I see who it is.”

I thought 'Oh no! It couldn't be James and John to hurt Mummy.' and I started to panic.

Then Mummy sang out, “ Carla come and see who is here to see you.”

I jumped out of the the car and ran up to the house and nearly tripped going up the steps. When I reached the front door I got a real surprise to see Tony and Bella sitting in the lounge room. I raced over to Tony and jumped onto his lap and made him wince when I hit his leg which was still in plaster from the accident with his taxi. While I was still sitting on Tony's lap, Bella gave me a hug as well as she could, and we ended in a three way hug. I of course started to crying I was that emotional.

Tony said, “Hey little one, calm down and dry those big brown eyes. We are here for a whole week to spend some time with you and your Mum, and Bill who we met at the service station this morning. We stayed at the caravan park last night but we were too tired to go and eat at the restaurant, so we pretty much went to bed after we had a cup of tea.”

Bella said, “Your Daddy told us how to get here and make ourselves at home.” Just as she said that I heard the toilet door close and said “Is Daddy home too?” Mummy said “No, not that I know of, I wonder who it is?” She had just finished saying that, when in walked Samantha the daughter of Mary, my nurse at the hospital after the car accident.

I very nearly fell off Tony's lap and squealed in delight when I saw who it was.

Samantha said, “Tony rang Mum and asked if I wanted to come with them to visit you as well, and she said 'Yes as long as it was only for a week I could', so here I am.”

''By the way Sam is TG like me'' I said “Wow, what a surprise! Mummy, can they stay here? We have two spare bedrooms.”

“Yes of course they can. You can sort the rooms out with Sam after lunch, and Tony can collect their things from the caravan park and bring them back here.”

Tony said “That's quite a trip from Charleville to Quilpie isn't it Donna?”

“Well it is when you have just had a three hour flight from Brisbane.” replied Mummy.

Bella said “I'm dying to meet Rita, Carla.”

I said “Mummy, can she come home early from work this afternoon?”

“Well I have to go back for a while to sort out the food for tonight’s menu, but I think that Linda and Alice can cope. It's not that busy on Tuesday nights anyway.”

Bella said “Donna, do you mind if I come with you? I would like to have a look at your restaurant?”

Mummy said “How would you like to come and work for me Bella, and leave that overcrowded city you live in?”

Tony said, “That can be arranged Bella. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to slow down and do something different for a while now.”

Bella said, “Do I have a say in that Tony dear?”

Mummy and Bella left, and I said, “Tony would you like a beer and sit out on the verandah?”

He replied, “I'll hobble out to the car and go back to pick up our gear at the caravan park, and then you can offer me that beer again when I get back sweetheart.”

“Ok Uncle Tony” I replied.

Tony said, “Carla that sounds really nice, and I feel privileged to have you call me and Bella, aunt and uncle.” He got in his hire car and went to pick up their gear from the caravan park.

Sam gave me another hug and said “This is great Carla! We can really get to know each other and talk about our little problem without any worries about someone freaking out. “

“I'll be coming down to Brisbane in the next couple of weeks, I would imagine because Mummy and me have just come back from seeing Dr Ryan this morning, and he poked and prodded me and asked a lot of question about what I thought about boys and girls. I don’t know what that has got to do with me being a girl.”

Sam said “Yeah I know what you mean, Rose does the same thing.”

I said, “Do you have to take any medicine at all? Because Dr Ryan told Mummy that I would not need anything yet for a couple of years.

Sam replied, “Yep I have to take two pills a day to stop my thingy from becoming any bigger.”

We both got the giggles and had to sit on the bed or we would have fallen over.

Sam said, “Wow, this is a big house isn't it?”

I replied, “Yeah, it it is the original homestead that the town was built around. Wait till you meet Rita, you’ll just love her. We are very close and tell each other everything.”

Sam said “Where am I going to sleep Carla?”

I replied, “We'll get a bed out of one of the other bedrooms that are not being used and bring it in here. I think it should fit ok. Tony and Bella are going to sleep next to Mummy and Daddy’s room.

Sam said, “Just how many bedrooms has this mansion got?”

So me and Sam went and manoeuvred a bed into mine and Rita's bedroom. By the time Tony came back we had the room all set up and Sam and I went out to the car to give Tony a hand to bring all the bags inside the house.

I said, “Uncle Tony, how much longer do you have to have that cast on your leg?”

He replied, “Coming off when I get back to Brissi - the bloody thing is getting really itchy.”

Once we had all the stuff brought up, I got Uncle Tony that beer that he wanted and told him to relax out on the verandah in a squatters chair which is a large deck chair. It was twelve o'clock and I didn’t think Mummy and Bella will be back for a little while yet, so I said to Sam, “How about we make some lunch? There’s plenty of food in the freezer. All we have to do is put it in the oven to heat up.”

We went to the freezer and had a look at was on offer. I said my favourite is Mummy's spaghetti bolognese and there were still six containers of that in the freezer, so that is what we chose to heat up for our lunch. The containers were made of tin so all I had to do was to take the top off and put them in the oven. The stove needed to have more coke put in the fire box and stirred up to give it more heat.

Sam stood in front of the stove and said “Holy shit, that is one big stove Carla.”

“Yeah, Mummy said it was at least eighty years old and would have been brought out from England for the family that lived here at the time.”

Anyway we heated up the food, got some plates out and dished it up and took it out to the verandah to eat. It was May, so it was still ok to sit out on the verandah in the daytime, but it gets quite cold in western Queensland at night at this time of the year.

When we walked out to where we were going to sit we noticed Uncle Tony had got so comfortable he was snoring and was fast asleep. I thought it was a pity to wake him up but if I didn't he would be awful hungry by tea time.

I said “Wakey wakey Uncle Tony” and we put the plates of food on the table on the verandah.

Uncle Tony rubbed his eyes and said, “Gees! It is so peaceful here I think we might move here to live and retire.”

I said “What about your taxi business Uncle Tony? You can't sell that! Who are we going to get to drive us around Brisbane?”

“Oh!” he said, “I didn't think of that but wouldn’t you like to have me and Bella here so you can boss us around?”

I replied, “I do not boss anyone around” with a pout.

Tony said, “No, you just say it with those eyes of yours, and then we melt and you get what you want.”

Sam said “She is rather cute isn't she?”

“Yeah too cute by half, the little minx.” replied Tony.

I changed the subject and said “I'm going to dish up your lunch now so come over to the table and sit down.” as I fluttered my eyes at Uncle Tony, He came and wanted to tickle me but almost fell over because the plaster cast on his leg got caught on the leg of the chair.

I said, “ Ha Ha! You've gotta be quicker than that Uncle Tony.”

Anyway I dished up Mummy's heated up spaghetti bolognese and we settled down and had our lunch.

Uncle Tony said, “That's as good as Bella's food Carla! Your Mum's a really good cook.”

I replied, “No Uncle Tony, she’s a qualified chef!”

Then Tony said more to himself than me “I wonder if Bella would agree to sell up and move out here?”

We finished lunch and me and Sam cleared the table to do the bit of washing up there was. Uncle Tony stayed out on the verandah mumbling something to himself about bloody city life. By this time it was one thirty and I hadn't done any of my school work yet.

“Oh well tomorrow is another day,”I said, and shrugged my shoulders.

Sam said, “I will give you a hand tomorrow if you want Carla because I am a year ahead of you don't forget.”

“Yeah that will keep Mummy happy too.” I said. Just then Mummy and Daddy both pulled up in the own cars. Mummy was in the old Land-rover that she ended up buying off Tom Granger, because it was a four wheel drive and was very reliable.

Daddy and Rita got out of the car and came straight over to the house where Uncle Tony was still sitting in the big old squatters chair.

“How's it goin'?” Tony said to Daddy, “And you must be Carla's sister Rita?” he said getting up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Rita blushed and said, “Well one of them anyway.”

Uncle Tony looked at Daddy and said “Yep, same dry wit as Carla.”

Rita then went and gave Sam a hug and said, “Nice to meet you Samantha, Carla couldn't stop talking about the girl in Brisbane with the same problem she has.”

Uncle Tony and Daddy went off to look at some stuff in the shed, and Mummy and Bella were coming back from looking at the large vegetable garden that is situated in the rather large back yard. These days Daddy hasn't got the time to tend to it so he pays an old age pensioner to do it once a week. Aunty Bella was suitably impressed with the garden, because being Italian she has always had a vegetable garden. As they walked into the kitchen Aunt Bella said, “Where’s that hubby of mine? I think we have some talking to do. I love this place and wouldn't mind at all if we retired out here.”

Well Sam and me looked at each other and started to giggle.

Mummy said, “Alright you two what is so funny?”

Once we stopped giggling Sam said, “Tony has been mumbling to himself about if you would agree to move out here to live.”

Bella said “I would, but lets leave him sweat a bit shall we?” We all off us giggled and agreed to play along with Bella.

When the men came into the house we girls were sitting in the lounge having a cup of tea and Daddy said “Ok, where's ours ladies?”

“Where's your what?” said Mummy

“Never mind, we'll get our own tea.” replied Daddy.

Bella said, “Samantha dear, would you mind getting these poor underprivileged men a cup of tea? We have something to discuss.”

So me and Sam went to the kitchen to make the tea. When we got back to the lounge all the grown ups were laughing and seemed to be in a really good mood. We gave Daddy and Tony their cups of tea and asked what the excitement was all about.

Uncle Tony said “Come here you little monkey and sit on my lap, and I’ll tell you some good news.” Of course I knew what he was going to say. And just enjoyed being spoilt like the little girl that I was, and it felt really good to be me.

Anyway it transpired that Uncle Tony was going to sell his taxi business and their big house in Brisbane and come to live in Quilpie and semi retire. Aunty Bella was excited about working with Mummy in the restaurant, and Uncle Tony would help Daddy out with the Greyhound bus ticketing business, which was getting to be too much for Daddy to handle on his own.

They stayed the week and had a look around in town for a house that suited them to buy, and there were a couple of homes that Aunt Bella liked just down the road from Daddy's house, so it looked promising. Samantha helped me catch up with my school work and that put me ahead about two weeks, which was really what I needed at this stage, because I had to go to Brisbane again for another round of tests with Rose and her associates.

We waved our visitors goodbye as they drove off to Charleville to get the flight home on Monday morning. I of course cried and Rita had to calm me down, so she took me inside to the bedroom and lay down beside me and said I have to get used to people leaving.

The next trip to Brisbane was the next week, so I could keep doing more school work and Mummy wouldn't have to worry so much that I might fall behind, just in case she decided to send me to a normal school the next term. Everyone went off to work of a morning and left me to it. Mummy called me every couple of hours to check up on me. As if I can get into any trouble ('eye roll'), anyway the week went by without me getting into too much mischief. I took Ginger for walks in the afternoon so I could get to see Ricky and my three friends at the park. Tit was Friday so if I was going to see my three girlfriends before I had to go to Brisbane for a week I had better be at the park that afternoon. I would catch up with Ricky on Saturday or Sunday at church.

I was at the park when only Jennifer turned up, she said, “Hi Carla, Brenda and June had to go straight home this afternoon. Their parents were do something, dunno what, but they were told to come straight home after school this afternoon.”

“Oh that's a pity because I will be in Brisbane all next week and I was hoping to say bye to all three of you” I said.

Jennifer said, “Why do you go to Brisbane so much anyway?”

I thought 'Will I tell her the truth or make up something?' I decided to not lie to much because I believe in God and I don’t want to be punished for telling lies. So I said I had a problem with my bladder and have to get treatment in Brisbane because that is where the specialist is. There! I thought that should be enough information for the moment I turned around and shut my eyes really tight and in my head thought 'Jean where are you I need you?' I needn't have panicked she was there all the time. All I had to do was talk to her in my mind and there she was. I wished I could remember that.

Jennifer said “Oh you poor girl! I had a problem like that a couple of years ago, but I had to do some exercises and that fixed it.”

I thought 'I might have a bit more of a problem than that and I'm sure I could hear Jean giggling in my mind. 'Cheeky bugger!' I thought. I had a bit of a tremble in my chest so I guess she heard me. Anyway I talked with Jenny for about half an hour when Ginger was getting restless so I said bye to Jenny and got on my bike and went home .

When I got home Mummy and Rita were already home so I didn't have to worry about getting my own supper.

"Yay." I said “What's the score Rita, why are you home early?”

She replied, “Mum wants to make sure we get everything ready for next weeks trip to Brisbane. Don't forget I’m coming this time Carla.”

I said “Yeah, you'll love it in Brisbane with all the shops to look at.”

Then I said “What about the restaurant tonight, are you and Mummy going back to help Linda and Alice?”

“No Dad is going to do that. They'll be fine.” she replied.

I helped Rita and Mummy pack all the clothes we needed for a week in Brisbane, and by the time we were finished it was well and truly bed time. I had a bit of a restless night and couldn't get to sleep properly, because I was worried about what the tests in Brisbane were going to be like. It is always just on waking up in the morning that my twin seems to want to talk with me. That morning was no different. She was sitting on my bed and said 'Wake up Carla. I want to communicate with Rita before she wakes up.'

I said in my mind 'Can't it wait till later?' which was a silly thing to think because Rita obviously had to be asleep for Jean to get into her mind, I know! I worked that out all by myself.

Jean said, 'Just like last time close your eyes Carla and think about Rita' which is what I did. It was a strange feeling to hear her in my mind while she spoke to Rita through me. I got into bed with Rita and cuddled up close to her because I knew she would start to tremble once Jean started communicating with her. I don't get the trembling any more.

It was like watching two people having a conversation with me looking on.

Jean said 'Hello Rita. I'm here in your mind so don't be frighten I can’t hurt you.'

Rita said with her own voice as in talking in her sleep “Wow Jean you are pretty just like Carla.”

“Well we are identical twins after all. That is why I can be in her head so easily.

Rita asked “Where are you Jean?”

Jean replied 'I am on the other side in the spirit world and we will all be joined again when it is time for you to cross over. I will leave you now because you are going to wake up.'

Jean faded and Rita was trembling, so I just stayed there and cuddled her till she became normal.

Rita woke up with a start and sat up in bed and said, “Carla!! Jean —Jean she wow!!”

I replied “Calm down Sis. Did you see how pretty she is?”

“Yeah she looks and sounds just like you.”

After Rita calmed down, we got up and had a shower together, and got dressed in jeans and the restaurant polo shirts, and yes I got wear one too because I was going to help out today with doing a lot of food preparation to put in the restaurants freezer for the next week, so Linda and Alice could cope on their own, but Mummy has also asked Alice’s Mum to come in and help out as well.

We worked all day and got it all put away in the big industrial freezer at the back of the restaurant's kitchen. Rita was in dream land all day and couldn't stop talking about Brisbane, and how she saw Jean before she woke up this morning.

Mummy said, “You girls are so lucky to have that happen and I am quite jealous that I can't see my little twin daughter.” and she sat down and started to cry. That had all of us in a tizz and we all started to cry at the same time. How silly is that?” We got home and were exhausted and went to bed early. I think we all slept like logs.

Sunday morning was a bit of a rush because Daddy said he was not going to to put up with being late for church again like the last time. We all said “Yes sir!” and got moving.

I saw Ricky and Rita saw peter at church and had a bit off a cuddle in the games shed after the service. We wouldn't see them for a whole week so this was our last chance to have a cuddle .

My birthday was on next Sunday so I hoped we will be back on next Friday early enough to see my girlfriends to invite them to my birthday party.

To be continued

Next time: Brisbane,Doctors ,''SHOPPING'', and staying with Uncle Tony and Aunty Bella.