Previously:

I flew Mum, Jenny, Chrissy and Ricky down to Brisbane where we were all moving into Jenny's new house, close to the Mater and the Uni.

The house had a separate flat, and Debbie, our friend and regular taxi driver showed immediate interest in it, so it was arranged that she and Jan should move in, and we all helped them with that.

It was the end of 1966, an eventful year and after enjoying the New Year's Eve celebrations, Ricky flew Mum and I back to Quilpie as a final practise before taking his solo flying test, which he passed a few days later.

Ricky stayed with us and for the first time we made wonderful love together, after which Jean sang us to sleep.

Jenny rang from Brisbane to tell us that the phone had been connected, and tell us what was going on with the house and Debbie and Jan, Ricky and I were staying in Quilpie till Sunday and then flying to Brisbane so we could set up our bedroom with a bed and other furniture for the house. If we are going to live there for the next four years we wanted it to be comfortable. We still had lots of things to sort out for when we started Uni with forms to fill out and phone calls to make and I still wanted to do one more day helping out at Ross Bailey's veterinary surgery. It was late and we were tired and said good night to mum and dad and we retired to our bedroom, we were tired but not that tired so we started to get comfortable on the bed without any clothes on.

There seemed to be a threesome once again, but we had to get used to it because Jean is part of me and Ricky thinks he is the luckiest man alive so we all three made sweet gentle love. It seemed that Jean transported us to heaven and back.

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Sunday 8/1/67
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We packed as many clothes as we could take with us. Because there were only the two of us going to be in 'Angel' it left us a great deal of scope to fill her up with a lot of our gear. It was just as well that Debbie had a mini bus because it would be hard to fit all of it into an ordinary taxi! Jenny and Christine had packed all their stuff into boxes and put it on road transport the previous week. We loaded all our things into Mum's station wagon and asked her to take us to the aerodrome and give us a hand to pack all the things into 'Angel'.

So Mum and Dad came with us, Mum to help with the loading and Dad to top up 'Angel's' fuel supply. I wanted to do the trip in one go and not put down anywhere in between if it was possible. Once 'Angel' was all ready we decided to go home and have morning tea. Uncle Tony, Aunty Bella, Rita, and Peter, and Christine's parents were all there to have morning tea and then take us back to 'Angel' and bid us goodbye for at least a month.

When it was time to go there were tears all round. Ricky's parents turned up to say goodbye as well. It was all a bit stressful and we were glad when Ricky and I got into Mum's car to be driven to where 'Angel' awaited us, Dad coming along as well. We arrived at the aerodrome and pulled up next to 'Angel'. This was hard - both me and Rick were doing the pre-flight checks with tears running down our face. Mum and Dad were watching us also with tears in their eyes.

We walked back to where they were standing and had a group hug.

Mum said, “Be good you two!”

I was choked up but managed a “Yes Mother.”

Dad said, “Carla, when you get to Archerfield you will see a new hanger with a name Croft on the sliding doors, that belongs to us. Rodney has an office there as well, and 'Angel' is to be housed in that hanger."

I knew it was being built but didn’t know it was ready to be used. We said another goodbye and boarded 'Angel' to be up and away in the clear blue Queensland sky.

We flew over Toowoomba at three thousand feet and as we passed over the range we were at five thousand because Toowoomba is two thousand feet above sea level. All of a sudden the ground drops away. It was two in the afternoon when we landed at Archerfield. I taxied up to the hanger that had Croft Air Charter painted on the side wall, and I turned 'Angel' around so she could be pushed back into the hanger. We got out and Ricky pushed the big sliding doors apart. A couple of guys came over and introduced themselves and gave us a hand to push 'Angel' into the hanger, The guys were Greg and Toby and owned the hanger next to ours. They weren’t much older than us so I guessed it was their parents' hanger and saw a twin Cessna was housed inside.

It looked like we were going to become good friends because they were both at Uni studying to become lawyers, and they were also keen on flying, so I guess we all had something in common. An office had been set up in the hanger so there was a phone sitting on the desk. I dialled the number of the house and Christine answered, “Hello this is Christine Jackson,”

I said, “Hi Miss Jackson, this is Miss Carla Croft. May I order a mini bus to the airport please?”

I heard her sing out to Debbie, “Hey Debbie, they're at the airport.”

“Ok tell them I’m on my way.”

“You heard madame?”

“Yeah how are ya?”

“We’re all fine, waiting for you to turn up so we can start the barbecue. How hungry are you?”

“By the time we get to the house, very hungry!”

“Ok, I’ll tell Jennifer and Jan to pull the steaks out of the new fridge we got yesterday.” and she hung up.

Ricky said, “What was that all about?”

“Just organising some food for you Darling.”

“Oh ok, I could do with some food. We haven't eaten since we left Quilpie this morning.”

“Aaaww you poor Darling!! Mummy will look after you when we get home.”

“You keep that up and I will have to see to you tonight!”

“Promise?!!”

“Cheeky!”

Debbie turned up so the banter had to stop - till we got home anyway.

Debbie said, “Hello kids, have a good flight did we?”

“Yes Debbie, just wait till you see how much stuff we have to transfer to your bus.”

“Ok lets do it then and get you two home and settled in shall we?”

We loaded the bus, locked the hanger and were on our way to our new home. When we arrived Chrissie and Jenny were waiting for us at the front gate of the house and there were hugs and kisses all round.

Debbie said, “Ok you lot, you can kiss and cuddle later. Lets get this stuff out of my van and into the house.”

I said “Yes ma'am” and started to carry some of the bags of clothes up the stairs along the verandah, and into Ricky's and my bedroom. There were two openings to the room - one door leading to the inner hallway and the other was a set of French doors opening out to the wide verandah. It was a beautiful old classic Queenslander house with ten foot high ceilings, probably eighty years old.

By the time we had all our things put away, as much as we could without wardrobes, it was getting late and no-one felt like cooking anything for tea so Debbie said, “Right, you lot give me ten quid between the lot of you and I’ll get us a couple of large pizzas and some bottles of Coke to drink.”

I said to the others “Put your money away.” and handed Debbie a twenty pound note and said, “I have to get rid of these because next month when we change over to decimal dollars and cents I don’t want any of these left.”

Debbie replied, “Ok but I won't need twenty quid and besides you'll be able to take all your old money to the bank and have it changed to dollars.”

I replied, “Debbie, you have to put petrol in your bus so use it for that.”

Debbie said, “Carla you're a good kid, thanks.”

I replied, “Debbie you can't keep doing things for us for nothing. Me and Jenny are well off and Ricky and Christine have also got money put away ok?!!”

Ricky looked at me with that cheeky grin of his and said, “Yeah Debbie, when we get married Carla is going to give me half of her millions.”

I replied, “And he is going to look after all our kids, aren’t you dear?”

Jenny, Chrissie, and Jan who just turned up all were having a laugh at Ricky's expense. Poor Ricky is going to have to put up with a house full of women as well as one in the spirit world.

Jean was laughing as much as the others, and said to me, “Ricky is beautiful Carla, we have to look after him.”

I replied in full voice, “Yes we will won't we Jean?”

Ricky had a silly look on his face, blew me a kiss and said, “Jean I know you can hear me. I love you too girl, can I see you if I close my eyes?”

I said, “Go ahead darling close them, but sit down first.” He sat on a folding chair and closed his eyes and said, “Wow Jean you look really pretty in that gown. You seem to be standing right beside Carla, but I have my eyes closed so how can I see Carla as well?”

Jean said, “That's because Carla has also got her eyes closed and I am projecting her image back to you. It's just something we angels can do.”

The communication went on a little while longer and Jean said, “Ok my sweethearts I am running out of strength so I will have to fade, but you will still be able to talk to me any time you want to, just call my name and I will answer you. I am right beside you all the time Carla.” The conversation finished and Jenny and Chrissie heard the verbal exchange but did not see Jean. Jan just stood there with her mouth open and said, “Debbie told me about you and your twin, Carla but if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it.”

Debbie walked back into the room to say she was going for the pizza and said “Jan what was that I told you?”

Jan said, “Oh just the bit about Carla's twin talking to her.”

“Oh is that all? You'll get used to that after a couple of days. Half the time she does it without thinking about it, and people that don’t know Carla just think she talks to herself a lot.”

Jan said, “I think I'm going to enjoy living with this lot. It'll certainly be different won't it?” We all just looked at her and nodded.

While Debbie was away getting our food and soft drinks, (we are all tea-total people, yes I know boring but at least we keep our brain cells intact) we started making a list of the things we are going to have to buy to make it into a home. This wouldn't be cheap because I wanted a king-size bed like the one in my room in Quilpie. Jenny and Christine had already got all their stuff sorted so they were quick to give us advice on where to buy our things. We didn't have to start Uni proper for a couple of weeks so we had plenty of time to set things up.

Debbie came back with the food and we sat out on the verandah in fold-up camp chairs to have our pizza. It wouldn't be long before we would have a barbecue and table and chairs to sit on the wide verandah. Most barbecues were wood fired in the backyard but there were new types now that were on wheels and had a gas bottle and burner under the plate - very clean and modern. Anyway we hit the sack early because the next day was Monday and all the others had to go to work, We said good night and retired to our rooms.

It was a hot night so me and Ricky decided to sleep in our birthday suits, but the problem with that is we are still excited to be naked together and of course Ricky rose to the occasion and---well surely you don’t want me to tell you what happens when a girl and boy are naked together on a couple of air mattresses do you?!!!!!

Monday 9/1/67
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Jenny and Chrissie were starting their nurses training officially that day so Debbie was taking them in her bus as well as Jan, because Jan was working as a domestic at the Mater. So there were three people in the household that would go to work at the Mater. Ricky and I were going to catch a bus into town to go shopping for our bed, mattress and bed linen so we decided to buy a whole bedroom suite and be done with it and have it delivered and set up by the store we bought it from. We went to McWirther's department store and they had everything under the same roof that we needed, so that is where we bought ninety percent of our gear and had it delivered in the afternoon.

Both Ricky and I had to front up to the Uni and sign some papers and also get a list of books and bits and pieces we needed when we started to attend our first lecture on Monday the sixteenth of January. So we went by bus to home and decide to try out the river ferry. We had a bit of left-overs from the previous night's pizzas which weren’t all that nice but it would see us through till we could do some food shopping after we got home from the Uni and the guys from the furniture department delivered our things. It was a short walk to the pontoon where the old ferry pulled up and went across to the other side of the Brisbane River on the Uni side, From there we caught a bus to the Uni campus. We could have walked it but it was a bit far if you were in a hurry so I guess we would either have to rise early in the mornings or always catch a bus for the last bit.

The University of Queensland is a bloody big place and we had to ask directions several times before we got to all the people we needed to see to register for our courses. At one stage Ricky and I lost each other and had to ask a senior lecturer to get us hooked up again. By the time we were finished it was time we got home to be there when the truck arrived with our items.

We got home just as the truck pulled up. We quickly unlocked the house and opened up the door on the verandah so the guys could carry everything into the room. Half an hour later everything was set up and the guys left in their delivery truck. Debbie rang to see if we were home and to ask us if we wanted to go to the grocery shops before they closed because she was close by. We said 'yes' and she came and picked us up to take us shopping. As we had also bought a fridge for our room we could fill it up with all sorts of goodies.

We were home packing all our things away when the two trainee nurses came home and saw the fridge in our bedroom.

Chrissie said, “Holy shit Carla, I didn't think you would buy a fridge as well?”

Ricky said, “Hello to you too Chrissie!”

“Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, but is there any need to have an extra fridge?”

I said “No, but it was on a special and Mum did say to get anything that I thought we needed and put it on her account.”

Jenny put her two cents worth in and said, “Well we can use this one for goodies and the one in the kitchen for proper food.”

We hadn’t bought the barbecue yet but would in the next couple of days. Jan called out to us and said, “I am cooking dinner tonight so if you want to have a shower and get cleaned up first it will be ready in about half an hour.”

There were three bathrooms, one in the granny flat, the original one, and one that Mum had organised a builder to install when she realised four of us were going to be in a fix in the mornings if we didn't have the extra one. Jenny and Chrissie had separate rooms but used the same bathroom mostly at the same time. 'No they are not lesbians so stop making funny faces!!!'

Ricky and I would definitely be using ours together. We really liked to soap each other up well, and sort of take our time doing it — umm -- you know to make sure we-- umm -- we don’t miss anywhere!!! Anyway that's my story and I’m sticking to it. We had our showers and made our way down to the the flat to have dinner with Debbie and Jan. It was lamb chops with mashed potatoes and fresh peas and gravy, with ice cream and tinned peaches for desert. It certainly filled us up. Both me and Ricky liked cooking so we'd be able to return the favour, and so would Jenny and Chrissie because they are both as good at cooking as us, so we would be able to be fed really well and not have to resort to too many take-away meals.

It was time to try out our new bed, and no, I will not tell you how it went!!! Use your fertile minds and imagine two almost seventeen year-olds in love on a king size bed and see what you can come up with!!!

Jenny's house

To be continued

Next time: starting uni and meeting up with Greg and Troy the law students.

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