Muster In the Dust by Mel A Rowe

Author:Mel A Rowe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Rural Romance, Australian Rural Romance, Adventure holiday romance, outback fiction, rodeo romance
Publisher: Mel A Rowe
Published: 2021-09-22T14:30:00+00:00

20

‘H

ere, poppet, I want you to have this,’ said Flo, pulling out a black-and-white photo from the album spread on her formal dining table where they’d had dinner.

‘Nah, Flo, it’s yours,’ said Rigsy. He sat opposite Mandy, who was flicking through another album. ‘Keep it.’ He pushed the old duck’s hand away, but she was insistent.

‘No. It’s Sandlot. As her new owner you should have a photo of the property, hmm.’

‘It’s not mine yet.’ But he had his fingers and toes crossed.

‘Take it. I remember taking that photo. It was the new Kodak camera my father brought when he returned home from the war. It was so terribly heavy.’ She placed the black-and-white print on the dining room table. Its image shifted with the soft glow of candles. ‘My father loved to take photos. So, you take it. And don’t put it on eBay either.’

‘I’ll treasure this one, Flo.’ It was an image of three men on horseback in vintage Akubras, watching over a group of Brahman drinking from a trough. ‘Your father …’

‘Grandfather, and our Aboriginal tracker. We can’t say his name now he’s gone, it’s the culture. Oh, he was such a wonderful man. All of them were,’ said Flo, her painted nail pointing at each person on the image.

‘This is great.’

‘I’m not done yet, poppet. I’ve got boxes of homemade movies. My father loved his video camera too.’

‘I’m in, but not tonight. Mandy’s got a big one tomorrow. I’ll bring over the popcorn soon and we’ll make a night of it.’ He liked the way the candlelight gave a soft halo to Mandy’s hair, as well as highlighting the honey in her eyes. She was beautiful. ‘What do you say, Mandy? We’ll make a date of it.’

‘Um …’ She shrugged. ‘I’ll be at Avallon, probably.’ Each word was loaded with sadness, when she’d been so at ease, almost playful, since he’d met her after work.

To Rigsy, it sounded like Mandy didn’t want to go back to Avallon.

Mandy flicked over the thick page and from the centre fold of the photo album she lifted a thick gold chain. ‘Hey, what’s this?’

‘Oh, my …’ Flo collapsed back into her chair, clutching her throat.

‘What’s wrong, Flo?’ Rigsy asked.

‘That’s my …’ Flo’s hand trembled as she reached out to touch the chain. ‘My grandfather’s fob chain.’ With her rheumatic fingers, Flo stroked the thick chunky chain. A ring clasp sat at one end with a T-bar on the other.

‘I’d forgotten I had this.’ With her palm open to the ceiling, she wound the chain around in her hand. With the clasp end she let it trickle down from the space between her third and fourth finger until the fob T-bar caught in her palm.

‘Is that the one you used for divining?’ Mandy asked.

‘It is indeed.’ Flo ravelled it up and dumped it in Mandy’s hands, as if throwing out the rubbish. ‘It’s in terrible need of a good polish.’

‘It’s okay, Flo.’ Rigsy grabbed the woman’s frail hand.

Flo pasted on a smile. ‘So, have we had enough to eat.

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