The River Baptists by Belinda Castles

Author:Belinda Castles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000, book
ISBN: 9781741761993
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2007-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

The blue of the sky was deepening as Rose stepped from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, hair wet. She’d almost finished a chapter, but despite her shower she was groggy from the warm afternoon spent staring at the computer, the strange, hot barrenness of a Christmas alone, her first not in her father’s house with the three of them quietly pretending to be happy. They’d followed the ritual for so long, she thought now, that they actually had been happy in the end, to be back, to be doing this thing every year that never changed no matter what else did. The girlfriends never came. No one ever talked about it. It was just a rule that didn’t need to be spoken.

She sat down to work at the dining table. Her study was now the baby’s room. She had it all ready. If she kept working she could just ignore Christmas until it was over. Maybe she could churn out a chapter or two tonight and take the next few days off, get some rest, buy some things for the baby in the sales. After staring at the screen for ten minutes while her blood rushed in her ears, she tried to focus on the story, such as it was. She was fed basic plot-lines, which she liked; it freed her from the burden of trying to make things credible. Still, a reality survival show that turned into an on-camera orgy? Please. She decided she’d leave it for now, see if she could get some old Survivor series on tape. That’s it, she thought. Can’t work. Must research first.

She closed down the file and looked out at the river. It was quiet out there now and black, moonless. She kept the blinds up and the lights off, the only light the glow from the laptop, so she could see out but not be seen. Good house for that, set well back from the jetty, behind the wide low branches of the jacaranda. She heard the low insect noise of a tinny. Emerging from the lights of the island was a single beam growing steadily clearer and larger. It seemed after a moment as though it was headed right for her jetty. James, she couldn’t help thinking. Then the light turned south towards the other end of the strip. She shook her head. She couldn’t even imagine his face; he was just a body to want, to keep her warm, to carry her baby when it grew bigger. He wasn’t hers, never had been. She didn’t even like him. She wondered if Billie really did.

She took the coffee pot and her mug out to the kitchen to do the dishes. Through the tiny window above the sink she could see nothing at first. Then as she plunged coffee mugs and the small plates she used for her endless snacks of toast, fruit, nuts, in the hot soapy water she could make out the scrub on the bank moving in a slight breeze.

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