On River Road by Chris Else

Author:Chris Else [Chris Else]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775530930
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2012-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

28.

A BREEZE FROM THE hills, soft but cool against their faces. Big puffs of cloud like clumps of fungus floating in the stream of the air. Tom and Heidi, side by side, with their backs to the greenhouse, looked out over the cultivations, the rows of beds with narrow gravel paths between, the whole protected by a windbreak of macrocarpas along the northern and western edges. There was a big plastic water tank over to their left, a pale green cylinder with a domed top, a little pumphouse beside it. The pump drew water from the bore and filled the tank. In dry weather, the water was released through soak hoses along the beds, a gravity system. She had explained it to him once before, on an afternoon a year or so ago when the friends had been given a tour. Everything looked pretty much as it had then, except that the trees were taller and there were more beds. Yes, she said, there were some she hadn’t used yet. A good chance, really, for there was plenty of room and, if they were planning for the future, they could plant a windbreak for the paddock here (pointing) behind the greenhouse. That was another tenth of a hectare there. Nothing on it now but a few sheep to keep the grass down.

They turned, walked back together, side by side, went into the greenhouse, into the warm air, under the angled roof that was bright above them with refracted sunlight. Heidi unzipped her jacket, began to talk of how this was all ready, they could begin with seedlings anytime. Certainly, there was room here too. It was good to look at it, to sense the reality of the space, the grey-brown wooden benches, the concrete floor, to breathe the warm air rich with earth smells. She had a few exotic things, some begonias, a couple of orchids, but mostly this was a functional place. Some winter tomatoes and lettuce, and a mass of trays and pots filled with dark brown, dirt-brown mix. And empty bench space, plenty of it.

Heidi explaining everything, which didn’t need to be explained, slowly drew him down the length of the building. Finger pointing. She had nail polish on, and he wondered if he was noticing because it was unusual or for some other reason. She was wearing lipstick, too, maybe just a touch, a scarlet touch, which was why, perhaps, his eyes kept on being drawn to her mouth as she formed her words. The white of her teeth, the tip of her tongue, the little push of her lips as she made the oo and the ow sounds. Who and how and where and what and when. She was talking in her usual way, carefully, efficiently, saying what she meant, no more and no less, but he felt there was something odd about her manner. I’d better learn to read her, he thought, if we are going to be partners.

‘So,’ he said into one of

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