Right As Rain (11 page)

“I thought Mackenna and Patrick were home?” Caroline said.

“And didn't you employ a working man?” Marion added.

“Even with all of them, we have days when there's not enough people for the jobs to be done,” Louise said. “I'm sure the sheep could have been shifted later when one of the others returned but you know men, they want everything done yesterday. It's a sign Lyle's feeling better, though. A week ago he would have left them to it.”

“Alfred was like that after his gall bladder op.” Marion tapped her neatly manicured nails on the table. “Nothing to show for it on the outside and after a week I had the devil of a job to keep him resting.”

Louise and Caroline smiled at each other. Alfred was a chemist and these days only worked a couple of days a week. The most physical work he did was swinging a golf club or tending his rose garden.

“You've been so brave, Lou.” Marion patted her hand. “I am sure I'd go to pieces if I'd found Alfred having a heart attack. How did you know what to do?”

“Somehow my first aid kicked in and the ambulance crew were fantastic.”

“It took them a while to reach you, though,” Marion said. “It must have been terrible on your own.”

Flashbacks of that evening flitted through Louise's mind. It didn't seem real now that Lyle was on the mend. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I was terrified.”

Her sisters took a hand each and gripped firmly. Tears threatened and she had to pull away to rummage for a hanky.

“Sorry,” she said. “I try not to think about it too much.”

“Don't be sorry.” Marion gave her back a gentle pat. “It's been a tough time. We've all been so worried about you both.”

Louise took a sip of her tea. “Let's talk about something else,” she said.

“I have some exciting news,” Caroline said. “Jade is having another baby.”

“That's wonderful,” Louise said. “When is she due?”

“Not till October.”

“You'll be catching me in the grandmother stakes,” Marion said. “It'll be lovely to have another baby in the family. We've had a bit of a gap.”

Marion gave Louise a quick smile then picked up her phone to show the latest pictures of her grandchildren. The smile wasn't pitying, but that was the message it conveyed. Poor little sister Louise was missing out on grandchildren. Marion had two sons and then a daughter who was Mackenna's age. The three of them had two children each. Caroline had Jade, who was now expecting baby number three and a son younger than Mackenna, who had two children.

Louise looked at the sweet little faces smiling from the screens as her sisters flicked through their photos and felt a pang of envy. Neither of her children had partners. She was unlikely to be a grandmother anytime in the foreseeable future, and how she longed to be part of this wonderful club her siblings so obviously enjoyed.

“You're lucky your grandchildren are so close,” Marion said as she put her phone down. “Mine are all in Victoria and I don't see them as often as I'd like.”

“I'm glad my children and their partners are all part of our wine business, but it does have its drawbacks.” Caroline grimaced. “I get asked to babysit a lot.”

“How terrible for you.” Marion winked at Louise and patted Caroline's arm.

“Oh, you two.” Caroline batted at Marion's hand. “I don't mean it like that. I love to have them but I have a life too, you know. You drop everything to run to your kids, Marion.”

“Not everything. I don't miss my golf or tennis but I do go whenever I can. I love being with them. They grow and change so quickly. There's nothing like being called Granny. It's the sweetest sound in the world.”

“I have to agree with you there.” Caroline laughed. “You'll never guess what the youngest said the other day. She's been hanging around the work sheds too much.”

Louise listened as Caroline and Marion one-upped each other with the funniest or cutest grandchild story.

“Let's order,” she suggested once she could get a word in. It had been a long time since breakfast. They perused the menu, placed their orders and Caroline started on the grandchildren again. Louise was keen to tell them about her coup in getting a travelling art exhibition for the town. It would be a great event with a lavish supper and fine wine to raise money for the district hospital. She'd always been involved in the fight to keep it, but it was more important to her than ever since Lyle's heart attack. He may not have made the
journey to Adelaide if he hadn't received local treatment first. She shuddered at the thought.

“Are you okay?”

Both her sisters had stopped talking and were staring at her.

“You do look at bit peaky,” Marion said.

“I'm fine,” Louise said. “Just hungry. I could eat a horse and chase the rider.”

“Did Mackenna enjoy her time away?” Caroline asked.

“Yes, she did. Got up to all sorts in New Zealand. It's full of great scenery and lots of activities.”

“New Zealand's got everything from beaches to glaciers,” Caroline said. “Jim and I enjoyed the scenery very much. We spent a lot of our time checking out their wine, of course. It was another working holiday for us.”

“It was the first overseas trip we did when the children were all teenagers.” Marion chuckled. “We had to come home for a holiday.”

“Not quite the same as slumming it on a Greek island,” Caroline said.

“Oh, wasn't that the best holiday.” Marion clasped her hands together. “Our little apartment looked out over the bay and the water was the most divine blue.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “I loved it because it was the only overseas trip we've had that wasn't to do with business.”

She and Marion continued to reminisce about their shared holiday. Two years ago, after they'd both been travelling in different parts of Europe with their husbands, the four of them met in Greece and stayed on a small island for two weeks. Louise had heard about it over and over, and looked at all the photos. It certainly sounded wonderful but she wasn't a beach person. If she went to Europe she'd spend her time in the museums and churches. Not that she thought about it much, only when her sisters prattled on, like they were now.

“Where else did Mackenna go?”

Caroline's question pulled Louise back into the conversation.

“New York.”

“What did she think?”

Louise paused. What did Mackenna think? She kept raving on about the sheep stud she'd visited in New Zealand. They'd hardly talked about the rest of her travels. The fridge was adorned with postcards of glowing reports. “She loved it.” Louise tried to recall Mackenna's travel itinerary, which was also still clipped to the fridge. “She went to Los Angeles and Hawaii as well.”

“That's great,” Marion said. “It's all very well to go to New Zealand but it's really only another state of Australia. Hardly even need your passport. It's good she decided to go further afield. See something different.”

Louise had been planning to tell them about Lyle's suggestion of a trip to New Zealand but she bit her tongue. Marion wouldn't have meant to be pompous but the comments hurt all the same.

“I remember Mackenna always talked about going to New York when she left school,” Caroline said.

The food arrived and Louise was glad to have something to distract them all. She'd been looking forward to this lunch with her sisters but the conversations had left her feeling on the outer and, to her discontent, a little guilty. She'd been so fixated on Lyle and Patrick she'd barely spoken with Mackenna about her holiday. And yet she had been excited for her daughter before she left.

Since Lyle's heart attack life had changed and Louise looked at things differently. But in her determination to find a better future for Mackenna she'd put a distance between them. If nothing else, this lunch had made her realise she needed to spend talking time with her daughter. Louise tucked into her chicken salad. It was delicious and the conversation turned to food. That was something she was comfortable contributing to.

“Yes, yes, I understand.” Mackenna paced the verandah with her mobile pressed to her ear. The guy on the other end was hard to hear and she wasn't happy with what he was telling her. She looked up as Patrick's car rumbled to a stop near the gate. It was making a terrible racket.

“Perhaps another time.” The voice in her ear was fading.

“You have my mobile number now,” she said but the line had either dropped out or disconnected.

“Damn!” She stuffed her mobile into her pocket.

Patrick was coming towards her along the path. “What's the matter?”

“I just wish we had better mobile service out here. No-one noticed the message on the answering machine.”

“Was it important?”

Mackenna resisted the urge to snap at him. It wasn't Patrick's fault. He'd been in Adelaide for three days. “We missed some potential customers,” she said. “It was a possible opportunity to get a go at a Melbourne restaurant.”

“I know they're not reliable but I don't know why people don't try the mobile numbers, at least they could leave voicemail.”

“I guess they would if they had them. Mum changed the message on the answering machine before she went to Adelaide last. It doesn't give mobile alternatives.”

Patrick frowned. “That's not good business practice.”

“I'm aware of that.” She shook her head. “And our website wasn't any help to them either.”

“What website?”

“I got a high school student to make us one a couple of years back but I rarely update it. Anyway, what have you been up to?” She smiled at him. “How did you score a three-day weekend? We missed you yesterday.”

“I rang Mum and told her I was staying an extra day. A few things came up that I had to attend to.” Patrick swung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped ahead of her into the house.

Mackenna followed. Was he being evasive or prickly?

“Did you run out of errand boys?” he called over his shoulder.

There was a scornful ring to his voice. Mackenna watched as he disappeared up the passage. She sighed – definitely prickly. What was up with him these days? Maybe Lyle had spoken to him about the dead sheep after drenching. She'd had to tell their father about it and had left it with him to speak with Patrick.

In the kitchen she switched on the computer. While she waited for it to come to life she thought about her little brother. It had to be something more than the drenching business. He'd been touchy before that, ever since she'd returned from her holiday. She was sure it was because he resented being here. He had a life and work in Adelaide. There really was no need for him to stay on even though he'd been a big help. They had actually missed him yesterday but they would have to manage without him eventually.

Mackenna felt a little guilty about being gone most of the day herself. She'd left home early to deliver sheep to the abattoir then instead of coming straight home, she'd gone to see a carpenter about getting a kitchen put in the old house. It had been a fruitful visit. He knew of a second-hand kitchen that had just been removed from a place in Mount Gambier. It was available at a good price if they collected it themselves. She'd only need to buy a new oven, cooktop and microwave. On a roll, she'd put in an order. She had some money leftover from her holiday and hoped her father would be happy for the farm to pay the difference. He had given her the go-ahead. Second-hand cupboards and a near new dishwasher from Mount Gambier meant they could install at a fraction of the cost of new, but commercial cooking equipment was expensive.

She opened up the web page for Woolly Swamp Farm. That would be another thing she'd need, a till and some kind of computer.

“Is that it?”

Mackenna jumped at the sound of Patrick's voice behind her.

“That's it,” she said. “I know nothing about making web pages and young Sam Martin did it as part of his school research project.”

Patrick leaned in over her shoulder and they both studied the screen. The page was nearly all white with black writing reminiscent of an old typewriter. The only colour came from the bold name
Woolly Swamp Corriedales
across the top and an old photo of their father standing beside their first prize-winning ram.

“Certainly doesn't fill me with confidence as a potential customer,” Patrick said.

“I looked into getting a professional site done but Mum and Dad baulked at the cost.”

“Move over.” Patrick gave her a nudge, his eyes glued to the screen.

Mackenna vacated the seat and he slid into it. Her mobile rang and she moved away from him to answer it.

The woman selling the kitchen was happy with her offer but she wanted Mackenna to collect it as soon as possible. They agreed on a time the next day. Mackenna hoped she'd get a chance to run it all past her dad before her mum came home. Louise was attending committee meetings in two different towns, so she should be gone most of the day. Lyle had gone with Cam in the truck to pick up the new irrigator. They'd hoped to put it off until next summer but the dry was dragging on. Everyone in the district was casting their eyes to the sky, waiting on the first good autumn rains.

Before Mackenna had gone overseas, they'd purchased two more paddocks from their neighbours. They still owed some on the small place they'd bought across the road, but she and her father had both agreed it was the right thing to do. Opportunities to expand didn't come along often and to be able to extend their boundaries rather than buy a totally separate property was too good an opportunity to miss.

Mackenna flicked her eyes from Patrick to the family portrait on the wall above his head. It had been taken the year he left to go to uni. They all looked younger but it shocked her to realise how much her father had aged since the photo was taken. He was fifty-seven, not young but not old either. Mackenna had thought of them as a team, but maybe he was doing it all for her. There would come a time when he would want to retire, or so she assumed. The distant future had never been discussed. Perhaps she was pushing him too hard.