Outback Sisters

by Rachael Johns

  ‘Will it decrease the value of my land?’ Again, the crowd muttered their approval.

  ‘Actually, we believe the opposite to be the case. A senate inquiry found that the value of properties that are host to wind turbines should increase, as long as the contract states that the rights to rentals for the turbines transfer with any property sale.’

  As Charlie looked to the crowd for another question, Angus sighed. Before he made a decision he’d like to hear the other side of the argument as well, but from sensible people with factual evidence rather than the group of dissenters outside.

  ‘What about noise pollution?’ asked someone else. ‘Do houses have to be a specific distance away from the turbines?’

  Charlie shook his head. ‘Generally we assess the location of all houses on a potential turbine site before going ahead with a development. Although there are no legal restrictions on how close a house can be to a turbine, mostly we prefer to be away from residential dwellings due to the noise emissions.’

  ‘So you’re admitting noise is a problem?’ shouted the tall woman.

  ‘That’s not what I said,’ Charlie said, looking past her and pointing to the audience. ‘Last question, I think. You at the back there?’

  ‘What about spraying? Will I still be able to spray any crop grown under the turbines?’

  ‘All that information is our booklet.’ Charlie held up a thick brochure—the one Logan had been trying to make Angus read for months. ‘Now I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to finish question time,’ Charlie said, not sounding apologetic at all. ‘Sandra and I will be available to speak with individuals who are interested in considering Future Power’s proposal. While I don’t want you to rush into an agreement, I will be honest and say that we have had a lot of interest from landowners in this region, so don’t dither for too long. Thank you for your time.’

  Logan turned to Angus. ‘Well, shall we go talk to them?’

  Angus frowned, not yet convinced that this was the right move. ‘I’d rather sleep on it. Do a little further research of my own.’

  ‘I’ve done loads of research,’ Logan said, his tone frustrated. ‘You heard the bloke, we don’t want to miss out.’

  Angus wasn’t so sure. ‘Look, if our property is suitable, then taking an extra twenty-four hours to think things through is not going to stop them. You heard them, they have to assess potential sites and I’ll bet they’ll be looking at quite a few properties before they make a decision.’

  ‘But what about …?’ Logan paused. ‘Ah, fuck it. Whatever.’ He shook his head, stood and stormed out of the hall.

  * * *

  Logan waited by Angus’s ute, cursing his damn terrible night vision, which meant he’d driven all the way home earlier today so he could come to the meeting with his brother rather than come here straight from Carnarvon. Dammit, he should have known Angus’s change of heart was too good to be true.

  ‘I didn’t say no,’ Angus growled as he approached the ute and beeped it open. ‘I just said I want to think about it a bit more.’

  Logan climbed inside, shoved his seatbelt into its lock and then folded his arms in exactly the manner Angus had the whole way through the meeting. Before Charlie Myers had even opened his mouth Angus had been scowling, not at all open to this exciting opportunity. Logan was too pissed off to reply. He’d been trying to get Angus to think about this for months.

  Angus started the ute and drove them out of the car park. Neither of them said a word until they reached the turn-off onto the Geraldton-Walkaway Road and Angus finally broke the angry silence.

  ‘How much research have you done into this Future Power company? That guy seemed like a tool.’

  ‘Of course I’ve done my research,’ Logan scoffed, tired of not being taken seriously. ‘Being a journalist is mostly research and I’m good at it. They’re a financially sound business with a good track record. This wouldn’t be their first project; we wouldn’t be guinea pigs. Don’t just rule it out because you don’t like the face of the company.’

  ‘That’s got nothing to do with it,’ Angus sighed. ‘I don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting sick. I’ve got enough lives on my conscience already.’

  Fuck. Logan’s fists clenched tightly. He understood the guilt Angus carried around but this reasoning was ridiculous. ‘All that stuff about adverse health effects is hearsay. There’s been nothing proven that living close to wind farms has any kind of ill effect on humans or livestock.’

  Angus shrugged. ‘Maybe so but that doesn’t mean people don’t listen to the hype. I don’t need the grief from our neighbours.’

  Logan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Do you really give a damn about how Loretta and Brad feel about this? Are their opinions more important than mine? Hell, for all we know, they’re considering this too. We could miss out, have the turbines on the property next door and not reap any of the benefits.’

  ‘I meant everyone in our area, not specifically Loretta and Brad. You know I don’t give a toss about those two.’

  Logan closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers against his forehead where a headache was taking hold. He thought about Frankie’s belief that telling Angus about his eye condition might help convince him they needed to give leasing a shot. He didn’t want to manipulate anyone, but Angus didn’t have all the facts. If he was still against the idea once he knew why Logan was so keen on it, then at least they could consider alternatives.

  He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. ‘I know you think I want to do this to get away from the farm, to further my journalism career, but that’s not true.’

  ‘So you keep saying.’

  Logan’s jaw tightened. ‘You don’t know everything, okay? It’s got nothing to do with my career. The reason I want to pursue this,’ he said firmly and slowly, as if he were speaking to a naughty toddler, ‘is because I’m going blind.’

  Angus turned to look at him and the wheel turned with him. The ute swerved but Logan’s hand shot out to bring them back to the middle of their lane.

  ‘What the hell?’ Angus said, slowing right down. ‘What do you mean you’re going blind?’

  ‘Why do you think I drove all the way home today, so you could drive us tonight? Wouldn’t it have made sense for us to meet in Carnarvon and me drive home after that?’

  ‘I just thought you wanted to make sure I attended the meeting,’ Angus said, his voice catching a little.

  ‘Well, that too,’ Logan admitted. ‘But the main reason is my night vision is all but gone.’ He swallowed. In some ways admitting this to Angus was even harder than admitting it to Frankie. ‘I can’t safely drive at night anymore and this is only the beginning.’

  ‘Hang on. Can you go back a little? What’s causing this blindness?’

  And in the dark, as they travelled the lonely road home, he told his brother all about retinosis pigmentosa—the symptoms, the prognosis and the fact it runs in families.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ Angus said when he’d finished. ‘How long have you known?’

  Logan considered lying but decided against it. What would be the point? ‘I’ve been noticing my night vision getting worse for a while now—particularly when driving—but it was only diagnosed a couple of months ago.’

  ‘What?’ Angus exclaimed. ‘And you’ve kept it to yourself till now? Does Liv know?’

  ‘No. I didn’t want to burden either of you. I’ve probably got a few more years where life won’t really be hindered by this thing anyway.’ He also didn’t want pity. It would just make everything so much more real.

  ‘But if it’s genetic, don’t we have a right to know?’

  Logan raised his eyebrows. ‘I didn’t think either you or Liv were in the baby market anytime soon, so I didn’t feel there was a huge rush. I needed to come to terms with this myself before I told anyone.’

  ‘Babies?’ Angus screwed his face up at the thought. ‘This isn’t about babies. Didn’t you think we might need to know because we also m
ight be affected by it?’

  He stared ahead and then blinked. Was the road blurry?

  ‘I’m telling you now, aren’t I?’ Logan said. ‘I’m sorry … but I needed time.’

  Angus heaved out a breath, pushing aside his own fears for the moment as his brother’s reality finally dawned. ‘No, I’m sorry. Fuck. I don’t know what else to say.’

  ‘You don’t have to say anything. You can sleep on it, but after that we need to start thinking about the future. There’s every chance I’ll only be able to help you on the farm for a few more years.’

  ‘Do you have a … like a date or something?’

  Logan laughed. ‘Yep. Twenty-first of November 2019.’

  ‘I guess that’s a no,’ Angus said, not laughing.

  ‘I don’t know exactly. I might not ever completely lose my sight or it might be gone in a couple of years. Either way, I don’t want to wait until it’s too late to make plans. I think the wind-farming option is a good one. Of course, once I can’t work on the farm anymore, I won’t take any income—’ Not that he took much now. He mostly lived on his writing income. ‘So you’ll be able to put that into hired help—or you could find a wife who happened to love the land just as much as you.’

  Angus snorted. ‘Yeah, like that’s likely.’

  ‘There are plenty of women farmers as hands-on as their husbands. I’ve even seen some on the Rural Matchmakers site.’

  ‘Fuck.’ Angus glared at him. ‘That’s why you signed up for the internet dating thing, wasn’t it?’

  Logan grinned. ‘Guilty as charged. I honestly did have to write an article about it, but then I thought if it worked for me, maybe you’d consider trying it as well.’

  Angus shook his head. ‘No way. You know my stance on relationships.’ He paused, then added, ‘You’re an optimistic tosspot, you know that?’

  Logan chuckled. Being a glass-half-full type had helped him when the specialist gave him the bad news. As had the bottle of Bundy he’d drunk in his hotel room afterwards.

  ‘You’re a good man, little brother, worrying so much about me. But I don’t deserve it.’

  ‘We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one,’ Logan said. And that was about as mushy as they got.

  ‘What about you?’ Angus asked. ‘What will you do?’

  ‘I’m considering applying for a radio gig. I’ve got some experience and there’s a position going at ABC Geraldton. If I get it, I’ll have been there a few years before things get really bad and if I move to Gero I won’t have to drive much. Plenty of blind people hold down normal jobs.’

  ‘Good for you,’ Angus said. ‘You’re handling this so much better than I would.’

  Logan wasn’t so sure but he didn’t want to dwell on it anymore tonight. They were nearing home and he couldn’t wait to head to bed and call Frankie. ‘You still going to Perth this weekend to see Liv?’

  ‘Yep. I’ll leave Friday lunchtime ’cos I’ve got an appointment in Geraldton in the afternoon. Do you want to come?’

  ‘Would love to,’ Logan lied, ‘but I’ve got a few articles that are pressing and I want to knuckle under this weekend and get them done.’

  ‘Okay. Do you want me to tell her … about your eyes, or would you rather do it yourself?’

  Logan thought a moment. ‘I think I should. If she has questions, I’ll be best able to answer them. But I’ll call her tomorrow, so you don’t have to keep the secret for me.’

  ‘Righto,’ Angus said as he turned down their gravel drive.

  Logan smiled. He’d been anxious for months about telling his siblings about his condition, but he actually felt lighter now that he’d begun.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  After the week she’d had with Harriet, the last thing Simone felt like doing was meeting her friends for afternoon tea for the official viewing of Adam and Stella’s wedding photos, but neither did she want to be a sourpuss. She pushed open the door to Frankie’s café and saw she was the first to arrive.

  ‘Hey, sis.’ Frankie stuck her head through the hatch from the kitchen and waved. ‘Not like you to be early.’

  Simone glanced at her watch as she plonked herself down on one of the couches in the corner. Truth was she’d been pottering around the studio for the last couple of hours, unable to concentrate on anything, so although she wasn’t particularly enthused about looking at the wedding album, she’d been happy for the excuse to stop pretending to work. She shrugged at Frankie. ‘Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf?’

  Frankie snorted and went back to whatever she was doing. Stacey appeared a few moments later.

  ‘Hi Simmo, can I get you anything?’

  Simone frowned, unsure whether she wanted a drink, something to eat, both or nothing at all. In the end, she went for the safe bet. ‘Just a skinny flat white, thanks.’

  As Stacey smiled and headed back to the counter, Simone leaned forward and picked the latest edition of the Bunyip News off the table. She flicked straight to Drew’s column, the only thing worth reading in her opinion. The last sergeant—pudgy O’Leary—had written dreary columns that read much like a church sermon, but Drew always made her laugh with his anecdotes about what was happening in town. He had a way with people, especially the young ones, and a way with words. Ruby was one lucky girl.

  The bell on the café door tingled and Simone looked up to see Ruby enter. Speak of the devil, she thought, as she smiled up at her friend and patted the couch beside her. ‘Hey there.’ She held up the paper. ‘I’ve just been reading Drew’s column. He’s a busy guy.’

  ‘I know. I barely see him.’ Despite this acknowledgement, Ruby smiled in the way lovers do when someone mentions their partner and then raised her eyebrows. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here first,’ she said as she gave Simone a quick hug.

  Simone smiled tightly. ‘Was in dire need of caffeine.’

  Ruby nodded in understanding as Stacey returned and deposited a steaming mug in front of Simone.

  ‘Hi Ruby,’ Stacey said.

  ‘Hello,’ Ruby replied. ‘Could I have a white hot chocolate please and a black coffee for Drew?’

  ‘Sure.’ Stacey retreated again.

  ‘Where is Drew?’ Simone asked.

  ‘He’s working but he’s going to pop in for a few minutes soon.’ She sighed and leaned back against the couch. ‘How are you anyway?’

  ‘Good,’ Simone lied, pasting a smile on her face. Hopefully Ruby wouldn’t see how much of an effort it was because if she asked what was wrong, Simone wasn’t sure she could answer. She just didn’t feel herself at the moment but couldn’t pinpoint whether it was the animosity with Harriet, the fact her mind kept drifting to Angus Knight and their illicit night together, or something else entirely. Maybe she needed a change. Maybe they all did. Although she could just imagine Harriet’s response if she told them they were leaving Bunyip Bay.

  But dammit, she was the mum—the one who worked her arse off to pay the bills and buy them the latest fashion items, who cleaned their clothes and, more often than not, their rooms. If she wanted to move them all to Timbuktu, then Harriet could just suck it up.

  ‘How’s things with you?’ she asked Ruby.

  ‘Oh great.’ Ruby beamed. ‘I’m crazy busy with lessons after school and on the weekends, and I’m thinking of getting another pony. I don’t like having to turn down any kids who are eager to learn.’

  ‘I’m so pleased for you,’ Simone said, which was the truth. When Ruby had first returned to Bunyip Bay last year, she’d just come out of an abusive relationship and then there’d been so much drama and bad feeling when her parents’ ag store burned down. It was more than time that life cut her a break.

  Before either of them could say anything else, the door opened again and in walked the Burtons. They were all holding hands—a grinning Heidi in the middle—so they had to turn and come in sideways. Simone and Ruby laughed at the sight.

  ‘What?’ Stella asked, as Heidi broke free and rushed to hug them.
First she wrapped her arms around Ruby as if she hadn’t seen her in weeks and then she gave Simone the same treatment before settling on the couch between them. Ruby and Adam took the couch opposite.

  ‘You three looked just like a family of elephants travelling in a line when you came in,’ Ruby said. ‘Anyway, sit down and tell us all about your honeymoon. How was it?’

  Stella smiled in a way that gave her daughter’s massive grin a run for its money and Adam looked adoringly at her as if she were the only woman in the café.

  ‘Fantastic,’ Stella breathed. ‘We were so indulgent, some days we slept till noon and then spent the next few hours on the beach or lazing by the pool before—’ she broke off abruptly, looked to Adam and then blushed, ‘—before going out to dinner.’

  Simone exchanged a knowing glance with Ruby. She reckoned they’d indulged in another activity to work up their appetites before those dinners, but she didn’t really want to dwell on the thought of her cousin having sex. ‘Sounds fabulous. I could so do with a holiday.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘Hey, everyone.’ Frankie arrived, laid a plate of red velvet cupcakes on the table and then pulled up a chair, only to be ambushed a moment later by Heidi. She laughed as the little girl climbed up into her lap. ‘Want a cupcake, gorgeous girl?

  Heidi nodded and helped herself. Within a few seconds she had icing smeared all over her face.

  ‘What’d I miss?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Not much,’ Stella said. ‘We only just arrived. Is Drew coming?’

  Ruby opened her mouth to reply as the door opened again and there stood Sergeant Noble, a tall, impressive figure in his smart uniform. He strode in like a man confident in his skin, then leaned over and kissed Ruby on the lips. Simone had to admit, there was something about a guy in uniform. Although Angus was just as sexy in his well-worn farmer’s attire.

  No! She banished that thought from her head and waved her hand against her cheeks, trying to cool her temperature. Luckily the others—all greeting Drew and asking if he’d had any interesting call outs that day—didn’t notice.

  ‘Nothing too out of the ordinary,’ Drew replied, ‘although I did have to rescue Dolce’s cat from up a tree because none of the firies were available. I’ve got scratches all up my arms.’