Six Ways to Sunday

by Karly Lane

  Later as she sat at her computer writing up notes, she glanced up as the door opened and found Ellen paused on the threshold.

  ‘Ellen,’ Rilee greeted.

  ‘Jacob said you would fill me in,’ she said without preamble.

  ‘Yes, he mentioned that this morning. Come on through, we’ll go out to my office.’

  When they were settled at the desk, Rilee had a sudden attack of nerves until she took a deep breath and reminded herself she was a professional. She linked her hands together in front of her on the desk before deciding that looked a little pompous and picking up a pen instead.

  ‘I’ve been concerned about Jacob’s frequent urination through the night, as well as a few other things, all of which are symptoms for a variety of different conditions. I urged him to go and see his doctor, which thankfully he eventually did. Over the last few months he’s been undergoing different tests and recently a biopsy. His doctor has been sending me the results, and they’ve come back indicating that Jacob has what they refer to as a moderately aggressive prostate cancer. It seems to be localised, which means it’s contained within the prostate.’

  ‘Cancer?’ Ellen repeated stiffly.

  Rilee nodded. ‘It’s been caught reasonably early and it can be managed.’

  ‘Why isn’t he undergoing treatment in a hospital?’

  ‘His doctors are in the process of figuring out what method of treatment is going to be the most suitable. In the meantime, I’ve started him on a variety of herbs and vitamins that will work to support his treatment.’

  ‘When will he start this treatment?’

  ‘Maybe you and Jacob should make an appointment together to see the doctor,’ Rilee suggested, and saw Ellen nod after a moment of consideration.

  ‘These herbs you’ve been giving him…what can they do?’

  ‘They can help manage the symptoms and give him a better quality of life.’

  ‘Is there anything I can do?’

  Rilee heard the stiffness in the woman’s voice, but also detected a hint of vulnerability. ‘He needs to cut back on work. I tried to tell him, but he won’t listen to me. He needs to get away somewhere and just relax.’

  Ellen gave a bitter laugh. ‘I’ve been telling him that for years. I don’t expect he’ll listen now.’

  ‘Maybe this time he will. Perhaps all he needs is for you to ask him.’

  ‘You haven’t been married to him all these years. You don’t know him.’

  Rilee shook her head. ‘No, I don’t, but you do. If anyone can get through to him, it will be you. He loves you very much.’

  Ellen stared at her, her expression wide-eyed and shocked. Not for the first time, Rilee wondered how these people had become so emotionally cold. Ellen got to her feet and straightened her skirt, avoiding Rilee’s gaze. ‘He won’t listen to me. He’ll do as he pleases, just as he always has.’

  ‘I hope for his sake that this time he listens. Reducing his stress levels will make a huge difference to his overall prognosis. Oh, and before I forget, here,’ Rilee stood and reached for a small brown paper bag she’d prepared this morning. ‘I was going to drop it in to you this afternoon when I got home.’

  ‘What is it?’ Ellen reached hesitantly for the bag.

  ‘That tea I mentioned to you a while back. To help you sleep. I wrote the instructions on the back.’

  ‘Oh. Well, thank you,’ she said somewhat stiltedly. For a moment Rilee thought she caught a softening of her expression, then it was gone, replaced by her usual brisk manner once more. ‘Maybe I’ll give it a try. It’s not like anything else seems to be working.’

  Rilee felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth as she watched Ellen walk to her car outside. If she could just hold on a little longer and continue to chip away at their reserve, eventually they would relent and let her in, surely. This family wasn’t for the faint of heart, but if she could help this pair, she knew she could help anyone.

  The door closed as Dan came inside and she looked up from the notes she was writing. ‘You’re home early.’ Her smile faltered as she caught the serious expression he wore.

  ‘I’ve just been talking to Mum.’

  Rilee stood from the table slowly.

  ‘When were you going to tell me about Dad?’

  ‘When, or if, he told me I could. It wasn’t my place.’

  ‘He’s my father, Ri.’

  ‘Yes. And he’s my patient. I can’t reveal personal information, no matter who it is.’

  ‘You could have warned me.’

  ‘You knew he had a problem. Why do you think I’ve been trying to help him all this time?’

  ‘You could have told me he’d been to see you. A little warning would have been nice.’

  ‘How was your mother?’

  ‘Upset. They’re heading down to the city tomorrow to see the doctor apparently.’

  ‘That’s good.’

  ‘I thought you were treating him.’

  ‘I am, in conjunction with his doctor and oncologist.’

  ‘So it’s definite? It’s cancer?’

  ‘That’s what all the tests have confirmed, yes. But there are treatments available. It’s not as aggressive as it could be. Now that he’s getting treatment, it can be managed, but he’s going to have to give up the labour side of work and avoid stress.’

  ‘I can’t see him giving up too much around here. It’s not in him to sit back and watch. You know how he is.’

  Rilee shrugged. ‘Hopefully he’ll learn.’

  Dan gave a doubtful snort at that.

  ‘On the bright side, you’ll finally have a chance to prove to him that you can handle things. Once he sees that you’re more than capable of running this place, he’ll be able to relax.’

  ‘This isn’t how I wanted to prove it to him.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, moving closer to wrap her arms around him. ‘But maybe being forced to slow down is exactly what he needs.’

  ‘I’m not so sure he’d agree with you there, Ri.’

  ‘It’ll be a big adjustment for everyone, and it’s going to take time, but maybe it’ll bring you all closer.’

  ‘Guess we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?’

  They stood in the middle of the kitchen and held each other silently for a long time. Change was never easy, and Dan was probably feeling more than a little anxious about how his parents were going to handle such a dramatic shift in their lives. All she could do was be there for him and help out where she could.

  Dan’s spirits lifted significantly over the few days with the delivery of his cattle, followed a few weeks later by his bull. Dunvegan Sir Walter was an impressive animal, although Rilee wasn’t sure whether his name was inspired by a type of grass or taken from a medieval name generator. They dubbed him Walter and even a novice like Rilee could tell he came from a very well-bred line.

  He was to be kept separate from his little harem until after they’d delivered their calves, which hopefully would be within a matter of weeks, and then he’d be turned loose to do his thing.

  It was nice to have a happy husband back, and Rilee was glad that the cattle took his mind off his father for a while.

  Thirty-five

  Early the next week, Rilee looked up as Lisa walked into the pub and waved. With everything going on at home, it was nice to get away and talk about the community centre again.

  ‘Okay, fill me in,’ Lisa said as she sat down.

  ‘Teal called this morning and he’s organising a school visit.’

  ‘What does that involve?’

  ‘They come out and talk to the high school kids about what the service offers and hand out info packs. He was very interested in the discussion we had the other day about doing a talk to the kids about sexual health and the kinds of services that are available. I thought it would be a good opportunity to promote the privacy area you’ve set up in the pharmacy.’

  Lisa had allocated a small room in the pharmacy for one-on-one consultations. N
o longer did anyone have to discuss private matters out where everyone else in the store could hear. The other notable addition was the availability of the morning-after pill. However, Rilee and Lisa both agreed there needed to be a great deal of education around what it could and couldn’t be used for.

  Lisa nodded slowly. ‘Only, I’m not so sure I’m the best option for public speaking—it’s not something I’m exactly fond of…and in front of a whole school. I don’t know, Rilee.’

  ‘The whole school that has about two hundred kids in total,’ Rilee pointed out dryly. ‘You’d only be talking to a certain age group, maybe year nine to year twelve? So that cuts down the audience size significantly.’

  ‘I guess that’s not so bad…’

  ‘You’re great with kids. You talk to them on their level and they really respond to it. Just be yourself.’ Rilee had heard Lisa speaking with kids a few times in store and had been impressed by her easy banter and approachability.

  ‘I almost changed my degree from pharmacy to psychiatry,’ she said as they read over the pub menu.

  ‘What changed your mind?’

  ‘Dad. Well, kind of. I never told him I was considering it, I just knew he’d flip his lid,’ she said with a wry twist of her lips. ‘Actually, I guess I was thinking that if I studied psychiatry I could diagnose my own screwed-up life. Turned out I just needed to get out of this town and away from judgemental eyes. Once I was in the city I realised I wasn’t as messed up as I thought. I wasn’t crazy, I was just gay. Who knew?’ she added, attempting to ease the painful memories with humour.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Rilee said, lightly touching her arm. ‘That must have been really hard.’ And so completely unnecessary, she thought angrily. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand how a parent could turn their back on their own child because of their sexuality. It was barbaric.

  Rilee was unlocking the front door when she heard her name being called. It was Shae and she was looking worried. ‘What’s wrong?’ Her immediate fears were there’d been a complication medically. So far there’d been no pregnancy, but it was still early days.

  ‘You’re going to need to see this,’ she said, moving around Rilee to cross to the desk, then sliding into the chair behind the computer. Rilee watched as her friend pulled up the clinic’s Facebook page. She was still learning about social media and so far Shae had been happy to run it for her. She saw the familiar logo at the top of the page and was momentarily distracted by how great it looked. Shae was very good at what she did, but right now as she pointed with a grim face to a section on the screen, Rilee had a very bad feeling that what she was about to find out wouldn’t be good news.

  ‘I think I’ve discovered why you’re not getting any business.’ An area marked ‘reviews’ had quite a few comments, which should have alerted her to trouble since she was pretty sure she hadn’t treated that many clients yet. There was a rating scale of stars and as she scanned through the list she discovered that all of them were one star. The comments ranged from ‘terrible customer service’ to ‘unsanitary and a waste of money’.

  ‘There has to be some kind of mistake,’ Rilee said, confused by the sheer number of comments. ‘I haven’t even had this many customers.’

  ‘Unfortunately there’s no mistake. They’ve been deliberately posted under fake accounts.’

  ‘What? Why? Who would do that?’

  ‘Someone who wants to sabotage your business would be my guess.’

  Rilee didn’t have to think too hard. ‘Priscilla?’

  ‘She’s had it in for you,’ Shae confirmed.

  ‘But…surely this is going too far, even for her?’

  ‘It’s effective.’

  Rilee slumped onto the corner of the desk and dropped her head in defeat. ‘Well, that’s it then. It’s over. I can’t keep this place open if she’s turned everyone against me.’

  ‘So you’re just going to give up and let her win?’

  ‘What can I do, Shae?’ Rilee asked, throwing an arm out towards the computer screen. ‘She’s completely destroyed my reputation.’

  ‘All you need is one person to sing your praises. Not everyone is on Facebook—Priscilla can’t get to them all. You need to fight this with your skills as a practitioner. Cure one person and you’ll have them lining up out the door,’ she said, leaning back in her chair.

  Was that all? It was a bit hard when she couldn’t even get anyone to step through the damn door in the first place. How on earth was she supposed to come back from this?

  As Rilee got out of the car she heard raised voices. She walked around the side of the house and spotted Dan, Mark and his father, as well as a few of the other stockmen, gathered near the cattle yards.

  Rilee hesitated before heading over.

  ‘I told you before—if you do this, you do it on your own time.’

  ‘It was an emergency, Dad.’

  ‘I don’t give a damn what it was. You had these men off doing stuff for you for three flamin’ hours.’

  ‘Fine, I’ll pay their three hours, happy?’

  ‘Damn right you will. We’re not running a charity here in case you hadn’t noticed.’

  She watched as Jacob stalked off back to the main house, leaving Dan and the other men behind.

  Rilee frowned as she noticed the animal in the yards. The big bull stood docilely and, if the worried looks on the men’s faces were anything to go by, this was not a good sign.

  Dan climbed over the rails into the yards, looking over Walter with a tight-lipped expression.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Rilee asked.

  ‘Bull got into the back paddock and got stuck into the mother-of-millions.’

  ‘But isn’t that stuff toxic?’

  Dan’s slanted look told her exactly how serious this situation was. ‘I don’t think he ate much or he’d be in worse shape than this. It was just lucky we found him when we did. The vet’s on his way.’

  Rilee stepped out of the way, finding a seat on the open back of the ute to wait for the vet. She didn’t know a lot, but she did know that if this bull died they’d just have lost a substantial amount of money. Even a vet bill and treatment was not an expense they needed right now either. Today was going from bad to worse.

  When the vet finally arrived, he looked as grim as Dan as they stood together and discussed treatment options.

  ‘We’ve got to do everything we can,’ Dan was saying as Rilee climbed the fence and stood beside him.

  ‘It’s not going to be cheap,’ the vet warned. ‘And I can’t guarantee it’s going to work.’

  ‘How much are we talking?’ she asked, somewhat alarmed.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, Ri. We can’t afford to lose this bull. Just do whatever needs to be done, Rob,’ Dan said, walking towards the rail and climbing back over.

  Rilee glanced at the vet, who gave her an apologetic smile, and Rilee felt the sharp sting of embarrassment at her husband’s abrupt dismissal of her question. She turned on her heel and followed him across to the ute.

  ‘What was that all about?’ she demanded.

  ‘Rilee, I don’t have time right now.’

  ‘You made me look like a complete idiot just then.’

  ‘Babe, I’ve had a shit of a day, and it’s going to be a long night. Can we please not do this right now?’

  He didn’t wait for her reply, taking out the radio and calling for Mark.

  Rilee tossed and turned, having finally gone to bed after midnight without any sign of Dan joining her. He’d been droving the cattle to a safer area, not taking any chances that they’d somehow get out and find the mother-of-millions as well. Cattle raised in the area knew not to eat it, but cattle brought in from an area that didn’t have the toxic weed weren’t aware of the danger and were at risk of eating it and dying.

  She sat up in bed and turned on the bedside lamp when she heard the back door open and held her breath as he entered their bedroom.

  ‘Any news on Walter?’
<
br />   ‘He’s pulled through. Rob said we’re over the worst of it.’

  Oh thank God. The sick sensation that had settled in her stomach eased as relief rushed through her. Dan stood just inside the doorway, still dressed in his work clothes, covered in a combination of dust, oil, sweat and goodness only knew what else. His eyes were bloodshot from the late night and the dust and wind while he’d been out moving the cattle. He looked exhausted and Rilee climbed out of bed and crossed to his side, wrapping her arms around him, not caring about his filthy clothing.

  ‘I’m sorry about earlier, Ri.’

  She wanted to say it was okay, but it wasn’t. Not really. And yet, at this late hour, it wasn’t the time to sit down and have a deep and meaningful. Tomorrow she had the high school presentation and Dan would be up again in only a few short hours. He kissed the top of her head and moved away to take a shower and Rilee climbed back into bed. As she listened to Dan’s soft breathing beside her, Rilee couldn’t shake the feeling that while one crisis may have narrowly been averted, there were more hanging around like vultures, just waiting for their opportunity to swoop.

  Thirty-six

  Rilee felt unusually nervous as she watched the school hall fill up with high school students. She’d been keeping going on strong coffee after her sleepless night. She was really only here for moral support. Lisa was the one giving the presentation, along with Teal who would be talking about the centre and the services they were offering, so Rilee wasn’t exactly sure why she was feeling so nervous.

  The school’s vice-principal, who had taken over while the principal was on long service leave and who had become a strong advocate for the program, took the stage to make introductions and then handed over to Teal. Rilee was impressed with the amount of information the young man was able to give the kids. Dressed in jeans and a faded T-shirt, with shaggy hair and dirty old sneakers, he didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence at first glance. However, as soon as he started talking about the program, his eyes lit up and his face became animated in a way only true passion could create. After listening to him talk, Rilee was positive that the community centre and its services would be critical in helping young people in town reach their full potential. There were plenty of resources available; the only obstacle was access. They needed to get the community centre up and running sooner rather than later.