No Ocean Deep

by Cate Swannell

  “Mmmmmm, I can smell it. Thanks.” She smiled up at her mother-in-law, wondering how she was dealing with the sight of her daughter wrapped half-naked around another woman. “I guess that means rousting Miss Coma 2003, huh?”

  “I’m awake,” came the muffled rumble behind Cadie’s right shoulder, where Jo’s face was snuggled. “I’m just too embarrassed to open my eyes and face a parental unit in this position.”

  Cadie raised an eyebrow, meeting her mother-in-law's amused look. She could feel the heat of Jo's blush between her shoulder blades and she gently patted her partner's hands. They twitched slightly against Cadie's belly in reply.

  “If I can deal with it, Josie-love, so can you,” Maggie pointed out.

  Jo groaned and slowly rolled away from her warm nest tucked in behind her smaller partner. “Okay, okay,” she muttered.

  “I'll leave you two to your breakfast,” Maggie said diplomatically, heading back to the door. “But don't be too long about it or your father will be away without you.” With that she exited, leaving the two scantily-clad women blinking at each other in the dim light of pre-dawn.

  “Your mom is so cool,” Cadie finally decided. A muffled groan was all the response she got as Jo slumped back onto the pillow. Cadie laughed. “Come on, Stretch,” she said, patting her lover's long, naked thigh. “Let's get the day started or we'll never live it down.”

  Half an hour and several rashers of bacon later, the pair walked out of the house and into the cool dawn air, beating a path to the machinery shed. Jo could see Jack Collingwood and another man working on the engine of one of the ATVs. Something about the lean figure struck her as familiar. And, then again...

  “Wow, that must be Hughie,” she said wonderingly as Cadie came up by her elbow.

  “Who's Hughie?” the blonde asked, adjusting the straps of the small backpack she carried. Maggie had loaded it up with sandwiches, drinks and sunscreen for the day ahead.

  “This little Aboriginal kid who used to hang around a lot,” Jo replied. They walked closer and she could now see that the young man was probably going to best her own six-foot height by at least a couple of inches once he stood upright. “I guess he grew up.” They drew closer and she called out. “Hughie!”

  The dark-skinned man looked up and broke into a wide grin. He raised a hand in greeting and then began walking towards them, ignoring the scowl he was getting from Collingwood.

  “Damn, Hughie, look at you,” Jo exclaimed, opening her arms wide and pulling the bashful man into an all-encompassing hug. “If it wasn't for the dopey way you wear that hat, I wouldn't have recognized you.”

  “’lo, Miss Josie,” Hughie replied, pulling away from the hug and dipping his head shyly.

  “Hey, didn’t we have a conversation a long time ago about you dropping the ‘Miss’?” Jo chided him gently, grinning all the way. “Just because you haven’t seen me for 15 years, there’s no need to go formal on me.”

  Even with his coloring, it was possible to see the blush reaching all the way to the tips of Hughie’s ears. “Yes, Mi..., uh, yes, Josie,” he mumbled happily.

  “That’s the way, mate,” Jo laughed. She turned to Cadie who had been watching the scene from a step or two back. “Hughie, I want you to meet my partner, Cadie.”

  Cadie stepped forward and extended a hand, surprised to find the large, brown one that wrapped around it more soft and gentle than she’d expected from a man who worked with his hands all day.

  “Hello, Hughie. It’s nice to meet you.”

  If it was possible for the young man to blush harder, he did, the blonde’s sparkling green eyes and sunny smile charming him utterly.

  “N... nice m... meetin’ you, M... miss C-Cadie,” he stuttered.

  Cadie chuckled kindly. “Same rule applies for me, Hughie,” she said. “Just call me Cadie. I also answer to ‘hey, you’.” She grinned up at him, an action guaranteed to scramble his already besotted senses.

  “Oh, I’d n-never do th... that, Mi..., uh Cadie,” he said hastily, even as he continued to hang on to her hand and avert his eyes.

  Smitten, Jo thought, rolling her eyes good-humoredly. “Is there anybody on this farm you haven’t charmed instantly?” she teased her partner aloud, contributing even further to the man’s flustered state.

  “Hughie!” He startled at the sharp yell, dropping Cadie’s hand immediately before he turned back to its source. Jack Collingwood beckoned to him. “Come and help me finish this, boy, or we won’t be going anywhere today.”

  “Oh, I think I can come up with one I haven’t charmed,” Cadie muttered darkly as she watched Hughie hurrying back to his task. She wondered briefly if calling a black man ‘boy’ had the same unpleasant connotations here as it did back in the US. “I don’t think I like that man, Jo-Jo,” she said out loud, making a mental note to ask Jo later, when they had more time to themselves.

  Her partner grunted her agreement, watching the way the two men interacted. Collingwood was as dismissive of the Aborigine as he would have been of a dog. The thought made Jo’s blood boil.

  “And I bet I can guess where Hughie got that lump under his eye, too,” she murmured. “I wonder if Dad knows.”

  “He knows,” came a growl from behind her. Jo swung round.

  “Uh, hi Dad,” she said.

  “Morning,” her father said gruffly. “Don’t you be concerning yourself with Jack, all right? I’ve already put him on notice. I’ll not have him kicking dogs, or mistreating Hughie. But he’s a good worker, and I need him.”

  Jo raised her hands in concession. “It’s your call, Dad. No argument from me,” she said, wishing she could break through her parent’s standoffishness just for a moment or two.

  “Come on, then. We’re wasting the best part of the day.” David stumped off towards the vehicles. Jo sighed.

  “Do you think he’s ever gone let a glimmer of sunlight out?” she asked quietly. Cadie slipped her arm around her tall lover’s waist, waiting until Jo draped an arm across her shoulder before they started walking towards the others.

  “Give him some time, love,” Cadie answered, happy to see that it hadn’t occurred to Jo to be uncomfortable with public displays of affection, at least so far. “I’m sure he’s just trying to figure it all out for himself.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Well, would you look at that,” Jack Collingwood muttered. “Bold as brass.”

  Hughie looked up from the ATV’s engine, wondering what had his bad-tempered boss muttering this time. All he could see was Miss Josie and Miss Cadie – she pretty, eh? – walking their way, arms wrapped around each other. Hughie couldn’t see anything that would get Jack so messed up. He shrugged noncommittally and went back to working on the engine.

  “Fuckin’ perverts. Look at ‘em, Hughie. Bold as brass,” he repeated. He spat on the ground as the pair walked past.

  Hughie was spared from any further rumblings from Collingwood by David Madison.

  “You got that thing back together yet?” asked his boss.

  Hughie tightened the last bolt and dropped the engine cover back down. “Yeah, boss. He running real good now, for sure.”

  “Okay then,” David accepted. “Let’s go. You two take the ATVs and when we hit Ingham Creek one of you head to the north boundary, and the other one go to the east fence. We’ll meet you at the top corner. All right?” David turned to the two women, trying not to let his discomfort with their easy affection show on his face. “You two come with me in the ute.”

  Jo and Cadie exchanged a look. “Okay,” Jo said, unsure if she was happy about being in close quarters with her father for the next hour or so. What the hell are we gonna talk about?

  They bounced along a dirt trail between stands of low scrubby bushes. Ahead of them the two men on the ATVs flanked either side of the trail, staying out of the ruts made by the larger vehicle on innumerable earlier trips. The ute’s air-conditioning unit was working overtime keeping the interior cool. The dust trails fr
om the ATVs meant opening a window was not an option. David sat silently behind the wheel, negotiating the rough track at full speed thanks to years of practice and an intimate knowledge of the pitfalls of the dirt thoroughfare.

  Cadie, as the smallest, sat between David and Jo, who was pressed against the left-hand door. The blonde wasn’t exactly comfortable in the confined space, well aware that her thigh was up against her father-in-law’s, but there hadn’t been a lot of choice.

  Maybe we should have just sat in the back, she pondered. But then, that wouldn’t have gotten these two any closer to having a conversation, would it? Not that they’ve been exactly talkative anyway.

  She glanced left at her lover’s profile, noting the tense ripple of muscles at the corner of Jo’s jaw. Grinding her teeth, Cadie realized. Oh yeah, she’s calm. A glance right revealed something that made her grin in reflex. David’s jaw was working just as hard as his daughter’s. Great, it’s genetic. She stifled a giggle.

  Jo was aware that her partner was amused by something and turned to raise an enquiring eyebrow. Cadie just patted her thigh and smiled quietly as she shook her head.

  Fine, Jo thought grumpily. Don’t tell me. She sighed. God, I wish I knew what to say to make everything all right with him, she thought, glancing over Cadie’s head to her father. I can’t even work out what it is that’s bugging him so much. Is it the past? She felt Cadie’s fingers slowly, and unconsciously, tracing a pattern on her thigh. Or is it the present? As no answer popped magically into existence she turned her eyes back to their path through the trees and tried to figure out where they were exactly. Hazy, 15-year-old memories started to coalesce. Coming up on Ingham Creek, she realized.

  “Hughie and Jack going boundary riding once we hit the creek?” she asked her father.

  “Yep,” he said succinctly. “We’ll cover a lot more ground if we split up and we haven’t looked at the fences at this end for a while.”

  As he finished talking, Cadie could see they were approaching an intersection of sorts. Jack looked back over his shoulder at them and waved his right hand before splitting off and taking another track that led away to the left of them. A few seconds later Hughie did the same before steering his ATV to the right. David raised a hand in acknowledgement before gunning the ute forward along the original track.

  Jo saw the slightly confused look on her partner’s face.

  “We’re heading for the northeast corner of the property,” she explained. “Hughie and Jack are going to the fence lines north and east of us and they’ll meet us in the middle at the Top End Bore.”

  “Ah, okay, thanks,” Cadie said, smiling at Jo. “They’ll fix any holes in the fence on the way, right?”

  “That’s the theory,” David muttered. “If they come across anything too big for one bloke to fix, we’ll get to it on the way back.”

  “Is there a problem at the bore that needs fixing?” Cadie asked.

  “Not that I know of,” David replied. “But we haven’t been up here in a bit and it’ll need a good clean out and a bit of maintenance no doubt.”

  “Good thing I brought my Swiss Army knife then,” Cadie said dryly. Both Madisons stared at her. “Kidding, kidding.”

  They pulled into a wide, barren stretch of red earth where the two fence lines converged. David swung the ute around in a wide arc, pulling to a halt in a cloud of dust. After an hour of being bumped and jostled at high speed, Cadie was just grateful to be in one piece as she and Jo tumbled out of the truck. Jo stretched her long frame skywards, working the kinks out after being folded into the cramped quarters of the ute's cabin. Cadie turned in a slow circle, taking in the harsh environment.

  To her right was a strange metallic contraption that seemed to be a jerry-rigged collection of pipes and motors. Water spurted intermittently from one rust-colored pipe into a long metal trough that ran for 30 feet along the line of the northern fence. Except things weren't quite going to plan. Something was blocking the trough and water was backed up towards the pump, spilling over the side and puddling uselessly on the brown, hard-packed earth.

  “Ah, bugger,” muttered David as he walked around from the driver's side of the ute. “Wonder how long it's been like this?”

  Jo had walked over to the trough and she stood grimly, looking down at whatever was blocking the flow of water. “Yeah, you're not going to like this either, Dad,” she said. He stalked over to join her, cursing as he caught sight of the sheep carcass sprawled in the trough.

  “Can you two clear that out, and I'll get to work on stripping back the pump,” David asked. “It'll need recalibrating after that. God knows how long it’s been choking on itself.”

  Jo grunted her assent to the task and took a quick glance at her partner, who was standing uncertainly a few paces away and had yet to see the none-too-pleasant sight. Let’s see if I can pull it out myself, she decided as she stepped up on to the edge of the trough.

  A fully-grown sheep is a hefty beast at the best of times but water-logged and semi-bloated, the animal was a considerable weight to move. Thank God it was shorn not so long ago, Jo thought as she wrapped her hands around the sheep's back legs. With a grunt she tried to straighten her back, yanking the dead weight slightly in the right direction.

  “Jo, wait,” Cadie exclaimed as she watched her partner straining. Carefully she stepped up onto the side of the trough, wincing slightly as smell wafted up from the disturbed corpse.

  “It's okay, I can do this,” Jo protested.

  “Don't be crazy. I can see how heavy that is. If you go hurting yourself on day one, the rest of the vacation isn't going to be much fun, is it?” Cadie smiled thinly at her partner as she put her hands on her hips. “And besides, Jo Madison, I'm no shrinking flower to be protected. I can handle it, okay? Or have you forgotten the fish guts?”

  Jo grinned at her, feeling an interesting sense of pride welling up. “I remember. Okay, then. If you grab the front end maybe together we can swing it up and out,” she said.

  They stood at opposite ends of the dead sheep, one foot on each rail of the trough. Together they bent down and grabbed a leg in each hand. Cadie tried to ignore the way her stomach flip-flopped at the greasy feel of the water.

  “Here we go... one, two, THREE!”

  The two women hauled the sheep up, dripping water all over their feet and jeans. Then, with one combined grunt, they swung the carcass over the edge of the trough and dropped it with a squelch.

  David sat on his haunches behind the pump, surreptitiously watching the two women deal with their nasty chore. Despite his best intentions, he found himself quietly impressed by the little American. She hadn't flinched at handling the carcass, even though Jo had been more than prepared to do the job herself. Cadie's got a bit of ticker, he decided as he began the laborious task of shutting the pump down.

  “You want us to bury it, Dad?” Jo asked, looking back over her shoulder at the older man.

  “Better,” he replied. “None of the animals will come for a drink if we leave it to rot.”

  “Rightio,” his daughter agreed.

  She's not doing too badly either, David conceded. You can take the girl out of the bush, but you can't take the bush out of the girl. For the first time since Josie had come home he allowed a little pride in his wayward daughter to surface as he watched her dragging the carcass over to a nearby tree. She's remembered the soil'll be softer over there, he realized. Cadie was pulling shovels out of the back of the ute.

  Not sure I'll ever be comfortable with this, he thought as he refocused on dismantling the bore head in front of him. But I've got to find a way to get past it.

  Jo let the sheep’s back legs drop with a grunt once she’d yanked it into the shade under the tree. Something about the carcass didn’t look right to her. Not that any dead animal looks right, she conceded. Jo’s brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what was bugging her about it. It certainly wasn’t the first time she’d seen one of her family’s livestock dead in a paddock
. Although it has been a while, she conceded.

  The sheep had been in the trough a couple of days, she figured. Tentatively, she reached out and rubbed her fingers through the animal’s short regrowth of wool. Nothing unusual, apart from the stark reality of a half-starved beast, evident in the ribs she could easily feel through the cold skin. She tried not to think about it too much.

  Finding nothing, she stood again and turned the sheep over. Frowning, she crouched down and began another search.

  “What are you doing?” Cadie asked. There was something unnerving about watching her partner probing and prodding the carcass. Guess she’s used to dead bodies. Cadie mentally slapped herself. Get off that. But a part of her brain couldn’t help going to that dark place Jo had once inhabited.

  “Something’s not right,” Jo muttered. And then her fingers found what they were looking for, near the beast’s temple. Immersion in the water had removed all traces of blood, but what Jo was feeling was unmistakable, and something she was all too familiar with. “Dad!”

  David looked up from his task. “Yeah?”

  “This sheep’s been shot.”

  “What?” David dropped his spanner and stalked over to where Jo was crouched over the carcass.

  “Take a look for yourself,” she said, shuffling around out of his way. “Just behind the left eye.”

  Cadie also moved in for a closer look.

  David grabbed the sheep's head unceremoniously, poking about with hands that were long used to dealing with the unpleasant realities of life on a farm.

  “Bugger me,” he cursed as his senses confirmed Jo's theory.

  “Why would anyone do that?” Cadie asked. “Was it injured in some way, or nearly dead from starvation?”

  David looked up sharply at that.

  “Haven't had to shoot any of my animals so far, young lady, and I don't ever intend things to get that bad.”

  Cadie was taken aback by the man's vehemence. Guess I hit a nerve. Again. “I d-didn't mean any offence,” she said quickly. “I just thought that was what happened when the animals got too sick to eat and drink properly.”