by Lily Malone
‘You’d be half a millionaire, Mum,’ Mick said.
‘Just gotta find me the other half then, don’t I?’ Helen said, but it got stuck in her throat.
‘Is that as far as this guy got with Jake?’ Mick pressed.
‘I’m not allowed to say, Mick. I’m sorry. It’s in the vicinity, and I can tell you that before the news broke about the road upgrade, I have to be honest, my appraisal would have been lower. When I started trying to get the deal together on Irma’s house, no one knew about the road.’ She shook her head. ‘Although I think the buyer might have had some idea it was about to happen.’
‘Was he trying to pull a swifty?’ Helen demanded.
‘I think he knew there was an opportunity,’ Ella answered, trying to be diplomatic. ‘It makes a big difference to the values on Chalk Hill Bridge Road. All Chalk Hill town, really; that’s if it all goes ahead.’
‘So he was trying to pull a swifty.’
‘That’s developers for you, Mum.’
It was Mick who picked up the appraisal, pointing out Ella’s information to his mother, who put her hand to her throat and left it there among the many crevices and folds.
‘Why don’t I leave you two to talk it all over, and have a chat to your sister too, and then I’ll give you a call tomorrow when you’ve had time to think it through? Is that okay?’
‘That would be great, Ella. Thanks. Do you have information about what it would cost Mum to do this? Like, all your commission and fees and that sort of thing?’ Mick put his hand on Helen’s shoulder and rubbed once. ‘It’s okay, Mum.’
‘I do. I’ll leave the information pack here.’ Ella patted the Begg & Robertson presentation folder. ‘Thanks for the glass of water, Helen. Here’s my card, Mick. You or your mum can call me if you have any questions at all, okay?’
‘Thanks, Ella.’ Mick looked up. ‘I think this is a good thing, and my sister and me have been talking about it, but we have to be sure it’s the best thing for Mum.’
‘Absolutely,’ Ella said, standing up. ‘I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s a big decision.’
Helen Nillson shifted in her chair but Ella put her hand out. ‘Please don’t get up, Helen. I know the way.’
CHAPTER
23
Ella started with Donna Summer and moved through Gloria Gaynor to the Bee Gees, singing as she danced the vacuum cleaner around the house that Saturday afternoon, music loud enough to let her hear it over the cleaner’s engine.
Helen Nillson would sell if the price was right.
Mick had called this morning and Ella had gone around to Helen’s to collect the signed authority. This meant that, right now, Henry Graham had new offer paperwork in his hot little hands for Lot 5, Chalk Hill Bridge Road, Chalk Hill.
Vacuuming finished, Ella checked her phone. Nothing yet from Henry.
Waiting sucked.
Digging under the kitchen sink, Ella found a pair of yellow rubber gloves and pulled them up her arms then armed herself with bleach before she set into scrubbing the bathrooms.
She was in the ensuite when the volume halved on Boney M singing Daddy Cool. Ella called out, ‘Sam? Is that you?’
No answer, but a series of thumps: backpack hitting kitchen counter, butt hitting couch. ‘Is there anything to eat?’
‘There’s fruit in the fruit bowl.’
‘I don’t mean fruit,’ Sam said.
‘You might find a packet of sultanas if you look in the pantry.’
‘Since when were sultanas not fruit, Mum? I hate sultanas anyway.’
‘Since when didn’t you like sultanas? You’ve liked them fine for years.’
About then, Ella discovered she’d been rubbing the same smudge of toothpaste from the mirror for the last ten seconds. ‘Well, I could give you a list and you could go down to the general store and do some shopping for me. That would be a help.’
‘I’ll just make some toast.’ Freezer door opening, thudding shut. ‘We’ve only got that wholemeal bread. Can’t you buy white bread?’
Ella rubbed ever smaller circles, hard enough to make the stuff behind the cabinet mirrors rattle. ‘Well you’ll have to wait till I’ve finished here; I’ll go shopping and it’ll be time for dinner. Otherwise, have an apple.’
Sam appeared in the bathroom doorway, apple in hand and a frown on his face. Ella met his eyes through the medium of the bathroom mirror.
‘What are you so grumpy about?’ she asked her son.
‘Nothing.’
‘What have you been up to this arvo?’
Crunch of apple, and a long drawn out chew. ‘I was at the basketball court.’
‘Yeah? See any other kids up there?’
‘A girl was there for a while.’
Ella smiled encouragingly. ‘Oh yeah? What was her name?’
‘Lydia.’
‘Where does she live?’
‘On a farm somewhere. She said her dad is building a water ski park.’
‘Lydia Fields?’
Sam shrugged. ‘Dunno.’
She was a long way from home if she’d been in town shooting basketball hoops. ‘Had she ridden a bike in from her place or had someone dropped her in town?’
‘She said she was waiting for her dad.’
‘Oh.’ Okay. ‘Was she nice to talk to?’
Sam shrugged. A whole body shrug. The kind of shrug where it looked like his bones had dissolved. ‘For a girl. I guess.’ He took another crunch of apple and asked her, ‘Why are you listening to your music anyway?’
‘I might have sold my first house. I’m waiting to hear.’
‘Oh.’ Sam leaned on the bathroom wall. ‘Is that all? I thought something really good must have happened.’
Ella stopped scrubbing and turned to face Sam.
‘What would be good enough to make me break out the Bee Gees, do you think?’
Sam bent his knee to rest the sole of his foot flat against the bathroom wall. ‘I thought maybe Erik was coming or something.’
‘Oh, Sammy.’ Ella’s mood drained as fast as the bleach bubbles curling into the depths of the sink. ‘Not this weekend. We’re going out to Jake’s place tomorrow for a barbecue, remember? He said there’ll be another boy there, same age as you. And we’ll see Percy. That’ll be fun.’
The look on Sam’s face suggested it wouldn’t be fun at all.
‘You used to dance with me, when you were little.’ Ella moved her attention to the scrubbing brush and the toilet. She’d pretty much cleaned the ensuite within an inch of its life, but she’d empty a mud bucket all over the floor and start again if it kept Sam talking. ‘You remember that? Bee Gees were your favourite.’
Sam stared at the tiles. ‘Kind of.’
Ella busted out a few lines from I Love The Night Life. ‘And that one. You loved that song when you were three.’
Sam ducked his chin. ‘Come off it, Mum. Did not.’
‘You did so.’
Ella’s mobile phone ringtone blared from the kitchen and she dropped the scrubbing brush into the toilet bowl, thinking Henry, like a shriek in her mind. She ripped off the gloves and dropped them in the basin, moving one hundred miles an hour.
‘Wish me luck, Sammy. This could be it. My first sale.’
Sam got out of the way like she was a hurricane coming through and Ella ran for the kitchen and her phone.
As conversations went, this one was quick. Henry was about to scan an offer on Helen Nillson’s house through to Ella’s email. Ella assured him she’d go into the office to print it off, and she’d go to see Helen Nillson that afternoon and get back to him.
Ella hung up the call and gave herself a fist-pump, and that’s what Sam saw when he found her, standing in the kitchen.
‘So you sold it?’ he said.
‘Maybe. I got the first part of it.’ She began dialling Helen Nillson’s number, praying she was home.
‘What are we having for dinner?’
Ella stopped mid-dial. ‘Sammy,
I’m sorry, mate. I’ve got to go do this now, okay? I’ll pick up some takeaway on the way home. How about Chinese?’
‘But I’m starving. I can’t wait.’
‘You can’t be starving. You just had an apple.’ Lord give me strength. ‘I’ll be quick as I can.’
‘Can I make two-minute noodles? Do we at least have those or did you forget to buy them, again?’
‘I bought them, but you can’t make them when I’m not around, you know that. It’s boiling water, using the stove. Just wait, please, Sam. I won’t be long at Helen’s. I’ll make you something when I get back. There’s a whole bag of apples. There are mandarins. Make a piece of toast.’
‘You’re so mean,’ Sam said.
‘I’m not mean. I’m just busy.’
‘You’re always busy.’
Ella grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter. She’d call Helen from the car because she had to get out of the house because she didn’t want to spend her day yelling at Sam. It was no good telling herself, He’s only ten, he’s only ten, I can’t expect more.
She did expect more. He was her son. She expected him to be a good citizen and a good kid. She’d like it if he could be encouraging of what she was trying to do for both of them.
He’d had a lot to adapt to in the last six months, she knew that. Her separation from Erik. The move to Chalk Hill. A new school.
She had to be more patient, and she would be. She also had to sell this house.
* * *
The phone rang at eight on Saturday night and Jake had come out of the shower after a helluva day on the farm, drafting sheep and shifting last year’s lambs into the holding paddock nearer the house. He’d done two days’ work in one because he wanted tomorrow free for Ella.
Speak of the devil. Ella’s name on the screen made him forget his aching back.
‘Hey,’ he said.
Music beat loud in the background. He knew the song. Hot Stuff.
‘Hi yourself,’ she said. ‘How’s it going?’
Jake smiled. She made him feel good, and the disco music had his foot tapping.
‘I’m tired,’ he said. ‘Looking forward to tomorrow. I want to see you. How ’bout you?’
‘I made my first sale. I sold a house!’
‘Which house? Not mine obviously.’
‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she apologised. ‘I went to see Helen Nillson next door to your nan’s. The contract is on her place. I mean, it’s not a done deal till it settles, but it’s close.’
‘Let me guess. Henry Graham’s your buyer.’
‘I’m not sure I’m supposed to confirm that, but it’s not a bad guess. I hope you don’t mind? I know Henry wouldn’t have gone higher for your nan’s place—’
‘I’m really pleased for you, Ella,’ he interrupted her apology. There was no need for her to apologise to him. ‘And I’m really proud. Who else have you told?’
‘You. I rang Gina from work. Harvey knows. I’m gonna get off the phone and call Erik.’
She called him before she called Erik. ‘Well, maybe turn the music down or they won’t hear a word you say, okay?’
‘Turn the music down? You’ve got to be kidding. I’m turning it up.’
‘You do that. I’ll have my own celebration with you tomorrow.’
He let his tongue play around the word celebration, and there was no quick comeback.
‘Ella?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I can hear you blushing.’
* * *
‘Someone’s at the door, Mum. Didn’t you hear the knocking?’ Sam said, rubbing his eyes. He’d mucked around with her for a while with the music in the lounge, but he’d called it quits about twenty minutes ago, when she’d finally turned the music down.
‘At the door? Are you sure? I didn’t hear anything.’
‘Pretty sure.’
Ella turned the music so far down it was pretty much off. She walked to the front window and pulled the curtain aside. Streetlights left yellow reflections flooding the bitumen. The house across the road still had its lights on. Most of the others were off.
‘There’s no one there now, Sam.’
‘Something woke me up.’ Sam ambled to the front door in his pyjamas, switched the porch light on, turned the deadlock and opened the door.
‘There’s a box out here, Mum.’
‘What sort of box?’ Was it a prank? Kids playing games. ‘Don’t open it. It could be a flour bomb or something.’
‘What’s a flour bomb?’
Ella ignored the question. ‘How big is the box?’
‘Head-sized maybe.’
‘Yuck, Sammy.’
The screen door squeaked wider. Ella was almost at the door when Sam picked up the box.
‘It’s not too heavy,’ he said. ‘It’s got your name on it.’
Ella held the door for him and Sam brought the box inside as Ella closed and locked the front door.
The box was square, and … well, big enough to hold a severed head. Maybe two severed heads if they squashed in a bit. And yes, it had Ella’s name on it.
Sam put the thing on the kitchen counter and Ella went for the scissors, cutting sticky-tape out of her way.
She lifted one flap and then the other. There was newspaper packed around something, and Sam, wide awake now, fought through the paper.
The moment Sam got through to the mirrored surface, Ella knew what it was. Tears filled her eyes as she lifted the thing out.
‘What is it, Mum?’ Sam said.
‘It’s a mirror ball.’
‘What’s a mirror ball?’
‘It reflects light everywhere. It’s a disco ball. For dancing.’
‘How do we set it up?’
‘I’ll show you,’ Ella said, although that might be a problem. The ceiling in the rental house wasn’t high, and Ella doubted the landlord would appreciate it if she started banging hooks in the ceiling.
‘Who’s it from?’ He was peering into the bottom of the box, and his hand came out with a card. ‘This is for you too.’
Ella took the envelope from Sam and opened the note inside, flattening out the paper with her fingers.
It said:
Congratulations, Hot Stuff.
Love, Mr Simple.
CHAPTER
24
‘So how does a bloke get his hands on a mirror ball at eight o’clock at night?’ Ella asked Jake the next day, after Ollie and Jake’s dog, Jess, had stopped jumping all about the car, and Sam had run off into the house with the other boy.
‘Good morning,’ Jake said, bending low to kiss her lips. ‘Congratulations in person.’
Ella glanced after Sam. Her son was gone, so he didn’t see the kiss. ‘Thank you.’
‘Did you put it up?’
‘I did. Sam and I had a great time. I hung it over a beam on the back verandah.’
‘I’ve got a mate who runs this dancing in the dark thing every Wednesday night in the meeting room at the back of the bowling club. I called her.’
‘Dancing in the dark?’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me. They could be baying at the moon up there for all I know, but music is involved and they don’t put the lights on, and Maz, that’s my friend Maria, is the only person I know who’d have a mirror ball I could borrow at short notice.’
‘You keep using that word borrow, Jake,’ Ella said. ‘Are you trying to tell me I’ve got to give it back?’
‘I can buy you another one.’
‘When I sell your nanna’s house?’
His face changed, only a flicker but it was there. ‘Maybe. Come on, come inside and put your stuff down. Make yourself at home.’
* * *
Ella could have kidded herself that her interest in Jake Honeychurch’s family homestead was purely business—here she was, a real estate professional in one of the iconic homesteads of the region—but Ella wasn’t one for kidding herself. There was nothing remotely professional about the way she checked out
Jake’s bachelor pad. This was purely personal, all the way.
He got big ticks on housekeeping, for starters.
‘Don’t think it always looks like this,’ Jake said, waving his hand at the neat and tidy kitchen.
‘Really? That’s a bummer,’ Ella said, letting a fake frown weigh the corners of her mouth.
‘Don’t believe him, Ella,’ Nita Kinworth said, stopping briefly in the doorway, carrying a bunch of folded linen. ‘He doesn’t need me. He really doesn’t.’
Jake took a few strides to reach the older woman and hugged her almost off her feet. ‘I do, I do. Don’t you think you’re ever getting away.’
Nita batted his arms. ‘Get out, you silly bugger, before you make me spill all my clean towels on this dirty floor. I haven’t vacuumed.’
Privately, Ella’d be happy to eat soup off that so-called dirty floor.
Movement in a corner caught her eye, a flash of white feathers. Ella stepped towards Percy’s cage. ‘Is it okay to take him out?’ she asked Jake.
‘Nita?’
‘Laundry door is shut. I learned my lesson,’ the cleaner confirmed.
Ella opened the cage door and took Percy out, putting him to her shoulder where he hopped, turned and perched happily, poking his beak in her hair near her ear.
‘That tickles,’ she said, smoothing the soft curve of feathers where the back of his head met his wings. ‘Sam will come see you later.’
The two boys had rushed off for helmets and a double-dink on one of the quad bikes, promising to take it easy as they crashed out of the back door.
Ella turned her attention from the cockatiel to the house.
‘I love the kitchen table,’ she said to Jake, running her palm across the golden-coloured wood. The surface was polished mirror-smooth.
‘Marri,’ Jake told her. ‘Dad got it from the mill at Manjimup years ago and us boys helped him make it. It was secret men’s business up in his shed. He surprised Mum with it on their thirtieth wedding anniversary.’
Next item of interest was a huge white bucket of … ‘What is that exactly?’ Ella asked, pointing at the bucket sitting on the kitchen table.
