Time Will Tell

by Fiona McCallum

  Suddenly the ute’s engine noise increased. It was no longer idling. No, don’t go. She couldn’t muster the energy to yell. There was no point anyway; they couldn’t hear her.

  Emily noticed a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. She turned, careful not to lose balance. Oh please, let it be, she thought, as the ute made its way up the road towards her.

  David and Barbara leapt out of the vehicle below her. Emily was so relieved she let go and wobbled slightly.

  ‘Don’t let go!’ Barbara and David yelled in unison.

  ‘I can’t get down.’

  ‘I sort of figured that,’ David said. ‘What are you doing up there?’

  ‘Can you just get me down?’

  ‘I’m trying to work out how to do that. Just let me think a minute.’

  Well, hurry up!

  ‘Are you okay?’ Barbara asked.

  ‘Yep, just stuck.’

  ‘I’ll go and get the front-end loader. Back in a sec.’

  Barbara stayed standing below and David leapt into the ute and drove off back to the house.

  ‘How did you find me?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Grace,’ Barbara yelled back. ‘She kept racing to the corner of the yard and barking her head off. It was so out of character we thought we’d better check it out. And then we saw your car. How long have you been up there?’

  ‘No idea. Too long.’

  They both looked towards the house at hearing the tractor start up.

  Before long David had Barbara in the cab and was in the bucket and using hand signals to guide the machine close to Emily. Minutes later she stepped down into his arms.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said breathlessly, and then sat down in the bucket as David had Barbara lower them.

  When she was finally back on solid ground, Emily burst into tears. ‘Thank you so much.’

  Barbara got out of the tractor and came over.

  ‘Hi Barb,’ Emily said sheepishly.

  ‘What the hell were you doing up there?’

  The greeting was tense, but not as bad as it could have been.

  ‘I…’ She was about to explain when David spoke.

  ‘I’ll take the loader back and leave you in Barbara’s capable hands.’

  ‘Thanks so much. Again.’

  ‘No worries. You okay if I go and get a bit of spraying done?’ he asked. ‘You two have probably got some catching up to do.’

  ‘Sure, go for it. Great.’

  ‘Thanks. Darling, I’ll call you later,’ David said, giving Barbara a kiss. Emily and Barbara watched in silence as he climbed back up into the cab, put it in gear, and drove off with a wave of his hand.

  Barbara was the first to break the silence. ‘Don’t suppose I could use your loo before I head off?’ she asked with a wince. ‘The trip down took way longer than I thought it would. And then all this excitement…’

  ‘Of course,’ Emily said. ‘I really need a cuppa if you’d like to join me.’

  ‘That would be great.’

  Suddenly Barbara pulled Emily into a hug. ‘I’ve missed you so much. I called, and when you didn’t call back…’ Her words came out in a torrent. ‘I can’t believe you got up there by yourself. Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed! What would you have done if we hadn’t come along?’

  ‘Well, thank God you did.’

  ‘Thank God you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done… If it wasn’t for Grace, who knows what might have happened.’

  She saved me. Again.

  Emily hugged her friend back, feeling her chest tighten. ‘Oh God, Barbara, I behaved like a complete idiot. And I’m not just talking about this,’ she said, waving an arm towards the shed skeleton. ‘I’m so sorry. Can we go back to the house, have a cuppa and forget it – accept that I’ve been a complete idiot and move on?’

  ‘I can if you can. As long as you promise I’ll never have to rescue you from up there again.’

  They broke apart, dragging the backs of their hands across their cheeks and wiping their eyes as they did.

  Chapter Forty-two

  Back at the house, Emily gave Grace a lot of attention while Barbara looked on. ‘I’ll just get Grace a bone before I do anything else,’ Emily said. She raced inside to the fridge and tossed the grateful dog her treat.

  ‘Right, now my conscience is clear for a cuppa. Come on in,’ she said.

  ‘You’re living here?!’ Barbara asked, looking around the kitchen with wide eyes.

  Emily silently retrieved coffee and sugar from the pantry, milk from the fridge, and mugs from the cupboard above the sink. She flicked the switch on the kettle and it roared into life.

  ‘Didn’t you hear?’ she said, leaning against the bench while waiting for the kettle to boil.

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘Jesus, what happened to the bush telegraph?’ Emily said, shaking her head. ‘You’d better sit down.’ She poured the water into the mugs, added milk, and put the carton back in the fridge while Barbara took the two steaming mugs to the table.

  *

  ‘You’re kidding!’ Barbara said when Emily had explained about Tara’s visit and her sudden eviction. ‘You had a bad feeling about that woman right from the start. See, I keep telling you you’ve got to listen to your intuition,’ she said, sipping at her coffee. ‘But you had an agreement with Donald and Trevor, aren’t you at least going to try and fight it? You love that house. I love that house.’

  ‘I know. But I didn’t get things signed off properly. Tara’s right that the agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. We had a verbal agreement, but I can’t prove that. And I’m too tired to fight anymore. Anyway, there’s not a whole lot to work with when someone evicts you because they just don’t like you.’

  ‘Hmm, I see your point. Not fair about the house, though – that’s just plain rotten.’

  ‘I know. But maybe this is how it’s meant to be,’ she added with a shrug.

  ‘And for the record, you should have called us rather than pay removalists – we would have moved you.’

  ‘I know. But you’ve done so much for me already. And it all happened so fast, and…’ Emily said lamely.

  ‘We’re friends, Emily. We’d do anything for you. So what does Jake think about all this?’ Barbara said, changing the subject. ‘I bet he’s disappointed.’

  ‘Well, I need to call him,’ she said, looking a little sheepish.

  ‘How is he?’

  ‘Um, we haven’t actually spoken since Saturday. He took off suddenly after a phone call and I haven’t heard from him since.’

  ‘That’s weird. I had you two pegged for happily ever after. You seriously haven’t heard from him?’

  ‘He called twice but never left a message. I didn’t call him back,’ she said, staring into her mug.

  ‘Well, something serious must have happened because he seemed way too well-mannered to not do things properly.’

  ‘My mother would say the same about me,’ Emily said, raising her eyebrows and then rolling her eyes.

  ‘And how is Enid? I bet she’s thrilled you’ve finally given up the silly notion of doing up that dreadful old house,’ Barbara said, doing a fine impersonation.

  ‘Um…’ Emily stared into her mug.

  ‘You haven’t told her, have you?’

  ‘Nope. I saw them at the funeral but couldn’t tell them. I feel terrible not telling Dad the truth, but I just couldn’t deal with Mum gloating over me having to give up the old place.’

  ‘No offence, Em, but there seem to be a few things you’re avoiding dealing with.’

  ‘Well, you’ll be pleased to know I went and saw Thora and Gerald the day before the funeral.’

  ‘And…?’

  ‘They were amazing, actually. I won’t bore you with the details, but they’ve given their blessing for me to inherit everything. Gerald even took a look at David’s lease document before I signed it.’

  ‘That’s great. I though
t you looked on reasonable terms with them at the funeral. Though I have to say you seemed a bit vague, which is quite understandable.’

  ‘Honestly, it was weird. The whole day it felt like it was happening to someone else – like an out-of-body experience or something. It’s done, thank goodness, but now I’d rather just forget it.’

  ‘Well, you did well.’

  ‘Thanks. Oh, and I’ve been to the bank and sorted out being signatory again. So I guess you could say I’m officially getting my shit together on a few things.’

  ‘But not when it comes to your mother.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, taking a sip of coffee. ‘Gutless, huh?’

  ‘Not necessarily, but sometimes it’s better to just let the shit hit the fan and move on rather than putting it off. And it’s usually not nearly as bad as we make it out to be.’

  ‘I know. I had myself tied up in knots before I saw Thora and Gerald. And then it turned out fine.’

  ‘Exactly. Want to call Enid now, while I’m here? Get it over with?’

  ‘Maybe, but should I call Jake first?’

  Barbara shrugged. ‘That’s entirely up to you.’

  They startled slightly at the unmistakeable sound of the heavy glass sliding door being opened.

  ‘Yoo-hoo! Emily, are you here?’

  Speak of the devil and she shall appear.

  ‘In here,’ Emily called, leaping up from her chair. ‘Mum, Dad, hi,’ she said, exchanging air kisses with her mother and a brief but tight hug with her father. ‘Cuppa? Kettle’s just boiled. Another one Barbara?’

  Barbara nodded.

  ‘Yes thank you,’ Enid said, huffily. ‘How could you have not informed us you were moving house? We went for a drive to visit you and you weren’t there. It’s only because we bumped into lovely Nathan Lucas outside the newsagent that we found you at all!’

  ‘You’ve seen Nathan?’ Barbara asked with raised eyebrows.

  ‘Yes, he did the paperwork at the bank for me yesterday,’ Emily answered simply, ignoring Barbara’s expression.

  ‘And why can’t you answer your damned mobile phone?’ Enid continued, ignoring Barbara and Emily. ‘We phoned you an hour ago. It went to voicemail. For goodness sake, Emily!’ She dragged a chair away from the table and sat heavily onto it.

  ‘Sorry. It all happened rather quickly,’ Emily muttered, trying desperately not to roll her eyes. And as for not answering my phone, well, I was most likely stuck up on a steel structure. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to confess to that.

  ‘Well, thank God you’ve finally come to your senses and given up on that awful old house. Ghastly thing.’

  ‘Actually, it wasn’t my choice. I loved that house.’ Emily was suddenly on the verge of tears. She swallowed hard and willed the tears not to come as she prepared the four mugs of coffee and then delivered them to the table.

  ‘Well, no point crying over spilt milk. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, you know,’ Enid said haughtily, lifting her mug and taking a sip.

  Any more pearls of wisdom for me, mother?

  Des Oliphant smiled reassuringly at his daughter and reached across and patted her hand.

  ‘And anyway,’ Enid continued, ‘just think what a better catch you’ll be with a whole farm to your name.’

  Emily frowned, wondering what the relevance was – she’d had the farm before Tara had turfed her out.

  ‘So how do you come to be living here?’ Des asked.

  Emily flapped an arm. ‘Apparently Trevor and Donald left everything to their cousin Tara. She kicked me out.’

  ‘But didn’t you have an agreement?’ he said.

  ‘Yes, but I never actually signed it.’ Yes, I am an idiot.

  ‘So you didn’t seek legal advice?’ Enid chimed in.

  Emily’s head started to spin. She wanted to say, ‘Why do you care; you hated the place and thought I was making a mistake anyway.’ Instead she sighed and said, ‘No. She turned up on Monday morning and told me I had five days to get out. Then there was John’s funeral on Tuesday, and everything with his estate to be dealt with. With all that’s been happening, I just…’

  ‘You’ve been through a lot. I understand. But couldn’t you have at least asked her for some more time?’ Des said.

  ‘Dad, she really wasn’t interested in negotiating,’ Emily said wearily. ‘Anyway, it’s over now.’

  ‘But she shouldn’t be allowed to get away with bullying you. Aren’t you going to fight her?’ Enid said.

  Emily squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to scream. You just couldn’t win with Enid. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

  ‘Mum, it doesn’t matter. It’s done. I’m just relieved it happened when it did and not halfway through the renovation – that would have been messy.’

  ‘But…’ Enid started, then stopped when her husband laid a hand over hers.

  ‘Enid, I’m sure Emily did the right thing for herself,’ Des said, quite forcefully.

  Emily cast a covert glance at Barbara, who mouthed the words, ‘You can’t win,’ and shook her head. Emily rolled her eyes in consternation.

  ‘Well, I can’t believe you moved back here without at least telling us,’ Enid said, thumping her mug down on the table. ‘How embarrassing to have to be told by someone else. And in the street. We saw you at John’s funeral on Tuesday. How could you not have said anything then?’

  ‘Like I said, it was all very sudden,’ Emily offered with a shrug.

  ‘We could have helped.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mum. It was something I needed to do on my own,’ Emily said.

  Enid responded by letting out a harrumph and folding her arms tightly across her chest.

  ‘So David’s taken over the cropping?’ Des asked of no one in particular.

  ‘Yes,’ Barbara said. ‘We’ve just brought the tractor and boom sprayer down now. Actually, that’ll be him,’ she said, reaching into her pocket. ‘I’ve got to go down and pick him up,’ she quickly explained. Her mobile began ringing as she dragged it out. ‘Excuse me.’ She turned away from the table.

  ‘Hello darling. Yes, be right there. Okay, due South. Got it. See you soon.’ She hung up and addressed the group around the table. ‘Sorry, but I’d better get going. Em, can you come along and make sure I don’t get lost?’ Barbara stared hard and knowingly at Emily.

  ‘Um, well…’ Emily looked beseechingly at her parents.

  ‘You go,’ Des said, getting up. ‘We’re on our way to visit some friends anyway. Come on Enid.’

  Enid was clearly miffed at being ushered out so abruptly, but Emily wasn’t going to let that spoil her pleasure at reuniting with Barbara. If she put her life on hold every time Enid was displeased with her, she’d never get anything done.

  Emily air kissed her mother’s proffered cheek and hugged her father. As they separated, he squeezed her shoulder and said, ‘We’ll talk later.’

  ‘Thanks for dropping by. I’ll see you soon.’

  Grace leapt onto the ute’s tray and Emily clipped her to the short chain before opening the passenger’s door and getting in.

  ‘Thanks so much for rescuing me. Again,’ Emily said, pulling the door closed behind her.

  ‘It had to be done,’ Barbara said, beaming back at her.

  ‘God I’ve missed you, us, this,’ Emily said, throwing her hands up and then slapping them on her thighs.

  ‘Me too,’ Barbara said, turning on the vehicle and putting it in gear.

  Emily didn’t say it, but she really had started to fear that they’d never repair their friendship. And just a few words had been said and all was well again. Ah, communication.

  Talking had definitely not been John’s strong suit. He was more about action – like ripping her off in the separation, and destroying the cottage, and taking pot shots at Grace. But he’d somehow neglected to change his will. And where would I be now if he had?

  ‘Are you okay?’ Barbara asked. ‘You suddenly look all sad.’


  Emily nodded, realising she could erupt into tears if she let herself. She swallowed hard. ‘I was just thinking that if John hadn’t died I’d be back where I was when I left him: no money, no job and nowhere to live. It doesn’t seem fair. But he’s gone, and I’m back on the farm, and it looks like everything might be all right.’

  ‘Well, I do keep telling you that everything happens for a reason.’

  ‘I am actually starting to see that.’

  ‘Good. So what’s the story with Jake? He’s a good guy, Em, and I know it’s probably way too soon for you, but I reckon you’d make the perfect couple. And for the record, I wasn’t meaning to talk about you behind your back. I just wanted him to know to go carefully, that’s all. I’m sorry.’

  ‘You’ve got nothing to apologise for. I overreacted. I can see that now. You were just being my friend and looking out for me.’

  ‘Yes I was. You need to understand that when friends talk about you amongst ourselves it’s because we care, not because we want to undermine you or pick on you.’

  ‘I know. I get it now.’

  ‘Well as long as you do. Because sometimes, Emily, you are your own worst enemy.’

  ‘I know. Can we just put it behind us and move on? I feel like such an idiot.’

  ‘Consider us moved on. So, what are you going to do about Jake?’

  ‘Well, when I was stuck up on that bloody steel monstrosity, I had decided to call him when I got back down, but I think I’ve chickened out now. It’s been too long.’

  ‘It’s never too late, Em. You can’t use that as an excuse.’

  ‘You didn’t see the way he took off. He couldn’t get away fast enough.’

  ‘You said it was something to do with a phone call. Maybe it had nothing to do with you.’

  ‘So why hasn’t he left a message to explain?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s too personal or too complicated to leave in a message. And why haven’t you called to check that everything is okay?’ Barbara looked at Emily with raised eyebrows.

  ‘Okay, both fair points.’ Barbara was right. She’d been too wrapped up in her own problems to think about what Jake might have been going through. It was selfish.