Red Dirt Heart 3 (20 page)

“He went looking for the doctor. He’s just about gone crazy in here,” she said. “Show me your hand.”

I rolled my eyes and held my palm out. The bandage was now blood stained. “I bumped it when I was driving in just now,” I explained. “Trudy sewed it up for me yesterday.”

Ma was frowning already.

“You’re not allowed to worry,” I told her. “I’m sure the doctor said you weren’t to be stressin’ over nothin’.”

“He needs a tetanus shot,” Travis said, throwing me right under the fucking bus.

“Oh, thanks a lot,” I griped at him.

He grinned. “You’re welcome.”

“Is that payback or something?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said, still grinning.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but Ma intervened. “Boys, stop that,” she chided us.

I found myself smiling at her. “Never thought I’d miss the sound of that,” I admitted.

Ma smiled right back at me in a knowing moment; she’d missed scolding us just as much. “So,” she said. “Where’s your little wombat? Didn’t bring him today?”

“Trav built him a little pen to stop him from runnin’ amok through the house, and Nara found a way to feed him without me bein’ there,” I told her. “So he stayed at home.”

“Cows calving yet?” she asked. “How many poddies are we minding so far?”

“Enough of the work interrogation, Ma,” I snorted. “You still need to rest you know.”

From the look on her face, I knew she was about to reprimand me again, until George and the doctor came into the room.

George never looked happier to see me. “Oh, Charlie, Travis,” he said, “boy, is it good to see you two.”

“Likewise,” I said with a smile. “Good timing. Ma was just to give me a lecture.”

George grinned at that. Like me, he knew that Ma’s temper and quick tongue-lashings were a sign of her improved health. “The doc here wants to just give one last check over, then we can go,” he said.

Taking that as a cue for privacy, I walked to the door, expecting Travis to come with me, but he stopped. “Doc?” Travis asked. “Where can we get a tetanus shot?”

I groaned. “I don’t need one.”

Trav didn’t even look at me. He just kept his eyes on the doctor. “Yes, he does.”

The doctor stuck his head out the door, called for a nurse and asked her to take me down to see some doctor in the A&E and get it looked at. Like she probably didn’t already have enough to do. She smiled at me nonetheless, and we followed her out.

We came into the emergency department through the hospital and not through admissions, and I guess the nurse asking for some specific doctor made it all happen quicker, because within five minutes, I was sitting on a gurney bed and some guy built like a brick shit house who looked too damn big to be a doctor had the bandage off my hand and was poking and prodding at the stitches in my palm.

“Do you have a pain kink or something?” I asked him. “Because that hurts, and you look like you’re enjoying it.”

He laughed at me, and I knew I was right. Yep, definitely a pain kink. “I’m not surprised that hurts. It’s jagged as hell, stitches are rough.”

“I won’t tell Trudy you said that,” I said. “She’ll come in here and kick your arse.”

He snorted. “Well, on that note, you can tell
Trudy
that her tapestry skills are stellar.”

I nodded. “You’re gonna give me a needle, aren’t you?”

He grinned. “Yep, sure am. You don’t like hospitals, do you?”

I shook my head quickly. “Hospitals are okay. Needles not so much.”

Travis sighed his all-outta-patience sigh. “Seriously?” he said to the doctor. “He wanted to sew his own hand yesterday, but he had one of his workers do it for him, no anaesthetic, no nothing. He didn’t even flinch. He wrestles Brahman, does death manoeuvres in a helicopter, for God’s sake, but mention a needle and he whines like an infant.”

The doctor laughed again. “Sounds familiar.” But then he held up the needle and said, “You might wanna look away, son.”

But it was too late. Because I’d seen it. Blood started to pound in my ears, and I might have swayed a little. “Jesus,” Trav said, jumping in and pulling my face against his chest. “You
really
don’t like needles.” I think he laughed.

“Told you I don’t,” I mumbled into his shirt.

The doctor jabbed my arm, and I could feel the hot swell under the skin as he pushed the liquid in. Trav ran his fingers through my hair, a much-needed distraction.

“All done,” the doctor said.

I looked at him, and thankfully, he had the needle out of sight. I felt stupid for being a grown man who powdered and wanted to puke when he saw a needle.

Trav pulled my chin up. “You feelin’ okay? Not gonna fall in a heap if I let go?”

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to shake off the fuzzy feeling in my head.

The doc had a baffled, amused look on his face. I guess he wasn’t expecting two guys to be so touchy-feely. Just then, a familiar face appeared at the door. It was Laura. She was dressed in her nursing gear, and she acknowledged the doctor with a nod.

“Heard you were down here,” she said to me. “I’ve just been up to see Katie and George before they left, and they said you were getting your hand looked at.” She walked into the cubicle. “You’re looking a little pale. You feel okay?”

“I’m fine,” I replied.

The doc swung his chair around and took my hand, inspecting the cut again. “You want me to redo those stitches?”

I shrugged. “Um…”

“I’ll need to give you a local—”

I cut him off. “Nah, it’ll be alright.”

“I’m going to clean it, though. Might sting a bit,” he said.

The doc set about his work on my hand, and Trav still stood near the bed and kept his hand on my knee. I know he had an issue with Laura, but I dunno… it was kind of good to see her.

“How’s things?” I asked her.

Her smile was instant. “Good. Been busy here, but I like Alice Springs. Always did.”

“Not a fan of Darwin?” I asked.

“Well, it’s been my home for twenty years, so I’m almost considered a local,” she said with a grin. “But yes, I grew to love it.”

“You married again?”

She nodded. “Yes, I married Steve when Sam was six. He’s been a great father to him.”

“He’s lucky,” I said, then winced at how that may have come across to her. “I didn’t mean that how it sounded.”

She smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes. “I know.”

The doc released my hand and declared his work done. He put some fancy bandaid on it that covered my entire palm, gave me a prescription for infection and went on to his next patient.

Laura nodded toward the door. “I’ll walk up with you,” she said, and the three of us headed back to the elevators to go find Ma. “Sam still wants to meet you,” she said once the elevator doors closed. “He said he can fly down, but I told him it has to be okay with you. I know it’s a shock for him too, but I’ve asked him to do this on your terms. He said he understood.”

Travis was right behind me, and I could feel the tension ease when Laura said that. I knew his concerns with Laura were about how her sudden reappearance in my life affected me, so her saying this all had to be on my terms was obviously a relief to him.

He put his hand on my back. “You feeling better?”

Whether he was asking if I felt better after the whole needle thing or because of what Laura just said, I wasn’t sure. But I answered both. “Much.”

The elevator doors opened, and as we walked to Ma’s room, I asked Laura if she’d talked to Ma much this last week.

“Every day,” she said. “She’s doing so much better.” Then Laura stopped walking. “Before we go in there”—she nodded to Ma’s room—“Charlie, you need to know that I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“That Ma is your mother,” she whispered. She looked sad, but there was a peacefulness in her eyes. “You said she was your mum, and you were right. I get that, and I’m not pretending anything otherwise.”

“I’m not pretending either.” I shrugged. “She is the only mother I’ve known. I’m sorry if that’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth.”

“She’s a wonderful person,” Laura said, getting teary. “And I thank God for her.”

I put my hand on her arm. I didn’t want to see her cry. “So do I.”

She blinked back her tears and smiled. “Let me know when you’re ready to meet Sam, and we’ll organise it, okay?” She let out a shaky breath, her eyes scanning my face. “You’re so much alike.”

George walked out of the room, pushing Ma in a wheelchair. Her doctor came out with them. “There you two are,” Ma said. “I was starting to think you got lost. How’s your hand?”

I held it up and showed her. “I’ll live.”

“Good to know. Come on,” Ma said, trying to push the wheels on the chair herself. “I’ve been waiting a week to leave. Even if I have to go out in this stupid chair.”

“Wait,” I said. “I have a surprise for you.” I’d almost forgotten about what Trav and I did this morning. I fished the keys to the new Cruiser out of my pocket and handed it straight to George. “This is for you.” Then I corrected, “Well, it’s not
yours
, it’s
ours.
” I waved my hand between all of us. “It belongs to the Station.”

George looked at the black key with the Toyota symbol on it, then looked at me. I think I’d shocked him into silence. “Charlie…”

I smiled at him. “Couldn’t have Ma goin’ home in the old ute. Just wouldn’t have it.”

Ma, still in the wheelchair, looked up at me. “Charlie, what did you do?”

I smiled at her. “Your new chariot awaits.”

Her eyes narrowed, her words short and sharp. “What did you do?”

“Something I should have done a long time ago.” I shrugged and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Now quit your moaning. I thought you wanted to leave.”

“Charles Sutton,” Ma said, starting to full-name me.

I put my hand up and stopped her. “Trav and I will call into the supermarket and the co-op before we go home. Did you need anything?”

Ma raised one who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are eyebrow at me. “Don’t think you’re gonna be fussin’ all over me when we get home. I feel just fine.”

Her doctor smiled at us. “She needs bed rest. Walking is fine, but she’s not to drive or lift anything, and I want to see her again in four weeks.”

Ma started grumbling, and George wheeled her off before she started swearing. The doctor sighed. “Well, she’s a lot livelier now.”

We could still hear her mumblin’ at George as they got into the elevator. Travis laughed, and even Laura was smiling. I grinned at the doctor. “That sounds like home to me.”

Grocery shopping with Travis was uneventful this time. Well, until we got to the car park. There was no little old lady in aisle seven wanting to perform an exorcism on him, thank God. He carried most things because of the stupid cut on my hand, and when we were loading the bags into the back of the ute, I’d put my hand on his shoulder.

That’s all. Just a simple touch. Not an intimate touch, not a term of endearment, not an embrace, just a touch.

Jokingly, I’d asked him if he wanted to go take his boots and socks off in the grass again, and he’d laughed and asked if I’d like to get another needle so he could let me face plant off the bed this time, and I’d touched his shoulder.

I’d been so complacent and so caught up in my I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude toward people who had an issue with me being gay that I just didn’t even think.

But there were six kids, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, in the car park who thought it was funny to call out words like ‘fag’ and ‘queer cock-suckers’. My first reaction was to turn around and face them. I wanted to give them a lesson in manners, but then I stopped.

Sure, they were only young, but even teenagers these days were near six foot tall. And we were outnumbered. Would I risk Travis getting hurt? Hell no. And for what? I didn’t give a shit what those kids thought.

What I cared about was Travis.

The group of profanity-yellin’ kids started to walk over to us.

“Just get in the car,” I said quietly, opening my door.

Trav climbed in behind the wheel, and we were gone before they were really anywhere near us. I mean, we weren’t threatened in any way, but Trav looked worried. “You okay?” I asked him. “They were just stupid kids.”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said, running his hand through his hair and exhaling through puffed cheeks. He was quiet until we called into the co-op and picked up our order of horse feed and chicken feed, and even then he didn’t say much. We filled the ute with fuel and we were headed home on the familiar Plenty Highway before he said what was on his mind.

He had that thinkin’ line between his eyebrows and was chewing his bottom lip.

“I’m sorry that happened,” he said.

“What? What the hell are you apologising for?” I couldn’t believe he said sorry.

Travis shrugged. “You’re just getting used to being out, and you’ve been tellin’ people if they don’t like it, they can get stuffed, basically.”

“Yeah. So?”

“Well, that was different.” Travis grimaced like he wasn’t getting the words right.

“It
was
different,” I agreed.

“
You
were different.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “Yeah. With Brian at the co-op, you told him you’d take your business somewhere else, and today buyin’ the new SUV, well, that sales guy only had to look at you wrong and you ripped him a new one.”

“Exactly.”

“And you told his boss you’d fly to Darwin to buy a Cruiser from somewhere else if you had to because of his homophobic piece-of-shit staff.”

I snorted. “I really wasn’t gonna fly to Darwin.”

He rolled his eyes. “I knew that, but he didn’t.”

“It’s different when I’m holding the money, Trav,” I explained. “It’s different with them because it involves a lot of money. I have it, they want it. That’s why I can stand my ground about it and tell ’em gay money is still money, Trav. If they’re gonna be homophobic assholes, I will take my business somewhere else. Pure and simple.” I sighed. “But those kids in the car park were different.”