Roadside Sisters (36 page)

‘I sincerely hope he has,’ Meredith replied. ‘I trust it’s someone with a lot of patience in the bedroom department. You know, I sometimes used to do sudokus in my head while he was going at it for . . . hours, it seemed. I was quite good at it. I get my talent for numbers from Edith. I wonder if she ever played bridge in her mind while she was having sex with Bernie.’

Meredith’s musing silenced everyone for a good few kilometres.

‘My sex life needs a makeover,’ Nina declared as she was overtaking a milk tanker on the highway. ‘I’ve decided that I have to get over being so selfconscious. After three kids, this is my body. Get used to it!’

‘Absolutely!’ agreed Meredith. ‘But remember that it’s
you
who has to get used to it, not Brad. He’s a very attractive man, and he would have had a lot of opportunities around the football club if he wanted to get off with some young thing. But he loves you! And why wouldn’t he? You’re a sexy woman. That Zoran would have raced you off on Saturday night if he’d had the chance.’

‘No!’ Nina squealed. ‘He’s young enough to be my—’

‘Toy boy?’ interrupted Meredith. ‘You’re not as old and unattractive as you think you are. The first thing you should do is put a lock on your bedroom door, to keep those sons of yours out.’

‘Yeah,’ Annie piped up. ‘Let me tell you, Nina, of course they’re repulsed by the idea of you and Brad having sex. They’re teenagers, that’s their job. But that’s no reason to stop doing it. Anyway, they’re probably too busy lusting over pictures of Paris Hilton.’

‘Don’t, don’t! Marko’s still got a Spiderman doona!’

‘And Spiderman’s shagging Kirsten Dunst, don’t forget!’ laughed Annie.

‘
La, la, la, doo, doo, doo!
Not listening!’ Nina stuck a finger in her ear.

‘So, this brings us neatly to the question of Matty.’ Meredith offered Annie a lolly.

‘I’ve gone off him a bit.’

‘That’s only because he wouldn’t bonk you on the first night!’ charged Nina. ‘You know, Annie, at last you might’ve met a decent old-fashioned guy who wants to romance you.’

‘And you’re so suspicious of men who don’t want to fall into bed with you in the first five minutes . . .’ Meredith took Nina’s cue for some plain talk. ‘You should give him a chance. I liked him. He’s not “Mr Excitement”, sure, but there’s something so . . . dependable and kind about him. He’s lovely to look at too. Don’t let that man slip through your fingers so easily.’

Annie shifted her bottom on her fallow pillow. ‘Maybe . . .’ she mused. ‘Maybe . . .’

They stopped at Ballina, piled out to have their photo taken in front of the Big Prawn, and headed off again.

‘WELCOME TO BYRON BAY’.

The headlights of the sturdy RoadMaster Royale lit up the road sign and Meredith, Annie and Nina whooped with joy. They’d made it! Two thousand kilometres, nine nights, millions of mosquitoes, one black bream and a dead feral pig later . . . and they had arrived.

Old Swivel Hips was gyrating under the streetlights as they all sang loudly: ‘
Well, it’s one for the money, Two for the show, Three to get ready, Now go, cat, go!
’

‘Here, turn here!’ called Annie. ‘First Sun Holiday Park—this is the place you booked, isn’t it, Nina?’

Nina swung the vehicle off the main street, halted at the park’s boom gates and jumped down from the driver’s seat. This was a ritual she was well used to by now. She handed over the forty-two dollars in cash at the fluoro-lit site office and in
return received a pin code for the toilet block and a campsite number.

Soon the van was cosily parked between two rigs of equal bulk in pole position right in front of Main Beach. The RoadMaster heaved, sighed and settled into the grass. Nina plugged into the electricity grid and the unit hummed with cheery hospitality.

Nina, Annie and Meredith ran to the wooden railing edging the ocean and leaned over it to breathe in the salty breeze sweeping across Cape Byron. It was dark by now, but the sound of waves crashing on the beach below was exhilarating enough. At the end of the beach, just out of sight, the lighthouse blinked a cautious welcome to the most easterly point of the continent of the Great South Land.

The first stop was the shower block, and the second the laundry. With spirits restored by washing powder, body gel, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, moisturiser and a change of clothes, the company was in the mood for a celebration.

Meredith had set the table on the concrete apron of their campsite and laid it with a good Irish linen cloth. Nina had thrown together a platter of tinned vine leaves, salsa dip, jars of pickled asparagus, marinated fetta and a packet of water cracker biscuits she’d unearthed from a cupboard. Annie had fetched the second-last chilled bottle of champagne from the fridge. They stood around the table and raised fine crystal flutes etched with stalks of wheat.

‘Well, girls, we did it!’ cheered Nina. ‘Here’s to us. To Byron or Bust!’

‘Can anyone join in this celebration?’

Nina swung her head at the sound of the familiar voice from the shadows.

‘BRAD! Ohmigod, Brad!’ she cried and made a leap for his open arms. ‘What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?’

‘He rang while you were still in the shower.’ Annie grinned.

Brad stepped into the light, his arms thrown around Nina and his head bent to kiss her neck. Annie looked at Meredith. Did Nina have any idea of how lucky she was to have such a big handsome husband holding her tight? Meredith laughed and threw her hands up in disbelief. Nina’s long-winded campaign of whingeing and complaining had apparently been vanquished by a cuddle and a kiss.

‘I knew you’d be here tonight,’ said Brad. ‘Isn’t the wedding tomorrow?’

Nina’s answer was to burst into tears.

‘Not exactly the reception I was expecting,’ he laughed.

‘Did you bring the boys? How are they? Are they here?’

‘Nup, they’re at home with Mum. It’s just us, so grab your things, we’re staying at “Rae’s on Watego’s” tonight. The Mirabella Penthouse.’

‘You’re not serious?’ Nina gasped. The hotel was rated as one of the Top 25 in the world by
Conde Nast Traveller
magazine. Nina had tucked the fact away after reading about it in the dentist’s rooms while she was waiting for Jordan to have his braces removed. The idea that she might stay there one day had been an impossible dream.

‘Yep! Come on. We’re having dinner overlooking the beach. And tomorrow, you’re booked into the spa. You could do with a bit of pampering after your adventure. Did you have an adventure?’

‘Oh, Brad, you have no idea!’ Nina sniffed.

After kisses all round, and promises to meet for a pre-wedding drink back at the van the next day, Nina and Brad headed off.

‘Wasn’t that wonderful?’ Meredith dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

‘You old softie, Meredith,’ teased Annie.

‘I never said I wasn’t the romantic type,’ she sniffed with indignation. ‘It’s just not something I care to display to all and sundry.’

Annie’s BlackBerry rang. She snatched it up from the table and briskly walked to the back of the van. Meredith noted that she was waving her arms and then calling: ‘Over here!’

Before Meredith could make sense of what she was up to, another head appeared around the corner out of the darkness.

‘Hello, Mum.’

‘Jarvis! Oh, my . . .’ Meredith stood, overcome with emotion, unable to move.

Jarvis, tall and slim like his mother, walked to her, slipped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. Meredith laid her head on his chest and sobbed heartily.

‘How did you know where I was?’ she asked, snuffling into his shirtfront like a baby rabbit.

‘I took the liberty of nicking your phone and ringing Don.’ Annie was triumphant.

‘You weren’t that hard to find,’ said Jarvis. ‘Confederate flag—rather nice touch.’

Meredith noted that Jarvis now had a trace of an English accent.

‘Siggie’s booked us a table at a Thai restaurant down the road,’ he said. ‘We can sit outside. It’s brilliant to be back home! I’ve missed Australia and I’ve missed you too, Mum.’

Meredith howled some more and, after grateful kisses for Annie, she and Jarvis were gone too.

Annie took up the bottle of champagne, settled into a camp chair and propped her feet on the table. ‘Excellent! More for me!’ she said out loud before proceeding to drink the lot. She was relieved to be alone, at last.

Nina stood naked on the wet tiles of the bathroom floor. Her husband, up to his neck in bubbles and rose petals in the bathtub, whistled a low note of appreciation. She reached for the towel.

‘Don’t,’ he whispered. ‘Let me see.’

Nina breathed deeply to hold in her stomach. She placed her hands on her full hips and twirled slowly. The candlelight shone on the damp white skin of her rounded bottom and the glistening curves of her breasts.

‘Look at you. Just look at you,’ he said in wonderment. ‘How beautiful you are. I can’t believe you are my wife.’

That night, as the light of the waning moon stole in through the open balcony doors to caress the rumpled bedsheets, Nina remembered who she was. She was the wife of Brad; mother of Jordy, Anton and Marko. And, she reflected, that had bestowed upon her more happiness and contentment than any woman could expect in this world.

‘You’ve always been an inspiration to me, Mum,’ said Jarvis. He leaned in towards the candlelight and sipped at his lemon-grass tea.

Meredith marvelled again at how handsome he was. He was just twenty-two and, to her, still a boy. His thick, straight dark hair and fine bones had come from her side of the family. There was her mother Edith in the elegant arch of his eyebrows. His luxurious lashes, brown eyes and full mouth were Donald’s.

She thought of her husband with a twinge of guilt. Perhaps she hadn’t always been as charitable to him as she might have been. After all, he had been a good father. And married for almost thirty years. Men got less for murder, she reminded herself.

‘I should have been there for you more than I was. I can see that now,’ said Meredith quietly.

‘No! Don’t be ridiculous.’ Jarvis waved her away and Meredith recognised her own imperious gesture. ‘I loved hanging around the shop—all that great stuff you imported. I think I inherited my taste for beautiful things from you. You’d be depressed to see my hovel in Shepherd’s Bush, although I do have Egyptian
cotton bedsheets. But one day I mean to be sitting pretty in Holland Park, and you’ll be impressed then.’

‘I’m impressed now,’ said Meredith emphatically.

‘I know you are, but you know what I mean. You were always driven to make a success of yourself. I’m the same, and I’m proud to have inherited that from you.’

‘Thank you, darling. That means more than you know. But I don’t think Sigrid thinks of it that way.’ Meredith was slightly ashamed to be fishing for reassurance from her son on her mothering abilities, but couldn’t help herself.

‘Sigrid’s always had a chip on her shoulder,’ shrugged Jarvis. ‘Who knows why? If you’d been at home 24/7 baking cakes, I don’t think she would have turned out any different.’

‘What about this wedding tomorrow? Is she doing the right thing?’

‘I like Charlie. You’ll like her too. This is right for Siggie at the moment. It’s her life, she’s in love and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?’