Page 34 of Buried In Between

At home, he took Otis for a long walk, but abandoned it halfway. Today it evoked too many memories. It was a walk he often took with Emily where she’d make endless discoveries: beetles on leaves, insects in the air, birds singing in the treetops at dusk, and her little feet jumping across the rocks in the nearby creek. Resting back on his deck, he watched wild kangaroos scattered across his patch of grass. Much like Otis, Emily sometimes chased them too. These were scenes that usually provided him such comfort, tonight it seemed as if memories were everywhere.

A tsunami of emotions swirled inside Noah. People could laugh at him, could joke that he’d never travelled, but this place was where he belonged. This is what Emily would miss if she stayed in Brisbane. This outdoor lifestyle that country life provided. The lifestyle he could provide. He knew it was where he belonged. Isn’t this where Emily belonged, too?

He reached for the pad and pen where words swept across the page.

Single, alone and devastated

Heart sick, crisis created

House too quiet, loneliness is real

It’s impossible not to feel

Lost now, uncertainty abounds

His wounds real, know no bounds.

The second line didn’t work and he scratched it out, once, twice. No substitute words came. His mind blank. Perhaps a better sentence would come to him with a fresh, new day, tomorrow.

Molly and Dolly, the two brown puppies nipped at Ava’s feet but she stared at the computer screen. A message from Jamila still had the effect of stopping time. On this occasion, it was an email from a new account. Ava read that she’d secured a listing date and the matter was proceeding through the English court system. That was huge. Unlike Ava who could disappear without publicity, Jamila’s case generated great public interest as her husband was the patriarch of one the most wealthy and powerful families in Egypt. And then she’d left him. Without consent, without anyone’s knowledge, stealing away in the stealth of darkness with the children. Ava had too; she wasn’t passing judgment, but her case was different.

Ava had married the less important brother. But if not for Jamila, she’d never have had the confidence or means of getting out. Ava glanced at the few loose photographs beside her; the few she’d grabbed and shoved in her bag when they’d left. Rummaging around for something else, she’d found them yesterday in the spare room where she’d shoved them out of sight. A wave of melancholy hit her straight in the chest. Photos of a happy family doing normal things. Of her husband with his dashing good looks posing with newborn Ish. These were the entire memory of Ish’s childhood with Henry in one small, pathetic pile.

She showed them to Ish this morning, but he’d only glanced briefly and run off to play. Okay, she’d tried. It had to be important to talk about his father, hadn’t it? All the photos had done for her was dredge up old memories and, for a time, made her feel sick. Sick for the love she had for the man she married and how badly it had gone wrong. She batted away those feelings now. Regardless, Ish did have a father, so Ava vowed to try again with him another time.

Shooting out a quick email reply to Jamila, she didn’t delete the thread as she usually would, and then slammed the laptop lid shut and put the photographs away in a box and sat back. Her legs jiggled and she felt a nip to her ankle again and laughed.

‘You are naughty puppies.’ She scooped them each up in turn. The puppies had grown and were crawling around now. They’d added another lovely element to their home. Ish adored them and took his responsibility of caring for them seriously. Ava would never forget —if they’d remained in Egypt, Ish would never have had a dog, let alone a dog with puppies, or if he did, the task of caring for them would have been relegated to a servant. Or they might have been destroyed, unless they were valuable. Ava shivered.

She adored the dogs too. The house had a sense of home with their mewling noises and even with their messes. Looking around with a sense of satisfaction, she again confirmed she was doing the right thing.

Ava paced the circumference of the house unable to sit still. She paused at the kitchen. She’d intended to start pulling out the old cabinets in preparation for the new to be installed. Together with Noah, they’d agreed it would be renovated next. But Noah hadn’t shown up these last two days. Was it because of how she’d behaved at the picnic? At the sight of that man dominating his little family, her world had shrunk and she became that small, unimportant woman once more. It had been a horrible feeling, moreover, she’d taken great offense at the treatment she’d witnessed.

Ah, she didn’t want to be thinking about these things all the time. Another look at the kitchen and she could simply get started. But then she spied her riding boots by the back door. She’d go for a ride!

Saddling up Honey, Ava noticed the large satellite dish on Clive’s roof. Funny. Their internet was patchy but reliable, really, for the country. Why would her neighbour need such a powerful connection?

With the wind in her hair, Ava’s troubles disappeared with each fast gallop. Or at the very least, blew away in her wake. Ish was at a play date with the boy he’d met at school orientation. She’d agonized over letting him go but he’d been insistent and she wanted him to have a normal life, right? She had to get used to them being apart, but it was the first time since they’d fled, and well, it was tough. There had been so much change and adjusting was hard. Plus, he was off to big school soon and she’d have to get used to being alone and releasing him into the world, a safe world she hoped.

She rode fast and as her mind freed her senses came alive.

Unlike the other day when it had taken them at least twenty minutes to reach the pond, today she arrived in only minutes. She pulled Honey up gently in the most glorious spot that was illuminated by the sun’s bright morning rays. The pond glistened, casting shadows onto the land. Without dismounting, Ava let the horse drink generously at the water’s edge. Colour sparkled in her direction; she hadn’t been dreaming the other day. Jumping down, she loosened the horse’s harness and wrapped it around the nearest tree branch.

Ava walked away from the water towards one of the mounds. She trailed her fingers in the pebbly dirt. Behind the pile was a makeshift bunker she hadn’t noticed the other day; it was like an old-fashioned lean-to. For shelter? Standing at the frame, she couldn’t see inside, it was too dark but her eyes gradually adjusted. The structure went back a metre or so, the timber stumps leaning dangerously to the left. Something scuttled at the side and she jumped back, her heart thumping. Nothing but empty space and dirt in there. The corrugated iron roof was covered with branches and leaves, twigs and seed pods. Someone had once taken time and effort to build the little hut. But why?

Ava chose a spot to sit and moved aside the debris from the base of the first mound. Like the shed, fallen leaves and branches covered the pile. It wasn’t dirt, but rather more pebble-like rocks of various sizes. This was definitely the result of a digging. But what had the person been digging for in this spot? What had they found?

Wishing she’d brought her kit with her, Ava ran her fingers through the first pile. Sparkles of colour occasionally bounced up at her and reflected in the sun’s light. Holding a pebble up, she saw distinctive blues and greens hidden within the rock. Wriggling over to the water, she dunked it once, and quickly and slid her finger over the specimen. The clear section revealed a deeper set of colours. Putting that one down to dry properly, she applied the old-fashioned spit test. Yep, it stuck to her finger. There was something here, she knew it. The coincidences kept building up. Were these simply opals? That in itself would be an incredible find, but she sensed more. Were these fossils, too? And given the depth of colour, she knew it was possible they were opalised fossils.

Under her shirt she wore a white singlet so she ripped off her long-sleeved cotton tee and spread it out on the dirt. Methodically, she sifted through the material, occasionally finding something she declared worthy of further investigation and placed it onto her pale pink shirt. After she had collected some specimens, she paused holding one up to the light. She examined it closely, held it one way, and then the other. With the distinct shape of a shell, ridges were prominent on one side.

Ava jumped up and spun around as a twig snapped behind her, going off like a gunshot. Her heart raced as the clip clop of hooves signalled an approaching rider. Bending down, she quickly spread her tee shirt over the small pile she’d put aside.

Honey nickered and moved towards the sound rather than away from it.

‘It’s a beauty, this spot, isn’t it?’ Clive called out. He was on Marmalade, and on her land, but she guessed she was riding his horse and rules were laxer in the country. A little part of her was indignant at her precious time being interrupted.

Nonetheless in response to his hearty greeting, she smiled up at her neighbour as he stopped near her.

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