Page 4

‘A walk?’ The three girls spoke almost in unison.

‘Where to, Sandra?’ Kane asked.

‘I’m walking the Larapinta Trail.’ Sandra sat up straight and her smile was wide. ‘The end-to-end walk.’

***

Sandra Porter sat back and looked at her three daughters. The looks on their faces varied from shock on Ellie’s to understanding on her sensitive Emma’s. Dru, as usual, was an enigma, but she knew her youngest daughter felt a lot more than she ever showed to the world.

Sandra had known the family would be surprised and that was’nt a bad thing. The girls had supported her through the hard times after Peter’s death, and it hadn’t been until the truth had come out, and her conviction that he had been murdered had been proven true, that Sandra had started on the long, slow road to healing. She knew the girls still worried about her, and had been prepared for this reaction.

Sandra was at a crossroads in her life. Her share portfolio had taken off and she had some serious decisions to make about her investments. Peter’s death and the subsequent investigation had left her in a very comfortable position, but she hated spending it on herself. Frank Nichols, her financial adviser in the city, rolled his eyes every time she gave money to the girls.

‘You would get much better returns if you follow my investment strategy,’ he said every time she had a Zoom meeting with him. ‘You need to put some of your money into lithium stocks.’

‘The best return is seeing my girls comfortable. I like seeing them spend it.’

It was time to make some changes and make a life for herself, perhaps being the matriarch of the family. She smiled. Matriarch? That made her sound ninety.

Ryan caught her smile and he grinned back at her. He was a good man, and she was proud to have him as a stepson, and a member of their family.

Over the past few months, Sandra had accepted that a gap was growing between them, but she knew it was nothing to be worried about. The girls’ phone calls were few and far between these days, and she tried not to call them too often. The last thing she wanted was to seem needy. She knew they didn’t mean to neglect her, and there was no conflict in the family. In the increasing time she’d spent alone lately, Sandra had spent many nights thinking back to the early years of her marriage to Peter. When the girls were little and they were building up the mango farm, there’d been very little contact with her parents and Peter’s family.

That was life. And the family life cycle continued as families grew into their own entities.

Her girls—and Ryan—were creating their own lives, families and careers. When the girls were growing up, they had seen their grandparents in Darwin at Christmas and on family occasions, and that had been about three times a year at best. Each of her sons-in-law had no family—except for Jeremy. His family was in Sydney, but they were estranged. She had been friends with Kane’s mother several years ago, but Susan had passed away. Connor had no family either, and Ryan’s parents had both passed. Sandra tried to be a mother to the boys as well.

She grinned. Boys? They were all strapping men in their thirties, but each of them cared for her girls, and Ryan, her stepson, loved Dee. She was blessed that they all lived fairly close.

Emma, her eldest, and Jeremy both worked at the main hospital in Darwin. Dru and Connor had their own security business in the city and a beautiful apartment overlooking the park on Darwin Harbour. Ellie and Kane, and her adorable grandson, James, lived on the family farm that Kane had inherited from his mother, Susan. It had gone full circle; when Kane and Ellie had married, the Porter mango farm came back to the family. Ryan and Dee lived a considerable distance away on their cattle station, but still close enough to visit.

Accepting as she was of her girls’ personal lives, that didn’t stop Sandra worrying about them. Ellie was busy with James and her helicopter flying contract, and now she had a new baby on the way to think about.

Sandra had been worried about Emma lately; she knew she wasn’t happy, but like Dru, Emma was a private person and anything that was bothering her, she would keep to herself, but hopefully share with Jeremy.

Dru was just Dru, and the strongest of her girls. Dru had been in her mid-teens when Peter had been murdered, and she’d gone off the rails for a while. Sandra carried guilt over that; Dru had needed her, but Sandra had been so lost in her own grief she had let her youngest daughter roam free.

She glanced over at Dru and Connor and smiled. Dru had married a strong man who loved her very much.

‘Mum! Don’t just sit there grinning like a Cheshire cat, tell us what this walk is!’ Ellie’s question opened the dam, and a torrent of questions followed.

‘Who are you going with?’ Dru asked. ‘And what’s this “end-to end” mean?’

‘That’s a long trek, Sandra,’ Connor said. He turned to Dru. ‘I walked the Larapinta Trail with Greg when we left the Federal Police. It was cathartic. Sandra, it’s incredible, but are you sure you’re fit enough? It’s over two hundred ks, isn’t it?’

‘Two hundred and twenty-three, and twelve days of trekking. And end-to end means just that. You can do partial treks or you can do the lot. I’m doing the full walk.’

‘My God, Mum. You can’t walk that far! I couldn’t walk that far and you’re—’ Ellie’s eyes were wide and she folded her arms.

‘And I’m a lot older that you,’ Sandra added sweetly.

Ellie grunted. ‘You know what I mean. And don’t you have to carry everything? A tent and all your food? I read about that trek in one of the tourist magazines at the airport. I couldn’t think of anything worse.’

Sandra ignored Ellie as Connor asked another question. ‘Which way are you going? East-west, or west to east?’

‘The company I’m about to book with recommend the east to west walk.’

‘Phew, you haven’t booked it yet. We can talk some sense into you,’ Ellie interrupted.