Meredith had barely looked in a mirror, and was in the same outfit she’d worn yesterday. She could finally understand those women who took to the desert with a water bottle and a string of camels.
Annie had one eye out the window for the tail-lights of a trailer with a tinnie. It was a hopeless mission. There was a string of national parks up the coast to Sydney—they could be in any one of them. But then, she reasoned, she knew where Matty worked and could always call him back in Melbourne. Except she wanted to see him again with bare legs, his hair smelling of salt—not sitting behind a desk in a collar and tie. She remembered holiday romances from the past and the bare-chested boys she had watched swing from the riverbank on ropes hanging from the branches of peppercorn trees. They were mythical creatures—tanned, heroic—all worthy of endless romantic fantasies.
When she later saw them in the schoolyard in drab grey and navy blue uniform, clod-hopping shoes and hair slicked straight, it was as if they had fallen to earth. The spell had been broken.
Nina jammed on the brakes and everyone lurched forward. She peered at the map—Pebbly Beach, Pretty Beach, Merry Beach . . . For the life of her she couldn’t remember which one was the venue for the surprise sunset cocktail party. Bugger! This was not like her—she had an almost photographic memory. It drove her family mad.
‘I want to see the surfing kangaroos,’ declared Annie, who had been reading the brochures again and become unofficial tour guide. ‘They’re at Pebbly Beach, so let’s go there.’
Pebbly Beach? Hmm . . . that seemed to ring a bell with Nina.
‘Surfing kangaroos? Surely not,’ scoffed Meredith.
‘That’s what it says here,’ Annie responded, shoving the brochure at her.
By late afternoon they were indeed marvelling at a mob of eastern grey roos grazing only metres from the shoreline at a wide and lovely beach. Only it didn’t look like any of them were about to hit the surf any time soon. And it didn’t look like Matty and Zoran would be joining them. The campground was full now and they weren’t anywhere Nina could see. She was cursing herself. Maybe they were at Pretty Beach . . . or was it Merry? It was like trying to remember the names of the Seven Dwarves. Oh well, Nina sighed, Snow White would just have to wait a while longer for her prince.
After walking across the rocks and poking at various starfish and crabs in tidal pools, they returned to the van and set up camp. Meredith and Nina were both at the toilet block taking a shower and Annie was wrestling with the annexe when the phone call came from Corinne: ‘Annie! You’ve called at exactly the right time! There’s no-one in this whole Sydney rat’s nest I trust anymore. I’ve got paparazzi camped outside the front door. I’ve had to take the phone off the hook. Malcolm’s away in Europe. I’d love to see you. But you’ll have to come here. No matter where I go, I’ll be followed.’
The plan was simple. Nina would drive the RoadMaster to Corinne’s place at Double Bay and go in the back gate; they would have dinner and park there for the night. ‘I can’t promise you much to eat. I can’t seem to drag my sorry arse out of bed,’ Corinne moaned.
Annie reassured her that the three of them would come and commandeer the kitchen. ‘That’d be fab,’ she sniffed. ‘And it’ll be good to see Nina . . . and Meredith. It’s time we forgot about all that stuff in the past. Anyway, I need a bit of TLC from old friends. Maybe we can all get blind and sing a few gospel songs in honour of my demise.’ Annie rang off and wondered how she’d break the news to Meredith.
After another five minutes of wrangling the stupid . . . fucking . . . ridiculous . . . annexe, Annie heard a nasty metallic snap and the ping of a bolt hitting aluminium. Now she would also have to break the news to Nina that she’d busted the annexe. Which one of her companions was going to be more pissed off with her was hard to gauge.
‘There’s no time to fix it before dark,’ said Nina as, hands on hips, she surveyed the limp awning.
‘A bolt snapped off. I heard it,’ said Annie.
‘Let’s just roll the thing up for now