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But the cars became more numerous the closer they got to town and Kee began to sweat every time a new one appeared.
“It’ll be okay.” Wazza touched her arm. She was being stupid, she knew it. Rolling her shoulders, she tried to relax. Then she glanced at Wazza and saw his pinched mouth and tight eyes and knew he was just as worried as she was.
They came to the town limits, passing a sign proclaiming that the Normanton newsagent sold Gold Lottery tickets.
More cars now, one every twenty seconds or so, and then they were into the town proper. Wazza took a right-hand turn, away from the sign pointing to the Main Road.
He zigzagged his way through the streets, Kee craning her neck around to look at passing cars, trying to discern their make, or see into the driver’s face. Was that Bruno? It looked like him. But they were past that car and turning into another side street before Kee could take another look. In the end, she glimpsed four vehicles exactly like his, and two more men she was sure were Bruno. Then she saw the distinctive red-and-blue lights atop a white cruiser farther ahead of them, and she nearly ducked down in fear, but the squad car turned a corner and was gone. Neither of them spoke for the whole ten minutes as they traversed the town. Her nerves were a wreck by the time they passed through Normanton and out the other side, on the road to the coast. God, was it going to be this bad every time they went through a town? What about when she reached Darwin? Was she going to jump at every shadow, check every car that passed her on the street? After only two days out of civilization, and she already preferred the isolation of the bush.
“I was sure I saw Bruno,” she muttered out of the side of her mouth.
“Me, too,” he replied. Then he let out a gust of air and banged his hand on the steering wheel. “I think we need to get rid of this car,” he muttered, half under his breath.
This time, she didn’t disagree with him. She felt like she had a beacon on her forehead, broadcasting her whereabouts to whoever was interested.
“Are we there yet?” Benni’s voice came from behind Kee. She’d removed the earphones and was staring expectantly at the dwindling town flashing by on either side.
“Nearly, bunny.” Kee reached around and patted Benni’s knee.
“Can we buy a new blue hat soon?”
Kee sighed. That child was never going to let that hat go.
“I’ll look for one for you,” Wazza replied diplomatically.
While not a main highway, the road to Karumba was still bitumen, and more than a few cars passed them by, keeping Kee’s anxiety levels high. She swiveled her head to see a couple of cars following along behind them. But they were too far back to see any details clearly, and Kee decided she was going to go crazy if she kept expecting every car to be Bruno.
Eventually, Wazza took a right-hand turn and then a left, and houses began to appear haphazardly along the edge of the road, most of them the older style, small, fibro cement places that looked more like fishing shacks than anything else. Some had a few scrubby trees in the front yard, but most had parched, brown lawn and not much else. A few kids hung out along the gravel edge of the road on their bicycles, watching the cars drive by with little interest. Now and then, Kee caught glimpses of a swathe of water off to their right through the trees. Wazza had said this was a coastal town, so that must be the Gulf. He’d also warned them the water was full of crocodiles and the locals didn’t swim in the ocean. What a waste. Suddenly, Wazza slowed and turned off into a wide gravel driveway. A large sign with the word POOL was the only indication that this was the entrance to a tourist park.
He pulled up around the back of a wooden building bleached almost white by the sun, with OFFICE scrawled on the front door.
“You both wait in the car,” he said, not taking his eyes off the small house. “I’ll sort us out some showers.” He didn’t need to say that the less she was seen in public, the better.
“I want to get out,” Benni whined.
“Soon. We’re going to have a nice shower in a minute,” Kee soothed.
Wazza was gone for an eternity, or so it seemed. Even though he’d parked the car in the shade, it was heating quickly without the air conditioning going. Kee opened her door to let in some air.
Then he was striding toward the car, long legs eating away the ground, face hidden beneath his hat as he came toward the car. Kee willed him to lift his head, she needed to see his face to make sure they were still okay. Still safe. Opening the door, Wazza held up two keys fixed to a large piece of wood each: one pink and one blue, and grinned.
“Your shower awaits, my ladies.” He handed her the pink key and slid into the driver’s seat. “We can use the laundry facilities as well, I paid extra.”
Kee fleetingly thought it might be nice to spend the night here, tucked up in one of the air-conditioned cabins, able to eat off a table instead of an old log. Admittedly, they were very rustic, and probably basic inside, but she quickly banished the idea. It wasn’t worth the risk.
Wazza drove down the maze of internal roads through the tourist park, eventually arriving at a squat, brick building somewhere in the middle. He backed the car in behind a row of shrubs that at one stage might’ve been an attempt at a hedge but had now grown wild. She applauded his attempt at hiding her car from view.
“Are you ready to take a shower?” he asked Benni.
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” they both chorused back, and then filled the car with their gleeful laughter.
Sobering, she unclipped Benni from her seat, and watched her daughter wander around the car, staring at all the new sights and sounds. She wondered what Benni made of all this. The constant traveling, sleeping rough in a different place every night. She seemed to take most of it in her stride. She was a happy kid, resilient and outgoing. But she’d taken to carrying Dolly with her wherever she went, and right now she was clutched tightly in her arms as Benni explored around the car. Kee’s heart shifted in her chest at what she was asking her poor daughter to do; what she was putting her through. She needed this to be over, so she could finally give Benni the stable environment she needed.
“Take your time,” Wazza said. “I’ll take a quick shower, then the manager said there was a convenience store just down the road where I can buy the essentials. And I might ask around to see if anyone is selling a car, as well.”
“Really? What would we do with this one?” She was suddenly, stupidly, attached to her car. It’d got her this far, after all, even if it had let her down at the bore site. But then, if it hadn’t broken down when it did, she wouldn’t have met Wazza.
“We could possibly leave it somewhere. A storage shed or something. Come back for it later, once…things settle down. Or sell it, but that might not be a good idea.”
