Page 5 of Hopelessly Wild


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Shit. I can imagine them fighting. I turn the diary and look at the cover as though it’s more valuable than any diamond. I’m glad to be on this journey with them. To think this is the beginning of my family’s business. Monte Hotel’s birth. At some point in time, my parents changed it from motel to hotel.

19th January 1958

Albert is talking to me again.

I knew it wouldn’t last because he can’t keep his hands off me.

I stop reading and flick the page, then double-check the dates. It’s been more than a year since her last entry. What happened during that time?

18th February 1959

I intend to undertake a further year of study and do the Heidelberg Infectious Disease Course at Heidelberg Hospital.

It’s the only place that offers the course, and it’s in Melbourne.

I don’t know how to break the news to Albert.

Brenda wants to study midwifery because she wants a family and feels like it would help her. If Jonathon proposes beforehand, then she’s quitting.

Eight more weeks, and I’ll be a qualified nurse.

My father said I’d never finish.

I can’t wait to wave my certificate in his face if I see him.

They haven’t visited in over a year, so I won’t hold my breath.

The last thing he told me was just to be a good girl and marry Albert.

My guess? That’s the worst thing her father could’ve said.

29th April 1959

Mary smuggled in bottles of beer for Brenda and me to celebrate our graduation. We were so drunk that she had to keep coming to our rooms and shushing us as she could hear us all the way down the corridor.

Mary is mentoring Brenda because Mary has almost finished her midwifery course.

Brenda keeps crying about me leaving. She said it won’t be the same without me. Giving in to emotion, I allowed myself to cry because she’s more like a sister to me than a friend. I’ll miss her more than anyone.

Albert has finally come around to accepting I’m leaving. He admitted it might be for the best as he spends most of his time at the motel, getting it up and running again. In a way, it has been perfect for him. He finished his plumbing trade and can fix any of those issues in the building. We’ve barely seen each other with my studies and Albert working two jobs, so it won’t make a world of difference by my being in Melbourne. We’ll work out special times when he can catch the bus and visit on weekends, and his parents can manage the motel. His parents spend most of their days helping him, anyway.

I guess I’m a little jealous of the support of his parents. I know he’s doing it for us. I’m just not ready to commit to him. Some days I see him as the one. But when he becomes frustrated by my ambition to have a career, I wonder if he’s the right person for me.

Yet, I can’t imagine myself with anyone else.

Or anyone at all.

I close the diary and take a deep breath. I know how this story ends, and yet I’m nervous to read on. Pushing up, I find the bottle of folic acid tablets and down one with water. My bladder is ready to burst. I slip on my shoes and trudge through the muddy soil in slow, exaggerated steps. I want to bathe. Hopefully, I can get down to the stream with most of the flood water filtering in the opposite direction toward the river.

Scanning in all directions before I squat, I let out a sigh because this baby has me peeing far more frequently than I want to.

Something rustles in the undergrowth nearby, so I rush back to the hut, kicking my shoes off, and doing my best to reseal the netting around the doorway. Mud flecks dot my calves, and I don’t care because I need to know what happens next.

11th November 1959

One of the few weekends I returned to Adelaide, Albert proposed, surprising me with a ring and flowers. He got down on one knee and asked me like you would ask someone if they wanted a cup of tea.

I saw it coming because he keeps asking me what I’m going to do when I finish. Where will I work?

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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