AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay. Lemme just check the weather radar. It’s still overcast out there, but the wind might determine if we have to leave now.”
Splendid idea.
“Yes, yes. Sorry, I didn’t think of that.”
I didn’t think of anything when I was stressed, apparently. Not in cyclones. Not on rocking boats. Tully thought clearly and rationally all the time, and all my mind could do was gather enough synapses for me to hold on to the seat while the boat rocked.
“Come and have a look,” Tully said. “It’ll make you feel better. Temp is twenty-four degrees. Humidity is at sixty-three.”
He held his hand out for me and put his arm around me when I stood in front of the radar. A rain band covered the Top End, shades of blues and patches of greens meaning light to moderate rainfalls expected in the next hour or so. “Westerly wind speeds of ten to fifteen knots,” I said. “Is that okay?” I knew what those numbers meant, but not what it meant to being on an actual boat in the middle of it.
“We need to leave by the time this comes in,” Tully said, pointing to the deepening trough on the radar. “According to this, swells outside are at a metre already, and if we leave it too late, they’ll be two metres, and you won’t wanna be in that.”
My stomach rolled. I didn’t want to be in this now.
He squeezed my shoulder. “We need to be gone by ten, okay?”
I checked my watch. It was almost six thirty in the morning. Three and a half hours? “Easy.”
He put on his boots, then took my wrist and looked at my watch. “Okay, before your watch overheats, we need to get you onto dry land.”
“Are there crocodiles?”
He gave me a sad smile and shook his head. “Nope.”
I was almost certain he was just saying that.
He put his hand to my chest, to see if he could actually feel my heart thumping; I was sure of it. “You okay?”
I nodded with more conviction than I felt. “Yes. Let’s get this stupid weather box on its stupid stand so we can leave.”
He helped me off the boat, then helped me along the jetty, all because my legs weren’t connected to my brain, apparently. Even on dry land, it felt as if my knees would give way.
Tully held my elbow, trying not to laugh. “You good?”
“My legs have lost all structural integrity.” My left knee wobbled right on cue and almost brought me undone.
He laughed as he helped me stay upright. “Walking helps. Come on, jelly legs.”
We walked to the gate in the fence. Well, Tully walked; I wobbled like a newborn foal. And Tully put me straight to work.
He really was very good at distracting me. He knew exactly what I needed to get me out of my head. The frame the weather box stood on needed extra bracing, so he sent me in search of some branches or driftwood with strict instructions to not go too far.
He needn’t have worried about that.
I wasn’t keen on going too far at all. The very last thing I wanted to stumble upon was a crocodile nest in some shrub. There wasn’t much in the way of vegetation to pick from, but Cyclone Hazer had made a mess, which made picking out some branches and twigs much easier.
I came back to the yard just as Tully was stomping a metal peg into the ground. All that was left of where the base had been fixed into the ground were two pegs, and he was adding a third.
“Found it by the fence,” he said as he used the heel of his boot to stomp it down.
“Be careful,” I urged. “Skewering your heel with a rusted metal spike would be extremely low on my idea of fun.”
He laughed. “I got trusty boots. And no sledgehammer.” He grunted with the last stomp and panted, his hands on his hips. “But if I can get the frame attached to the base, make it sturdier, and we are good to go.”
I dumped my armful of sticks. “You’re going above and beyond what is expected.”
He picked up the first longer stick. “Well, they’re gonna hafta come out and replace it anyway, but at least if we can get some kinda accurate reading, then comin’ out here weren’t for naught.” He shrugged. “And if this stand falls over as soon as we leave, I don’t give a fuck.”
