Chapter 5 - Four Day Interlude
After a first night of loving Emily and Vic settled into a comfortable and almost entirely private existence. They both went out with their groups of friends and family, sometimes alone, sometimes together, but the rest of the time, apart from storytelling with Anne, it was just them and they desired no one else.
Vic’s mother and sister had come up from Alice Springs to welcome his return. He introduced Emily, they had all had a meal together and she liked them both. Now, at times, when she went off with her family and friends, Vic too would go off with his too.
But these hours of separateness were minor interludes in a private world that contained only them. Each evening, as dusk fell, they would walk on the beach and partake of a brief meal with others, but it never lasted long. They both most desired to be in a place of solitude with just the other. So they would return together to Alan’s apartment and begin by linking their bodies and holding the other close. Then they would talk, tell of memories and stories as the night hours went by. Sometimes they shared a drink together, a beer or a pot of tea, sometimes they snacked on food with which Vic stocked the fridge on the afternoons when Emily was with Anne; occasionally they watched something on TV together. But mostly they shared of themselves with each other.
The flat was ideal, private and secluded on an upper floor with a view of sky and distant sea to the north, and with no sense of neighbours. They would talk until sleep overcame them and they would sleep with their arms around each other. Sometimes they would wake and make love again, but mostly it was the companionship they most treasured.
Emily told Vic of her days and nights in the empty cell, with only the crocodile spirit as her company, and how she had ached for a man’s arms to hold her. Then she had thought that any man would do; now she knew this man was the one she really wanted.
Vic told her of the solitary place in his mind when he walked, mile after mile, day after day, counting his steps to measure progress. As he walked what he most wanted was to see her face and bathe in her smile. Now he had all that and more and was utterly content. Then they moved to telling each other stories from their lives before.
Vic told of his childhood in an Alice Springs town camp, his love of football and of the determination of his mother and sister that he become something more than a town camp bum or even a champion footballer; something that would give him success that would carry through to his full years, even something he could pass on to his family.
So he had a dream, an aerial work business, both the flying and the machine maintenance, with helicopters at its centre but maybe expanding into fixed wing aircraft as time went by. His first helicopter had been a start; he had almost paid off the loan and was starting to earn his own money now. But first he had to recover from the setback of losing that machine. He hoped the insurance would give him money for something newer without too much debt.
Emily told of her life in England, her riding and studies, her desire to learn about animal behaviour and early human history, to visit the famous archaeological sites of Africa and Australia, and to learn of other cultures from around the world. She told him of her former loves and boyfriends including Edward and David, but skirting around Mark. So four days passed together, wrapped in their own private world.
One day, as they were talking, she could see that Vic had a story to tell her which was on the tip of his tongue but he was stalling over it. She asked him what it was about. He said that there was a story about Mark he was going to tell her, but then he had hesitated, wondering if it was a no go area.
Emily took a deep breath, trying to think what she should say. Mark’s name had only been mentioned between them on the first day, something about him helping Vic escape through a crocodile, a half told tale which came out as part of the tangle of facts when they first met again. It had not been returned too.
She herself, no longer Susan but Emily, tried to keep separate from the Mark memories. But Mark had been a part of her life too; Vic would not be here without him. She needed to find a way to allow Vic to keep alive the good memories of his friend and for her to also find a way to think about him without it threatening her fragile peace of mind.
So she said. “I am not ready for you tell me stories about Mark yet. I know he was your friend and he was much more than that for Susan.
But I must keep myself in another place from that time, a place with only you, and not him. There is a danger for me in even thinking about him so I think it is better if I do not think or talk about him, perhaps one day I will be able to do so with affection and nothing more.”
Vic nodded; it was true, this story told of danger in his friend, a spirit which neither he nor others could control. He wished he had not spoken lest this man had the power to harm his Emily-Susan still.
On the first day together, the day after the trial, Emily made Vic show her his leg. She had examined it, doctor like, feeling the lump in the bone where healing was happening. She looked closely at the bend where the bones joined.
She said, in her best no nonsense manner, “Vic, tomorrow you must go to the hospital and make arrangements for that to be reset straight. Talk to Sandy, she knows people there and will ensure you get someone good to fix it.”
She could see Vic wanting to procrastinate. “I will, I just don’t want to stop being with you any time soon. Surely it can wait for a couple weeks.”
Emily shook her head, “No, the healing of the bone is well advanced. Each day it gets stronger and it will do more damage to reset. It needs to happen next week, sooner is better. You are too important to me to be left with a crippled leg. Please do it for me if you won’t do it for yourself.”
So, the next day, the Friday, Vic went to the hospital and met with the best orthopaedic surgeon. There was a gap in his surgery list for Monday so he was booked in. He would need to stay in hospital for two or three days after the surgery until they were happy that the incision site was not getting infected and would heal well. Then he would have to spend about a month on crutches until the reset bones, which would be joined with a metal plate, began to knit. But, if he followed directions fully, the surgeon said he was confident that, within three months, Vic’s leg would be as good as new.
Vic had never had an operation and felt nervous, but both Emily and Sandy, who had come along too, assured him it would seem like next to nothing for a man who had walked on a broken leg for hundreds of miles. In the end he held up his hands in surrender and it was all agreed.
So they had their four nights and the days in between them. It was too precious to waste. A couple times it was on the tip of Vic’s tongue to propose marriage; he loved this girl so totally.
But he decided he would get his leg fixed first. Then, once he could run and jump, he would bring her to stand next to the ocean and pick her up and carry her across the sand and into the milky sea. Then he would ask her the question.
Emily delighted in and returned his love. In her own mind their future together was sealed, she felt she had made this pact with God for his safe return, it had been her unspoken prayer for a month in her cell until the debris of his helicopter was found floating in the sea. Now, as he had been brought back to her, so must she give of herself and there was no trace of regret in the giving.
She had a vague awareness of something else, a Mark with a crocodile face, swirling through her darkest hour dreams. But the dreams would fade each new day and she was filled with delight as the sight of this man sharing her bed each morning when she awoke.