Chapter 10

MANGROVE DREAMING
By Kerrie Bygrave

Chapter 10:

Dear Miss Caitlyn
After reviewing your first instructional lesson, I felt obligated to give you a review on your performance. On your casting ability, after some practice, I give you a ... pass. On your ability to tie a knot, a pass. And on your ability to reel in a fish, I once again grant you ... a pass. However, I would like to stress, that a follow up lesson is strongly advised in order to increase your ‘pass’ grades to ‘pass with flying colour’ grades. Therefore, I am proposing that we meet at thirteen hundred hours next Saturday at the Broome Jetty to continue your valued tuition.

Your ever faithful teacher.
Thomas




Thomas leant over the balustrade of ‘Blue Lady’, the fishing trawler he worked on. He glanced at the horizon in the distance. He hoped like nothing else on earth that the note he had left in Caitlyn’s fly wire door would do the trick. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. From the moment he first saw her sitting at the table in her front yard, he had been totally captivated. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on why, but he knew that he wanted her. Not only did Thomas find her strikingly beautiful, but he sensed in Caitlyn a vulnerability that made him want to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the world. It had taken a lot of strength to resist going back to her unit the day after their fishing date, but he didn’t want to scare her off by appearing too keen, so he had waited a week and a half. He knew she would be at school, so he had spent hours trying to write a note that wasn’t too full on, but would hopefully piqué her interest. Thomas must have wasted about twenty pages of note paper trying to find something to write that he thought Caitlyn would find witty and charming, yet casual at the same time.
When he first walked into the garage sale, he had assumed she must be leaving town, and he wondered why he hadn’t seen her around Broome before. He had been flooded with a strange sense of relief, when he realised that she was in fact new in town and would be staying.
The next trick had been working out a way that he could see her again. He got the feeling that if he had just tried to ask her outright on a date, she would have run a mile, figuratively speaking. So when they had got to talking about fishing and how she’d not been able to teach herself, it was the perfect opportunity to talk her into going fishing with him.
After spending the day with Caitlyn at Redell beach, Thomas found Caitlyn to be refreshingly different to some of the other women he had met in town. He was all too used to women who thought because he was a young guy living in Broome, that he wanted to do nothing party hard and that he would only want one thing from a woman.
His mates were forever paying out on him. They couldn’t understand why he didn’t take much more advantage of the attention women seemed to throw at him when he was out with them. They thought he was almost weird for rejecting their advances. His mate Peter even went as far as to accuse him of being gay, despite his reassurances that he wasn’t. In the close quarters of the ‘Blue Lady’s’ cabin, he was often the butt of ‘gay’ jokes, thanks to Peter’s jibes.
He didn’t care what they said. Now that he had met Caitlyn, he would do whatever he could to win her over...


Caitlyn giggled as she read Thomas’ note. She had just got home from school when she found his note. It had been a particularly tiring day at school. It was very windy outside and for some reason, the kids in her class were all in a restless mood, and she’d had a great deal of difficulty getting them to settle. In the end, she had done a meditation session with them laying on the floor, closing their eyes and listening to mellow music, and they had finally calmed down. But after being outside in the wind at lunch time, they had come inside all unsettled again. Caitlyn had been unusually relieved to hear the final siren for the day, signalling home time. She loved her kids to bits. They had hearts of gold, but she was just glad to get some alone time.
After staying behind to do some preparation for the next day’s class, she finally dragged herself home. She couldn’t wait to have a long soaking bath. The weather was cooler than it had been in January when she had first arrived, and she was starting to enjoy having a bath after work some days. She found the note on the door and had assumed it was Sam again
Two days after her fishing trip with Tara and Sam, Caitlyn had found a package on her doorstep when she got home from school. When she opened it, she found it was a nice bottle of white wine with a small card from Sam, apologising for the fishing trip. Caitlyn had rang her aunt and got Sam’s phone number. She then rang Sam and thanked her for the wine before reassuring her that she had nothing to feel guilty for. But Sam had insisted that she still felt bad, and besides that just wanted to let Caitlyn know she was thinking of her. Caitlyn then told Sam she would save the wine for an occasion that they could share a drink together.
At first when Caitlyn had seen the note on the door, she had groaned to herself. She had hoped that it wasn’t another ‘peace sake’ from Sam. When she realised it was from Thomas, she had let out a sigh of relief. She was also quite happy to hear from Thomas again. After they had spent the Sunday fishing, she had known she wanted to get to know him better, even if it was as a friend, although she knew she was attracted to him as more than just a friend. But she also acknowledged to herself that after what had happened with Ned she would want to be extremely sure of herself before she got involved with anyone else. Still, she definitely wanted to see him again. However, as they hadn’t exchanged numbers, she wasn’t sure if or how they would meet up again.
Then after her trip into the mangroves, she had spent the rest of the weekend holed up in her unit with the air conditioner on full bore, dealing with her unresolved emotions. She had written some of her feelings down in her journal, which she had abandoned writing in when she broke up with Ned. She had found some old photos of her and Ned in the back of the journal, which she had taken out onto the back veranda and burnt. Strangely enough, she didn’t burn them out of bitterness, but rather as a form of a cleansing process, ridding herself both physically and psychologically of any remnant of her memory of their time together. Then she had taken the time to pamper herself with a long bath, before administering on herself a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. She had never been the sort of women to pay a beauty salon to do what she felt she could quite adequately do herself.
By the time Tara rang her on the Sunday night to check that she was ok, Caitlyn was feeling a whole lot better. She was able to tell her auntie that she felt fighting fit and ready to face whatever lay ahead of her.
Caitlyn had just folded up the note Thomas had left her, and tucked it away in her bag when she noticed Jolene walking down the street past her unit. She walked across her small front yard, and waved. ‘Hi Jolene. I haven’t seen you for a couple of weeks.’
‘Hi Caitlyn, how have you been?’
‘Not bad thank you, and you?’
‘Good, I’ve been keeping to myself the last couple of weeks, just going out on the odd occasion. This town can be so boring sometimes. Don’t you find that?'
Caitlyn laughed. ‘Not really, I guess I’ve been too busy to notice, with school and what not.’
‘Oh yeah, sure, everyone goes to work. But apart from that what else is there to do. It’s just totally boring’ Jolene gave a mock yawn.
Caitlyn felt sorry for her and without thinking, said ‘Well, I’m going fishing on Saturday with a friend at the jetty, why don’t you join us.’
‘Fishing.’ replied Jolene screwing up her nose. 'I think I told you before, I’m not really into that.’
‘Then don’t fish. Just come along for the scenery. Bring some magazines and have a relax on the wharf.’
‘Gee, I guess there’s nothing better to do, and I’m not working this Saturday, why not. How are we getting there?’
‘I didn’t think about that. I’m meeting my friend down there, so I guess I was planning to ride my bike. Do you have a bike?’
‘No, I don’t, but I can borrow one from my neighbour. What time are we going?’
‘We’re meeting at the jetty at one o’clock, so I guess if you get here by midday, that will give us an hour to ride out there without pushing ourselves too hard.’
‘Sound’s good. I’ll see you then’ and with that Jolene started to saunter off before turning around and adding ‘Who knows. Maybe I’ll get to perve on some cute fishermen down there.’ Then she walked off.
Caitlyn suddenly wondered if it was a good idea to invite Jolene after all. She didn’t even know why she had done it. It was almost out of pity, she guessed. Then she figured that what was done was done. She could hardly uninvite her. She hoped Thomas wouldn’t mind. Come to think of it, it might work out for the best. She was still dealing with the remnants of her emotions about Ned, so maybe taking another person would be a good way to keep the situation with Thomas more casual for now. All she knew was that despite the last week she was looking forwards to seeing him again.
Caitlyn turned on her heals and headed inside to run herself a bath.



Halfway out to the Port, Caitlyn almost regretted inviting Jolene to come along. The weather was divine, making the bike ride along Port drive very pleasant indeed, but from ten minutes into their ride, Jolene had done nothing but complain. She complained about the heat, which Caitlyn didn’t find an issue at all. Jolene also complained that her legs were hurting, and about the red dust, and the big trucks that barrelled past them. Caitlyn swore to herself that Jolene’s complaining was worse than any complaining she’d ever heard her ten and eleven year old students do.
Jolene had stopped complaining briefly to ask who they were going fishing with, and Caitlyn had explained that it was just someone she had met at the end of the garage sale who had offered to teach her how to fish.
After that, the complaining had started again, so Caitlyn had decided just to tune out and enjoy the ride as best she could. She was very relieved when they finally reached the port and they each chained their bikes together near the entrance of the wharf.
Jolene was still complaining as they walked along the Jetty, when suddenly she stopped and grabbed Caitlyn’s arm so tightly that Caitlyn had to bite her lip to stop herself yelping out in pain.
‘Oh my gosh, there he is!’
‘There who is?’ enquired Caitlyn.
‘The guy I told you about. The gorgeous one I’ve seen at the Roey sometimes. Look he’s just up there!’ she pointed.
Caitlyn looked up to where Jolene was pointing. Immediately she realised Jolene was pointing straight at Thomas, who was about twenty metres away, where he had a line out over the edge and hadn’t noticed Caitlyn coming yet.
‘Umm, well, yeah, that’s Thomas. That’s who we’re going fishing with.’
In an instant Jolene’s demeanour had gone from being sullen and whingey to being bright and happy. ‘Oh Caitlyn, thankyou sooo much for inviting me. You’re the best. Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to meet this honey?’ She didn’t even wait for Caitlyn to reply, instead, grabbing her compact mirror quickly from her bag she applied some lip gloss, and ran a small comb through her short dark hair. ‘Do I look OK?’ Once again, she didn’t wait for Caitlyn to answer, but grabbed her hand and literally dragged her at a fast walking pace down to where Thomas stood. Caitlyn nearly dropped her fishing rod in the process.
Just before they got to the spot where Thomas was standing, he looked up. He smiled brightly as he noticed Caitlyn, but his smile subsided slightly when he realised that she was not alone. He recognised the girl who was pulling Caitlyn along like a rag doll. He’d seen her at the Roebuck Hotel a few times. She always stared at him as if she wanted to pounce on him, and it made him uneasy. He could guess what kind of girl she was and he wasn’t interested. He took some effort to avoid her normally if he could. He was mildly surprised to see that she was obviously a friend of Caitlyn’s. He wouldn’t have picked it.
When they reached Thomas, Jolene didn’t wait to be introduced, instead she gushed ‘Hi, Thomas. I’m Jolene. Caitlyn’s told me so much about you.’ She let go of Caitlyn and thrust her hand towards him.
‘Hi Jolene. Nice to meet you’ replied Thomas, having little choice but to shake her proffered hand. Thomas noticed straight away how awkward Caitlyn looked and realised they may not be such good friends after all.
‘Hi Thomas.’ Caitlyn interjected much more quietly when Jolene finished shaking his hand. ‘Nice to see you again.’
‘You too, Caitlyn.’ Thomas reached out and gave her an affectionate squeeze on the arm, and they swapped shy smiles.
Jolene notices the exchange in looks straight away and her eyes momentarily narrowed. She didn’t like that look between them one little bit. But she brightened quickly. Before the day was out, she was sure she could turn on the charm and get him to notice her a whole lot more. ‘So Thomas’, she began again, using her most seductive voice. ‘I hear you like fishing. Personally, I love fishing, but I’m not really that good at it. Do you think you could give a girl a few tips?’
‘I thought you told me you didn’t like fishing?’ Caitlyn naively interjected.
Jolene quickly turned around and shot a look at Caitlyn. For Thomas’ sake, she kept her voice sugary sweet, but there was a look of warning in her eyes. ‘I think you misunderstood me sweetie. I just meant that I rarely get the chance to go fishing, not that I didn’t actually like fishing.’ She then turned back to Thomas. ‘So are we going to fish here or what?’
‘Yeah sure, I guess’ said Thomas falteringly. Where’s your fishing gear?’
‘I’m sorry, when Caitlyn told me we were riding our bikes here, I didn’t think to pack any. Could I borrow some of yours?’ Jolene purred.
‘I guess so, I have a few handlines here, take your pick...’
By this stage Caitlyn really was starting to regret inviting Jolene. She was getting a tight feeling across her chest. She should have known that being so ‘boy crazy’, Jolene was bound to be attracted to someone like Thomas. Not that Caitlyn had any claim on him. They were just friends, but already she was starting to feel like a bit of a green eye monster, watching Jolene turn her charm on for him in such an overt fashion. She put some bait on her line and cast it out without interrupting Jolene for Thomas’ help. She remained very quiet for the next half hour and found it more and more unpleasant to watch and listen to Jolene flirting outrageously with Thomas, although she also noticed that Thomas was hardly returning her banter with gusto. She decided to go for a walk to the end of the jetty for a bit of a break. She excused herself and got up and started walking off.
‘Are you sure you’re ok?’ Thomas asked, his voice full of concern.
‘I’m fine, I’ll be back soon. I just haven’t walked to the end of the jetty yet. That’s all.’ Then she walked off trying not to look like she was desperate to get away.
‘Let her go.’ Jolene told Thomas, ‘It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better.’
‘I don’t mean to be rude’, replied Thomas who was struggling not to lose his patience at Jolene, ‘but I actually invited Caitlyn down here and I was kind of hoping to get to know her a bit better.’
‘What’s to know?’ Jolene shot back. ‘Don’t get me wrong. Caitlyn’s a nice sort of girl, but come on. She’s a boring school teacher, who never goes out and has fun.’
‘That’s not the impression I got.’
‘Look, I know Caitlyn’s kind of, well, sweet I guess you could say, if you’re into that sort of thing, but I have noticed since I met her that she really is a bit naive, especially when it comes to the opposite sex.’
‘I hadn’t noticed.’ Thomas said through gritted teeth. Jolene was really starting to get annoying now. The nerve of the girl. She was actually starting to more or less bad mouth Caitlyn to him.
Jolene ignored his annoyed tone and put on her sexiest voice as she stepped up close to him. ‘Now, me on the other hand, I know how to have fun, and you and me could have a lot of fun together if you get my drift.’ She reached out and rubbed the back of her hand seductively against his groin.
Thomas immediately recoiled and stepped back, nearly falling over a bucket that was standing behind him. ‘I think you should keep your hands to yourself.’
‘Oh, I get it. You’re not into public displays of affection then.’ She said coyly. ‘You’d rather somewhere more private.’
‘Look, I’d rather not at all. Can’t you take a hint?’
Suddenly Jolene wasn’t in quite such a good mood. ‘What is your problem. Don’t tell me that you’re waiting for that prissy little teacher to give you some fun. You’ll be waiting a long time.’
‘I really don’t care, and that’s none of your business. That’s between Caitlyn and myself.’ He glanced to over Jolene’s shoulder and could see Caitlyn walking down the jetty, occasionally stopping to look in the water. He looked back at Jolene. ‘Look, maybe it’s best if you leave.’
‘I beg your pardon. Are you actually kicking me off a public wharf.’ Her voice suddenly held a hint of menace in it.
‘Of course not. It’s a free world. I can’t make you leave. All I’m saying is that I don’t think you and me have a whole lot in common. And your obviously not here for Caitlyn’s company.’
Jolene did an about face and turned on her sweet voice again ‘Now Thomas, of course I’m here for Caitlyn. She’s such a lovely girl.’
‘That’s not what you said a minute ago. Like I said, I think it’s best if you go.’
As quick as a flash, Jolene was in a bad mood yet again. ‘Well, I rode down here with Caitlyn and I’m way too tired to pedal back yet.’
‘Fine. When Caitlyn gets back, you can have a lift home. Your bike can go in the back of my car.’
Jolene said sarcastically ‘How nice of you.’, but she turned her back on Thomas and secretly smiled to herself. She wasn’t done for yet. She’d make sure Caitlyn didn’t come with them. Once they were alone in his car, and Caitlyn wasn’t around, she’d work her magic on him. He was bound to come around. She still had a few tricks left up her sleeve. She’d start by apologising for their ‘misunderstanding’. Then she’d give him a sob story about herself, so he felt sorry for her. He’d be sure to offer her a shoulder to cry on. From there it would be easy. Men were such suckers, she thought.
Caitlyn was still wandering along the jetty. She was starting to feel sick in the pit of her tummy. The one time she’d glanced back at the spot where Thomas and Jolene were, she’d seen Jolene stepping up close to Thomas. She had immediately looked away. She could take a hint. Three was obviously a crowd, and they were taking full advantage of her absence.
Caitlyn decided she would postpone it no longer. She’d head back, collect her backpack and rod, then head off and leave them too it. It took her three minutes to cover the distance back to their spot on the jetty.
She was just about to pick up her backpack and explain that she was going, when Thomas asked her ‘Caitlyn, do you have a car licence.’
‘Yes, I do. But I don’t drive much. Why do you ask?’
‘Jolene’s not feeling the best.’ Thomas said tactfully. ‘I thought maybe you could take my car and give her a lift home, and I’d stay and watch our stuff until you get back.’
‘Alright’ replied Caitlyn.
But before she could say anything else, Jolene interrupted. ‘Hold on, I thought you were taking me home.’
‘No I think it’s best if Caitlyn takes you home.’
‘Forget it, I’d rather ride my bike.’ Jolene didn’t even say goodbye. Instead she just stormed off towards the car park.
Caitlyn quickly excused herself, taking her keys out of her pocket. ‘Our bikes are chained together.’ she explained. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ She had to almost run to catch up to Jolene. By the time she reached the bikes, Jolene was standing there, with her arms crossed, glaring at her. She was angrily tapping her foot.
‘You took your time, didn’t you?’
‘I’m sorry, look if you’re not feeling well, let me take you home. I’ll just go and get Thomas’ keys.’ Caitlyn bent down and undid the chain lock.
Don’t bother. Some friend you turned out to be.’
‘What have I done?’ Caitlyn was now very confused.
Jolene spat out with utter contempt. ‘I told you, I liked that guy, and all this time, you’ve been secretly seeing him behind my back.’
‘Hold on. I had no idea that Thomas was the one you told me about. How could I have known?’ Caitlyn was flabbergasted that they were even having this conversation.
‘You knew. You probably only invited me so that you could rub it in my face. I hope I never see either of you ever again’
Caitlyn went to reply, but Jolene didn’t give her a chance.
‘Thanks for nothing.’ She grabbed her bike. In the process she purposely pushed Caitlyn’s bike over on the ground. Then she took off without another word.
Caitlyn picked up her bike and chained it to a pole before heading back out to Thomas.
She still looked perplexed when she got back to their fishing spot.
Thomas looked up when she got back. ‘Did Jolene get away alright?’
‘Yes she did. But she wasn’t too happy...’
‘Excuse me if I’m out of line, but how good a friends are you two.’
Caitlyn reeled her line in and changed her bait before casting out again. ‘I guess we’re more acquaintances than friends. We met when I did some shopping at Seaview Supermarket where she works. When I first got to town, she helped me out a bit, and we kind of stayed in touch.’
Thomas looked as relieved as he felt. ‘Just be careful around her, that’s all I can say. I don’t think she necessarily has your best interest at heart.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Nothing in particular. Let’s just call it intuition.’
Caitlyn continued with great caution. ‘You know I thought when I got back, that I was going to be interrupting the two of you.’
‘From what?’ It suddenly dawned on Thomas what Caitlyn was getting at. ‘Oh no, Caitlyn. No way. Girls like Jolene don’t interest me. Her sort’s a dime a dozen. They’ll go with any guy that looks sideways at them.’
Caitlyn was tempted to ask what kind of girl did interest him, but instead said ‘Well yeah, I definitely got the feeling she wasn’t that happy when she left. I think I might do my shopping on a Sunday for a while.’
‘Why Sunday?’
“Jolene doesn’t work Sunday.’ Caitlyn smiled, before adding ‘Less chance that she’ll overcharge me.’
Thomas laughed. After that, Jolene’s name wasn’t mentioned again. They continued to fish for another hour, before Thomas gave Caitlyn a lift home. Once there he lifted her bike out the back of his car.
Feeling particularly brave, he turned to her and asked almost timidly. ‘Look, I don’t know if you’ve been out for dinner in town yet. But I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner at Bloome’s tomorrow night. I mean, if you’re not busy.’
Caitlyn was surprised at how happy she was to hear him invite her out. Without even thinking, she replied ‘That would be nice. I’ve had breakfast there, but never dinner.’
‘Great, then should I pick you up, say about seven?’
‘Yep seven’s good. See you then.’ This time it was Caitlyn’s turn to feel brave. She reached out and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before quickly disappearing inside. Even though the kiss had been on the cheek, her lips still felt strangely tingly as she heard his car drive off down the road.


On their first date at Bloome’s, both Thomas and Caitlyn felt nervous, yet excited. They had a table outside on the street, and they chatted for a couple of hours over dinner, while they watched happy revellers enjoying the balmy weather while they wandered around the still lively sidewalks of China Town.
Thomas ordered the steak and grilled vegetables for his main meal, and Caitlyn ordered the Seafood Laska. Little did she realise how hot the dish really was, and not wanting to offend Thomas on their first dinner out, she took to slowly sipping small spoonfuls, whilst they chatted. After about ten minutes, Thomas asked if he could try the Laska, and had to restrain himself from calling out a profanity when he realised how hot the dish was.
After gulping down a glass of water he finally managed to say ‘Gee’s that’s hot. How can you eat that?’
‘With great difficulty.’ She admitted, before adding ‘Does this mean you won’t be offended if I don’t finish the dish.’
‘No, of course not.’ Thomas summoned a waiter over to their table and explained the situation. The waiter immediately offered to get Caitlyn another dish on the house. Caitlyn thanked the waiter and said that as she had enjoyed an entree, she would just enjoy a dessert next. When the waiter walked away, both Thomas and Caitlyn burst out laughing and continued to talk, until their coffee and cake arrived.
Afterwards, Thomas dropped Caitlyn home again. Once there, Thomas offered to walk Caitlyn to her door, but Caitlyn quickly reassured him there was no need. Like the day before, Caitlyn reached out and gave Thomas a kiss on the cheek before heading inside. Thomas wished he could have taken Caitlyn in his arms and kissed her passionately, but he still sensed a reservation in her that he didn’t quite understand, and there was no way he was going to risk scaring her off.
So from that moment on, Thomas made every effort to court Caitlyn in the old fashioned way. They went out numerous times in the weeks that followed. Sometimes they were day trips to various fishing spots around Broome, and other times, he took her for lunch or dinner at one of the many restaurants and cafes available in town. The first few times, their dates always ended the same, with Caitlyn kissing Thomas on the cheek in the car before taking herself inside.
Eventually, Caitlyn told Thomas about what had happened in Perth with Ned. She explained how when she had got to Broome, she wasn’t over what had happened, but now that time had passed, she had managed to let go of all her anger and resentment. Thomas realised that this is probably why he had felt Caitlyn hesitating in the past. That Sunday night, after a particularly nice meal at Cafe Carlotta’s, Caitlyn finally let Thomas walk her to her front door.
She dug into her purse and pulled out her key. She almost dropped the key as she fumbled it into the lock. She couldn’t believe how nervous she felt. After she turned the key, she let the door open, put her handbag down on the door stop and turned back to Thomas. He took both her hands in his and looked deep into her eyes.
‘You know, Caitlyn’ he said softly, ‘I’ll never hurt you. I could never do to you what Ned did.’
‘I know.’ She replied in a barely audible tone.
Then ever so slowly, he leant into her and slowly placed his lips on hers. At first he gave her a slow, sweet peck. But then he dropped her hands and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, before joining his mouth to hers once more, but this time he parted his lips, silently inviting her to do likewise. She put her arms around his waist as she felt his tongue slowly exploring the edges of her mouth, and she let herself revel in the feel of it. She couldn’t believe how utterly soft and warm his lips were. She had kissed Ned many times, but it had never felt like this.
After a minute or two, she pulled away, and said in a warm silky voice. ‘I should go inside. I’ve got school tomorrow.’
‘Of course.’ Thomas replied. ‘I’ll see you soon.’ And he kissed her one final time on the nose before reluctantly heading back to his car. He waved as he took off and disappeared into the night.
Caitlyn walked inside after picking up her handbag, and she locked the door behind her. She headed straight to bed, but despite the pleasant ambient temperature of her room, she was barely able to get a wink of sleep. All she could do was think about the kiss she and Thomas had just shared. Even hours later, she swore her lips still felt warm from his touch.

Chapter 9

Sam broke out through the mangroves and called out to Tara ‘Good morning, Tara, I made it’ she laughed breathlessly as she made her way down the muddy bank. ‘and look’, she added as she spun around slowly once she reached the water’s edge.
‘Good morning to you too. What am I looking at?’
‘My shorts, there’s barely a fleck of mud on them.’
‘Well done’ laughed Tara, ‘I see you’re getting more confident then at walking through muddy mangroves.’
‘Yep, I was pretty proud of myself getting in here without losing my way or getting dirty, especially considering that I swear the trail was much muddier than the last time we came here, or is that just my overactive imagination.’
‘Not at all. It’s actually a king tide at the moment, which means not only does the water go much further into the mangroves than normal, but the creek also runs itself almost dry at the other extreme of the tide.’
Sam suddenly looked around her, and noticed that there was barely any water in the creek. With less than ten steps, she could have easily made her way across to the other side of the water, the whole creek bed appeared to be one muddy channel funnelling the water this way and that.
‘Wow, who would have thought this was the same place you brought me last time.’ Sam mused. ‘And by the way, I also bought myself some fishing gear and a new backpack.’ With that, Sam hoisted her backpack off her back and set it down.
‘You didn’t have to do that’ replied Tara, ‘I’ve got plenty here you could have used.’
‘I know, but I am really starting to enjoy fishing, so I thought it would be good to have some of my own gear.’ She started unpacking the contents including a couple of hand lines, a small tackle box and a fishing knife. ‘I feel like a real fisher woman now!’
Sam paused then continued ‘But it’s all thanks to you. Thank you so much for inviting me along.’
‘Not a problem, and besides, it’s nice having someone to fish with. Especially since I can’t seem to convince Caitlyn to give it a go’
Sam pulled out some bait and cut a bit of squid off, then gingerly put it on her hook as Tara had taught her. She got up to throw her line in, but paused. ‘Is it even worth fishing at the moment with so little water.’
‘Mmmm’ reflected Tara, ‘well, I’m one of these people who enjoys wetting my line, even if I don’t get a bite for a while, so, I’ll always be inclined to tell you to throw your line in for the sake of it. I’ve been here for the past two hours, and I haven’t had a bite. But the tide has just turned, and it won’t be long before the creek starts filling up again. That’s normally when the fish start biting again.’
‘Well then, I’ll join in shall I.’ replied Sam, and she tossed her line out. Being the first cast she had done in a while, it went a bit astray, and landed ten feet away upstream at the edge of the water.
Seeing Sam’s embarrassed look, Tara said encouragingly ‘Oh don’t worry about that, just wind it up and try again.’
Sam did so and her next cast landed smack bang in the middle of the flowing stream of water. She set her hand line down and was about to head up the bank. ‘I’ll just head up and grab the crates for us to sit on.’
But Tara stopped her. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. That water will start to come in pretty fast now, and we’re going to have to move ourselves progressively back up the bank every fifteen minutes or so. There’s no use getting too comfy sitting down.’
Sure enough, just over ten minutes later, the water was almost lapping at their feet, and the picked up their belongings and moved a few feet back. Just as they resettled, Sam felt a small tug at her line, but after a few bites they stopped again.
‘Give it a minute, the fish might come back’, said Tara.
Just then, Caitlyn came through the edge of the Mangroves. At first, Tara and Sam, called out hello without really turning around, because something was nibbling on Tara’s line this time, but ten seconds later, when they were sure the fish had stopped biting, they finally turned around and were surprised to see that Caitlyn was carrying a fishing rod.
‘My, my’ exclaimed Tara. ‘Are you planning to join us in fishing today?’
‘Yes I am, if that’s alright.’
‘Of course it is. What brought on your change of heart?’
‘And how on earth did you get through that trail, carrying a fishing rod?’ interjected Sam.
‘With great difficulty, but I got here eventually.’ Caitlyn laughed at her auntie and Sam. Their exuberance was refreshing. She didn’t feel like explaining her long sorry story about her failed fishing adventure at the jetty, so she decided to abbreviate her explanation. ‘I went fishing with a new friend last weekend, and I guess it finally sparked an interest in fishing.’
Sam jumped on her comments straight away. ‘Oooh, a new friend hey? And would this new friend be a male by any chance?’
Caitlyn blushed slightly ‘As a matter of a fact, he is a male’. As she tried to keep her head down so the others didn’t notice, she grabbed some bait and started to bait up her line.
However Tara didn’t miss much and saw her niece blush, so didn’t push her, but Sam continued to prod. ‘And would this male friend be young and good looking by any chance.’
‘I guess you could say that.’ replied Caitlyn, and her blush deepened.
Suddenly, Sam noticed her blushing and backed off. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said gently. I was only teasing. I didn’t mean to offend you.’
‘Oh no, I’m not offended. Thomas is quite nice, and we get along quite well. I thought it was very generous of him to take me fishing.’
Sam said very gently. ‘So is there any hint of romance then?’
‘I don’t know about that. I would be reluctant to jump too quickly into anything like that. After all, we have only just met.’ said Caitlyn as she cast her line out and sat down on the muddy bank holding her rod. Caitlyn had her oldest shorts on and didn’t care how dirty they got. She went quiet for a minute and stared out in the distance. Her eyes glazed over momentarily. Then she continued. ‘Last year at University, I was seeing someone called Ned. We were actually quite serious. We were all but engaged. We were meant to move to Kalgoorlie together at the beginning of this year to start our teaching careers together.’ Caitlyn paused again.
‘Yes, I wondered what had happened to Ned.’ Tara said quietly. ‘I thought things mustn’t have gone well, when I found out you had come to Broome, instead of going to Kalgoorlie. But I figured you would talk about it in your own time if you wanted too.’
‘Thanks Auntie Tara, and I did realise you would be a good person to talk to. But once I got here, I guess I just wanted to try and forget the whole ugly mess. That’s why I avoided talking about it. I think that’s also why I’ve been throwing myself into my school work even more so than usual. That way I was able to avoid even thinking about it.’
All three women sat silently for a minute before Caitlyn went on with a husky voice as she continued to stare out at the mangroves on the other side of the stream. ‘I thought I was going to marry Ned. We weren’t actually engaged yet, but we had talked about it, made plans, discussed having kids... I just assumed it was all mapped out.’
Tara could see that Sam was about to say something, so she reached out and laid her hand on Sam’s forearm, pursing her lips and shaking her head, to indicate that Sam should remain quite.
‘Then one day, one of my lectures got cancelled because the lecturer was sick. Ned had no lectures that day, so told me he would be studying at home. I thought I’d surprise him and go and study at his place with him. I arrived on the door step and used the key he had given me to let myself in. I snuck through the living area and went up to his bedroom. Just as I was a few steps from his door, I heard a female giggling. And to my horror, as a snuck a glance through the doorway, I saw them...’ Her voice drifted off. Sam couldn’t help but gasp, although she did so quietly.
Caitlyn paused again and took a long shuddering breath. ‘It was Barbara, my supposed best friend. I wanted to leave without them knowing I had been there, but as I backed away from the door. I tripped over Barbara’s backpack which she had left in the hallway.’
She still remembered Ned suddenly calling out ‘What the hell’ and racing out to the hall way with only a towel wrapped around his hips.
‘Of course he tried to stop me leaving. Barbara quickly got out, although she didn’t look like she felt too guilty. In fact I swear she was smirking as she left. Then Ned swore it was the only time, that he was sorry, and that he would never let anything like that happen again. But I ended it there and then. I wouldn’t return his calls, or agree to see him at all. I avoided him as much as I could at Uni.’
Again she paused ‘Then I rang the Education Department and told them I couldn’t take my first teaching post in Kalgoorlie. They told me there was little chance of getting another post with only a few months to go until the end of the year, all the positions elsewhere had been finalised. I told them that I would rather be put back on the waiting list and risk missing out on a job instead of going to Kalgoorlie. So that’s what happened. Like they warned me, nothing came up. It was just lucky that this job I have now appeared in the paper, and I was able to get it. Otherwise I might have ended up unemployed in Perth.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry’ exclaimed Sam. ‘You poor thing.’
‘No, don’t feel sorry for me. I’m ok. It really was for the best. I’m glad I found out what Ned was like when I did, rather than after we moved to Kalgoorlie together, or heaven forbid, after we got married. And as for Barbara, well what can I say. Who needs friends like her? You know, I actually overheard her tell someone in one of the University Cafe’s that it wasn’t as if I had his wedding ring on my finger, so she didn’t see why she should feel bad.’
Tara went over and squatted behind Caitlyn. She wrapped her arms around her seemingly fragile niece and whispered in her ear. ‘It’s alright my precious one. You’ll be fine. You’re strong and you’re beautiful.’
Caitlyn simply nodded as the she felt the tears run down her cheek. She patted Tara’s arm and whispered in a barely audible tone ‘Thank you.’
Sam couldn’t hear the exchange between the two women. Nor did she want to, noticing that it was an intensely private moment.
Tara got up and returned to her fishing line, and she and Sam moved back a few more feet. Caitlyn was already sitting back from the shore line, so didn’t need to move.
Once again the silence hung in the air, and all the sounds of the mangroves seem to take on a life force of their own. The gently lapping of the water as it steadily wound its way up the bank, the soft wind rustling through the dry course leaves of the mangrove trees, and the distant cries of the birds that called the mangrove habitat their home.
After a few minutes, Sam realised she had a fish on her line, but instead of getting excited as she normally did, she simply pulled her line in. Tara came over when she had the fish up on the bank and congratulated her. ‘That’s a little Mangrove Jack you’ve got yourself there. It’s smaller than some others I’ve seen, but it’s still a keeper if you want it.’
‘Yeah, I might just keep it. Matt and I could have it for tea tonight.’
Sam insisted on getting the fish off the hook herself. Tara handed her a rag to make holding the fish down easier. It took some doing, but Sam managed to tackle the hook out of the fish’s mouth. After that, Tara took the fish a few more metres up the bank and expertly used her knife to kill the fish as quickly and humanely as possible. Then Sam was able to put it in a plastic bag and slot it away in her backpack. It had an insulated pocket in the front, making it ideal for keeping a small catch in.
Just as Sam threw her line back in, Caitlyn stood up and started winding her line in. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to head home now.’
Sam felt awful. ‘Caitlyn please don’t go. You only just got here. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘No, there’s no need for you to feel bad. I’ve spent the last few months pretending that nothing happened. If anything, this has been good for me to get myself to deal with what went on, instead of living in denial. I never would have truly dealt with it, if I continued on the way I was. So in a way, I should thank you.’ With that, Caitlyn picked up her backpack and put it back on. ‘I’ll catch up with you both soon.’
Sam didn’t know what to say, so she simply replied ‘Yep, see you soon.’ She still felt incredibly guilty.
But after saying goodbye to Caitlyn and giving her one last hug, Tara turned to Sam and smiled. ‘Don’t worry about Caitlyn. She’s going to be fine.’
‘I know, but I still feel rotten. I think I’ll take her a nice bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine.’
‘That’s a really thoughtful idea, but just leave it for today. I think Caitlyn will want some time to herself. That’s all she needs.’
‘When did you get so wise?’ Sam added quietly before they both settled in to do more fishing.
As the next hour went by, the tide proceeded to come in faster and faster. It seemed that they were moving progressively further back up the bank every five minutes now. But with the incoming tide, came the fish and soon both women were busy pulling fish in. Tara kept a little Speckled Emperor for herself, but the rest of the fish they released. At one stage, Sam pulled in a cat fish, and she let Tara take it off the hook and dispose of it. Tara warned her how they had barbs on their head that would cause excruciating pain if she touched one.
Before Sam knew it, Tara started packing her belongings up.
‘Hey, why are you packing up. Isn’t this what they call the fish being on-the-bite.’
‘Yep, they sure are on the bite. But if we don’t leave soon, we’ll be trapped here by the tide, and we’ll end up sitting in the mangrove trees to keep the water from our feet. This will all be covered in water in two hours time, right up into those mangroves. Then in another two hours, the water will be lapping at the entrance of the mangroves, where we normally come in.’
‘Wow, that’s hard to imagine, when the creek was almost empty not that long ago.’ Sam started to pack her backpack up.
Even now as the two women walked off the bank and into the mangroves, the trail was exceptionally muddy. Even Tara, with her experience in walking out on the trail, took a bit of extra care.
At the small creek crossing halfway out of the mangroves, the water was already fairly flowing in. The ladies had to walk knee deep through it to get out. Going up the other side, Sam managed to slip over and land flat the full length of her body. When she gathered herself up and got to the top of the steep bank, she looked down at herself. She was covered from head to toe in a thick layer of light grey mud.
Tara burst out laughing. ‘I’m sorry Sam. I’m not laughing at you, I promise. It’s just that you do look well and truly, mmm, what’s the word? ... Covered!’
Sam looked at herself again and burst out laughing too. She was laughing so hard she thought she was going to cry. When she eventually calmed down, she said ‘How could you not laugh? I look like some kind of mangrove monster. Matt won’t be able to recognise his own wife if he sees me like this.’
Sam attempted to use her hand to scrape the mud off herself, but with little success. Then Sam and Tara continued on their way. Every now again, one of them would let out a small giggle.
After picking their way through the wet path for a few minutes longer, Tara asked Sam ‘So do you and Matt plan to have kids eventually?’
Tara noticed that Sam briefly stopped, before carefully continuing along a particularly slippery part of the pathway. There were ankle deep puddles every few feet, and there was no way to avoid walking through them.
Sam’s mood was instantly sombre and the light heartedness they had been experiencing was gone.
‘I’m sorry.’ said Tara. ‘Did I say something wrong?’
Sam didn’t answer straight away, but then after heaving a big sigh, she cautiously replied. ‘Actually, I fell pregnant literally just after we got married.’ After another long pause where they navigated through another long muddy part of the trail, Sam went on. But she spoke so softly that Tara had to listen very carefully to hear her. She stopped again and looked blankly back along the path they just traversed as she spoke.
‘We lost the baby at seven months. It was a little boy. He was still born. Everything had been going so well, then, one night, I woke up with stomach cramps. I knew they weren’t contractions. Matt rushed me to the hospital. We kept telling ourselves it would be ok. But as soon as the doctor did a check-up, he told us straight away that there was no heartbeat. I begged the doctor to put me under, and do a caesarean, but he told me I had to deliver him normally.’
Sam stopped talking again. There was an eerie silence. This time there was no sounds to be heard around them, except when Sam took another step and there were long squelching noise as she pulled her feet out of the mud.
‘Hmmph, it must be a day for confessions from the past. Damn! What is it about this place that makes you tell your deepest secrets... Yeah, well, anyway, they ended up inducing me. It was the most painful experience I could have possibly imagined. And at the end of it all, I could see the baby. My god, he looked like Matt. They left the baby in view for a couple of minutes. The midwives kept telling me to say good bye to my son. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. After that, they took him away.’
The two women walked on in silence for another few minutes.
As they walked out of the mangroves, Sam eventually told Tara more. ‘After, we lost the baby, Matt and I went through a rough patch as we struggled to come to terms with what had happened. It was so hard at first. Every time I looked at Matt, all I could think of was the baby I lost. At one stage, I even started sleeping in a separate room at night. We did consider separating, but after all the criticism we had received for getting married so soon, we were determined to prove the cynics wrong, so we decided to try and make a go of it. We started with couples and grief counselling, then when Matt was offered the job in Broome, we thought it would be an ideal chance to start fresh. I must admit that I still haven’t reconciled myself totally with what happened. But I think I’m starting to get over it.’
Sam and Tara came out of the mangroves and walked out along Chapple street. They found a tap at Woody’s service station next to the old town jetty, and with a bit of effort, Sam managed to wash some of the mud off herself, although the water pressure was poor, so there was still a lot of slimy, dull grey mud left. ‘Let’s just hope no-one who knows me sees me on the way home.’ She laughed, but it was very half hearted.
Sam and Tara then continued through the back streets of china town, then back to their road. They barely spoke all the way to Sam’s front gate. They both walked through the gate, and Sam grabbed the hose and turned it on. Tara patiently waited as Sam washed enough mud off herself so that she could at least walk inside without dirtying the floor. Then Tara washed the mud off her feet and legs.
As they washed, Tara asked Sam if she had heard from her mother.
‘Nope, I’m afraid not. I’ve written to her and sent her all my new contact details here in Broome, but I haven’t had a letter or a phone call or anything...’ Sam shook her head. ‘You know, Matt contacted my mother after I lost the baby and let her know what happened. Even then she didn’t come to see me. I guess she’s still punishing me for marrying Matt without her blessing.’
Tara said gently. ‘You probably don’t believe this, but I know in my heart you won’t stay estranged from your mother. My own daughter Emily has moved to Darwin, but she is the most precious thing in the world to me. There is no way your mother will stay away forever. She’ll come around, you’ll see.’
‘I won’t hold my breath.’ replied Sam with a hint of bitterness, as she went to turn off the hose. She brightened up slightly as she bid Tara goodbye. ‘Thanks for the fishing trip, despite all the revelations of the day, it’s been good. You wouldn’t think it, but fishing is so relaxing. I’ll see you soon.’
‘Yes, see you soon.’ Sam went to walk up the steps onto the veranda, but Tara gently caught her by the forearm. ‘Sam. You know, you’ve come to the right place.’
Sam looked at her quizzingly.
‘The local Indigenous people call Broome a place of healing, and I believe in that. This place has a certain magic about it. Time helps heal wounds, and Broome will too, but only if you let it.’
Then she went on her way without another word, but Sam could still feel a pleasant warm sensation on her arm where Tara had held her.

Chapter 8

MANGROVE DREAMING
By Kerrie Bygrave

Chapter 8:

He’s not coming, decided Caitlyn. It was five minutes past eight. She swore Thomas had said seven thirty. And she’d been ready to go since seven o’clock. At first she’d been excited, then as seven thirty approached, she felt the butterflies in her stomach kick in as she anticipated him arriving. She had kept peeping behind the blind in the front window to see if he’d arrived yet. But now she just felt annoyed, but strangely she was more annoyed at herself than Thomas. She figured that she shouldn’t have got excited about the fishing trip with Thomas when they barely even knew each other. He probably ran into a mate yesterday and organised a ‘boys’ fishing trip and had totally forgotten about her. She supposed he would drop around some time to get the fishing gear though, since he had paid for it.
Caitlyn was just unpacking her backpack on the kitchen bench when there was a knock at the door. For some reason, she assumed it wasn’t Thomas as she had already accepted that she’d been stood up. But when she opened the door, there he stood. ‘I’m so sorry’ he said straight away, before she even had a chance to say hello. ‘My boss called me at five o’clock this morning, and asked me to help unload the boat. They went out last night and caught a full load, but a couple of blokes got food poisoning last night from their midnight snack, and by the time they got back to shore, they couldn’t help with the unloading, so they were short-staffed, so I got asked to help out. This should have been my weekend off.’ Suddenly he stopped talking when he saw her half unpacked back pack. ‘You thought I wasn’t coming, didn’t you’.
‘Ah, no, not at all.’ stammered Caitlyn. She could see he didn’t believe her so she confessed. ‘Well yes, I guess, but I did think you’d have a good reason. And as it turns out, you did.’
‘Like I said, I am sorry. I would have called you, but I didn’t have your phone number. And I didn’t want to call past at five o’clock this morning to tell you I might be late.’
‘Don’t worry about it, you’re here now.’
‘I sure am. So,’ he said with a slow sexy smile which made her stomach do a quick summersault. ‘You ready for your first fishing lesson.’
‘Yep, just let me umm, repack.’ she laughed self consciously. ‘I’ll only be a second.’ Everything Caitlyn unpacked was still on the kitchen bench, so she quickly put it all back in her backpack including a few rounds of sandwiches she had made for the outing.
Thomas saw the sandwiches and told her. ‘You know you can’t eat them until after you catch some fish, don’t you?’
‘Why not?’ she replied as she grabbed her keys and hat and followed Thomas outside. He picked up the fishing gear from the car port and they headed for his car that was parked on the road verge.
‘It’s a primal thing. My dad always told me, you never fish on a full stomach. You’ve got to be hungry, so you’re more eager to get a catch. The fish can tell if you’re hungry or not.’
‘Yer, right’ laughed Caitlyn as she got in his car. Thomas turned the key and the engine roared to life. It was an old khaki coloured land cruiser. From the amount of red dust on the car, Caitlyn thought it must have been a while since Thomas had washed it. Someone had written ‘wash me lazy bones’ on the rear window
‘I’m telling you, it’s true. I’ve done scientific research to prove it.’ Caitlyn gave him a doubtful look, so he continued. ‘One day, I went out after having a huge breakfast, and I fished for three hours, and I didn’t even get a nibble on my line. The next day, I went to the exact same spot, and I was starving hungry, but I caught the best lot of fish I ever had.’
‘You actually starved yourself for a day to prove this so called theory?’
‘Nope, my mate Rob was meant to pack something for breakfast, and he forgot, so we got bloody hungry. I could have killed him.’
Caitlyn burst out laughing. By now she realised that they were heading down Reid Road, but not towards any particular beach spot she could think off. Then Thomas turned off, and Caitlyn supposed that they were going to Gantheume point to go fishing. But as they left the bitumen and headed down the red dirt road past the race track on the left that was located well and truly away from the residential area of Broome, Thomas drove straight past the Gantheume Point turn off that jutted off to the right. ‘So, where are we going?’ she inquired.
‘I’m taking you to a spot at the end of Port Road, but I thought I’d take you the back way.’ The road suddenly curved around and they were rattling along what now seemed an endless river of red dust. The sides of the road were piled up and were over half of the height of the car. Thomas explained that the road was graded about twice a year, and that the grading machines merely took the top layer of gravel, dirt and dust and pushed it up onto the edges of the road, because this saved carting the dirt away, but he also explained how in the wet, the first sign of rain meant that the road had to be closed to all traffic, as the built up edges prevented water from flowing away, and the gravel was too hard to absorb anything. Added to this, when the fine dust got wet, it turned the road to a mushy mud and even the best of four wheel drives had trouble getting through.
The spindly native bushes which crept up to the embankment at the edge of the road were covered in a fine red dust.
Caitlyn looked around. She knew she was only a five minute drive from town, but glancing around, the route had an isolated feel. They could have been in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of kilometres from any sign of civilisation. Thomas interrupted her quite observation. ‘Look’ he said, pointing to the right. Caitlyn let out a small gasp.
‘Wow’ she said softly. Through the scrub, over a rocky knarled edge, she could see the vastness of the Indian Ocean. The colour of the water went from the brilliant iridescent blue that so typified Broome to a rich, deep, dark blue out on the horizon. There was barely a ripple on the water, almost giving the appearance of a vast sheet of glass.
‘There’s actually a cliff beyond that rock edge with a fifty foot drop.’ explained Thomas. ‘I would stop and show you, but as we’re running late, I want to get to our spot so we can get some fishing in before the tide turns. I’ll show you that another day.’
‘It’s beautiful’ said Caitlyn. She was quietly surprised that Thomas was already talking about there being another day, but on the same token, she was secretly pleased. They drove on for a couple minutes in silence. Caitlyn snuck a peek at Thomas’ handsome profile while he drove, but quickly looked away again and out her own window. She would be most embarrassed if he caught her staring.
Just as suddenly as they had driven onto gravel, they were back on bitumen and had come up to a T-intersection. Thomas turned right, and they were back on Port Drive, with the Jetty stretched out just a couple of hundred of metres in front of them. But just before the jetty, Thomas turned right again, and followed the fence of an old lay-down yard, before heading down a small hill past the Broome Fishing Club, which was perched on another hill top, before he swung his car into a car park at the end of the parking lot. But not before he drove past a dozen or so boat trailers.
Past a couple of rocky outcrops, was an isolated stretch of beach which was peppered with small rocky boulders along the shore line. They had a reddish brown tinge to them and looked liked some giant invisible hand had come along and scattered them like a handful of dice.
Thomas and Caitlyn each grabbed some of the fishing gear and walked down the concrete boat ramp which had small, square grooves that ran across the width of the ramp indented into it to increase tyre traction for cars putting their boats out of the water. They walked towards the bottom of the ramp. Thomas went to warn Caitlyn. ‘Be careful down here, it’s sli…’, but it was too late, Caitlyn stepped on a mossy part of the ramp near the waters edge and lost her footing. As quick as lightening, Thomas dropped the two rods he had in one hand and caught Caitlyn around the waist. Caitlyn looked up at Thomas. His face was merely inches from hers. Neither of them moved for a few seconds, then Caitlyn found her footing and righted herself. After a few seconds of watching Caitlyn regain her composure, Thomas smiled to himself before he bent over and picked up the rods he had dropped and directed Caitlyn to follow him onto the sand.
‘Thanks for catching me before. I thought I was a goner.’
‘No worries. Glad I could be there for a damsel in distress. Look, down here, just past those rocks.’ They walked to a sandy stretch of beach and set their belongings down.
Caitlyn looked out to sea and saw an old pearling lugger out towards the horizon, its majestic sail filling with the soft breeze. Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed that Thomas was getting busy with unpacking. He drove two rod holders into the sand at the waters edge. Caitlyn gulped as she notices his strong muscle bound arms flexing with the effort. His sleeveless T-shirt only made it harder for her to pretend she wasn’t looking.
Next, Thomas grabbed the rods and set them in the rod holders. He then took out some bait and put it on the rod he had bought from Caitlyn. Before Caitlyn had a chance to say anything, he had cast the line out into the water and returned it to the water.
‘I thought I was meant to be learning how to bait a line and throw it out.’ Caitlyn laughed. ‘I barely had time to see how you did all that.’
‘All in good time. I just want to duck back to the car for a second. If anything nibbles on that line, pick it up and start reeling it in.’
‘Got it.’ And with that he disappeared around the outcrop of rocks. A few minutes later, he was back with a fold up chair. He unfolded it and put it near Caitlyn’s fishing rod.
‘There you go, now you can sit and wait for the fish to bite in comfort.’
‘What about you? Don’t you want a chair as well?’
‘Nah, I’ll be right’, replied Thomas. ‘I’ll be too busy teaching you to fish. And besides, my mates would think I was a big woos if they caught me sitting down while I was fishing. I wouldn’t live it down if they caught me.’
Again Caitlyn laughed ‘But it’s alright for me?’
‘Sure is’, Thomas laughed back at her. He enjoyed seeing Caitlyn laugh, she shone from the inside out when she did so. It was a quality he rarely saw in other people. ‘It shows that I'm being chivalrous to my star student... well let’s face it, my only student’.
Thomas then picked up his rod and went over and crouched next to Caitlyn. ‘I’m going to do a basic rig on this line now, so watch and learn. Then with more patience than Caitlyn could have asked for, Thomas started to show her what he was doing. He showed her how to use the knife to cut a fresh clean end in the line, then he explained a bit about selecting sinkers and hooks according to the type of fish you were planning to catch. ‘If you’re after a few nice little garddy for example, to use as bait for a larger fish later on, one of these small sinkers is ideal. Garddys tend to swim towards the top of the surface, so you don’t want your line to sink, so this will keep it where they are most active. Then if you use this nice little one owe hook, it’s just the right size for a small bit of squid bait or a prawn’.
Caitlyn concentrated extra hard as she watched Thomas put the basic rig on the line. When he finished, he surprised her by slicing a clean cut through the fishing line above the sinker. He then used the knife again to nick the knot that had held the hook, until the line came away and left the hook without any line holding it.
‘What did you do that for?’ exclaimed Caitlyn, somewhat startled. ‘I thought that was a good “rig” as you fishermen call it’.
‘Yep, it was. But the idea is I’m meant to be teaching you. So now, you’re going to do it. Do you reckon you can remember how I did it?’
‘Well I’ll give it a shot, I guess.’ And with that Caitlyn picked up the sinker and threaded it onto the line. She then proceeded to tie the hook on in the line as she thought she remembered Thomas doing it. Every now and again, Thomas gently corrected her technique verbally, but never in a condescending way. It wasn’t long and Caitlyn had tied her first rig. ‘It’s not as neat as yours.’ she said with a sigh, but Thomas assured her it was excellent for a first effort.
After that, Thomas suggested to Caitlyn that she reel her line in and check her bait. It was still intact. Thomas cast it out again and rested the rod in one of the rod holders.
‘Now’ he said in a mock official sounding voice. ‘Up here young lady, for part two of your lesson’.
‘Yes ssssir.’ Caitlyn replied in an equally official sounding response. They both laughed at the silliness of it all, as Caitlyn followed Thomas up the beach about ten metres. He was carrying the rod that Caitlyn had rigged up a few minutes before hand.
‘Next, I’m going to teach you how to cast a rod.’
‘But aren’t we a bit far from the shore line?’ said Caitlyn in a mildly alarmed voice, ‘I have pretty much zero faith in my casting ability as it is. From here I doubt I’ll even make it to the water’s edge, let alone beyond that.’
‘Ahh, but I’m not intending for you to cast into the water.’ Thomas said in a cheeky conspiritual tone. Seeing Caitlyn’s confused look, he continued. ‘This is what you call a literal dry run. The idea is you cast up the beach onto the sand. That way you get a real feel for what result your casting has on your line.’
Again with the utmost of patience, Thomas gave Caitlyn a step by step guide to how to cast out the line from the rod, and as he did so, Caitlyn saw the hook and sinker sail fifty feet up the beach. Then he handed the rod to Caitlyn for her to try.
The first couple of casts, Caitlyn only managed to get the hook, ten feet away, but with a few friendly pointers from Thomas, ten feet soon turned into thirty feet.
Twenty minutes later Caitlyn exclaimed ‘Well, I think I’m getting the hang of it, but I feel a bit silly casting onto dry land.’ She laughed slightly breathlessly as she cast up onto the beach for what felt like the umpteenth time.
‘I suppose you would.’ replied Thomas with a chuckle. ‘Anyway, I think you’ve got the idea. Let’s head back down and check your line.’
As they walked back down to the shore line, Caitlyn was about to ask Thomas why he was being so nice and giving up his precious free time to give her a fishing lesson, but she decided against it. She didn’t want to put him on the spot like that. She just wanted to enjoy the day as it came.
Thomas got Caitlyn to check her line, and this time he also got her to cast her line back in. It went a fair distance out, and Caitlyn was quietly chuffed with herself. But she didn’t let on. Instead, she started, ‘So is that how you learnt to cast, on dry land that is.’
‘Yep, sure is. Down south at Bussleton in Nan and Pop’s backyard. It’s how me and all my cousins learnt to cast. Pop would stand there for hours making us repeat our casting, until we could get the line from one side of the yard to the other. The yard was thirty five feet wide, so that was no mean feat for a six year old. We used to pretend to grumble and complain, but secretly, we loved it. Especially when we finally managed it. Pop would make such a big deal of it. Anyone would think we’d just won gold at the Olympics. Pop had a way of making us feel special for the smallest thing.’
Caitlyn was surprised by the tenderness in Thomas’ reminiscing. It was unusual for her to witness a male being so sharing with their inner thoughts. But as if he read her thoughts, he quickly and swiftly changed the subject. ‘So what is it that you do in Broome, Caitlyn? Are you leaving town soon? Is that why you had your garage sale?’ He held his breath for a moment. He hoped he was wrong about her reasons for having the garage sale.
‘Oh no. In fact, just the opposite, I just arrived, but having such a small unit, it quickly became apparent, that me and my worldly goods were not all going to fit in, so the garage sale was a good way to clear out some of the unnecessary junk.
‘But back to your original question, I’m a teacher with Broome Christian Primary School. I teach year seven there.’
‘That’s interesting. I might have to start calling you Miss Caitlyn. Do you enjoy teaching?
‘I love it. Teaching is my passion. Ever since I was ten years old, it’s all I wanted to do. And as I got older, I became even more determined to become a teacher. I just knew I wanted to work in a job where I could help make a difference if possible.’
‘So have you been teaching for long?’
‘No actually, I just finished Uni, and this is my first teaching position. But I love working with kids and have always been involved in youth programs and what not. I used to work in a vacation care during the holidays to help support myself...’
Caitlyn was about to continue, but suddenly there was a sharp jab on her fishing line and there was a long whirring sound as the fish began to take line off the reel. She jumped out of her chair so suddenly that the chair over balanced and tipped over.
‘Easy’ laughed Thomas, ‘Just pick your rod up. That fish is well and truly hooked, the way he took that bait.’ Caitlyn quickly grabbed the rod, while Thomas put her chair upright again.
‘So I just start winding?’
‘That’s the name of the game, but try pulling the tip of your rod up high, then winding as you let your rod go down again. That’s it, you’re doing fine’ Thomas said encouragingly.
‘Hey, this is more fun than it looks, no wonder Aunty Tara loves this so much.’ Caitlyn laughed breathlessly as she continued to wind.
‘You mean you no longer think, all those people that love fishing are boring.’ Thomas said with more mock seriousness. He saw the startled look on her face and broke out in a smile. ‘I’m just kidding, you don’t have to answer that.’
‘Oh, ha, ha. Very funny. But seriously, I never realised it could be such an adrenalin rush to pull a fish in.’
Just then, the fish broke through the water about ten metres off shore, and Caitlyn stopped winding.
‘No don’t stop winding.’ Caitlyn quickly started winding again. Thomas continued ‘You’ve got to get that fish up to shore, unless you plan on swimming out to grab it.’
‘No thanks’ Caitlyn said as the fish finally came to the shore line, and before she realised it, there was a forty centimetre fish flapping around on the sand.
‘Congratulations. You’ve just caught yourself a nice G.T.’
‘G.T?’
‘That’s short for Golden Trevelly. A very nice eating fish.’
The fish stopped moving momentarily, and Caitlyn went to touch it with her index finger, but as she did, it went back into a wild flapping frenzy causing Caitlyn to take a quick step back.
‘Here allow me’, said Thomas. He picked up the fish, seemingly unphased by all its flapping. In the blink of an eye, he had the hook out of the mouth. He then grabbed a knife and went about preparing it to take home.
‘Now this is the part I don’t think I want to learn’ exclaimed Caitlyn.
Thomas laughed ‘Well for now, I’ll take care of that for you. I’ll even fillet it for you ready to cook.’
‘That’s fine. It’s very nice of you to offer that.’
‘Well, as your fishing teacher, I do like to offer a value added service.’ he replied.
After that, Thomas and Caitlyn fished for another hour. Caitlyn caught one more fish, and Thomas caught a couple as well. During this time, they idlely chatted away, discussing everything from the Broome weather which was slowly becoming more bearable, to Caitlyn’s kids that she so loved to teach. Although of course, Caitlyn was professional enough not to mention any of the kid’s names.
At eleven o’clock, Thomas glanced at his watch and sighed. ‘I hate to spoil our fun Miss Caitlyn, but we need to think about packing up. I’m working tonight, and need to get a few hours of shut eye, beforehand.’
‘Not at all’ replied Caitlyn and she promptly began to pull in her line. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve kept you too long.’
‘No, no, no. Don’t apologise. I love fishing.’ Thomas paused, then added with a smile ‘And besides, I’ve really enjoyed the company too.’
Caitlyn smiled back and said somewhat shyly ‘And so have I.’
They packed up in relative silence and headed back to the car.
Thomas drove along Port Drive on the way back to Caitlyn’s unit. Caitlyn marvelled to herself at the fact that they were driving not far from the isolated road they had travelled on this morning, and yet somehow it seemed so different and remote compared to Port Drive, despite the similar vegetation at the side of the road.
‘Thank you so much for the fishing lesson.’ said Caitlyn as Thomas pulled into her driveway. ‘It’s been a very enjoyable morning indeed.’
‘Yeah, but there’s an important question that remains.’ countered Thomas turning off the engine.
‘What’s that?’
‘Have I changed your mind about fishing?’
‘Definitely. I can’t wait til the next time I tag along with my Aunty. She’ll be so surprised.’
‘In that case, you’ll be needing this.’ And Thomas promptly jumped out and started unloading the fishing gear that he had only yesterday paid for at the garage sale.
‘No, no, you paid for that, I’ll just go and buy some more.’
‘Don’t be silly. Besides, I’ve got heaps of fishing gear at home, so I can spare it.’
‘In that case, I must give you a refund.’ Before Thomas could say anything, Caitlyn had let herself inside and came out ten seconds later with a fifty dollar note. ‘I insist.’ She said and handed him the money.
‘Well, if you insist, but I better get going now a catch some zzzz’s.’ In return, he handed her the fish he had filleted for her in a plastic bag. He then reached out and gently grabbed her upper arm. ‘I’ve had a nice morning Caitlyn. I’ll see you around.’
‘Yer, me too, bye.’ With that Thomas got back in his car and reversed out. He waved one more time before he took off down the road, and disappeared into the distance.
It’s only then that Caitlyn realised how disappointed she was that Thomas had not invited her on another fishing trip, or asked for her number.

A real blog

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog. Well it really is a shameless effort to pre-promote my part written novel 'Mangrove Dreaming'. Just as a bit of a background, when I decided I wanted to try and write a novel, I felt that Broome was a natural choice for a location for my novel. I love Broome, I met my husband there, we fell in love and we married there. So it definitely holds memories for us.

The story of Mangrove Dreaming is one of love, friendship, growth and healing. It concerns Sam, who has moved to Broome to save her failing marriage, Tara, her older neighbour, with whom she forms an endearing friendship, and Caitlyn, Tara's niece, who has come to Broome to start her teaching career and finds the last thing she ever expected to... true love. Through the unlikely female hobby of fishing, these three women give each other the strength and support to face whatever life may throw at them.

I started writing 'Mangrove Dreaming' just under a year ago, and had grand plans of writing it in three months. Now it's a year later and I'm half way through chapter 8. Sometimes, I've written three chapters in nine days, other times, it's taken me three months to write one chapter, with life (moving house, back problems, two active kids under four) getting in the way of my original plan. Apart from that I have no real excuse, not even writers block as I have a full chapter outline of what happens in every chapter (there are 22 Chapters in total). Part of my motivation of putting my chapters on a blog, is if I know there is an audience out there waiting to see the next (hopefully) exciting chapter, then I will be more inclined to sit down and write more.

So please feel free to comment on what I've done so far and if you like what you've read so far, you have my permission to give me a cyber kick in the butt if I fail to deliver more chapters at an acceptable rate :-).

Hope you enjoy my story.

Love Kerrie xoxo

Chapter 7

MANGROVE DREAMING
By Kerrie Bygrave

Chapter 7:

When the alarm blared out at five fifteen in the morning, Caitlyn’s instinct was to turn off the source of annoying bleeping and pull the cover up over her head. But then she remembered that it was the day of the garage sale and she had to make an early start. She had mentioned to Kara, one of the other teachers at school, that she was holding a garage sale, and Kara had warned her that no matter what time you advertised your sale as starting, that potential buyers would converge in the masses on your yard at no later than seven o’clock. Caitlyn had spent the afternoon before, riding around on her bike to the major intersections of Broome, placing signs around advertising the time and place of her sale. She had put eight o’clock on the signs, but after talking to Kara, she had decided to make sure she was ready by seven.
Jolene had dropped by the night before, and Caitlyn had informed her that she planned to be ready by seven, but if Jolene didn’t want to come that early, she understood. Jolene had replied that she would see how she went. Jolene planned to go to the Roey that night, and it would just depend how late she was out as to how early she would show up.
Caitlyn grabbed a quick coffee to wake herself up, then had a quick shower. She then started dragging the old furniture from the back veranda through to the front yard. By the time she finished that, it was coming up to six thirty already. Next she took the old plastic table that belonged with the unit out to the front yard and unpacked the boxes of unwanted bits and pieces she’d put to the side onto it. Caitlyn also grabbed the fishing gear she had bought the weekend before, and brought it out the front. She debated whether or not to put prices on the items she was selling, and decided that maybe she’d better, so that Jolene would know what to sell things for. She found a marker pen and some masking tape and started tearing bits of tape off, sticking them on various items and scribbling prices on to them.
Caitlyn hadn’t even finished doing this when the first car pulled up. A family of four got out their four wheel drive and wandered into her front yard. ‘We’re not too early, are we love?’ asked a man who appeared to be the father. His daughters appeared to be about ten and twelve. Caitlyn didn’t recognise them from her school, so she guessed that they were from another school in Broome.
‘No, not really.’ replied Caitlyn. She was so lucky that Kara had warned her to be ready early, or else she would still be just climbing out of bed right about now. The family wandered in and out of the various pieces of furniture. Occasionally, the wife would call out to the husband and he would go and investigate a particular item that she was looking at. The kids came up to Caitlyn and asked if she had any toys for sale.
‘I’m afraid not.’ said Caitlyn. ‘I don’t have any kids, so I don’t have any toys to sell off’. The kids gave her a bored look and the older girl rolled her eyes. Caitlyn quickly added, ‘but I am selling some pretty costume jewellery over on that table if you’re interested.’ This sent the two girls scurrying over to the table that Caitlyn had indicated.
After a few more minutes, the husband came up to Caitlyn with a few odds and ends in his hands including some of the costume jewellery that his daughters had picked out. He also said that he wanted the armchair. He gave her some money and he and his wife loaded the chair into the back of the car.
Caitlyn had about a five minute reprieve before more people arrived. Then it seemed that everyone suddenly arrived at once. Sure enough, just as Kara had predicted, at seven o’clock on the dot, there were fifteen or so people fossicking through her belongings. Caitlyn wandered around amongst them waiting for someone to approach her to buy something. A tall thin man in his early forties was inspecting her fishing gear. He called out to see who the owner was, and Caitlyn hurried over to see him.
‘You honestly want fifty dollars for all this stuff. I thought this was supposed to be a garage sale.’ The man sounded slightly arrogant.
‘It is, but this is all brand new, it’s only been used once. In fact I only brought it a week ago.’
‘So how come you’re selling it then.’
‘I decided fishing wasn’t for me, so I thought I may as well get rid of it.’ Caitlyn didn’t feel like explaining to this man that she felt she wasn’t any good at fishing.
‘I’ll give you thirty bucks for the lot.’
‘Sorry, the lowest I’ll go is forty five. Like I said, it’s all new.’
The man thought about it for a minute and rubbed his chin with his rough gnarly hands.
‘Alright, but I don’t have any money on me at the minute. I’ll be back in half an hour.’ He walked out without even saying goodbye. It amazed Caitlyn how rude some people could be.
All at once, everyone seemed to be bringing items to Caitlyn and trying to pay her. Much to Caitlyn’s relief, Jolene walked into the yard just at that moment. She immediately saw the throngs of people and said to Caitlyn ‘Hey, you’ve got a lot of people here already. What can I do?’ She put down the large bag she was carrying.
‘Thank goodness you’re here. I’ve put prices on most things, so just help people that want to buy something I guess.’
Caitlyn and Jolene spent the next fifteen minutes furiously selling this and that to people. Every now and again, Jolene would ask Caitlyn if she would accept a lower price on certain items. After a while, the crowd thinned out again and eventually there was no-one, and Caitlyn and Jolene were able to sit down for a few minutes and relax for a bit.
While they rested, Caitlyn counted the money she had made so far. ‘Hey, I’ve already made over a hundred dollars.’
‘That’s not bad.’
‘Definitely not, considering I probably would have thrown half of this stuff out if you hadn’t given me the idea of holding a garage sale. Thankyou so much, and thank you for coming along to help. I’ll shout you lunch to show my appreciation’,
‘That’s nice of you. And as for coming to help, it’s not a problem. By the way, that reminds me. I brought some stuff I want to sell. Do you mind if I put it out on display?’
‘Of course not. Go for it. What are you selling?’
‘Actually it’s some of my x-boyfriends things. Just some CDs and surf shirts that he left at my place. We broke up a month ago. I’ve been waiting for him to pick it up, but now I figure, stuff him. He was a bastard anyway. He doesn’t deserve to get it back.’ Jolene pulled about a dozen CDs out and a stack of surf shirts.
‘But what will you do if he does come back for them?’ Caitlyn could see that the CDs were quite new and what’s more, she recognised most of them as new releases. They would have been worth a small fortune. She also noticed that the surf shirts were brand name shirts and would have been worth probably fifty dollars each.
‘I’ll tell him I threw them out. Then I’ll tell him to go to hell. Serves him right for dumping me. And besides, if he wanted this stuff, he should have come and got it by now.’ Jolene sounded almost venomous as she spoke, and she had a look of near rage. Caitlyn was taken aback by her tone and demeanour.
But in a split second, Jolene snapped out of her angry look and smiled Caitlyn’s way. ‘Sorry about that. It wasn’t the best of break-ups.’
‘I understand.’ Caitlyn replied cautiously. ‘Break ups can be hard.’ But after what she had just witnessed, Caitlyn decided that Jolene was definitely not the type that you would want to be on the wrong side off in any situation. She decided to change the subject. ‘So how was last night at the Roey. Did you manage to talk to that guy you told me about?’
‘No. He wasn’t even there last night. I felt really bummed when he didn’t show. I went home early. That’s why I was able to get here just after seven. Some tart has probably got her claws into him and won’t let him out of her sight.’
‘So do you want any of these CDs?’ Jolene continued. ‘You can have them cheap. Five dollars each.’
‘No thanks. I’m trying to save money.’ Caitlyn lied. Some of the titles were by her favourite artist, but she didn’t want to have Jolene’s x-boyfriend’s belongings in her possession, especially given that they could almost be considered stolen.
So Jolene set the CD’s out on the table and used Caitlyn’s marker to price them at ten dollars each. She looked at Caitlyn. ‘I was only going to charge you five dollars, but everyone else can pay ten. They’re worth thirty dollars each.’
The next wave of people arrived soon after that, and Caitlyn and Jolene were busy for the next few hours. There were lots of people who didn’t actually buy anything, they just came in for a look. A few people asked about the fishing gear. But Caitlyn explained that they had been sold. By nine thirty, all of the furniture items had been sold, and by eleven o’clock most other items had been sold as well. There was only the odd person stopping by to look now.
As they sat on the front patio, waiting to see if anyone else would show up, Jolene stretched out her arms, and gave a big yawn. ‘I didn’t realise that a garage sale could be so draining. I might head home and have a sleep. I’ll take a rain cheque on that lunch if you don’t mind.’
‘Of course not. Thanks for your help. I’ll probably pack up soon anyway. I might have a snooze myself.’ Caitlyn paused. ‘But I am disappointed about that fishing gear. Someone told me first thing this morning that they wanted it, and they were going to come back and pay for it within half an hour. I told other people that it was sold, and now it looks like I’m stuck with it.’
‘I take it your fishing trip last week wasn’t too successful.’
‘That’s an understatement.’ Caitlyn laughed.
Jolene stood up and started packing away the few unsold items she had left. ‘Oh well. You never know, a few more people might come along before you pack up. Let them buy the gear if they wanted. You’ve given the person more than enough time to come back.’
‘I guess you’re right, but knowing my luck, I won’t get any other offers.’
‘OK. Then I’m off. Good luck with selling the rest of your stuff. I’ll catch up with you soon.’
Caitlyn waved good bye, and picked up one of the books she’d been trying to sell. She flicked through it and started reading one of the chapters. She read for a while, and she was just thinking in the back of her head, that she might finish up the garage sale, when a shadow fell across her and she realised someone was standing there.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.’ she said as she closed her book. ‘Now, can I help you with anything…’ Upon looking up she caught her breath. In front of her stood one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen. He was about five foot six tall, had jet black hair which was shortish with an ever so subtle wave. It was brushed back off his face, except for a small lock of hair which sat across the left side of his forehead. He wore a brown pair of knee length board shorts, and had a yellow singlet on. His arms were powerfully built with firm bronzed muscles, but not so muscled, that they looked grotesque the way some body builders arms did. In short, Caitlyn thought he looked the picture of perfection, and she wasn’t even normally the type to ‘rate’ guys that she saw.
Caitlyn quickly tried to recompose herself. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious that she was staring. She decided that he mustn’t have noticed because suddenly he flashed her a brilliant smile. Caitlyn was glad she was sitting down, because she felt her knees go weak, and wasn’t quite sure they would have supported her had she been standing up. She started idly rearranging items on the table in front of her as an excuse to stay seated.
‘I’ll just take a look around if you don’t mind.’
‘Yep, go right ahead. I’m afraid there’s only what is on this table and that fishing gear over there.’
‘Well, I don’t think this jewellery would suit me’ Caitlyn laughed despite feeling as nervous as a young school girl with a crush. ‘So I might check out the fishing gear. Is that it over there?’
Yes that’s it.’ Caitlyn stood up and was quietly grateful that her knees were actually supporting her much better than she thought they would. She followed her would-be customer over to where the fishing gear lay. He squatted down to inspect it.
‘Hey, this all looks brand new, how old is it.’
‘It’s only a week old, I bought it last weekend.’
‘And you’re selling it already? Why?’
‘It’s quite embarrassing really,’ Caitlyn glanced at the handsome stranger and blushed, but it had nothing to do with being embarrassed about her fishing misadventure and everything to do with the butterflies in her stomach that took flight every time she looked at him.
‘Oh I get it. You have an embarrassing fishing tale to tell, and I’m a complete stranger, so you don’t want to tell me about it. So I know what I have to do.’
‘You do?’ Caitlyn sounded mystified.
‘Yep. I have to introduce myself.’ H e said matter-of-a-factly.
‘Why do you have to do that?’ She gave him a confused look.
‘It’s obvious isn’t it? If I introduce myself, I won’t be a stranger anymore, then you can tell me what your embarrassing story is.’ He stood back up and held out his hand. ‘Hi, I’m Thomas Carter.’
‘Hi, I’m Caitlyn Jackson.’ Caitlyn shook his hand with her own, and found his hand grip to be warm and inviting. She swore that he held onto her hand a few more seconds than necessary, but she thought that could be just wishful thinking on her behalf. When he did let go, she could still feel her hand tingling.
‘Now, that we’re no longer strangers, I reckon you should tell me your embarrassing fishing story.’ Thomas could see Caitlyn hesitating. ‘You do know that every second person in Broome has an embarrassing fishing tale. It’s almost a right of passage in this town. I don’t think you’re allowed to vote in the local elections without one.’
Caitlyn laughed and started to feel more at ease. Wow, she thought, good looking and a sense of humour.
‘If it’s any help,’ Thomas continued, ‘I can almost guarantee you that I have a more embarrassing story than you.’
‘I seriously doubt that.’
‘Try me. You tell me your most embarrassing fishing story, and I’ll tell you mine.’ He said with a cheeky tone.
‘I actually brought this fishing gear to teach myself how to fish. My auntie lives in town, and she loves to fish. At first I didn’t even want to fish. I would just go along with her on her fishing trips and just enjoy the scenery and read a book, but after a while, I saw how relaxing Aunt Tara found it when she was fishing. So I thought I’d give it a shot. Only thing is, I wanted to try and teach myself to fish, then surprise my aunt by joining in.’
‘You actually went fishing by yourself the very first time you tried fishing?’
‘Yes, I thought it was a good way to ease into it without feeling pressured to be good at it straight away.’ Caitlyn paused. ‘You see, my auntie is quite a remarkable woman, she’s now in her fifties, and she takes herself off fishing all the time, and it’s nothing for her to reel in a huge fish and think nothing of it. I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of her.’
‘I can understand that, but fishing isn’t really the sort of activity you normally teach yourself. And that wasn’t really much of an embarrassing story.’
‘You don’t think so? What’s your embarrassing story then.’
‘I once went fishing at Crab Creek, and went to catch some fresh bait with my throw net in the creek. Because I didn’t want to get my clothes wet or dirty, so I took them off and went in the water, wandering down the creek looking for bait fish.’
‘What’s so embarrassing about that? Did someone see you?’ Caitlyn laughed, trying not to imagine what Thomas would look like with no clothes on.
‘Worse than that. While I was upstream, someone nicked all my gear, including my fishing gear, my clothes which had my car keys in it, my car, and my esky which had my bottle of water in it.’
‘Oh dear, what did you do?’
‘What could I do, except start walking back to town?’
‘How far from town were you?’
“Crab Creek is about a half an hours drive from town. I started walking back hoping someone would pick me up, but considering I only had jocks on... Let’s just say I got a few weird looks from passers by. And I walked for miles without anyone stopping for me, which wasn’t fun on a thirty seven degree day with no water.’
‘So how did you end up getting back to town then?’ By now, Caitlyn could barely contain her laughter.
‘Luckily a mate drove past and after nearly driving on thinking I was some weirdo, he happened to recognise me in his rear view mirror. But boy, I have never lived that day down with him.’
‘I bet.’ replied Caitlyn, her chuckles slowly subsiding.
‘So,’ said Thomas cheekily. ‘Do you still think your story is more embarrassing than mine?’
‘No, not at all. Your story definitely wins hands down.’
‘I told you so. Anyway, I’ll buy your fishing gear but only under one condition.’
‘What’s that?’
‘You have to try fishing again, and this time not try and teach yourself.’
‘Well, my auntie is good at fishing, and I know if anyone could teach me, it would be her, but if you buy my fishing gear, I’ll have nothing to fish with.’
‘Who said I was suggesting that you’re auntie should teach you. I thought you said you wanted to get some practice in before you tried fishing with her.’
‘Yeah, but if you take my fishing gear, and I don’t get my Aunt to teach me then how…’ It suddenly dawned on Caitlyn what Thomas was hinting at. ‘You mean you want to teach me?’
‘Is that such a bad idea?’
‘Oh I couldn’t ask you to do that. You’re probably too busy for that.’
‘Hey, I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t have the time. In fact, what are you doing tomorrow?’
‘Nothing, but are you sure…’
‘Course I am, see you at seven thirty tomorrow morning. We’ll head out early before it gets too hot.’
‘But I haven’t said yes yet.’ exclaimed Caitlyn.
‘Do you want to turn my offer of expert fishing tuition down then?’ smiling at her with a silly grin.
She smiled sheepishly back at him. ‘No I guess I can’t say no to such a generous offer.’
‘Good. That’s settled.’ said Thomas. He took his wallet out of his pocket. ‘Here’s fifty dollars for the fishing gear, and I’ll pick you and my fishing gear up at seven thirty tomorrow. But don’t go spending that fifty dollars.’
Caitlyn frowned ‘Why not?’
‘Because after tomorrow, when you have such fun fishing, you’re going to beg me to let you buy your gear back.’
‘Oh you think so do you?’
‘I know so. Anyway I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow.’
‘Bye then’ Caitlyn replied.
She watched him saunter back to his car casually. Once he was in his car and pulling away he waved one last time. When his car was out of sight, she sat down again. She felt almost surreal. Half an hour ago, she was merely having a garage sale, and now she had been asked fishing by one of the most attractive men she’d ever met. Caitlyn mused over the concept for a few minutes before she decided to pack up for the day.
Luckily all the furniture had sold so she didn’t have to drag anything heavy back inside. She grabbed a small packing box, and packed up the remaining small things on the table. Caitlyn decided she would donate the remaining items to an op shop.
After she’d packed away, she grabbed her bike and went around collecting the signs from the street corners, before heading home and starting some classroom preparation for the following week. She was feeling weary and had been planning to relax for the afternoon and do her work tomorrow, but now that she had plans for tomorrow morning, she didn’t want to risk leaving it til the last minute in the afternoon.

Chapter 6

MANGROVE DREAMING
By Kerrie Bygrave

Chapter 6:

Sam sat back and closed her eyes. Tara had spent some time telling her about life in Broome back in the Seventies. As much as Sam thought it sounded exotic and romantic to have lived in Broome back then, she admitted to herself that she didn’t know that she would have coped back in the days of no air-conditioning. It just added to the admiration she had for Tara that was slowly but surely growing, even at this early stage of their friendship. Now they were both sitting down, not saying much, each woman waiting to see when the next nibble would take their line. With her eyes shut, Sam became more aware of the birds calling out to each other in the distance. She could hear the gentle, constant lapping of the water at the edge of the creek. Despite the mud all over her, and the heat of the sun above, Sam couldn’t believe how relaxed she felt. In fact, she had trouble remembering the last time she was truly able to forget everything and just unwind.
Suddenly in the bushes behind them, there was a rustling noise. Sam may not have noticed had she not had her eyes shut concentrating on the things she heard. She opened her eyes and turned around. At first she couldn’t see anything but then a young woman appeared out of the trees. She stepped down over the log and started down along the mud towards Sam and Tara.
Tara called out without even looking ‘Hello Caitlyn. So you made it, huh? How great that you could join us.’
‘Hi there, Auntie Tara. Yes I made it. I managed to do a few hours of class room prep. So I thought a bit of time out down here would do me the world of good.’
Tara and Sam stood up and Tara made the introductions. ‘Sam, this is my niece Caitlyn. Caitlyn this is Sam.’ The two women smiled at each other and shook hands.’
Hi Caitlyn.’ Sam began. ‘It’s nice to meet you. Tara tells me you’re new in town.’
‘Nice to meet you too Sam. Yes, I’ve been here about six weeks now. What about you?
‘I’ve been here about four months. I don’t know about you, but I just love it.’
‘Yes, Broome is a great place, despite the heat and humidity at this time of year.’ They both laughed.
Tara interrupted ‘Just you two ladies wait until winter. The days will be absolutely idyllic, and the nights will be cool but pleasant. That’s when Broome truly comes into it’s own. Anyway, believe it or not, you do get used to this wet weather season.
‘Somehow, I find that hard to believe.’ returned Caitlyn. ‘But I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.’
Sam noticed the mud on Caitlyn’s old denim shorts and commented ‘I see you had about as much luck as me in avoiding the mud on the way in here.’
‘Yes, well, trust my Auntie to find such a nice spot that you have to trek through the mud to get to. And yet look at her, barely a spot of mud on her.’
‘I told you,’ interceded Tara. ‘I’ve been coming here for years. It doesn’t take long to get adept at getting in here whilst staying cleanish.’
The three women sat down again, after Caitlyn pulled an old towel out of her back pack to put down on the muddy bank of the creek. After she was settled, she took a book out of her backpack and started to read.
‘Aren’t you going to join us in a spot of fishing?’ inquired Sam.
‘No. Fishing isn’t really for me. I’m happy to read my book and enjoy the peace and quite down here.’
Suddenly Sam’s fishing line went taunt. She quickly grabbed her reel and started pulling in her line. ‘I’ve definitely got one.’ Sam said. She was concentrating on her line, but she had a huge smile on her face. The thrill of pulling in a fish again excited her more than she thought possible.
Tara encouraged her gently ‘Just pull it in like you’re doing, you’ll be fine.’
It didn’t take long, and the fish broke through the water at the edge of the creek. Just as Sam had the fish up on the shore and was about to go over to take a closer look, Tara warned her to be careful. ‘You’ve caught yourself a cat fish there. Don’t get to close. The spikes around its head are poisonous and can make you very sick if you touch them.’ Tara grabbed a rag out of her bag, a piece of wood shaped like a rolling pin, and a pair of fishing pliers. She went over and grabbed the fish by the tail with the rag and used the pliers to remove the hook from the fish’s mouth. She then took the piece of wood and carried the fish a little further along the bank and turned her back to Sam and Caitlyn. When she came back, Caitlyn asked where the fish was. ‘I hit it on the head and put the dead fish back in the water.’
‘I think that might be one of the reasons I don’t like fishing’ replied Caitlyn crinkling up her nose. ‘Isn’t that cruel?’
‘Not really in this situation. The cat fish population in Dampier Creek is particularly prolific. Some days you can come down here and catch nothing but cat fish, and their presence can actually mean there is less food around for other fish species that are more desirable. So, it’s kind of unspoken amongst the fishing community that the cat fish is one of those species that you don’t always re-release alive if you catch them.’
‘Well, like I said,’ Caitlyn said, ‘I just don’t think fishing is for me.’ She went quite. She hadn’t told her Auntie about her fishing trip out to the jetty. After debating with herself about whether she should, she decided against it. After all, Tara would just try to change her mind and get her to try again, and she didn’t feel up to justifying why she didn’t want to try again. She put it down to ‘different strokes for different folks’.
Tara put some more bait on the hook, and Sam tossed her line back out. This time she managed a good cast the first time. ‘Gee, you really are getting the hang of this’ said Tara.
‘Thanks, but its early days yet. I still need to learn to put bait on and replace my own hooks and things.’
‘How long have you been fishing?’ asked Caitlyn.
‘Today’s my first time.’ replied Sam. ‘But I already feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it. Your Auntie’s a good teacher.’
‘Aaah, but your also a good student.’ added Tara and they gave each other a warm look.
Caitlyn became even more sure that fishing just wasn’t for her. If Sam could pick it up in one day, then she definitely wasn’t going to embarrass herself by trying to fish in front of anyone else. She went back to reading her book, but found that she couldn’t concentrate. She was slightly annoyed at herself. She wasn’t the type who normally gave up so easily. So she couldn’t work out why it was so when it came to fishing. After reading the same paragraph three times, Caitlyn put her book down and stared out towards the water.
When Sam noticed that Caitlyn was no longer reading, she said. ‘So Caitlyn, you’re a teacher up here? What do you teach? Primary or Secondary school?’
‘I teach year seven at Primary school.’
‘And how do you like that?’
‘I love it! I’ve known since I was about fifteen that I wanted to be a primary school teacher. At first I thought I wanted to teach young children in years one to three, but being my first year of teaching, I couldn’t be fussy about what year I taught. But now I think I’m really luck to be teaching year seven. I feel like I’m helping all these great kids to prepare themselves to go out into the world. I get such a sense of satisfaction when I see them achieve things in their day to day learning. What about you? What do you do?’
‘I’m not actually working at the moment. My husband Matt and I are in the fortunate situation where I don’t need to work. Before we came here, I was an accountant for a big firm back in Melbourne. I worked long hours crunching numbers whilst I sat in front of a computer all day long. By the time I left Melbourne, I hadn’t had a real holiday in over three years. So when we got here, Matt encouraged me to have a break for a while before I look for work. I’ll probably leave it another few months before I start looking again.’
‘Well I’m sure as an accountant, you’ll have no trouble finding work.’
‘No, probably not. But you know what. I’m not so sure I want to go back to doing accounting. It’s so dull and boring. I might try looking at something else. I don’t know what yet. But something where I’m interacting with people more.’
‘You’re bound to find something you want to do. And even though I just met you, you strike me as being a real people person.’
‘Why, thankyou. That’s a lovely thing for you to say.’
The three women then enjoyed another hour at the creek’s edge. Every now and then they had to move back up the bank a few feet to keep back from the incoming tide. At times, they chatted happily, and there were other times that they just sat and absorbed the peace and serenity around them.
Suddenly Tara stood up and started reeling in her line. She advised Sam to do the same. ‘But we’re having such a nice time.’ Sam said. ‘Couldn’t we just stay another half hour or so?’ She noticed that Caitlyn had also stood up and was starting to pack her belongings into her backpack.
‘Definitely not.’ replied Tara. ‘Not unless you want to swim out of here.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘The tide is due to start flowing in much faster soon, and if we don’t leave now, that path we come in on will be a few feet under water. And the creek we have to cross, will be a couple of metres deep.’
‘Gosh, that’s hard to imagine, seeing as it was just a trickle when we came in. But you’re the expert, so I’ll get packed up.’
Tara was sympathetic. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll let you know when I come out here next time. You’re welcome to join me again.’
The three women packed up the rest of their things and headed up the bank and over the log into the mangle of salt water trees. Each of the women became lost in their thoughts, and none of them noticed as each one glanced longingly back at the water’s edge.
The trail was slightly muddier on the way back out, and for the first fifteen minutes of the trek, they said little to each other as they concentrated on making their way over the slippery terrain. At least the mangroves that formed a canopy overhead provided them with shade from the beating sunlight. When they reached the creek crossing, Sam was surprised to see that indeed, it was no longer a trickle but it was now about a metre across, but she and Caitlyn followed Tara’s lead, and got across without any drama’s although their shoes were saturated by the time they were on the other side.
Once they had used the log to climb up the other side of the creek, the path was slightly drier and the walking became slightly less slippery for a while.
‘So Sam,’ Tara said as they continued along the path, ‘How is it that you and Matt met. I hope you don’t mind me asking.’
‘No, not at all. We met just over three years ago at a dinner party one night. I wasn’t even going to go. It was a Friday night and I had had a horrendous week at work. I was feeling dead tired, and didn’t really feel like socializing. My friend Kristy was hosting the dinner at her place. I actually considered ringing her up and cancelling, but I knew she’d been planning it for weeks, so id didn’t want to disappoint her. So three cups of coffee later, I showed up on her door step with a nice bottle of red. As it turns out, one of her other guests happened to bring their cousin along, and when I walked into the dining room to take a seat, Matt was seated directly across from me. I saw him the moment I saw him. Even though he was sitting down, he struck me as being tall and incredibly cute. Once I sat down, we started talking straight away, and basically we just kept talking all night. By the end of the night, I knew he was the one. Not that I told him that at the time, but later we admitted to each other that we both felt that by the end of the night.
‘So you reckon it was love at first sight?’ asked Tara.
‘Oh definitely. From the night we met, it was exactly three months to the time we got married. We had the cliché whirl wind romance. Matt wined and dined me for a few weeks before whisking me off to one of his friend’s weekend estates in Shoreham, down near Portsea, where he proposed to me. I said yes instantly. I was so incredibly happy. We decided to get married as soon as humanly possible.’
‘Your mum and dad must have been thrilled for you.’ commented Caitlyn.
Suddenly Sam went quite briefly before continuing. ‘No unfortunately. In fact, it was just the opposite. The moment I announced our engagement, they flipped out. They tried desperately to talk me out of it. They argued that we hardly knew each other. In the end, when we made it clear that we would be getting married with or without their permission, they gave me an ultimatum, they said that if we got married, they wanted nothing to do with the wedding.’
‘Wow, that must have been hard.’ said Caitlyn sympathetically.
‘Yes, it was incredibly hard. But we got married as planned. The week before the big day, Matt offered to postpone the wedding if it would help fix things, but I knew we were meant to be together and I wouldn’t hear of putting off our vows. True to their word, mum and dad refused to come. My wedding day was the happiest day of my life, but in the back of my mind, I kept hoping mum and dad would magically appear. I was devastated when they didn’t show up. But I was determined not to let it spoil our special day. And I haven’t heard from them since.’
‘Don’t worry.’ Tara said gently. ‘I know it must be hard. But my daughter Emily is the most special person in the world to me. I’m sure deep down, your parents feel the same about you. They won’t stay estranged forever.’
‘I really hope not.’ There was a sad tinge to her voice. ‘But mum is a pretty determined lady. If she’s decided that she’s not going to communicate with me, then she’ll be pretty keen to stick to her guns. To her it will be about sticking to her guns.’
‘Like I said, I’m sure she will come around. You wait and see.’ said Tara encouragingly. But Sam still had an incredibly sad look on her face for the rest of the walk, and they walked in relative silence.
When they came back to the main road, they all agreed that they would have to do this again real soon. Caitlyn unlocked her bike from the tree that she had chained it to and said goodbye to her auntie and Sam before setting off.
Sam and Tara walked home, stopping at the Shell service station on the corner of Hamersley Street and Napier Terrace to grab a cold drink. It was the only place they were willing to go into with their muddy feet. The man behind the counter gave them a funny look when he saw the state of their feet and the mud on their shorts, but they just laughed and told him not to ask.
They parted at Sam’s gate and said their fond goodbyes. Sam washed her feet and legs at the tap near the steps to the veranda, and bounded up the stairs. She went inside and had a long soaking shower, washing her hair as well. She then made herself a sandwich for lunch, before deciding to take a nap. She realised she was quite exhausted from her first fishing adventure. She laid down with the intention of sleeping for an hour or so, but she ended up sleeping for five solid hours.
That night over a late dinner and a glass of wine, she regaled Matt with the story of her day’s outing. He was amused by the thought of his wife and an older woman trying to fish in the creek. Sam could tell from his expression that he was not really taking her seriously, and she grew annoyed.
‘Don’t get me wrong.’ Matt said, trying extra hard not to sound dismissive. ‘Look, I’m glad you’ve met someone to enjoy yourself with. As long as you’re having fun, that’s all I care about.’ He stood from his chair, picking up his empty plate and wine glass and leant down to kiss Sam on the top of her head. ‘Look, I’ve had a long day, I’ll see you in bed.’ With that he walked off to their bedroom.
Despite being irritated by Matt’s blasé attitude, Sam became determined to do as much fishing as she could over the next few months just to prove to Matt that women could fish too.
Later when Sam fell asleep, she had the strangest dream. She dreamt that she was fishing at the Mangrove creek, when she heard her mother’s voice. She put her fishing line down and followed the sound of the voice into the mangroves. She left the normal trail in an effort to get to her mum more quickly. At times Sam was making her way in between the entwined tree branches, and at other times she felt like she was floating above the dense blue-grey foliage. But the more she followed the noise into the mangroves, the more distressed her mother’s voice became. Just as Sam thought she was about to find her mum, she woke up in a cold sweat. Matt had already awoken and was instantly concerned. He turned on his bedside lamp.
‘Don’t worry.’ Sam said hoarsely. ‘I just had a bad dream, but I’ll be fine now.’
‘You don’t look fine. Let me get you a glass of water.’ And he padded back to the kitchen to do so. When he came back, Sam looked slightly less shaken.
She drank the water that he brought her and smiled. ‘See? All better.’
‘So what was the dream about? Was it about…?’ He paused. ‘Well, you know, what happened back in Melbourne?’
‘No, it wasn’t about that. I don’t really remember what it was about to tell you the truth.’ she lied. ‘Let’s just go back to sleep’. Sam decided against telling Matt about her dream, because she was worried that he would think that the mangroves had spooked her, and he might try to discourage her from going again. And as much as the dream had temporarily upset her, she was very much looking forward to going down there again.
Matt turned off the light again. And they laid down. Matt sidled up to Sam and put his arm protectively over her. Soon they were both fast asleep again. It was the first time since a long time before they had arrived in Broome that they slept in each other’s arms.