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.