7 comments/ 38560 views/ 11 favorites Life on the Road By: Cromagnonman I was late getting out of Darwin so I pulled off the road at Katherine to grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat to fuel me up for the long night ahead. The truck was fuelled up and with over 1000 litres in the tanks I wouldn't have to stop for fuel until I got home. There was one other rig in the parking bay, an old and battered Louisville with 3 cattle trailers hanging behind. There were a couple of dust-covered utes complete with bull bars and a row of spotlights on a bar over the cab, a Range Rover and a couple of soft roaders completed the collection. I pulled in and let the engine of my Mack idle for a while before I shut her down. I had five trailers on with general cargo, including a refrigerated one with tropical fruit, mangos and papayas for the Southern markets. I climbed down and strolled into the road house, the people inside glanced as I entered then continued to munch their way through truckie serves of steak, salad and chips. I grabbed a mug and helped myself to the bottomless urn of coffee and fronted the counter to order. The name badge told me that Steph was on duty and she smiled at me, "What'll it be?" Pencil poised for my reply. "Steak, rare, just whip off its horns, wipe its arse and chuck it on the plate. If it doesn't moo when I shove the fork in it's too well done." She smiled as she always did. "Toss a salad on the plate and that'll do me." "Sure thing Honey, take a pew anywhere, we're not busy, I'll bring it over to you." I looked around the dining room and most of the customers were in pairs or groups, all except one. She was probably about my age although it's hard to tell when a person's been out in all weathers, she was slim, dark hair and not bad looking in an outdoors kind of way. She wore jeans and a check shirt and R M Williams boots, a battered Akubra was on the table beside her plate. I tried to match her to the vehicles outside and settled on the Range Rover. "Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked as I placed my cap on her table. "Suit yourself." "Thanks, I'm Mike, Mike Swain, Where are you heading?" "Kate, Kate Findlay. Down south, got a load of cattle heading for Adelaide." "Is that your rig out there, the old Louie?" "Yeah, she's getting on a bit but she's pretty reliable for the work I do." "Is that all you do, cart cattle?" "I usually back-load with building gear for the Station, we're always having to repair buildings, bloody termites'll munch their way through a shed in no time." "So you work on a station?" "My parents own it, Wattle Creek, it's about a hundred K's off the highway. We've got a couple of thousand square Kilometres and run a few thousand head of beef cattle, mainly Santa Gertrudis and a few Zebus. Our agent tells us the best prices are being fetched down south so we thought we'd ship some down to see how they go. What about yourself, what've you got on?" "Mainly general freight, I've got fruit in the fridge trailer and bits and pieces in the others." "How's the Mack to drive?" So she had noticed me pull up. "She's good, she moves along nicely and I'm thankful for the auto trans when I'm doing an East Coast run, some of those B roads would be hard work with a manual box." "We might look at something like that, we've decided that it's time to pension old Louie off, she's starting to cost a fortune in maintenance." My steak arrived and it was singed on the outside and bloody in the middle. "You must save a fortune on fuel." She said nodding at my plate. "That's as near as damn it to raw." "I find that if I ask for rare steak I usually get it medium rare at best, anything more cooked than that is tough and tasteless. I could safely order medium rare here but I like it this way and if I can get it the way I like it that's a bonus." "I know what you mean, once it loses the pink in the middle I might just as well be eating my RM's." While I worked my way through this meal Kate tapped the bottomless urn for another coffee for us. She drank hers quickly and stood up. "I'd better be going, I hope to bump into you again, soon." "Sure thing, I'll take my time with this so I should be on the road in about half an hour, maybe I'll see you at the next truck stop." "That'd be great, see ya." With that she was off. I didn't much like the sound of her gear box as she crawled onto the bitumen, I hoped she would make it. Hope wasn't something that I relied on. I had only been on the road about twenty minutes when my CB crackled into life; "Any truck heading south out of Katherine, I need help." "Is that you Kate, it's Mike, what's the problem?" "I can't get the old bastard of a thing to move, it goes into gear but nothing, it won't budge." "How far did you get?" "I was on the road about forty minutes so I guess I made fifty K's." "Okay," I pushed the button on my trip computer, "I should be with you in ten, we'll have a quick look and see if it's an easy fix, if not we'll work something out." As I drove towards her my mind was working over-time, she couldn't sit on the side of the road for long if it was a major problem, so what could I do to help her. A plan was just forming when I saw her rig on the gravel shoulder. I pulled in behind her. I could see the worry on her face as she came back to me. I switch off my headlights and climbed down. "Thanks for stopping Mike, I don't know what to do if I'm held up here for any time." "Let's have a look at it first." I crawled under the truck and in the light of my torch I could see a stream of oil coming from the back of the gearbox housing. I grabbed the tail-shaft and shook it, it was loose. It didn't look good. I crawled out, her look said it all; could she continue or was it worse. "It's not good news I'm afraid. It looks as if the output shaft in your gearbox has broken, it's flapped around like a fart in a bubble bath and chewed out the oil seal. You're up for a new gearbox." "Damn. Damn, damn the mother fucking thing! Why did it have to do this now? Why couldn't it have shit itself at some other time." "Now before you get too carried away and take a sledge hammer to the old girl, I have a plan." She looked at me with a degree of suspicion at first and then, when she saw that I was serious, she relaxed a little. "Tell me, what's your plan." "How about this. I'll contact my father and get him to organise a heavy lift tow truck to come down from Darwin and drag your truck back so that you can either get it fixed or junk it." "But what about the cattle, I can't just leave them here." "I'm getting to that. While I'm talking to Dad I'll organise a prime mover to come and pick up my load. We'll drag yours out from under your trailers and slot mine in. It's no big deal if my load takes a day longer to get through but yours needs to move now." "I don't know, it's a lot of trouble for you and it'll cost you heaps." "But not as much as it'll cost you if you're stuck out here for days, you probably don't have enough feed to see you beyond two days and there's no water here. I reckon you'll lose around thirty percent of your load and the rest'll only be good for pet food." "Why would you put yourself out like this?" "Believe me if you'd been a middle aged truckie in a navy singlet with his gut hanging over his shorts I wouldn't have even considered it, but seeing as how you're a gorgeous looking sheila, I decided to make an exception." "Okay, but if you've visions of giving your sleeper cab a pounding, you can forget it." "That thought never crossed my mind." "Oh?" "Well not for more than a minute or two, a bloke can dream. We can't stand here exchanging pleasantries, we have work to do." I lowered the legs and jacked my trailer up so that I could drive out from under, then we did the same to Kate's although I had to hitch up to it and drag it out. Then we hooked up and we were ready to roll. She climbed into the cab and sat there looking at my office. "Wow! This is some rig, your dash looks like an aeroplane cockpit, and you've got a CD player and even, bliss, aircon, and these seats, wow." I pulled out onto the highway and started to wind her up, she couldn't believe how smooth the acceleration was compared to the old Louie and the lack of noise impressed her. I opened the centre console. "See if there's any music there that you like." She picked out a CD and slotted it into the player and the surround sound kicked in and filled the cab with classical guitar music. "You surprise me." She said. "What did you expect, some whining hillbilly crap or thumping truck driving music?" "I love classical music but with the racket my truck makes it's a waste of time." We made a quick pit stop at Tennant Creek before heading south once more. It was an easy drive and driving two up we didn't have to stop other than to change over, so we made good time into the Alice. Mid morning we pulled in to a truck stop and I topped up my tanks, I didn't need to but I was playing it safe. Kate hooked a hose up to the tap and filled up the water troughs in the trailers. The cattle drank thirstily, it was as if they knew that it would be a long time between drinks. I gave her a hand to drag some hay bales from a box on the front trailer and we gave them a feed as well. "Do you have to do all of this yourself?" "Yeah, it's hard yakka but if I don't do it the cows suffer." Apart from a couple of kangaroos that chose to try us on, it was an uneventful trip. We passed through Pt Augusta on sun-up. "We have to turn off just this side of Pt Wakefield, they're going into agistment for a couple of weeks before hitting the markets." "What were you going to do for those two weeks?" "I was going to head to Adelaide for a couple of week's rest, then I was going to come back, haul them to market. While I was down there I was going to look for a new truck." "There's a Mack dealer in Adelaide, if you like I can take you there, I know the Sales Manager." "You've done too much already, I'll never be able to repay you." "I'll think of something." She looked at me, then over her shoulder to the sleeper cab. "Oh no, not that." "No, not that, although I can still dream. No, what I had in mind was that I was going to take a couple of week's holiday. I have a holiday house down at Victor Harbor and I thought that you might like to join me, what do you say?" She thought about it for a minute or two. "I say yes." It took us a couple of hours to unload the three trailers and make sure that the cattle were well fed and watered before we drove to Adelaide in the prime mover. As I pulled into our freight depot the office door opened and a man in a wheel chair rolled down the ramp, stopping beside the truck. A knowing look came over his face when Kate climbed out of the cab. "So this is the reason why you left your load on the side of the road." "Dad, this is Kate, Kate my father Bill Swain. Kate had a load of cattle for the markets down here, we couldn't leave them on the side of the road. Her truck did its gearbox in and it wasn't something that could be fixed quickly, so I decided to unhook my load and bring her load down here, I figured that the refrigerated trailer had enough fuel for a week and the rest of the load was fine, so, as long as we got it picked up quickly. I was looking at six hours to get a truck down from Darwin so there shouldn't have been a problem." "I think you made the right decision," He looked at the both of us, "in more ways than one. What are your plans now?" "I was thinking of taking Kate down to the shack for a couple of week's R&R, if that's okay with you." "Sure, I can cover that. Well, have fun you two." The look that he gave us suggested that he thought that my idea of R&R was sex, sex and more sex. We walked over to the car park and I opened the door of my pride and joy, my toy. It wasn't an Italian supercar, or a Jaguar or Aston Martin or Mercedes, Audi or BMW, or even an American muscle car, for that would have been too normal. It was an unusual car, there had only around 500 sold in Australia, it was a Subaru SVX. I had read somewhere that it was Subaru's six cylinder 4 wheel drive tilt at the Porsche 911. In terms of performance there apparently wasn't that much in it but the SVX had more creature comforts. "What is it? I can see by the badge that it's a Subaru, but what is it?" I explained a bit about it as I fired her up, you could barely hear the boxer six as it moved smoothly out of the yard. "Do you prefer to drive automatics?" "Oh this thing, around town it's easier but this thing has a trick up its sleeve, if I push this red button on the stick it goes manual and it changes gear whenever I want, not when it wants. The only difference being there's no clutch. Not bad for a car that's almost twenty years old." We weaved our way through the often erratic traffic that is the bane of a truck driver's existence, this point was brought into stark reality by Kate's question. "What happened to your father?" I thought about what had happened and when I hadn't answered after about thirty seconds she reached over and touched my arm. "I'm sorry Mike, I didn't mean to touch a nerve." "No it's all right. He was driving in heavy traffic on his way to Melbourne, the main access road from the depot runs through the posh part of town and this woman cut in front of him and braked heavily to make a turn. He hit the brakes and swerved, the truck jack-knifed and rolled. He'd seen the yellow diamond on the back window of her car that told him that there were 'kids on board' and his reaction was that he didn't want to kill any kids. What he didn't know at the time was that she was on her way to pick up the ankle biters from school and was running late. As a result he's a paraplegic and can't drive a truck any more. He didn't even touch her car and what made it worse was that she showed no remorse at all, she didn't even get charged because what she had done wasn't illegal, just stupid." It was still a sore point for me. I had decided to take her along the coastal, more scenic, route south to the Fleurieu Peninsular and as we cleared suburbia and entered the more rural areas I pointed out some of the features. "Do you see all of those grape vines along here?" indicating the row upon row of young vines. "All of this area used to be almond groves until the late 80's early 90's when two things happened to change all that, the first was the price of wine grapes went up through the roof and there was a glut of imported almonds from the US that saw the price of the local product plummet to the point that the industry was no longer sustainable in this region. Now there's an oversupply of wine grapes and some of these vineyards are no longer profitable." "How do you know all this?" "I was studying Ag. Science when Dad had his accident, I chose to give it up to help him in the business." The road wound its way around the foothills of the Southern Mt Lofty ranges before turning inland through dairy farming country and passing through a couple of small towns before turning once more to the coast. The scenery here was spectacular with steep hills coming almost to the foreshore and the road running along the narrow strip of land beside the sea. After a few kilometres it weaved its way through interlocking spurs in the hills before making a return to dairy country. As we passed a sign pointing to Rapid Bay I told her of the gypsum mining operation that had been there and the jetty that had been used to load ships taking the rock to the cement works in Adelaide. "Now there's a general store, a camp ground and one of the best fishing spots on the coast. Do you like fishing?" "Can't say that I do much fishing, there's barra (barramundi) in the creek but you have to keep your eyes peeled for salties (salt water crocodiles), they're none too friendly." "I know what you mean, we have the famous white pointers around here, they munch on the unsuspecting from time to time." I turned off the main road at Delamere and headed through pine plantations on a smooth, gently sweeping road. I set the SVX on auto pilot and let her ease along the road at the speed limit of 100KPH, not slowing down for corners even though the advisory speed signs told me that I shouldn't be travelling at more than, on some bends, 80KPH. "This thing handles well." Kate said. "You should be glad that I'm not in a hurry. If I were I'd have it in manual and be going for it, these 80K corners she can take comfortably at 140. I'm not in a hurry because I want to prolong this pleasure for as long as possible." "Oh you do, do you?" "Yes, do you blame me?" "No. I have to confess that I'm enjoying it too." Her hand reached over and rested lightly on my leg. "There it is," I'd just come over a crest. Spread out below us was Victor Harbor and the coastal plain that stretched from the Bluff round the curves of the beaches to the Murray Mouth. "Beautiful Victor Harbor." "Wow! It is beautiful." We drove along the coastal road and I pulled into the driveway of a two storey town house. "Welcome to my holiday shack." I showed her around pointing out the amenities and the bedrooms, she didn't seem all that interested in the second bedroom, or maybe that was just my wishful thinking. "We'll slip down to the shops for a few essentials to tide us over for the night and tomorrow we can hit the supermarket and stock up for the duration. Tonight we dine out." I made it sound like a big deal. We cleaned up and changed into fresh jeans and shirts. Milk, coffee, bread, butter and cereal later we had enough for breakfast in the morning and headed into town for a meal at one of the hotels. Any one of them served good local seafood and Kate was in food heaven, calamari and salad and lots of it instead of steak. A good wine to go with it and we were both laughing and carrying on like a couple of school kids instead of responsible adults. I had never enjoyed the company of a woman as much as this. "Thank you for a great evening." Kate said as I closed the front door behind us. "I really enjoyed it, the food, the wine and the company. It was all the best." She put her arms around my neck and pulled my face to hers. "Mike, I'm scared." "What of?" "You. You and what is about to happen. I want to make love to you but I'm scared that if I do I'll fall in love with you." "And that scares you how?" I couldn't understand her reasoning. "I'm not scared of falling in love with you as much as I'm scared of what will happen when that happens. I'm scared that you won't want to live in my world and I don't know whether I can live in yours." "I fully understand, but it's a hurdle that we should be able to clear when the time comes, but for now, and I know that this is going to sound trite and corny, but I love what I see and see what I love." "God that sounds like something straight out of Mills and Boon or Barbara Cartland. I never took you to be a soppy romantic." "Romantic yes, soppy no. What's wrong with a man being romantic?" "Nothing, it's just that I'm not used to it." We were still in each other's arms and the words came between kisses. I felt her hand slip between us and grab my wedding tackle. "What have we here?" "Don't tell me you don't know what a cock is." "Oh I know what one of them is and much bigger ones than that." She caught the look on my face and laughed. "On horses, you can't live on a cattle station and not witness a stallion mounting a mare. You should have seen the look on your face." We both laughed and her hand stayed where it was. My hand moved between us and opened her shirt and slid around her body pulling her to me and feeling her soft, warm flesh. "Who gave you permission to do that?" "You've got to be kidding, here you are groping me and turning me on something fierce and you expect me to ask permission to put my hand inside your shirt?" Life on the Road "I never said that I wouldn't give you permission, in fact you have it." My hand was around her and my fingers found the clasp of her bra. It took a second to unclasp it and free her breasts. My hand returned to her front and cupped a firm breast and my fingers found her hard nipple. "If you don't stop that I'll not be responsible for my actions." Her voice had a soft wistful quality to it. "If you do stop it I'll kick you in the balls." Wanting to protect my balls from damage, I continued. We were still in each other's arms but by now we were in bed, naked. She still had hold of my cock and my fingers had found her pussy, her moist pussy, and it was causing her to moan and squirm around in the bed. She positioned his head at her entrance as I rolled over her, between her widespread legs and entered her. I now knew what she meant about not being responsible for her actions, it was as if she had lost control of her body, she was bouncing up and down and using her legs to pull me deeper inside of her. "Let me know when you're about to come." "Why?" I had visions of having to pull out, of her taking him into her mouth and sucking him dry. "So I can keep my mouth shut, he's so far inside of me that when you come, if my mouth's open he'll spit in your face." I laughed at the image of it and the release of tension caused him to relax and come, filling her with sperm. It was the signal for her to come, and come. It was the most amazing and satisfying sexual experience that I've ever had. I hoped it was the same for her. Some time, a long time, later we were in each other's arms, still, and were almost asleep when I heard a small voice. "Mike, Darling, I'm not scared any more." The sun was shining through the window when I tried to ease out of bed without waking her, it didn't work. "What time is it?" A sleepy voice asked. "Just gone seven." I walked into the living room and collected our clothes from the floor and dumped them on the bed. She was instantly awake. "Damn, why didn't you wake me earlier?" "Hey, you're on holidays, get some more sleep while I prepare breakfast." "I might as well get up, I'm awake now." She slid out of bed and stood up revealing her naked body in all its glory. "How many times did we make love last night?" "Three, maybe four, I wasn't keeping score." "That all. The way my pussy feels right now I would have thought at least ten." "I'm sorry, I guess I got a little carried away. I can't remember having enjoyed it so much before. What was it you meant when you told me you weren't scared any more?" By this time we were in the shower and I was lavishing soapy attention on her breasts. "Remember that I said that I was scared of what would happen if I fell in love with you and you told me that it would be a hurdle that we would face when that happened? Well, it's still a hurdle but one that I'm prepared to face, now that I'm in love with you." Breakfast had to wait. People stared at us as we walked around the supermarket, I guess they had never seen two people of our age having as much fun grocery shopping. We were picking strange and exotic things from the shelves and showing them to each, making a mutual decision as to whether to buy it or not. Eventually we had enough supplies to see us comfortably for the next two weeks. We were happy in each other's company. Then it ended. My phone rang bringing the mood crashing back to earth with a thud. "Mike, is Kate there with you?" It was my father. "Yes, what's the problem?" "Put her on." I handed the phone to Kate. Her face, that moments ago was radiantly happy, fell in a screaming heap. "No, no, oh my god, I've got to get back." Her expression when she handed the phone back to me was the most heart-wrenching that I had ever seen. "What's the problem Dad?" "Kate's father has been trying to contact her since last night, he eventually tracked down the tow truck that hauled their truck back and found out who had hired it, with that information he rang me this morning to find out if I could get the message to Kate. Mike, her mother has cancer. She had tests a week ago and yesterday morning she got her test results back and she has to go into hospital today. I'm sorry Son, I could see that the two of you were meant to be together and I hoped that it would work out for you, but this, I don't know what this will do but I know that you will do the right thing." I thought quickly. "The right thing now is to get Kate back to Darwin. Can you book two tickets on the first available flight out. We can be at the airport in an hour, if we hurry." I handed the phone to Kate. "Call your father and tell him that we are flying to Darwin and will call and let him know when the flight lands. I imagine that he'll hitch a ride in the Flying Doc's plane so he'll be there before we get there." I hurriedly packed our clothes and had the bags in the car by the time she had finished speaking to her father. "I explained to Dad that, as I wasn't in the truck he couldn't contact me because we only had a satellite phone, as soon as he knew why he couldn't reach me he was okay with that. I also told him that we, you and me, are flying up and that we'll give him our ETA as soon as we know it. He asked questions about this mysterious person I'm bringing with me, so I told him that he can reserve judgment until he's met you. Mike, I'm scared again." "I'm sure that she'll be fine." I hoped that I sounded positive enough. "I hope so too. Oh Darling, just when I was feeling that all my Christmases and birthdays have come at once, this has to happen." "You'll be fine, I'll make sure of that." I kissed her softly on the lips and she relaxed a little. By pushing the envelope a little we made good time and were checking in half an hour before the flight time. Dad had managed to get us on the flight on compassionate grounds, otherwise we would have had to wait for at least three hours. As we sat in the departure lounge Kate's head was on my chest and questions were tumbling from her mouth. "What if it's too late and the cancer has spread too far for there to be a cure? What cancer is it? Is it breast cancer or some other kind, probably a melanoma because of her complexion and the time she's spent working out in the sun. How will Dad cope? They've been together forever and he'll miss her terribly, I don't think he's prepared for a life without her. What am I going to do? I want so much to be with you but I have to be with my father." I took her face in my hands. "Kate, my love, we are going to get through this, I'll be with you every step of the way. There is no way that I'm going to let you go from my life and if that means that I have to move to Wattle Creek and work with you and your father, then that's what I'll do." She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me, I could feel every one of her emotions in that kiss. When we walked into the terminal at Darwin airport there was a tall man in moleskins and a check shirt waiting for us. Hiding under his battered akubra was a brown leather face that broke into a half smile when he caught sight of us. Kate dropped her bag and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him. This show of affection left him with an embarrassed look on his face that turned to inquisitive when he saw me pick up Kate's bag and walk toward them. "Who's he?" "Dad," Kate said, grabbing his hand and dragging him to me. "This is Mike, Mike my father Duncan." "G'day." He held out his calloused hand to me. "G'day Sir, I'm pleased to meet you." His hand might have been rough and I got the impression that he was going to try me on by squeezing mine as hard as he could but he obviously changed his mind. My hand survived. "Dad, Mike's the guy that helped me out with the cattle." "Thanks for that." "Dad, there's more to it than that, I love him." "You're sure of that?" "Yes I'm sure and you'll love him once you get to know him. How's Mum?" "Not good." I could see that any information would have to be dragged out of him. "Can we go and see her?" "Sure." He walked toward the car park and we followed. He had rented a Land Cruiser because that was what he drove on the station but this new one confused him. "Bloody bells and whistles." He said, staring at the dash panel. "Would you like me to drive?" I offered. He got out and tossed me the keys. Kate's mother did not look good at all, her complexion was pale and her face drawn. "She's resting." The nurse told us. "You can sit with her for a while, but don't be disappointed if she doesn't wake up, she's under some heavy sedation." Kate sat in the chair beside the bed. "Mike." Her father indicated that he wanted me to follow him. He led me down the corridor to a courtyard. "What're your intentions towards Kate?" To the point. "Strictly honourable. I love her and want to stand by her, and you if you'll let me. I know that this can't be easy for you and you'll need all the help you can get. If there's anything I can do, you've just to ask." "Thanks." He turned and walked back inside. The next three days went by in a blur of confusion, of hope mixed with fear, of concern followed by relief. Her condition had improved enough for them to operate and she was back in ICU following a radical mastectomy that the doctors were confident had removed all of the tumours. She would have to stay in hospital for some time until her condition had stabilised to see if they needed to introduce chemo or radio therapy. We drove the renter out to the station, arriving on dusk. There was a light on in the front room but no-one came to the door. The reason became obvious when we walked into the room. He was sprawled on the sofa, one hand dangling to the floor, the other hand clutching an almost empty whiskey bottle. A bloodshot eye opened and stared in our direction. "So you're home, wondered where you'd got to." He slurred. "I left a note." "What note? I didn't see any note." "Is this the one?" Kate took the note from the mantle piece. "She speaks to me, wonders'll never cease." His eyes focussed on me for the first time. "And what do we have here? Have you been picking up strays again?" "You should talk, where've you been for the last two weeks, in Darwin somewhere, perpetually pissed and shagging some cheap slut?" Kate was angry "If you'd bothered to read the note you will have known that Mother is in hospital and has just undergone major surgery, we've just come from there and can tell you, if you're interested, that she's in intensive care and it'll be days before we know when or if she'll get better." It was obvious from the way the words rushed from her mouth that the anger went much deeper than this. "Sorry, didn't know." His head was bowed. "Who's this?" "Mike helped me out when the truck broke down and we've been together since. We're in love." "Love, there's no such fucking thing, girls are good for shagging and not much else." Kate turned to me. "As you've probably worked out, this ray of sunshine is my older brother Todd." "Pleased to meet you Todd." I held out my hand and he ignored it. Kate grabbed my hand. "Leave him here and come into the kitchen, I'll rustle up something to eat." The kitchen was huge and dominated by a massive slow combustion stove. She flipped up the hotplate covers and slid an old cast iron kettle onto one. From the cold storage room she grabbed a slab of beef and cut several thick slices and tossed them onto a griddle. It was a subdued meal. Little was said, words were thrown into the void between us but none started a conversation. I had opened my heart to Kate and she had taken it silently, words were un-necessary. Duncan, her father, was lost in himself, unsure of how to open his feelings in front of his daughter, let alone a stranger. It would take some time before he could accept me into his family and his present circumstances were not helping. With his wife ill in hospital Kate would have to shoulder the burden of running the house and he would no longer have her to rely on for help with the cattle and other farm work. If only Todd was interested and capable the burden would be shared, as it was he was as much use as a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest, always drunk and never caring as long as he had money for more booze and women. "Dad," Kate said as she cleared the table. "I'll take Mike out in the morning and show him around, why don't you come with us?" "Suit yourself." I got the feeling that he would have preferred to have Kate for himself in the morning, but she had included me and left him no option. "Are you sure that you want me along?" I asked as we washed the dishes. "Yes, I want you along. He's never been one to talk with strangers around and I think that when he sees that you are a part of me, a part of this family he'll open up, the sooner the better." Duncan went into the living room to check on Todd and, finding that he had passed out, he went to his lonely bedroom. He had never felt as alone as he did right now without his wife beside him. I woke to clear blue skies and Kate stirring in the bed beside me. I kissed her on the lips and she sighed, "Let me stay here a little longer, this feels too good to end so soon." "Come on sleepy head, rise and shine there's work to be done." I tickled her and she squirmed away from me. "If I'd known that you were going to be this mean I never would have brought you home with me." She climbed out of bed and posed for me, her legs apart and her pussy on display centimetres from my face. The temptation was too much for me so I grabbed her and buried my tongue deep inside her. When we got to the kitchen we found Duncan seated, staring bleary eyed into his coffee cup. "We'd better be moving, it's gunna get hot." Breakfast was bacon and eggs, toast with marmalade and coffee. The water bags were filled and we headed for the horses that had been fed and readied for the day's work. The station hands were all at the other end of the property working the herds back towards the home paddock. They wouldn't be seen for at least a week. "Ridden before?" Duncan asked as he threw a saddle over a rangy looking mare. "Only as a kid on my uncle's farm." He walked over to a horse standing placidly by the water trough. He slipped the bridle over its head and led it over to me. "He must like you." Kate said. "He's given you a quiet horse, if he didn't you'd get that brute in the corner. If you'd lasted more than twenty seconds on him I'd have been surprised. We saddled my horse and I climbed gingerly on board and followed them out of the yard and towards the horizon. We worked our way to the creek that still had some water in it from the 'Wet'. "In about a month this will have no water in it." Kate said as we walked our horses through the scrub looking for cattle. "We need to move them to the home paddock so that we can keep the water up to them." I had to admire the way that Kate and her father worked the cattle, not rushing them but gently urging them forward towards the home paddock. Before long we were following a herd of a couple of hundred cows and calves as they slowly headed towards the yard. Once they were yarded they were inspected for evidence of cutting or bruising caused when they had to run away from crocs, but they seemed to be good and healthy. Over lunch Kate and Duncan were discussing what needed to be done. There was the branding of the calves and then the cattle that we had taken south and put in the agistment paddocks needed to be collected and taken to market. The next few days were spent branding and tagging calves. It was hot, dusty work and, at the end of each day we crawled into bed totally exhausted, it was all that we could do to make love once before falling into a deep sleep. I had to admit that I had never felt this good before, and Duncan was beginning to open up a little more. There were times when I got two or three sentences from him and Kate was impressed. Todd had gone AWOL again so we left a note for him and drove into Darwin. It was a six hour round trip and Duncan wanted to get back before dusk when there were more kangaroos on the road so Kate and I stayed a little longer at the Hospital with her mother. Helen looked little better than when we had seen her before and the doctors were not that confident that they had removed all of the tumours. The next few days were critical. We stayed at a hotel over night and were booked on the first flight to Adelaide in the morning. Kate was worried about her mother and I tried to be as supportive as possible. We had dinner in the hotel dining room and went to bed early. She was tossing and turning, unable to get to sleep so I put my arms around her and held her to me. "Just hold me Mike." So I held her tightly to me. I felt a stirring in my loins and it took all of my willpower to get him to go down, but I managed. "Thank you for being so understanding last night." Kate was munching her way through a piece of toasted cardboard. "I felt him getting hard and then he got soft, and that must have taken some effort." "You'd better believe it. I thought that I was going to have to have a cold shower at one point. Look, I know that you're concerned about your mother so I think that we should leave early and swing by the hospital on our way to the airport." The news from the hospital was hardly encouraging, there was little improvement in her condition and a decision was going to have to be made soon on whether another operation could be performed. It was with a heavy heart that we boarded our flight for Adelaide. My mother met us at the airport. I could see her casting an appraising eye over Kate as we descended on the escalator to the arrivals hall, the slight nod telling me that she approved. She kissed me on the cheek and held out her arms to Kate. "So this is Kate, I've heard a lot about you from Bill, I'm Mike's mother Jillian, but you've already worked that out." "Pleased to meet you." She and Mother hugged. "How's your mother?" Mother asked. "Not good. We went to the hospital this morning and the doctors aren't that positive. The next few days are critical." "We're not staying any longer than we have to." I told her. "We need to pick up a truck to get the cattle to the auction and then we'll head straight back to Wattle Creek." "If I didn't know better I'd think that you like the place." "I do, and that's where Kate lives and I intend to make my life there, with her. If you were in my situation, what would you do?" "Exactly the same as you're doing. Your father and I have talked this through and we support your decision a hundred percent." Kate and Mother got on like a house on fire, chatting like old friends as they prepared dinner. Mother told of my childhood and the mischief that I got up to while Kate told of a life of loneliness and hard work, of the love of her parents and how she hoped that her mother would get better." We heard Dad drive into the garage and the clatter as he got his chair from the car and levered himself into it. He didn't want or need help with this and soon came through the door. "Hi Kate, it's good to see you again. How's you mother?" He wheeled over to Mother and they kissed, passionately. While his lower half didn't function at all this didn't dampen the affection they had for each other. Kate bent and kissed him on the cheek. "Mum's not good, so we're heading back as soon as we get a truck and sell the cattle." "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Mike, your truck is just about ready to be pensioned off so, and you can look on this as an early wedding present, you can take it, get your cows to market and then drive it back home." He looked at our expressions. "Oops, maybe I've jumped the gun with the wedding thing, but let me tell you that we both think you'd be stark raving mad if you two didn't get married, and soon." Life on the Road Kate and I looked at each other. "What do you reckon? Shall we?" I asked. "You call that a proposal?" Her eyes and her mouth telling me her answer. "Kate, will you marry me?" Her arms around my neck and her kiss confirming her answer. The dinner helped to take our minds off the problems back home. Kate spoke to her father but he knew little more than we did. We told him of our plans and when he could expect to see us. When bed time came around there was no bullshit about Kate and I sleeping in separate beds, the guest bedroom with its queen-sized bed had been prepared for us. The concerns about her mother meant that we didn't consummate our new status as an official couple, we just held each other and I comforted her through the night. The next day was hectic. We got the cattle to the saleyards in good time and stood around as they were auctioned off. "Was the trip worth it?" I asked Kate as the last of them went under the hammer. "The price was better than we expected and yes, the trip was worth it, I got myself a man." She kissed me in front of everyone. The rest of the day was spent preparing the truck for the trip, servicing it and making sure that it was fuelled up and ready for the three thousand plus kilometres that were ahead of us. If you didn't appreciate the harsh beauty of the rugged country through which we drove the trip would have been boring, hour after hour of dry, flat country. We appreciated it and the music from the CD player and each other. Our trip was occasionally broken by CB chatter from other trucks and tourists who were tuned to channel 40 but other than that it was just us. Us discussing our future plans, us getting closer to each other and building on our love for each other. We pulled up to the main house to silence. The silence continued as we walked through its darkened halls and out the back. We eventually found Duncan sitting in the tool shed staring at his hunting rifle. "Dad! What's happened? Where's Todd?" "Don't know, don't care. Told him to fuck off." "What happened?" "Useless pisspot's been spending his time and our money at the casino. Hasn't been to see your mother so I told him that he wouldn't get another cent from me and to fuck off." "What are you doing with that gun?" "Deciding whether to finish it. The doctors told me this morning that they didn't get it all and they've given her a month, two tops. I don't know whether I can live without her." "But Dad, you've got us." "You've got each other, you don't need me hanging around." "Duncan, that's not true. Look, this is your life and all we want is to be a part of that life, not take it over. Come up to the house and we'll talk it over. I'm sure that we can come up with a solution." It was hard work breaking down the barriers of his depression and it was way past midnight before Kate and I crawled into bed. "Thank you Darling." She said before kissing me. "Thank you for taking the time to listen to him and reassure him that you aren't stealing me away from him. He likes you, really likes you. He can see in you the son that he'd been hoping that Todd would be. You've given him hope again." "I like him too. He's had a hard life but he never once complained about how hard it had been. At first it was all about what life would be like without Helen and then it was the good life that they had here." "Thank you for suggesting that he should go into Darwin to be with Mum and that we'd look after the place while he's gone. That's taken a weight off his shoulders." My life on the road had ended and, even though I loved driving road trains and life on the road, this was so much better. I had found my new home, where I belong. There were however downsides. Helen didn't last a month. She died peacefully in her sleep with Duncan by her side. We went into Darwin for the funeral service. Todd was nowhere to be seen, we looked for him in his usual watering holes and the casino and left messages all over the place, but nothing. Mum and Dad flew up from Adelaide for the funeral and we all drove out to Wattle Creek to distribute her ashes on the vegetable garden that she had established behind the house. They had arranged to stay for a couple of days and Dad and Duncan spent a lot of time in the tool shed, I don't know what they were talking about but they seemed to have hit it off really well, to the point where Dad invited Duncan to go to Adelaide for a break. To our surprise he accepted and flew back with them. Todd proved to be something of a problem. We were contacted by the police, it seems that he went berserk in the casino and trashed the place when they refused him any more credit. Kate and I went to see the casino management to find out more about what had happened. Duncan had been to see them and told them that he would no longer cover Todd's losses which had run into thousands of dollars. When he started to run up his losses again he was cut off. We went to see him in gaol and he was angry. Angry with Kate because she was Duncan's favourite, angry with me because I'd come into her life and he saw me as the influence that had stopped his credit. We paid his fine and told him that, unless he straightened himself out, he was on his own. The last we heard was that his so-called friends had dumped him because he had tapped into them for thousands of dollars and had no way of repaying them. He was living with a prostitute but that wasn't going well. She was barely earning enough to support their drug habits. We tried to help but he told us to fuck off and leave him alone. Duncan came back from his holiday a much happier man, he and Dad had long talks about depression and how to get over it. Dad told of the period after his accident when he had to come to terms with life as a paraplegic, of not being able to work in the job he loved and not being able to make love to the woman he loved. The three of us set about working the property. It was hard work, even with the station hands back from their long drive with the rest of the herd. It was harder than I ever thought it would be, but it was rewarding for me. I had the love of a beautiful woman, the respect of her father, and a life that I was enjoying more than I thought possible. It couldn't get much better than this, or could it? "Darling." I was still inside her, my cock slowly subsiding in her pussy that was filled with my cum. "This sounds ominous." "Darling, what do you think of calling our son Duncan William, after our fathers?"