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That Summer with Kate

By: Cromagnonman



My summer with Kate didn't get off to a very good start. In fact it could have ended before it even began. 

Ever since I was a little kid I had spent my summer holidays on the family farm with my uncles, aunts and assorted cousins. This one was going to be different, for a start it was longer than normal, given that I had graduated high school and was heading for Uni, and this started a month or so later than school. And this was the first time that I had brought a girl with me. 

Stephanie and I had been going together for the past six months since she joined our church youth group. There had been a scramble amongst the boys to see who she would go with, and it came as a shock to me that I was the chosen one. It could have been that I had expended little effort to attract her because, given my track record with the opposite sex, I held out little hope of success, I don't know. For whatever reason, I was chosen, not that I was about to complain. Our friendship had progressed steadily, given the constraints placed on it by the church, and our schooling. We spent time together studying and kissing, but that was as far as it got, because our eagle-eyed parents seemed to have this radar that told them if we made any attempt to progress beyond that. I had high hopes that away from these constraints things would progress, so I invited her to spend some of the holidays with me on the farm. I was over the moon when she accepted, on our making an undertaking when discussing this with our parents, that we would not do anything silly, like make love. 

From the very beginning the rellies seemed to make a concerted effort to make her stay comfortable, stopping short of letting us sleep together. She shared a room with my cousin Lynn, while I slept in the sleep-out on the back veranda. There was no chance of us doing anything. Even our walks in the bush (a State Forest) surrounding the farm on three sides, offered little to no opportunity, as we were always accompanied by at least one cousin who acted as a 'guide'. The guide was more of a wet blanket, never allowing us to wander off on our own. 

After a week things began to go downhill between us. It began when I tried to take her for a walk up to the waterfall. This was a spectacular bit of scenery, a creek cascading some hundred feet over a cliff from the high plateau into the gully below. On the north side of this steep gully was a temperate rain forest, because the sun never really reached the bottom of the gully, while the southern side that got a lot of sun, was a temperate eucalypt forest. 

We followed the creek up from the farm, and about halfway up we had to leave the creek and strike up the slope to the base of the cliffs that lined that side of the gully. All was going reasonably well until Stephanie let out this almighty scream. "Get this thing off me!" She screamed, pointing to the leach that was sucking her blood out of her like it was going out of style. 

"If you leave it there it will drop off when it has had enough." Cousin Geoff told her with a smile on his face. 

"I don't want it on me for a second longer, just get it off!" 

I grabbed it and pulled it from her. "It'll bleed for a while. You see these things use an anti-coagulant to help the flow of blood. You aren't going to tell me that you're afraid of the sight of blood, are you?" 

"Take me back, now!" She looked daggers at me. What else could I do? I took her back. 

It didn't get any better from that time on, and the whole thing came to a head when I was asked to walk over to a neighbour's property and pick up the mail. The neighbour, Greg Brown worked in town, and drove past the local Post Office on his way home. As there was no mail delivery out to the farm, he would collect the family mail as well, and someone would go over and collect it from him. The walk was a couple of kilometres each way across the paddocks, twice that by road, and Stephanie decided that she didn't want to walk that far. Not that I blamed her, because there were at least half a dozen barbed wire fences to negotiate, and her efforts with these had not gone well. When I eventually returned, she did not take kindly to the fact that it had taken a lot longer than expected. 

I offered no explanation as to why it had taken so long, hoping that she would not complain, but she did. It wasn't until dinner time that my silence jumped up and bit me. "Did you bump into Kate while you were over there, we heard she was back for the holidays before heading off to Uni." Uncle Trev asked. 

"Kate? Who is this Kate that you're talking about?" Stephanie asked. 

"Kate Brown, she and Adam here had something of a fling last Christmas." Cousin Lynn said. 

The daggers that emerged from her eyes pierced me and had me pinned to the wall. "Oh you did, did you?" There were icicles in her voice. 

"I wouldn't call it a fling as such, just being friendly." (I was scrambling to save my skin here.) 

"If you thought he took a long time this evening, it used to take him hours last time." Auntie Sybil said. "We were beginning to think that he was going to move in with them." (Shit, you can really rely on relatives to drop you into it, can't you? Why are they doing this?) 

I tried to heal the rift between us later that evening, but it was soon obvious that I had failed. "Would it be possible for someone to drive me into the train station, I need to go home." Stephanie dropped this particular bombshell as we sat around having a light supper before going to bed. 

"But I thought that you were staying here for another week." 

"I have things to do before starting as a Student Nurse." She told them. (How come she never mentioned this before?) 

"How come you never mentioned this before?" I asked her. 

"I thought that I would enjoy this holiday, I can see that I was wrong." The icicles told me. 

"Then why have you not said anything before this?" 

"Because you neglected to tell me about your friend Kate before this." 

"Kate is just a friend, you are my girlfriend, and you mean more to me than she does." (Even before I had finished this statement I realised that she wasn't about to buy it.) 

"I don't think so. If I am your girlfriend you would have come straight back instead of talking to her for so long." 

"I wasn't only talking to her. Her parents were there as well." (I knew that it was the wrong thing to say to her, but I had to say something.) 

"Whatever. It would seem that Kate and her family are more important to you than I am. I want to go home tomorrow, and that's final." 

"I'll come with you." (I was hoping that time on the train would give me the opportunity to salvage my relationship with her.) 

"Don't bother, I can get home on my own. I would prefer to get home on my own. I never want to see you again." 

I tried to heal the rift between us the next morning, but she would have none of that. I carried her bag onto the platform and stood silently by her side until the train arrived. I attempted to kiss her good-bye, but that failed. She grabbed her bag from me and headed straight for the carriage door, not once looking back at me. I tried to get a last glimpse of her as the train left the station, but she was seated on the far side of the carriage, looking intently at the glorious scenery of the station buildings on that side of the tracks. 

Word travels fast in small country communities. I realised that when I was asked to collect the mail again. As I headed across the paddocks I came to the conclusion that this wasn't such a bad thing. And it got better when I was met at Brown's door by Kate. "They tell me that your girlfriend has left you." 

"I wouldn't say that. She had to go home to get ready for when she starts work." 

"A little bird told me that things didn't go well last evening, and it looked like a final split with no hope of reconciliation." 

"That little bird should mind her own business." 

"Changing the subject, what are you going to be doing at Uni?" 

"She, your little bird, must be slipping if you have to ask that. If you must know, I'm doing Engineering." 

"Amazing coincidence time, so am I. With a bit of luck we'll run into each other from time to time." 

"It appears as if luck has little to do with this. The rellies knew months ago that I would get the marks I needed to get into Engineering, and it doesn't take a mental giant to know that they would have told your parents." 

"Oh, so the only reason that I'm doing Engineering is so that I can bump into you. Is that what you think?" 

"No, that's not it, but the feigned surprise is. You must have known ages ago that that's what I'd be doing." 

"Okay, you got me there, I did know, but it's no coincidence that I'm doing Engineering, and it's part of my long term plan." 

"And what might that be?" (I had a feeling that what she was about to tell me was not going to be a surprise, we had talked about clever ways to finance our studies, and allow the government to pay for them, so as not to burden our families.) 

"I have signed up to go to the Defence Force Academy at Duntroon. I have joined the RAAF and enrolled to study Aeronautical Engineering." 

"Gee, isn't that a coincidence, I too have joined the RAAF, and I too have been accepted into Duntroon." 

"Then I guess we are destined to see much more of each other in the future." 

"Will we see more of each other over the next few weeks?" I asked hopefully. 

"Talk about fickle, your girlfriend isn't even home yet, soon to be sobbing in her mother's arms and telling her what a thorough bastard you turned out to be, and here you are hitting on me." 

"I hadn't noticed you telling me to piss off and leave you alone." 

"Did I give you the impression that I was unhappy with this turn of events?" 

"Now that you mention it, no. How would you like to come back with me? I'm sure that there'll be enough food to go round." I looked at her slim body. "You don't look as if you eat much." 

"You're going to have to drive me home, if you think that I'm going to stumble around in the dark bumping into barbed wire fences getting home, you've got another think coming." 

"Does that mean...?" 

I never did get to finish the question. Kate had grabbed my hand and was heading for the door. "Mum, Adam has invited me to have dinner with him. See you later." 

The family knew, even before we got back, that Kate was having dinner with us, thanks to something called the telephone. While they were somewhat cool towards Stephanie, the same could not be said for Kate. "It's about time Adam brought you over for dinner, we were getting a little sick of her uppity ways. You should have heard the fuss that she made about finding a leach on her, you'd think that it was going to drain all of her blood out, and she's going to be a nurse. I wish her luck with that." Auntie Sybil told her. 

"What were you doing, dragging her about the scrub? That's no place for a city girl." Kate asked me. 

"I wanted to show her the waterfall, I thought that she'd appreciate the scenery." 

"And I suppose that you had thoughts of getting her into that cave beside the falls and doing the dirty with her, would I be right?" 

"How could you think that I'd do something like that? The thought never crossed my mind. . . ." 

"For more than a second." Kate finished the statement for me. 

"I might have wanted to, but I wouldn't have had the chance, what with Geoff acting as a chaperone. There was a conspiracy from the start to keep me from getting to the next base with her." 

"We were looking after your interests Kate." Lynn said. 

"As if I'd be interested in him, whoever gave you that idea?" 

"You did. Every time we'd see you, you're asking after him, checking to see what he was doing, or who he was doing." Lynn turned to me. "You should have seen the reaction when she found out that you had a girlfriend, you'd have thought that the end of the world had arrived." 

"Bullshit!" Kate said. "I couldn't have cared less about him, or her." 

"Is that why you insisted that we made sure that he would be sent over to collect the mail? You wanted a chance to work your charms on him, and split them up." 

"I just wanted to catch up, that's all. I never even thought about it being anything other than friends being friends." 

"So you had no plans to get together over the holidays?" 

"I wouldn't quite go that far. I would not be unhappy if we got together from time to time." 

"Like tomorrow for instance?" 

"Now that you mention it, tomorrow would be nice." Kate had this conspiratorial look on her face as it this was all a part of some master plan. 

"So why don't you stay the night here, that way you can make an early start. If you ask me nicely I'll sleep in the sleep out, and you two can do what you feel like." Lynn had her own conspiratorial look on her face, as if she had been part of the plan all along. "You are going for a walk in the bush tomorrow, aren't you?" 

"Well, I haven't been up to the waterfall for a while, and seeing as how Adam didn't quite make it with his late lamented girlfriend, I thought that he might like to come with me." It seems as if the cave was going to be put to good use after all, at least I was beginning to hope so. 

"There are so many Freudian suggestions in that statement." I said, smiling at her to let her know that I wasn't averse to the suggestion. Her return smile significantly raised my hopes. The rellies either didn't get it, or didn't care enough to comment, or were in on it, probably the latter. 

Kate rang her parents to break the news that she wouldn't be home until the next day, and that it could be late in the day. "I'm hoping to convince Adam to have dinner with us tomorrow night, if that's okay with you." She told her mother. The smile on her face told me that it was okay. 

We did get some sleep, eventually, but our lack of sleep wasn't caused by any carnal activity, we did nothing more than talk, and hold each other, luxuriating in the feel of our naked bodies pressing against each other. I have to admit that it took a great deal of will power on both our parts to resist the temptation to go further. 

After a hearty breakfast, and with a packed lunch, Kate and I set off down the farm track to the boundary fence and the State Forest. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and warm on our faces as we slipped through the fence and onto the track that led to the old timber trail up the gully. 

The trail was the only remaining evidence that there had been significant logging activities over the past hundred years or so, the deep rut in the centre of the track was caused by the bullock teams dragging the logs out of the bush to where they could be loaded onto jinkers (an adjustable wooden frame with wheels at each corner on which the logs were placed.) for the long haul to the river and on to the markets. 

As we crossed the creek where the track petered out and we would have to follow the creek, I noticed a large yabbie (fresh water crayfish) in the shallows, "Wait." I told Kate as I waded in and grabbed it behind the nippers. "How would you like yabbie for lunch?" I asked her, holding my trophy high. 

"And what do you plan to cook it in?" She asked. "Anyway, if you look closely, it's a female, so I think you should put it back." Until she mentioned it, I hadn't noticed the cluster of eggs on the underside of the tail, so I put it back. "Thank you oh great white hunter, I'm impressed that you remembered how to catch it without being nipped." She laughed as she said it. 

We continued up the track until we reached the stinging tree that marked where, because of the jumbled rocks and thick overgrowth, we had to turn off, and climb up the steep sides of the gully to the base of the cliff, some three hundred metres downstream from the falls. The waterfall marks the place where the creek drains from the plateau above, through a gap in the mountain range. Its catchment area is quite large, resulting in a constant steady flow of water that becomes a raging torrent during a storm. At the base of the falls is a small pool of water, some ten metres across and a couple of metres deep, that provides a refreshing place to swim on hot summer's days, and only then, because at other times the sun doesn't actually reach the pool until mid afternoon, and then only briefly. 

At the side of the gully, near the base of the falls, is the small cave where I spent the worst night of my life. As kids, my cousins and I camped in it one spring night, and froze. This was made worse because the uncles forgot to tell us that the sand on the floor of the cave would be very cold, and that we should gather as much bracken fern as possible to make a mattress to sleep on. Added to that, the dog that had accompanied us, kept us awake all night by barking at the frogs in the creek. 

"I've heard the story of your cold night in the cave." Kate said as we stood at its entrance. 

"I bet. It was the family joke for years. I would have thought that the cousins would have known better." 

"Shall we try it out?" 

"I don't want to go through that again." I said. 

"Not even with me? I'm disappointed in you." She had begun to gather bracken ferns from the side of the gully. I needed no further encouragement and began to grab armfuls of the fern myself. We soon had a bed of sorts on the floor of the cave and Kate had taken her jacket off and spread it over the fern covered floor. "We'll need more than my jacket. Come on, get your gear off." 

"All of it?" I was shocked that she should be so forward. In reply she had taken her shirt off and was undoing her jeans. I just stood there admiring her body. "Come on slowcoach, before I get the impression that you're not interested." 

I was interested, and the speed at which I got out of my clothes attested to that interest. Spreading the clothes over the fern, we spread ourselves out and embraced, and kissed. It was at that moment that I realised that I had been looking forward to this moment for years, that I had, without realising it, been in love with Kate since puberty. "What?" She asked me. 

"You are even more beautiful than I had hoped, well worth the wait." I kissed her, she kissed me, her lips resting against mine. I felt my cock stirring and, while I didn't actually see it, I felt a smile crossing her face. 

"I have waited for this day. I really was jealous when I heard that you had a girlfriend. When I heard that you were bringing her up here for the holidays, I had to work on your cousins to help me to break you two up. It didn't take much to get them to help me, you do realise that your parents weren't overjoyed at your choice of girlfriend, don't you?" 

"She wasn't really my choice, I didn't even think I was in there with a chance, so I didn't try, and it was probably because of that that she chose me. Now that I think about it, I doubt whether it would have lasted, deep down I think that I was always in love with you." 

"What's with this 'was'? I hope that you mean that you are in love with me." 

I demonstrated my love and affection for Kate in the best possible way, pretty much as she demonstrated her love for me. Crawling out of the cave, she stood, and with a smile on her face and my come dribbling from her pussy, headed for the pool, diving in with hardly a splash. "Come on in, it's great." She said as she brushed her wet hair from her face. 

I dived in, "Fuck, it's freezing." I gasped as I surfaced. 

"You're a softy. I blame your city living lifestyle." She swam to me and hugged me to her. I could feel the warmth of her body against my chest in contrast to the cold water on my back. She kissed me, "I have to tell you, before you start to worry about it, that I am on the pill. I knew that this was going to happen and had to make sure that there would be no chance of any little accidents. How would it look for a first year cadet at Duntroon to be pregnant? My military career would be a very short one." 


That Summer with Kate



"I was going to ask you about that." I kissed her, my hand moved between her legs. 

"The water must be cold, I can't find him." That wasn't entirely true, her hand was holding him and rousing his enthusiasm, not a hard task I have to admit. We adjourned once more to the cave. 

Following some pretty sensational love making, at least to me it was sensational, having had absolutely no previous experience, we ate the packed lunch, made love again and went for another swim before reluctantly getting dressed and heading back down the creek to home. 

It was obvious from the looks that we got on our return, that the rellies knew exactly what we had been doing up in the bush. That and the fact that we walked hand in hand along the farm track in full view of the farmhouse. 

I had a quick shower and shave, got dressed in my best casual clothes, said good-bye to the rellies and, with Kate's hand back in mine, headed off across the paddocks to her family farm. 

Dinner with the Browns was pretty much as I would have expected, good wholesome meal made with farm fresh produce including the ice cream that went with the apple crumble. Not content with the calorie intake of the dessert, Mrs Brown smothered it liberally with fresh cream from this morning's milking. I was invited to stay the night and, for the first time, I was treated to the wonders of Kate's bed. For some reason I had come to the conclusion that Kate, with a little help from her parents and my rellies, had conspired to get rid of Stephanie and allow Kate every opportunity to entice me into the realisation that I was in love with her. 

For the next three weeks Kate and I spent every moment that we could with each other. Nothing was said by her parents or my rellies, when it became patently obvious that we were making love at every opportunity. When it was time for me to return home to prepare for my entry into Duntroon, Kate had her bags packed and came with me. 

"Hi Kate, I see that you've convinced Adam that he has no chance of escaping from you." 

"It wasn't as hard as I had expected, especially once we got rid of Stephanie, or whatever her name was." 

"She hasn't given up without a fight it seems. She has blamed Adam for causing the split. According to her, at least what she has been going around telling everyone at the youth group, is that she came upon the two of you having sex in your room." 

"That's interesting, and so far from the truth as to be laughable." I told her. 

"Are you trying to tell me that you two haven't been making love? You had better not be, because I know better. Your cousins were never good at keeping a secret." 

"No. It's obvious that we are very much in love and yes, we have been making love. But that didn't start until after Stephanie chucked her hissy fit and demanded to be taken to the station." 

"So what are you going to do about all of this?" Mum asked us. 

"Not a lot. We will go to the next youth group meeting and I will introduce Kate as the new love of my life, and explain to them that we have known each other for a long time. I will then explain that we did not become an item until after Stephanie had spat the dummy and left, and that Kate had nothing to do with that particular outburst. I will then announce that, on reviewing my situation, Stephanie and I would not have lasted because we had different interests, and that we both loved the same person, her, whereas Kate and I think very much alike, and are in love with each other." 

It sounded like a good idea at the time, but things didn't go as planned, at least not at first. Stephanie had made a move on Grant, the minister's son, and he was going around telling everyone that would listen that the two of them had been secretly planning on her dumping me, because I wasn't making her happy. The plan was that, at the first opportunity she would get upset and demand to be taken to the train so that she could return home. 

"That's interesting." Kate said. "That's not the story that I heard from Adam's cousins. Stephanie had made herself so unpopular with her petulant behaviour, that they had already decided that she was too selfish and self absorbed, and that she was not the right person for a good guy like Adam. It was then that they decided that she should be convinced that the world did not revolve around her, so they rang me and we came up with a plan that involved Adam coming over to my parent's farm and getting her jealous by staying longer than necessary. It worked better than expected because we also managed to make Adam see that she was not right for him. His mother had realised that ages ago and started the ball rolling with his cousins." 

Stephanie made a fundamental error of judgement, she reacted badly to Kate. "I see that Adam has brought you home with him, you must be good in bed or something for him to choose you when he could have had me." 

"He came to the conclusion that, even if he stayed with you, he would never really have you. No-one will ever have you because no-one could ever love you as much as you love yourself." 

"What have you offered him, marriage to you and slave away on your family farm in the hope that he will one day inherit it. He doesn't strike me as the farming type." 

"If you must know, we are both going to study Aeronautical Engineering, we have both decided, without even discussing it, to join the RAAF and go to Duntroon. You are hoping to become a Nurse, granted it's an honourable profession, but I hear that you can't even stand the sight of blood, especially not your own blood. What will you do if Nursing doesn't work out for you? Marry Grant here and become his wife and mother of his kids, I don't think so." 

The looks from the other girls in the group that this statement got was surprising, this was the first time that anyone had talked to Stephanie like that. They had been in awe of her beauty and self-assurance, and the fact that, to be seen with her earned them popularity by association. As Kate spoke they could see the self-assurance drain from her face. "Take me home." She ordered Grant. 

"No." 

"What? Are you refusing me?" 

"No, well yes, I guess that I am. As you know, I am the leader of this youth group and, as such, I have to stay here. You have two choices, you can stay here with me and the rest of us, or you can go home. It's your choice." 

"Oooh! You're impossible!" She stormed out. The business of the youth group resumed, with Kate now the centre of attention. My standing with the others rose significantly. 

Kate stayed with me for another two weeks before we went back to her place for another couple of weeks. It became obvious that both families approved of our relationship, because the topic of marriage had begun to enter into family conversations. We both told the families that it was early days, and that we needed to get ourselves established in our careers before we would even consider marriage. 

I will never forget my summer with Kate, and the four subsequent summers. We both graduated with distinctions and were looking forward to our initial postings. That was where fate stepped in. Kate was posted to RAAF Richmond near Sydney, while I was posted to RAAF Edinburgh near Adelaide. "I would love us to get married before we take up our postings." I whispered to her as we came down from the euphoria of lovemaking at her family farm on our last leave before taking up our new careers. 

"So would I, but I need to know if I can handle the separation. I know that we should be able to get to see each other on a regular basis, but short bursts of passion is not what I was looking forward to. We can talk to each other by phone every day, but that's not the same as being with you." She kissed me with all of the passion that she showed me way back on that first summer. "Let's put marriage off until we are sure of ourselves. Maybe in time we can arrange postings at the same base." 

"We have another alternative." 

"What do you have in mind?" 

"I could resign from the RAAF and get a job as a Ground Engineer with QANTAS. I wouldn't be the first to go down that path. If I get a job in Sydney, we can be together, and get. . . ." My hand was between her legs and fingers in her pussy, causing her to squirm. She made no attempt to stop me. "Then we can get married. What do you think?" 

"This isn't fair, how am I supposed to think straight when you're doing that to me?" 

"The last thing I want is you to think straight. I want you to say yes." 

"You know that I can't do that. The RAAF is your career, the RAAF is your life. I'll not be responsible for taking that away from you." 

We did try, but fate it seems was against us. We spoke every day for the first six months and then it was every second day, and then the fickle finger of fate stepped in once again. I was transferred to RAAF Tyndall in the Northern Territory because of my experience with the Orion long range surveillance aircraft that was being used to patrol the Indian Ocean for people smugglers. Keeping these planes in the air was an almost full-time job. Then fate once more stepped in. 

The Boxing Day tsunami that devastated Indonesia and South-east Asia resulted in an escalation of aircraft activity in that region. Planes were being forced to operate under conditions that stretched their capabilities to the limits and beyond. I was sent to Banda Acer to take charge of the emergency maintenance of aircraft, some of which were flying on a prayer and not much else. 

One of these suffered undercarriage failure and collapsed near the end of the hastily constructed runway as it turned to return to the unloading point. This meant that, until it could be moved, around 300 metres of the end of the runway was unserviceable. The margin for error for some planes coming in was going to be very tight. This margin was about to be tested big time. 

"We have a Herc (RAAF C130 Hercules) requesting permission to land. What do you think?" I was asked by Tony, the duty controller. 

"Let me speak to the pilot." He handed me his headset. I slipped it on. "Banda here, we have a problem with the runway, there is a plane blocking the end couple of hundred metres. Whether permission can be granted depends on several factors. What is your gross weight, how urgent is your cargo, and do you trust your Loadmaster?" 

"Banda this is Hercules," A woman pilot, not that this should be a problem, just a surprise. "We are fully loaded with urgent medical supplies, and lives will be at stake if we have to abort. How much runway is available?" 

"It would have been tight for you before we lost a couple of hundred metres. We now have around 550metres of runway. What do you think, will you be able to stop in time?" 

"Normally, with this load we need around 750metres, but if I'm on the ground at the very beginning of the runway, I should just about make it. As for my Loadmaster, the load will not shift, I'll stake my life on it." 

"Okay, the weather here is light winds around 10-15Kph, holding steady in your face. Here's what we'll do, I'll position myself at the beginning of the runway. You come in as low and as slow as possible. I need you to do a low level wind-shear landing, I'll let you know when your wheels are over the beginning of the apron, and you can drop it on the ground and back peddle like mad." (In low level wind-shear conditions, usually caused by sudden temperature and wind speed changes caused by low level inversions, the planes come in as normal until they are some 5-6 metres above the runway, and, in order to negate the affects of wind-shear, they are literally dropped onto the runway. (Because the low level inversions did not apply in this situation, she could come in even lower. The landing is heavy, but the alternatives can be catastrophic.) 

"Okay, will do. I guess I'm in your hands. Give me a heads-up when you're ready." 

"Give me five minutes." 

I'll give her this, she was good, no, scratch that, she was brilliant. I watched her line up for her approach, she was carrying as much flap as she could and had throttled back until she was almost down to stall speed. "Lower, lower."I told her and the Herc dropped until it was just metres above the ground. A quick mental calculation of her airspeed and I began to count her down. "Five, four, three, two, one, drop it now." The wheels hit the ground at the very beginning of the apron, and she had the brakes full on immediately. The Herc had around fifty metres to spare when she turned it around and began to taxi back to the unloading point. I walked back towards where she would stop. 

It was some five minutes after she had shut down that I saw her emerge from the rear loading ramp. "That was brilliant." I said as I held out my hand to her. "I'm Adam, I'll be going over your plane before you leave, just to make sure that she is serviceable. Did you notice anything amiss after you landed?" 

"No, it all seems to be fine. I've done wind-shear landings before, both sim and real life. I have you to thank for getting me down when you did. I was beginning to be concerned there for a while, but my margin worked out thanks to you knowing what to do and when." I noticed her name tag, 'Underwood'. She noticed me noticing it. "My name is Michelle, my friends, and that I think now includes you, call me Micha." (If this name sounds familiar, that's because she is a character in my Flight Emergency stories.) 

We walked back to the control room and she contacted Darwin to fill them in on the situation that we found ourselves in, and advise them that it would have to be air drops only until further notice. We then checked to see what she would be taking on the return journey. There was nothing urgent, so it was decided that, given the circumstances, she should return empty. 

We then went to the temporary mess and had a meal before I walked her to where she would spend the night. I had to admit that Micha was easy to talk to. I learned a lot about her and why it was that she wanted so desperately to become a pilot with the RAAF. Flying seemed to be in her blood and it came as something of a surprise to find that, while she qualified in jets and could easily have flown FA18's, she chose to fly Hercs. "I was never cut out to be a combat pilot, the idea of killing just doesn't sit well with me. This job is great, most of my flying is humanitarian. Saving lives is better than killing people. Troop deliveries to Afghanistan can be a little hairy, but we haven't lost any planes or personnel over there." 

I walked to the end of the runway where the crews were ready to drag the offending plane away from where it had come to grief and to the workshop where we could begin repairs. It belonged to one of the aid agencies that were working in the area and there were some delays while they sourced the necessary parts, so it would be at least a week before it was able to fly back to its base for a full overhaul. 

Once the runway was cleared it was safe for her to leave. I said good-bye to her, watched as she took off the next morning. 

The pilot on the first humanitarian flight by a Herc, once the runway was cleared, and repaired, was Micha. Even if I'd known it was her, I hadn't needed to be there to direct her in, besides I was much too busy to even think about greeting her when she had parked. 

"I missed the reception committee." This voice said from below me as I worked on an engine. I looked down to see her smiling face. 

"Sorry, I am a little busy at the moment." 

"I'll go then." 

"No. Don't go." Suddenly my priorities had changed. I wiped my hands and climbed down from the platform that I was standing on. 

I was going to shake her hand in welcome, I even had mine out, but she decided that this was not enough. She put her arms around me and looked deep into my eyes. "I think I know you well enough to give you a hug, don't you?" 

"You won't hear me complaining." I smiled my best smile at her. "I have some coffee here if you'd like a cup. It's the best that I can do until I, we, head to the mess for some lunch." 

"Coffee's fine, for now." I poured her a cup from my flask and handed it to her, pointing to the milk and sugar. She poured a splash of milk in and sipped it. "What do you do for entertainment around here? I won't be leaving until the morning." 

"We may have to amuse ourselves, Sydney it ain't." 

"This sounds exciting, I can't hit the piss because of regulations, not that I would anyway, drinking is restricted to leave, and then usually at home with my parents." 

It looks like dinner and early to bed for us then. I thought of Kate and what she would think if she knew what I was thinking of right now. The last time I was with a woman was the last time that we had leave together. This thought brought a smile to my face. 

"You're smiling, why?" Micha asked. 

"I was remembering a happier time." 

"I bet there is a woman involved." 

"Yes, if you must know. Her name is Kate and we are to all intents and purposes engaged. But fate has had a nasty habit of kicking that in the goolies. She's stationed at Richmond." 

"And you're stuck up here with no way out. The local talent doesn't do it for you?" 

"Oh I could be tempted, believe me. But no," 

We had dinner of sorts in the mess tent and I walked her to her quarters. "Thank you for an interesting evening. I wish that I could tell you that I had a happy childhood like yours. The first half was pretty horrendous until Dad and Julie got custody of me, and then it was great." She stopped and turned to me, her gaze held mine for quite a time. "I have never felt this comfortable talking to a man as I feel right now. Don't take this the wrong way." She kissed me, really kissed me. There was a pent-up passion in that kiss that took my breath away. "Okay, you can take it the wrong way, Adam I need you so bad." 

"But. . . . Kate. . . " 

"Pardon the French, but fuck Kate. What she doesn't know won't hurt her." 

"But, this is so sudden, we hardly know each other." 

"Let me tell you something. My father and Julie made love the first day that they flew together. He was a QANTAS pilot and she was Flight Crew. They had an in-flight emergency and had to turn back to Adelaide, and having landed were unable to take off again because of the curfew, so they spent the night together. I have never seen a couple so much in love as them even now, so don't tell me that this will be too soon." She kissed me again to re-enforce her point, and dragged me to her room. 

I did not think of Kate until after Micha had left to fly back to Darwin. Guilt set in big time. 

Every two or three days Micha flew in and we got together in a non-sexual way. No, that's not right, there was a sexual tension there, but we didn't act on it, apart from kissing, and cuddling and touching in an intimate way through our clothing. We did not get the opportunity to spend the night together. That was until I received my orders to return to Darwin. 

"I have a special passenger this trip they tell me." Micha said as we greeted each other on her arrival. 

"Oh?" 

"You know full well who it is. How would you like to fly in the pointy end?" 

"That would be great. I can see you in action, as well as get a feel as to what the Flight Engineer does. You never know, I could like it enough to ask for a change of posting." 

"Don't you go getting my hopes up, mate." 

"I've been thinking about it for some time now. I feel that it's time for a change." I had given it some thought but needed to speak to Kate about it first. I hadn't spoken to her for some time, the lines of communication for anything other than emergency traffic between Australia and Indonesia was dodgy at best and non-existent at worst, I'd call her as soon as I got to Darwin. 

Sitting up front with Micha was a revelation. There was so much for the pilots to do in the take-off and landing processes, but once we were airborne and stable she was placed on autopilot and Micha turned her attention to me. After introducing me to the flight crew as the man of her dreams, she grabbed flask and served us each a mug of coffee."This is a milk-run compared to the flight a couple of weeks ago when we needed your help to get down." 




That Summer with Kate



"Thanks for that mate." Bryce, the Flight Engineer said. "We were afraid that you might have fucked up your calculations and we'd end up in the scrub somewhere. We had all the faith in the world in our driver, and she told us that she had faith in you. Lucky for you she was a good judge because if you had fucked up we would have beaten the crap out of you." 

This sounded a lot more serious than his facial expression indicated. "You would have had to catch me first. If I'd stuffed up I would have legged it out of there." I hoped that they would realise that I was joking. They did, and we were the best of mates by the time we got to Darwin. 

You could hardly feel the Herc kiss the runway when we touched down and Micha taxied her around to the hanger where she would be loaded for the next trip in a couple of days. "I've got tomorrow off, what would you like to do?" She asked me as we hopped into a car for the drive to my hotel. 

"I don't know, would does one do in Darwin on a day off?" 

"I could come to your hotel and spend the day fornicating with you." 

"Or," I said hopefully, "you could even stay with me tonight so that we can get an early start on it." 

"Why wait until morning?" 

"I do have to make one phone call." 

"To Kate I suppose." 

"Yes." 

"I hope that you're not going to do anything stupid like tell her about us." 

"I should. I had an attack of the guilts the next day. I feel bad about betraying her." 

"Don't. For all that you know she could have been having it off with someone else behind your back." 

"I don't think so." 

"You hope not, don't you mean?" 

"I think that I know Kate well enough to trust her." 

As it turned out, I didn't know her all that well. I dialled her number and got a recorded message. My face lost its colour as the words poured forth. 

"What's the matter?" Micha asked. 

"Listen to this." I redialled the number and put the phone on speaker. "Hi this is Kate," The familiar voice said. ", and Will," a male voice added, "we are not here right now, so leave your name and number and we'll get back to you." 

"Fuck." That was all that I said. 

Some minutes later Micha hugged me. "That's a horrible way to find out, worse even than a 'Dear John' letter." 

"It wouldn't surprise me if I have one of those waiting for me." Prophetic words those as it happened. 

Without guilt hanging over me, my relationship with Micha scaled new heights in both passion and intensity. "Wow." Micha's voice was husky, and sexy, as we paused to regain our strength. "While I'm no novice when making love, I now realise that I have a lot to learn. I can remember as a little girl, standing outside my father's bedroom listening to the noises from within, and wondering what was happening. Now I know, which probably explains why he and Julie are still very much in love." 

"This is different for me as well. While Kate and I were sexually very active, it was somehow different. It could be that she was the instigator of much of what we did, while you and I just seem to be in synch." 

"Adam, darling Adam." Micha whispered to me as she ran a finger up the side of my neck to my ear. 

"Yes." My voice sounded tentative. What was coming? 

"When do you get leave?" 

"Next month, why do you ask?" 

"That's good. I can arrange leave for the same time. I want you to meet Dad and Julie." 

"I think that I'd like that. And you can meet my parents. This will come as a surprise to them. They'll be expecting Kate." 

"You don't make it easy for me, do you? Now I'm going to have to compete with her." 

"No you won't. My guess is that she will have broken the news of her new status to her family, which means that my rellies will know all about it and will have told my parents. The only surprise will be you, and once they get to know you they'll be happy." 

"That's great, I'd hate to think what would happen if they're not happy with the girl that you're going to marry." 

"Whoa there, slow down, let's not rush into something that we'll possibly live to regret. Kate and I had plans of getting married when we graduated from Duntroon, but decided to wait. It's just as well that we did." 

"She went to Duntroon?" 

"Yeah, she's an Engineer like me. She's based at Richmond." 

"This could be interesting." 

"What do you mean?" 

"When we go on leave we should be able to hitch a ride on a plane going to Richmond. I can get Dad to pick us up from there and fly us back to their place. Chances are that we might bump into Kate when we get there." 

"You're not thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking, are you?" 

"If you're thinking that I'm going to make sure that we bump into her, you could just be right." 

"Awkward." I had visions of Kate expecting some sort of emotional scene when we meet for the first time in, what is it, almost a year. 

"Not necessarily. She has her bloke and you have me, what could be more perfect? She's got to feel happy that you're not going to be left on your own for any length of time." 

"No time at all, as it happens." 

"No time at all like the present." Micha said as she made it quite obvious that she wanted more loving attention. Even in this she was different to Kate. There was no demand for sex, just a subtle hint of her desire for my cock inside her. What could I do but oblige her. 

Two days later I was back in Tyndall. I unpacked my kit bag and took my washing to the laundry. While my clothes were sloshing around in the machine, I called into the office to pick up my mail, and yes, there was a letter from Kate. I decided to wait until I was back in my room before reading it. It made fascinating reading; 

Dear Adam, 

I hope that you are well. I was home last weekend. Mum and Dad send their love. This brings me to the reason that I'm writing this letter to you. I want you to remember that I love you, and will always love you, but I'm sorry, I'm no longer in love with you. 

I have met a man who fulfils my needs in so many wonderful ways. Will is an FA18 pilot, and I met him when I had to check his plane's telemetry. We got talking and he offered to take me up in one of the twin seat planes. I have never been so scared and excited at the same time before, and when we got back on the ground I was sort of weak at the knees, and he had to hold me while I got my shit together. He took me to dinner that night and, what with the flight and all that, we ended up making love. 

Adam darling, please don't hate me. I'm sure that somewhere out there, there is a girl who is more perfect for you than I could ever hope to be. You are too perfect to be alone for any length of time, just not my kind of perfect. I'm sorry, but that's how it is. 

You are the solid reliable kind of bloke that authors like Barbara Cartland write about, you know, the one that sees the love of his life fall under the spell of the handsome, dashing Lothario who sweeps her off her feet. She is so blind to his dashing good looks that she ignores the fact that he has love for other women and can never be faithful to her for long. Eventually she gets up the courage to leave him and return to her reliable solid bloke. The only difference in this scenario is that I will not be coming back to you. I'm sorry, but solid and reliable is not enough for me anymore. Will and I are planning to marry as soon as his divorce is finalised. 

Forgive me, please. 

Kate. 

I folded the letter and placed it in my top drawer. I rang Micha. "Guess what was waiting for me when I got back to base." 

"A 'dear Adam' letter?" 

"You got it right in one. She told me that she still loves me but is not in love with me. Then she told me how she met Will, who happens to be a pilot. And that good old solid reliable me is not good enough for her. They're going to get married as soon as his divorce comes through, isn't that wonderful?" 

"It could be worse, you might not have met me, and have a new love ready to marry you." 

"How would it be if we got married before we went back to Sydney?" 

"Don't joke about this Mate. I want you to marry me because you want to, not because you're pissed off with Kate for dumping you." 

"What would you say if I was to tell you that I am sure that I want to marry you, and have been sure for some time, even before I found out that Kate has a new bloke? That night in Darwin, the reason that I rang her was to tell her that I had met you and was going to ask you to marry me. I wasn't all that upset when I heard the answering machine message, just didn't expect it, that's all." 

"You'd better not be bullshitting me Mate." 

"Not a chance in Hell. I mean it with all of my heart." 

"Thank you. I've got a short flight tomorrow, just a test run to try out a new guidance system. I'll be back mid-afternoon and I've the next day off, so I'm going to drive down to Tyndall and you and I are going to spend the night together, and among other things, we are going to arrange the how, where and when of our marriage." 

"Sounds really great to me. I'll see you tomorrow, my love." 

Time has never moved as slowly as it did the next afternoon. I wasn't sure when she would actually be landing. I didn't know when she would be leaving Darwin, or how long it was going to take her to drive down to Tyndall. There is no maximum speed limit in the Northern Territory, so if she has a fast car she will take no time at all, just as long as she doesn't run into any of the wild life that has a habit of wandering out on to the road at inappropriate times. You have your choice of kangaroos, cattle and water buffalos to contend with, none of which are very forgiving when you hit them with a car. 

It took all of my willpower to concentrate on my job, and it wasn't until I felt her arms around me that I realised that Micha had arrived. We created some interest among the other personnel with the passion of our greeting. My boss, who had known about Kate and me, automatically assumed that this was her. He was somewhat shocked to find out that the man that he had thought would end up married to Kate, was locked in a passionate embrace with someone who was not her. We set him straight and he was okay with that, especially when he saw that it was Micha. She had something of a reputation for her flying abilities and dedication to the humanitarian roles that she was called on to perform on a regular basis, flying in and out of tight and sometimes dangerous situations. He had read the report of her tight landing on that shortened runway. 

Micha stayed with me as I finished up what I was working on, and we walked back to my quarters together. "I'll have a quick shower and change and then we can go over and sample the culinary masterpieces that they dish up here." 

"Do we have a choice? About the food that is." 

"Not really." I had stripped out of my uniform and was standing in just my jocks. From the look on her face I came to the inescapable conclusion that dinner would have to wait. 

"Can I read the letter from Kate, or have you ripped it up?" I was under the shower soaping up my pubes. 

"It's in the top drawer, help yourself." 

I was rinsing off when she had obviously got to the bit about 'still loving me but not in love with me.' "Bullshit. The person that came up with this, as being a way to let you down easily, needs to be horsewhipped. She either loves you or she doesn't." 

"She's probably hedging her bets. If it doesn't work out with Will I'll get a gilt-edged invite back into her arms and bed." 

"You of course will accept." 

"Like hell I will. I have my woman, the love of my life, and there is no way that I will ever give you up for her, or anyone else for that matter." I was just about to step out of the shower when I was pushed back in by my beautiful and now naked Micha. Dinner would have to wait a little longer. 

As it turned out we never got to dinner, or breakfast. Sometime mid-morning I spoke with the base commander and requested a couple of days leave for the next week, so that I could go to Darwin for 'personal reasons'. This was granted when I explained that it was to get married. We arranged for the necessary paperwork to be emailed to me to sign so that there was no delay when I got to Darwin. "I want to see Dad and Julie's faces when we get to Sydney as husband and wife." 

"You're not going to tell them beforehand then?" 

"No. If they ask about the suddenness of our decision, I'll just point out to them that we waited a little longer before tying the knot than they did. Are you going to tell your parents?" 

"I don't think so. I don't know if they know if I know about Kate and Will. If they don't, it will let them down easier than if I spring it on them now." 

Our wedding was a very low-key affair. A Marriage Celebrant and a couple of friends acting as witnesses were all that were in attendance. The ceremony was followed by a celebratory meal and a couple of drinks at the hotel where we had booked a room for the night. The mood changed when we got to our room. I took a small package from my pocket and handed it to her. "For me?" She asked, a puzzled expression on her face, it didn't feel like the sort of package that would contain jewellery. She opened it and took out the RAAF cloth name tags that now said "Matthews". We had discussed whether she would keep her name, or change to mine, after we married, and she had decided that she wanted to change. "I'll sew these on as soon as I get back to base." She said before she launched herself at me to begin our night of celebratory lovemaking. We had another day's leave before we had to return to our various bases, that's of course if we managed to survive. 

Survive we did, and we both returned to base for the week until our leave began, and we hitched a ride to Richmond. Micha spoke to her father to let him know her ETA and he promised to be there to pick her up. I decided that I would not contact Kate, I didn't want a confrontation with her, and hope that she would not be around when we arrived. I did contact my parents to tell them that I would be down on leave and that I had a few things to do before I could get to see them. They were okay with that. 

The welcome that we got on our arrival in Sydney was, to put it mildly, interesting. We were greeted by a tall, handsome man and an equally tall and handsome woman who turned out to be Micha's father and step-mother. He looked at us for a second or two before pointing to Micha's name tag. "What is this?" 

"Dad, I'd like you to meet my so new the paint's not dry, husband, Adam Matthews. Adam, as you've probably guessed by now, this is my father Mitchell Underwood, and mother Julie." 

"I'm pleased to meet you Sir. Micha has told me a lot about you, both of you." I held my hand out to him and he didn't hesitate to take it and shake it. 

"You can call me Mitch. This is my wife Julie." He introduced me to her, and if I expected her to shake my hand I was mistaken. She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. "This is all a bit sudden, isn't it? You're not going to tell me that you 'have to get married' are you?" 

"We did have to get married, but not for that reason. We had to because we are very much in love and wanted desperately to be together. And before you make any comments. . . ." 

"I know, Julie and I didn't wait long before we married." 

It was about then that I noticed Kate walking towards us. "Shit." I said as she approached. Mitch was about to say something but Micha held her hand up. 

Kate reached us and was about to say something when she noticed Micha's name tag. Her face fell. "Oh fuck. I've really fucked up this time." She turned and ran from us. I was tempted to go after her, but not for long. 

"What was that all about?" Julie asked. 

"That was Kate. She and Adam were very good friends, and it was assumed that they would get married. But she dumped him recently, at around the same time that he was going to break it off with her, and for the same reason it turns out, they both fell in love with pilots. It would appear that there are problems on her side." 

"We don't know that." I said. "It could just be that she didn't expect that I would be married." 

"Come on, let's get out of here." Micha said, and we walked across to where he had parked the rental car. We drove from Richmond to Bankstown, where he had parked his plane, before taking off for the short flight back to the family property. 

"This is new." Micha commented as we got airborne. 

"Yeah, the other one was a little small for our purposes. Would you like to take over?" He asked her. 

"No, I'll stay back here and hold my man's hand, not that he's scared of flying, it's just that I want to." 

Minutes later Mitch circled around a farm house and lined up to land on the landing strip. Four people emerged from the house and walked to the large shed that proved to be the hangar for the plane. He landed smoothly and taxied to the group before shutting down the engines. One of the men, who bore a striking resemblance to Micha, opened the door on Julie's side and we scrambled out. "Hi Sis. Long time no see. And who is this?" 

"This, baby brother is your brother Adam Matthews." 

"Wow, you kept that bit of news a secret, didn't you?" 

"We didn't even know about it until they landed at Richmond." Julie said. "And I have to say that we approve of her choice." 

"Adam, this is my brother Julian, and this other ugly beast is my other brother Rory." I shook hands with both. "And I assume that this young lady is the unfortunate girlfriend of one of you." I was introduced to Beccy, a quite attractive young woman, and Rory's girlfriend. We adjourned to the house where coffee and cakes were spread out on the kitchen table.' 

"I think something a little more celebratory is in order." Mitch said as he opened the wine cabinet where the chilled whites were stored, and extracted a couple of bottles of sparkling whites. (We aren't allowed to call them 'Champagne' in Australia, even though they are made with the same grapes using the exact same method, and producing comparable product to the best that France has to offer.) Corks pulled and wine poured' Mitch held his glass high. "Here's to the happy couple, Micha and Adam!" Glasses were clinked together and we sipped the excellent wine. "May they love each other for as long as I have loved Julie, because if they don't, Adam you had better be able to run like hell because it will have been all your fault." 

I recognised that he knew his daughter and wasn't serious, so responded in kind. "No chance of that happening, I couldn't even run fast enough to get away from her to start with." This was greeted by Micha punching me on the upper arm and then throwing her arms around my neck, kissing me with an intensity that needed no translation. 

We had settled into an easy conversational flow that covered a broad range of topics from farm operation, Rory was studying Ag Science at Uni, to what Julian would do once he finished his flight training. He had intentions of becoming a commercial pilot, and this would require him working for a small regional or charter airline to start with while he got his hours up. I mentioned that I was planning to switch from ground engineering to flight engineering so that I could fly with Micha instead of waiting for her to return from wherever. 

It was then that we heard a car pull up out front. "That'll be Pete and Jan." Mitch said as he got up to open the front door. "We heard that Micha was here on leave, so we had to come over." With them was a girl in her late teens or early twenties, who moved over to stand next to Julian, obviously his girlfriend. 

"How are you Beth?" Micha asked her. 

"I'm fine." Beth said as she hugged Julian. "We both are." He responded by hugging her. 




That Summer with Kate



"Don't we get an introduction to this guy?" Pete said, nodding towards me. 

"Pete, Jan, this is my husband Adam." I held out my hand to Pete who stood there with his mouth open for several seconds before extending his hand to me. 

"Wow, that was sudden, when did this happen?" 

"A couple of days ago, this is sort of our honeymoon." Micha said. 

"This calls for a celebration, and not one of your piddling little efforts Mitch. This is a district job, Micha is as close to a celebrity as we can muster around here." 

I gave her a quizzical look. "Later, I'll explain later." 

"Like hell you will. Micha here was kidnapped by her mother and involved in a plane chase that ended badly for her mother. Micha survived and was the star of the evening TV news and all of the newspapers. There's even a copy of that picture in the Officer's mess at the Richmond RAAF base." He pointed to a framed photograph that hung on the wall above the slow combustion heater. It was of a young girl, an arm in plaster, saluting the RAAF Base Commander, who was returning her salute. "That was when she announced that she was going to be a pilot in the RAAF." 

"And a very good one at that." I said. "I met her at Acer when she pulled off a very tight landing in a fully laden Hercules." 

"I could never have done it without the help of my wonderful man." She hugged me. We had to go into great detail of the whole incident. 

"I think that you should consider a change of career, if this is what you have to do, I don't think that I'll ever rest easy while you're still flying." Julie said. 

"You might as well cut off my legs as try to stop me flying, it's in my DNA." 

One thing that I have found about small communities is that when a decision is made to bung on a celebration, things come together very quickly. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon there were cars arriving from all directions. The barbeque was going flat out coping with the piles of meat that had been brought over by the guests, the kitchen was a hive of activity as salads were prepared, there was a large tub filled with ice, cold bottles of wine and mixers, while a table had been set aside for the red wine. It was going to be a long night. 

We surfaced, feeling decidedly second hand, at around ten the next morning, to be met by Julie scraping scraps from plates and collecting empty glasses. "I'll wash, you dry." I said to Micha as I began stacking dishes into the sink full of sudsy water. We had the mess cleared in about half an hour and Julie cranked up the coffee machine. 

"Micha, can you call your father and tell him that it's safe to come inside." 

Micha and I went outside where we found Mitch clearing up the detritus left by the party goers. There were a couple of large plastic garbage bin filled with bones and meat scraps, paper plates and plastic drink containers. He put the lids on both and we went inside. I don't know who had time to make cakes, but there was a platter covered with slices of cake and biscuits. I was going to have to watch my waist-line, I thought the rellies knew how to eat, but this was a whole new experience for me. 

"What are your plans?" Julie asked. 

"Adam is going to take me to meet his parents, and then we thought that we would go and spend a couple of days with his rellies on the farm." 

"Where's that?" Mitch asked. 

"It's a couple of hundred acres of mixed farm at the end of a valley near Newcastle." 

"When were you thinking of leaving?" 

"We thought that we'd head off as soon as we've finished here, if that's okay with you." Micha said. 

"That's fine, as long as you come back here and spend some real time with us before going back up north." 

"Sure thing." I said. "There is one thing that we haven't thought of." 

"What is that?" Micha asked. 

"How are we going to get there?" 

"That's easy fixed." Mitch told us. "You can borrow the Range Rover. That way you'll have to come back." 

I rang home. "Hi Mum, it's Adam, yes I'm home on leave and, yes I am coming to see you. Yes I heard about Kate and no I'm not upset. I'll tell you more when I get there." 

"I presume that, because you kept saying 'I', that you are going to spring me on them." Micha said. 

"Why should you have all the fun. As soon as she meets you she'll be on the phone to the rellies." 

Even with the multi-lane ring roads it was till a 3 hour drive to Mum and Dad's place. Dad was at work and it was only Mum who was standing at the front door when we pulled into the driveway. "Hi Mum." I said as I opened the door for Micha. "I have a surprise for you." 

"You have a new girlfriend then?" 

"No Mum. I have a wife. Mum, this is Micha, Micha, Mum." 

"Oh, this is a surprise. Here I was thinking that you'd be pining over Kate, and you arrive married, to a very nice girl I hasten to add." 

"You don't know that, but I have to agree with you." Micha said as she gave Mum a hug. 

We were ushered inside where lunch for two was waiting on the table. "You two dig in while I quickly grab some food for myself." She began to grab stuff from the fridge and cupboards and soon had enough for herself. 

"So tell me, how did you two meet, I assume that Micha is in the RAAF. And how long have you been married?" 

"Yes, we did meet through work. Micha is a pilot, and she flew into Acer when I was there. We hit it off straight away and I had already decided that I wanted to marry her when I got the letter from Kate informing me that I was surplus to requirements. I was surprised by the letter but, given the circumstances I could hardly say that I was sad about the whole affair. I must write her a letter wishing her well." 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I heard this morning from the farm that things have not gone well for her. It would seem as if he had no intention of divorcing his wife. He hadn't exactly lied when he said that he and she were not living together in the family home, and that was why he lived on base. What actually happened was that she was in America on some research project and he decided that keeping a couple of rooms on base tidy was a lot easier than a whole big house. She arrived back two weeks ago and he scurried home to greet her. Kate was devastated." 

"We had planned to go up to the farm tomorrow. Do you think that we should stay away until the coast is clear?" 

"I'll call your aunt and see how the land lies." She went off to make the call. 

Dad came home from work at around 6 o'clock and was suitably 'surprised' to meet Micha. The call to the farm wasn't the only one that Mum had made. It turned out to be a pleasant and relaxed evening and we left for the farm soon after Dad had left for work. 

One thing I remember about going to the farm was the hospitality. The cousins that had left home hadn't moved far, and as soon as we had arrived, a steady stream of cousins and kids arrived, armed with food and drink. The lunch table was groaning under the weight of the abundance. 

The conversation moved quickly from sounding Micha out to acceptance. We were taken on a guided tour of the property, the dams, the creek that overflowed when there was heavy rain, dumping nutrient rich topsoil across the paddocks. We sampled oranges straight from the tree, ripe juicy oranges, nothing like those available from the supermarkets and shops that had been picked before they were fully ripe to extend their shelf life, and in the process were tasteless. We went up to the creek that led to the waterfall and I promised Micha that I'd take her up there tomorrow. 

We had no sooner got back to the house, in time to scrub up for dinner, than the phone rang. It was Greg Brown. "You haven't seen Kate have you?" He asked, the phone not hiding the concern in his voice. 

"No, what has happened?" Auntie Sybil asked. 

"She said that she was going for a walk and would be back in time for dinner, and she's not back. Normally I wouldn't be too worried, but with what has happened to her over the past couple of weeks, I'm concerned. She told us that she had bumped into Adam at Richmond and he was with a woman, and they looked more than friends. She told us that she thought that they were married, and this has really thrown her for a loop. When that bastard that she was living with dumped her and went back to his wife, she told us that she would contact Adam to see if she could patch things up between them. Seeing him with her and looking happy was the last straw." 

All of this was relayed to us, and left us in shock. It was not like her to do anything silly, she had too much self-confidence for that. 

"I think I know where she might have gone." I said. 

"Where?" Cousin Lynn asked. 

"Up to the waterfall." 

"Why, what makes you think that?" 

"To rekindle memories of a happier time. Look, I know that it's late and will be dark soon, but I think that we should head up there to see if she is there. Have you got any powerful torches?" 

"Yes we have several." 

"Okay, I'm going to get changed into something more appropriate for traipsing about in the scrub, and I'm going up there." 

"I'm coming too." Micha said. 

"I think you'd better stay here, the going is tough enough in daylight, but in the dark it can be dangerous." 

"I don't care, if you go, I go with you." 

"I've got heavy boots that will fit you." Cousin Lynn said. 

Ten minutes later we set out, Cousin Geoff took on the role of tour guide, and we moved as quickly as we could. 

I'll give Micha this, she didn't slow us down, not even when she noticed a leach sucking blood from her leg. 

It took us the best part of an hour before we arrived at the base of the waterfall. I shined my torch into the cave. The gravity of what I saw didn't sink in for a second or two. "Kate. Wake up Kate." I said, quietly at first and then with raised voice. It made no difference, she did not move. "Shit, stupid girl." I dropped to my knees and crawled into the cave. She was still alive, but only just. An empty pill container was on the ground beside her, if she had swallowed all of these there was no hope, but we had to try. 

"Can you call the house and request help. Tell them that she has taken an overdose of a codeine based pain killer. I can't be sure how many pills she has taken but the container is empty. We need information from the Poisons Information Centre as to the best first aid treatment. I'm going to see if I can make her sick and hopefully get any residual medication out of her stomach. We will try CPR for as long as necessary. The gully is too narrow for a chopper, even in daylight, so it will have to be on foot." 

"I'll tell them to come up the shelf to just above us and they can winch a stretcher up the side of the gully. Dad can guide them." Geoff went out, and walked around until he managed to get a signal. He spoke quickly to them and told us that the treatment that we had started was the best that we could do under the circumstances. "It will take the ambulance at least half an hour to get out to the farm, and possibly another half hour to drive up the shelf. We're in for a long night." He told us as he came back to the cave. 

"What made you think that she'd come to here?" Micha asked me. 

"In some ways Kate and I think alike. If I found my world crashing down around my head, I think that I would go to a place where I had found some happiness. I would like to think that during that first summer with Kate, that we had both found happiness. For whatever reason that happiness was not to last, and fortunately for me I have found a deeper and more lasting love while, unfortunately Kate has not. 

It was an hour and a half later when we got a call from above and a rope came snaking down to us. We were told to walk out from the base of the gully so the stretcher would have a clear path down the rope. Once it was on the ground the stretcher slid down to us, followed by a paramedic. Kate by this time was showing signs of coming around. She was quickly checked over and the decision was made to evacuate her as quickly as possible. She was strapped securely into the stretcher, covered with one of those space blankets and the long haul began. 

It took some fifteen minutes, accompanied by some slipping and swearing from the paramedic, before she was hauled onto the shelf and loaded into the ambulance for the trip down the fire trail and off to hospital. It was only after Kate had been taken away, and we were no longer otherwise occupied, that Micha noticed a backpack at the rear of the cave. 

Shining a torch into it we found some food and a bottle of water, another pill container with its seal intact, and a note. It wasn't a suicide note as such, but it was a long and rambling message of despair, of having; 

'I Fucked up my life and in the process lost the one person who truly understood me. Forgive me Adam, I was blinded by his charm. When I saw you with that woman and her name tag had the same name as yours, I admit that I was hurt and that I lost it. All that I could think of was to get away from my hurt. It wasn't only you that had hurt me, it was him, and to think that I am pregnant to him. I came here with the hope of finding happiness, because this was where I had found my love and my future with you. It isn't your fault that I threw it away, and I can see now that I will never get that back. There is nothing left for me, I can't go back to Richmond to see that bastard's smiling face, knowing that he has taken advantage of me, only to toss me aside when his wife came back. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have thrown my happiness with you away, how could I have hurt you? Forgive me, please, forgive my stupidity, forgive my selfishness in taking another life with me. I cannot face my family with my shame.' 

"This isn't a suicide note as much as a cry for help." Micha said. "She obviously didn't intend to end it all, otherwise she would have taken all of the pills. She knew that you would twig to it that she would come up here, she intended for you to find her, and take pity on her." Micha said as she finished reading the note. 

"What can I do? Right now I, for one, don't want to spend the night up here. I think that we should head back down so that we can get a good night's sleep." 

Geoff led the way out of the bush and we arrived back at the farmhouse to find it still a hive of activity. The Browns were there along with the local police sergeant wanting to get information on what had happened. I introduced Micha to the Browns. "So that is what she was raving on about." Greg said. "She said something about seeing you at Richmond, and you were very friendly with a couple and a woman in uniform who just happened to have the same name as yours on her tag. She assumed, correctly as it turns out, that you were married. She had told us that she had broken it off with you, and was going to marry this Will bloke. We told her that she was being stupid, but she would have none of that. Then his wife came back and he dumped her. She was hoping that, if she apologised to you, that you would take her back. She is very fragile emotionally at this time. She is officially AWOL but we have explained the situation to her CO, and he has promised to see to it that she is granted leave. He has also promised to chat to her pilot friend and let him know the trauma that he has caused." 

"Half of me thinks that I should go and see her when she is well enough, while the other half thinks it is not a good idea. But someone needs to go and see her to reassure her that her life isn't fucked up, that there is hope for the future." 

Geoff had been looking thoughtful ever since we got back. "I'll go and see her. We've been pretty good friends for yonks and I think I know her well enough to be able to take her mind off things for the time being." For some reason I thought that there was more to this than met the eye. 

Things calmed down eventually and we all managed to get some sleep. 

The news from the hospital was encouraging. Kate was out of danger and, while not making much sense, was at least talking. A Psychologist had been in to see her and said that she was not yet ready to leave hospital, and that her release date would depend on how quickly her moods stabilised. She was not yet ready to face visitors and the hospital would advise when she was well enough. 

Micha and I said our good-byes and drove back to her place, pausing briefly at home to fill Mum in on the drama. She advised that it would not be a good idea for me to see Kate just yet. 

Life with Micha's family was in stark contrast to what we had just gone through. Nothing seemed to faze them, although the same couldn't be said for her early life. Mitch and Julie related the drama in such a matter of fact tone that I could be forgiven for thinking it was an everyday occurrence, not the traumatic experience that it was. When they told how, following the crash that killed her mother, she climbed, with a broken arm that must have really hurt, from the wreckage and signalled to Mitch, circling above, that she was okay. I now understood why Micha was so calm on that landing approach at Acer, the influence of her parents, and her flight training prepared her for coping with emergencies. 

"I have been giving some thought to my future." I told them over lunch. I had their attention. "I think that I should get my pilots licence, I quite enjoy life at the front of planes rather than straining to see nothing but, usually wings, out of those ridiculously small windows." 

"There's more to flying that looking out of windows you know." Micha said." There are pre-flight checks, mid flight checks and post flight checks. If you want a commercial licence there's time on a simulator that has pretty pictures on screens in front of you that bear only a passing resemblance to reality." 

"I know all of that, but I thought that if I had my licence we could fly together." 

"You'd have no problem with me being the boss and telling you what to do?" 

"I would bow to your superior knowledge and experience." 

"Are you expecting the RAAF to provide the training?" 

"No, but with a pilot in the family I figured that I'd get mate's rates on my training flights." 

"We have two pilots in the family." Mitch said. "Would you like to go up this afternoon for a test flight? Micha can take you up and let you take the controls for a while to see if you have the feel for flying." 

"I'd love that." 

"That's settled then. In the mean time we need to prepare her for the flight. Come on, Micha can do the walk around and you can do what you'd normally do, check systems and vital fluids." 

We walked out to the hangar, and while Micha walked around checking the control surfaces and lights and stuff, I checked the engine fluids and then climbed into the cockpit and sat at the control, moving them around to make sure that they were free and not catching. Micha climbed in and we started the engines and checked that all the instruments were operational and that the warning lights were working. She shut the engines down and we climbed out. "She seems sweet, there was no sign of any leaks around the engines, they started easily and ran smoothly, the controls are as they should be. I'd say that this is a very well maintained aircraft. In the short time that I've known you and your father, I'd expect nothing less than that." 

The test flight went perfectly. Micha was at the controls until we had reached our operational ceiling, and then she showed me what the various controls did, how to do a rudder turn, and then a banked turn. As we came in to land she explained the flap settings for landing. 

"Well. Will he make a pilot or not?" Mitch asked as we stopped outside the hangar. 

"He has the touch. I explained what did what and he picked it up straight away. I can see that once he gets started there'll be no keeping him on the ground." 




That Summer with Kate



We spent a week with Mitch and Julie, and Mitch took me up just to confirm Micha's assessment of my pilot potential, and then he left it to us. We flew Pete down to a cattle sale at Goulburn where he picked up a lot of a hundred yearling steers for himself, and Mitch, that could be fattened up for the market. 

Mitch flew us to Bankstown and we had three choices in getting to Mascot for our flight to Darwin, catch a cab, not our first choice, hire a car and hope to convince the rental agency to let us have it at a reduced rate given that we'd only need it for a couple of hours, or catch a train that would take us right into the airport. 

The second choice turned out better than expected, the agency wanted a car delivered to its Mascot office, so we got it for nothing. 

We had some time to kill before the boarding call for our flight, so we found a cafe and were sipping our way through a coffee, when an announcement came of the PA system. "If Mr. Adam Matthews is in the terminal, would he proceed to the QANTAS information desk, there is someone waiting to see him." 

"I wonder who that could be?" I wasn't left wondering for very long, there were two people standing at the desk, Kate and Cousin Geoff. With a certain degree of apprehension, we approached them. "I hope that this isn't going to end badly." I said quietly to Micha. I needn't have worried. 

"Adam, I have to apologise for my actions, and to thank you for saving my life, both of you. I'm sorry for my behaviour at Richmond, I'm sorry for doing what I did. I knew that you were at your Uncles' place and thought that, I don't know what I thought, anyway, I know this woman is your wife Micha, and I want to apologise to her as well." She went to Micha and gave her a hug. "Will you ever forgive me?" 

"Of course, I would probably have done the same if I was in your situation." 

"I have so much to tell you, to explain to you, can we go somewhere quiet?" 

"We were having coffee at this cafe down the way a bit, we could always go there." Micha said. 

We were seated in a booth away from the usual bustle. "That letter that I wrote you, I'm sorry for that. I was so in love with Will that I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't know what to say or how to say it, so one of the girls on base told me what to say. I realise now that it was the wrong thing to do. As it turned out, that was not the only thing to go wrong. Will was only looking for someone that he could live with and have sex with until his wife came back. Don't get me wrong, in the sex department he was good, but I have come to the conclusion that sex is not the only thing to a long term relationship." She looked at Geoff. "After he went scurrying back to the little lady, I sort of lost the plot, and had to front the brass. I was sent to see a Psychologist, who I spilled my guts to. He arranged to chat with Will, which was when I came to realise what a total bastard he was. When the Psychologist told him that I was pregnant, Will said that it wasn't his problem, that I had a reputation as being willing to go to bed with just about anyone. In fact he said, at one party I had sex with five different men, three of them at the same time. I had no recollection of having sex with anyone but him, but he said that the other men would back up his story. If I had lost the plot before then, I really lost it now. I went AWOL and went back home. Then you and Micha turned up and, you know the rest." 

"Geoff came to see me in hospital and we got to talking. Do remember in my letter I told you that you were the solid, reliable type that the heroine rushed back to after being jilted by the dashing Lothario, and that solid, reliable didn't do it for you anymore, or words to that effect?" 

"I could hardly forget that." 

"Well, I've changed my mind. Solid and reliable is exactly what I need, and Geoff has offered to be there for me. I am officially on extended sick leave and, at the end of that I am going to resign. Geoff and I are going to get married and he is taking over our family farm. He has also told me that, as far as he is concerned, the baby is his. How do you like them apples?" 

"Let me tell you something." Micha said. "Mitchell Underwood is not my biological father, even though it says so on my Birth Certificate, My real father was a pilot that my Mother had a fling with, one of many as it turned out, and he was the pilot of the plane that crashed' killing both of them. I was lucky, because I had jammed myself under the seat to get away from her. I survived the crash with little more than a broken arm. With the blessing of my maternal grandparents, Mitch applied for custody of me, and eventually he and Julie adopted me. So you see there is hope for your child, adn I'm sure that Geoff will do the right thing by both of you." 

"You bet." Geoff, like his father, was a man of few words, but those few words said a lot. 

"I think that's great. One thing that you can be sure of, and that is that Geoff here is not going to be going around chasing after other women." 

"He'd better not because, if he does, I won't lose the plot, he'd lose his cock." She smiled, and I recognised the Kate that I had spent that summer with.