8 comments/ 17852 views/ 15 favorites You're One of Us Now By: Cromagnonman She didn't so much as sweep into my life, she didn't so much as stride into my life, she crept into my life, and the first words she said to me were, "Excuse me, can you tell me where the Post Office is?" "Yeah, sure." I replied. "It's just down this road a block and you turn right and it's about fifty metres from the corner, on your right." While I was giving her directions I looked closely at her, and if I'd been asked to describe her minutes later I would have had trouble, there was nothing about her appearance that was out of the ordinary, she was medium everything, medium length brown hair, her complexion was between pale and tanned, she was of medium height and her figure was neither thin nor well endowed. She wore clothes of a mix of neutral colours, no make-up, no scars, moles, blemishes or visible tattoos. The only thing that wasn't medium were her eyes, they were a clear blue. "Thank you." She turned and walked in the direction of the Post Office. "Would you like me to show you where it is?" "No, I'll be fine." And with that she walked out of my life. At least that was what I thought. Little was I to know that she would soon return to take over my life, and there was nothing that I could do about it. I thought no more about her as I continued putting out the signs advertising my parents' Hardware store, and the latest amazing specials, before going inside and preparing for the flood of customers that these signs would attract. By now you're probably thinking that I didn't want to be here, and you'd be right. But be here I must since my father's illness has prevented him from being here, he had recently been given the good news that the operation on his prostate was not as successful as at first hoped, and he has taken this news pretty bad, and given up on much of his life, including running the shop. He came down for a couple of hours a week until a month ago to ensure that the inventory is kept up to date and that the bills are paid. More and more he is allowing me to take control of this side of the business and soon I know that I'll be running it by myself. It was around mid-afternoon when I saw her again, she was looking at the screws and nails shelves with a worried look on her face. "Hi, can I help you at all?" She turned to me and there was instant recognition on her face. "Oh hi, yes I think you can, I have to find the right nails for this job that I have to do." "What are you doing?" "I have to replace the weatherboards (timber cladding boards) on the walls of the house. I have ordered the boards for the job, all I need are the right nails." I reached for a nail from a bin. "These are the ones you need. How many do you need? "I don't know. I've never had to do anything like this before so I wouldn't know where to start. What would you suggest?" "Well, if you have a lot of boards to put up, it's better and cheaper to buy in bulk, the other benefit is that you'll have them in a large container and are less likely to have them scattered all over the place. Next thing, do you have the right tools for the job?" "I have a hammer, it's an old one that belonged to my Great-grand-grandfather." "With a wooden handle?" "Yes." "Then I suggest that you invest in a good new one with a fibreglass or similar handle, that way you won't need one as heavy because they are better balanced and you get as much drive from a lighter tool. What about a nail-bag?" "No." "While you don't really need one, they make life so much easier for you, they have a hook to hang the hammer on when you're not actually using it and you can fill them with as many nails as you're comfortable carrying, and they're right there where you need them. How high are the walls?" "Pretty high, around three metres I think, why?" "If they're that high you'll need a scaffold, is the ground around the house flat or is it on a slope?" "It's level at the front but the rear is on a slope." "Then you'll need adjustable legs." "This is all too confusing, it's a bigger job than I thought." "Look, if you like, I can come out and have a look at the house after work, and give you an idea of what you'll need." "Would you do that for me?" I could tell that she wasn't used to shop-keepers offering assistance. "Sure, where do you live?" "It's number 37 Holbrook Rd." "The Ferguson place." I said, almost under my breath. "So that means that you're George's great-grand-daughter." "Yes. You obviously know him." "He has been a customer for ever, as long as I can remember. I heard that he'd died, it was hard not to have heard, and the whole town knew about it and shut down for the funeral. It's not every day that the last child of the original settlers dies. He almost made it to a hundred." "Yeah, he outlived my Grand-father and he and my father had a falling out around 10 years ago and I haven't seen a lot of him since then. I don't know what's going to happen, I think my father wants to sell, in fact I know he does, that's why I'm here." "Could get messy." "I'll deal with that when it happens, in the meantime, thank you for your offer, and I'll see you later." With that she walked out of my life again, but this time I knew that I'd be seeing her again. I shut up shop at 5:30 as usual and placed the takings in the safe before dropping the keys at home (upstairs) with Mum. "Where are you going, dinner will be ready soon." My father usually ate early so that he could crawl back into his bed to die. "I have to call on a customer, I'll see you soon." I drove to the Ferguson place to find her mowing the lawn. She shut down the mower as I got out of my car (it wasn't actually a car, it was a Ute, what Americans call a pickup). "Hi again, again." She held out her hand for me to shake. "Thank you for coming." "Hi, by the way I'm Grant McAdam." "Coralie, Coralie Ferguson. Well this is home for me for the time being, what do you think?" "I think it's in pretty good condition for its age. Tell me, why are you replacing the weatherboards, they look in pretty good shape to me?" "I was told that they needed replacing." "Who by?" "I called a builder to give me a price to do the place up, and that's what he told me." "Probably wanted the work. Look, you should cancel that order, those weatherboards are red cedar, and in as good condition as when they were first put up over a hundred years ago. (Red cedar is a close grained timber much prized by furniture makers and many farmers used it in cladding and shingles for their houses because of its weather resistance and ease of use.) You couldn't afford to replace them with new cedar, even if you could find them, each piece would cost you $1,000. Cedar was plentiful on the east coast of Australia a hundred years ago, and the cedar-getters literally wiped out every tree to the point where it is illegal to fell Cedar any more. Cabinet makers pay a fortune for any that they can get their hands on." "So I don't need to buy nails and a hammer and a scaffold after all, is that what you're telling me?" "Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you. I know that I'm doing myself out of a sale but I don't believe in ripping people off. I got that from my father, he never talked a customer into buying something that wasn't necessary." "You're never going to be a millionaire with that attitude, are you?" "If that's what's required to be a one of them, count me out, as long as I have a comfortable living, I'm happy." "More and more I like this man." She smiled at me, and there was something else about her that wasn't 'normal', she had an amazing smile, it literally lit up her face. "Having talked myself out of this sale, what else needs to be doing, I'd hate to have wasted this trip." "So you think it's been a waste, do you?" She was smiling at me again, and I didn't know what to make of this. Here was this girl, she was hardly a woman yet, probably mid-twenties at best, who I hardly knew, and she was flirting outrageously with me. "No, now that you mention it, you need to put new mesh on the chook yard if you're going to keep chickens, and the shed needs work, and the garage doors need re-hanging. You've got enough to keep you occupied for years." I smiled my best smile at her just to let her know that I was joking. "And how much is all that going to cost me?" "Apart from the materials, and I can let you have that at trade price, nothing other than dinner and a steady supply of drinks while I'm working." "Are you telling me that you're willing to help me with this mountain of work that needs to be done, and for a feed and some lemonade?" "Who was talking about lemonade? I won't work for anything less than a cold beer at the end of the day." "What about your job?" "We don't open Sundays, you don't have any objection to working on Sundays do you?" "No, and just how many Sundays do you think that this will take?" "Ooh, let me think, probably around a thousand." She actually laughed at that. Something else that wasn't 'normal' she had an infectious laugh that soon had me joining her. "You knew my Great-grand-father pretty well didn't you?" "Yeah, he used to come into the shop at least once a week, sometimes I thought that it was just for a chat with Dad. He seemed to be lonely out here since your father left to make his fortune in the city." "He used to tell me that he wished my father was more interested in country life and the farm." She said, sadly I thought. "I know it's not much, just some fruit trees and a vegie patch, some chooks for eggs and a cow for fresh milk. He made his own butter and cheese, it wasn't anything like the stuff you get in the shops, but I thought that it was great, and used to take stacks of it home after I'd visited him. He was sad when he wasn't able to make that anymore. I tried my best but just couldn't seem to get it right." "You like living here don't you?" "It certainly beats life in the city. I've got a totally useless University degree that I'll never use in a million years and I wish that I'd studied something like Ag Science or something useful." "Your Great-grand-father didn't need a degree to run the farm, all it took was common sense and the love of the life." "Guess who would love this life? Do you really want to work in the shop for the rest of your life?" "I don't have a choice, I have no brothers to take over the business when Dad dies, and that will be soon, he's very sick and not expected to last more than a month, so I get to run the family business, like it or not. I sort of don't mind it, I get to meet all sorts of interesting people, not just the locals, so it's not boring, and the business is good, we don't have any competition around here, so as long as we treat the customers right they'll support us if someone tries to muscle in on our turf." "Have you thought of buying your own place that you can run in your spare time?" "Not really, I don't see the need to leave home, and for the near future Mum will need me to help her when Dad goes." "You're close to your parents, aren't you?" "Yes, you could say that, they've been good to me. Dad has taught me a lot about how to live and do business in a small town. You can't be complacent when you deal with people, they're your only source of livelihood, ignore them at your peril." "The last time I was up here, it would have been about six months ago, not long before Great-grand-father died, he told me that, if I came to live here after he died, I should find myself a good local boy and settle down. Your name was mentioned as a possible candidate." "Oh, so the nails and stuff was just to get me out here on my own so that you could check me out was it?" "Not at first, but when I spoke to you this morning, I changed my mind. You were polite and well spoken, you even offered to show me where the Post Office was, not that I needed showing, I didn't think that you'd remember me by the way. And when you came out here and told me that I didn't need to replace the weatherboards on this house, I knew that he had chosen well. Is that the answer that you were looking for?" "It'll do. If truth be told, I didn't need to come out here to tell you that you didn't need to do all that work, I already knew that. I know this house pretty well. I used to spend a lot of time out here when I was a kid, he even taught me to milk the cow, I wasn't very good at it, but I could get enough out of her for his needs. He even taught me to make cheese, and that I was good at, I'd even hazard a guess that some of the cheese that you took home with you was stuff that I'd made. Over the last two years I spent a lot of time here helping him. He did say something to me along the lines that he had a Great-grand-daughter that was a bit of all right, and that she'd make me a good wife some day." "He did, did he? You have to admit that he was good at match-making, wasn't he?" I looked at her and realised that my first impression was wrong, she was anything but ordinary or medium, or normal, when she smiled her face lit up, and out of the long skirt and loose top that she wore this morning and into jeans and a tighter top, there was nothing medium about her. "You could be right, he knew both of us pretty well and saw that there are many similarities here. You know, for the first time that I can remember, I've actually taken an interest in a girl, at least since high school, and most of those have moved to the city looking for work." "So I'm in with a chance here, is that what you're telling me?" "You never know, not that there's any competition around here these days." I looked at my watch. "Oops, I'd better get home before Mum send for the cops to look for me." "Well, if you must. You could always call her and let her know that you having dinner out here with me." "Better still, I'll call her and tell her that we've got a guest for dinner, that way you can meet both of them." I had my phone out and pushed speed dial 1. "Hi it's me, yes I'll be home soon. Listen Mum, could you set another place for dinner, I've got someone here that I think you should meet. . . . No I won't tell you who it is . . . . Yes she's a she . . . . See you soon." I held my hand out to Coralie but she hung back. "You don't expect me to meet your 'olds' looking like this do you?" "I think that you look perfect, come on." "At least let me lock up." She dug into her pocket for the front door key. "Spoken like a city person, we don't lock up around here." She climbed into the Ute and we headed the 2 kilometres into town. "I hope that they'll like me." "They'll like you, I like you and that's all they need to know, but I'm sure that they'll like you for yourself, no matter what I think." I parked in the car park behind the store and was just about to put my key in the door to our apartment upstairs above the store when the door opened. "Mum, this is . . ." "Coralie, Coralie Ferguson, my look at you, all grown up, it must be five years since I last saw you, until this morning that is, I noticed you in the store and saw Grant chatting with you, and then he was all very mysterious about where he was going this afternoon, all he'd say was that it was a potential customer, he never mentioned that it was you . . ." "Mum, slow down, please. Yes it is Coralie and she's sort of inherited the Ferguson property from her Great-grand-father and will be living there from now on." "Did you?" Mum hugged her. "That's great, far be it for me to say anything bad about your father, but he was never cut out for life on a small farm. I believe that he would have sold it, given half the chance, I'm so pleased that you've decided to live there." "I believe that I like it even more than I did this morning. Grant has been so good to me and, he's even offered to help me put the place back into some sort of shape." "Oh he has, has he?" She smiled as she said it so I knew that she was okay with the prospect of me spending my spare time with Coralie. "Come, I want you to meet Martin, Grant's father." She led us to Dad's darkened bedroom and turned on a small lamp so as not to hurt his eyes. "Martin, look who's here, it's George's Great-grand-daughter Coralie." He turned his head and took a while to focus. "Pleased to meet you." He held out a wavering hand that was skin and bone and not much else. Coralie hesitated for a second and then knelt beside the bed and kissed him on the forehead. There were tears in her eyes as she whispered, "I'm so pleased to meet you." She stood up and came into my arms, her head resting on my shoulder, I didn't need to look to see that she was crying. "Come, we'll leave him in peace." Mum led us to the kitchen and began to serve out our dinner. It was a sombre occasion, having what was a very nice meal but knowing that just down the hall was my father virtually on his death bed. We were just finishing desert when the buzzer went off, signalling that Dad wanted something. Mum got up and went to his room. "Coralie, would you come here please." She called. We went to his room and Coralie sat at his bed-side. "I'm here." She said softly. "Your great-grand-father . . . . told me . . .the . . . last time. . . I spoke with him . . .that I should look . . . . after you . . . . . I'm sorry . . . . my dear . . . but Grant . . .will . . . " "Don't worry, he will." She kissed him on the forehead again and he smiled at her. "Let him rest, that's the most he's spoken for some days." Mum said as she helped Coralie to her feet. Dad had a smile on his face as we left him. "I like him, but I haven't seen him for ages. It saddens me to see him like this." "Don't be sad, he's had a good life, and while I, we, don't like this part of it, we know that he's at peace with it. He realises that nothing can be done and has accepted that. When he's ready to go he will." I drove Coralie home and walked her to the door. She turned to me and I took her in my arms. "I enjoyed having you with me tonight, and I know Mum was pleased to see you." I was working toward getting the courage to kiss her but she beat me to it. "I enjoyed it too, I'm sad that your father is so ill, but I do believe that he was pleased to see me with you. I suspect that Great-grand-father and he might have been hatching a plot to get us together." I kissed her. "You could be right, in fact I'm sure that you're right, I could see the way that his eyes lit up when he saw you, they haven't done that for some time." "Would you like to come in for a coffee?" Her arms were around my neck and she was pressing her body against mine. I could not ignore her closeness and my cock sure as hell was beyond ignoring it, it was straining to free itself from the confines of my pants. "Mmm, someone likes me." She reached for him and squeezed him. "If I come in I'll want to stay." "So?" She had a wicked look in her eyes. "If you want to stay I won't stop you." "But if I want to stay I'll also want to make love to you, are you sure that we're ready for that?" "I am if you are." She had my zipper down and was fumbling around in my jocks for him. Once she had him in hand I just had to follow her, I had no choice, it was either follow or lose it. We only just made it to her bed, we almost did it on the sofa, we almost did it on the hall carpet, but the bed won out and we were on top of the doona, getting under it would come later. We kissed, she lay there while I kissed her breasts, teasing her nipples into life, her body trembled as I found her pussy and caressed those lips. When the time was right I positioned myself over her and the head of my cock nudged her pussy lips, encouraging them to part and allow him to enter, which he of course did, slowly, until I was deep inside her gloriously moist pussy. "Oh my god that feels so good." I had to agree with her, from my perspective this did indeed feel so good. We were joined as one, even though we had just met hours before, this wasn't a random act of casual sex, this was, to me at least, the real deal, the beginnings of relationship, and one that would last. You're One of Us Now "I'm glad we did this." Coralie whispered as we separated. "When I was a little girl, I was probably about ten, and you would have been twelve, you were out here with your father talking to Great-grand-father. We didn't say anything, we were probably both too shy, but I had a crush on you. Every time I came here after that I hoped that you would be here as well. A couple of times I went into town, to your store, but didn't see you anywhere. I was disappointed at that. I don't know how long I'll be here this time, so I want to make the most of this opportunity." "What do you mean, you don't know how long you'll be here?" "My father sent me here to tidy the place up so that he can sell it, I have to do as much work as I can and only hire people for the things that I can't. So you see I won't be living here forever." "Why is he selling it, surely he's not desperate for money?" "I don't know, I have a feeling that business isn't all that buoyant." "I would have thought that he should hang on for a few more years, we are in the perfect place for 'Tree-changers', people who want the rural lifestyle but in close proximity to the city." "That's exactly what I told him, but he told me that he was not interested, that he'd never been interested in keeping the place. If I could afford to buy it I would." "What if . . ." "What if what?" "I was just thinking that I might be able to get a mortgage and buy this place myself." "That would be great, but what about me?" "This is going to sound stupid, but I was thinking of you. I would let you stay here for as long as you like." "But why? What's in it for you?" "Do you remember telling me that you had a crush on me all those years ago, from the first time that you saw me?" "Yes." "Well, you weren't the only one with a crush, I saw you and, yes I was too shy, but I thought that you were pretty," my hand found her again, making her squirm, "and cute," My finger entered her wet from love pussy, "and you really liked your Great-grand-father and he thought the world of you, so you couldn't be a bad person. In my own way I was in love with you way back then." "You were in love with me?" "Yes, and I still am. Does that cause a problem?" "No, at least not in the boy/girl scenario, but what if you can't buy this place, what happens then?" "Then I'll just have to talk my parents into letting you come and live with us, I'm sure they won't mind, after all we're going to get married aren't we?" "We are, are we? Don't I get some say in this?" "Only to say that yes, you will marry me." "You are amazingly self-assured for a shy person." "I have seen an opportunity and I'm going to act on it. Coralie Ferguson, will you marry me?" "Yes, but not any time soon, I want to sort out my life and where it's heading before I go down that path. I want very much to be your wife, and have done for years, since I was a little girl, but everything's up in the air with my life at the moment. Let's just say that I agree in principle to your proposal, and that I'll take each day as it comes." I kissed her to seal the deal, we made love once more before we said our good-byes, (that took ages) and I left her there to return home. "You got in late." Mum said as I sat down. "And you don't look as if you've had much sleep, what happened?" "Coralie and I had a long talk." The look that she gave me told me that she didn't believe that was all that we'd done. "Her father wants her to tidy the place up so that he can sell it. She doesn't want him to, but he's made up his mind. I thought that it would be a good investment for me to buy it and she can stay there for as long as she likes." "And you'll be making regular trips out there just to check up on things, is that it?" "Well yes, that thought did cross my mind." "There's more to it than that, isn't there?" "The more that I'm with her the more memories of when we were kids come flooding back. We were almost inseparable there for a while, weren't we?" "Yes, you played together and explored all around the place, then she stopped coming out and we couldn't work out why. Old George was saddened by this, he and your father talked about it often, it would appear that her father had designs for her that didn't include her living out here. It looks as if he'll get his way unless something can be done about it." "But what? I'll talk to the bank and see if I can get a mortgage that will let me buy the place when it comes onto the market." "Good luck with that, it will depend on the price, if it sells for more than the valuation you could miss out even if you could get the mortgage." "Sit down." Mr Jacobsen the Bank Manager indicated a chair opposite him. "Now, let me get this straight, you want to see if you can get a mortgage to buy the Ferguson place when it comes on the market, is this correct?" "Yes sir." I said. "Well, in principle I can't see there being a problem, but we have to look into various conditions, like how much is it worth, how much we will approve based on your savings. I know how much you have in your account and that is promising. Do you have any idea what the asking price might be?" "No, it hasn't even been placed on the market yet." "There is another problem, what if the vendor decides to put it under sealed tender, and you won't know what other bidders will offer. It could go for much more than the market valuation." "So what can I do?" "We can send our Valuer out to do a thorough appraisal of the property and take it from there." "I've got to speak to Coralie first, she doesn't know I'm even thinking of this. I'll go out and see her now and call you and let you know where I stand." "Coralie?" "George's Great-grand-daughter, she's out there now tidying up the place." "Alright, I'll leave that up to you. I think that you're doing the right thing, although it was let run down over the six months before George died, up until then it was a viable property." I left the bank buoyed by my prospects, Mr Jacobsen seemed positive that they would be able to lend me the money to buy the place, all I need to do is to discuss with Coralie the prospects of me buying it and allowing her to run it. She turned off the brush-cutter as I pulled into the access road. Taking off her work gloves she wiped the sweat from her face with a rag, stuffed it back into her pocket as, smiling broadly she came over to me as I got out of the Ute. "I can't keep you away from place, can I?" "No." I took her in my arms and kissed her. "There's something here that keeps dragging me back and I can't work out what it is." "Could it be me?" She said, striking an exaggerated pose. "Could be. The reason I came out is, I need to discuss something with you." "Okay but not here, come inside and I'll make us a coffee, and then I'll listen to whatever hair-brained scheme that you've come up with." I followed her inside and sat in the cool of the kitchen while she bustled around making coffee and cutting us a slice of a cake that she had cooling down fresh from the oven. It was almost as if she expected me to drop in, unless she was expecting someone else. "Expecting visitors were we?" "What gave you that idea? Oh, you mean the cake, don't get too excited, it'll keep for ages in the freezer." "Oh." I was deflated. "Of course I was expecting you, after last night I just knew that I wouldn't be able to keep you away for long, although I thought that you'd hold out a little longer than this, it's not even time for your lunch break." "I came because I have something important to discuss with you that won't wait." "This sounds ominous." "I've been to see my Bank Manager and he's virtually guaranteed me mortgage to buy this place. I want to buy it so that you can stay here and work it." "Is that the only reason why you want to buy it?" "Baby steps, let's see how things progress. I just want to see you here because I know that's what your Great-grand-father would want." "No ulterior motives then?" "I wouldn't quite go that far. Look, I like you a lot, and while I was tossing and turning my way through the night, I came to realise that we were pretty close years ago, and that I'd like to get back to that situation." "I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that lost sleep after last night. Yes we were pretty tight weren't we? Now where do we go from here?" "The bank wants to send someone out to value the property to get an idea how much money they can lend me, and whether that will be enough for me to buy it. We'll take it from there, hopefully it will be enough." "What if I chip in my savings as well, will that help?" "I'm sure that it will. I'll let the bank know to go ahead with the valuation, when they have that we can arrange to see the manager and discuss the finer points of the transactions. Every little bit will help. Would you like to come in for dinner tonight?" "Yes, I'd like that, but I don't want to wear out my welcome, are you sure that your mother's okay with this." "She'd be only too happy to see you, she likes you, a lot." We kissed, I thanked her for the coffee and delicious cake and left, her to resume with the brush-cutter, and me to go back to the job that I'd managed to avoid for most of the morning. "Well, how is it going?" Mother asked as I walked in through the back door. "Fine, I've seen Mr Jacobsen and he's confident that I can borrow enough to buy the place, we've arranged for a valuation. I've spoken to Coralie and she's happy, she's even said that she'll chip in her savings to make our chances better. She's coming to dinner by the way, just thought that I should mention it." "Good, we can have a round table discussion. I'll let your father know, he'll be pleased." I knew something was wrong the moment I opened the door for Coralie. "What is it, what's happened?" "Grant, I don't know what to do, this afternoon a guy came out and put a 'for Sale' sign out front. There's to be an auction on Saturday, what can we do in a couple of days?" "Come in, I'll get Mum." I led her to the living room and went to the kitchen to get Mum. "Coralie has just told me that her father has had a sign put up at the property and that there is an auction on Saturday, I, we need to get to the bank first thing and see if we can arrange the finances before the auction, otherwise we won't be able to bid on it." "Okay, first thing, the two of you get to the bank and see what you can organise. There's not a lot that we can do tonight, so why don't we forget all about it for the time being and enjoy the moment." She looked at Coralie, "I've cooked Grant's favourite, I hope you like it too." "I'm sure I will." We were ushered into the dining room and Mum went to serve up the Chicken Liver Risotto served with a fresh garden salad on the side. I opened a bottle of red wine and we dug in. "I can see why he likes this, I've had risotto before but not one of these, you'll have to give me the recipe." Mum looked from me to Coralie, and a smile spread over her face. "I'll lend you my recipe folder with our favourites if you like." "I'd like that, at least I'll know what to cook when you come to dinner, both of you." We knew that she meant both Mum and Dad, but we also knew that it was unlikely to happen, she was just letting us know that she wanted to be a part of our family. We talked for ages, most of it about when we were kids and I would visit the farm, sometimes on my own and others alone. As the evening went on I came to realise that Coralie and spent a lot more time together than I at first remembered. She must have been a teenager when her father stopped bringing her out, that would have been about the time that my visits began to become fewer and further apart, I probably, without realising it, had less of a reason to go there. "I should be getting home." Coralie stood up. "Thank you for a lovely dinner," she went around and kissed Mum on the cheek, "and thank you for inviting me," she kissed me on the lips. "Why don't you stay here for the night, you'll only be back first thing." Mum took the words right out of my mouth. I smiled at her, she smiled at me and we both smiled at Mum. "Grant's bed is big enough for the both of you." This was Mum's way of telling us that she approved of our relationship, and that she knew that we were already lovers. It was a tired but happy Coralie and me that walked bleary-eyed into the kitchen to find Mum busy with breakfast. "I hope you slept well." Her smile told us that she was aware that we had other things on our minds in bed. "Yes thank you, Mrs McAdam." "Mum, we don't stand on formalities in this house, and you're going to be a part of our family soon, actually I look on you as part of our family already." "Thank you, Mum." She kissed Mum and we sat down to breakfast of muesli with fresh fruit and yoghurt followed by coffee. "After you've been to the bank I need you to look after the shop, your father wants me to see our solicitor." "What about?" "I don't really know, all that he said was that I was to go to Wilkinson's and speak to William and tell him to follow the instructions in the file that he left there last year. All very mysterious." The news from the bank was encouraging. "Our Valuer has given me a figure that's in your reach." "What if we were to include my savings as well?" Coralie said as she took a bank statement from her bag. Mr Jacobsen looked at it and took a calculator from his drawer and calculated how much we could go to at the auction. "We put the valuation at $675,000, on the figures that we can work with, you can safely go to $650,000 before we start to worry about your ability to service the loan." "Great!" I said, feeling excited at the prospect. "I think that he's jumped the gun by selling so soon, on the surface of it 500 would be a reasonable sale price, that is unless you've carried out a closer inspection than most buyers would have. Scratch beneath the surface and you'd realise that the house is more substantial than the outside appearance would indicate. On first impressions a buyer could be forgiven in thinking that he would be up for substantial renovation costs, and could be tossing up whether to go down that path or demolish and start again. The cedar cladding doesn't need even a coat of paint, it's in near to perfect, albeit weathered condition." Mr Jacobsen looked at the Valuer's report. "Are you sure about the condition of the weather boards?" "Yes. Unless you know of the history of that house you'd be forgiven for thinking that those grey weatherboards are in need of replacing, the same goes for the cedar shingles on the roof, they are in as good condition as the day that they were put on." "I see that it pays to know something of building materials and history." "Because cedar hasn't been used in building for almost a century, most people would never have seen it or known about its strengths as a building material." "In that case, you can go another 10 thousand higher with your building." We thanked him and walked back to the shop feeling a lot more positive than we had this morning. Coralie took to helping in the shop like a duck to water. If she was unsure of something she came straight to me for advice but in most cases common sense prevailed and she was able to help without my involvement. It was after lunch that Mum came in, her expression gave nothing away. "What happened at Wilkinson's?" I asked. "I really don't know. I did as your father told me and he just smiled and told me to consider it done." "Consider what done?" Coralie asked. "I don't know." "Sit down Brenda." William Wilkinson said as he walked to his side of the desk and sat. "I hope this has nothing to do with Martin." "Yes and no. I have instructions for you that I don't understand. I suppose I should start from the beginning. You Know George Ferguson's house is on the market, well his great-grand-daughter Coralie has been fixing it up, expecting to stay there. But her father has other ideas and wants to sell it. When I mentioned it to Rodney last night he told me to come here and tell you to act on the instructions in the file that he left with you last year. I don't know what's in the files, I didn't even know that he'd given you a file." "Don't worry about a thing. You say that the property is on the market?" "Yes, there's to be an auction on Saturday. Grant has been in discussions with the bank to see if he can get enough to buy the place, I think that he and Coralie have plans to live there. We are worried that he won't have enough to get the place." "I wouldn't worry if I were you, and tell Grant that he can start making plans for the future." "So you see why I'm confused, he told me not to worry, but what can he do?" I didn't know what he could do either. "By the way, I wouldn't expect too many locals would be interested in buying after I spread the word that you two wanted to buy it." Saturday dawned brightly, helping our mood, we were still worried that the price would get out of our reach and that we'd lose out to some wealthy 'tree-changer'. We drove out to the house in time to see the Auctioneer and Coralie's father standing out front looking at the house. "I wondered where you'd gotten to." He said as Coralie got out of the Ute, have you got the keys?" "Yes." She was short with him, he had not greeted her with any warmth and she returned the favour, and he had totally ignored my presence. The two of them went inside to check the place out as cars began to roll up. I recognised none of them, meaning that the property had attracted the attention of city people and that there were no locals interested. They did a walk through before the auction began. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this auction. The property is as you see it, it is currently un-occupied, (This came as a surprise.) and includes all sheds and outbuildings. It has an area of 10 hectares and is zoned as a 'Hobby farm'. "Who will open the building?" "Three hundred thousand!" "Three fifty!" "And advance on three fifty?" A man raised the brochure about a centimetre. "Four, do I see four fifty?" Another man got into the action. "I have four fifty, do I see five?" Again the movement of the brochure. "Five, do I see five fifty?" I raised a finger. "We have a new bidder, do I see six?" I saw Coralie's father glare at me, he wasn't happy at this turn of events. Again the brochure. "I have six, do I see six fifty?" I raised my finger again. I was beginning to worry, if he bid six fifty I could only raise it by twenty-five thousand. If he topped that bid I was gone. Shit, there goes that brochure again. "Six fifty, do I see seven?" "Six seventy-five." I had reached my limit. I waited for the brochure to move. "Stop the sale!" Everyone turned to look at the men who had silently moved onto the property. "What does this mean and who are you?" "I am from the Sheriff's office and I have here an injunction halting this sale." "On what grounds?" "On the grounds that Mr Ferguson is not the owner of this property, it's not his to sell." "What the fuck are you talking about? Of course it's my property, my grand-father left it to me in his will. His will quite clearly states that he was leaving his property to me, so it's mine to sell!" "No it is not. Six months before he died he transferred ownership of this property to his great-grand-daughter Coralie Ferguson. If you'd done a title search you would have found that out for yourself, and if you had carried out the search and gone ahead with the sale then you stand a good chance of being charged with fraud. Now would you people kindly leave and let the owner go about her business in peace." You're One of Us Now "You little bitch! You haven't heard the end of this! The old man must have been crazy to give her this property!" "He was not crazy. He might have been sick and old and tired, but he was anything but crazy. He knew that your father would dispose of the property and he didn't want that to happen." Mum had come out as soon as she had about the aborted sale. There was a sign on the store door that told prospective customers that the store was closed for 'family reasons'. Everyone knew what the reasons were, they also knew, because the word had been spread, that Coralie was now part of our family, so the people just shrugged and went on with their business, the tasks that they needed gear for could wait, there were more important things in life. "So that's what you went to see Wilkinson's about." "Yes, the instructions were that Coralie was the owner of the property and any attempt by her father to sell it was illegal. The waiting until you'd reached your limit was his idea, it added a bit of drama to the occasion don't you think?" "It sure did, I was really worried there, and if that guy had raised that brochure again I don't know what I would have done." "You could have kept going for a little while longer." "What do you mean?" "You don't think that you were the only ones to talk to Mr Jacobsen, do you? You could have gone higher, much higher." "If I'd known that is, but I didn't now did I?" "I would have told you if William hadn't told me this morning what the plans were." She put her arms around both of us and hugged us. "Are you two going to invite me in for a coffee?" It was the best cup of coffee that I'd ever tasted, and the cake was still as fresh, once it had thawed out, as the day that Coralie had baked it. This was some day to remember, I had the love of my life beside me and she came complete with a house, I had my mother with me, giving us her blessing and support, the only thing that was missing was a well father. We discussed the future. Now that you've got this place and each other, we need to plan for the future. Grant, I want you to take over the full running of the shop, I know that Coralie will want to help you and she'll be good for business, I like the way that she handles herself.', and I know that you'll do well together." "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to visit my sister in town, I haven't spent any time with her for I don't know how long. We have a lot of catching up to do. You don't need me around." "We mightn't need you, but we certainly want you." Coralie knew exactly what to say. "Thank you for that. Don't worry, I'll still be around if you need me. I want to stay in the apartment over the shop if that's okay with you." "Why wouldn't it be, it's your home, we're not going to turf you out." "What do you think your father's going to do?" She asked Coralie "I don't know but going on what transpired here today I know that he's not going to give up without a fight. Do you have any suggestions?" "No, but I'm sure that William will have, I'll speak to him and see what he can do." "Thanks Mum." Coralie said, giving her a hug. That was when Mum dropped the bombshell. "I hate to put a dampener on these celebrations, but I have to tell you that your father passed away two hours ago." She broke down and cried openly. Coralie went to her with a tissue and a comforting hug that included me. "In didn't want to say anything until I was certain that you two had your future planned, and you were ready to take over the responsibility of running the store. Your father would have been pleased with what I've just heard from you, he trained you well." We stood there for what seemed to be hours before Mum pulled away from our embrace. "That's enough sadness for the time being, your father wouldn't have wanted us to be sad on this day of all days, it's a day of rejoicing, you two have each other, you have this house, you have the shop, you have a life ahead of you. Forget about the tears and the sadness, you know that your father's no longer suffering." "I'm still sad because I wanted to get to know him better." Coralie said. "But he didn't want you to get to know the desperately sick him, he wanted you to remember him as he was when you were much younger, isn't that a better memory to hold on to?" "While that's the best of memories, I wanted to remember the strong man that I saw the other day. He might have been sick, very sick, but he had a strength about him that was a powerful image to hang on to. I saw it in his eyes and the way that he smiled at me, it was as if he could go in the knowledge that his job was done. That's the image that I'll remember most of all." "You're an amazing young woman, do you know that? I can understand why Grant's so desperate to marry you, he doesn't want the possibility of losing you to someone else." "He could never lose me to anyone else, I've been in love with him since I was ten." Coralie and I almost didn't make the funeral. It was two nights after the auction and Dad had died and Coralie and I were at her house. We'd just finished dinner and were clearing up when we heard a car stop on the road outside the property. "I wonder who that could be." She said. It was then that we heard someone coming up the gravel drive, whoever it was, was trying to walk quietly but that was impossible on loose gravel. The steps stopped and then we saw a flame light up the sky and a bottle of inflammable liquid with a rag hanging out of it described a fiery arc towards the front wall of the house. "Quick, call the police while I try and put this out." I dashed outside and switched on the pump attached to the rainwater tank. (We weren't on mains water out here because there was none) It took a few seconds for the pressure to build up and me to train the stream of water on the flames. It took less than thirty seconds to extinguish the flames, they hadn't fully caught the timber cladding because the bottle fell short and most of the liquid was on the ground. I heard the car speed off but wasn't close enough to make out the make and model, let alone read the rego plates. Coralie came out and looked at the damage. "How is it?" "It's not that bad, most of the damage is to the garden bed." "I told the police that the car was heading back towards town at speed, I hope that they have time to set up a roadblock. I've got a good idea who's behind this." "It doesn't take a mental giant to work that out. I hope that he didn't plan for us to be here, because if he did, he could be up for attempted murder. Come on, let's go back to town and talk to the cops. I think that we'd better stay at mine tonight, don't you?" The police were very helpful, that's what comes from being a person in good standing in this town. "We stopped a car for speeding just outside town. The driver was anxious to get away so he told us he'd cop the fine but he was running late for a meeting so could we hurry it up. We noticed that he was uneasy when we asked him to pop the boot (trunk), and surprise, surprise, we found a half full fuel can, and I am almost positive that when we test the contents it will match that of the accelerant used on your house. When we told him that the charge would no longer be speeding but attempted murder, he was quick to cough up who hired him to do this. Coralie, your father must be really pissed with you to want to kill you, and I would hazard a guess that he has the house insured for more than market value. Although he doesn't own it he can claim that he thought he did, and if you'd died in the fire he was the next of kin so has a claim on it. The value of the contents will be highly inflated as well, the inventory being his word because there would be no real record. He stood to gain a lot of money from this. We'd probably find that this was his plan all along, torch the place while the transfer is happening, and pocket the money." "But once the contract is signed, isn't it the responsibility of the purchaser to ensure that it is adequately insured?" "Most purchasers don't bother until they actually have the keys in their hands, and, if they intend to demolish, a fire would save them a lot of money." "I wonder?" I wondered. "What?" Coralie asked. "The guy that was the strongest bidder, what if he was a friend of your father's and he had some deal to transfer ownership back to your father." "But why?" "This could be a good way to launder money, have a third party use dirty money to buy the property and, then buy it back with clean money. It wouldn't have mattered how high the bidding went, in fact the higher the better, just make sure that his friend is the successful bidder, he pays the for it with money placed in a special bank account set up for the purpose. Once the bank has the money he's squeaky clean, financially that is. When he buys it back, for the same price, it will be with clean money, so his mate can use it for whatever purpose he wants, probably drugs." "It's worth looking into." He looked at Coralie. "Do you know much about your father's business interests?" "No, I know nothing about it apart from the fact that he always seems to have a lot of money on hand. Some of his business associates scared me, I always made myself scarce whenever he had business friends around." Mum was surprised to see us, as far as she was concerned, we were staying at the farm. "We've had some trouble, an unwanted visitor tried to burn the house. The police have him in custody and he is helping them with their investigations." "I'm glad neither of you were hurt. How's the house?" "It's fine, just a little singing on the front wall but it's fine." "You're to stay here until this is over." So we stayed in town for a week. We went out the next day just to check on the house. It wasn't that bad, the plants in the garden bed would re-grow quickly with a little TLC and the weatherboards were blackened but unharmed. "Thank God he was a lousy shot, it could have been worse." I said to Coralie, my arm around her shoulder. "Thank you for your quick thinking in getting the pump started and the hose out, if you'd hesitated for a second it would have been worse, we could have lost the lot." "As soon as we get back into town I want to insure the house and contents, you never know what will happen next." We had a steady stream of towns people calling into the store, some to buy the stuff that they'd put off because we had closed for the auction, some to congratulate us on our saving the house from going to some yuppie Tree-changer, and others, who'd heard about the dramas of the previous night, just to tell us how glad they were that we were okay. All of them took the sight of Coralie working in the store in their stride, she was George Ferguson's Great-grand-daughter, so she was one of theirs. "When are you two getting married?" Seemed to be the common thread of the conversations between us and them. "When we're ready, you'll know about it soon enough. We've got a funeral to get through first." "Do you need any help with that? I can organise the catering for after if you like." Nancy from the bakery said. "Everyone's going to be there and the bakery'll be closed, if they want a feed they'll have to come to the funeral to get one." "I'll let Mum know." Other offers came in, the ladies from the church offered to do the floral arrangements, the ushers offered their services to make sure that the family and closest friends got a seat in the church and that the 'rabble' were all outside. By rabble they were referring to those people that were not regular churchgoers, not that they were in any way of lower socio-economic status. The funeral was a hard time for us, for the first time since she met my father, mother had to face the prospect of not having him with her. Even in his final days she would sit by him and talk to him like he was in bed with a cold, always upbeat, telling him in her own way that he would get better and that she loved him. This was now a thing of the past and she was having trouble coming to terms with it. The Minister conducted the service in a casual manner in keeping with his relationship with Dad, he spoke of their friendship even though Dad was hardly what could be called 'religious' he followed the precepts of Christianity in his dealings with his friends and customers. The Mayor spoke of the help that Dad had provided and offered the town when he thought it necessary, like providing tarps to cover house roofs blown off by strong winds that we experienced from time to time. He never had to be asked, it was a standing offer of help that was appreciated. "Grant," Mum's sister Elsie took me to one side as the crowd were making inroads into the food after the funeral. "I want to ask you before I ask your Mum, I want to take her on a cruise to take her mind off her loss, do you think she'll be interested?" "I think that will be a good idea, Coralie and I can take care of the shop while she's away." "Thank you, I'll go and have a chat. You've got a good girl there Grant, she'll make a wonderful wife, just like your parents were perfect for each other." I looked at Coralie and she smiled briefly and returned to talking to Mum. Coralie spoke briefly with Aunt Elsie and, seeing that they wanted to be alone, came over to me. She kissed me and hugged me, something that didn't go un-noticed by the crowd, all of whom smiled at the show of affection. "Your family is extremely well thought of in this town, isn't it?" "Yes, and that's because we, that is Dad, set up his business to be a part of this town. You'll never do good business if you conduct your business as purely that, a business, you have to treat your customers as friends, look after them when necessary and they'll respect you and help you if you need it. You'll never be millionaires, but believe me, we lived better in this place than we could have as millionaires in the city. That's the life I want for us." "You and I are going to get on fine together, as well as in this town, that's what Great-grand-father always taught me, and that's why I couldn't wait to get away from the big smoke." I noticed the sergeant looking over the crowd towards us. "This could be interesting." I told Coralie as he threaded his way toward us. "Grant, Coralie, do you think that I could have a quiet word?" "Sure, why don't we go into the church, there won't be anyone in there." I led him inside. "I'm sorry to break into this funeral, normally I would have waited until it was over, but I was told that you should be contacted immediately. When we spoke to you after the fire, you raised an interesting theory about Coralie's dad. It seems that you were very close to the mark. I relayed your comments to my city counterparts and they followed up on it. It seems that, among the dodgy fraternity he's known as 'the Laundromat', the go-to guy if you wanted your dirty money cleaned up. He has this network of guys that he uses to spread the money around, usually through bookies and TAB (off course betting) outlets, as well as the casino. But this real estate scam was a new one on them so they did some research it seems that dirty money goes into the bank as a legitimate transaction and comes out squeaky clean and untraceable. His 'business associates' all have substantial property portfolios and they lease it out while they hang onto the property for a while, and then offload it, usually making a tidy profit into the bargain. The upshot of this investigation was a raid on his office and home, and the confiscation of his computers. The evidence that they gleaned from them will put him away for a long time." "But why did he choose to use my property?" "Partly because he thought that a country property wouldn't attract any unwanted attention, and partly because he was jealous of your relationship with his George." "I knew he didn't like Great-grand-father but that was ridiculous. So what happens now?" "His lawyer managed to post bail so he's not in custody at the moment, but he has been forbidden by the court to approach to within 5 kilometres of you, if he does he's straight back inside and his lawyer won't be able to spring him. Having said that we'll be keeping a close watch on you just I case, after all, you're one of us now, something that he never was, even when he lived here." "Why does everyone say that I'm one of you now, I've never left this place, my heart was always here, in particular here." She kissed me.