Melissa interrupted my reverie. “What are
you grinning at?”
I glanced at her.
“Am I grinning?”
“Like a Cheshire cat!”
I laughed, put my arm around her and hugged
her.
“I was just thinking how much I’ve missed
flying. I know, after spending six months flying to Mars you would think I’d be
well and truly sick of it, but I’m not. Besides, that long flight also had many
memorable moments, as I recall.” Then I wiggled my eyebrows at her and said,
“I’ve been grounded for two and a half months, more or less, and that is the
longest time I have spent on the ground since I was nineteen years old. Now
here I am, blazing through space at the helm of a hot-rod alien spacecraft on
my way back to Earth to rescue six stranded astronauts and take them back to
Mars, with a beautiful and sexy woman at my side, and I am loving every second
of it! I’ve certainly come a long way”—I chuckled—“from being a Tasmanian sheep
farmer!”
Mel laughed and hugged me,
“How did you become a sheep farmer anyway?”
“I was born as one, but I was also born to
fly. My parents owned a sheep farm; it was a good farm, but it didn’t make
enough for them to be able to hire farmhands to help Dad, so when I was old
enough to help I was the unpaid farmhand. Every day when I got home from
school, and all day on school holidays and weekends, I spent most of my time
working on the farm. Then one day I went to an air show at the Sale Air Base in
Victoria. My best mate and I had saved our pocket money for a very long time to
pay for that trip. I had always loved the idea of flying, but after seeing the
jet fighters being put through their paces that day I marched straight into the
recruitment office and signed up for a three-year hitch. I’ve been flying ever
since.”
“How did your parents get by without your
help after you signed up?”
“I knew a couple of blokes who were two
years below me at my old high school who wanted part-time work. I introduced
them to Dad, and he hired them. The farm went from strength to strength after
that; they loved the place and the work, and my Dad wound up employing them
full time toward the end.”
“What do you mean toward the end?”
“My mother passed away six years ago, and
Dad died almost five months later. I’ve been told that it isn’t that uncommon
for a surviving member of a close couple to pass away within six to eight
months of the other. I know Dad was devastated by Mum’s death, so much so that
I extended my leave by another three weeks to keep him company and help him
around the farm.”
“What happened to the farm after he passed
away?”
“I sold it to the two farmhands who were
working on it; they loved the place as much as Dad did, but they didn’t have
the finances to pay me up front, so I gave them a mortgage over it when I went
home for Dad’s funeral. That was the last time I ever went home.”
I looked down at Melissa.
“Guess I’ll never see any of that money
now.”
I received an elbow strike to the ribs from
her, but it was relatively gentle.
“Drew, your humor can be quite black and
distasteful at times,” she said.
“We each deal with tragedy in our own
personal way. Making jokes, however inappropriate they may be, is how I deal
with it.”
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