Chapter 30

Brian Harris, the Minister arrived shortly after lunch. We all settled around the kitchen table and discussed how we (read the women folk) wanted the wedding to go.

"It will take three weeks for the licences and reading the banns to take place, after that we can decide on a date and time. I take it from what Jean has told me, you would like to hold the ceremony here at the Sundowner; I'm quite happy with that idea, the church at Goon Nure is a bit too small to accommodate the numbers you are talking about."

"We are considering asking the Scouts to hire us their marquee for the reception, hopefully the weather will be kind to us. Failing that we can, at a pinch use the house." I said.

"Right, how does the Saturday one month from now sound? That should give you time to send out invitations and make all the necessary arrangements."

I looked at the women folk and they all nodded, "That sounds fine by us" said Jean.

"OK, then we have a lot of organising to do. is there anything more you need from us Brian?"

"No, I've got all of your licence applications, we have a firm date; if you contact me say in about a week before, we can finalise the ceremony. I'll leave you folk to your planning, good bye for now."

The girls were in charge of the planning and the invitations were at the top of their list. Jess was very keen to invite Trish and Sally, I decided I would need to see if she had any concerns regarding my previous relationships with them.

Dom's father knew most of the scout leaders and said he would talk to them about hiring their marquee for the reception.

Exciting as it was, the weddings had to take second place, we had a business to open; that in it's self would be a big challenge. We thought we had everything ready but as the old saying goes "the best laid plans of men and mice are oft to go astray". Hopefully ours wouldn't.

A Golden Fleece tanker arrived to fill our petrol tanks the next day, later a truck arrived with drums of engine oil and a range of 'handy' spares to stock the small shop that Ernie and Dom had erected on the veranda.

We hung the sign "open for business" on a post by the edge of the road. Our very first customer was a truckie. He pulled into the parking space and hopped out of his cab.

"Bout time you lazy buggers opened up. I've been driving past here every day just waiting for the chance to buy some grub and a cuppa."

"Come on in mate" said Dom, "You're our first customer so it's on the house. Our special for the day is egg and bacon in a roll with a side salad,

how's that sound?"

"For free? Sound's bloody good to me mate, does the pot of tea come with that as well?"

"Sure does, grab a seat and we'll fix you up straight away."

I rustled up his food while Dom told him about our plans for the future.

"You're in a good spot here Dom, most of us truckies don't like leaving our trucks if we can't see them. In the towns, parking spaces near a café are few and far between, so we just go without. Believe me, this place will do very well just out of us alone. With petrol sales and the ordinary motorists looking for a feed you are going to be busy."

"That's what we thought when we decided to set up here, long term we are looking at building some cabins as well."

"That's good thinking, folks are starting to travel further these days, most of the newer motor cars are more reliable than the old 'bombs' and people want to see a bit more of the world; your cabins will let them extend their trip."

It wasn't long before we had a stream of customers coming in, some just to gawk and wish us well, some to buy petrol and others looking for a feed. We were on our way.

We shut shop at nine o'clock, by that time we were just about worn out. Experience would take a lot of the stress out of our day but for now we were plumb buggered. We had done a roaring trade which had done wonder's for our egos, it justified our gamble.

Our first week was hectic to say the least, as we progressed things became easier a we got into the swing of things. Cheryl and Jess were handling the administration side while Dom and I were doing the hands on side. We were all working at providing a service to our customers, which meant one minute I could be cooking a meal, the next I could be pumping petrol. Ernie and Jean helped pull in a bit of the slack and we couldn't have done without them.

The girls were working feverishly at getting things ready for the weddings, this was on top of running the roadhouse.

Jess received replies from Trish and Sally. Both accepted our invite, Trish was bringing her new husband and Sally her current beau. When I had a free moment I brought up the subject of the my two past lovers.

"Do you have some sort of a hang up with Trish and Sally Jess? If you do I think that now would be the time to bring it out in the open."

"Good Lord no Tony! I'm very interested to meet the two ladies that played a great part in making you the lover that you are. I want to thank them personally for the good work that they have done."

"Thank you Jess, I was a bit worried that you might be a little jealous, I love both of them but I'm not in love with them if you know what I mean."

"I know that silly, I realise they played a big part in your life and I know that you are in love with me. I want to be friends with them. I don't mind that you love them."