Chapter 2

“Pam, your burger,” said a voice breaking my recollections.

I looked up as Mary brought my burger over to me. I thanked her and then looked at the young bloke again. His eyes met mine briefly, and then he glanced down again.

I got bold. “What’s your name?” I asked.

He looked around as if to see whom I was talking to. He finally realised I was looking at him. He popped an earphone out of his ear. “Hum, Ron,” he said, as he fidgeted nervously.

I smiled. “You’re new around here,” I stated. He nodded but said nothing. I tried again.

“Are you with one of the mines?” This time, he shook in the negative. Shit, it was like trying to get blood out of a stone.

“Who do you work for?” I tried again.

“Umm, I’m looking for a job,” he said.

“Have you been to a job interview today?” I asked due to his dress.

He sighed, “No, I have been trying to organise unemployment benefits.”

“So what are you willing to do?” I asked. Just to see how he would answer.

“Anything I suppose,” he said shrugging.

“Have you ever worked on a farm?” I asked.

“I lived on one when I was a kid in Bowen,” he finally volunteered.

“Did you grow anything or was it cattle?” I shot at him next. As torturous as it was, I was still having fun; trying to get him to talk to me and watching him squirm at the third degree I was giving him.

“Umm, we had Lucerne, goats and chooks. And cows in one of our paddocks,” he told me.

‘Hum,’ I thought, this had possibilities. He was cute, and I had an itch to scratch. I could always offer him a job. Although, it wasn’t always a good idea to screw the hired help as it could get messy.

“Have you got a girl here?” I tried. I got the negative shake again. “So you’re here by yourself?”

This time, I got the negative again, but he then volunteered, “My brothers at one of the mines, I’m living with him.”

Mary interrupted us with Ron’s burger and chips, and the food took precedence, so we ate. I thought he was going to leave, but he decided to stay and eat with me. I got about half my burger down and had enough.

Mary made huge burgers, as good as they were. I sat back with the last of my coffee and watched him. He was popping the chips in his mouth as he read.

“What are you reading?” I asked, he had a nice soft voice, and I wanted to hear it again.

“Umm, there is a website you can download books from, and I’m reading one of them,” he said with a smile.

Wow, animation! Obviously, the bloke liked to read. “What else do you when you’re not looking for a job?”

“I’m studying Information Technology, and I play computer games,” he supplied.

“Why, Information Technology?” I asked intrigued.

“Mum said I have to study if I’m not working. So this seemed like a good choice. I like computers and stuff.”

This I could believe. “Can you fix computers and internet connections?” I asked.

Ron shrugged and replied, “Yeah to some extent, but I’d have to see the system.”

“Feel like a drive?” I asked. “My place is about twenty minutes from here. I’ll pay you for your time.” I saw the indecision on his face. “I promise not to rape you unless you want me too?” I grinned at him.

Ron laughed. It was a nice sound and touched me inside. I had a feeling this bloke as cute as he was, didn’t get hit on often by women. He was a little out of his depth with me.

He gave me an appraising look and came to a decision. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Okay.”

So I let him finish his lunch, and we left.

I pointed out my twin-cab ute, and he pointed out his little town car. I told him the name of the first turn off and all he had to do was follow me. I waited until he got in his car and then I took off.

I wondered all the way home, ‘What I had been thinking?’ I didn’t know this bloke from a bar of soap, and here I was dragging him home. Crikey, he could be a rapist for all I knew. But somehow, I didn’t get the impression he was. He was too shy unless he was the stalker type.

He had no problems following me home, despite the dust. After the thoughts in the car, I pointed out that I wasn’t alone out here and other people lived on the farm.

Nasty bounded out of the shed to greet us. She was a blue heeler cattle dog. She sniffed Ron and was soon all over him like a rash when he bent over and patted her side and rubbed her head.

“What’s her name?” he asked.

“Nasty,” I told him. “If it’s nasty to roll in, she does.”

He laughed and patted her again. He offered, “I miss our dog, she died last year. Sam and I can’t have pets in the flat.”

Nasty had hated Brad. So maybe this bloke had potential because she loved him. Bobby came over from the shed to see who was visiting. I introduced Ron to Bobby. I told Bobby, Ron was going to have a look at our internet connection.

I took him into the house and showed him where the computer was set up. He got me to start everything and checked my connection. I didn’t have one again. Ron asked me how I got my internet and I pointed to the modem. I also told him it was hooked up to a satellite dish outside.

He checked the plugs were in tight and turned the modem off and on again. Then he went back to the computer and checked for a connection. Not happy, he asked me to show him the dish. He checked the connections on the dish and showed me the damaged plug. It looked like it had been chewed on.

So I took him to the shed to find some tools. He soon had it fixed, and we went back inside. He now had a connection and grinned at me. He asked if I minded if he put a little program on the computer, to help me monitor the connection.

I consented and watched what he did. He went to a website, downloaded the program and ran it. I now had a little box in the corner, and it showed me, my internet uploads and downloads. I liked it.

He opened a video of funny things dogs did and showed me what the meter was doing while it loaded and ran. We had fun watching the antics in the video. Apparently, he had a good sense of humour as we laughed at the same things.

The longer he spent with me, the more comfortable he seemed. I had even noticed a few interested looks that said he was checking me out too. I’ve been told I’m pretty, but I’m definitely not drop dead gorgeous. I’m fit from the farm work, and I still wear a size ten jeans.

I wear a ‘C’ cup and think I have a reasonably good figure. The face is a little on the plain side but definitely not paper-bag ugly. My dad always said I had gorgeous green eyes and a cute nose. He loved my freckles and curly brunette hair, but dads are biased.

I offered Ron a cold drink and sent him to the veranda while I got them. He didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. He even asked me where my parents were. When I told him that they were both dead, he said he was sorry.

He was obviously not in the habit of asking someone a lot of questions about themselves, but he was trying. He asked how long I had worked here. When I told him all my life, he looked perplexed, so I explained that I was born here and now owned the place. I guessed that he must have thought Bobby owned the farm.

“Wow, how big is this farm?” he asked.

“We plant about half of the thousand hectares, which is not leased. We have cows on the other half. It’s mostly scrubby bushland across the hill.” I told him.

I asked him if he could ride and he said, “Not horses, only goats.”

I had to laugh. I got him talking about the time he had lived on a farm and was really enjoying his company. We swapped a few ‘growing up on farm stories’. I liked his dry, candid wit.

He wasn’t trying to impress me. He had a ‘what you see, is what you get’ attitude. Once he had got over his shyness, he was actually quite articulate. I was really taking a shine to him.