Chapter 34

Three days later, Lily confronted Sam. “Tonight or tomorrow! That’s what both Deborah and another auntie say. Please, Sam!”

“I’ll talk to Tessa. Is she inside?”

“No, she took the twins to visit the goats.”

“OK. I’ll walk in that direction.” As he walked, Sam considered his problem. It wasn’t that Lily wasn’t appealing. She was quite lovely in a delicate, Asian way. Her breasts were small and topped by nipples that looked like cones of pink marzipan. And she a shiny tuft of hair stopping about six centimeters below her navel. Her skin was slightly darker than ivory, far lighter than Tessa. But Tessa wasn’t just larger in every dimension, including age; she had borne two children. And she was six months short of 18. Yes. He desired her.

He caught sight of Tessa. She was chatting with Farzana and a woman whose name he didn’t know, each of whom had appropriated a twin.

“Hello, dear. We were just talking about your dire fate.”

“What?”

“Farzana was one of the women who evaluated Lily.”

“And this is a topic of discussion?”

“Of course. Everyone knows me and the twins. There are the two local pregnancies under observation. And nearly everyone is eager to track your two women in the Territory. But Lily is well-known and all the women are concerned as to just when Bunjil will acknowledge his second wife.”

“Oh. Oh. I really hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Men are fools! You arrive with an attractive virgin who wants you to deflower her. You take her into your home and now you express amazement at the community’s assumptions! You’re being silly.”

“You must not be so harsh, Tessa” Farzana said. “Bunjil may see all, but he does not perceive all.”

“Bunjil is also male, so he sees and acts, but doesn’t sense,” Tessa responded.

“I surrender!”

“This is Andie. She is of the Wijilawarrim and studies nursing in Kununurra.” [Note: I know the TAFE in Kununurra doesn’t offer Nursing.]

“Ah. Frogmouth mentioned you to me. Will you be coming to us?”

“I think so. But I will have the rest of this year at TAFE in Pundulmurra and then a year as an intern, perhaps at Wunan.”

“Where our twins were born.”

“So I just heard.”

“Why Pundulmurra?”

“I’ve done all the work I can remotely. The North Regional TAFE is where nursing is offered.”

“Nothing nearer?”

“There’s nothing in Katherine and the uni in Darwin does nursing, but it’s three years.”

“I see. Let me think. Can I reach you at the TAFE?”

“Yes.”

Andie transferred her twin to Sam and Farzana gave hers to Tessa. They all bid adieux and Sam and Tessa walked home.