Chapter 37

There wasn't much going on in the office. Des was still at his parents' and Shirl was trying to get her wits together for her (last?) written papers. The light wasn't blinking, so there was no timebomb on the answering machine. There was nothing on the fax machine, either.

At 10 I phoned Chaz. "How's the world treating you?"

"Pretty well; Rachel wakes up only once each night."

"Lucky. Judging from my brother, that's early. Soon she'll sleep through."

"We both hope so. Never more than four hours has been wearing on Michiko."

"Yeah. And you can't do breast-feeding." He laughed.

"And you?"

"Well, the visitors have gone. Has Rachel been out on a trip yet?"

"Just to the supermarket."

"Why don't you come over tomorrow? We can sit in the garden. We'll put down a groundcloth with a blanket on top. Rachel can sort of lie on the grass."

"Sounds good to me."

"When does she wake up?"

"Between eight and ten."

"Well, when she's up and fed come over. We'll have lunch for the four of us."

"That's great. Michiko's had no adult to talk to since her parents left."

"And I've had too many quasi-adults."

"Great. See you tomorrow. I'll call Michiko, but I'll only call you if there's a disaster."

"Right."

Eleven. I was itchy. The past two weeks had been so full of adventure that just sitting in my office appeared strange. I called Canberra.

"Hi, Janice. How are things? No, no new medal this week. Keep your hopes up. I'm going to be interviewed for the telly next week, though. And I'm paying an official visit to Scitech. But I did have a few more questions. Sure, I'll keep it brief. One, vacation. I do? Four weeks! Wow. And I've got a week from last year? I thought I'd used that up on my honeymoon. Kevin did what? OK. He's very kind and gracious. Second, travel to meetings. Oh, the Australian Entomological Society meets in Canberra in December. Completely covered? Wow! And third, when Kevin or whoever announces that I'm liaison with Curtin, can I get an office out in East Perth? Just an office with a phone. But both Scitech and ARRC are out there and I'd expect to spend a day or so a week on site. Right. OK. Have a good lunch. Thanks, I'll tell her."

Almost time for lunch. I'll go jog around the track once and then put the calories back on.

Instead, I went to the salad bar and browsed for lunch. By three I was bored again, so I locked up both offices, drove to the market and bought four giant prawns and a variety of greens and stopped at the bakery for four whole-grain buns. No potatoes, no pasta. Feeling virtuous, I drove home.

I put the prawns and the salad stuff in the fridge and the buns on the counter. Then I went into my study to put some stuff away and realised that Perlman's novel was Types not Kinds. I'd bet the Empson was, too, but I'd never read it and didn't own a copy. I also reshelved the Upfields and the Whites that were horizontal. I actually felt better. I looked at my shelf of Upfields and realised that this was the time to read Swordfish Reef -- even though it was the other side of Australia, it was about fishing. That one time in the boat and those catfish fillets had gotten me thinking. I'd been fishing as a kid in Queensland. And I'd once gone surf casting. I was the only one who hadn't caught anything. Not even kelp. I was still standing hold the book when Weena arrived.

"Hi, sweetheart. Can I help you out of your uniform?"

"Oooh! There's no one else here. Let's go upstairs."

It was over an hour later that we sat down for dinner. But we'd had some exercise and then scrubbed one another clean.

"You know, this should be a fertile weekend."