‘No. Not this time. I was hoping Anna would have a few minutes to chat.’
‘Well, she’s tending to a dog we’ve got in the hospital. Give me a minute.’ The receptionist vanished behind a door marked ‘Staff Only’.
A few minutes later, Anna appeared. ‘Hi, Carol.’
‘Sorry to disturb you.’
‘Not at all. How can I help?’
The receptionist re-entered the room and Carol lost her courage. She shuffled her feet. ‘Um … It’s nothing important.’
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ Anna said. ‘I’m making some changes to the native animal clinic. Would you mind taking a look at what I’m planning? I’d appreciate your opinion.’
‘Glad to.’ Carol followed Anna to the smaller building.
The native animal clinic was empty. All the residents had been returned to the wild or sent to sanctuaries.
Carol knew Anna was waiting for her to take the lead. When she didn’t, Anna spoke.
‘Between road victims and bushfires and people doing the wrong thing, we’ve had a lot of native animals in lately. I think I need more space, but can’t really extend the building. I was thinking some outdoor enclosures for the recovering. Look, I drew some sketches.’ She pulled a sketchpad out of a nearby drawer and opened it on the treatment table.
Glad of a few minutes to gather her thoughts, Carol studied the drawings. ‘Is this meant to be a wombat enclosure?’
‘Yes. There have been quite a few spotted just south of town. I had one brought in last week. Hit by a car. Sadly, there was nothing I could do for it.’
‘There haven’t been many around for years.’
‘I want to make a wombat enclosure outside. Somewhere to keep one that doesn’t need to be in the hospital itself.’
‘You’ll need to make sure they don’t dig their way out,’ Carol said.
‘I know, and I was going to talk to Jake about sinking the cyclone fencing a metre into the ground. That shouldn’t be too hard. Or expensive.’
‘That won’t stop them—they’ll dig under that in a day. I’d lay a bed of mesh under the whole enclosure, then cover it with a good layer of dirt. Then give them some sort of above-ground place to hide. A hollow tree trunk or a low, dark box. I’ll do some research and see what I can find.’
‘Thanks. That would be great.’ Anna put the sketchbook away and leaned back against the table. ‘So, Carol, what did you really want to talk to me about?’
Carol was frantically trying to find an answer when a car with an alpaca logo on its door pulled up outside. Bree emerged from the car holding a large envelope.
‘Anna. It’s here!’ She stopped when she saw Carol. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. But I think you’d like to see this too, Carol.’ She opened the envelope and pulled out the contents. ‘It’s the RFS calendar that was shot at my place,’ Bree said excitedly. ‘It’s great. Justin and Ben look amazing. And my twins are so cute. They put them on the cover. Look.’
Carol looked at the glossy colour calendar Bree was holding. The front cover featured two firemen crouched beside two young alpacas. Each man had an arm draped over an animal’s back. The photographer’s skill was evident in every highlight and shadow on both the men and the animals. Ben and Justin were smiling. To anyone else, they might look identical, but Carol didn’t have a moment’s hesitation over who was who. This photo captured the essence of both her boys—Justin’s sense of responsibility and Ben’s sense of humour—and tears pricked her eyes. Tears of pride and regret as she struggled to find the right words to say to Bree.
‘They sent me about a dozen copies,’ Bree continued, obviously unaware of the emotions raging through Carol. ‘So I brought one over for you, Anna. And you should have one too, Carol. Val said that Justin and Ben are your sons?’
Carol stammered something that could have been interpreted as a thank you and took the calendar from Bree’s outstretched hand.
‘I want to give them to the guys too,’ Bree explained. ‘I hear they’ve gone back to their base in Tamworth. Do either of you know their postal address? I could post these to them.’
‘No. Sorry,’ Carol managed to say.
Anna simply shook her head.
‘Okay. They’ll probably get copies anyway because they were models. Jo sent me some copies of our final couple of photos, all together.’ She reached back into the envelope. ‘Here are your copies, Anna. I’m sorry, Carol, but she only sent enough for the people in the photos.’
Carol held up one hand and shook her head to indicate that didn’t matter.
Bree barely paused for a breath. ‘Well, I’m going to dash. I can’t wait to take these into town to show Rose and the knitting club members. We should get some to sell in the shop. Talk soon.’ She bounced back into her car and drove away, leaving behind two women who looked a little stunned.
