Marion Lennox - Rescue at Cradle Lake

2006

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HE MADE the decision at two in the morning. Thered been no serious car crashes in the last few hours. No appendices or aneurisms, no ruptures, assaults or dramas. Night shift at City Central was deathly quiet.

He wanted it to be more so. No less than four nurses and one intern had used the lull to ask him how he was coping. No, really, Dr Reynard, if youd like to talk about it

He didnt. He glowered at everyone who came close, he settled himself in the staff lounge, and he concentrated on his reading. Specifically, he concentrated on reading the Appointments Vacant in this months medical journal.

Wheres Dimboola?

My aunty lives in Dimboola, one of the theatre nurses ventured. Its in North West Victoria. Aunty Liz says its a great little town.

Right, he said, and struck a line through Dimboola. There was silence while he checked a few more ads. Then: Wheres Mission Beach?

North Queensland, the same nurse told him. You remember Joe and Jodie?

Joe and Jodie?

Joe was the paediatric intern here last year. Big, blond guy almost as hunky as you. Six feet tall and yummy-every sensible womans dream. She grinned, but in a way that said her compliment wasnt idle banter but was designed to cheer him up. As was everything anyone said to him at the moment. Lets look after Fergus

Joe married Jodie Walters from ICU, she continued, as she failed to elicit a smile. They took a job at Port Douglas last year and thats close to Mission Beach.

OK. Fergus sorted the dross and came up with the information he needed. There were people he knew close to Mission Beach.

Another line.

He knew the next place in the list of advertisements, and the next, and the next. More advertisements were consigned to oblivion. Then: Wheres Cradle Lake?

Silence.

This was hopeful. He gazed around, checking each of his colleagues for any sign of recognition. Does anyone know where Cradle Lake is?

Never heard of it, Graham, his anaesthetist, told him. Cradle Mountains in Tasmania. Is it near there?

Apparently not. It has a New South Wales postcode

Never heard of it, then.

No one knows it? Fergus demanded, and received four shakes of four heads in reply.

Great, he said, and the line became a circle. Thats where Im going.

Ginny got the phone call at two in the morning. Shed known it had been coming, but it didnt make it any less appalling.

Richard was ringing from his hospital bed. He hadnt wanted her with him when he was told, and hed waited until now to call.

Who could blame him? Where could anyone find the courage to face news like this, much less pass it on?

They cant do another transplant, he said, in a voice devoid of all emotion. The specialists say theres no hope itll work.

I guessed it must be that, she whispered. When you didnt call earlier, I thought it must be bad news. Oh, Richard. She sat up in bed, trying not to cry. Ill come.

No. Not now.

What are you doing?

Staring at the ceiling. Wondering how Im going to face whats coming. And whether I have the right to ask

To ask what?

Ginny, I want to go home. Back to Cradle Lake.

She drew in her breath at that. She hadnt been near Cradle Lake for years.

Richard had referred to Cradle Lake as home. Home was where the heart was, she thought dumbly. Home surely wasnt at Cradle Lake.

Richard, there are no medical facilities at Cradle Lake. I dont think theres even a doctor there any more.

The time for the clever stuff is over, he said, so roughly that he made himself gasp for breath. It took him a moment or two to recover, gaining strength for the next thought. I just needI just need to know itll be OK. Surely having a doctor for a sister has to count for something. You can do whats necessary.

I dont know that I can.

You can keep me pain-free?

There was only one answer to that. The medical part was the least of what she was facing, and it wasnt her medical skills she was doubting. Yes.

Well, then.

Richard, the house Her mind was spinning at tangents, trying to find a way out of what was inescapable. Its been neglected for years.

You can get it fit for us. If I stay in hospital for a few more days, youll have time to organise it. We dont need luxury. Im prepared to stay here until the weekend.

Gee, thanks, she thought, her mind churning through grief, through shock and confusion, surfacing suddenly with anger. Hed wait while she quit the job she loved. While she packed up her apartment. While she salvaged the wreck of a house she hated, and while she moved her life back to a place she loathed.

But at least she had a life. She closed her eyes, willing anger to retreat. She knew from experience that anger made pain recede. That was why she was feeling it now, but in the long term anger didnt help anything. Pain would always surface.

She couldnt let her anger show. Nor her pain.

Are you sure you want to do this? she managed, and was thankful she was on the end of the phone and not by her brothers bedside. She didnt want him to see her like this. She was trembling all over, shaking as if shed been placed on ice.

Im sure, he said, more strongly. Im going to sit on our back veranda and

His voice broke off. He didnt have to finish. They both knew the word that would finish the sentence. This was a family song, sung over and over.

Will you do this for me, Ginny? he asked in a voice that had changed, and once again there was only one reply.

Of course I will, she managed. You know I will.

She always had, she thought, but she didnt say it. There was no point in saying what they both knew.

The cost of life was losing.

SHE was lying where he wanted to drive.

Dr Fergus Reynard was lost. Hed been given a map of sealed roads, but sealed roads accounted for about one per cent of the tracks around here. Take the second track left over the ridge, the district nurse had told him, and hed stared at wheel marks and tried to decide which was a track and which was just the place where some obscure vehicle had taken a jaunt through the mud after the last rain.

Somewhere around here, someone called Oscar Bentley, was lying on his kitchen floor with a suspected broken hip. Oscar needed a doctor. Him. The hospital Land Cruiser had lost traction on the last turn. Hed spun and when hed corrected there had been a woman lying across the road.

The woman wasnt moving. She was face down over some sort of cattle grid. He could see tight jeans-so tight he knew it was definitely a woman. He could see ancient boots. She was wearing an even more ancient windcheater, and her caramel-blonde, shoulder-length curls were sprawled out around her.