SUSAN
During our Christmas vacation Bell complained of stomach pains. At first, we weren't concerned but as the pains continued over the week, we decided to return home and get the opinion of our doctor. The next two weeks were terrible with Bell undergoing different medications and tests until on the Tuesday of the third week we were told that she had an incurable cancer: she was given two months.
Bell was amazing. The first thing she did was write her final will and after her lawyer had left her bedroom, she told me that as of now I was the owner of the company and that it would become legal once the will has been finalized after her passing. At first, I was broken after all Bell had saved my life put me through university and finally became my married partner. Obviously, I couldn't just allow the business to slide into obscurity and so just one week before Bell died, I took the reins.
The first management group meeting was difficult because I was visibly shaken finding it difficult to discuss all the important issues that would need to be resolved. If it hadn't been for Bell's amazing managerial skills, I think the business would have collapsed but she had always insisted that everyone knew each other's job so that in case of emergency the running of the business would continue smoothly. So, at this sad time, the team pulled together helping to guide me through the first few months.
The period after the funeral and Bell's memorial service were hard on me and I found myself breaking down in tears at the most inappropriate times. Then one morning the secretary of our management group suggested I take a month off work possibly going away for a holiday. I spoke with my doctor and decided to take three weeks off but to stay at home and with the doctor's medication and my just resting without even contacting work I was able to cope.
During the forced break I decided to take four weeks holiday over Christmas returning to our holiday home on the lake. My reasons were simple first it was the Christmas before when Bell was taken ill and we had been staying at the Lakes then, but the big reason was because Bell and I had fallen in love at the Lakes and I also knew she had been at the lakes with her parents just before their sad passing. Having made these important decisions, I returned to work a new woman and not only took over the running of the business but oversaw the expansion of our antique book and fine art auction rooms.
So, it was two weeks before Christmas that I packed the Jaguar XJ with my cases and a selection of wines and spirits. With Christmas school holidays just starting the highway was busy but taking my time and stopping regularly I final motored up to the locked gates at the private boat compound. It was comforting to be met by the same old family friend who took everything under his wing taking all my bags and boxes to the old family cruiser that Bell's grandfather had built. When I stepped aboard, he assisted me by slipping the moorings as I slowly motored out of the dock.
It was busy on the water because being high tide all the trawlers were heading out to catch the fish for the fish market in the city. In a way it was sad as I motored carefully down channel because al the commercial skippers had known Bell and her family ever since her grandfather had built the holiday home and so they would toot their whistles giving me their condolences. Arriving at the dock I only carried the perishables to the house leaving everything else on the cruiser for the following morning.
The old house was dull and musty as I opened the shutters and turned on the electricity. Having placed everything into the cool room and freezer I removed the dust covers before taking a beer sat on the veranda watching the sun go down over the lake as the surf crashed on the ocean beach behind me. Although I had hardly eaten since breakfast, I really didn't feel like a meal so just sat with my beer picking at a few nuts I had thrown into a bowl.
Once the sun went down, I began to find it terribly lonely sitting on the dark veranda. It was unseasonably warm with no wind at all, but I began to feel stressed much like I had felt a few weeks after the funeral. Looking about me memories came flooding back reminding me of the first time I had come here with Bell and how we had made out on the couch. Getting out of my deck chair leaving my half full glass and a few nuts I wandered through the dark cottage to the master bedroom where I lay down crying until finally falling to sleep. I was awoken by the sun streaming through the French doors which I had forgotten to shut the night before. It was hot and calm as I walked across the soft sand to the lake. After swimming for half an hour, I got out feeling hungry and refreshed my tears of the night before forgotten.
Having brought everything in from the cruiser I motored across the lake in the small runabout thinking of the first time I had done it under Bell's instruction all those years before. Stepping into the Skua Café I ordered two fillets of fish along with two dozen oysters for my evening meal. Being quiet with the flood of holidaymakers still a week off I decided to take a pot of tea with some fish and chips for lunch. Sitting outside on the café's deck I noticed a woman about my age staring at me from the fisherman's cooperative across the dock from me. She was taller than me with short dirty blond hair ... deeply tanned she had a pattern of bronze freckles that went across the bridge of her nose she was possibly the most beautiful mature age woman I had ever seen. Looking up as my meal was placed before me, I failed to see her turn back inside her office.
An hour later after a most relaxing day, I collected my order before motoring quickly home. It was a lovely afternoon lounging on the warm sand with a cold beer.
Although thoughts kept flitting through my memories of things that Bell, and I had done while staying here but unlike last night they didn't disturb me. I was still tired that evening probably because of my disturbed sleep the night before so I took an early night having decided to go across to the ocean beach the following morning.
I awoke early on Saturday morning and skipping down to the beach took a relaxing swim before cooking pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Sitting out on the veranda with a pot of tea after breakfast I was disturbed by the roar of an outboard motor as a boat ran up onto the sand. Looking up I was surprised to see the woman from the cooperative. Dressed in a pair of tight-fitting blue denim shorts and a gray tee shirt she strode up the beach to the veranda.
"Sorry to disturb you but I just had to come over to talk with you. I am Chloe and I knew Bell the year she came hear leaving her partner at home: it's so long ago it almost seems like ancient history."
"Hi Chloe, take a seat ... would you like some tea?"
Accepting tea, she followed me through to the kitchen where I prepared a pot of my favorite black tea lapsang-souchong.
"The past two and a half years have been very sad for me first my father was lost at sea: he was swept overboard during a storm in Bass Straight. Six months later my mother died of a broken heart. I have a younger sister but after my mother's death she left home I understand that she's living in Sydney, but she hasn't spoken to me since the funeral. When at the Co-Op I commute to work from the old family home but being the Co-Op manager, I find myself at the central fish markets in the city for about a week each month. When I knew Bell, I was the manager of the Skua Café."
"I knew Bell many years ago. She had come down to the Lakes for Christmas, but her partner didn't want to join her. Although we got to know each other well she never brought me to this house."
"So, this is your first time here."
"Yes. Like everyone else here I was deeply hurt with the news of her dying: she was a remarkable woman."
