The Search (6 page)

‘See you later, then,’ said Liz, and wheeling from them she went rushing blindly through the camping ground and across the road to the store, feeling as though her heart was going to break in half right there in the middle of Coolini Beach.

This was the worst day of her life!

When she arrived panting at the store, Flick was sitting outside at a table with several of the campers calmly eating a plate of nachos.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ she puffed, trying not to cry.

‘Liz, are you all right?’

‘Yeah. Sure.’

She dashed inside and went through to the office to put on her apron. Her hands were shaking so much that she could hardly do up the strings.

‘Stupid fool,’ she muttered to herself. ‘I had to go and build the Josh thing into a great romance and he just thinks of me as his
mate
. Stupid, stupid, stupid!’

‘Who’s stupid?’ Kay poked her head round the door.

‘Me. And I’m sorry I’m late,’ said Liz, struggling to hold back her tears.

‘What’s wrong?’

To her utter shame and mortification Liz started crying. She just couldn’t hold it in any more. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks and her shoulders heaved as she struggled to control herself.

‘There, there, it can’t be that bad,’ said Kay, putting two doughy hands round her shoulders. ‘Did you think I’d be that mad at you for being ten minutes late?’

‘No, although I’ll make up the time and it won’t happen again,’ gulped Liz between sobs. ‘It was Josh. I had lunch with him on the rocks. I was so happy, Kay. And then this other girl, Jessica, turned up and called him hon and kissed him, and it was awful.’

‘Did he
say
she’s his girlfriend?’

‘
She
did. He didn’t deny it! And she’s so beautiful and he said I’m just his mate, and … and … I feel real stupid and dumb and ugly and —’

‘Sometimes I hate the male race. They’re so
thick
.’ Kay sighed.

Liz dried her eyes on her apron and tried to get back some semblance of dignity. She gave a huge watery sniff as Kay handed her some tissues.

‘Sorry. I know I shouldn’t have brought my personal stuff into work, but it was a big shock. I thought he really loved me, you know. Like I’d built
up this picture in my head of what it would be like over summer, and it’s all just gone poof like a pricked balloon.’

‘Yes, I know, love. It hurts, doesn’t it? But you’ll get over it. As the saying goes, there’s plenty more fish in the sea.’ Kay went back to making scones.

But I don’t want another fish, I want my Josh-fish, thought Liz miserably as she went to splash her face with cold water and get herself together. The start of the summer season, and now it felt as bleak as the coldest winter day.

Behind the counter, Liz had to paste on a cheerful smile as the customers kept coming and coming like a huge tidal wave. Would they never stop? Didn’t they know it wasn’t healthy to eat hot pies, greasy chips, burgers, and nachos washed down with cans of fizzy drinks? Why couldn’t they all go on a health kick or something and
clear off
?

But of course if that happened Kay wouldn’t survive. This was her busiest time of the year. During the slack season she had to rely on the tourist buses, the locals, the odd traveller to two, and the meagre amount of campers who took holidays when everyone else didn’t.

Angela was being a pain as usual. She was a fast and efficient worker and was good with the customers,
but she always tried to select the jobs that were easy. She hated washing dishes, carrying crates of drinks from the coolroom to fill up the fridges or cleaning the hotplate, and when Kay looked round for someone to do those jobs, Angela always seemed to be busy doing something else, so Liz, Braden or Flick copped it.

By late afternoon Liz was exhausted. She felt as if she’d been run over by a steamroller.

‘Are you all right?’ asked Flick with concern, noting Liz’s lacklustre appearance and sad eyes.

‘Yes. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.’

Then Josh and Jessica came into the store. Liz’s heart gave a jump and she tried to act casual.

‘Hi, Liz.’

‘Hi, Josh. Hi, Jessica. What can I do for you?’ asked Liz with false brightness.

‘Two burgers with the lot and two of your special hot chocolates,’ said Josh, which was what he and Liz had always shared.

The hot chocolates with melting gooey marshmallows had always been a joke with the rest of the staff, because even if it was stinking hot weather they’d still had hot chocolates.

‘Oh, hon, I don’t think so,’ said Jessica. ‘I couldn’t drink a hot chocolate in this heat. I think I’ll have a lamb souvlaki and a juice.’

‘Sure,’ said Josh. ‘Whatever you fancy, Jess.’

Angela’s eyes gleamed. She remembered Josh from the year before, the guy who skinny Liz had hung out with. Hmm. So that little romance was obviously off. She summed up Jessica. The girl was good-looking in a prissy sort of way. She decided to go into action.

‘I’ll get that order for you, Josh.’ She batted her eyelids at him. ‘I remember how you like your burger, extra onion and sweet chilli sauce, and four marshmallows in your hot chocolate.’

Josh looked surprised, then flattered. Liz gulped. She’d always raved on about how Josh liked extra onions and sweet chilli sauce, and the four marshmallows had been a sort of joke among the store staff.

Angela’s idea of getting the order was to pass the piece of paper through the servery to Flick, who was now doing the cooking while Kay dealt with the petrol delivery man on the phone. Flick looked across at Liz and pulled a face, as Angela leant against the counter, allowing the neck of her apron to slide down over her top so that Josh had a good view.

‘And what have you been dong since I last saw you?’ she asked, while Jessica shifted from one foot to another and looked distinctly annoyed.

Poor Josh was totally oblivious of any subterfuge.
He couldn’t see beyond the obvious, and had no idea that Angela was baiting him, and that there was a growing tension between her and Jessica. He happily started telling Angela about his football prowess and his new computer. Angela looked starry-eyed and full of admiration, so he expanded a bit more about his school snow camp.

‘I go snow-skiing a lot,’ said Angela. ‘Have you been to Buller? And Hotham? The trails there are wicked. Have you skied across the gorge?’

Jessica, who’d never skied in her life, gave a warning growl deep in her throat, but Angela, flicking her a sideways glance, blithely ignored her and kept on with her ski stories. Four customers were waiting to be served. Just as well Kay couldn’t see what was going on or she’d be furious! Liz scuttled round serving them. Luckily they only wanted shelf items and ice-creams, so it didn’t take long to serve them.

‘One burger with the lot, extra onions, chilli sauce, and one souvlaki,’ called Flick. ‘Do you want to do the hot chocolate, Liz?’

Liz tried not to cry. She’d always loved making the hot chocolates for herself and Josh. Biting her lip she put two heaped spoonfuls of the powdered chocolate into a mug, added some boiling water from the
machine to make it thick and syrupy and then frothed up the milk. She stood jiggling the silver jug up and down and tried not to think about sharing hot chocolates with Josh. Instead, she thought about going for a swim when she’d finished her shift, and how silky the sea would feel against her hot skin, and by doing this she was able to calm down, plop four marshmallows into the mug and hand it over with a bright smile.

‘There you go. That’ll be ten dollars eighty, for the burger, souvlaki, chocolate and one juice, okay?’

‘I haven’t got my juice,’ said Jessica sulkily, tugging at Josh’s arm.

By now he and Angela were deep in conversation about skiing.

‘Get it out of the fridge,’ he said without turning his head.

‘Man, is
he
in deep shit or what?’ whispered Flick to Liz as she walked past her to the coolroom to get some more lettuce and carrots.

‘Tell you what,’ said Angela, giving Jessica a cheery smile, ‘a group of us are having a little beach party later on, just near the point. Randy’s given us permission to have a bonfire, just a small one. The total fire ban’s been lifted, and as long as we put it out properly he said it’s okay. We’re going to barbecue
some sausages, cook potatoes in foil and toast marshmallows, so would you like to both come along?’

She’d cleverly put the emphasis on
both
.

Flick, coming out of the coolroom with her hands full, looked at Liz.

‘First I knew about a beach party,’ she hissed in her ear. ‘What’s our little Angela up to now?’

‘Hosting a beach party?’ Liz whispered back. ‘I hope Randy knows about it or there’ll be trouble.’

As well as being the camping ground manager, Randy was also the ranger for the area. His job was to report injured animals to Fisheries and Wildlife, contact the police if there were any suspicious cars parked on the cliff late at night (because that usually meant abalone poachers were at work), check picnic areas in the Angahook forest in case people hadn’t put out their barbecue fires properly, prosecute people who removed tree ferns and other flora from the forest, contact Penguin Rescue if fairy penguins got stranded, and give permission for beach fires to be lit, as well as an assortment of other general jobs.

Angela swung round. ‘You two are invited, of course. And Braden.’

Braden had gone off for his break. He’d be back soon to help Nathan make pizzas.

‘What time’s this beach party?’

‘From ten onwards,’ said Angela confidently. ‘So when you’ve finished your shifts you can stroll on over.’

She was finishing at eight, because she’d had two hours off in the afternoon and gone surfing. Flick was finishing at seven and Liz at nine, because they’d both agreed to work overtime.

‘When did she get time to organise this?’ said Flick as Josh and Jessica went outside to eat their food and Angela took herself off to the bathroom, no doubt to plaster some more eye goo on and freshen up her lipstick.

‘Organise what?’ Nathan strode in looking more muscly and tanned than ever.

‘A beach party and barbecue.’

‘Oh,
that
. The surf club’s organised it.’ He looked at Flick. ‘You gunna come?’

‘Probably,’ said Flick, going into sex appeal mode. ‘I’ll be there if you’re there.’

Nathan swatted her on the butt as he went in to start getting ready for the pizza crowd.

Liz glared at Flick. ‘I thought you said you couldn’t
stand
him!’

‘I can’t.’

‘Then why are you coming on to him so hard? Oh,
I remember, the sex appeal and charisma part of the power-money thing you told me about before. I don’t know why you’re bothering, Nathan’ll tune with any girl so long as he can keep up his scorecard.’

‘Yeah, but if I turn him down he won’t be a shattered wreck,’ Flick explained. ‘He’ll grab someone else. He’s so shallow, he hasn’t even got a heart. Like, if I try this on a nice guy and hurt him, that would be disgusting.’

‘Why try it at all?’

‘Because I’ve been too nice with boys in the past. And I want to do some of this Angela-sexy-come-on stuff to see if I
can
. Do you get it?’

‘Get what?’ Kay was finally off the phone. She looked rather cross. ‘There’s no time to be standing round gossiping. Has Nathan turned up? Is Braden back yet? There’s dishes to wash. The floor needs a sweeping. The shelves need tidying. There’s only three large Wave Waters in the cabinet.’

Liz went to wash the dishes and dry them, while Flick grabbed a broom. Of course when Angela emerged from the bathroom there was a group of good-looking surfers waiting to be served, one a Kiwi, judging by the tiki he had hanging from his neck and his New Zealand accent.

‘Have you got any Maxibons?’ he asked.

‘Sure have.’

‘I’ll have sex.’

‘Sex? We’ve only just met.’ Angela rolled her eyes at him. It was a standing joke among the staff that the New Zealanders always said
sex
for
six
, or that’s what their accent sounded like to Aussie ears.

He grinned and held up six fingers. ‘Six. Although I like the other, too.’

Angela winked. ‘There’s a beach party on tonight if you want to come.’

‘I’d be happy to make
you
happy!’

Flick, sweeping nearby, decided that this conversation was getting a bit rude, so she smartly cracked his shins with the broom.

‘Ouch.’

‘Oh, sorry,’ she said sweetly. ‘Did I hurt you?’

She swept the pile of dirt and litter past his feet without a backward glance and went to get the dustpan and brush. If Kay had heard Angela being so suggestive she’d sack her on the spot, and that would mean more work for the rest of them.

The surfers got their ice-creams and went out as Braden came pelting in the door with his hair standing on end and his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

‘Like, what’s happened to you?’ asked Angela as
she casually wiped the counter with a damp cloth.

‘I thaw a thnake! It was huge. I nearly trod on it. It wath about three meterth long! Omigod, I could have been killed!’

‘Where was it?’ Angela turned pale.

If there was one thing she hated about Coolini Beach it was snakes. Naturally, being perched between two hills in the Otway Ranges, Coolini Beach had wildlife abounding — the famous Coolini koalas, possums that sneaked into the camping ground at night and raided the rubbish bins, wallabies and kangaroos, echidnas, birdlife, glow worms at the picnic area in the forest and, of course, lizards and snakes. Usually the snakes were scared of people and they kept well away from the camping ground, but occasionally one would slither in from the bush or from the reeds near the river where they lived.

There were three main types of snakes at Coolini — tiger snakes, copperheads and common browns. And they were all venomous, which meant that if you got bitten by one of them you were in deep trouble. The nearest doctors were at Apollo Bay, at least a thirty-minute trip.

‘It wath coiled on the thide of the road just near the Elgath bottlth and I nearly
thepped
on it!’

Kay and Liz had come to see what all the commotion was about.

‘What sort of snake?’ asked Kay.

‘It wath a tiger thake and it wath huge. It reared up to thrike and it wath almoth ath tall ath me!’