suited Jenna’s mood. Every now and then he’d spoken briefly into his radio, but his voice had been too muted for her to hear what he’d been saying, and he’d made no move to engage her in conversation.
Karli had drifted into sleep, which had also fitted Jenna’s bleak mood. She’d been free to stare out the window and think about everything she was leaving.
Everything she was facing.
‘We’re coming into Adelaide now,’ Max called. ‘Make sure the kiddy’s seat belt’s tight.’
‘Can we get a flight on to Perth from here?’ Jenna asked and Max shook his head.
‘I’m flying you into Parafield, which is the runway for private planes,’ he told her. ‘You’ll need to catch a cab to the main airport to go to Perth.’
‘I don’t suppose you could radio ahead and see if there are any seats on commercial flights leaving this afternoon?’ Jenna asked, and he shook his head again.
‘I dunno how to do that.’
Great. Jenna bit her lip. She couldn’t afford to spend a night in Adelaide.
‘We’re going down now,’ Max told her. He glanced at his dials and bit his lip. ‘I’ve spent as much time up here as I… I mean, I’ve been held up long enough. With the wind and everything. We’re running low on fuel. Hold onto the kiddy.’
Sitting in Bill and Dot’s cargo area wasn’t the most comfortable way Riley had ever flown. In fact, it was the most uncomfortable ride he’d ever had.
And, beside him, Bill whinged all the time.
‘If I’d thought I’d have ended up in the cargo hold I never would have come. Dot, hold this tank steady. I’ll throw up if you bucket round any more.’
‘That’ll make the stink worse,’ Dot called out from the pilot’s seat. ‘This tank doesn’t know how to stay steady.’
‘I offered to sit in the back.’ Maggie was in the passenger seat, knitting and smiling and looking out at the scenery. Her last-minute decision to come was hardly surprising, Riley thought bitterly. Nothing about this day was surprising.
‘You’re not sitting in the back,’ Dot retorted. ‘I told you. It’s not fit for ladies. It won’t hurt Bill to see how awful it is. This way I might finally get a new plane.’
‘Women.’ Bill snorted. ‘Are you sure you know what you’re getting into, young fella?’ He looked desperately over at Riley. ‘Just say the word and we’ll head back now.’
‘We don’t head back,’ Riley said.
Parafield airport looked small and inconspicuous and incredibly lonely. Jenna helped Karli down from the plane. The air was totally still. Totally calm.
‘What happened to the wind?’ she asked.
‘Upward currents,’ Max said and he sounded a bit strained. ‘Stratospheric conditions. Nimbus or something. You don’t feel them under a thousand feet.’
‘Oh.’ She gave him a doubtful look. But there was nothing she could say. ‘You’ve been really good to us,’ she told Max. ‘Thank you.’
Max cast a worried look up at the sky-checking nimbus? ‘Yeah, well, there’s no need to rush off. It’ll take me a while to unload your gear.’
‘There’s only one suitcase each.’
‘Yeah, but…there’s customs and stuff.’
‘Customs?’
‘Yeah, well, fruit quarantine,’ he said, a trifle desperately. ‘Same thing as customs. There’s laws about flying fruit from different areas and everything’s got to be inspected. They’ve got beagle dogs, and the suitcases have to be sniffed before you’re allowed out of the airport. You and the littlie wait in the lounge while I sort it out.’
‘Can’t we take the suitcases straight through?’ The place looked empty.
‘Rules is rules,’ Max said doggedly, with another look upwards. ‘I dunno where the dogs are. You go and sit down and I’ll bring your stuff in as soon as it’s cleared.’
There was another plane coming in to land, and as Jenna and Karli headed reluctantly indoors he chewed his bottom lip in dismay.
It was the wrong damned plane.
‘How were we supposed to know the Minister for Agriculture was choosing today of all days to visit Adelaide?’ Dot demanded. They’d been put into a circling pattern and Riley was going nuts. They were all going nuts. ‘Heck, we’ll be stuck up here for ever.’
‘I’m going to die,’ Bill said, clutching his stomach.
‘Is there a parachute?’ Riley demanded, but Dot just grinned and turned the plane into another wide circle.
Holding pattern.
Karli was miserable enough to complain, which, for Karli, was miserable indeed. ‘Why is it taking so long to get our suitcases out of the plane?’
They’d sat in the waiting area as politicians had greeted politicians. It had taken for ever, and no one had done anything about the woman and child patiently waiting for Max’s phantom dog-fruit-checkers to appear. Max himself was nowhere to be seen. Finally, as the dignitaries left in a fleet of chauffeur-driven limousines even Karli voiced her impatience.
Enough, Jenna thought. Enough.
‘I have no idea, but, fruit or no fruit, dogs or no dogs, I’m getting them now,’ she said. ‘Come on, Karli.’
She walked to the door, she swung it wide-and Riley was on the other side.
She was still here.
Riley had been stuck in the air for an hour waiting for clearance to land, and he had visions of Jenna catching a cab to the main airport and getting a plane straight away to Perth and…
He shoved open the terminal door and she was right in front of him.
‘Riley.’
She said his name and the world righted itself
She was here.
She sounded stupid. She felt stupid. The world was falling away, and for a moment she thought she might faint.
But two strong hands came out and caught her and held her steady.
‘You’re here.’ Riley sounded as stunned as she felt.
‘Of course we’re here,’ she managed, and then she tried to think what next to say. ‘They think we have fruit.’
‘Fruit,’ Riley said blankly. ‘What sort of fruit?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘Max says people stick bananas in their luggage, and he’s gone to find the dogs to sniff them out,’ Karli ventured. Jenna might be too stunned to think straight, but Karli was just plain pleased. ‘Hello, Riley,’ she said. ‘Can you tell the man with the dogs that I ate my banana on the way and it’s silly that we have to wait and wait. Why are you here?’
‘I came to find you,’ Riley told her. He wasn’t looking at Karli, though. He was looking at Jenna. He was holding onto Jenna. ‘I had to bring you your rock.’
‘I left the rock for you,’ Karli said.
‘It was your gift.’
‘But you need it.’
‘I don’t need it,’ Riley said, and his grip on Jenna grew tighter. ‘I have you.’
