‘Thursday would be fine. I’d love to,’ Ella said, because there was no way to get out of it without causing offence, and Harvey would say she needed to get out and meet the locals, and Harvey would be right. ‘What time?’
‘How about ten in the morning? That’s perfect for a cuppa, and I’ll be back from my walk.’
‘Lovely,’ Ella said. ‘I’d better keep moving, Mrs Loveday—’
‘Oh, call me Rene, please!’ the older lady interrupted.
‘I’ll see you on Thursday. It’s been lovely to meet you, Rene.’ Ella stepped carefully around the dog, the leash and the beer sale sign.
‘Did I tell you which house is mine, Ella?’
‘I’ll find it. Lilac Hill Loop will be on my flier list.’
‘Number seventeen if you have any trouble, love. Don’t bring anything.’
‘See you then,’ Ella said, moving off down the street towards the office, thinking, country towns, gotta love them. Appraisals conducted outside the liquor store, while walking a lady and her dog down the street.
* * *
The Begg & Robertson office felt like a refrigerator after the heat of the street, and Ella sighed gratefully as she said good morning to Gina, who’d arrived for work while Ella had been visiting (let’s call it kissing) Jake and chatting (we’ll call it networking) with Irene.
‘Are you the dark horse or what?’ Gina said, pulling up from her typing, hands resting on her keyboard like a pianist on a break. ‘I’ve never met an Olympian.’
Not you too. ‘Hate to tell you, lovely, but you still haven’t … I never made the Olympics. I got knocked up and had a baby instead.’
Gina flicked her fingers in dismissal. ‘You’re still a star to me. I can’t swim a lap without stopping. I bet you can do butterfly. If I could do butterfly, I’d take out an ad and tell the world.’
‘I’d sink if I tried it now,’ Ella shrugged, trying not to make it a big deal. She could see the shadow of Harvey through the glass, getting up from his chair, coming out for the talk about swimming Ella didn’t want to have. ‘Believe me, selling houses and raising a ten-year-old is heaps harder than doing butterfly!’
Gina laughed. Then her laugh morphed into more of a quizzical smile as she studied Ella’s face. ‘Everything okay? I didn’t mean to embarrass you.’
‘I’m fine. It was a long time ago. I don’t talk about my swimming much. It feels like another life.’
‘Okay.’ Gina returned her attention to her computer screen, letting it go, and Ella thanked her lucky stars Gina was sensitive enough to see through Ella’s shell.
Ella liked Gina Scarponi; she was a breath of fresh air in their office. She worked part-time, a girl as Aussie as they come—blonde-haired, blue-eyed, with a tan-line that hinted at hours spent outdoors—Gina married the fourth son of the Mount Barker Scarponis a couple of years ago, and that made her an adopted part of the biggest Italian vegetable farming family in the Great Southern. Gina said she came into Begg & Robertson to get away from the smell of tomatoes and onions, and her mother-in-law’s hints about how she had too many eggplant and zucchini growing and not enough grandchildren.
Harvey approached the reception desk. ‘So how did it go with Jake?’
Ella shook her head. ‘No deal.’
‘Bugger.’ Harvey frowned. ‘I thought we might have something there, Ella. What did he say?’
‘He took a look and said it wasn’t enough, and he gave it back to me, like last time.’
‘No counter?’
‘Nope.’
‘Bugger,’ Harvey said again, hands on hips, staring at the tiled floor. Then he brightened. ‘Ah well, never mind. So, Ella, what’s this about you being the queen of the pool? Meg says it’s all over town. Her card ladies were all over it yesterday afternoon. You were the hot topic at the Bridge table.’
Harvey had a twinkle in his eye and no idea about the lump his words wedged in Ella’s throat.
‘I’m not the queen of the pool. Not anymore,’ Ella said. ‘I was just saying to Gina, all that was a very long time ago. It was a different life for me and Chalk Hill is a long way from the water.’
‘Ah, and about that. You know what we should do?’ Harvey’s enthusiasm could match the mums on pool deck, cheering their kids up and down the lanes. Well, most of the mums. Not Ella’s. Ella’s mum had her own stop watch and wrote down all her times.
‘What?’ Ella said, holding her phone like it could yank her out of this mess, if she held on and didn’t let go.
‘I can see it now.’ Harvey splayed his hands wide, indicating billboards and spotlights. ‘Begg & Robertson Stingrays … or Dolphins. Begg & Robertson supports our town dolphins … We can get the town swimming pool up and running again.’
Ella got that sinking feeling. Like a mud pie thrown into the pool, spreading on the bottom. Rusted brown sludge.
‘I thought the pool was closed,’ Ella said, shifting her weight, clenching her phone.
‘It is, but that’s not a problem. We can get it open again, now that you’re here.’
‘You’d need council approval surely? Who owns the pool? Who’d administer it?’
‘It was built when we had a football team here. You and Gina wouldn’t know about that, but back in the old days we used to have a Chalk Hill team in the Manjimup league. Then the mining boom took all the blokes up north and made it hard to keep a team together and it got let go. Footy team built the pool for rehab, recovery and pre-season training, but when the team shut down, tennis and basketball courts got built on the old oval but the town decided not
