LITMIR.BIZ

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washed and blow-dried and she was no longer covered in red dust.

      Not that Harry even seemed to notice, he was too busy regaling Grace with his version of the drama of the plane crash while Sophie played hostess. Somehow Harry managed to make the plane crash sound almost exciting and if Emma hadn’t been intimately acquainted with the events of the day she would certainly now feel as though she’d lived through it. He was an entertaining storyteller and Emma imagined that anyone listening to his version would be sorry they hadn’t seen it for themselves, Harry made it sound as though it had been something not to be missed.

      Grace asked Emma a few questions and Emma added her comments as best she could, but she was no match for Harry’s engaging style and she preferred listening to him while they waited for delivery of the take-away pizza Sophie had ordered.

      ‘Lisa’s broken wrist is a complication we don’t need at the moment,’ Harry said as he munched his fourth piece of pizza. Emma wasn’t surprised that a man of his size had a hearty appetite.

      ‘Why is that?’ Sophie asked.

      ‘She’s supposed to be taking a locum position with the flying doctor service while Kerri is on maternity leave. She was due to start next week but she’ll be out of action now.’

      ‘Why don’t you do it, Em?’ Sophie said. ‘Emma’s a nurse,’ she added for Harry and Grace’s benefit.

      ‘A hospital nurse,’ Emma clarified.

      ‘You’re trained in emergency work, though,’ Sophie added.

      ‘Are you?’ Grace asked, and when Emma nodded her face lit up. ‘Do you think you’d be interested?’

      ‘What, in working with the flying doctor service?’

      ‘Yes,’ Grace replied.

      ‘I’m here on a tourist visa. I’m not allowed to work,’ Emma said, thinking that surely Grace’s comment was just one of those off-the-cuff remarks people made without any real intent behind it.

      ‘I think you can do volunteer work,’ Grace said.

      Emma shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I’m qualified to work with the flying doctors.’

      ‘If you’ve got emergency training, you’ll be fine.’

      ‘Yes, but I’m trained to work in a hospital, not out in a field in the middle of nowhere,’ she protested. She didn’t know the first thing about nursing outside a hospital environment and she hadn’t even done that for four months. Grace must be mad to think it was something she could do.

      ‘Technically it won’t be a field.’ Sophie laughed. ‘Out here we call them paddocks and the chances are you’ll just be in the dirt in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You couldn’t get enough of that flying doctors show when we were teenagers; imagine getting to do the real thing.’

      ‘I’m sure it’s hardly the same.’ She had loved that television series but to hear Sophie say it, in front of people who actually did it for a living, made her sound like a crazy groupie.

      But Sophie wasn’t going to give up. ‘Are you kidding? It’s brilliant! I reckon you’d love it.’

      Harry caught Emma’s eye. He was grinning at her and suddenly the proposition seemed quite appealing. Maybe it would be fun.

      ‘You don’t need to decide today. You’ve probably had enough to deal with,’ he said, coming to her rescue once again. ‘But why don’t you come out to the base and have a look around? You can’t judge the job on an ancient television drama.’

      ‘That’s true,’ Grace added. ‘We work harder and we’re not all as good looking.’

      ‘Don’t scare her off, Grace,’ Harry said, laughing, and Emma relaxed. That was a sound she could get used to.

      ‘At least go and have a look, Em,’ Sophie encouraged her. ‘It’s not like you’ve got any other plans. You said you thought you’d stay for a while.’

      Emma nodded. Soph was right, she wasn’t in a hurry to go home. There wasn’t anything to hurry back for. Her family was there, what was left of it, but they’d still be there whenever she returned. She’d left her job and she didn’t have another one waiting. She definitely wasn’t planning on going back to her old job, there were too many people there who knew her business. She was here for two more months and she didn’t intend to go back to London before that, which meant she really did need to come up with another option. And hadn’t she promised herself that if she survived the crash landing she’d look at returning to nursing?

      ‘You might as well have something to keep you busy.’ Sophie’s words echoed Emma’s thoughts.

      ‘It could be the perfect solution,’ Grace added. ‘Why don’t I get Irene to check out the volunteer situation? I’m sure there’s a loophole there somewhere.’

      ‘And in the meantime you could drive out to the base tomorrow to have a look. You’ll show her around, won’t you, Harry?’ Sophie sounded innocent enough but Emma recognised the gleam in her eye.

      She chose to pretend not to notice. It seemed as if her life was being organised for her, at least for the next few weeks, but as she had no firm plans of her own there was nothing to argue about.

      ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said. After all, what harm could there be in just looking?

      CHAPTER THREE

      BUT she didn’t think about it any further until the next morning. She slept well, despite the events of the previous day, and when she woke the sun was already high in the cloudless, blue sky.

      Sophie had left a note saying she’d walked to the hospital for her eight o’clock start but she’d left her car keys so Emma could drive out to the flying doctor base.

      Did she really want to do that?

      It couldn’t hurt to go and have a look, could it? It would be interesting to see the base and it didn’t mean she had to apply for a job. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. But when did she ever know? When had she ever had a plan? She’d tried a couple of times but her plans had a habit of going distinctly pear-shaped. Perhaps she was better off sticking to her usual style, which was pretty random.

      She had a shower, made herself some toast, did the dishes, watered some of Sophie’s plants that looked rather thirsty and when she ran out of things to do she switched on Sophie’s computer, logged in to her emails and printed off a copy of her CV, which she’d stored online. Telling herself it didn’t hurt to take it with her just in case, it didn’t mean she wanted the job, she picked up the car keys and the map Sophie had left for her and headed out the door.

      The drive across town—coming from London she couldn’t bring herself to think of Broken Hill as a city—along the almost deserted, dusty streets took the same amount of time as yesterday—not quite twenty minutes. Which was not enough time to work out what she intended to do once she got to the flying doctor base. She sat in Sophie’s car for another ten minutes until she realised she couldn’t remain there for the rest of the morning.

      Viewed from the car park, the flying doctors building was modern and much larger than she’d expected. She walked through a pleasant grassed courtyard, pushed open the door and stepped into the cool, dark foyer. A sign in front of her directed her to head left for the museum or right for the shop and tours.

      She hesitated, thinking the museum might be worth a look, but she knew that was just further procrastination. Harry had offered to show her around and if she could have him as her tour guide around the real-life base she didn’t need to look at the museum. She hoped he would be there and not off flying the plane somewhere. There was only one way to find out.

      Emma stepped to the right and introduced herself to the lady behind the counter.

      ‘Harry told us to expect you. Can you wait here

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