Outback Reunion (Bunyip Bay #6)

Chapter Three

It had been another warm day, so Mark had forced himself to get some work done early, making it possible for him to hibernate inside all afternoon with beer and bad TV. He’d gone through the motions of fixing fences, checking the sheep had water, feeding Mags and Roo the Seventh (his mum’s current rescues), and attempted some more training with Rookie, but he’d been even less focused on the tasks than usual.

Ever since running into Gabriela on Wednesday, she’d consumed his every thought.

He thought about her when he was trying to work, when he was eating, when he was watching TV, when he was attempting to sleep , and of course in the shower, where his thoughts turned X-rated and frustrating.

It had been months since he’d had sex and to be honest, until he’d seen her, he hadn’t even cared. But now... now... it was like just one glimpse had awakened some long-buried urge inside of him and the last couple of nights had been hell. His tortured thoughts were only marginally better than the self-loathing, why me? ruminations he’d been having before. He wondered if he’d imagined the connection he’d felt between them years ago. Seeing her again had brought back all those feelings of disappointment from when he’d woken up to find her gone.

‘Time for a beer,’ he told Rookie, who was sniffing around the back of the couch where Mark had been lying the last couple of hours. Dad would be appalled at a dog inside, Mum would be appalled at him drinking as much as he was, but they weren’t here and anyway, he was a grown-arse man.

Even if he was back home living with his parents.

He stood and stepped over the discarded wrappers of chocolate scattered around him, then headed into the kitchen. Rookie followed close at his heels as he grabbed a beer from the fridge, cracked it open and tried to decide what to have for dinner. He’d probably end up eating something pathetic like beans on toast. Not exactly the dinner of champions, but these days what he put in his body was a far cry from what he had when he’d been training six days a week. It no longer mattered.

His body no longer mattered.

Defeated, and not hungry anyway because of all the chocolate he’d devoured over the afternoon, he took his drink out onto the verandah. He picked up a tennis ball for the dog, then hurled it half-heartedly into the front garden for Rookie to go fetch.

As usual, she raced after it but refused to bring it back.

‘Stupid mutt,’ he said, shaking his head as he slumped into a cane chair and took a much-needed sip. Perhaps Dad was right, and he was a fool to try and make the stray into a proper farm dog.

He didn’t dwell on this for long because once again his thoughts returned to Gabriela.

He still couldn’t believe she was in his town, the last place he’d ever expected to run into her. And after all this time.

For six months after their night together, he’d been possessed—googling ‘Gabriela’ and ‘dancing’, cursing himself for not asking her surname, checking out every show and club he could think of, trying to track her down, but it had been futile. It was as if she’d vanished from the face of the earth—either that or he’d imagined her. Eventually, he’d given up and reluctantly started dating other people. There’d been a few semi-serious relationships before Tahlia, yet when she came along, he’d known she was the one, because she was the first woman who made him forget about Gabriela.

Almost.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t sometimes still thought of the mysterious dancer and their magical encounter, wondering what she was up to, who she was up to it with.

And now she was here —probably getting all glammed up for their first show tonight—and Tahlia was not.

You should come. Gabriela’s words from the other day haunted him.

Had she meant it, or had it just been a throwaway polite comment? Did he even want to see her again? He wasn’t in the headspace for a relationship, so what would be the point? Then again, it wasn’t like he had a better offer. It was either give in to his urge to go see her, or beans, beer and reruns of The Block on the couch with Rookie.

‘No offence, girl,’ he said as the dog came back without the ball, looking at him as if he’d lost it, ‘but to be honest, you’re not that great a conversationalist.’

Unoffended, she started chewing on one of the old boots by the front door as Mark put his beer down and slipped his phone out of his pocket. It wouldn’t hurt to check if there were any tickets left. Maybe they were all sold out. There were lots of tourists in town right now who’d be looking for something to do with their kids after dark. Half hoping this would be the case, he searched ‘Bunyip Bay circus’, which led him to the website of The Grand Jimenez Family Circus .

And there were still a few tickets available for tonight’s show.

He added one adult ticket to the cart, but his finger hovered over the checkout button. Was this insane? A circus, really ? Just because some woman he’d slept with once years ago was in it. He tapped his foot, deliberating, but found he wanted to see Gabriela in action and maybe it would take his mind off everything else for a while.

Decision made, he paid for the ticket, tipped the dregs of his beer into his mouth, and then tossed the bottle into the recycling bin before heading inside to get ready.

After a quick shower, he stood in front of the steamy bathroom mirror scrutinising his appearance. Geez, he’d really let himself go since his parents left. Had he even shaved this year? With that thought, he whipped out his razor and went to town on his stubble.

It wouldn’t hurt to look his best, to show Gabriela what she’d missed out on by doing a disappearing act all those years ago.

He chose a clean, smart, short-sleeved shirt to go with his fresh jeans, slapped on some of the new cologne Santa had given him, and ran a comb through his hair.

‘Bye, Rookie, try and behave,’ he told the dog, distracting her with dinner inside her crate as he locked the door behind her and snuck out of the house. If he left her home alone with free run of the place, who knew what kind of destruction he’d return to.

The parking at the sports hub was all gone, cars already overflowing onto the kerbs along the road, so Mark had to park almost a kilometre away. As he walked towards the oval, he came across Ryan’s sister, Faith Forrester—Montgomery now—and Ruby Jones, whose parents used to own the Ag Store.

‘Hello, stranger!’ Faith said, wrangling her baby and a massive nappy bag as she pulled a pram out of the back of her four-wheel drive. It was so weird seeing people he’d known growing up with kids. Faith also had a toddler in tow, who looked the spitting image of his dad.

He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. Faith and Monty now lived down south in Mount Barker, but he guessed they’d come home for Christmas. ‘Good to see you.’

‘Same.’ She grinned. The little boy beside her jumped up and down like he’d just downed a can of Red Bull. Ruby looked to be gripping his hand tightly in case he did a runner. ‘You know Ruby, right?’

Mark nodded and smiled at the other woman. ‘Hey.’

Ruby smiled back. ‘Nice to see you again, Mark.’

He hadn’t known her well when they were kids because they’d both gone away to different boarding schools, and farm kids didn’t tend to hang out with town kids anyway, but he’d run into her a few times since coming home. When she returned to Bunyip Bay a couple of years ago, she’d brought with her a whole load of drama, which eventually led to her hooking up with Drew Noble, the new English cop. He’d heard all about it from his mum on their twice-weekly phone calls, which is how he kept up to date with everything going on back home. Thanks to her updates, he almost felt like he’d been here all this time and that his life in Melbourne was a dream, yet at the same time he felt totally out of place, like an alien beamed down from another planet.

‘ You’re not heading to the circus, are you?’ asked Faith, placing the wriggling baby into the pram.

‘Yeah... uh, an old fr... someone I used to know is performing.’ He gestured to the bag. ‘Can I help you carry that?’

Faith thrust it at him. ‘Thanks. You’re a godsend.’

‘Monty and Drew not here?’ he asked.

The women shook their heads.

‘Drew’s on duty, but he might pop his head in later,’ Ruby said, adjusting the flower she always wore in her hair.

‘And Monty went back to Mount Barker on Boxing Day,’ Faith added. ‘We hadn’t quite finished harvest before we came home for Christmas. I feel a bit guilty about staying, but when we heard the circus was coming to town, we had to go, didn’t we, Clance?’

She ruffled her son’s hair, and he paused jumping around only long enough to nod earnestly. ‘We going to eat popcorn!’

‘I think he’s more excited about the food than the entertainment,’ Faith said with an adoring chuckle.

Mark smiled at the boy. ‘Yum. I might have to get some of that myself.’

Since he had Faith’s bag, he had to walk with them to the entrance and make small talk. He asked how she and Monty were liking life in Mount Barker and she in turn asked after his parents.

‘They must be so pleased to have you home.’

‘Mum’s over the moon,’ he said, ‘but Dad and I are still working out the logistics of farming together.’

‘I thought your parents were moving south?’ Ruby asked.

Mark laughed. ‘Mum’s keen on that, but...’

‘Trevor needs more convincing?’ finished Faith.

He nodded. They both knew it could be almost impossible to lure a farmer away from his land.

‘Who’d have thought circuses were so popular?’ commented Ruby as they approached the entrance and eyed the long queue. ‘I thought they were a dying form of entertainment.’

‘Yeah, I’m a bit bummed they don’t have lions and elephants and stuff anymore, even though I’m a hundred percent behind the reasoning.’ Faith looked to Mark. ‘What does your friend do here?’

‘Umm...’ He swallowed, wishing he’d given another excuse for being here. ‘Not really a friend, and ah, this and that. She’s a dancer.’

Ruby and Faith wriggled their eyebrows at him and said in unison, ‘ She ?’

He rolled his eyes and chose not to take their bait.

As they got closer to the yellow and red striped tents with their flags flapping madly in the early-evening wind, they caught the aromas of popcorn, fairy floss and fried foods drifting from inside and Mark’s mouth watered.

Maybe he was hungry after all.

Frankie from the café and her fiancé, Logan, came up beside them, a toddler on her hip and a camera hanging round his neck.

‘Mark!’ Frankie exclaimed. ‘I barely see you in months and now two times in one week. Good to see you getting out and about again. You here with anyone?’

Before Faith or Ruby could mention his friend, he said, ‘Who’s this? Didn’t know you and Logan had popped out a sprog.’

She laughed. ‘Not ours.’

‘Frankie’s two cats are a handful enough,’ Logan interjected over the top of the carnival music drifting from inside the tents.

‘This little ratbag is Celeste—Simmo’s youngest,’ Frankie explained. Simmo—or rather Simone—was Frankie’s older sister. ‘Not really my idea of a fun Friday night, but Logan’s taking photos for the Bunyip News and conned me into coming with him.’

He shrugged. ‘I needed a driver.’

Frankie and Logan lived in Geraldton now, where Logan worked at the radio station. Mark didn’t know Logan too well, but he’d heard that he was losing his eyesight to some horrible disease. Poor guy. Mark couldn’t imagine how bad that would be and for a moment it put his own injury into perspective. He might not be able to play the game he once loved anymore, but at least he could still see.

‘Since I was coming anyway, I offered to take Celeste with us so Simmo and Angus could have a date night.’ Angus—Logan’s brother—had married Simone a year or so ago. ‘Mummy and Daddy are at the pub, aren’t they, sweetheart?’ Frankie tickled her niece and then frowned at Mark. ‘I am surprised to see you here though.’

‘He’s here for a girl,’ Ruby informed them, a knowing grin on her pretty face.

‘ Ooh ,’ Logan and Frankie sang in unison. ‘Do tell.’

‘There’s nothing to tell.’

Thankfully, the queue shuffled forward, and they had to show their tickets. After that there was no more time for interrogations. They spilled in past the ticket booth—manned by an elderly lady with massive hoop earrings and a terrifying scowl on her face—through the gates into a pre-show tent that was bordered with food trucks, rides and sideshow games. Little Clancy tugged on Faith’s hand, begging her for a go on the merry-go-round.

As the others took the kids to the rides, Mark headed for the food truck.

Two women who looked to be in their early twenties were serving. Both were dressed in simple black t-shirts with the logo of the circus and their near-black hair tied back in high ponytails shimmered with gold glitter. Their make-up was caked on so heavily he wondered how long it took them to take it off at night.

‘How can I help you, gorgeous?’ asked the shorter of the two, batting long fake eyelashes his way.

‘I’ll have a hot dog and a Coke, please?’

As he waited, he looked around, searching for Gabriela amongst the circus folk manning the rides and selling tacky neon merchandise. He waved distractedly at a couple of other locals, although most people in the tent appeared to be summer tourists—they gave off a different vibe to farmers and fishermen. And then, just as the girl was handing over his drink, he saw her.

Over by the teacup ride, laughing and smiling as she directed children into a circle of giant, colourful, spinning cups.

He almost swallowed his tongue. Just like the women behind the counter, Gabriela was dressed in black pants and the circus t-shirt, her hair piled up in some elaborate do on the top of her head and a face full of sparkly make-up. She looked so different from the girl he’d met in the bar and then seen again a few days ago in the IGA. She was attractive with or without make-up, but the latter made her so in a very different way and if she’d been all made up when they ran into each other on Wednesday, he wasn’t sure he’d have recognised her.

The woman serving him cleared her throat—‘Do you want this or not?’—and he shook himself from his daze to see her holding his hot dog out to him.

‘Sorry. Thanks,’ he said, taking it. There was now a queue behind him, and his neck flared hot at holding everyone up.

‘No worries.’ She smiled and winked at him. ‘Maybe I’ll see you later?’

Mark made a non-committal sound and walked away. He wasn’t stupid enough to miss that she was flirting with him, but he wasn’t interested in hooking up with anyone from the circus. Right now, he wasn’t interested in hooking up with anyone.

Liar! Would you really say no to another night between the sheets with Gabriela? cackled a voice in his head.

That’s not why I’m here , he replied, and the voice cackled— Yeah. Whatever —as his gaze snapped her way again.

She was chatting to Faith and Ruby as if they were old friends while Clancy squealed with delight from a yellow teacup. Mark felt a pull between his heart and his head as he contemplated going over. The urge to talk to her again—to see her up close, to smell her, to simply be in her presence—battled with common sense and the knowledge that if he went over now, Faith and Ruby would put two and two together, and no doubt say something hugely embarrassing.

Following his head, he ventured into the main tent—the Big Top, he guessed—to find his seat. A muscular usher, wearing more lycra than a middle-aged cyclist, directed him to a seat a few rows back from the ring. He clomped up the ridged metal steps to find he was sitting next to none other than Eileen Brady.

Was this fate punishing him for not leaving the past in the past?

He nodded a smile at the older woman as he squeezed by her to his seat, which was touching the ones on either side of him, so that his thigh brushed up against hers.

‘Surprised to see you here, Mrs Brady.’ After what Eileen had said in the café about circuses, this was the last place he expected to run into her again.

She huffed, tightly grasping the handbag on her lap as if someone might snatch it from her at any moment. ‘I’m of the opinion you should keep your enemies close. I want to get a good look at all these folk, so I’ll know how to describe them to the police if the need arises.’

Geez , Eileen really had a bee in her bonnet. He wondered if she’d been scorned by a circus performer as well. Maybe they left bewildered lovers in every town, like naval officers in ports all around the world.

‘Good idea,’ he nodded, taking a bite of his hot dog. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but better than bloody beans again.

Eileen chattered about lord knows what as the tiered seating filled with people. He offered the occasional murmur of agreement, which seemed to satisfy her, and finally the lights dimmed, and the peppy carnival music that had been playing in the background grew louder.

Seconds later, a tall, lean man dressed in a purple and gold suit with a shiny black top hat, grey hair peeking out from under it, appeared from the top of the seating area, waving madly and stopping to say hello to people as he made his way down through the audience and into the ring.

‘Good evening, everyone.’ His deep voice boomed throughout the tent. ‘I am Lorenzo Jimenez, owner and ringmaster of the Grand Jimenez Family Circus and I’m delighted to welcome you all here tonight to my home, my family, my life.’

As everyone applauded, the music changed, and Lorenzo launched into Queen’s ‘Let me entertain you’ at the top of his lungs. Mark knew all the words because it had been one of his dad’s favourite songs when he was growing up. Lorenzo sang about welcoming ladies and gentlemen, then asked if they were ready for a show and as he got to the chorus, one by one, more performers exploded from the curtains behind the ring, joining the ringmaster in song. There had to be about fifteen of them all up. Kids squealed, parents clapped in time to the music, and Mrs Brady tsked at the ‘indecently revealing’ costumes and the fact that there was a mere child in the mix.

Mark thought the child looked vaguely familiar, but before he could consider this any further the entertainers formed into two lines and Gabriela cartwheeled into the ring. His breath caught in his throat as he drank her in. She was wearing a pink and silver leotard with shimmery stockings, and had a parrot clinging to her shoulder, as if she was a dancing pirate.

He immediately remembered the bird she’d shown him all those years ago. Was this the same one? What was its name? Blabbermouth or something like that?

The crowd laughed as Gabriela and the parrot righted themselves and took a bow, the bird even raising its wing to salute.

‘Let’s hear it,’ boomed Lorenzo, ‘for the one, the only, the beautiful, Gabriela Jimenez.’

Lorenzo must be her father. Mark wondered if coming from a line of circus folk was anything like being from generations of farmers? A contradictory feeling of satisfaction at being a part of something that had lasted for longer than most people lived, yet also the heavy weight of obligation to keep it going. To not be the one to stuff it all up.

She blew a kiss at the older man as applause broke out all around the tent. Despite Lorenzo being the ringmaster, it was clear she was the star of the show, and Mark felt a weird surge of pride inside him.

He wanted to stand up and shout, ‘I know her!’

But that would be laughable. Because he didn’t. Not really.

When the music finally died down, the performers vanished behind the curtain.

Lorenzo waited for the audience to go silent, then opened his arms wide. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you our first act tonight, the—’

Beep. Beep. Beep .

A short stocky man, dressed as a clown and pretending he was driving around the ring, pressed an imaginary horn, which sounded all around them.

‘What are you doing in my circus?’ he yelled at Lorenzo as the audience tried to contain their laughter.

‘This isn’t your circus; it’s my circus,’ Lorenzo replied, looking most put out, ‘and I’m trying to speak to my guests.’ He gestured to the audience. ‘I was just about to introduce the Saad sisters.’

The clown mimed getting out of his imaginary car and slamming the door, then he dug three rubber ducks out of his enormous pockets and started juggling them.

Lorenzo looked the clown up and down with a distasteful expression. ‘No one comes to a circus to see juggling ducks; they want to see dangerous acts, fire and knife jugglers, performing dogs, camels and contortionists.’

Again, the ringmaster addressed the crowd. ‘Let’s take a vote. Do you want my circus or his?’

Gabriela’s thought Mark. He didn’t give a damn about watching anyone else.

‘Yours,’ shouted everyone else.

The clown was furious. He started hurling rubber ducks at the audience and he didn’t just have three. His pockets seemed to be reproducing them. Kids shrieked as ducks rained down on top of the audience and Lorenzo began chasing the other man around the ring. For a middle-aged dude, the clown was fast and nimble. It was slapstick humour, but everyone was in hysterics as the two men dived in and out of the stage props. Mark couldn’t help grinning.

He even heard Mrs Brady stifling a giggle.

Eventually, two men wearing head-to-toe black ran into the ring, picked up the clown like he was a plank of wood and carried him off stage.

Lorenzo wiped his brow, then straightened and resumed his introduction. The first act was the Saad sisters, Jasmine, Amina and Dalia, three contortionists from Egypt, dressed in full-body red, gold and beige leotards that left little to the imagination. Mark recognised two of them from the food truck. As the sisters twisted and folded themselves into impossible shapes, he couldn’t help thinking how much his muscles would hurt if he tried to do anything like it. But this was only the beginning. Soon, stagehands rolled out a couple of small black boxes and two of the women folded themselves inside before the third stuck swords all through the boxes.

He had to admit, he was impressed—even though he knew the third sister wasn’t really hurting her sisters, he couldn’t work out the logistics behind their act—but he just wanted them to hurry up, hoping Gabriela would appear next.

Disappointingly, the clown came out again, this time pretending to take photos for people in the audience with a massive Polaroid camera. He proceeded to pull cardboard images of horribly ugly animals out of the fake camera to show his subjects, distracting everyone while behind him stagehands erected a massive metal apparatus with two big wheels on each end. Lorenzo returned to the ring to shoo him off again and introduce the Dangerous Duo, ‘All the way from Old Mexico on the Wheel of Steel.’

The lycra-clad usher Mark had seen earlier burst through the curtain and leapt up to grab the smaller of the two wheels. He swung it towards him and when it was low enough, he leapt inside and started to run like a hamster, setting a giant pendulum in motion. The wheel lifted higher into the air with each rotation, and when he finally got to the top, he balanced precariously while another man jumped into the second wheel, now at the bottom. Before long both wheels were spinning and the whole apparatus was turning, the men running and jumping in and out of the huge wheels with impressive precision. They used skipping ropes and covered their heads with black bags, their efforts getting more and more terrifying.

There had to be a lot of trust between them because if one of them made a wrong move, both of them could get hurt.

Next came a beautiful sandy-haired woman who mesmerised the audience with her hula-hoop routine. She started simply with only one, then the little girl Eileen had commented on earlier entered the ring and began to toss more to her, until at one stage she was spinning ten hoops around her body, arms, legs and neck. Mark thought that pretty impressive, but then the hoops came to life, glowing with flashing neon lights and creating actual images in the air as she twisted and turned them. It was magical.

Lorenzo came out between each act, each time dressed in a new, equally extravagant outfit and the clown materialised at strategic times to distract the audience from the movement of equipment. Whenever another act was introduced, Mark held his breath, hoping it was Gabriela.

Then, finally, right before the interval, she emerged, her whole face glowing as if she had an aura of light surrounding her, the parrot once again on her shoulder. She danced across the ring, waving madly as she went to a twenty-odd-foot pole at the edge and then began to shimmy up it like a tree monkey. What strength she must have in her arms and legs to do such a thing—no wonder she had the body of a goddess. As if the climb wasn’t amazing enough, Gabriela pulled herself up onto a tiny platform and that’s when Mark noticed the highwire. Not far from the top of the tent, it began at the platform and spanned across to a pole at the other side of the ring.

When she’d told him she was a dancer, he’d never imagined this.

He wanted to cover his eyes, yet he couldn’t look away as she lifted the parrot down and put it on the rope. The bird danced up and down and then ran back and forth along it, doing little somersaults on the way back.

‘Come on. Come on. Come on. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken!’ taunted the parrot, flapping up and down.

The audience laughed.

‘Did you just call me chicken?’ Gabriela called.

And then she chased her pet to the other side of the wire as if she were running on solid, even ground, not a thin rope high up in the air.

Mark searched the ground for gym mats or some kind of padding, but there didn’t appear to be any, and when he glanced back up, he noticed she wasn’t alone up there. The little girl had made her way up a ladder on the opposite post and stood on the platform at the other end of the wire. As Gabriela got to the middle, the kid detached a long metal pole from the side of the platform and thrust it towards her as if trying to push her off.

Even though he knew it was all an act, he wanted to ring the girl’s neck. Only five or six at most, how skilled could she be? What if she made a mistake? His heart was in his throat the whole time he watched Gabriela take the pole and walk back across to the other side, holding it above her head. The parrot jumped onto it and did a few tricks before Gabriela switched the pole and parrot for a skipping rope and skilfully skipped onto the wire, pausing in the middle to do a few tricks.

Honestly, the woman was a wizard. Magic. Mark was torn between awe and terror. What if the parrot distracted her? Or what if she caught her foot on the rope? She would surely plunge to her death. He breathed a sigh of relief when she and the parrot finally retreated to their opposite platforms.

Thank God it was over, he didn’t know how much more he could take.

But it wasn’t. As if a skipping rope wasn’t insane enough, Gabriela tossed it to the kid and then pulled out a tiny bicycle which she rode right out onto the wire and across to the other side.

Holy shit. Mark felt like he was going to have a heart attack.

What would she do next? Juggle fire while riding the bike?

But no, it was much worse. He stopped breathing altogether as she rode back onto the platform and gestured for the girl to climb onto the handlebars.

Oh God. The hot dog churned in his stomach as they turned and this time, with the little girl waving down at the audience, Gabriela rode the tightrope with the two of them. Cheers erupted as they got to the other side.

Smiling, parrot still on her shoulder, Gabriela returned to the middle of the wire, bowed and then beamed down, waving at the audience.

Mark was wondering if they could actually see anyone with all the bright lights from below shining in their faces when Gabriela’s gaze landed right on him, and his question was answered.

He both felt and saw the moment she recognised him. Her eyes widened and time seemed to stand still as the air crackled between them. Feeling something shift inside of him—suddenly he felt lighter than he had in months—he lifted a hand to wave.

The audience gasped as Gabriela lost her balance.

Shit . He watched in horror as she teetered on the wire, her arms spinning wildly at her sides, trying to help her body regain its balance.

Time seemed to pause. What had he done?

And just as he was about to shove past Eileen, leap over the first few rows of seats and jump down into the ring to catch Gabriela if she fell, she righted herself, somehow making it look as if her near-tumble was all part of the act.

Not looking at him, she smiled as she waved once again at the crowd, before shimmying down the post and disappearing back through the curtains.

Lorenzo, dressed in yet another different sparkly suit, appeared again to announce the interval and remind everyone there were food and drinks to buy and sideshow games to play, but Mark shot out of his seat and out of the tent before the ringmaster had even finished speaking.