Bilgarra Springs by Louise Rotondo Read Free Book Online Page B

quasi-sleep state. She hadn’t slept well last night. She had lain in the dark and looked at the shadowy form of the chest of drawers for what had seemed like hours. She couldn’t bring herself to pull the journal out though. When she had fallen asleep, she had tossed and turned, her mind full of dreams of her grandmother, her grandfather in some, even her parents popped up at one point. She hadn’t dreamt of her parents for years. All in all it hadn’t been a particularly restful night. At the moment she felt like she had been run over by a bus.
    She rubbed a hand over her eyes and lifted her wrist, making a concerted effort to see the time on her watch. Now that she had woken up a little more, voices drifted through to her occasionally. Her watch said 5:48. She desperately wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. She felt as though she had only slept for an hour. She figured that part of the sleep problem was these wretched pyjamas. She didn’t ordinarily sleep in them as she usually managed to get them thoroughly wrapped around her and had to keep untangling herself, which she had also done last night in between the weird dreams. The bed was comfortable and she hadn’t overheated, or been too cold for that matter. Noise hadn’t been a problem either. Her mind must just have been in overdrive.
    She threw the covers off and rolled out of bed. It was only Trudy and Fiona as far as she knew, so she padded out to the kitchen dressed as is. They were unlikely to be offended by a t-shirt and cotton boxer short PJs. As Aurora made her way down the hallway she was wondering how she was going to do this early morning thing. It wasn’t the early rising that was the problem, it was the talking to people. She normally got up at home early, but found that she didn’t enjoy talking to people until she had been awake for at least an hour or so. She had been exactly the same when she was married, although it had taken Peter a little while to get used to not talking to her and leaving her alone. Now, early mornings were her quiet time; a chance to slip into the bustle of the day. No students, no parents, no colleagues, no phone calls, no emails — just her and Orinoco having coffee and breakfast on the patio, sometimes with the newspaper, sometimes not. She briefly wondered how Orinoco and Tim were getting along. She so hoped that everything was alright. Too bad if it wasn’t, there was not a lot she could do about it.
    Aurora tentatively hovered around the kitchen doorway when she hit the end of the hallway, unsure of what to say or do. Both women were standing at the sink, looking out the window into the early dawn. With their backs to her, Aurora figured it was up to her to make the first move and she hesitantly spoke.
    ‘Good morning.’
    Both heads turned at once, both faces smiling from ear to ear both saying, ‘Morning,’ virtually at the same time. Aurora inwardly winced. Oh crap, they were morning people. Fiona motioned to the teapot sitting beside the stove.
    ‘We’ve just made that if you want one. If you are more of a coffee girl, there is instant in the cupboard, or a stovetop percolator behind the second door on the left and ground coffee in the fridge. The stove has been lit, so no problem there.’
    Fiona turned so that the side of her hip was resting against the sink, her tea cup in her hand. Aurora felt ever so slightly overwhelmed. They weren’t being too in her face, it was just that she was up and now she had to actually talk and move.
    She loved coffee, but not first thing in the morning.
    ‘I’ll grab myself a cup of tea thanks.’
    She wandered over to the sideboard, grabbed one of what she was still thinking were heirloom cups and made herself a tea just the way she liked it, weak, milky and full of sugar, before dropping down in one of the chairs at the table. Fiona and Trudy each pulled out chairs and sat as well. Fiona held her hands round her cup and spoke.
    ‘Trudy and I are normally in the