Chapter 1
Elizabeth Carrington, husband Hugh and daughter Ronni were at dinner on the patio and the conversation resumed after the maid disappeared into the interior of the home.
“I repeat,” Elizabeth said to 22-year-old Ronni. “Why can’t you get a decent boyfriend of the quality that all your girlfriends appear to have landed?”
“Does it occur to you mother that potential suitors do not parade themselves like cattle?”
“Hugh!”
Her business tycoon husband busily shorting green beans on his plate before loading them on to his fork according to grades and lengths, didn’t need to know the nature of that urgent demand for support.
“Ronni!” he called, sounding infuriated, that of course he didn’t have loaded.
“Sorry dad, mother,” Ronni said sounding angelic, although saintly she was not.
“Mother, let me switch to a structural design degree at the School of Engineering and I’ll bring home the bacon that you and your society friends can bestow with your fake attempts of verbal seduction.”
“Ronni, I’m sick of the time this sorry mess has been dragging on, ever since you were fifteen. Never once have you produced me with an outstanding male worthy of being approved as your dating girlfriend. Promise me you’ll produce a noteworthy candidate from that mass of commoners and that means the majority of lads at engineering school dear, and I’ll have Mrs Sweetman (the housekeeper) manage the switch for you.”
“Is that a deal, mum?”
“That’s a deal. I’ll wind up Mrs Sweetman in the morning.”
The university eggheads attempted to block the switch, with Mrs Sweetman receiving a letter that the esteemed university did not allow students to switch degrees mid-term on a sheer whim.
Furious, Ronni wrote to the registrar of the Selection Board (in recess) demanding that the board re-convene immediately so that she could make representations in person.
The registrar said to his two secretaries, “Who the fuck is this student?”
Secretary one: Veronica Elizabeth Carrington, a 4th year architectural student.
Registrar: That doesn’t explain her status in our society and society in general.
Secretary two: Ronni otherwise known as Veronica, is the only child of Sir Hugh Carrington who graduated from this university but there is no record of him ever being a substantive donor. The mother is named Elizabeth.
Registrar: What the aggressive socialite?
Secretary two: Indeed.
Registrar: Get me a print-out of all the information you have on this lass and her father’s association with this university. I’ll get the chairman of the board to sit with a subcommittee to hear this lass’ submission.
Ronni attended the meeting of the subcommittee without the knowledge of her parents. There was an adjournment of the meeting while she had a private meeting with the chairman, and after that she was advised she could make the switch immediately.
At dinner that evening, Ronni told her parents although the university year was almost three months underway, she had been given approval to switch to her chosen degree course at the School of University on Monday.
“Good for you dear, I’m delighted,” said her mother, blowing Ronni a kiss. “When will I see this new Roman god-like man of yours, darling?”
“For fuck sake Elizabeth, first allow the girl the chance to step through the door at the School of Engineering on Day One on Monday.”
“I would think three weeks max, mum.”
Hugh said, “What’s the catch regarding your switch? There’s always a price to pay for a mid-year switch at my old university.”
“It’s virtually nothing, and so relax. There are three conditions:
– I must complete my architectural degree that I proposed doing anyway.
– That I work hard to catch up on my course work. As it happens, I’ve already done architectural design studies so that condition is well underway.
– That I persuade you to make a donation to the Engineering School’s library extension.”
“Ah, there’s the catch. No problem. I’ll regard it as an investment in my daughter.”
Two weeks and two days after starting at school of engineering, Ronni called Mrs Sweetman the housekeeper to say she would be accompanied by a male guest for dinner that evening.
Mrs Sweetman reported that information to Lady Elizabeth who erupted angrily when Mrs Sweetman admitted she hadn’t asked for the name of the dinner guest and essential personal details.
“All Ronni said he was a male guest.”
“Yes, you silly woman, of course she said that. But how much more information would she had provided had she been asked?”
“Perhaps nothing more as she wanted it to be a surprise.”
“That sounds like a plausible statement to me, dear,” said Elizabeth’s mellow husband. “I suggest you accept it.”
“Well at least that part of your brain is working, Mrs Sweetman. Off you go back to your duties.”
“Yes ma’am; straight away ma’am.”
“That’s right, make me sound like an Ogress.”
Hugh and Elizabeth emptied half the bottle of gin waiting for their daughter and first new boyfriend in many months (that they knew about). Elizabeth was drinking to cope with anxiety, Hugh was drinking to cope with Elizabeth unable to cope well with her mind virtually in orbit.
Eventually, on the dot of 6.30, normal dinner-call time, the front door bells chimed.
“They’re here,” Elizabeth said, grabbing Hugh frantically and kissing him all over his face.
“Of course, they’re here, that was the front door bell,” Hugh said pragmatically. “You weren’t expecting anyone else at dinner time. were you?”
“I don’t know what I’m expecting except from not another pregnancy,” she wheezed.
He complained, “You’ll have lipstick all over your face and mine and…”
“No, we don’t Diddles, I’m thoughtfully wearing sealed gloss.”
“What the fuck is that?”
“Exactly what I said, sealed gloss.”
“Eh?”
“Miss Ronni with her dinner guest, Mr Nick Creek,” announced the butter, Alf.
“Nick what?” Elizabeth shouted in shock.
“It’s okay, mum. He’s Australian.”
“He’s also wearing shorts,” Elizabeth shouted. “No one has worn shorts to this historic table in 500 years.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” said her husband, earning a murderous glare.
“Please don’t get overly-excited, Elizabeth. It’s only me, Nick. And I feel obliged to say that you’d be lucky if the table is even 100 years old. You’d be surprised if you knew of the level of fidelity used as gospel by antique dealers to secure a top price. I know, because I worked for a couple of dealers during my school breaks.”
“Mother, I suggest you take Nick as you truly find him,” Ronni said. “Be warned, he’s not your usual young male wagging his tail and looking for his next conquest. I mean, take this evening for example. Have you ever experienced a young male called you Elizabeth without you yelling to Alf to fetch you the shotgun?”
“I… uh… no actually, and yet while I was aware he took the liberty, I had no urge to flail… Omigod, what am I saying?”
“It’s cool mother; it’s quite a usual female reaction to Nick. He naturally treats females as he does the males except, he looks as their bosom rather than their groin.”
“W-what do you t-think of my b-bosom, Nick?”
“You ought to let them hang a little looser, Elizabeth. Having them strung up tightly like that with padding to make them appears in a shape that they aren’t will be making them perform as if they feel they are being strangled to death.”
“Omigod, what useful advice.”
Nick said not a problem, and pulling out a pocket knife and opening it, he went behind Lady Elizabeth and cut her bra shoulder straps.
“Omigod, I feel free,” she crooned into the sky. “Mister Creek, you may be our house guest for as long as you wish and as far as I’m concerned, you may have our daughter which-way, whatever-way, you wish.”
“Thanks Elizabeth, but actually that’s for Ronni to decide.”
“Whatever, and should she be slow coming across, you may try tapping me on the hip.”
Surprisingly, despite those initial shocks, the evening meal cruised along rather well.
The parents found that their daughter had met Ronni at the School of Engineering where he was completing a masters degree in structural engineering design and he worked occasionally as a junior lecturer to first-year undergraduates.
Late night, Elizabeth went into Ronni’s room half-expecting to see Ronni and Nick banging away in abandonment. But all she found was Ronni reading in bed.
“Where’s Nick?”
“Mum, despite your off-the-wall thoughts about the morality of young people, Nick and I haven’t done it yet. He requested Alf to find him a bedroom and mom, you are to stay out of it.”
“Why?”
“Well… um well… um Nick is too young to be corrupted.”
“Oh, that’s pretty impressive reasoning, darling. Do you think I should go to your father and asked him for sex?”
“Mum!”
“What?”
“You expressed that without love or affection making it sound as if you were about to embark on a visit to a sausage factory.”
“That’s a rather impressive description of the process, darling.”
“Whatever, mother. Don’t forget to insist on a condom being used, for reasons of hygiene.”
“Oh, we ran out weeks ago.”
“Mother, in the morning ask Nick for a handful. He always has a box of 144 on hand.”
“Darling, may I ask how is it you know that?”
“Goodnight mother, I must get my eight hours of relaxing sleep,” Ronni said, putting her book aside and reaching for the bedside lamp and obviously paused. waiting for her mother to leave the room, a significant question about condoms hanging unanswered.
Chapter 2
Next morning, Elizabeth found out which of the eleven guest rooms that Nick occupied and rushed there with coffee.
She lightly kissed him awake, threw open the curtains and said brightly, “How is the morning boner?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“That’s how Australians speak isn’t it, straight from the shoulder?”
“I don’t believe so, Elizabeth, not even the riff-raff that you think I’ve associated with all my life.”
“Oh, what employment does your father work in?”
“He’s self-employed and in fact employs between 350 and 380 people depending on the current state of the building industry in New South Wales. His business is aluminium structural prefabrication.”
“Oh, did he win lotto to land in that elevation.”
Nick smiled and said, “No, he and two pals from high school began working for dad’s father who produced hand-made aluminium window frames that were really beginning to take off in Aussie then. Ten years later the trio purchased the factory from granddad, persuaded their families to lend them money to expand and rode the start of the great building boom of the 1960s.”
“Well, I never.”
“Elizabeth, going back to my boner, I deal with it an hour ago manually. Ronni usually deals with it by mouth but she’s terribly uptight about what you might think of me and one of the things I have to do is to pretend that she and I don’t fuck yet.”
“Omigod. Are you asking me to relieve you?”
“Oh, great idea but no. Elizabeth. Instead of having sex with me could you please just relax, and treat me just like you used to treat your friends when a kid, without being overly fussy of who they were, or how they behaved within reason — in other words you generally accepted who they were. Ronni told me you lived in the back streets of Liverpool until you were ten and then came to London with your sister when your mother began an affair with an insurance salesman when he was transferred here.”
“Ronni had no right to tell you that. It’s a family secret.”
“Get off your high horse, Elizabeth. Be like Ronni and live in the real world rather than a partial make-believe world that she says that you choose to flitter in and out of.”
“That treacherous bitch said that,” Elizabeth wailed, bursting into tears, absolutely humiliated.
Nick, nude, jumped out of bed and hurried to comfort her, Elizabeth staring through her tears in awe at the long slack member swinging from side to side so electrifying that she began to dribble — from the mouth.
He hugged her and she said, “Can I… can I…”
Noting where she was looking down between them, Nick guessed what this was about. Somehow. he was managing to cut through years of her self-imposed repression.
He stood apart slightly and said, “You touch it and I’ll handle a boob. Deal?”
She nodded, slobbering.
He pushed a hand down her dress front and grasped a surprisingly soft and warm boob. That triggered her into seizing his dick that by then was firming into an erection.
“Omigod, omigod she was reciting softly and he had to let the boob go to use both arms to stop her from dropping to her knees.
“Sorry… have to retrain you… otherwise you may suffer deep regret,” he said, breathing heavily.
He almost let her drop thinking it would be interesting to find if she slobbered juicily when engaged in fellatio, but at the risk of Ronni attempting to wring his neck when her mother confessed would lead to him being tossed out on the street on his ear.
“Then can I just lick it once?”
“No.”
“Mean bastard.”
Nick replied inventively, ‘Liverpool slut’.
To his astonishment she straightened, laughing and eyes shining and worked at pushing the man-handled boob back into her bra.
He said, “Truthfully now, how was it?”
“Omigod,” she said in awe. “I let myself go. Amazingly, I almost came without my vulva being touched.”
“Wow,” he said, genuinely impressed.
After that momentous unveiling of ‘decent boyfriend’ to her parents, Ronni suggested to Nick that they move in together but he nicely and sensibly suggested that because one of his reasons in coming to England and Europe was to ‘sow his oats’ and tour ‘here, there and everywhere’ with his academic male mates drinking beer, hitting social drugs and screwing hot females plus indulging in genuine adventures as well as studying, they should put off the possibility of moving in together for a couple of years.
“And miss the peak horny years,” Ronni sighed.
“Yeah babe, but call me from time to time because even I know that socially correct young women can’t live without occasional sex.”
“How convenient for you,” she said, Nick apparently missing the sarcasm. “Okay, sounds good.”
As time went by, they had really drifted apart and after the first two years, Elizabeth had stopped asking her daughter had she seen Nick lately. By then it would have been difficult because he’d graduated with his masters and had returned to Sydney.
Although Ronni assumed that while Nick would be working for his father, he would be taking every opportunity to roam around Australia with his mates having adventures and shagging women and, of course, drinking beer, he phoned her occasionally.
Once she asked why did he keep calling her occasionally. She involuntarily dampened her panties when he said laconically, “You’re sometimes on my mind, simple as that.”
She blurted something like ‘That’s nice’ and recalled the conversation drifted on to something else.
When Ronni was just under a month of finishing university, she received a call from a guy with a heavy Australian accent saying he was Tony Creek.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Nick’s father.”
“Good grief. He described you to my wife Hailey and me as being very bright. Nick is fine, I’m calling you on business. Rick said you are about due to graduate.”
“Correct.”
“Good results.”
“They’ve been okay.”
“Where do you stand in your intake in engineering design?”
“Invariably in the top five. Why, are you recruiting?”
“Yep.”
“What?”
“Rick intends to marry you one day, if you’ll have him. Well, that’s what he told us when he arrived home 21/2 years ago and we know he keeps in touch. Hailey and I were talking about this over a wine last night and she suggested we bring you over here to see if it happens. I can offer you a designer’s job that so far I haven’t managed to fill with an Australian, and so it possible could become a package of job plus approved immigration.”
“Omigod.”
“You like the sound of that, do you Ronni?”
“Bloody oath.”
“Ah, you sound Australian already. You know Ronni, I can tell just from this short conversation that Emma and I will come to adore you, even if you don’t take up with Nick. You have that appealing light pitch to you voice that suggests a nice, happy person.”
“Go on, Mr Creek. You are a metal fabrication engineer, what would you know about voice tone and pitch]?”
“Ah, playful humour too. For most of my adult life I have sung tenor in Opera.”
“Omigod, I apologise for being so rude. I am…”
“You weren’t to know, lass. And anyway, I regarded it as more challenging that rudeness.”
They chatted on and finally Tony said he would send full details and took Ronni’s email address.
“Are you calling from your office?”
“Yes, why?”
“Oh, I thought I could say hi to Mrs Creek if you were calling from home.”
“No chance. It’s Monday morning and she was off at 6.00 to our local hospital where she’s a surgeon specialising in knee and hip replacements.”
“Omigod. Well, please tell her I said hi.”
“Will do, babe. Lovely chatting. Bye.”
Ronni called her mother.
“Hi mum, thought you’d like some big news, I’m likely to be going to Sydney to live soon.”
“What!” Elizabeth shrieked but Ronni had anticipated that and was holding her phone away from her ear.
Chapter 3
On an early Friday morning, Ronni walked out into the arrival greeting area as Sydney International Airport with a racing heart and mind filled with expectations. She was wearing baggy travel clothes but had spent time getting her hair and make-up as good as practical, knowing that her face and smile would be what she would instantly be judged on.
She noticed a lithe blonde woman a little older than her jump the barrier and come running forward and then at the last moment realized that she was the target.
“Ronni,” screamed the charger as she slammed into the new arrival.
“Emma!” Ronni yelled, kissing Rick’s sister a year older than him, knowing she had her first Australian girlfriend, and what a babe she was and what a physique. Nick had said his sister Emma was an avid surfer and cyclist.
They kissed on the lips, hugely. God, this one’s not a shy Aussie girl, Ronni burbled to herself.
She looked over Emma’s shoulder and saw Nick laughing and waving, recognised the family likeness of his father Tony, and immediately recognised where Emma got her looks from when waving to her mother Hailey.
Omigod, what a memorable moment and this might be her new family. She was worried though that Mrs Creek appeared devoid of emotion, but Emma soon answered that.
Emma whipped Ronni trolley from her and capturing her arm in her free arm, steering her over to the side barrier to meet her family.
“Mum’s practically wetting herself in excitement and dad of course is playing it cool.”
Ronni’s heart soared.
Emma said breathlessly, “Your father is a Knight. How impressive.”
“Yes, he is, no it isn’t particularly impressive. They have about twenty friends who visit us periodically who are peers.”
“Omigod.”
“Darling, just think of it as theatre.”
Emma almost lost control of Ronni and her trolley through laughing so much.
“Christ, I took no notice when Nick attempted to tell us that you are nothing like the stuffy staid twits that is the impression that many Australians have of the English.”
“Oh, but I must be staid. I read library books for pleasure and spend reflected moments looking at cloud formations.”
Emma was back into deep laughter.
“Everyone, meet the hilarious Ronni without an E. Mum, kiss her on the mouth and see experience what Nick has been missing.”
Hailey kissed Ronni lightly on the mouth and pulling away said, “Welcome to Australia and to the family, beautiful. You smell so lovely.”
“Guess what’s for dinner,” joked Tony, and Ronni, out to impress, laughed more that politely.
They remained standing at the barrier, ignoring the milling crowd.
Tony stood aside and giving Nick and Ronni a clear view of one another.
“Hi, Ronni. Great to see you again. Marvellous, really,” he said without moving.
“Come to the barrier and kiss me or I’ll jump the barrier and come after you.”
He had become the really tanned and rugged Australia that Ronni had dreamed of over three years apart.
He stepped forward and they hugged into a long kiss that produced approved smiles from the family.
“Omigod, what a babe. I can’t wait to begin teaching you to surf,” Emma cooed.
“Surf, I can’t surf; I can’t even swim.”
The family looked at her almost in horror.
“How can you not swim. Every one swims,” Tony said, looking bewildered.
“Not in England. As a child when I could have learned to swim, I was with the housekeeper or cook at home learning the table placings for all levels of dining, how to order meals and which sauces to select and what the seasonal choice of vegetables were and the order of courses and selection of desserts.”
“I’ll get you into an adult teach-to-swim course for foreign immigrants,” said Tony. “I’ll do this today. Then Emma can take you for coaching every morning. We live overlooking Manly Beach.”
“Come on gang, let’s move out of here, we need coffee before the wearisome drive to the North Shore,” Hailey said.
Ronni wanted time alone with Nick, but knew that would not be happening any time soon.
The arrival at the Creek home was boisterous and Ronni drank lots of Australian sparkling wine and ate little food and along with long travel exhaustion he memory and then awareness began to slip from her control.
Chapter 4
Ronni was boating down the Seine drinking champagne on a beautiful day when she was jolted and heard her name being called.
She awoke with a start and said, “Oh hi, Emma. What’s up? Omigod, its dawn!”
“I’m taking you to the municipal pool for private swim coaching, all paid for by dad for 10 days, starting in half an hour. The coach says half-hour lessons until she thinks you’ll be good for hour lessons. Lena was one of dad’s girlfriends at high school and they continue to dine out together with their spouses socially. Mum calls Lena her dynamic friend.”
They grabbed a couple of breakfast grain biscuits each and spread them with butter and honey and filled their water bottles from the fridge dispenser of iced water.
“Fuck, it’s only 5.20.”
“Yes, Miss Groaner, and it will be 4.50 if Lena makes it an hour’s one-on-one training before her standard classes begin at 6.00.”
“W-why is she putting herself out for me whom she’s never met?”
“Because dad requested her to do so,” Emma said simply. “You’ll get your work car when you roll up for work on Monday and can then drive yourself to swimming lessons. Can you bare to put your head under water?”
“Yeah, of course. I’ve been doing it for years when washing my hair in the bath to get the perfect rinse.”
“Good and dad told Lena that you are a perky female. Lena said in that case and if you can confidently put your head under water, that she’ll have you swimming adequately enough within two days in the sea wearing a life-vest until you become a strong swimmer with endurance.”
“Why, the waves always come into the beach.”
“Actually, it’s in case you become swept out to sea by a rip or part company with your board way out when the waves are fading in strength fast due to a wind change in velocity or direction.”
“Omigod, surfing sound a creepy sport.”
Emma laughed and said Ronni would reverse her description of surfing as a sport once she had caught her first couple of descent rides.
“How long does it take to learn to surf?”
“Can you ride a bike?”
“Of course.”
“A skateboard?”
“Of course, and I’ve did gymnastics for eight years.”
“In that case, do exactly follows Nick instruction and he’ll have you basically surfing before lunchtime on Day One but it will take as long as a piece of string to learn advanced techniques and to read the weather and the sea conditions accurately.”
“In that case, I shall be swimming one hundred meters within five 30-minute lessons.”
Glancing at Ronni, Emma said, “Darling I really don’t think… No, correction. You probably will.”
Ronni asked did the family have any books on surfing for newbies.
“I put five such books on the coffee table last night. You were bushed, dead asleep.”
“Thanks darl.”
“Darl, you’ve picked the shortened form up already?”
“Nah, I recall Nick using that form on me in England.”
“But that was casually, three years ago.”
“I can remember, almost vividly, my first day at kindergarten and all my teacher’s names since then.”
“Fantastic, darl.”
Emma stayed watching the swimming lesson and knew she shouldn’t be surprised if the young Englishwoman took to the pool like a duck to the water. And that thought was accurate. Within one minute, Ronni had gained the confidence of the flutter board giving her buoyance and within two minutes was on her way to kicking the full length of the pool.
Later, within two minutes, and without buoyancy apart from Lena lightly holding the back straps of Ronni’s single piece swim suit, Ronni’s failing of arms were settling down into genuine strokes but as yet within rhythmic breathing action of a swimmer.
At the end of the session, Lena hugged Ronni lightly and said, “Well my magnificent young student, come for an hour’s session in the morning and you’ll end it being an elementary swimming in breast-stroke and gaining in the art of over-arm swimming.”
“Thank you, Mrs French. You transfer confidence with utmost simplicity and your instructions are so positive.”
“Why thanks darl, and you certainly weren’t absent when self-confidence was being handed out pre-birth. Call me Lena from now on. You’ll probably need me no longer after tomorrow insofar as basic tuition is concerned but I will see you often via the Creek family.”
“Emma, you have one of our outstanding British immigrants here in Ronni, Treasure her. Whoever employs her would be so lucky.”
“She’s to work for dad as a design engineer.”
“He’s a lucky man.”
“May I repeat that prediction to him?”
“I don’t see why not. We all should know that talk’s cheap.”
“Gee, what a lovely woman,” Ronni said, as Emma drove to the beachfront for breakfast.
“Yeah, and a lovely family. Both of her boys held Australian swim titles in their youth and their daughter is part of a champion couple currently in some form of Latin American dancing.”
Although it was only 6.15 on a Sunday morning, many of the single line metered parking space facing the beach between the beach and the road in the shopping area were taken.
“Residents and visiting surfers come here with their weekend newspapers to read, chat and eat in a choice of many cafes and restaurants along this famous beach frontage.”
“Famous?” Ronni queried. “I’d never heard of Manly Beach until I knew I was coming here and looked up maps and watched videos and read articles.
“Cheeky fucking Englishwoman,” grumbled Emma, smiling a little. “Well, it’s famous throughout Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and it’s world-famous among the surfing fraternity.”
“Yeah, well that makes it famous, I guess,” Ronni conceded.
“Here’s a tip, darl. If you ever wish to make my brother mad, say something critical about Australian surf culture and then guard your mouth I case he swings a slap over your chops.”
“What, he’s likely to hit me over the mouth?”
“I’m just saying it’s a risk, that’s all. Keen surfers can be rather defensive. It’s even said that some dry hump their beloved boards which explains why many of them are stored in bedrooms.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I might be, Ronni.”
The surf was fairly light and Emma went out for a few fairly passive rides and she noticed Ronni on the waterline standing on a surfboard and moving about in great concentration.
When Emma came ashore, Ronni handed her a towel.
“I watched you in awe, Emma. You were as graceful as a ballerina on that board.”
“Thanks. Where did you get to board from?”
“I watched you closely and some of the male surfers and decided that the main elements were balance, position and weight-distribution, all of them being flexible for control.”
“Omigod, babe. You do have a brain. That disclosure is most impressive coming from a greenhorn because it’s so accurate.”
“Yeah, will I have been taught how to study and time and motion study was one of my favourite papers at university as was the study of physics. I went over to a guy coming out of the water with a board and asked could I borrow it to practice the moves I need to learn.”
“He said no but he’d fetch me this practice board from the clubhouse.”
“Oh lordy, the cheek of her. Do you know the name of the mug?”
“Ollie Churchman.”
“Omigod.”
“What?”
He’s one of Aussie’s current top surfers. His board that he came out of the water with would be more precious to him than his motor-vehicle.”
“Well, so be it. He came back with this battered board and a paper cup of coffee for me and when I said I was staying with Ronni Creek and his family, he said he knew Ronni and occasionally surfed with him and often met him at parties.”
“Why are you looking so surprised?”
Emma said she was in shock, that on Day One in Sydney, Ronni had half-learned to swim and had consorted with surfing royalty.
“Come off it babe, Ollie is just one of the guys.”
“Just one of the guys,” Ella mumbled. “Darl, just you wait to you see Ollie Churchman out there is raging surf with more punch that the kick of a draught horse. He and a few of his mates go out when mortal surfers come in to escape possible injury or even drowning.”
“Aren’t all champions like that? I use to train in cycling when wind blasts were blowing titles off house roofs. The tougher the conditions the greater the benefit of training in them, baring inescapable accidents.”
“You completed in road cycling?”
“Yes, from the age of twelve until my second year of architectural studies when I needed to devote more time to swotting on architectural history and trends.”‘
“Did you win races. Yes.”
“Many?”
“Probably a couple of dozen.”
“And?”
“Four age-group female championships, two of those all-of-England championships when I was seventeen and twenty. Why are you so interested?
“Besides surfing, I ride in cycling club road races regularly.”
“Ah, I see. Well, I no longer even had a bike when I first met Nick and all my certificates and shields were up in the loft, along with a couple of cartons of cups and bowls. I saw no need to talk to him about cycling, believing the only sport he involved in was chasing the ladies and playing the occasional game of social soccer.”
“Yeah, well right. That’s my brother and now I’m beginning to understand why you are his exception. You know some nights when we continued with the red wine after dinner and mum and dad eventually would go to bed, he’d whine to me about you being the only decent female he’d ever associated with apart from me and mum and he was missing you.”
“Wow, he must have been drunk.”
“Not so, babe. I now know it was true. You may choose to ignore it, Ronni, but you are impressive in a number of ways, and knowledge about that is already emerging. Mum has really taken to you, and that’s real confirmation of what I just expressed.”
“Okay, I hear you but please Emma, don’t make me out to be what I’m not. Just keep in mind that I’m the young woman who came to Australia unable to swim.”
“Well, that cannot be ignored. Um, it appears you have a double degree?
“Actually, separate degrees in architecture and engineering structural design. And Emma, you are about to say something like I have the steady temperament to suit both professions?”
“Yes, the same steady and intelligent temperament fitting for both fields of practical creativity.”
“Wow, what a mouthful, darl. With that lot, it’s a wonder there was room for your splendid teeth.”
They laughed and hugged.
Ollie came over to retrieve the board.
“Thanks Ollie, this is my first friend in Australia who is Nick Creek’s adorable sister, the lovely Emma. She alleged to me that you really can surf.”
“There’s no harm in making reasonable allegations, um Ronni. I guess it’s Ronni is without the E?”
“Correct.”
“Hi, Emma. I’ve seen you around from time to time and with Nick who’s a great guy. I’ll take the board back now Ronni as I’m off, but ask me to give you tips whenever you wish. You sound as if you have arrived recently from England.”
“Too right, cobber,” Ronni said emphasising her accent.
“Ha, very recently methinks,” the guy in his mid-thirties laughed.
As they watched Ollie bandy-legged walk away, Emma muttered, “You have fantastic interpersonal relationship skills. Ollie must be wondering why you were talking to him so naturally instead of respecting him as one of our surfing kings.”
“I guess it’s because I grew up with a mother who extravagantly regards herself as royalty, although in lower line-up order. To me, she’s always been mum.”
They arrived home and found Hailey and the two men on lounging chairs beside the pool sharing Sunday newspapers amid breakfast leftovers.
They trio looked up muttering good morning and returned to reading and Emma announced theatrically, Ronni can half-swim already and Lena says she’ll be swimming as a credible learner by the end of tomorrow’s lesson. Dad, Lena said you have secured a treasure in recruiting Ronni to work for you and Nick, Lena said take Ronni out in the morning on her first surfing lesson and she’d be surfing reasonably well by lunchtime. Oh, she got Ollie Churchman to fetch her a board to practice getting her balance on the sand and she speaks to him as if he were the guy living next door.”
“That’s all good and congratulations, Ronni,” Hailey said expansively, while the two guys muttered great.
Hailey added, “I can’t understand why you regard Ollie with such reverence, Emma. He’s just a guy who happens to be good at something.”
“He became my pin-up boy when I began surfing in earnest,” Emma said quietly and Ronni pressed her new friend’s arm as if communicating she now understood why Emma held the top surfer in such high respect.
“Fetch us another round of coffee girls and then we’ll pile into the wagon and take Ronni on a tour of notable beaches and grab lunch while doing the rounds,” Tony said, not taking his eyes of the share market roundup stats for the week at Friday’s end of trading.
That night, Ronni slipped into Nick’s room.
“I had to come, I want to come, I must come,” she said as rehearsed.
“It had to be you who made the move to come,” he said. “Mom made me promise on the eve of your arrival that it would have to be you who made the first move as you should not be placed under pressure after a long and exhausting flight.”
Ronni dropped on to the bed beside him, kissed him heavily and reached for his dick to find that it didn’t require assistance to firm up for the tasks ahead.
“You have no idea what its like being without being dicked,” she sighed.
“I trust I never will be in the position to find out,” he laughed.
She said mortified, “What!”
Only then did she comprehend her comment was a double entendre. They folded some of the sheet over their mouths to muffle their mirth.
“Where do you want it,” said her deeply aroused lover.
“Over my tits; that will produce the quickest release for your benefit.”
“Omigod, comment like that makes you sound like the perfect fuck, and yet my memory of you from England was coming close to being compatible with the phrase, ‘What a dirty slut.”
“Omigod, the Australia bullshit is rolling out already!”
Nick’s sister woke them in the morning with coffee.
“I saw your bed hadn’t been slept in Ronni and guessed you’d be either with mum and dad, unlikely, or here,” Emma said, producing groans from her two targets. “Mum said last night if I found evidence that you two have been together carnally, that I was to tell you to move into the guest room today. Judging by the stink in this room, I am over-run by the evidence. May I join you?”
“Fuck off you typical over-sexed young Australian. After coffee, you have to take me to my swimming lesson and I have to go with you to the beach for breakfast and call Ollie Churchman over to talk to us to give you the chance to hit on him.”
“But Ollie lives with Sarah Skinner.”
“Darling, leave it to Ollie to make the choice, should he or should he not.”
“Fuck, Ronni, after a couple of years of busy hands-on experience, you should apply to the Faculty of Engineering at Sydney University for a lecturing job. You can be so persuasive and so hugely logical.”
There was silence, broken by Ronni who said, “You know Nick, that’s the first fucking sensible thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Brother and sister groaned, turning that into a nonsensical comment.
Ronni completed her second and final swimming lesson that morning before 7.10 am breakfast at the beach, by swimming the four widths continuously, albeit slowly, of the Olympic size pool. She then chatted enthusiastically to Lena about the beaches that she’d seen the previous day, saying she was blown away by the huge crowd at Bondi Beach and although the surf was puny, she caught the atmosphere and could see why it had a huge international reputation.
There was no sign of Ollie and only piddly surf so Ronni and Emma were home early.
At 8.15 Tony left with Ronni in his LandCruiser 300 for the factory to start her career in engineering design. Nick, who was the company’s director of new business, had gone off on his usually 7 am start. Emma was a high school teacher teach/coach of drama.
“I guess I should explain, Ronni, although you have been designated as the company’s first specific design engineer, you may be assigned other areas of responsibility from time to time.”
“So long as I’m not assign to managed morning and afternoon tea for executives and managers, I’m not likely to revolt over anything else.”
The expression on Tony’s face indicated that response was not appreciated, making her think had Hailey refused to roll over for him at dawn, or was he one of those mood-swingers when under pressure in working mode.
After 5.00, Ronni and Hailey were having coffee and Hailey said, “I guess it was back to reality for you today?”
“Yes, that statement was rather accurate. For me it was like picking up the shovel after the enormous adventure of journeying to the bold new frontier and finding it a little scary.”
“Scary?”
“Yes, the factory-based business was rather unlike any of the engineering-based works that I accumulated several months of field experience during my degree studies. But that’s all I should say at present because a ‘first look’ at anything does not necessary give an accurate picture.”
“Okay, let’s leave it for now,” Hailey said brightly, “I wouldn’t have helped by flinging Tony into a bad mood this morning at dawn by telling him I want him to buy me the latest model of Mercedes I drive. He’s always brought our cars on some sort of fleet deal through the company. I found that he’s returned to reviewing his long-held desire to upgrade aspects of the various company departments while attempting to do it principally out of cash flow, but each year he’s delayed doing anything, inflation has pushed up the cost by several notches.”
“Hmm, I guess that suggests the company is under-capitalised and that’s a common problem for companies that have continued to expand over the years but this is none of my business unless I push for it to be.”
“I agree. Tony might regard that as unnecessary interference, like that expressed by children when they say defensively, ‘You’re not going to play with my toys’.”
“I really don’t know anything about Tony’s management style, and Hailey you’ll understand that. I would appreciate if you didn’t mention to him my remark about under-capitalisation. I would prefer to bring that up when I become far more familiar with the business. I must say the volume of business through-put is hugely impressive but as yet I have no knowledge of production and distribution efficiencies and margins relating to raw materials and contracts. And I must say, nor is it my business to know.”
“But coming out fresh from university and being exposed to news trends and emerging ideas, Ronni, it is natural for you to want to become involved in innovation for a long-established company.”
“Ah, darl, I could counter that by saying that’s the last thing that Tony might want from me.”
“Yes, indeed, tread softly, softly as they say. I, as a long-established surgeon and head of my department, pose a similar problem to trainee graduates brimming with information and theories relating to innovation. Just be aware, softly, softly.”
“I hear you, Hailey. Um, I work Monday to Friday and was wondering about Saturday shopping?”
“Yes, I’ve thought about that. I usually shop Saturday mornings with two girlfriends ending with a café lunch. I think you should join us this Saturday.”
“Um, will they…”
“I see them both for coffee on Wednesdays and shall say this gorgeous young woman from England is staying with us and they are almost certain to suggest she shop with us this Saturday and if they don’t, I’ll suggest you should be invited to join us.”
“Brilliant, Hailey. You are so kind. Will you now join me in the pool and give me some tips on how to accelerate my progress. Emma told me you represented your university in inter-university swim championships.”
“Indeed, I did and I guess that suggests you and I should spend some time in the pool over the next couple of weeks without the distraction of anyone else in the water.”
* * *
Ronni had seen an artist’s impression of the factory of an annual report that Tony had sent her in England, and the same illustration was featured on the company’s website. But she was hugely disappointed with the reality. Her impression was progressive improvement and yes, innovation/modernisation, to the factory had generally ceased about thirty years ago.
She’d noticed modern processing machinery in places during her walk-through but suspected most of that would have been replacements to worn-out machinery or in some cases the need to replace due to new innovations in processing economics and flexibility.
Ronni was already forming ideas of what could be done to introduce innovations, but as Hailey had warned her, slowly, slowly. This was only Day One for her with the company.
Another concern for Ronni was her relationship with Nick. At home so far, he went out more without her than with her and there was little in his friendship with her that suggested courting, which was a rather dated concept but nevertheless, a little of the attention and warmth that it suggested would be appreciated. She was startled to think the real warmth came from Emma and Hailey, especially Emma.
Therefore, her suspicion that Emma might be developing the hots for her intensified when Emma bounded home after work and being at the gym. She grabbed Ronni who came into the kitchen to welcome her and kissed her hugely on the mouth and Ronni felt Emma’s right hand slide down and over her hip and a hand clench a chunk of butt, only momentarily before Emma turned to attend to the coffee machine. But the connection traced in outline the movement of a lover.
Holy shit!
Ronni thought it best to make no comment and just as well, because Emma didn’t either.
“How was your first day in that relic from the twentieth century?”
“That’s surprising to me that you should describe it like that.”
“Why?”
“Because anyone even without a trained eye just might agree with you. I mean it’s smack in a light industrial area peppered with many eye-catching late-comer plants. So, what is your opinion?”
“Reserved.”
“Spoken like a conservative engineer.”
“If I was to be critical, I’d want to be sure of the facts in my dissertation.”
“Gosh, darl, where has that delightful, out-going and emotionally-primed side to you gone?”
“Those interpreted features remain and as you corrected stated, it is a side to me. I was just responding via my professional side.”
Emma then practically stunned her companion.
“Ronni, I’m bi-sexual socially.”
“What?”
“It’s only fair that you know because I’m becoming hugely attracted to you. I just indicated by kissing you fully on the mouth and I noticed intently that you didn’t move away and exhibit repulsion.”
“Well, Emma, how could I be repulsed by you. You’re a real babe and super friendly. You have been so lovely to me.”
“Omigod, are you saying you approve of my attraction?”
“Emma, let’s get this out in the open, just between you and me. I’m being fucked by your brother and I have no intention of having capers in sex with you.”
Emma said calmly, “I understand your feelings at this moment darl, but when you get over the shock of disclosure, you may begin to see things a little more rationally. For example, how much softer, giving and sweeter smelling that I am compared with my brother, but let’s drop this for the moment, Coffee?”
“Ah, err, yes please.”
“Fine, go out on the patio and join mum. I’ll bring out coffee and biscuits.”
Ronni went out on to the patio not knowing what to think.
* * *
Next morning, Emma woke Ronni up opening the bedroom window and making her giggle by saying, “Christ, this room stinks.”
“Yeah, your brother came home last night with a skinful and promptly vomited on to the wood floor that he hasn’t cleaned up yet.”
“The pig. It’s almost 6.00 — want to come with me on an hour’s slow run.”
“Yes, but I’m out of shape and may not last the distance.”
“You will as I’m willing to take a couple of breathers. Have a quick pee, throw some light clothes on and off we go. You can do your teeth and basic make-out after showering on our return.”
They did some road running and then beach running and no mention was made about sex and they had no reason to kiss.
Coming off the beach they sat and had coffee before running the short distance to the house.
“We can do this every week day morning if you wish.”
“I’d like the thought of that provided I don’t have a huge hangover, Emma. Why this fitness regime for me?”
“Because Nick intends beginning your surfing coaching this evening and then every other evening unless something socially irresistible comes up. Surfing can sap your strength when it’s all on.”
“He hasn’t said anything to me about beginning coaching me.”
“Guys are like that, darl. Mum asked him when and he told her. Just don’t allow him to treat you off-handed like that.”
At work, the small team in the design and specifications department were surprised, indeed impressed, to find that Ronni was a graduate in architecture as well as structural design. Nothing had been posted about her and she’d only been introduced to department heads and managers that she’d be working with. She fixed that by writing out a brief bio and mentioning the fact that she’d been recruited while in England where she’d struck up a friendship with Nick who had graduated from the same university.
Ronni gave the bio together with a pic of yourself to Tony’s PA with the request that she get Tony to read it and approved it for posting on the company’s website. It was posted exactly as Ronni had presented it, which pleased her. Internal communication was one area within the business that obviously was overdue for an overhaul.
Tony said to Ronni driving her to the factory next morning, “I have a sneaky feeling that you might think we are a mite slack on internal communications.”
“Yes, perhaps a tad or more,”
“Right,”
Ronni thought no need to comment further just now as the point had been made.
“Tony, I’ve come into your outfit with more than a little experience in inspecting metal design and fabrication factories in England. Because I’ve arrived as a fresh face and having been exposed to the latest ideas and trends on the other side of the globe, why don’t you suggest that I take a couple of days to study and report to your comprehensively on my appraisal on the operation you have here and perhaps include some constructive ideas about what could be done in the way of change in the short term.”
“Hmm, go with those suggestions providing the report goes only to me.”
“Fair enough. Then because it involves that level of confidentially, could I be privy to the company’s published and unpublished financials including financial reserves and work information as I see relevant into my comprehensive report, making it more or less like a suggest blue print for the future direction of the company,”
“You are making me nervous, Ronni.”
“Only you and I will be aware of anything I’m rabbiting on about, unless you decided otherwise.”
“Yes, but we all know what happens when a can of worms…”
“All I’m asking is be brave and open-minded, as least initially Tony. What harm can that do?”
“You are so fucking persuasive, Ronni.”
“Which is one of the assets in the package that you inherited when you decided to employ me, pal.”
“Bloody oath,” he enthused. “After all, what we are talking about is merely a bunch of words on paper.”
“And don’t overlook the fact that I might come up with a somewhat appealing suggestion of attracting private British investment,” Ronni said, remembering hearing her father say to her mother that he and his friends were beginning to talk about switching some of their cash investment to the Southern Hemisphere.
“Now you’re talking Ronni. That is what I regard as innovative thinking. Please explain.”
“Rein in your enthusiasm, boss. Wait to read all about it presented in logical and interwoven order.”
“Hmm, you are beginning to give me a headache. I’ll get a memo out to all department heads and mainline managers. When do you wish to do this survey.?”
“Thursday and Friday of this week.”
“Fuck, that soon!”
“Why allow the cobwebs to grow, Tony?”
His response was to rudely belch and sigh.
Ronni returned home at 4.40 that afternoon and just after 5.00 she went with a run with Emma. As organized by Emma, Nick met then at the beach where they finished their run with three surf boards suspended over the tray of his pick-up.
Ollie ambled over to chat with them and soon Ronni said, “Ollie, I’ll leave you chatting to Emma if I may because Nick is here to take me on my first lesson as a surfing greenhorn.”
“Okay, but why the safety zest when the waters out there this evening are fairly placid?”
“It’s because I’m also learning to swim.”
“Christ, lady you’re big into everything up to your tits.”
Ronni belatedly joined into the laughing as everyone else appeared to think that comment was hilarious. She noticed Emma quietly adjusting the built-in bra of her bikini as she prepared to have Ollie to herself, conversationally. Ronni hoped Ollie would remember he was married.
They arrived home from the beach and Hailey rushed out and hugged and kissed Ronni and sneakily rubbed butt out of sight of others.
“How did surf coaching go, darling. I was worried that you would be exhausted doing that strenuous activity after running for an hour in this heat?”
“Mum, she proved to be better that being able to surf by lunch time. The small waves had quite a bit of energy and Ronni rode in five wavelets on her knees on the board and we worked more on balance and feet and hip positions and I sent her out further and she made several tumbles and then fucking rode in the three last attempts. You ought to have seen her face on his first successful upright ride,” enthused her coach proudly.
Hailey kissed Ronni wetly and, feeling somewhat like a paper heroine, Ronni was almost flattered that a married woman of two adult children should kiss her so suggestively.
She thought, well, they were sporty Australians, weren’t they!
Emma arrived home and said to Ronni, sounding somewhat relieved, that Ollie hadn’t hit on her. Her imagine of him remained intact.
Chapter 5
On Saturday morning, Nick and Ronni left in Nick’s pick-up with two of Nick’s and Ronni’s boards lashed on the for’ and aft across aluminium pipe supports at the ends of the tray for a drive of about three hours up along the eastern seaboard to a beach where they would meet other people that Rick often surfed with.
Ronni was becoming used to these 6 am or even earlier starts. In England, she’d rarely rose before 7.30. They hadn’t had breakfast, just a quick machine coffee as Rick said they’d stop at a roadside place for brekkie at 8.00 or later.
“You’ll find the waves at this beach in this wind-set today much steeper and far more powerful than you’ve experienced so far. If you get swept off your board, don’t panic; all you have to do is stay afloat. Until midday, the light buoyancy of your vest and the incoming tide will sweep you ashore. After around 12.30, should you and the board part, you could be swept out to sea but not to panic. Everyone in our group of thirty or even double that number will keep an eye on you, knowing that you are the Pommie newbie who has guts to try to start assimilating upon arrival in Oz.”
“Surely they all won’t think like that.”
“True, there’s always a couple of dummies in any group.
“Um, don’t expect everyone to be polite and considerate as if they were on a Sunday school picnic.”
“You are saying to expect them to be almost as foul, inconsiderate and disrespectful as the typical crew on the factory floor or any structural fabrication outfit?”
“Yeah babe, I’m beginning to see why mum and Emma regard you with some awe,” Nick chuckled. “Oh, all the guys gathered will surf, but only some of the females will, while the others are either too timid or are really there to be fucked by whoever and whenever. When sitting on the beach kept looking out to sea rather than what’s going on behind you and you’ll think you are on a Sunday School picnic.”
Ronni actually met some very nice male and females while there were also some that her mother would instantly label in disgust as scum.
Everyone drank water or beer, perhaps both and some coffee flasks appeared around noon when people began having early lunch because the waves had lost their edge due to the tidal change.
By mid-afternoon, Ronni was exhausted because the larger waves of the morning had returned again to give her a battering while mainly successfully fighting to stay on her board and it required considerable effort to get out again through incoming surf.
She dozed off for a while and when awaking, she looked around for Rick and saw he was busily engaged a little way behind their position. She was disgusted to see he and a guy called Barney were double-banging a female she’d not noticed before.
Angrily, she gathering her things apart from her board that she left beside Rick’s board and scrawled a note for him, ‘Gone home, disgusted with you, you pig.’
She barely began walking up the half-mile beach access road to the main road when a car stopped and a young woman she recognised as a primary school teacher Helen Clough called, “Want a lift, Ronni?”
Naturally, Ronni said yes.
“Are you disgusted at Rick’s selfish behaviour?”
“Yeah, and thanks for the offer of a lift. Anywhere on the North Shore will do.”
“I’ll take you right to your door as Mike and I flat about 300 yards beyond Rick’s parent’s place. The first time I saw Mike sticking it up some slut’s butt I almost vomited and yelled him out that no way would I marry him. But he gradually got me to accept that a guy has to do what a guy has to do and suggested I take his car when the party began to become boisterous and he’d get a lift home with one of his mates. Several of the wives and girlfriends have a similar arrangement and Lucy Orange actually stays to be fucked by whoever while her straight fiancée goes home early.”
Unable to help herself, Ronni began giggling, setting off her driver.
“Omigod, our generation of females is becoming far too permissive in various sense of the word,” Helen said, whipping the tears of excessive laughter from her eyes.
Ronni found no one home when she arrived home with Helen. They had coffee under the shade of palms at the western end of the pool and after Helen departed, Ronni went back to her lounger, stretched out and went to sleep.
She awoke late afternoon to find Emma stretched out right up beside her, blowing gently on to her face.
“Hi darling Ronni.”
“Hi, darling.”
“Did you find anything dangerous, exciting or disgusting about local Australian surf culture.”
“Yeah, babe. I almost crapped myself when I saw a dark shape glide up ahead of me when I was paddling back out after one glorious and mind-blowing ride which including some small but successful intended changes of direction and met a few lovely people. And then mid-afternoon I awoke from a shortish nap and saw Rick with another guy banging some slut and so I walked out on him, leaving him a short and scathing note.”
“He’ll expect you to get over that disgust.”
“Well, that leaves me in a pickle, because I don’t believe I ever will.”
“Damn.”
“I’ll survive. I’m under immigration contract to your father and so at least I’ll hold my job. A good thing happened after that. I barely got off the beach when an outward-going car stopped and a female I’d met in the morning, Helen Clough, offered me a lift home and she said she’d take me right to my door.”
“Ah, how fortunate. Helen is a lovely person and we often meet in a weekend coffee group. She’s a local school-teacher and originates from New Zealand. She marries soon and continues to let her fiancé sow his oats, as the guys call it. Tell me, are you going to dump my brother?”
“He’s probably already got the message and he’ll get the confirmation when he returns home and finds I’m back into my original room and that I refuse to accept his apology.”
“Hmm, this will be a little awkward for you for a while.”
“Yes, I expect so. I wonder if you are interested in this idea; what say you and I go flatting together?”
“What as, nuns?”
“As close friends of course, and um possibly more.”
“Have you had experience with same-sex sex?
“Yes, in my first year at university. A few of us females believed it was the safest way to go with all these male arseholes rushing about fucking anything that moved.”
They giggled at the pictures that comment suggested.
“Yes, let’s go flatting. The thought of having your tongue sweeping slowly up my long tanned and hairless less makes me feel like I’m going cross-eyed, Ronni. And here’s a couple of things of possible interest.
Mom had at least two close friends who work for on letting properties for local real estate agencies. And now this is for your ears only: mum and I occasionally get into the mood and play around rather lavishly and it’s most likely she would welcome the opportunity of a threesome, particularly if it were you.”
“Wow, a really bit WOW.”
“Yeah, and I can easily find you very acceptable guys to ensure that you don’t feel you are becoming deprived of hot driving dick.”
“Omigod, am I about to enter Utopia,” Ronni sighed, reaching out and extending a finger that Emma captured and began slowly sucking while gazing into Ronni’s eyes intently.
The End