A bit about distraction from Swiss Army Knife & Green Bicycle

Throughout the day I had just enjoyed Corinne's company, I had no preconception of where anything was going. I had a large room in the house across the glass walkway. I let Corinne take my double bed and being a gentlemen, laid a mattress beside it as Corinne showered. Because she hadn't planned, or at least prepared, to stay the night, she had washed her underwear in the shower. She had a t-shirt on, which went down to her upper thighs. This showed more of her feminine form.

“Are you going to keep the fire on?” She asked. “It may get too hot in the evening”.

The evenings were now very cold and I had cranked up the stove which sat in the middle of the room.

I shut off the vent.

She held up her underwear, “I have had to wash these. Is it okay if I dry them by the stove?”

“That's fine” I said. “You can sleep in the double bed”, I added, “I can go on the mattress on the floor”.

Corrine climbed into bed, “That is okay” she said with a smile.

I turned the light off, then went to my mattress which sat beside the other bed. I sat in a meditative position, Corinne rolled onto her side to watch me.

“I am going to do some meditation”, I said.

“Okay”, she said.

I was driven to distraction, but I tried to focus on my breath and sensations around my body. I felt Corinne's presence in the room, almost hear her breath. After ten minutes I gave up.

“Have you finished?” She asked.

“Yes”.

We chatted for a while, Corinne, coming closer to my mattress, she dangled her hand over the side after a while ours hands met, she pulled me towards here bed.

Her lips were warm, he thighs warm. She had nothing on under her t-shirt.

“Hold on a moment”. I said. I went over to the tram conductors coat hanging in the cupboard and retrieved the condom. I realised there were two joined together so I tore them apart. It must have been one lively tram route I thought.

I returned to bed, and she was ready for me, drawing me between her thighs.

“How do you have this ready?” She asked inquisitively.

“It was in the tram conductor's coat that Evan gave me.”

“Who is Evan?” He used to be a tram conductor.

“Oh”, she said.

After a few minutes she gently pushed me off of her. I pulled off the condom and we held each other and kissed and stroked each other's hair for most of the night. By dawn we had only just dozed off.

“I thought we may have gone for longer last night” she said.

“So did I”. I said.

“I thought you had come.”

“No.”

“Shall we do it again?”

“Yes”.

I returned to the tram conductor's coat and retrieved the last condom.

By the time we had finished, the cleaner had entered the room. She did not look at us lying on the mattress next to the bed, nor say anything to us, she just went to the cupboard to get the vacuum cleaner out, then left us alone again.

“I better get up and do something.” I said to Corinne.

I went to the toilet, but nothing was coming out into the bowl, I looked down and realised that I hadn't removed the condom which was quickly filling up with pee. I removed it and then dumped it in the toilet, realising as I flushed that this was a bad idea as it would probably block up the system. I didn't know if they were on mains sewage out here, I hoped for the best.

I let the goats out of their box, they would soon be to big for their little overnight shelter. They bleated and hopped around like idiots. Peter had been off interstate overnight and he was due to return in a couple of hours, but Bev gave me a list of things he wanted done. I took Corinne down for breakfast in the main house overlooking the valley, it was sunny. A flock of galahs and cockatoos screeched under the big gum tree out front. Bev and Peter gave them birdseed every morning. Tilly the kangaroo was also amongst them, and Doug the dog and Jessie sat on the warm bricks outside the window. The choral tunes of magpies came from the top balcony of the house and a couple of kookaburras and butcher birds flew around collecting the minced beef that Bev had thrown around the place. It was a magical place. I left Corinne to help with the breakfast dishes and to chat with Bev as I did the rounds of the farm with Doug, Jessie and Tilly the kangaroo. I tethered the two little goats near some blackberries. Corinne joined me around 10 as I was digging up potatoes by one of the little dams. She sat and watched me work. Peter drove up the driveway and gave a wave as he past us. I got a couple of potatoes out of the ground and took them up to the house as Corinne squatted by the dam looking north to the hills and Kinglake.

I brought back some callistimons, tea trees and wattles that Peter wanted to plant by one of his sheds. He did some advertising for some shed company, so he had a few sheds about the place which the council didn't know about. They also had this meditation platform at the top of a hill, which, to satisfy the council, they had called a fire watch area. It was cool and had a little trap door underneath. It wasn't quite round, more octagonal. All the walls were made of glass so you could get a 360 degree view of the landscape. Peter and Bev drove past us on the Honda motorbike, Bev was one the back with both her arms held out, each holding a china cup one with the chicory coffee that Peter drank and the other with one of the herbal blends, which had names like Lemon Zesty and Sleepytime, that Bev liked.

“G'day”. Said Peter with his charming prince-like smile.

“G'day” I said, standing up from the patch of long grass that was clearing away.

“This will look nice when it's done”, he said, still smiling, then they rode off up the hill to the meditation tower.

“Do they Scientology?” Asked Corinne suspiciously.

“Nuh, they are just into meditation and stuff.”

“Are you certain? There were some Scientology people in Switzerland. It was like some cult”.

“I don't think they are into any cult, just round pink houses and trees, and that dude with the big afro. I better get back to Melbourne some time she added.”

I didn't want her to go, but the family she was staying with were probably wondering where she had got to. Bev was going into Hurstbridge to do some shopping, so in the end I just let her drop Corinne off at the station. Bev had insisted that she stay out with us on the farm so I didn't even have to invite her back. She left her green Peugeot bicycle which had a large brown seat and little number plate from her town of Elgg in Switzerland. The plan was she would get her stuff and come back the next day, Bev would pick her up again the next day.

By the early evening I was totally buggered, I had only had a few hours sleep over the last few days. Following dinner I went to my room and sat and tried to meditate. After a ten minutes I crashed into a deep sleep.

“John”, said Bev at my bedroom door around 10.

“Yeah?” I said half asleep.

“The phone's for you.”

“Oh.” I said.

I raised my head. I tried to get up but my eyes would not open and muscles gave in and I fell back to sleep instantaneously. A few minutes later I was awoken again.

“John,” came Bev's voice again, “the phone”.

“Oh,” I said again, “Sorry, I thought I was dreaming.”

“No, it's Corinne”.

“Thanks, sorry about that”. The Brocks tended to crash early, and everyone, except Corinne, knew not to call them after 8.30.

I got up and went down into the TV/ Meditation room next my bedroom. Bev took yoga classes there twice a week and she usually burnt nice oils in there to create a nice atmosphere. James and his mates somethings smoked pot in there on the weekends which Bev wasn't too happy about.

“Hello”. I said.

“Hello”, said Corinne, “You did not come to the phone straight away”, she said.

“I fell asleep. It's late”.

“Oh, I thought you didn't want to speak to me.” She sniffled, she had been crying.

“What's up ?”

She sobbed as she spoke, “the family stay people got upset at me because I did not tell them I was staying out at the farm. I am a grown woman I am not used to having to tell people where I am going. I argued with the woman and then I have been walking around Melbourne. Can I come out to stay with you tonight.”

“Oh, where are you?”

“I do not know, some place in Hawthorne.”

“You probably won't have time to get a train out tonight, and I have no way of collecting you, there are no lights on the road out here and I only have the bicycle.”

“Oh,” she said sadly.

“I could try I suppose.”

She cried a little.

“Are you able to stay there one more night there?” I asked.

“I suppose so.” She whimpered.

“Then you can come and stay here.”

“That would be good”.

“Is that okay?”

“Yes, that would be okay”. Her sobs seemed to be petering out.

We spoke a little longer, mainly just reassurances that she would be okay and that we would be able to see each other tomorrow.

She seemed so innocent and vulnerable, a poor Swiss girl, stuck in Hawthorn with no place to go. But she ended up surviving the night and made some amends with the family stay, though she would still insist that she didn't have to tell them where she was going or when she would be back – even though she would never be back there again. They were a bit worried that Corinne had indicated that she would be staying out with the Brock. I don't know what they thought, maybe that they'd get her into Scientology or something. By late morning the next day she showed up at Hurtsbridge railway station, with a backpack full of fresh underwear and Swiss chocolate, which she couldn't help notice, was not available in the Brock's walk in pantry. On my suggestion, she also had a new box of condoms, I had also got a packet that morning when I quickly popped into town on Peter's bike just after breakfast, so we were well stocked.

The sun had gone behind some clouds. I had done most of my jobs by the time Corrine arrived. She tried to help plant some trees just after lunch, but being an architect she was a bit hopeless with anything practical and I had to stop and dig her holes for her, then help her put the trees in, then help put the stakes in for the plastic tree guards and then help put the mulch around them and go fetch the water from the dam to water them in. I could see she was not going to speed up my work.

It was getting a little bit windy. Peter's dad, Geoff, who lived in another, smaller, but still round, pink house down the driveway a bit from Bev and Peter's, with his second wife, Rosie I think her name was, came walking past. No one seemed to like his wife that much and the consensus seemed to be that she was a bit of an annoying gold-digger. Geoff had cancer, I wasn't sure if anyone had told me at this stage, but some time the year later he was dead so he probably knew. Geoff was always providing me with advice. Unlike Peter, he knew about farming. The Brock family had been farming the area for a while and one of the roads around there was called Brock road, though it was hard place to find because yobbos used to steal the sign all the time as a souvenir. They also kept stealing their mailbox and wheely bin. If they know that Peter just left all his memorabilia unlocked in one of the sheds in the paddock, they probably would have nicked that too.

“There's going to be a bit of wind and rain this year.” Geoff said. “I can feel it”. Geoff hated the wind and as he said this a small gust of wind past us and his body tensed up.

“Yeah.” I said.

Rosie came out onto their front veranda.

“Geoff, I've got some afternoon tea ready!” She yelled down. Her voice was annoying, as was the way she moved. She didn't fit into the Brock's picture, she was too normal.

I looked over at Corinne struggling with a tree guard.

“I can not do this, can you please help me?” she said like a helpless damsel smile beneath her dark hair that had blown across her face. She grabbed me and hugged me when I came near her, the sky was now quite dark. We kissed in the long grass.

“Maybe we could go for a ride?” She suggested.

After lunch we headed into the hills, we found some cafe somewhere about 7 or 8 kilometres up the road where they served scones. We had no map and no way of knowing where we were going. We ended up sitting on some rocks in a forest that looked out into a small valley, huddling together to keep warm.

“It's cold”. She said.

“It's winter, I thought you would be used to this weather in Switzerland.”

“Yes, but Australia is meant to be warm.”

I could sense where this was heading, we were going to have to go somewhere warm.

“Can we go somewhere warm?” She asked putting her arms around my arm and tucking her head close to my body.

“It's getting dark”, I said, we better be getting back.

Evening came quickly at this time of year. We got to some roads I recognised around 6, and headed back to the farm. We got back around 7, the last few k's were pitch black, so we had to ride slowly. Corinne was afraid the forest creatures would come out to attack us.

“There probably only kangaroos and wombats around here.” I said.

From the entrance to Doctor Gullys we could see the whole house was lit up. We dumped the bikes in the shed and went into the main house.

“I was worried that you might get lost.” Bev said. “So I turned all the lights on like a beacon”.

It was like coming home.

Bev had saved us some dinner. Peter was again away for the night at some Volvo do, he'd be back again in the morning. I explained to her that Corinne was cold, and that it was coming into winter so now might a good time to take a break up north for a few weeks.

“You have to grab life when you can.” She offered as advice.

“I'll come back.” I said.

“You can both live here if you like” she offered, “there's plenty of room”.

“we'll see”, I said and we both went off to bed. I was lying on top of her. We were both naked.

Corinne was still a little upset.

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“John, I have not been totally honest with you.”

“Oh”, I said.

“I have a boyfriend back in Switzerland.”

I was silent for a time.

“But we do not sleep together any more, we stay in separate rooms.”

“Oh, I see” I said. I was getting angry, she had distracted me from my work, now she told me that she had a boyfriend. I think I was more jealous than angry. I lay my head on her chest. Her breasts were large and round, he body so white. We lay together in silence for a while.

“Do you still want to go with me?” She asked patting my hair.

I thought about it. What right did I have to be jealous of her boyfriend? He was the one who should be upset.

“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked.

“Yes.” She said.

The next morning Corinne got on the phone and organised an overnight train to Sydney. It left some time in the late afternoon of the next day. Bev offered to take us into Hurstbridge after lunch, and also to lend me their backpack, and had all my clothes washed and ironed by the ironing lady (who was the same as the cleaning lady, who just came in a couple of days a week, just so you don't get the idea that there was a whole array of staff out there). She also gave me the money for the last week's work. I think she was pretty generous as I hadn't actually done a lot, but obviously as long as I placated Peter 'the Farmer' it seemed to be okay.

Whilst this was going on Peter and I puddled around planting a few trees and doing hobby farmer kind of stuff. I had a lot of respect for the bloke. Bev told me how he used to smoke and drink.

“Really?” I said.

“Well, he was sponsored by Malboro cigarettes at some stage”, she said, expecting me to have had a least a basic knowledge of Peter's career. But, apart from Bathurst, and knowing he was really well known, and the ex-flavoured milk model, I really had no idea, and prior to coming to the farm, absolutely no interest in car racing.

As we pottered about Peter reiterated that we could both stay and live on the farm.

“I know”, I said, “Bev suggested that earlier. But I'm going to get distracted, it takes me three times as long to do anything when Corinne is here. I want to be able focus on my work here”

“Well, you've got to take what the universe presents you” he said, or words to that affect.

I felt touched. Yeah, I thought, it's all about the universe.

That night, as I lay my head on Corinne's chest, I listened to the Nutfield wind.

We were both naked again.

“Do husbands and wives in Australia always sleep together naked?”

“I suppose. It depends I guess”. I said.

“My boyfriend does not come to bed naked.” She said. And this time I was not all jealous. I felt nothing but the warm bond between us, but I knew it would not be an easy relationship, and from the start I knew that we would not end up together and that I would have to accept the impermanence of it.