No vehicles had gone by in either direction for over 45 minutes. The sun was starting to go behind the hills and I was thirsty.
I got out my stove collected water from the creek near by and started a brew of
Earl Grey with two sugars.
The water was just starting to bubble when a car pulled up, a rather fine lady in her late forties got out and came round to stand in front of me and said “Well you look like you’ve given up trying for a lift. Tell you what, you make me a cup of tea, I might make you an offer you can’t refuse”
“Well if you don’t mind waiting a while longer I’ll put some more water in my pot and we can have tea together" I replied "And what might your offer be? Come sit down and we shall talk while I get the water”.
I went to the creek and fetched more water, when I returned I introduced myself and we shook hands, and as we did I noticed a sparkle in her eye as she said her name “I’m Roseanne, but you can call me Rose”
We sat together on the grass in the shading light exchanging brief histories. Finally the water came to the boil I put in fresh tea bag, I gave Rose my tin mug and I drank from my cooking pot.
Rose’s proposition was that she needed a hand on her small holding, she couldn’t afford to pay wages but would give me bed and board and somewhere to call home for a week or two. I accepted her offer, when we had finished our tea, we got into her old clapped out estate car and headed off up a dirt track for 15 klm, that lead to her house and organic farm.
Over the course of the next few days we got to know one another, working hard from dawn to dusk we talked about everything.
Rose had a daughter at boarding school, she was just 18 and in her last term. The school fees were payed for by Roses ex-husband, but Rose got no other money from him.
Our conversation always seemed to get around to the battle of the sexes; Rose was very bitter about men and at times took her anger out on me. Until one day whilst we were struggling ... Læs hele novellen
