Part 1: The tail tale

~ PART 1 ~1

“Ring, ring - ring” The phone began to echo in Maxine Crow’s ear; she at once awoken from her slumber on her patched sofa. She didn’t want to wake up but then again a phone always has to be answered – it is a machine beckoning us to cradle its hand. 2

She drew herself up off the couch and stumbled to the phone. She picked up the receiver and in a very sleepy tone she answered ‘Hello?’3

‘Wakey wakey’ taunted the caller, ‘Working in a corporate office doesn’t earn you enough sleep?’4

‘Very funny Ash’ she said draining her coffee mug from the night before. ‘Why did you wake me up so early anyway?’5

‘Early?’ Ash laughed, ‘its twenty past ten – that’s not in my mind of early, anyway it is I that should be tired – it is past eleven at night’6

‘Well what I really have to say is that I am planning a camping trip down into the West-East areas and I was wondering -’ he paused, ‘you do like camping don’t you Max?’7

‘Yeah’, she yawned getting the final infection of sleep wiped from her brain, ‘I guess I do’8

‘Would you like to come on a trip with me? - A camping tip of course but none the less’9

‘That’s very nice for you but I can’t just pack up my bags and leave my state let alone my country without warning my work’10

‘Don’t worry about it Max - The trip won’t be up here in the UK – I’m coming back to Tasmania!’ 11

‘Oh My god!’ screamed Maxine into the end of the phone extremely excited, ‘I get to see my best mate again!’12

She pulled up her sleeve and looked at the golden face of her watch; it read 11.05 and that would only leave five minutes till Ash was to be ‘officially’ in Tasmania. ‘I wonder where he is? Is he here yet?’ she thought panicking, ‘Or maybe I have the times wrong – oh why oh why didn’t I carry the times with me!’13

She walked through the metal detector and into the boxed-like windowed room overlooking the runway. The thick pains of glass almost looked like sheets of ice steaming on such a rainy day. She pressed her forehead up against the glass and looked through the rain across the tar. ‘Where is he?’ No planes had come in – none had gone out since she arrived - or at least she thought.14

“Flight 19 has arrived’ noted a women over the speakers with a professionally monotone voice.15

‘Hang on –‘ thought Maxine, ‘that would mean Ash would be here?’16

‘Qantas apologies for the late notice – Thank you’17

‘That explains everything’, she said allowed and about ten people around her just looked up from their newspapers – she simply ignored the curious eyes and walked to the other side of the terminal with a light foot. 18

‘Where is he?’ repeated the words in her mind. 19

‘Boo’ 20

‘AHH!’ Maxine turned around and there was Ash laughing his head off at the amusingly scared face she had given when she jumped.21

He took off his sunnies and gave her a great big bear hug, ‘Trust you to jump Max’ he chuckled, ‘Next time don’t jump on my toe’. He stepped back tapping his sore foot on the linoleum flooring’22

‘Sorry about that’ she apologized, ‘so how was the plane trip?’23

‘He tapped his stomach, ‘Well we didn’t crash – I didn’t hyperventilate, I guess that’s good, but the food was absolutely terrible’.24

‘Ha-ha - They are never good Ash’, she replied25

‘Well guess whose taking their own food on the way back’.26

‘Nice place you have here Max’ he said looking around the lounge room.27

‘Sure thing, you are probably living in Buckingham palace no doubt – made your way into the kitchens of the Queen eh?’ she laughed.28

They had arrived at Maxine’s house in the city after a long car trip that seemed so short after the talking they had done. They caught up on all the little things that friends always find more interesting than the average Tom, Dick and Harry. 29

Ash dropped his suitcases onto the lounge room carpet releasing his hands from their pressure, ‘Don’t I wish - More like the kitchens of a pub’.30

Maxine brought in two freshly made coffees from the kitchen into the lounge room where she took a seat on the couch and Ash sat down on a footstool a few feet away.31

‘You don’t drink anymore do you Ash? I thought you got over that stage in your life’, she said with a fresh look of worriment on her brow.32

‘I have – don’t fret’, he assured her, ‘It’s just really hard to get a job in the place where I live’. He sipped deeply from his mug.33

Ash looked up on the rose coloured walls; he found his eyes wondering upon a picture of class of 2000 inside a frame of blue, ‘Hey that’s us!’ he said wondering over it. He ran his fingers over his smiling face and laughed at his black suit and purple shirt.34

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Maxine standing up with her mug cupped in her hands.35

‘This’ Ash replied beckoning her over, ‘Look at me, I cant believe I wore a purple shirt with black’.36

‘Oh believe me, you thought it was a good idea at the time. She pointed herself out, ‘My hair is just as bad as your shirt - it looks like I had stuck my head outside of a speeding car for an hour’.37

The both laughed and returned to their seats.38

They had both changed a lot since their high school days, they were no longer sixteen but twenty-one and they had more responsibilities but they still had to light hearts they had before. Maxine’s hair was no longer a dark brown but had turned to a lighter shade of brown from her recent trip to Queensland and she was more tanned than before. Her looked aged – she had worked so much at the office to get that promotion the boss wanted to hand out to his employees that that she had become stressed and tense. She noticed having her friends Ash with her always made life seem that much easier.39

Ash had dies his hair black but the regrowth of his blonde hair was starting to sprout through. He wasn’t that big for a guy of his age but nor was he small – he was that in-between height that made him feel normal in such a hectic world. He hadn’t become stressed since he left college (of which Maxine had attended too) he had decided to travel overseas and live the days of his young life to the full – well as far as his rich Dad’s card could extend to. 40

Maxine picked up the newspaper beside her and looked at the front page, ‘Do you think there are any of those thylacines left Ash?’ 41

Ash had his eyes glued to the graduation photo his friends and himself, ‘Hey – you don’t look like you had stuck you head outside a car window for an hour …  more like an airplane’42