Chapter 4
I needed space.I needed to get my head around these living arrangements. The last woman I’d shared a house with was my wife, now ex-wife. She’d left five years ago. And kids? My brother had two but I had none of my own. His house was like bedlam some days. I imagined it was the same here with those two kids I saw earlier.
Uncomfortable didn’t begin to describe how I was feeling. If you added in a little fear, that’d be closer to the mark. I’d never had children for a reason. I liked them well enough. But being a father was not in the cards for me. Not with my father’s genes running through my blood.
“Would you like a tour of the town?” Jasmine asked after she finished showing me around the house. She smiled, but her serious brown eyes were studying me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
“No, that’s OK. I’ll just go for a short walk to stretch my legs.”
She nodded. “Well, you can’t get lost. There’s only one road in and out.”
I made my way down the stairs. Directly across the dirt road was a sandy beach. And beyond that the bay stretched into the distance, the water a soft fusion of dark blue and azure. It was a stunning October day—sunny with a slight breeze that didn’t chill to the bone. I absorbed it all, tension leaving my shoulders. I glanced back at the porch. It looked like it was set up to enjoy the scenery and ambience, with chairs looking out over the beach and a hammock as well.
I was certain Jasmine was a single mom. She hadn’t mentioned a partner and the photos I’d seen on the living room wall were of her and the two children. Did it matter? I didn’t know. She made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t anything she’d done specifically. Perhaps it was the way she looked at me like I was a specimen whenever she spoke.
I laughed to myself. I’d been accused of the same thing many a time. I always thought it was because of the scientist in me. According to the department, Jasmine wasn’t a scientist though. What was she trying to figure out?
This housing situation was not ideal. How was I going to conduct my research and complete my dissertation under these conditions? There was no space here for me to have a permanent set up. Maybe I could squeeze a desk into my room. That would give me some sort of separation from the rest of the house at least. I nodded to myself as I kept walking.
A young woman with blonde hair up in a messy bun was setting out flags next to the café as I passed. She gave me a wave and a smile. The two people at the general store were finished with their sand duty. I walked up the stairs, curious to see what the one store in town sold. Light laughter flitted up from the beach. I glanced over my shoulder. The two children from earlier were running across the sand with the kitten.
The bell above the door rang as I entered. The man at the counter lifted his eyes from the newspaper he was reading. A peal of laughter followed me through the door. His attention turned to the children, looking at them with a small smile before his gaze settled back on me. “How can I help you today?”
“I was just curious to see what you sell,” I told him.
He inclined his chin. “Ethan Shaw? The new ranger?”
“Yes.” How did he know?
“Lily,” he called out toward the back of the shop. “Come and meet Ethan.” He turned to me and gestured out the window. “You’ll never have a dull moment with those two.”
I imagined not. They seemed as free as the sea breeze that tugged at their brown hair. The boy—Bailey?—lifted the kitten onto a paddle board on the sand and swayed it from side to side. The kitten lowered its centre of gravity, stabilising itself. Once it had had enough, it jumped off. The boy gave it a gentle pat.
“Rose had her heart set on a kitten,” a woman said. “So, they got Timmy. That kitten hardly leaves their side.”
Rose placed the kitten on the board next, under the watchful eye of her brother. They were a lot calmer now than when I’d first seen them.
“I’m Lily,” the woman said, drawing my attention to her. Her curly greying hair and ready smile helped me relax. “And this is my husband, Jack. I bet he forgot to introduce himself.”
“Ethan. Nice to meet you both.”
Jack faced his wife. “Ethan came in to see what we stock.”
“I’ll give you the shortest tour in the name of short tours,” she said.
Lily walked me through the shop, telling me about the different products. It wasn’t large—two short aisles with shelves.
“We don’t hold much stock. There are only ten permanent residents in town. We do our shopping in Somewhere Bay.”
That made sense.
“We stock what we find the tourists are most in need of. Grey nomads like to support small local businesses, so we make sure we cater to them. We have a small book section where Jack sells his second-hand books.”
I cocked my head. “Grey nomads?”
“Retirees, travelling around Australia. We call them grey nomads because they’re older and often have grey hair.”
I nodded and glanced at the shelves as we walked past. There was long-life milk, pasta, toiletries, snacks. The freezer had bread, fries and vegetables.
“Sara lives next door. She’s a part-time teacher in Somewhere Bay and operates the fish and chip shop here. It’s very popular. We all have a bonfire once a week with fish and chips and people travel all the way from Somewhere Bay to join us. Plus, there’s always the tourists and campers.”
It sounded like a nice sense of community. And an inclusive one too, if tourists were welcomed.
“Ross and Jay are in the next shop over. Ross is a doctor in Somewhere Bay. Jay runs the shop and doggy day care. They’ve been married for five years. No children yet, but they’re working on it. Adoption is hard in Australia, so they’re looking into surrogacy.”
It was weird that everyone knew everything about each other. In San Francisco, you could live a completely anonymous life. How much would the town inhabitants know about me by the end of the day? What would Jasmine tell them?
“It will be strange for Jasmine and the children to have someone living with them,” Lily said as we returned to the front counter, confirming that Jasmine was a single mom. It would be strange for me too. I wasn’t going to tell Lily that, though.
How much would Jasmine expect me to integrate with their lives? Not much, I hoped. All I wanted to do was complete the next step in earning my doctorate.