People of our trip - vignettes

 As we travel around we inevitably run across all sorts of people.  Some we have contact with, others we don't.  For some unknown reason, some of these people inspire curiousity in me. Why are they there? What is their backstory?  I make them up.

These people were people we came across.  The events are true but the backstories are entirely fictitious.

I don't usually share these stories, they stay in my head, but I've decided I will share a few.

Vignette 1. Pub couple

He sat down, sighed then waited silently. After a few minutes, his wife who had been ordering dinner arrived at the table, carrying a beer for him and a wine for her. She sat down then said, “Here’s to our first night,” eyes bright with anticipation. His eyes betrayed his “Cheers.”

Farm life had taken its toll. It had milked him dry, emotionally and physically. The sale of the farm had been bitter-sweet. No longer would he lie awake at night wondering if they could last another season. But he had loved the life, at least he had for many years. He’d been his own boss.  He’d loved the cattle and he’d miss the smells, the sounds, the long vistas. He didn’t know how his wife had coped, how she’d gotten through the death of their only son, how she’d managed to scrape delicious meals together despite there being little money to put anything special on the table, how she’d kept helping him with the cattle even though crippled with arthritis.

He had nothing left to give, and yet the sale of the farm had seemed to give her a new lease on life. She was so excited about this holiday, their first in years.  He couldn’t even remember the last time they’d gone away together. “Have you booked the motel in Broken Hill?” he asked. He had to show some interest.

Vignette 2. Licencee

“God! I can’t even go to the toilet without someone calling for attention.” That’s how the barlady finally greeted the tourist as she walked through the swinging door out the back into the bar. The tourist had been calling out, “Anybody there?” after walking into the unattended bar. “Been here long?” the tourist asked, longing for conversation of some sort but not sure where to begin. “Longer than you have,” the woman behind the bar replied tersely. The visitor tried a different tack. “Don’t suppose you have any rooms available for tonight?” “No – full tonight,” the barlady responded. “The caravan park and motel are full too. Buses in town. More tourists than you can poke a stick at tonight.” The tourist looked despondent. “Is there nowhere else I could try? I’ve had a bit of bad luck.” The barlady softened a tad. “No, love. The place is booked out. You need to book in advance in a place like this.”

The barlady was from a family of pub owners from South Australia and western New South Wales. A dynasty really.  At the height of their trade, the family had owned 17 pubs. She was tough – you had to be – but she was a softy too.  As the youngest daughter, she’d inherited the pub in this town, the pub no-one else had wanted. Now she was the envy of the rest of the clan. Tourism had claimed this town and nothing brings in the bucks like tourism. Sure, Covid times had been tough, but things were booming again. This tourist reminded her of how important tourists were. She tried to think how she could help.

Vignette 3. School Student

The bus rolled in to the riverside park and high school kids rolled out of it, heading as one over to the playground that would relieve their travel boredom, at least for a little while.  Teachers stretched and sighed and drank their cups of coffee.  A second, smaller bus arrived with more students.  The first one out was a tall, blonde girl dressed in rather androgynous clothes. She looked confident in herself but was aloof from the rest of the students, even as she joined them in the playground area. After her, a few others tumbled out of the bus, then another tall blonde walked out, heading not for the playground but straight for the river. A few moments later, a dead fish in hand he returned to the buses. From the playground came shrieks of horrified students. "Drop the bloody fish!" "Your brother's got a dead fish in his hand.  Get him to take it back." "Miss! Gross! He's got a dead fish.  He needs to wash his hands," another called out to a teacher. Her brother dropped the fish, then calmly walked back into the bus.  His sister ignored the shrieks from her schoolmates. He'd done plenty worse and anyway, he wasn't her responsibility.  Well, not exactly. He was just her twin brother.

Vignette 4. Camping Couple

The tarpaulin that she was trying to put down on the ground whipped up around her face with the strong wind. Every time she was able to get one corner down, another corner flipped up again. Stoically, she found whatever she could to hold it down, a couple of shoes here, a jerry can there until she found the tent pegs which would secure it down properly.  Meanwhile, her husband was wrestling with the tent.  Just getting it out of the bag without it becoming a makeshift parachute was an art in and of itself.  Unhurriedly, he battled against what appeared to be losing odds, finally successful.  Eventually, the tarpaulin was secured, the tent was up.  Both husband and wife smiled at each other and retreated to the relative calm inside the tent.  This was camping! They had spent his redundancy payout on a new car and tent.  They were going to explore this country, at least as much as they could without a seriously expensive 4WD.  Factory work had been tough, but hey, this is where they had met and at least they'd had jobs. The fact that she had retired early hadn't bothered him and his redundancy came at just the time he had been considering joining her anyway.  What luck! Bad weather was nothing. At least the air was clean and sweet-smelling. At least they were both well. Nothing would stop them having fun at last.