Bilgarra Springs Read Free Page B

the front door. By the time Aurora had closed the door Orinoco had lost interest in whatever was happening and was cleaning her stomach. Aurora chuckled. That cat seriously thought the world revolved around her little self.
    In the lift on the way down, Aurora mused that the only thing wrong with a penthouse unit was the constant travel to and from ground level. Weighing it up though, the view was probably worth the inconvenience. She glanced up as she exited the complex, hoping like mad that the sky didn’t open up while she was waiting for the taxi. It had been stormy looking all morning but in the last hour the clouds had become dark and heavy. Drenched would not be the best way to leave for the airport.
    Aurora had only just made it through the landscaped grounds of the unit complex to the pick up and parking area when her taxi arrived. An early taxi had to be a good omen, stormy skies notwithstanding. The taxi driver was a surprise — it had to be her lucky day. Not only did he understand English, he had the good manners to put her suitcase in the boot for her. As far as starts went, this was a good one. Maybe this month wasn’t going to be such a disaster after all.
    With a decidedly brighter outlook she closed the car door and as the taxi moved off she took a last look at the windows to her unit. Orinoco was now cleaning herself on the wide, window sill in the lounge, appearing not to have a care in the world. With the assurance that all was as best as she could make it, she relaxed, settled in and decided to enjoy Sydney from the back seat of the taxi. It wasn’t very often that she had the chance to just sight see, so she may as well enjoy it.

The airport, as usual, was overflowing with people. Crap. She hated crowds of people. Aurora studiously avoided any situation where there were going to be wall-to-wall people. She hated that crammed in feeling. Shopping in December in Sydney was like that. She hated it with a passion. It infuriated her that much that she made sure that any Christmas presents that needed to be bought were done by mid-November and any grocery shopping for December and January she did over the internet. It may be a little more expensive to do it that way, but heck, whatever she ordered was delivered to her door. As far as she was concerned, the silly season was just that and as for school holidays, don’t go there!
    She pushed her way through the people and headed over to Burger King. If she was going to be in the middle of nowhere for the next month, she may as well have one last junk food fix and if you were going to have a fast food hit, in her opinion Aussie Burgers were it. Simple order really — Aussie Burger, no tomato, definitely no onion, no fries, no Coke. Keep it simple.
    That had become her mantra since she came back to Sydney nine years ago — keep it simple. Her unit wasn’t overcrowded with furniture: what she needed she had, but nothing just for the sake of having it. The art on the walls was minimal — whatever brought the space to life, but the walls weren’t overcrowded. Even photos were carefully considered and placed. Aurora had wanted the interior of her home to be uncluttered and harmonious.
    This attitude even extended to her office at the university. The books that she needed were placed on the bookshelves along with a few memento pieces that she had collected over the years, some of them gifts, but she had never followed the track of some who had filled their office space with books, books and more books in the hope of appearing more learned. She was what she was and she knew what she knew and as far as she was concerned, she didn’t need to prove herself to anybody. Her doctoral thesis had been published, she regularly published articles in prominent journals and had a book on the history of legal jargon in the pipeline. In a professional sense, she was more than comfortable with who she was. In a private sense, she was very closed off from nearly everybody