Miracle Man Read Online Free Page A

thinking, and she turned to see a hand trolley being wheeled
by, stacked with boxes of local wine. It suddenly occurred to her. Dinner at
seven. She'd been invited to dinner and she had nothing to bring. Assuming of
course that she'd actually go. Would she go? Should she go? Now that
she'd begun to think about it the questions came at her like machine gun fire.
Who was Marcus Dean, anyway? What sort of person swam naked in freezing
conditions and asked passers by to dinner? What sort of wine might he like?

 
    Lahra paid the pimply-faced
boy at the register and wheeled her fully laden trolley to the liquor shop
alongside the supermarket.
    Even if she didn't end up
going to dinner—and she probably wouldn't—a bottle of chardonnay wouldn't go
astray. Or perhaps two, for later in the week. There were some excellent local
wines, so she went straight to the racks where they were on display. What
better way to help her settle in?
    "Lahra?"
    She turned to the strangely
familiar voice, and stared blankly for a second. The man before her was about
Lahra's age and very tall, with longish brown hair that didn't want to behave
and a chiselled, narrow face. He was dressed in jeans that were well past their
best days and a checked flannel shirt that exposed a hair-thatched chest. He
held a slab of beer cans under one sinewy arm. Recognition dawned. "Kurt!"
    "Gee, Lahra, you look
fantastic!" Kurt's deep voice drawled. "I haven't seen you for, gee,
it must be getting on to three years or more. Back before the last flood."
    "Yeah, three
years," Lahra confirmed, beginning to wish that it had been longer.
"You look... really well."
    "Yeah, well, I like to
keep in shape," Kurt laughed, flexing his free bicep. "Your hair's a
lot shorter than it used to be. I like it on your shoulders like that. Same
colour, too. You must be the only girl from Riverbank who didn't dye her hair
blond and frizz it all up! You look great!"

 
    "Thanks, Kurt."
The scattered jigsaw pieces of her past began falling quickly into place. Kurt
Carol used to be the shortest kid in primary school, and most of the other kids
teased him about his Brady Bunch surname. But come high school, Kurt
suddenly became the tallest kid in the class, and he didn't take kindly to
anyone who had a problem with the name Carol. And somewhere along the way Lahra
got the notion that Kurt looked a bit like a young Gregory Peck. To think that
all these years later, whenever she remembered her first kiss, she'd see the
very non-Gregory Peck face that was before her now.
    "So what are ya doin'
in Riverbank? I thought you'd moved to the big smoke."
    "Just here on holiday.
I like to get back every once in a while."
    "You're a teacher now,
aren't you? Films, or something?"
    "I lecture History of
Cinema and Film Appreciation at Charlton University in Sydney. And I do other
bits and pieces. A few independent film projects here and there."
    Kurt smiled slyly.
"Yeah, you always did like your movies."
    Lahra immediately picked up
the innuendo in his remark and ignored it, avoiding his stare.
    "So, you married,
engaged?"
    "Happily single,"
Lahra insisted. She waggled her ring finger as physical evidence of this fact.
    "Yeah, same. Happily
single. Got mum on my back about it all the time."
    "And what about
you?" Lahra quickly changed the direction of the conversation. "What
are you doing with yourself these days?"
    Kurt held up the back of his
hand to Lahra. His fingernails were black. "Still doing what I do best.
Riverbank's growing pretty fast so there's always plenty of cars that need
fixing. I'm Johnno's head mechanic now, so I get to run the shop a few days a
week. I've got this afternoon off coz I worked through on Saturday when one of
the boys was sick."
    Lahra nodded, feigning
interest.
    "So how long you in
town for?"
    “Couple of weeks," she
lied.

 
    "Gee, great. We oughtta
catch up. Maybe come round for dinner sometime. Mum won't mind. Always plenty
on the stove. She'd love to see