Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There was a guffaw from the back, heads turned to relieve the tension, and a murmur of
the former chatter resumed in the hotel barroom. She turned her leonine head to me, “Hi,
I'm Lisa.” She smiled her explosive smile at me and offered her little hand in greeting. Her
arms were wrapped in finely embroidered lace, up beyond where her shapely arms disap-
peared into the white sleeves of her shirt.
“I'm Jonathan,” I managed.
“Oh, we have an accent do we; let me guess; are you a South African by any chance?”
“How the hell did you know that?” I giggled, genuinely amazed.
Her wide smile was genuine and powerful. I felt as though I were looking into the sun. My
eyes hurt. I looked beyond her and saw some of the local men glowering sheep-like at me.
“My dad is an MP in Canberra and has a lot of South African friends. I recognized it im-
mediately.” Her beer arrived, and she gulped down a good measure. I had finished mine,
and she noticed my empty glass, picked it up swiftly, and tapped it in front of the barmaid.
“My treat,” she said simply.
“So what brings you to Bundaberg?” she asked, riveting me with her green eyes.
God, she was stunning. I just did not know what to think. I could not help staring at her. I
shook my head slightly and knew I was dead whichever way I played it.
“I'm on a yacht sailing around the world with my twin, and we happen to be here for a
while. We heard the rum was good!”
She smiled at that. “Yes, the rum is well known. So, you have a boat? I would love to see
it. My dad used to take us kids sailing too when we were young. I love boats.”
And so that was how I met Lisa. Lisa with the black boots and embroidered lace wristlets.
She came down to my boat soon after meeting her. I could not believe my good fortune. It
was almost too good to be true. Needless to say we had a fine night after that first explosive
meeting, and her one comment about my hair was that she hoped I wouldn't get balder than
that. She could live with it the way it was. I was over the moon. We lasted for about three
weeks. At one point she asked me to buy her this beautiful brass bed she had seen in one of
the up-market stores. She thought that because of the boat I must be fabulously wealthy.
It was around this time that Gavin and I were working at the house where we had met Liza
and Jane. One day Jane came over to me and asked which one of the twins was seeing Lisa.
I was amazed that she knew. “Bundaberg is a small town, and word spreads quickly around
here,” she said calmly.
