chapter 1 helene

Helene was a young and pretty Belgian woman, backpacking her way around the world on as little money as she could. She stayed in cheap hostels, hitchhiked when she could not afford to travel. When she ran out of money, she would try to earn some by doing waitressing or bar work for a few days.
So far, she’d travelled through Europe, India and south east Asia and was now, she found herself in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. She’d been travelling for a week to get here from Queensland. Her aim was to try and blag a lift to get to Uluru somehow. However, her planned destination was still nearly 2,000km away. If she could get one lift to take her all the way there and they made no stops, it would take 20 hours to drive to the area.
It was already dark when she arrived in Darwin. She had less than five dollars in her purse. She knew what she should do and that was to check into a hotel and put the cost of her stay on the credit card that her parents had given her before she left Belgium for emergencies. However, there was no way she could afford to pay back even the minimum payments and she didn’t want her mother and father to pay for her own stupidity.
She was sitting in a cafe drinking a coffee she could not afford while she contemplated sleeping on a bench in the park.
It would be dangerous. Not only would she be vulnerable from the local psychos, vicious salt water crocs were known to come out at night. They would often swim around in the lake in the park. She did not like that idea.
Nor did she want to prostitute herself just to get a cheap bed for the night. She was not that type of girl.
As she tried to come up with a solution to her dilemma, a couple came to sit at her table. He introduced himself as Andy and his wife was called Brigitte. They were well dressed to be in a cheap cafe, which Helene thought was odd, but she was just so relieved to be able to talk to Brigitte in French. Brigitte, she explained, was Swiss, while her husband was of mixed heritage - Scottish and Indian-Asian, but he had spent much of his life in Australia.
They lived on an outback station, where they had some sheep, but Andy was more interested in horses. He bought young horses, brought them on, then sold them at a profit. He’d just bought a dozen yearlings from a breeder near Coolalinga. A couple of their ranch hands were going to stay the night on the horse trucks. Tomorrow, they would travel down the Stuart Highway towards Alice Springs and then back to the ranch. The journey would probably take 2 days.
Originally, they’d planned to set off much earlier, but they’d stayed for dinner in Coolalinga. Then they’d got into an argument with the ranch hands who would be doing the majority of the driving. They’d decided to come to the cafe to cool off a little before they returned to the trucks.
Indeed, Brigitte confessed, she’d rather not travel in the trucks. Tomorrow, the weekly train left from Darwin to Alice at about ten o’clock. If they travelled on the train, they could have a luxury cabin, fine dining and a scenic trip down the Katherine gorge. They could meet the trucks in Alice and then drive on to the outback station. She had told Andy about it several times, but he was more concerned about the horses’ welfare, than his own comfort and she always had to go along with what he said.
He was feeling decidedly uncomfortable now his wife was talking to a complete stranger in a language he only half understood. He interrupted and bade them talk in English instead.
Helene was not one to turn down an opportunity. Perhaps she could travel with them and pay for her transportation by working on the farm?
Andy refused at first, but Brigitte soon persuaded him otherwise.
Indeed, he agreed to Brigitte taking time out from the uncomfortable trucks. If she could get a ticket for the train in time, she could go by train. She could take Helene with her for company. He would stick with the horse trucks. The train did transport cars and vans on special carriages, but the horse trucks were too big.
Brigitte did not need to be told twice! The offer of luxury was not something she was going to turn down!
Immediately she was looking on her phone on the Great Southern Rail website to see if she could book a couple of tickets.
Within minutes, she had booked up. There was a hitch, though. The only tickets she could book came with an overnight stay in a Darwin hotel that very night!
Andy sighed and told her she’d best go and find out where she was staying!

Brigitte treated Helene like a long lost friend, even though they’d only just met! It felt good to be able to converse freely in French, without having to stop every few sentences for Andy’s brain to catch up.
Helene was not to worry about the expense. She could pay the money back by working on the ranch. The train package was all inclusive, meaning that all accommodation, meals, hotel transfers and one excursion was paid for. All they had to pay for was drinks on the train.
She arranged for a taxi to take them to their hotel. They would be sharing a room. Helene did not even think about it being an invasion of her privacy. She was looking forward to spending the night in a proper bed with clean sheets instead of sleeping on a park bench, hoping she was not eaten by crocodiles in the middle of the night!

Brigitte seemed to be just as excited as Helene. The hotel was a tall tower block. Their room had magnificent views out over the city out to sea. The air conditioning gave a cool respite from the dry heat of the city.
Helene had been wearing the same dirty clothes for three days. Her hair was greasy, she could feel the ground in dirt on her skin. The first thing she did was go in the bathroom and have a shower. She used the hotel free samples to shampoo her hair and to wash. She could not remember the last time she’d been able to brush her teeth properly. She kept rubbing her tongue over her teeth to taste the minty freshness.
Tonight, she was going to have to hand wash some of her clothes in the sink with some of the free shampoo. She could hang them out to dry on the balcony. With a bit of luck they’d be dry by morning. She’d got sick of carrying so many clothes with her, so she tended to simply wear a few clothes until she could not stand the smell from them any more, then she’d go and buy some new ones when she could afford them and throw the dirty ones out.
Brigitte had not been sitting quietly while Helene was in the bathroom. She’d already eaten, but from her skinny appearance, she suspected Helene had not eaten a decent meal in some time. She ordered a selection of cold sandwiches and snacks from room service and a bottle of champagne. She was determined to enjoy her little jaunt away from her husband for a few days!
She opened up her suitcase to check the contents. She would only be allowed hand luggage on board the train. The rest would have to go in the baggage carriage. She usually spent her days wearing jeans or shorts with boots and tee shirts. She often packed at least one dress and heels, just in case Andy decided to take her out for a meal. The dress would be suitable to wear for dinner on the train, but what about Helene? They were going to have to get up early in the morning and do some shopping!