The Baynhams

She walked out of the school playground a little bit frazzled. It had been an early start and she hadn't wanted to get out of bed. The kitchen was still a mess from the half emptied suitcases. The holiday seemed like a lifetime ago. The hallway had been cluttered with furniture that was dumped there while the flood replacement carpets were relaid. They had made it to school slightly late and missing a hat on the very day the head teacher was doing a uniform inspection.

She was tired, tired from a week of work at the hospital, nursing and tending to the needs of strangers while her own family ran around in chaos. The fridge was empty. She needed to do a grocery shop. The ironing mountain was waiting at home, she knew it would avalanche on her as soon as she would open the front door. When had life become so complicated?

She often daydreamed about a reality TV show host appearing on her door step, de-cluttering her house, organising her kids wardrobes, imagined sitting down for a cup of tea in a spotless kitchen knowing that there wasn't a single item of dirty clothes in the wash basket. That every school shirt was ironed and hanging in the right wardrobe.... bliss!

She breathed in deeply and carried on walking. Not quite ready to get in the car and head to the supermarket she decided to walk a little. She was a story teller at heart, like her father before her, and there was a story she wanted to tell someone. A story about a small school on an island in the middle of nowhere with the same name as this Australian school. A story about a little nun who had welcomed her with a big hug only a week ago. An Indian nun who over the next hour realised she had a connection to the Australian nun that lived next to the school. And so she set out walking through the gum trees to this nuns house, time wasting and delaying the realities of her busy day ahead.

She stepped off the path and walked between the tall gum trees. The brittle leaves crunched under her feet releasing their eucalyptus scent into the air. The sounds of the school melted into the distance and instead she heard bell birds in the distant bushland. The sun was warm on her skin and she closed her eyes as she walked. Smell the roses she thought, Slow down and smell the roses. Be thankful for small things. Appreciate the beauty around you. She felt her heart lighten. She was having an Australian moment. A moment where the beauty of the Australian landscape, so different from the Irish landscape of her childhood, warmed her soul, made her so glad for her new life.

As she walked on eyes half closed, a smile on her lips, the warm sun on her skin she breathed the morning eucalyptus air deeply into her lungs. She felt happy. And then it happened, she walked straight into a monsterous spiders web. It was huge. It left sticky strands all over her face as she screamed and wiped furiously hoping the spider wasn't crawling over her head. Australia is great she thought but it has its realities too. The nun wasn't home so she brushed herself down, sighed and headed off to Woolworths and back to the reality of her messy house.

THE END