OOOO

Part 4

When Mac got home, she did the usual task before retiring to bed. Curling up on her couch, she picked up her cellphone and dialled a familiar number. As a click sounded, she closed her eyes and focussed on the comforting voice of the man she loved. Even if it was just a voicemail message, it settled her to no end, because it was the only link that she now had to him. That night, for the first time in months, Mac actually slept well, knowing at least where Harm was and that he'd let everyone at JAG know when he was ready.

Mac was surprised when she got a phone call, the next day.

"Ma'am, Comm…Mrs. Burnett is on line two to speak to you," Tiner told her.

"Trish?" Mac answered, when she had punched the button for the second line.

"Hi Mac, my dear. How are you doing?" Trish answered.

"I was actually going to call you…I got some news from Clayton Webb…"

"Harm's in Kuala Lumpur, Mac," Trish spoke up.

"Yes," Mac confirmed, "That's what Clay told me."

"Harm called me last night, Mac, but he asked me not to pass his address around to everyone. Did Clay let you know exactly where Harm is living?"

"Yes, he gave me an address, but I've decided that I'm not going to use it until I know that Harm is ready to speak to me."

"That's a wise decision," Trish agreed, "I think that it's important that we respect what he wants. But how are you, my dear? Are you doing okay?"

Here, Mac didn't know quite what to say, at first, but went with the plain and simple truth.

"Well…I'm okay, I guess…But it's hard…It's so incredibly hard, Trish."

"I know, darling," Trish comforted her, "I know it must be…"

"I really miss having him here, you know? He always used to be my rock when I needed one. Even just the little things…but now, I…I just feel lost…"

"You know you can call or come to see me, any time you need to," Trish comforted her again, "Frank and I are always here if you need us or if you just need somebody to talk to."

"Thank you, Trish," Mac told her, gratefully, "I'll keep that in mind when I'm having a bad day or am feeling like a spare part. I'd better get going, now, but I'll talk to you again soon."

"Okay," Trish confirmed, "Speak to you soon, my dear. Goodbye."

"Good bye, Trish," Mac told the woman and put the receiver down.

Did she really have the strength to do this? She didn't really know, but she was going to give it her best try, anyway.

OOOO

The coming weekend allowed Harm some more time to escape from the nightmare he had been living in since his venture to Paraguay. As the water taxi pulled up to the jetty of Sepadan village, Harm smiled as he saw the familiar figure waiting for him up on the mainland.

"Hi Cate," he greeted her as he made his way up, "How are things going this weekend?"

She looked across to him and grinned that cheeky grin of hers, from where she was balanced precariously on the handrail of the jetty.

"Hi there!" she replied, "Things haven't been too bad, this week."

The previous week, there had been a spate of crocodile attacks up and down the river and several people had required surgical treatment, although miraculously, there had been no fatalities except for somebody's pet mongrel.

"We had a bit of an ordeal with some of the new piping we put in last weekend," Cate continued to explain, "It started leaking late on Tuesday night. It had to be staunched by torchlight, but it didn't take too long to repair. I just can't stand it that people think that they can get away with giving us shoddy materials, because it's a donation and they're getting nothing out of it."

Cate hopped down from the banister and bid goodbye to the bunch of local children whom she had been talking to before Harm had arrived.

"You all excited about starting work in the school on Monday?" Harm asked her.

"Are you kidding! I'm a nervous wreck!" She exclaimed, "What if I come out with some wrong words? I'll look like an idiot! I knew that it was a bad move to let Ridwan teach me the swear words first!"

Harm let out a bark of laughter. Yep, that sounded like Ridwan, teaching the local aid workers how to swear in Malay. He was a nice enough guy, if not a little rowdy and liberal with the rice wine at special gatherings. Harm had warmed to him over time, though, as the man had tried his best to stick to English when Harm was in their company, although it proved to be difficult for him.

At that moment, the object of their discussion came wandering by, with a handful of drinks for the newly arrived workers.

"Hey, Harm-man!" he exclaimed, jovially, "How you today?"

"Good," Harm told him, "Very good today. Ready to do lots of work!"

"Bagus…," Ridwan forgot himself, then translated, "Very good…You want drink, man?"

He held up his handful of small plastic bags full of soft drink. This was one of Harm's fondest of the local customs, sipping cola out of a small plastic bag through a straw. Today, however, Harm took not cola, but a strong tasting local drink that tasted like root beer. This mistake proved to be far from nice on the taste buds, so he passed it off to Cate.

"What, you don't like it?" she grinned at the look on his face.

"It tastes ghastly! What on earth is it?"

"Sarsi," Cate told him, "It's one of the popular soft drinks out here. Kinda like root beer. Looks like Cola, doesn't it?"

"Soft!" Harm laughed, "There's nothing soft about that! It hits you like a ton of bricks!"

Cate just scoffed and taunted him, "Ha! You big girl's blouse!"

OOOO

After they had met up with the rest of the volunteers from Delany, Chung and Bell, Cate wandered off to go make one of the many daily trips to the market. Harm and the others started to dig the main tract of ditch from the main pipeline through the village. After this was done, the pipes were carried from the jetty, where they had been dropped off. All that day, it was hard work fixing together the water lines to all of the houses, in the humid and sweltering 100 degree heat. By the time that they broke for lunch, Harm was soaked through.

"I think you should start adopting the local style of dress," Cate joked as she joined him in the lunch line.

Harm just laughed at the thought of walking around in flip-flops and a wrap around batik sarong.

"I don't think so!" he told Cate, "I wouldn't wear a skirt for anybody!"

"It's not a skirt," Cate laughed, "Well, not exactly. And it would be a lot cooler than wearing shorts and trainers."

"Skirts," Harm insisted, giving a small poke at the batik sarong Cate was wearing, "are for women, not men. I'm fine the way I am."

"Plenty of men wear 'skirts', look around you," Cate pointed out, quietly.

"Yes," Harm joked back, quietly, "Well I'm sure you see nothing unusual in it, but your national dress is a 'skirt.' You wouldn't catch any of the guys I know wearing one!"

"Okay," Cate backed down, "If you insist…but you'll change you're mind soon enough. The temperature's predicted to rise even further, today."

Harm just groaned and proceeded to dig into his veggie dhal.

OOOO