Two hours and two jugs of beer later (which means for an American woman a little bit more than half a gallon of beer later) Sofia and Sara were dancing in the pub. The animals were gone and it was time for some party. They had a karaoke night and classics like 'Summer of '69' or 'I want to hold your hand' were mixed with Australian songs like 'Down under' and 'You shook me all night long'. There was something for everybody.

"Would you sing with me?" A man came to Sofia.

"Me? I can't sing."

"Neither can I or anybody else here, that's the fun. Come on." They had been dancing a few times. She know his name was Graeme and he was from Darwin, had made the same tour to Uluru like Sofia and Sara only with another company. He and his friend would leave Alice Springs the next afternoon on the train up north.

"I don't know." He was a funny man, a little bit younger than her, around six foot and short black hair. It wasn't like he was trying to hit on her, at least she didn't get the feeling.

"Come on, you're on holiday, nobody knows you here, you'll never come back, no need to be serious. Take the change and act like a child and a fool, have some fun test how much the audience can take. We can't be worse than Sonny and Cher."

"They weren't that bad." Sofia laughed. "What song do you want to sing?"

"Let's go and find a good one."

"Okay." Sofia waved shortly over to Sara who was sitting with Graeme's friend at the bar.

"Where are they going?" Sara furrowed her brows. If Sofia was leaving with a guy she better made sure she was back in time the next morning. Their flight was at ten, they had to leave to the airport at seven, latest half seven.

"Graeme wanted to make Sofia sing, I think they're looking for a song."

"They want to sing karaoke? I hope you don't expect me to do the same."

"No." Wayne laughed. His longer blondish hair was more or less standing in every direction since they had danced and headbanged.

"Not my cup of tea."

"Good." Sara took a sip of her beer.

"Tell me which one is your favorite?" They had tried four different types of beer so far. All from Australia and Wayne was curious which one Sara preferred.

"I like the second one."

"Tooheys."

"Yes. The first one was too…I don't know, it didn't taste like a full beer."

"Four X Gold, yeah it has reduced alcohol. Some like it for lunch."

"Lunch? You mean between the working hours?"

"Yes." He laughed. "We're a little bit more easy going here than you guys. Having a beer while you're out on the fields isn't a thing a boss would worry about. We're not talking about business men in suits, we're talking about blokes on the field."

Now it was Sara who was laughing.

"Why are you laughing?"

"I like it when you say 'blokes'. I've to admit I like the Australian English. It sounds different to our American English and sometimes I've no idea what you're talking about but I like to listen to it."

"We do speak the same language but we use some different words."

"Tell me about it. Our trailer is a caravan here. And when I said on our tour there's a nice truck in front of the bus our tour guide laughed out loud and told me it's a…I don't know, he didn't say pick up."

"Sheila, the bloke didn't laugh out loud, he pissed himself laughing and your truck is a ute. Very famous here, especially with the blokes. You take your Sheila out for a few cans of piss and a vegemite sandwich and go rooting on the back of the ute."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Okay, I'd take you on a joyride with my ute – truck and we would have a six pack of beer, a sandwich with vegemite. If you haven't had vegemite so far you need to try, it's typical Australian food, we love it and eat it on and with everything. And then we'll have sex on the back of the truck. Better?"

"Sounds more like English to me."

"Yeah the problem is, you know now what I said and will deny and if I tell you in Aussie what I want you might not understand it, say yes and I'll get what I want."

"Believe me, being on a truck in the nowhere or not, if you try something I don't like, you'll end up having a lot of pain."

"You're a tough chick."

"I travel with my own cop I'm well protected."

"Your cop is about to climb the stage. Do you have a video camera? I'm sure you can use a tape of this for whatever you want her to do."

"I can take my camera, it makes video too; with sound." Sara knew Sofia would kill her if she recorded that. What a fun.

"We've two new singers." The DJ said. "And uhm, they'll sing a song most people might know from their parents, it's quite old but funny. I'm sure the bloke had some bottles of Bundy and the chick, well, I think she didn't say no either. Say hello to Graeme from Darwin and Sofia from Las Vegas – I'm gonna marry her if I ever make it to there - and they'll sing for us 'Stumbling in' from Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro."

Sara couldn't recall the song in her head. A song most people would know from their parents. That didn't mean anything, most of the people around her were so young, they could be her children (or she was so old she could be their mother but the other way around sounded better to her).

When the music started and Sofia and Graeme started singing, Sara had to chuckle.

"Our love is alive and so we begin foolishly laying our hearts on the table, stumbling in. Our love is a flame, burning within. Now and then fire light will catch us, stumbling in."

She knew this song. And she liked it. How did they end up with this old song? It wasn't the music Sofia usually listened to.

"Wherever I go, whatever you do you know these reckless thoughts of mine are followin' you." Graeme's voice wasn't as rough as the voice of Chris Norman, it seems like he had to drink more whiskey – or whatever the DJ had recommended to drink.

"I've fallen for you, whatever you do 'cause baby you've shown me so many things that I never knew. Whatever it takes, baby, I'll do it for you …" Sofia's voice wasn't husky like the voice of Suzi Quatro, but she did a good job. And she was flirting with Graeme, like it was suppose to be with this song. So far there was no need to be ashamed of her karaoke experience.

Satisfied with her camera Sara stopped the recording when Sofia and Graeme left the stage.

"Don't tell them about the recording, I'll surprise her with that. I'm thinking of inviting her to look at the photos and then I'll put on the video of her singing. That will be funny."

"Make sure her gun isn't within reach. Make her sit around naked."

"I think that won't be necessary."

"Not? You could send me a photo…both of you sitting naked in the room. I would put it on my wall."

"In your dreams."

"I'll give you one of me in return."

"Thanks for the offer but no thank you."

"I tried."

"Are all Australian men that straight forward?"

"Why waste any time? No." He laughed. "Just kidding. We can be very polite and real gentleman."

"But?"

"But you save a lot of time when you come straight to the point."

"You might end up with a fist in your face or a boot in your crotch."

"Yes that can happen, did happen sometimes when I was younger. Nowadays women do see I don't mean that when I say that and don't kick and slap immediately. You haven't done anything to me."

"So far. I might have made a plan what I'll do to you later. You think you're safe in your bed, I sneak in and torture you."

"You're traveling with a cop."

"Even worse, I work for the police department too. I'm a CSI, I know how to cover my traces and I'll have a perfect alibi from a cop."

"You start to scare me."

"She likes doing that." Sofia and Graeme came to them. Sofia got her arm around Sara and took her glass of beer.

"I liked the last one more."

"Carlton Draught." Wayne said.

"Whatever. How many beers did you have while I was away?"

"I let you try all of them. When we're done with this one we can order a new one."

"You could order your own beer." Graeme suggested.

"I could but this way I can drink more different types. I need to have a clear head for tomorrow, no hangover. I don't mind sharing some DNA with Sara."

"Neither would I – with both of you." Wayne grinned.

"One more sentence like that and you won't feel like a man for a long, long time."

"Ouch. The cop is even more dangerous than the CSI. Graeme, we've some dangerous women around."

"I told you they're a number too big for you."

"Looks like. It's a helluver fun with them anyway."

"Yes. You think we should take them with us to the next place? This one gets a little bit boring. What do you think, girls?"

"You guys go, we'll have another beer and go to bed. It will be an early morning and a late night tomorrow. Our last night in Adelaide."

"Nothing to do there."

"That's what people in Sydney and Melbourne said too. There're museums in Adelaide."

"Boooring." Sofia yawned.

"A little bit of culture won't hurt you."

"I'd say you let her go to the museum and you'll go to Glenelg." Wayne suggested. "The beach there is great and you can enjoy the water. When you take off to the outback now, you won't see much water anymore."

"True. Beach instead of museum, I like that."

"Okay we'll go to the beach." Sara gave in.

"That's my girl." Sofia hugged her.

"It was my idea, where's my hug?"

"Ask your friend." Sofia grinned and kept Sara in her arms. It wasn't her job to hug men she had met only this evening and it was Sara who would come with her to the beach. And then they were ready for the next part of the great big outback.