Tim by Colleen McCullough Page A

do it for Pop all the time.’
    ‘Then would you like to come every Saturday and look after my garden altogether, mow the grass when it needs it, plant seedlings and weed the flower beds, spray the bushes and trim the pathways and put down fertilizer?’
    He grasped her hand and shook it, smiling broadly. ‘Oh, Mary, I do like you! I’ll come every Saturday and I’ll look after your garden, I promise I’ll look after your garden!’
    There were thirty dollars in his envelope when he left that afternoon.

9
    Tim had been coming for five weeks before Mary Horton phoned his father late on Thursday night.
    Ron answered the phone himself. ‘Yeah?’ he asked it.
    ‘Good evening, Mr Melville. This is Mary Horton, Tim’s Saturday friend.’
    Ron pricked up his ears immediately, beckoning Es to join him for a listen. ‘Oh, nice to hear from you, Miss Horton. How’s Tim doing, all right?’
    ‘He’s a pleasure to have around, Mr Melville. I do enjoy his company.’
    Ron chuckled self-consciously. ‘From the tales he brings home, I gather he’s eating youse out of house and home, Miss Horton.’
    ‘No, not at all. It’s a pleasure to see him eat, Mr Melville.’
    There was an awkward pause, until Ron broke it to say, ‘What’s the matter, Miss Horton? Tim not wanted this week?’
    ‘Well, he is and he isn’t, Mr Melville. The fact of the matter is, I have to go up to Gosford this weekend to see how my summer cottage is getting on. I’ve neglected it sadly so far, concentrated on the garden at home. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d object to my taking Tim with me, to help me? I could do with some help, and Tim is terrific. It’s very quiet out where I am, and I give you my word he wouldn’t be subjected to strangers or undue stress or anything like that. He told me he loved to fish, and the cottage is situated right in the middle of the best fishing for miles around, so I thought perhaps – perhaps he might enjoy it. He seems to like coming to me, and I certainly like his company.’
    Ron squiggled his eyebrows at Es, who nodded vigorously and took the receiver.
    ‘Hullo, Miss Horton, this is Tim’s mother here… Yes, I’m very well, thank you, how are you?… Oh, that’s nice to hear… Miss Horton, it’s very thoughtful of you to think of inviting Tim to go with you this weekend… Yes, he is a bit lonely, it’s hard for a poor chap like him, you know… I really can’t see any reason why Tim couldn’t go with you, I think the change would do him good… Yes, he does like you an awful lot… Let me hand you back to my husband, Miss Horton, and thank you very, very much.’
    ‘Miss Horton?’ Ron asked, snatching the receiver from his wife. ‘Well, you heard the Old Woman, it’s all right with her, and if it’s all right with her it had better be all right with me, ha-ha-ha! Yeah, right you are! Okay, I’ll see he packs a bag and gets to your place by seven on this Satiddy morning… Right, Miss Horton, thank you very, very much… Bye bye now, and ta again.’
    Mary had planned the sixty-mile trip as a picnic, and had jammed the back of the car with provisions, diversions, and comforts she thought the summer cottage might lack. Tim arrived promptly at seven on Saturday morning. The day was fine and clear, the second weekend in a row that it had not threatened rain, and Mary shepherded Tim out to the garage immediately.
    ‘Hop in, Tim, and make yourself comfortable. Are you all right?’
    ‘All right,’ he answered.
    ‘My house is not in Gosford itself,’ she said as the car headed out along the Pacific highway in the direction of Newcastle. ‘Living and working in the city, I didn’t want to have a holiday cottage right in the middle of another crowd of people, so I bought a property quite a way out, on the Hawkesbury near Broken Bay. We have to go into Gosford because the only road to my place starts there, you see.
    ‘My word, how Gosford has grown! I remember it when it used to consist