Dingo's Fickle Life

Nicole said that was incredible and Isabelle said brightly, obviously to announce another talent, that her son could look along with other cattlemen at a mob of cattle whatever size and guess how many they tallied and inevitably when the mob was properly counted entering the yards or going through a gate, and usually Dingo's estimate would be closest to the official count.

Nicole said carefully, "I notice you call Damien Dingo too, I would have thought..."

"Omigod, have I? I've fought tooth and nail to prevent that nickname taking hold, but failed. To my knowledge today is the first time I've used it, but oddly enough I don't feel angry at myself."

Nicole said perhaps Mrs Foster was modernising and they laughed and Nicole was told to call her Isabelle.

"I'm delighted about that privilege," Nicole cooed. "You'll have no idea about how nervous I was coming here uninvited. I was especially concerned about how you would react and whether Dingo would welcome my arrival and whether I'd fit in."

"Oh, you'll have no trouble fitting in with farming folk dear."

Nicole asked how Isabelle be so confident about that.

"Initially, I guess I was influenced by intuition, but soon I noticed how your questions about our farming operations were far more sophisticated than what the usual city persons would ask, or even know to ask, and when you asked what were our policies on irrigation and rotation of hay paddocks, I concluded that you'd had farming connections of some sort in your background."

"I say that's very discerning of you Isabelle and I please leave it to Dingo to progressively find out for himself what I know about farming and how useful I can be around the place. I probably can ride a horse as well as any farm woman, drive tractors and combine harvesters and assist with lambing and calving."

"Of course, dear young lady," Isabelle said, suppressing her delight that most probably she was in the company of her future daughter-in-law who appeared to be a real treasure.

Dingo continued to drive homeward at the approved speed to suit the rough terrain of the unsealed and often storm-scoured track, despite knowing that a nubile woman keen on him awaited.

Well, he was keen on her now that she'd had the sense to chase him. He thought her arrival would surely herald a substantial improvement in the reliability of his sex life, that since his senior year in high school, had been rather fickle.

His mum appeared besotted with Nicole but it was early days and traditionally his mum's favouritisms sometimes became unstable and could change abruptly.

* * *

The noise of the vehicle was heard in the house and it arrived in a mini cloud of dust outside the homestead and two women emerged, the excited prospective mother-in-law Isabelle and the rather nervous Nicole, unsure whether Dingo would greet her warmly or would just brush his lips against hers and ask what the hell was she doing at the farm uninvited.

She needn't had worried.

Dingo jumped from still moving vehicle yelling in glee and waving his dusty Acubra (distant cousin to the Stetson), twice bellowing "Nicole!"

In the cab of the vehicle Scott yelled. "You fucking idiot" as he reached across Davie, the farm's best stockman, to grab the handbrake and just managed to stop the vehicle from crashing against the front veranda of the house.

"Fuck, that was a close one," said Davie. "Cripes, look that those two smashing against each other and practically falling to the ground to have it off."

"Yeah," sniggered Scott grinning hugely. "I predict with absolute confidence that soon there will be a wedding in the family."

"Um pal, tomorrow I want you to casually suggest to Dingo that I'd be the perfect best-man for him, top choice on the planet. Mum will have a fit if they drop to the dust and begin screwing. Um, on the other hand all that pawing at each other might simply mean they're just please to see each other again."

His older companion beamed.

"Yeah Scott, the arrival of this dynamic dame is just the thing to get this place back on to even keel following your father's abrupt death. Just look at her, your mum is back to her customary smiles and laughs. I bet she's thinking wedding and grandchildren."

"Cripes mate, you know a lot about women," Scott said in awe. "I want a babe like Nicole."

The End