Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover Page A

are you and the kids doing at the pub? All right?’
    â€˜We’re fine,’ Ellen said. ‘Thank you for bringing us here. Trish Warren has been just wonderful. She even offered to look after the kids today while I went looking for a job.’
    â€˜How did that go?’ Jack knew there wasn’t a lot of work to be had outside the mine.
    â€˜I have a part-time job cooking at the pub. It’s only Friday and Saturday nights, but it’s something.’
    â€˜Really? That’s great. Trish and Syd are good people.’
    â€˜No. Not this pub. The other one.’
    Jack’s heart sank. She obviously had no idea what she was letting herself in for. ‘Ellen, that pub’s not … well. It’s mineside.’ He couldn’t think of any other way to describe it.
    â€˜Mineside? You’re the second person who’s said that. What does it mean?’
    â€˜Well, the town really has two parts. Townside is where the families live. With kids. Shops. The school and so forth. And the Warrens’ pub is a sort of family gathering place. The other side, the mineside, is where the single men live. The mine workers. It’s not … nice.’
    The word was totally inadequate. Jack knew he sounded like a snob, which he most certainly wasn’t. But he didn’t know how to explain to Ellen what life was like for a miner in a place like the Creek. There was hard work at the mine and there was hard drinking at the pub. That was all they had. Jack didn’t judge the miners. He’d been one for a time. He’d come to Coorah Creek to work in the mine. It was good money for a youngish man with no real training or skills, and no family to worry about. He worked the mine for a year before people started to notice how good he was at fixing things. His life had changed since then. He no longer came home exhausted after eight back-breaking hours, covered in dust and with a thirst that might kill a man. He no longer drank at The Mineside. But he had few illusions about what happened there on Friday and Saturday nights.
    â€˜I don’t have much choice,’ Ellen insisted. ‘I need a job and it was the only one going.’
    Jack saw the way she held her head, clinging on to her pride. He thought about trying to find her something else, but there probably wasn’t anything and the look in her eye told him she wasn’t about to accept charity. It wasn’t his place to tell her where she could or could not work. But the thought of Ellen in that pub on a Friday night … Well, he didn’t like it.
    â€˜I was wondering,’ he said tentatively, ‘if you are still looking for more work. I have an idea.’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜There’s some stuff needs doing on the hospital house. We’re getting it set up for Jess – the pilot.’
    â€˜I know. Jess and I met at the pub.’
    â€˜I’m doing all the repairs and stuff, but there’s some cleaning and so forth. It’s just a couple of days work. It won’t pay much.’
    â€˜I’ll do it.’ The eagerness in her voice told him more than she probably would have liked. ‘I’ll be happy to do it. Will it be all right if I bring the kids? I don’t want to impose too much on Trish. I haven’t enrolled them in school yet. I wanted to be sure …’
    Her voice trailed off, but Jack knew what she didn’t put into words. She wanted to be sure she was staying before she went through the paperwork at the school.
    â€˜Of course you can bring the kids,’ Jack said. ‘But what about when you’re working at the pub in the evenings? Trish won’t be able to look after them because she’ll be busy.’
    â€˜I am sure there’ll be some teenager willing to babysit,’ Ellen said firmly. ‘Jack, I appreciate your concern, but I need to work. And that job at the pub is the only option I have.’
    He heard