“I am so tired,” I could just barely hear Ruby mumble over the sound of the plane’s engines as our flight began its descent into Tullamarine Airport. I wasn’t entirely sure I blamed her – the days immediately prior to a tour beginning always seemed to be the most tiring, packed as they tended to be with travelling, interviews, and radio and TV appearances, and had long been my least favourite thing about being a working musician.

“We can beg off dinner tonight,” I offered. “Have an early night and all that.”

“Don’t you dare.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ruby turn away from her window, out of which I could see the towering buildings and gridlike blocks of the Melbourne CBD. She fixed me with a look that wasn’t quite a glare. “It’s only, what” here I saw her peer down at my watch “half past two, I can have a nap before we go out.” She raised her gaze so that she was looking directly into my eyes. “In fact, we’re both having a nap. I know for a fact that you didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night.”

I snapped off a quick, two-fingered salute, at which Ruby smothered a giggle behind a hand. “Yes’m.”

Not even five minutes later, the Qantas Boeing 737 that we had stepped onto in Sydney an hour and a half earlier touched down and began taxiing down the tarmac to the terminal, the captain welcoming us to Melbourne over the cabin PA, and I let out a quiet groan as I stretched. I loved my job, and I loved going on tour and performing, but the travelling between cities was definitely one of my least favourite things about my chosen career. The sheer distances involved meant spending hours on end in the back of a van, or a minimum of an hour or two crammed into a narrow aeroplane seat – neither of which appealed to me in the slightest, but living where we did made both a necessary evil.

As soon as the plane had reached the terminal and the seatbelt sign had been switched off, I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached down under the seat in front for my backpack. “I wish teleportation was real,” Ruby said with a sigh as I straightened back up. “This flying thing can bite me.”

“You and me both. D’you want me to grab your bag for you?” I asked.

“No, I can get it.” Here Ruby took her walking stick out of her seat pocket, unfolded it and stuck it under the seat in front, and pulled her handbag toward her. She unbuckled her own belt and leaned down once her bag was close enough to grab by its shoulder strap. “But thanks, though.”

The two of us ended up being the last passengers to disembark, just as we had been among the first to board in Sydney. Somehow we had ended up in the rear half of the plane for this flight, rather than closer to the front, and there was no way in hell that I was going to make Ruby climb down the narrow stairs from the rear door to the tarmac. As soon as the two of us were off the plane and heading up the jetbridge into the terminal I turned my phone back on and quickly texted Caroline to let her know where Ruby and I were. “We’re gonna get in trouble, aren’t we?” Ruby asked from just behind me. She was doing her best to keep up with me and my long strides, her walking stick making a thumping sound with every other step, and I slowed down a little so that she could keep pace at my side.

“Why would we get in trouble?”

“Because it took us an absolute fucking eternity to get off the damn plane, maybe?”

I didn’t answer Ruby until we were both inside the terminal, deciding to wait until I’d found us somewhere to sit down away from the gate lounge’s doors. “We’re not going to get in trouble for that,” I reassured her. “First off, you saw how packed the plane was, right?” She nodded at this. “Between that and how far back we were sitting, I would have been shocked if we’d made it off the plane any faster than we did. And second, all that lot know that we both have…” I trailed off as I tried to figure out what to say. “We both have issues with getting around easily. And they know that I would never leave you by yourself. That includes staying behind to make sure you get on and off the plane, or the train, or whatever. I will never leave you alone to figure that out by yourself, or anything else for that matter. All right?”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Ruby said. “Best boyfriend ever.”

I cracked a grin. “I do my best.” My phone vibrated just as I said this, and I checked it to find a reply from Caroline. “They’re at carousel three waiting for all our gear,” I said to summarise the text message. “So they’re not really that far ahead of us.”

I locked my phone again and slid it back into my pocket. “I promise we won’t get in trouble for dragging the chain a bit,” I said when I saw that Ruby still looked a little worried. “They might have got a bit worried if I hadn’t sent Caroline a text, and someone probably would have given me a ring if we were taking a really long time, but no yelling or lectures. Okay?”

Ruby nodded. “Okay.”

It didn’t take us long to catch up with everyone else, with Isaac immediately giving up his seat on the wooden bench near carousel three so that Ruby could sit down. “Are we still on for dinner tonight?” he asked. “We can always postpone it for a few days if you guys aren’t up to it.”

“Yeah, we’re good,” I replied. “Ruby would have my head if I said otherwise. She almost did while the plane was landing.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ruby sticking her tongue out at me, and I bit back a snicker. “We’re both going to get a bit of shuteye this arvo before heading out, so if you ring either of us and we don’t answer then that’s why.”

“Gotcha. Any preference for dinner?”

“Chinese for me, please,” Ruby said immediately without looking up from her phone, her right arm sticking straight up in the air. At some point between disembarking from our flight and making it to Arrivals, she had taken her sling off and was currently balancing her phone on her cast. “Oh come on, like I was going to pick anything different,” she said, finally looking up from her phone at me, and I let out a quiet chuckle.

“Chinese for me too,” I said. At almost the same time that I spoke the carousel’s conveyor belt gave a jolt and began moving, a loud siren going off, and I stepped a little closer to it so I could keep an eye out for Ruby’s wheelchair and the suitcases that belonged to the two of us.

Our home for the next couple of days, before beginning the trek interstate for the South Australian regional tour, was the Quest hotel down in Southbank. As soon as I’d closed the door of our apartment, pulling our suitcases inside behind me, Ruby got out of her wheelchair and made a beeline for the bedroom. I left our suitcases near the apartment’s door and followed her, reaching the bedroom doorway just in time to see Ruby faceplant onto the end of the neatly-made bed.

“Just leave me here,” I could just make out Ruby mumbling into the quilt cover. “This is seriously comfy.”

“You’re going to end up with a sore back if you sleep that way,” I said as I sat down on the bed next to her.

“I don’t care,” she replied, before letting out a very muffled sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”

Here I poked Ruby in the ribs. “You don’t suppose I’m right, you know I’m right,” I teased her.

“Oh, shut up.”

I snickered softly. “Come on, up you get – nap for a few hours, then we can get ready to go out. Sound good?”

Ruby eased herself upright, using her right arm as a lever, and I steadied her as she shifted around to sit down next to me. “Promise me you’ll nap as well,” she said, nearly echoing what she had said as our flight had been landing earlier that afternoon. “I don’t care if it’s only for half an hour or so. You need to sleep just as much as I do. Okay?”

I smoothed Ruby’s flyaways down, leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I promise.”

I’d already decided not to nap as long as Ruby that afternoon. As soon as I woke up, doing my best not to wake Ruby up as well, I carefully slipped out of bed and padded barefoot out into the main room of the apartment, picking up my shoes and socks along the way. There were a few things I needed to do before Ruby woke up from her nap – starting with a crossing of the Yarra to visit one of the flower shops on Little Collins Street.

Ruby was still asleep when I returned from my little expedition an hour later, laden down with shopping bags and a paper-wrapped bunch of a dozen purple gerberas. A glance at my watch told me that we had an hour and a half until we had to go downstairs to meet my brothers, Nikki and Kate. With this in mind, and feeling extreme reluctance at the idea of waking Ruby up, I set the bunch of flowers down on the dining table and all but one of my shopping bags down on the lounge, and headed into the bathroom.

I had just finished running a bath when I heard quiet footsteps behind me, and I looked back over my shoulder to see Ruby wandering into the bathroom, rubbing her eyes with her right hand. “Hey you,” I said, giving her a smile that she returned after a couple of seconds. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

She shook her head. “I was just about awake,” she replied, before squinting at the bathtub and the mass of bubbles that floated on top of the water. “Is that – did you use my shower gel as bubble bath?” she asked. “Because all I can smell right now is cherry blossoms.”

“Kind of.” Here I held up an empty Body Shop bag and the bottle of cherry blossom shower gel that I’d bought while I was out, knowing it was Ruby’s favourite. “I don’t know the combination for your suitcase’s lock, so I went out and bought another bottle of it.”

“It’s three-fourteen, for future reference.” She stepped closer to me. “What’s this all about?”

“Our anniversary was yesterday,” I replied. “Six months. I think we both forgot.”

I could almost see the gears turning in Ruby’s head as she frowned, and just barely managed to hold back a laugh as she let out a quiet groan. “Damn it. It was too.” She shook her head in seeming amusement. “You remembered eventually, that’s the main thing.” Here she poked me in the shoulder. “But you’d better not forget on our actual anniversary,” she said.

“It’s three days after my birthday, how could I forget?” I said, and Ruby stuck her tongue out at me. “I want you to have a nice, long bath, okay? We’ve still got ages before we have to head downstairs, so you’ve got plenty of time to relax.”

“Can you wash my hair for me? Please?”

“‘Course I can.”

Ruby gave me a bright smile. “Thank you.”

After Ruby had finished her bath, and once I’d had a shower, I ducked out to the main room while Ruby was getting ready to head out, busying myself with putting the things I had bought that afternoon away in my suitcase and in the apartment’s kitchen. Only when there was one shopping bag and the bunch of flowers left did I go back into the bedroom.

“Close your eyes,” I said, holding the two things I had bought for Ruby behind my back. “And sit down. Got a couple of things for you.”

“Okay…” She stepped into her sandals, leaving them unbuckled, and sat down on the bed with her eyes tightly closed. I sat down next to her and put the bunch of flowers in her lap first. “Can I open my eyes yet?” she asked.

“Yeah, you can open them.”

As soon as Ruby saw the flowers I’d bought her, her mouth dropped right open. “Holy shit Tay, they’re beautiful,” she said, sounding awed, right before she picked the bunch up and stuck her face into it. I could hear her taking a deep breath, and I hid a small smile. “Where did you find purple ones?” she asked as she lowered the flowers to her lap. I could see the smallest amount of wonder in her bright, sea green eyes as she looked at me.

“Flower shop over on Little Collins Street. Called them last week and asked if they were able to get them in.” I bent down to the bag at my feet and took out a pair of scissors, and cut the stem of one of the gerberas so that it was short enough to tuck behind one of Ruby’s ears. “One last thing,” I continued, and took a stuffed toy elephant from the same bag as the scissors. It was heavy, the grains of wheat inside its soft body rustling as I set it in Ruby’s lap next to the flowers. “I know you like elephants, and it’s a heat pack as well so…” I shrugged a little. “I thought you’d like it.”

“I do.” She leaned over and planted a kiss on my left temple. “It’s perfect. You’re perfect. And you know what?”

“What?”

“Right now, there is nowhere else I would rather be.”

---

“Ruby McCormick?”

Beside me, Ruby was getting to her feet – I could see her wincing with each movement she made. “I knew I shouldn’t have left my wheelchair in the car,” she grumbled. “My back is fucking killing me.”

“I can go and get it,” I offered, and she shook her head. “Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”

“I’m only going in for an x-ray and to hopefully get this fucking cast off, I’ll be fine,” she assured me with a smile, one that I did my best to return. “I’ll be back soon.”

Before long Ruby had disappeared through the swinging doors that closed the hospital’s Emergency room off from the waiting area, and I settled back into my seat for what I hoped would be a short wait. It didn’t matter that I was no stranger to hospital waiting rooms, whether I was waiting with friends and family or to be seen myself, they still made me feel incredibly uneasy.

The South Australian tour was almost over and so far, things were going well. It had been three months since my last panic attack and pain flare, which meant one very important thing in particular – the change of meds to my old enemy Aropax, along with the new medication that Dr. Emerson had started me on, had done its job. Not even the idea of doing press was enough to stress me out to the point of a panic attack. I still hated doing it, but for once the thought wasn’t enough to keep me up at night.

And for the first time in a very long time, I wasn’t in pain from the neverending misfiring of the nerves in my hands and feet. Even while the Endep had still been working, and especially as it started not working as well as it used to, the pain had been simmering just below the surface – just present enough that I noticed it, but easy enough to ignore most of the time. With the new medication, though, it wasn’t there at all. The relief I had felt the morning that I knew my new meds were working, when I had woken up without pain for the first time in more than ten years, had been indescribable.

I stretched a little, raising my arms up above my head, and checked my watch as I lowered my hands. We had all arrived in Whyalla early that afternoon, just a couple of hours ago, and while everyone else had made a direct beeline for our hotel Ruby and I had headed straight for the hospital so that she could finally have her cast removed. I wasn’t entirely sure what the rest of the afternoon had in store for either of us, but our plans for that evening involved the TV in our hotel room, Fox Sports on Austar, and that evening’s preliminary finals game between Sydney and Newcastle. While we could have quite easily made it back to Sydney to watch the game live and then flown back to Whyalla the next afternoon in time for tomorrow night’s show, watching it on TV was the next best thing.

Not even half an hour after she had left the waiting area, Ruby was walking back toward me. In place of the bright blue fibreglass cast that had been keeping her broken arm stable for the last couple of weeks was a sturdy-looking wrist brace.

“I have to start physio as soon as we get home,” she said once she had sat back down next to me. She held her left arm out in front of herself. “I have to wear this unless I’m swimming or having a shower or a bath, and I also need to have more x-rays every month for the next year or so to make sure the break’s properly healed.” She lowered her arm to her lap and gave me a wry smile. “I guess I’ll have a better idea of all the bullshit you go through every year soon.”

“But apart from all that you’re all done?”

“All done.” She gave me a bright smile. “I know we still need to go check in to the hotel, but what do you want to do once that’s done?”

“Well…” I was getting to my feet as I spoke. “There’s the footy tonight, so we could go to Woolies or something to pick up some munchies for the game. Plus I know neither of us have had lunch yet.”

“Lunch first,” Ruby decided as I helped her to her feet. “Once we’ve checked to see if we can actually watch the game tonight. Then shopping.”

It didn’t take us long to get to our home for the next couple of nights. The very first thing Ruby did as soon as we were in our apartment was plant herself on the lounge in front of the TV and pick up its remote. “Okay, so we have Austar and all the regular TV channels,” she said as she flicked through the channels on offer. I caught glimpses of music videos, random movies, the 2013 AFL Grand Final and an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as she channel surfed. “That’s the good news.”

“The bad news?”

“No Fox Sports. And because we’re in South Australia and they don’t really do rugby league here – at least, I don’t think they do,” she amended.

“Yeah, they don’t,” I confirmed. “AFL mad around here.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Which means that we’re highly unlikely to be able to watch the footy on TV.”

“We could go to the pub,” I suggested. “Could be nice to have a night out.”

“You have to be up early tomorrow,” Ruby reminded me, and I swore silently. “It would be nice, but why don’t we leave the night out until after tour’s over and you don’t have to be up at the arsecrack of dawn to do a radio interview?”

“Yeah, good point. How are we going to watch the game, then?”

“We’re not.” Here Ruby turned the TV off and set the remote aside, and she pulled her phone out of a pocket. “The ABC has a radio app,” she explained, and held her phone up. “I downloaded it last night just in case we couldn’t watch the game on TV.” She unlocked her phone, and I watched her navigate to the app in question. “ABC Grandstand does live commentary of NRL games, and I’m pretty sure they’re going to call tonight’s game. I’d be really shocked if they didn’t.” She looked up from her phone at me. “And seeing as we’re half an hour behind Sydney, we need to decide pretty soon if we’re going to listen to the game or not.”

“Of course we’re going to fucking listen,” I said, and Ruby let out a snicker. Listening to the game would be very different to watching it on TV, and different again to watching live at the ground, but if it meant getting my footy fix then I wasn’t going to complain. “Come on. Let’s go get some lunch, then we can go grocery shopping.”

Early that evening, after we had gone for a walk down Moran Street to the nearby Domino’s to pick up dinner, Ruby and I went out to our apartment’s little private courtyard with her phone and a Bluetooth speaker that she’d bought from the Typo in Southbank while we’d still been in Melbourne, the pizza box, a bowl of Doritos and a jar of salsa so that we could listen to that night’s football game. “You think we should ask your brothers over to listen?” Ruby asked as she turned the speaker on and let it pair with her phone.

I thought it over for a few moments as I set our dinner and snacks down on the little table that was in the courtyard, next to Ruby’s speaker. “Nah. Zac doesn’t go for either team, and if the Knights don’t win then Isaac will be a tiny bit of a sore loser. He gets like that sometimes.”

“It’s interesting, isn’t it?” Ruby mused.

“What is?”

“Your brothers go for the teams from the cities they were born in. Isaac goes for the Knights, and Zac – where exactly was Zac born, again?”

“Mount Isa.”

“Region, in Zac’s case. Zac goes for North Queensland. You should go for the Knights, but you don’t. Your favourite team is from a city more than a hundred and fifty kilometres south of where you were born.”

I shrugged a little. “I liked their colours.”

If Ruby had had anything in her mouth at that moment, I had the feeling she would have spat it right out. “Is that why you go for the Chooks and not the Knights?” she asked. “The colours?”

“It was at first, yeah,” I admitted. “I didn’t actually start going for a footy team until I was, like, thirteen.”

“When you were recording Middle Of Nowhere.”

“Mmm-hmm. We recorded it during weekends and school holidays in Sydney, at a studio right in the middle of the CBD. One day Zac was getting really fidgety, and I just badly needed a break. Recording is exhausting as hell when you’re just a kid.” I flipped open the pizza box and picked up a slice of Hawaiian. “So Mum told Isaac to take Zac and I out for the rest of the afternoon, and not to come back until Zac had calmed down.” I paused while I bit into my pizza. “He ended up dragging us out to Central station, and we caught a train from there to Bondi Junction. We walked out of the station onto Grosvenor Street, and I turned right and saw the flags at the entrance to Oxford Street Mall. When we got closer to Oxford Street and I saw the colours on the flags, especially that really dark blue, that was it for me – I was a Roosters supporter from that day on.”

“Honestly? It was the colours for me too,” Ruby admitted. “Though seeing as I was six and not thirteen, it was more about the colours than it was anything else, like whether they could play or not. And back in 1990 there weren’t any teams playing in a purple jersey, so blue was the next best colour.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t go for the Steelers or the Dragons.”

“Well, now you know.” She gave me a smile. “Shaun Kenny-Dowall is my favourite player, by the way.”

“Boyd Cordner’s mine. Though I agree, Skidsy is pretty awesome.”

“Oh, please tell me you watched the 2010 qualifier against the Tigers,” Ruby said. She sounded excited now. “That game is legendary.”

“I was fucking there, Ruby. When Braith kicked that field goal to draw the game at full time…” I mimed the movement of a football being kicked through a set of goalposts with my pizza crust. “I think I stopped breathing until the ball actually went through the sticks.”

As much as we’d both been looking forward to it, we ended up mostly ignoring the game – instead, we talked. We didn’t stop talking until the game’s final siren sounded more than an hour later, and the announcement was made that the Roosters had absolutely flattened the Knights forty points to fourteen. I met Ruby’s gaze over the remnants of our dinner, and we both grinned.

There were still two shows left of the South Australian tour. Once those two shows were over, however, I had a football game to look forward to – one that I had a feeling would be a memorable one, for all the right reasons.

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