Complete Without You (ONC 2022)

Chapter 4 - Spinifex Pigeon (Sadie)

I pulled my tent out of my trunk and contemplated where to set it up. Tiger's site was large—although having my car there too shrunk it—but I didn't want to encroach on his space.

"Are you sure you don't mind sharing your spot?" I asked. Before I'd met him, I'd planned to leave Karijini earlier this morning. After he'd talked me into abseiling, I needed another accommodation for tonight, and he'd offered to help.

He grinned as he screwed a tri-pronged fold-out camp stove onto a bottle of butane. "Little late to be asking that, isn't it?" The sun was setting on the horizon, though the lack of clouds meant a lacklustre sunset awaited.

"I can see if—"

"I'm joking, Goanna." With his pocketknife, he opened a can of baked beans. "This site could hold a dozen tents. Why pay for another if we're hanging out? I've camped closer to total strangers in Darwin and Uluru, and you're much better company."

"If you insist."

"I do. Can you channel those animal connection powers to bring us a dingo?"

I lugged my tent to the far corner of the site near the shrubs, a reasonable distance from Tiger's claustrophobic nightmare coffin tent that didn't rise higher than my hips. "I was hoping to avoid those, if possible."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Goanna?"

I unzipped the tent bag and pulled out the bags of poles and pegs. "Self-preservation. Wouldn't a dingo eat a goanna?"

"Not under the watchful eye of a tiger." After he'd poured the beans into an aluminum pot and covered it with a lid, he offered to help me set up.

We unfolded the tent whose tarp bottom saved me from needing a groundsheet. Seamlessly, we got the poles in and erected my shelter. Tiger scavenged for large rocks to weigh down the tent corners since the outback ground was far too hard to accept pegs.

"Do you want the fly on? It'll be a beautiful night for stargazing together."

I tucked the gray and red tarp into the tent for now. Now that he was feeling more whole, would he get bolder with me? Was stargazing an attempt to come on to me?

He hid his hands in his shorts pockets. "Did I say something that upset you?"

"No, I just..." None of his actions so far made him anything like most of the men I'd met travelling, though he had held me in the gorge today. "Why'd you mention stargazing?"

"The constellations are completely different in the Southern Hemisphere, and this corner of the country is top-notch for its dark skies."

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and let out a breath of relief. He was consistently Tiger, saying exactly what he meant. "That sounds incredible."

"Putting the fly on later helps to survive the outback chill. I forgot once and couldn't feel my nose in the morning."

"I've slept in a quinzee before. I'll live."

Neil cocked his head to the side. His freckles were growing more prominent after spending a few days in the sun together. "What's a quinzee?"

"A less intricate igloo. Make a big snow pile, let it sit for hours, then hollow it out. It's like a snow tent."

"Incredible, and you slept there in the winter?"

"Yeah, just for one night. It's no hotel, but we survived." Somehow they'd even given me high school credits for the wilderness class.

"I could sense you were tough the night we met. That must be what animals see in you, resilience."

"Are you always so complimentary?"