‘Course you can. I doubt you’ll find anything exciting though. Nat mainly uses it for the internet. I imagine she’ll need it for her reports for work when she starts. It has Facebook though.’
‘And Nat’s been doing her online swimwear business from the living room? Hasn’t that been intrusive?’ Hannah asked.
Phyllie’s eyes darted around the room. ‘Not really. The workload has tapered off a bit with that, which is why she’s gone and got the new job.’
‘Really? I was under the impression she’d been working around the clock and hardly going out.’
Phyllie nodded. ‘She was at one stage. We only moved the computer down here recently. I got sick of taking cups of tea up the stairs.’
‘Hold on. You’re not supposed to be going up the stairs at all. That was part of our deal.’
Phyllie shook her head. ‘No, that was one of your instructions for me. But if it makes you feel better, other than when I need to go into the sewing room, which isn’t very often these days, I won’t go upstairs. As of tomorrow, Nat won’t be here during the day anyway.’
Hannah suddenly thought of Lia. She was also starting a new job tomorrow. It made her realise she hadn’t asked her what she did, and she would need to message her to wish her a good first day. She thought back to their conversations of the previous day. There certainly were a lot of parallels between their two lives.
‘You’re looking puzzled,’ Phyllie said. ‘Anything wrong?’
‘I was just thinking of a friend,’ Hannah said. ‘Someone I’ve recently met. She’s got a lot going on in her life at the moment and, like Nat, she’s starting a new job tomorrow. She also lives with her grandmother and recently moved her computer into a shared area, like Nat has. I was thinking how strange the similarities are, that’s all.’
Phyllie smiled. ‘A small world, I guess. What does your friend do for work? Don’t tell me she’s a community support officer too?’
‘Actually, I’m not sure. I’ll ask her when we’re next chatting.’
The lawnmower cut out suddenly and the room, other than Amy’s tapping on the computer keys, filled with silence.
‘He’s finished the back,’ Phyllie said. ‘He’ll be up the side any second, ready to do the front. Perhaps we should move out the back on to the veranda? It’s a bit chilly, but the sun’s out. What do you say?’
Amy looked up from the computer. ‘Can I stay here? I need to do some research for my history assignment. I could use this time to read about the landing at Botany Bay.’
‘What about Bear? You don’t think he’d like a run around now Dad’s finished out the back?’
They all looked down at Bear, who was lying under the desk, his head on Amy’s feet, fast asleep.
‘He’s tired. How about I read the articles, and then I’ll bring him out?’
‘We can hardly say no to a girl wanting to do her homework.’ Phyllie took Hannah by the elbow. ‘Come on, you can help a poor old lady out to the back garden. In fact, I’m surprised you didn’t bring a wheelchair with you.’
She broke into peals of laughter as they walked through to the garden, the scent of freshly mown grass filling the air.
Damien put the mower away in the shed and walked up the garden to join Hannah and Phyllie.
‘Thanks, love, you’re a good boy. So much like my Frederick,’ Phyllie said. ‘The lawn looks lovely.’
‘I’ll do the edges next time,’ Damien said. ‘They aren’t too long at the moment, so they didn’t need it. I’ll also bring my whipper-snipper, as that one you’ve got in the shed is a bit archaic.’
Phyllie laughed. ‘Frederick will be sending you evil looks from heaven for referring to his prized possession like that. He loved that thing. “Made to last, Phyllis”, he’d always say. It did do a good job, but yes, I’m sure the newer, modern equipment is much easier.’
‘Mum?’ Amy stood at the back door, Bear next to her. ‘The computer’s doing something weird. Can you have a look?’
Hannah stood. ‘I’ll be right back.’
Bear ran past her into the garden. ‘Let’s get this fixed,’ she said to Amy, ‘then you can head out with Bear and throw him the ball or a stick or something.’
She followed Amy and sat down at the computer. A warning had come up saying the site she was trying to access had been blocked.
‘That’s weird. I wonder why Nat would have blocks on the computer. What were you trying to open?’
‘Just a site that has lots of documentaries. They have a show on Arthur Phillip that might be worth watching.’
Hannah clicked through to the settings on the computer. ‘Let’s have a look and see if any sites are blocked. If they’re not, it’s probably just a glitch and you could try restarting it. I can’t imagine Nat would need to block any sites.’
Hannah found the setting that showed what was blocked. She stared at the screen. There were a number of blocks in place. By the looks of them, they all blocked gambling sites. She sucked in a breath. Eliza and Lia had been talking about Gamblock and Poker Problems the other day.
‘What are they, Mum? Anything that would be blocking the documentary site?’
Amy drew Hannah from her jumbled thoughts. ‘Um, no, not that I can see. Let’s just shut down everything and restart. It might clear whatever the glitch is.’
They spent a few minutes closing the open programs and restarting the computer. Amy tried the website again and this time it worked. She smiled. ‘Thanks, you’re smarter at this stuff than I thought you would be.’
Hannah wasn’t sure whether she’d received a compliment or not but smiled regardless. ‘Okay, have a look and then come out the back. We won’t be staying much longer, and I’m sure Bear would love to have a proper play in the garden.’
She walked through to the kitchen and the sliding door that led out to Phyllie’s patio area. All the comments Lia had made in the chat room were flooding her mind. It wasn’t possible that Lia was Nat, was it? She gave herself a mental shake. No, of course it wasn’t. It had to be a coincidence, nothing more. But why were all those blocks in place on Nat’s computer for online poker? It was only four or five weeks ago that she’d mentioned an interest in poker, after her big win at the poker night. Surely she couldn’t have run up a huge debt and needed to ban herself in that short a timeframe? She took her seat back at the patio, her eyes fixing on Bear, who was sniffing around one of Phyllie’s trees.
‘Get it sorted?’ Damien asked.
Hannah nodded, still deep in thought.
Phyllie frowned. ‘You okay, love? You went into the house with rosy cheeks and have come out as white as a sheet.’
‘Phyllie’s right,’ Damien said. ‘You look awful.’
She turned her attention from Bear to her husband and grandmother. ‘You two know, don’t you?’ It had just dawned on her that Damien’s inability to look her in the eye when he’d mentioned a friend having gambling problems wasn’t because it was him, but because it was Nat. And Phyllie, of course, had been the one to help Nat make changes. She was also the one who unwittingly gave Nat five thousand dollars, not realising it was being squandered on poker tables rather than invested.