Fanfiction
Here you go, my very first fanfiction story. Also released in the flyingdoctorsfanfic email group.
More Than Thousand
Words
by Katja Kuparinen
a fanfiction story based on The Flying Doctors -characters.
CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Geoff Standish
DJ
Kate Wellings
Violet Carnegie
Nancy Buckley
Vic Buckley
George Baxter
Jack Carruthers
Emma Plimpton
GUEST APPEARANCE
Catherine Beaton
Part 1 - - -Part
2
1.
"I'm going to get some lunch with Kate, are you coming,
DJ?" doctor Geoff Standish asked.
"No, not yet. I have some work to do..." he answered,
"... mrs. Morrison is having a meeting with her neightbour
farmers and she asked me to send the invitation through the
airwaves."
Geoff smiled at Kate. Kate smiled back, then turning to DJ:
"Is it possible you haven't heard about the reporter?"
"Of course I have. I'll meet him later."
"I haven't, what reporter?" Geoff asked.
"Someone's coming here to write about Cooper's
Crossing."
"Who wants to write about Cooper's Crossing?" Geoff
made a question in his most sarcastic voice.
There was a buzzle in the pub. The buzzle was, mostly, caused by
Violet Carnegie.
"Is everything allright? Must be! And fresh flowers in his
room?"
"Everything's under control, Violet, don't you worry,"
Nancy said warmly.
"I can't see, why you bother your minds with it? He's just a
minor journalist, not a part of the Royal Family!" Vic made
out his point and received a bored look from Nancy.
"I don't understand you, Vic," Violet started,
"it's all about publicity! If he makes a good report on
Crossing, it may attract more turism here, and you, basically,
earn your money with turism! That is why we must make him feel
welcome here, we don't want him to write some bad things about
our beloved town."
"If you're so worry about him getting the wrong picture, why
did you allow Baxter pick him up?" Vic said, but Violet
weren't listening anymore.
"They're here! They're here!" Violet and Nancy were
anxious. The door opened, but only a young woman came in. Then in
came Baxter. And then... no one!
"Where is he?" Violet asked Baxter.
"Who?"
"The reporter! Don't say you forgot to pick him..."
"That might be me you're talking about," the woman
started. She was small and clever looking woman, but you could
see from her tired eyes she was exhausted.
"Catherine Beaton", she grabbed Violet's hand and shook
it. She was smiling, but her smile didn't quite reach her weary
eyes.
"Vi-violet Carneegie", Violet stuttered. Nancy took
Catherine's hand next:
"Oh how nice it is to meet you! I am Nancy, Nancy Buckley,
and this is my husband Vic. Let's take your bags to your
room." And so they went, along with Violet, who had
recovered and had her tongue back.
"That was a surprise!" Vic said to Baxter.
"Tell me about it," he said with a sullen voice
Geoff and Kate came in the same time Violet, Nancy and Catherine
came down.
"This is doctor Geoff Standish, and sister Kate Wellings, of
Flying Doctors," Violet introduced. "The Flying Doctor
Service is the heart of the outbacks!"
"More like the bandaid of the outbacks," Geoff joked.
"You must write about them, too! They need publicity, as
they work on..."
"Oh, yes, I know a little about the service. I'd like to
come and follow your work someday."
"Oh, please do so."
Kate and Geoff came back from their lunch to find DJ still
speaking to his radio:
"...no, I'm not going to do so! You contact him, I'm a
radio-operator, not a middleman between you and your
neightbor!"
He turned off the radio and turned to the two:
"How was he?"
"He? There was no he," Geoff winked at Kate.
"So he didn't came after all. How typical."
"No... The reporter did come. But he turned out to be a
she," Kate said mysteriously.
"So you say the reporter is some old auntie from some local
paper."
"She seemed like a nice young lady..." Geoff started.
"Nice young lady?" DJ sprang up like... well, like a
spring
"You mind me taking my lunch break now? Thanks!" he
said and rushed out before anyone could have had time to answer.
DJ found Catherine in the middle of a little crowd in the pub.
Vic seemed happy with that, as they all had ordered something.
Somehow DJ got himself introdused despiting the loud murmur.
"I'm DJ actually Dimitrios Goannidis, but just call me DJ,
everyone does, I'm a radio-operator on the base, it's a tricky
job but I do it well, and how are you, hope you like
Crossing," then he had to take a breath, "I can show
you Cooper Crossing, If you like?"
"You're like the twentieth to offer me that, thank
you," She said with a smile.
"Oh, well, but don't be afraid to ask me anything you'd like
to know"
"Yeah," started Vic, "do so, but be careful with
the answers!"
"What do you mean?"
"DJ's no liar, but a big mouth. He once told me that Greeks
invented the aeroplane!" Cathy made a timid laugh.
"But it's true," DJ started, "you can't deny, that
Ikaros was..." DJ started arguing with Vic.
"Am I, or am I not right, Catherine," DJ started, but
noticed that Cathy wasn't there anymore.
"She went upstairs, she was very tired, as she flew all the
way from Perth".
"I didn't make so good impression, did I," DJ said.
Nance comforted him saying, she was just tired.
"Perth?", Vic asked, "Why in the world she came
here from there? Sure there would have been little towns closer
Perth!"
* * *
2.
Morning came, and some of the folk were in the pub to have
breakfast. There were also Kate and DJ.
"You were here before me, weren't you?" Kate teased DJ.
"You were going to the clinic run, weren't you," DJ
answered.
"No, I have some time before it, I thought I'd spend it with
you."
"Sorry, but I need to go," he said as he spotted
Catherine. She came from the back of the pub, a camerabag over
her shoulder.
"Hi, remember me? Would you like some breakfast?"
"Well, I already ate something, I'm going out now".
"Then I can show you places!"
"Er, if you like to do so, I can't stop you."
But before they got out, sgt Jack Carruthers stopped them.
"Are you Catherine Beaton? I am sargeant Jack
Carruthers."
"Yes I am. Nice to meet you at last," Cathy said, but
didn't look so pleased.
"You have time to come to the police station, say, two
o'clock?"
"I'll be there," Cathy answered quietly. DJ cast an
inquiring look on her, but as she didn't say anything, DJ decided
not to ask her, what was that all about.
They walked towards the garage, DJ already starting to introduce
the town, when there came a loud bang. Cathy bowed down
immediately putting her arms over her head like if to protect it.
"It's just Emma," DJ said, wondering the strange
behaviour of the otherwise normal girl. She straightened herself
with embarrased look on her face.
"What's wrong, Emma?" DJ asked.
Emma was standing beside a big all-terrain car, holding a wrench
so hard her knuckles were white. There was a big dent on an empty
barrel near her, it was easy to guess the source of the bang.
"What is wrong? This old junk is wrong!" Emma hissed
through her teeth.
"Sure you can fix it. If you can't, no one can" DJ
encourages Emma.
Emma calmed down and saw Cathy.
"Oh hi, I am Emma", she was offering her hand but
pulled it back as it was dirty with axle grease.
"I'm Cathy, I'm working on a photoreport about this
town..."
"Oh, I've heard of you from Violet. Oh no, don't take a
photo on me! Atleast wait until I've changed my clothes and
all..." Cathy convinced her, that she was just perfect the
way she was.
"No one would believe you're a real mechanic, if you'd have
stainless clothes," she said.
"Oh DJ, what have you done!" a voice said. It belonged
to Violet, who came to them waving her hands.
"What?"
"Cathy doesn't want to take photographs of a dirty, ugly
garage!"
"Well, I think it's a good subject to..." she started,
but, as always, Violet knew better.
"No, there's much more beatiful places here! Come, come to
see our new summer-house!" Violet dragged smiling Cathy with
her, leaving DJ and Emma giggling after them.
* * *
3.
A few weeks passed. People in Cooper's Crossing learned, that
Cathy was doing a photo-reportage for the Pacific Geographic. She
was a nice person, and got well with people, even thought she
told little about herself, only of her job. Still she looked a
bit faint, but everyone got used to that.
Another evening there was a knock on Cathy's door.
"It's open... but do not step in!" she said. With this
strange advice DJ opened the door. The room was filled with
photographs. They were on the floor, on the table, everywhere.
Cathy herself was sitting tailor's seat on the bed, which also
held some photos.
"Nancy just wanted to ask you, if you'd like to have
something to eat."
"Oh, yes, I'll come down soon," she said without
raising her eyes, scrathing something to her notebook.
"What are you doing?" DJ asked curiously.
"I'm putting these photos in order," she answered,
grabbed a photo and wrote something on it's backside.
"Are these in order?" DJ asked in disbelief. He walked
carefully through the photos, placing his foot on the little
islands of bare floor left between the photos.
"Why, it's a fine picture of me!" he said, grabbing a
photo. It had DJ leaning over his radio microphone, with a motion
blur backround.
"Yes, I like it too. It's amazing what you can do with
increasing shutter time."
"Are you going to use it in your article?" DJ asked
proudly.
"No, I don't think so... Now, I must have over hundread
photos, of which some fifty are not so bad, but in my article I
can use 10 photos, at the most. And I am sure to take some more
photos!"
"Is it usual, that reporter works on a story as long as
you?"
"Ehm... At least Geographic wants quality reportages, so
it's important to... get familiar with your subject..." she
paused, and then continued with a smile: "But my two months
stay here is nothing compared to that of some of my colleagues! I
know two man, who are spending the whole year with the
sheep-shearers!"
"Really? That must be an experiment"
"Yes, but they're also making a document series for
television, not only a photoreportage."
They went downstairs and had a dinner together (as Nancy told
Geoff not to go sit with them). So Geoff went to sit with George
Baxter, who wasn't too happy with the reporter.
"She didn't want to write about me," he started.
"Your not her subject, but this town," Geoff cleared.
"Yes, but what would this town be without me? Nothing. It's
just fair that she mentions me in her writings."
"Sure she'll have skills to decide what she'll need to tell
in her story,"
"I doubt," Baxter started. Geoff raised his look.
"There is no Catherine Beaton in the Pacific Geographic
editorial staff"
"That doesn't mean anything. They very much use freelance
reporters."
"And so they also told me! They have assigned her to do her
story, but I can't see why. It's a quality magazine, and the name
of Catherine Beaton is not familiar with the editorial circles
elsewhere."
"Certainly there's an explanation to that, your just being
paranoiac."
* * *
To Be Continued... click--->
NEXT EPISODE:
"Eeeeek!!!" a cry made the whole pub silent for an
instant. Vic, followed with half the pub, went upstairs to find
the source of the shrilling voice. He found Catherine, shivering
at her door-step.
"What in the world made you cry like that..." Vic
started but when he looked into the room he saw the reason. In
her bed, right on the pillow, there were a dead cock, with it's
head removed!
Join us next time, as the events heat up!
