One Tiny Miracle... Read Online Free PDF

‘…I will make myself go for a jog this evening. What about you?’
    ‘I’ll show you…’ She gave a wicked smile. ‘Come here.’
    Curious, Ben walked over and looked at the screen and stared at the image of a rather ordinary-looking guy.
    ‘A GP, late thirties, has children but doesn’t want to involve them yet…’
    ‘Sorry?’ Ben had no idea what she was going on about.
    ‘That’s good,’ Belinda said. ‘The last one I saw brought his children along on the second date! We’ve chatted on the phone,’ Belinda explained to a bemused Ben, ‘and he seems great—we’re meeting for coffee tonight.’
    ‘You’re going on a date with him?’
    ‘Coffee.’ Belinda laughed. ‘You should try it—you’d be a hit!’
    Ben shook his head. ‘Internet dating isn’t for me.’
    ‘Don’t knock it till you try it.’
    ‘Be careful.’ Ben frowned. ‘Shouldn’t you go with someone when you meet him? He could be anyone!’
    ‘He’s who he says is.’ Belinda winked. ‘I’ve checked his registration.’
    ‘Well, good luck.’
    The real-estate agent was being nice to him again—there had been a little bit of initial sulking when Ben hadn’t bought the apartment, but he’d obviously got over it and he was Ben’s new best friend again now that he had a genuine prospective client for the house.
    ‘Can I have a look around?’ Ben asked.
    ‘Not till the “open for inspection” at the weekend,’ the agent said. ‘After that, I can arrange a private inspection for you.’
    ‘I’m actually working this weekend,’ Ben said, ‘so don’t worry about it.’
    ‘You will come and have a look, though?’ the agent said anxiously.
    ‘Like I said…’ Ben shrugged ‘…I’m working—but it’s really no problem. I’m actually going to look at another house tonight.’
    That soon got him on the phone! A private inspection was arranged within the hour and Ben wandered through the house he was seriously thinking of calling home. It did need a lot of work—the kitchen was a bomb and the downstairs bathroom would need to be ripped out, but the master bedroom had already beenrenovated, with floor-to-ceiling windows that took in the bay view and a fantastic en suite that did the same.
    Yes, it was way too big for one, but it just felt right.
    He could renovate it, Ben thought, take his time, pull out the kitchen, do up the back garden…Standing in the master bedroom, staring out at the bay, Ben felt the first breeze of contentment he had in years, the first, the very first glimmer of how finally coming home should feel.
    Despite his nonchalance with the agent, despite the shake of his head when he found out the reserve price and that the vendor wanted a quick settlement, he was just playing the necessary game. For Ben, the auction couldn’t come soon enough.
    A wall of heat hit him as Ben opened the door to his unit. He opened the windows, turned on a fan and put his dinner in the fridge then peeled off his clothes and hoped that the shower ran cold this evening—which thankfully it did.
    After showering, he pulled on some shorts and nothing else, then headed for the kitchen. Suddenly, out of the blue, there was this sort of long groan as everything ground to a halt.
    It had been happening all over Melbourne—the power outages every evening as the lucky people who had air-conditioning selfishly cranked it up to full. Ben just had a fan—which now, of course, wasn’t working.
    He went outside to check the power box, just in case it was only him, and glancing down the row of units he saw Celeste checking her power box too.
    She was in lilac shorts this time, and a black singlet. Her hair was wet and she looked thoroughly fed up.
    ‘Again!’ She rolled her eyes, gave him a brief wave and headed back into what would surely soon be a furnace—unlike his unit, Celeste’s got the full questionable glory of the afternoon sun.
    And that was when that niggle hit him again—an unfamiliar, long-forgotten