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as they say. Sit a moment and enjoy the remains of the day.’ She gestured beside her, so Bella sat on the sand.
    â€˜It would be a nice way to start the day, too,’ agreed Bella. ‘Instead of rushing out the door to my office. Do you live here or are you on holiday?’
    â€˜I live here for now. I travelled a lot, then I found out about my great-grandfather. Funny how you never think much about the lives of your grandparents and their parents and what they did when they were our age.’
    â€˜That’s true,’ agreed Bella. ‘So what did you find out? If you don’t mind me asking.’
    â€˜No worries. Great-grandad was a prisoner of war in Changi in Singapore and apparently something of a character. He couldn’t settle back into suburban life in Sydney after the war, so when he won some money in the lottery he married, came up to Queensland and opened a fish and chip shop near the beach. It did really well, so he sold it and moved further north and bought a rundown old coconut plantation. The trees were sixty years old. He started a nursery and exported them all over Australia.’
    â€˜So, he really made good after a hard time in the war?’
    â€˜He did. He sold the coconut plantation and he and my great-grandmother moved to Micronesia and started helping the villagers. Built a school for the kids. Then he came back to Australia and set up a kids’ camp on an island on the Barrier Reef where Indigenous and outback kids could go and holiday for free.’
    â€˜What a great thing to do!’ said Bella. ‘And what happened to the old plantation?’
    â€˜You’re sitting in it. Well, all that land there behind us.’
    â€˜No way! Hidden Cove belonged to your great-grandfather?’ exclaimed Bella. ‘What became of him?’
    â€˜He retired back to Sydney and lived quietly. When I discovered the story through my aunt, I just had to come and have a look. I work in the hotel over there. Just saving up to go to the islands.’
    â€˜Are you going to visit the school he started?’ asked Bella, quite intrigued by this story.
    â€˜I thought I’d just go and see. You have to follow your intuition, right?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Bella slowly. ‘I guess you do.’
    The girl smiled and resumed her pose, closing her eyes again.
    Bella stayed a while but then got up and walked back towards her apartment, thinking the girl was right. Sometimes you did have to follow your intuition.
    *
    By the end of the weekend, Bella could feel her head clearing. The break was doing her good. She decided she should probably start looking for Ned more earnestly and stop just checking social media and calling his friends hoping to find him.
    She decided to head to Cairns. Bella saw why the girl at the reception desk of her apartment building had called Cairns a jumping place – there seemed to be people everywhere. After she had parked her car in the downtown area and begun to explore, she initially wondered why the CBD seemed to be filled with a small army of retirees in colourful shorts and shirts, loose frocks or snug slacks, until she saw them all wearing tags around their necks and realised that they were passengers from a cruise ship, having their day ashore in the capital of Far North Queensland.
    Cairns had a lively atmosphere. There was a plethora of places to eat, drink, dance, listen to music and watch tourist shows. There were art galleries and tourist shops selling Aboriginal art and artefacts. The theme of Cairns appeared to be crocodiles, both alive and stuffed. Almost every gift shop featured crocodile leather handbags, belts, shoes and hat bands, crocodile teeth jewellery as well as ornamental crocodiles carved from wood. A photographer’s studio featured close-ups of large crocodiles, their jaws wide open, displaying their awesome teeth, which made Bella shudder.
    She had no trouble finding the club where a mutual friend