IN THE NAME OF LYNCH

In The Name of Lynch

-Honeymoon in Tasmania-

Just beyond Sadie's farm near Waddamana there was a small campground called Fish and Flowers

Popular with both anglers and honeymooners circled Lake Arthur with room for tents in one area and trailer hookups in another. Another area still offered quaint cabins with modest kitchens and sleeping accommodations.

Ai Murray woke in one of these cabins alongside her still-sleeping husband Jack. Jack had selected Tasmania for their honeymoon as it was one of the few places Ai had not yet been to.

As a former employee of Zik Zak, Ai had traveled extensively. But New Zealand, Australia, and the rest of the area that surrounded them including the Fiji Islands were in the advertising zone covered by Zik Zak's rival, Zlin, and while she had worked for Zik Zak she had not been able to travel there.

Now that she was retired, no such restrictions existed for her. She was free to visit any city, state, or country she wished.

She planned to visit Waddamana that afternoon to do a bit of shopping, but for the morning the two of them were planning to take a hike around the lake before the weather got too warm.

She lie there for a moment, relishing the feel of his arm around her. Then she stood up and went into the bathroom, pausing for a moment to collect her clothes.

By the time she had showered and dressed, Jack was awake and brewing a fresh pot of coffee on the stove.

"Got a preference for our first breakfast together?" he asked, holding up a box of donuts with a smile. "We've got jelly, chocolate, or glazed."

"Which has the fewest calories?" Ai asked.

"The jelly, dearest," Jack told her. "Actually it has the most, but eighty percent of it is in the powdered sugar coating and the jelly. And, as you know, those almost never make it to the stomach. Ask anyone who's ever worn a tuxedo while eating one."

"I'll have two then," Ai laughed, taking her first as she down at the little table with him.

"I've been reading up on Waddamana," Jack said. He took a sip of coffee. "It used to be a ghost town way back when."

"After the hydro electric fad petered out in the late nineteen hundreds," Ai remembered. "We studied it in world history. It came back to life after the Last War, when it was filled with people who came from the Australian mainland and from New Zealand. Those from the mainland came from all over; Bundaberg, Perth, Alice Springs..."

"Well, I didn't come here for a history lesson," Jack grinned, kissing her. "Though I do think I need to brush up on my sex ed."

"As tempting as that sounds," Ai smiled, warmly, "we signed up to join the hike this morning and that starts in fifteen minutes. So I'll take a rain check."

Jack knelt by the bed.

"Lose something?" Ai asked.

"No, I'm praying for rain." Jack said, looking over his shoulder with a wolfish grin.

"Oh, you!" Ai laughed in delight as she took up a pillow and gave him a playful swat.

The pillow fight escalated until they were both wrestling playfully on the bed, sharing kisses, touches, and words of love.

Needless to say, they never did make the hike that morning.

In the afternoon, freshly re-showered and wearing the clothes they'd brought to wear in town, Ai and Jack caught one of the camp site's regular transits into town. They stopped in at the local diner for lunch.

"What's that shop across the street?" Ai asked the waiter as he brought their check.

"That's not a shop, it's a post office," Caleb told her. "In the old days, there were men and women who carried packages from one city or town to another. And it was done all at once, so the packages of each town were all placed in the same truck and delivered to each house one at a time."

"That must've been chaotic," Jack said. "They must've lost a lot of things people were trying to send."

"We keep that one open for the tourists," Caleb explained. "We don't send things out, of course. No one to receive them on the other end. But you can buy old fashioned postcards there and get them stamped with the town's old postal seal for a souvenir."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Ai laughed.

"Okay, we'll do that after breakfast," Jack agreed.

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