THE CAFÉ QUESTION BECOMES A FESTIVAL QUESTION: DEB FORSYTHE SAYS TASH'S NAME AND THE ROOM DIVIDES ON WHAT IT MEANT

Tuesday's planning session covered ground. How much ground, and in which direction, depends on where you were sitting.

Deb Forsythe named Tash Briggs as a vendor. Not in passing, not as a suggestion dressed up as a question. She said the name with the weight of someone who had already done the arithmetic. Half the room heard a decision. The other half heard a door being knocked on. This reporter was not present, but both accounts have been offered with such conviction that printing only one would be the larger lie.

What is known: Deb walked to the café that evening and was inside for eight minutes. Tash locked up an hour later. The expression on her face, according to everyone who saw it, is not yet translatable. "Something was offered" is circulating and may be accurate.

The café brought fourteen rolls to the planning session that same morning — the first time the new number has appeared outside its own premises. Nobody remarked on it. That silence is its own sort of remark.

By Wednesday, the district had learned that a woman from the caravan park had bought rolls two days running, and that someone in Coonabarabran had passed the name along at a servo. The café now has a reputation that has crossed at least two shires without Tash having said a word about it in public. She just kept baking.

The Bicentenary is four months out. Deb Forsythe has a display folder and a vendor list and, apparently, a name on it. Whether Tash Briggs knows she's on that list is the only remaining question.

THE GOVERNMENT CAR: PLATE NUMBER NOTED, IMPLICATIONS STILL OUTSTANDING

NSW Health, Rural Workforce Agency. Present outside the clinic from nine-fifteen Friday morning until noon. This paper can confirm the make, the plate number, and the duration, because this paper was standing on the footpath when necessary.

Susan Tan — the visitor — said nothing at the pub counter during a Friday lunch that ran long enough to confirm the meeting was substantive. She was polite to Macca. She gave nothing away. Macca, for his part, has not been asked on record, and Macca has the useful habit of not volunteering.

The town is handling this with unusual restraint. Nobody is asking Priya directly. Whether this is courtesy or superstition is unclear. What is clear is that a three-hour government visit to a single-doctor rural clinic is not, in the normal run of things, a brief administrative errand.

Clarrie Burton was present at the General Store Wednesday afternoon when Clarrie rang Mick Sorensen about grading the east gate track for the festival route. This paper has since spoken with Clarrie. Notes were taken. This paper walked home faster than usual afterward.

There is more to print. It will be printed when it is ready.

MICK SORENSEN CONFIRMS: EAST GATE TRACK, BICENTENARY, AND THE INFERENCE BRUCE ALREADY MADE

At Bruce Patterson's counter Thursday, Mick Sorensen confirmed the grading job. "Clarrie asked," he said. "It's for the Bicentenary." The conversation was brief, the confirmation was clean, and at least one person in earshot has since connected this to Ray Connelly without anyone having said so explicitly.

Ray was at Bruce's agency Wednesday morning. The body language, according to the one witness across the street, was not a purchase. They talked. Ray left. Bruce looked like a man who had landed neither side up.

Ray Connelly continues to resist being known. This paper is beginning to find it less interesting than it once did and more interesting than ever, which is not a contradiction so much as a mood.

SPORT: 14.9 TO 11.6. KEITH USES FOUR WORDS.

The Hollow beat Gunnedah Seconds Saturday. Steve-o kicked three from anchor. At three-quarter time, Keith said "keep the shape." The Hollow kept the shape. Forty-four through the pub by evening.

Macca looked pleased with himself by ten. On its own terms, that is worth noting.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

From Helen Watts, Redgum Hollow:
Marge, I see my name in the paper again regarding Bingo Corner. I have said before I do not wish to be credited. I will say it again here so it is on record. I did not "name" anything. I made an observation. There is a difference. Regards, Helen Watts.
(Ed: Noted, Helen. Your observation is still on the scoreboard. — M.H.)

From Gary McKenzie, Royal Hotel:
Just want to say well done to the boys Saturday. Keith knows what he's doing and so do the players when they listen to him. Pub was full and I am not complaining about that. Good winter night. — Macca

From a reader who has asked not to be named:
Everyone is being very careful about not asking the doctor anything. Has anyone considered that she might actually want to be asked? Just a thought from someone who has moved to a new place and found the silence more unsettling than the questions would have been.
(Ed: This letter has been printed unedited. The town may do with it what it will. — M.H.)

AROUND THE DISTRICT

Weather: five degrees at dawn all week, clear skies, no change in the outlook. The drought holds. The ground is making no promises.

The east gate track will be graded before the festival. Mick Sorensen's word is good.

The fourteenth of August passed without public event. Whether it was observed privately by anyone in this district is not known to this paper. The date was noted here in a prior edition. It remains noted.

Fuel at the servo is up again. No announcement was made.

Ray Connelly is still at the Henderson place.