Blue Skies

by Fleur McDonald

  ‘Nothing like mother’s milk is there little one?’ Amanda smiled and watched them for a bit longer as the ewe eyed her warily but let her baby drink.

  Amanda turned back to the ute and got out her stud book. She filled in the date of birth, weight, the ewe’s tag number as well as the lamb’s, and all the information that the White Suffolk breed society would need in order to register this little bloke as a White Suffolk ram.

  Two weeks later Amanda had two hundred AI lambs listed in her stud book. They had come thick and fast once they had started lambing and all of her time had been spent in that one paddock. If she wasn’t weighing and tagging lambs, or making sure the right lambs were with their mums, she was out at night patrolling the boundary of the paddock for foxes. She was tired but knew it would be worth it in the end.

  Tonight, though, it was time to enter all the information into the computer and send it off to the White Suffolk society so they could all be registered. A glass of wine rested by the keyboard and Mingus was at her feet. As she plugged in the information, she listened intently for the sound of rocks on her roof. She’d been hearing them over the past month and couldn’t work out where they were coming from. Soon she became so involved in her task, she didn’t hear anything until Mingus suddenly cocked his head and barked.

  Brought back to reality, she heard a car engine in the drive. Pushing back her chair, she checked the time and went into the lounge to see who it was. It was after nine o’clock and she wasn’t expecting visitors.

  There were lights swinging across her shed but in the darkness she couldn’t see what sort of vehicle it was. She waited for it to come to the house, but it didn’t. It stopped at the shed with the lights trained firmly on her house. Then, without warning, it reversed and sped a little way down the drive.

  Running to the gun cabinet, she took out a shotgun and ran down to the shed. Flicking on all the lights, she looked around, trying to see if anything had been taken, but it didn’t look like anything had been disturbed. Her heart pounding now, she turned and went back to the house and shut and locked the kitchen door. As she did, more lights swung across her line of sight.

  The car was still in the drive. She squinted against the glare and held up her hand to shade her eyes, trying to see what sort of car it was, but the lights were too bright. Then the car revved its engine and spun its wheels as it reversed down the driveway.

  The noise of the motor started to fade and, as it turned on to the main road, Amanda heard the squeal of tyres and the engine drop back a gear as it gathered speed and headed towards Esperance.

  Shaking, Amanda ran to the house and picked up the phone to dial the police. Then she stopped. What would they be able to do? And what if it was just some young bloke playing silly buggers? Yes, that’s probably what it was – a young bloke who had had too much to drink, being stupid.

  Amanda put down the phone and walked out onto the verandah to listen again. She couldn’t hear anything except the haunting bark of a fox coming from down towards the river. She shivered.

  Chapter 31

  ‘Mandy-Mands! Jonno here. In town for a day or two. Wanna catch up?’

  A grin spread across her face as she listened to the message. Jonno was in town! She quickly dialled his mobile number.

  ‘You idiot! Of course I want to catch up,’ she said. ‘Where are you and what are you doing down here?’

  ‘Mands! How are you, chicky? I’ve come down to do some interviews about the season.Thought I’d look you up.’

  Amanda closed her eyes, relishing the sound of Jonno’s familiar, rough tones.

  ‘Do you want to come out here or shall I head into town?’

  ‘It’d be great if you could come to town. I’ve got a couple of things to do this morning but we could have lunch. Then I’ve gotta head out and do one of the interviews.’

  ‘No worries. How about we meet up at the pub around twelve?’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  Amanda hung up the phone just as the roof of her house exploded with noise. Cringing, she raced outside to see what was causing it.

  Adrian had laughed off her fears when she’d told him the lights incident the other night, and when she had mentioned that someone had been throwing rocks at the roof he had told her it was probably the tin expanding. She hadn’t mentioned the cup and hot kettle – that had been too strange for words. Deep down she knew he must be right, but she still couldn’t shake the anxiety she felt every time she heard a strange noise.

  Staring at the roof now, she couldn’t see anything. She wondered if a bird flying over could’ve dropped something, but instantly dismissed the idea.

  Sighing, she turned around and tripped over Mingus. ‘Sorry, mate.’ She bent to fondle his ears. ‘What do you think? Am I losing my marbles?’ Mingus licked her hand and stared up with adoring eyes.

  She straightened up and headed towards the laundry. She had a load of washing to hang out before a small mob of ewes that needed drenching were waiting for her attention. She was glad that Malcolm Mackay had convinced her to spread her lambing over four or five months in order to help with the cash flow, but it created a little more work than if they all lambed at the same time.

  The weather had gone from pleasantly warm to bitterly cold in the space of three weeks, and even though there had been enough rain to get the grass germinated, the follow-up rains were proving elusive. As a result, feed was still in short supply, which in turn had caused an outbreak of worms in the last few weeks.

  She filled up the drench bag and hoisted it onto her back, checked the dosage and then sent Mingus into the yards while she held the gate open into the race.

  ‘Pack ’em in,’ she instructed and watched as Mingus worked them from behind and pushed them over to the gateway. The sheep baulked at the entrance and, without being told, Mingus jumped onto their backs, made his way to the front of them then jumped down and forced the sheep into the race by crawling back under their bellies. Amanda smiled as she chained the gate and bent down to pat the dog. ‘That’s why I love you!’

  She walked to the front of the race and grabbed the first sheep under its chin, inserted the thin metal gun into its mouth and squeezed the trigger. White liquid shot into the sheep’s mouth and the ewe bobbed her head up and down as she swallowed. Amanda repeated the process with all the sheep in the race, then opened the gate at the front of the race and let them run into the big yard. They were ready to go back out into the paddock when Amanda had finished the rest of the mob.

  Another race full and then another and, before she knew it, Mingus had herded the last of the sheep into the race.

  Opening the gate out into the laneway, she ran the sheep past her slowly to get a count. Wouldn’t hurt to get a fix on the number of sheep around, she’d decided.

  Even though the day was cool, it was sunny and calm and the pale blue sky had wisps of white cloud streaking across it, so Amanda decided to use the motorbike to take the sheep back to their paddock. Puttering slowly behind them, with Mingus running from side to side, she looked around. The grass, though short, was green, and Amanda knew that as soon as the cold fronts started sweeping through she could hope to receive regular rainfall – up to an inch and a half per week if she was lucky. Then the weather would warm up a bit, the grass would start to grow beautiful and lush, and the spring would be a good one.

  The sheep trickled through the gate and quickly spread out in a fan, their heads down, eating. As she shut the gate and looped the chain around the strainer post, she noticed a ewe with an udder larger than the others. It looked like she was beginning to spring up and, quickly calculating the time elapsed between now and the mating date, Amanda realised they were only about two weeks off lambing. She would have to keep a closer eye on them from now on.

  Showered and changed, Amanda entered the local pub at twelve on the dot and looked around. There was no sign of Jonno. Knowing that he was often late, she got a drink and then a table, nodding and smiling hello to a few locals sh
e knew. She was looking at the menu when a pair of warm hands covered her eyes. Amanda gasped and ripped the hands away, her heart pounding.

  ‘What’s wrong, Mands, did I scare the crap outta you?’ Jonno grinned as he smacked her cheek with a kiss and slid into the chair opposite at her.

  She frowned at him and said angrily, ‘Don’t do that. Yeah, you did.’

  ‘Sorry, mate, didn’t think you were so sensitive. Hey, you looked buggered. What’s the problem?’

  Summoning up a smile, she flicked back her fringe and said, ‘Nothing. Hey, it’s great to see you! How’s things? What farmers are you interviewing?’

  Jonno laughed. ‘First things first. Have you ordered and why are you drinking lemonade when you could be having a beer?’

  ‘Well you can’t have anything to drink – you’re working! And no, I haven’t ordered.’

  ‘Hmm, good point. Well, I guess I’ll have a lemon squash then. So tell me, how are you really, and why do you look so tired? Looks like you’ve started to grow your hair again, thank goodness, but you’ve lost more weight, I reckon – there’s nothing of you! How can you wrestle a fully grown White Suffolk ram to the ground if you don’t have any muscle?’ He paused and looked at her with a mixture of affection and concern.‘Ah shit, what’s wrong, honey?’ Jonno reached across the table and grabbed her hand as tears filled Amanda’s eyes.

  Hurriedly she wiped them away and looked around to see if anyone had noticed,‘Sorry,’ she whispered.

  Jonno dragged his chair around next to hers and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘What’s up?’ he asked softly, looking into her face.

  ‘I’m fine, really,’ she said, ‘just a little tired.’

  ‘Well I can see that! Those rings under your eyes are as dark as night. Tell me what the problem is, hmm? That Adrian putting the hard word on you? Or you’ve got another man and you can’t decide?’

  Amanda smiled and thumped his arm. ‘I’m just not sleeping very well, that’s all.We should order, otherwise you’ll need to go and you won’t have eaten.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong. That’s what mates are for. C’mon, spill it.’

  ‘Well I don’t know what’s wrong,’ Amanda exploded. ‘That’s the bloody problem! I can’t sleep because there are strange noises and weird things happening. And yet they’re not weird and can all be explained.’ She paused as she saw Jonno’s worried look. ‘I know I sound like a complete, raving lunatic, but the noises sound like someone throwing rocks on my roof, so it would just be the tin expanding, right? And the lights that went across my roof the other night, well it was probably someone turning around on the road. The car that drove into the shed? Well, I put that down to some young bloke mucking around. But I’m scared shitless in my own home!

  ‘As for that tap on the water tank, I’m buggered if I can work out how I could’ve stuffed that up and left my girls without water.’

  ‘Oh yeah, Hannah mentioned something about that. But it was an accident, Mands, that’s all. But the noises you’re hearing, is that why you’re not sleeping? Because you’re scared?’

  Amanda nodded miserably.

  ‘Ah. Now where’s Hannah when you need her?’ Amanda could tell he was trying to fob her off with a joke because he was uncomfortable with the conversation. She understood – it all sounded nuts to her own ears when she said it aloud.

  She laughed weakly. ‘I watched a scary movie about three months ago and now I just jump at any noise. I imagine things, like gunshots or cars driving past the house in the middle of the night, and when I get up to have a look there’s nothing there.’

  ‘What do you want to eat?’

  Amanda blinked at the change in conversation and shrugged. ‘Whatever you’re having. I’m not really hungry.’

  Jonno got up to order and when he came back he started to talk. ‘Okay, let’s go through the noises – the first time you thought you heard a car outside your house in the middle of the night, did Mingus bark?’ Amanda shook her head.‘Could it have been the wind?’

  Amanda thought about that and nodded. ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘Okay the stones on your roof we’ve established are probably the tin expanding. Lights going across your ceiling – you said that was probably someone turning around on the main road, right?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Then we’ve got the car that you’ve actually seen. What did it do?’

  As she explained, Jonno nodded. ‘Mandy, do you remember that time we were coming back from the party at Jo’s and we got lost? We had to pull into someone’s driveway and turn around because we’d taken the wrong turn? It was probably just something like that. It’s all small stuff – why are you so freaked out?’

  She looked him squarely in the face and said, ‘I don’t know. And you know what’s scaring me most? It’s coming up to the anniversary of Dad’s death.’

  Amanda was grateful for the comfort of Jonno’s warm hand in hers, even if he was looking at her strangely. Why not? It was a weird story.

  And she still hadn’t told anyone about the letters she’d been receiving.

  Amanda was exhausted when she made her way home from the pub. The joy of seeing Jonno was overshadowed by the way she was feeling. She pushed open the kitchen door, Mingus at her heels, and walked in. Opening the fridge door she pulled out a half empty bottle of wine and poured herself a glass.

  After a few sips, she walked out to get her clothes off the line – and stopped dead. They weren’t there! But she was sure she hadn’t taken them off before she left for the pub.They wouldn’t have been dry!

  Chapter 32

  1940

  Grace was cooking on the wood stove that Michael had fitted into the kitchen at the end of the shed they had built after Diane was born. Her cheeks were red from the heat that the iron doors threw out, and trying to keep little Di away was a never-ending task.

  She banged the iron pot into the oven and slammed the door shut. She could hear Diane calling and, with a sigh, went to collect her from the enclosed playpen. She heaved the small girl onto her hip and went outside to tend to the vegetable garden. Even though she knew she was pregnant again, she had yet to tell Michael, but she suspected that he had guessed. This morning he’d been more solicitous than usual, helping with Diane and lifting the heavy pots and pans from the stove to the sink.

  He was just as tired as she was, clearing more land and focusing on this year’s crop of both oats and wheat as well as, for the first time, a bigger wool clip. She had helped with the finances by selling the excess garden produce – cauliflowers, potatoes and cabbages – to passing travellers.

  She lifted Diane over the wire fence into the garden and climbed over herself. Diane raced to her favourite place under the shade of a large plum tree and climbed into the swing that Michael had hung there to help keep her occupied while Grace worked.

  ‘Oooh, look, Mummy.’ Diane pointed with a fat finger to an earwig that was climbing the trunk of the plum tree.

  ‘Don’t touch that, Di. Bitey,’ Grace said.

  ‘Bi-tee.’ Diane tried to imitate the word she had heard then clapped her hands and laughed. Grace, despite her weariness, couldn’t help but laugh too.

  ‘Clever girl! You copied Mummy.’ She turned back to the broccoli and pulled back the leaves. There were grubs in them and she needed to find them all so they didn’t wreck the buds that were forming.

  An hour later, Diane showed signs of fatigue and Grace’s back was hurting, so she lifted the little girl back over the fence and held her hand as they walked back to the three-room shed. She could hear Michael banging around in the workshop and she thought it strange that he hadn’t come out to let them know he was back from the paddock. He was probably just mending something, she reasoned as she went into the small bedroom that was Diane’s.

  Diane’s bed was pushed up against one wall and covered in netting so nothing could get into it. Twice this year already Grace had killed a snake in the bedr
oom, and she had taken to sitting in the room while her toddler slept, frightened that if a snake got in without her seeing it might find its way into the cot. Only a year ago the Porters had lost a child to a snake bite and Michael’s dog, Bowy, had succumbed to the same fate not long after they had moved into the shed.

  As she laid Diane down, the little girl clung to her shoulder. ‘No, Mummy. No go!’

  ‘Shh, my precious. It’s time to sleep. Shall I sing you a song?’

  ‘Nong! Nong!’ Diane let go and lay down while her mother started to sing in a sweet, clear voice and stroke her hair. Not five minutes later, Diane was asleep.

  Grace looked down at this little miracle, the dark wisps of hair falling over her forehead and her dark eyelashes caressing her cheeks as she slept. At two, she was an active child who loved her mummy and daddy. She would come with them during the day and help pick stumps or ride in the tractor next to Michael.

  Her tottering gate made Michael laugh and she would squeal with delight as he walked through the door at night and try to run to him with her arms up.

  How lucky she was, Grace thought. Lucky that Edward had been close by when Charles attacked her, lucky that her parents and Michael’s had sent her to Australia. And how lucky she was to have such a kind and generous husband. Rocking in the chair, watching Diane sleep, Grace felt her own eyes close.

  In the workshop, Michael was sharpening his axe. The grinding noise of the steel on stone helped distract him from the news that he’d heard on the grapevine.

  It seemed Mr O’Connor had resigned from the bank and was leaving Esperance. Michael was particularly sad about this news, as he had come to regard Frank as a friend and confidant. Michael knew that he would miss him. On top of this, he also worried about Grace. She didn’t look well – the spark had gone out of her eyes and she seemed to be tired all the time. He hoped that she was with child again, and that there was no other reason for her pale, exhausted face. He couldn’t imagine life without her now.