Free The Night Is for Hunting by John Marsden

or a leaf fell on the tennis court, but anger was not part of her life.
    Well, we’d all changed in this war. I knew Fi had, and I soon found out some of the ways I had.
    It was a funny conversation because we had it while we puffed and panted up the spur. The climb was a grind. It would have been hard at any time, but we were terribly tired and hungry; no energy left. But in between the puffing and panting Fi told me a few facts of life.
    ‘Ellie,’ she began. ‘There are some things friends are meant to tell you, right?’
    I didn’t even answer. I knew I was in trouble. There are some things I didn’t want to hear, even from a friend.
    Fi gave me a quick look, a troubled look, but she’d obviously made up her mind to say what she wanted, and unless I jumped off the side of the spur, I’d have to hear it.
    ‘Ellie, I know you do lots of great things, and even in the last twenty-four hours ...’ She paused to get over a rock, but unfortunately that gave her enough time to rethink, and once she was over the other side she started again.
    ‘No, I’m not going to tell you how wonderful you are. I always do that and it gets me distracted from what I really want to say.
    ‘Ellie, you’ve been terrible lately. That’s the truth, and if I don’t tell you no-one else will. Don’t you understand what’s happening to you? You’ve changed so much. This war’s making you so hard and horrible, there are times I hardly recognise you. You just seem to be losing all your kindness and understanding and niceness. The way you’ve been talking to these kids, that’s a perfect example. You haven’t said one nice thing to them. You’re acting like they’ve come all the way here just to annoy you. I know they’re not exactly easy, and I know they took all your stuff back in Stratton, but honestly, you can’t blame them. They’re only kids. The war’s not their fault. They didn’t start it. They can’t help what happened.’
    She took another deep breath as she clambered over a big fallen gum tree. Although it was flat on the ground it was still growing. It must have had enough roots to keep pumping the water up to the branches. It looked weird though: a horizontal tree.
    ‘And another thing Ellie.’
    I knew what was coming and I definitely didn’t want to hear this. I had my lips pressed hard together and I was gazing into the distance at the blue ridge on the far end of Tailor’s Stitch. I wished I could tell her to stop, but I didn’t trust myself to speak. You can’t keep out the truth, and that’s the truth.
    The words fell from her lips.
    ‘You’re not being fair to Lee.’
    I still didn’t say anything. I was pulling out a grass seed that had wriggled through my sock and was now drilling its way into my leg. I got it out and straightened up and turned to face the mountain.
    ‘He went off with another girl!’
    The words burst out of me. Without Lee and me discussing it, we’d somehow come to an understanding that neither of us would tell the others what had happened. It was our secret.
    ‘So what?’
    I was astonished that she didn’t seem surprised.
    ‘You mean you already knew?’
    She shrugged. ‘We worked it out.’
    ‘Who’s we?’
    ‘Homer and me.’
    I took a big gulp. I didn’t know the two of them had been having intimate little discussions behind my back.
    ‘Anyway,’ she went on, before I could say anything, ‘Lee didn’t have any obligation to you. You hadn’t been with him for ages. He shouldn’t have gone off with one of the enemy, that’s true, and I’m sure it didn’t take him long to work that out, but he didn’t owe you anything. So why are you punishing him?’
    ‘He let us all down,’ I said. ‘He betrayed all of us.’
    ‘That’s exactly what I mean. He made a mistake. A big mistake. He’s been kicking himself ever since. He doesn’t need you to put the boot in as well. Ellie, there was a time when you would have been the first to understand how something