Free Deeper Water by Jessie Cole

know how they knew I’d look after them. They’d just drive up in their utes and drop them out the window. Sometimes they didn’t even say a word.’
    ‘Bet your mum loved that.’
    ‘Yeah, well, if we had too many we’d take them to the market and see if we could find someone who wanted them. Usually someone did.’
    ‘Sounds like you ran your own animal shelter.’
    ‘Not really, just sometimes.’ I thought of Old Dog, of the muted slapping of her tail-wag, and wondering how much longer she would last. Crouching down to get a closer look at the snake, I tried to push the thought out of my mind. The snake was bright and shiny in the dappled light.
    ‘Anja is crazy about snakes,’ I said over my shoulder.
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘She’s always kept them as pets, all different sorts.’
    Hamish stepped forward and out of the corner of my eye I could see him rub his collarbone the way he did when he was anxious.
    ‘Her dad made her all these cages, but none of them were exactly tight, so they were always escaping. Sometimes when I was younger, I’d stay at her place and a snake would escape and I’d wake up in the middle of the night with it wrapped around my legs. It was a bit creepy.’
    I never stayed up there anymore, but it wasn’t because of the snakes. Anja’s dad had gotten worse. You could never tell how he would be.
    ‘That sounds … bizarre.’
    ‘Yeah. I’d have to wake Anja up so she could unwind it.’
    He looked sceptical, as if I was making up stories. Lots of things about Anja were hard to believe once you said them out loud. Like when she found a dead animal, she liked to skin it and dry the skins out in the sun. I guessed that was something it was best not to mention.
    ‘Do you think this snake has just shed?’ I asked, turning to look at Hamish. The orche paint was starting to crack.
    ‘I’m not much of an expert on snakes.’
    ‘You’re an environmentalist, right?’
    ‘I haven’t done a lot of fieldwork.’ He reached out and plucked a leaf from a tree, twisting it between his thumb and forefinger. ‘I specialised in communication systems. You know, how they affect the dissemination of information? That type of thing. I don’t come from a biological background.’
    He looked so serious.
    ‘Are you talking computers again, Hamish?’
    I watched the leaf in his hand.
    ‘No, not only computers. It’s a bit complicated. What I studied back at uni was the way information spread, and which kinds of information are more likely to instigate change. It’s not something I really use now I do the consulting.’
    He tossed the leaf into the air and it fluttered to the ground. The snake stayed curled up tightly. There was no sign it even knew we were there.
    ‘So, what did you do when the snake got your cat?’ Hamish finally asked. ‘Could you get it off?’
    ‘It was awful really. I loved that cat—Isis—and knew she was dying, but all I could do was scream. I guess I went into shock. Mum was in town and there was no one around, and I couldn’t make myself do anything. Anja must have heard me screaming from up on the mountain because she came tearing down.’
    Even though it was a bad story I smiled when I thought of Anja bursting through the trees.
    ‘It took her ages to unwrap the snake ’cause it was so tightly wound. It kept striking at her hand the whole time, sinking in its fangs. It was crazy. She got a lot of bites, but she got the snake off, put it in a pillow case. Isis was dead though.’
    Hamish just looked at me, didn’t say a word.
    ‘Anja tried to resuscitate her. She’d done CPR at school.’
    ‘She gave the cat CPR?’
    ‘Yep, but it didn’t work.’
    I stood up from where I was crouched over the snake. ‘Anja dug a hole and helped me bury Isis, and then we let the snake go out in the bush.’
    Hamish raised his eyebrows, nodding. Behind all the pale ochre I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking.
    ‘Did she get an infection—from all the