Free Deeper Water by Jessie Cole Page A

bites?’
    ‘No, she was worried about me ’cause I’d screamed so much, so she came down the mountain and stayed with us. She looked after me, and I looked after her bites.’ I moved away from the snake, closer to where he was standing. ‘Kept them clean, put some cream on. She was fine.’
    ‘She sounds like your knight in shining armour.’
    ‘Yeah, I guess she is.’ I hadn’t thought about it that way. ‘Anja is a lot of things.’
    Pointing to a gap in the trees, he stepped towards it, back out into the sunshine of the paddocks.
    ‘I vote we go around the snake,’ he said, taking the lead.
    I took one last look at the bright skin of the python and then I followed.

8.
    When we got back to the secret tree neither of us felt like riding the creek again, so we grabbed our clothes and re-stashed the boards. The paddock walk was hot and Hamish had turned a little pink.
    ‘I think you’re sunburnt,’ I said and touched his shoulder.
    ‘Probably.’ He looked down at his body. ‘It doesn’t take much.’
    ‘We should have smothered you in mud.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Sun protection.’ I grinned. ‘You’ll probably get stripy suntan marks around the face-paint.’
    ‘Sunburn marks, you mean.’ He touched his fingers to his face. ‘I hope not.’
    ‘You could jump in the creek and wash it off,’ I said, tilting my head towards the water.
    Hamish looked at the creek for a few seconds. ‘Maybe I’d rather have a shower, if that’s okay. But you jump in if you want.’
    I waded back into the creek, the water inching up my thighs. It was wider here, and the flow was gentle where I was. More like a lazy river than a tumbling creek. Facing the current, I closed my eyes and let my hands drop so they were hanging in the flow. There were all different ways I liked getting into the water. Sometimes fast, diving straight under, so my whole body tingled in shock, and sometimes slow, so that by the time I was immersed my body could hardly tell itself from the water. I waded out real slow and let the water flow up around me. When it was deep and it hardly felt cold, I ducked under and pushed against the current. My hair flowed out behind me, the water tugging at my plait. I resurfaced and pulled the elastic off the end, unravelling my hair and going back under. Staying under as long as my breath would hold, I didn’t burst up for air, but drifted to the surface. I liked to imagine I could breathe under water.
    I went under again and this time my breath held longer. When I came up I could hear someone calling my name from the other side of the bank. I looked up, brushing the water from my eyes. It was Billy.
    ‘Hey, Mema,’ he said, lifting up his council shirt and wiping the sweat from his face.
    ‘Hey.’
    Billy looked from me to Hamish, staring hard, and Hamish lifted his arm in acknowledgement.
    ‘What you doing?’ Billy called out, though I guess it must have been obvious.
    He was a good few metres away, so it was hard for me to hear. I didn’t want to swim closer to him ’cause the current in the middle was stronger.
    ‘Just having a swim.’
    ‘Who’s the guy?’ He motioned to Hamish with his head.
    ‘That’s Hamish.’
    ‘I never seen him before.’
    From what I knew of him, Billy was alright, but he wasn’t the type to beat around the bush.
    ‘He’s not from around here.’ I shrugged. It was hard to explain about Hamish.
    Billy looked hot, and I wondered if he wanted a swim. I didn’t know if I should ask him.
    ‘What you doing here?’ I asked instead, thinking he must be working somewhere nearby.
    ‘Tree came down in the rain. Blocked off Old Gordon’s driveway.’ He kept looking across at Hamish while he talked. ‘He can’t get out. Asked me to chop it up.’
    ‘The creek’s still over the bridge here.’ I squeezed the water from my hair. ‘Did many trees come down?’
    ‘A few about the place.’
    ‘Any damage?’
    ‘Nah, not really.’ He peered at me intently. ‘What you