Please come. Say you will.â
âIâll say I will, but I wonât.â
âWhy not? Your mum will let you.â
âNo she wonât.â
âCourse she would.â
âNot now. Mumâs sister, Auntie Dolly is real sick. Itâs not good.â
âIâm sorry about your aunt, Ruby.â
âWell sheâs old so what can you expect. Iâm looking after the youngâuns while Mum stays with Auntie. It wonât be long now.â
âIâm sorry. Maybe next holidays?â
âMark it in your diary, girl. Iâll be there.â
There was a crackle on the line. âYou havenât got a storm up your way, have you?â I asked.
âI was going to ask you the same thing.â
âMaybe somewhere between here and Goodooga thereâs lightning.â
âThatâs a lot of country to cover. It certainly isnât out this way. There hasnât been a cloud in the sky for months. Itâs dry as a bone out here, but Uncle Ted reckons a big rainâs coming. Uncleâs got everyone working to flood-proof the community. Some town people laugh at old Uncle, especially when he tells them that itâs going to flood bigger than Noahâs. I told him I believe him. Uncleâs one of the old people and heâs still got the knowledge, and there arenât many left. If Uncle says itâs going to rain big time, itâs going to rain big time.â
âHow oldâs your uncle?â
âNo one knows. But he has thousands andthousands of yearsâ knowledge about his country in his head.â
âAmazing. Heâd know every little sign.â
âUncle reckons most people are fools because they have very short memories. He reckons some of them have forgotten what rain is, and that theyâve forgot about these rivers when theyâre angry. Heâs making these canoes with the youngâuns.â
âIs he rounding up all the animals like Noah?â
âDonât be stupid.â
âDown here, weâve got smoke blocking out the sun a lot of the time. I can smell the bushfires up in the National Park from here.â
âThereâs some burning up Queensland, but there arenât enough trees for a bushfire around here. Itâs just the sheep in the paddocks at the mercy of grass fires, poor buggers.â
I took a deep breath. I was so sensitive to the subject of fire.
âWell I hope your uncleâs bloody rain makes it down here.â
âIt will girl, and then youâll all be moaning.â
âAnything else happening?â
âA few people got the run for causing all this trouble.â
âWhat kind of trouble?â
âYou know drinking and fighting. Iâm sick of it. Itâsalways the same people. Like clockwork, pension day and itâs on.â
âIt sort of happens here too, when itâs hot and people have had too much to drink. Sometimes thereâs full-on brawls in the street between all these yobbos.â
âMum does this night patrol stuff with some other aunties. They pick up young kids and get âem off the street. I see Mumâs heartbroken night after night with some of these kidsâ home lives.â
âItâs all so sad, Ruby. Do you think itâs hopeless?â
âSome days I think itâs worse than hopeless. I want to do something to change it. Thatâs why Mumâs so strict on me about sex and stuff. She says whenever Iâm going out, even to school, be good and if you canât, be careful. Mum says it like Iâm out bloody doing it every day. What does she think?â
I laughed. âMaybe she thinks you do it at school.â
âIn the toilet.â
âOn the sports field.â
âErrgh, can you believe it? Some kids do it in broad bloody daylight.â
âRevolting. Especially the toilet. Those toilets are so bad, and thatâs after theyâve been