sense, putting fence guards around oleanders. Be better off grading the roads.â
Mum peers up and down the street. Reggie Patchett is on his shop veranda having a stickybeak but thereâs no one else around. Mrs Bloomers says Mumâll have to drive up the hill and report it to Constable Morgan. She says to get some iodine onto her nose as soon as we get home. Then she says: âI heard about Mick. How are you getting on, Nella? By yourself?â
Mum opens the door and nods me in but the wing window is open and I can hear everything. âHeâll be back. He just needs to get her out of his system. Then heâll be back.â
Why didnât she tell me? And if heâs coming back, why is he building a house? Mrs Bloomers opens and closes her mouth. âYouâve got a lot on your plate, Nella. Come out to the farm and see me, anytime at all. Have a bit of a break. Come and stay. Itâll do you good.â
As we drive off, Mum waves and waves.
On the last day of school, Dunc gets a black eye. Suddenly thereâs a fight and everyoneâs running to the far end of the tennis court. Before Iâm close enough, Miss Taylor is pushing through a ring of boys, yelling: âStop it! Stop it! Youâre not wild animals! Stop it!â
Then I see Pardie pulling Dunc off Peter Leckie, who has blood on his nose, and Kenny Sweet is holding Peter Leckieâs arms behind his back. Miss Taylor says we donât have hooligans at this school and theyâre to report to Mr Tucker immediately. She pushes them in front of her the whole way across the quadrangle, her skin red and blotchy from so much yelling.
Kenny Sweet is the tallest boy in school. He looks over everyoneâs head until he finds me. âLeckie said your old manâs shacked up with the town tart.â He says this loud enough for everyone to hear and, in the sudden hush, I want to disappear off that court like a lost tennis ball. I just stand there looking down at the ground, to dirt and worms underneath, to a cave where I could hide, maybe a hidden river flowing far below.
Lining up, everyone is talking too much, too loudly. Miss Taylor blows hard on her whistle and Lizzie whispers behind me: âItâs true, though, isnât it?â
Suddenly my legs are too heavy to walk on. Miss Taylor waits until weâre all seated then says, Sit up straight, arms folded . She says, We donât have fights in our school and anyone who wants to start one had better think twice . She says, We donât make judgments about other peopleâs lives, because we donât live in their skin, is that clear?
Yes, Miss Taylor.
Her eyes are an angry blue and she looks hard at everyone but never once at me. She says, Living in a small town means minding your own business and not spreading idle gossip, otherwise none of us could live together, is that clear?
Yes, Miss Taylor.
She says to take out our readers and turn to the right page. Then she gives me a tiny, kind smile. And that smile is everything.
The Trollop is still in my fatherâs system. He is living with her in Ron Quiglyâs bungalow; Iâve seen his jeep parked out front. Mum knows too. Sometimes I find her peeking through the fence, watching his house grow walls and a silver roof on the other side of the lagoon.
âIâm not stupid,â she tells Mrs Winkie. âI could go back to school and get my Intermediate. There was nothing wrong with my compositions. I could write. Better than I could talk. I got good marks.â
Mrs Winkie says she has to run along.
âI could have another baby,â says Mum. âIf I wanted to. Heâll be back. Then we will.â
I would like Dad back, but Iâm not sure about a baby. And no other mothers go to school.
In the morning, Mrs Winkie brings us eggs from her bantam chooks. âI work harder than you,â says Mum to Mrs Winkie. âI mow my own lawns.â Then she drags the