2

It was a small group that stood on the footpath waiting for the bus to leave: Jessie, the Palmer parents, Rogers and Flora.

‘We’re going tomorrow,’ Mrs Palmer told Jessie. ‘We’re not going to the wedding. I can’t face the travelling.’

Their farewell was undemonstrative and even coming to the bus had cost them a great deal of pride. ‘Let Flor come up and see us now and again, Paul,’ Mrs Palmer said. ‘That’s all I ask.’

‘Look after her,’ Dad said, ‘or I’ll want to know why.’ Rogers grinned and Flora smiled.

‘There’s some things you learn in life,’ Mum said to Jessie. ‘I’m not too old to learn yet. When you’re old you’re not wanted. The young have their lives to live. Well, Dad and I’ll be content by ourselves and wee Donnie if we can see the girls now and again…. Tell Jimmy the new publican’s shouting tonight. We might even shout ourselves before that if the boys come up early enough.’

It was a sunny November morning and already the air was singing with grass cicadas. The sun was on the hills and the bush, fresh after the night’s rain, was a fresh deep green with black in the page 419 shadows. Across the valley the hills were bluish and the shadows bluer still. The bus grew smaller down the main road, and there was a sudden burst of shunting noises from a coal train; the whistle blew. The dredge was screaming from across the tailings, and there was a muffled clatter of boxes running from the mine-mouth and spilling into the bins. Jessie walked over to the shops to buy some groceries before she went to a neighbour’s for a cup of tea and a yarn, and the school-bell rang for playtime. In the mine men paused to swig from thermos-flasks, and the postboy’s whistle piped a small signature to the sudden quietness as the dredge stopped for smoko. In the distance a motor-bike started up, and a delivery van pulled up in front of the grocer’s; a heavy truck loaded with barrels stopped outside one of the pubs. It occurred to Jessie, feeling the freshness of the hills and the cicadas singing, that it would be about as good a summer as they’d ever had on the Coast.