Cassandra by Kathryn Gossow

Author:Kathryn Gossow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: PublishDrive
Published: 2017-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

Disease

The school bus leaves Cassie at the end of their driveway. Alex runs ahead, his schoolbag bucking on his back. On the other side of the paddock her father throws up dust with the slasher. The forever sky stretches from horizon to horizon, open, empty, not a cloud to hold onto. The dull sun, too tired from the day’s excess, casts shy shadows over the track.

Cassie kicks a piece of grey gravel and trudges. Her schoolbag digs into her shoulder, the muscles in her neck pull against the weight and her forehead aches. She changes the bag to her other shoulder, but it makes no difference. Her eyelids grind over her eyes. She has only skimmed the surface of sleep since the ball. Since Ida fell. She fingers the tarot in her pocket.

The sound of hammer on metal reverberates like a dentist scraping food out of a hole. During the day the workmen have raised the new chook shed frame. The mammoth skeleton and its chicken-filled twin overshadow the house.

Cassie stretches her neck to one side and then the other, and pain shoots down her back.

Poppy leans against the jacaranda tree, a rollie hanging between his fingers. She imagines he’s been there all day, watching the building rise from concrete slab to steel frame.

‘It’s lookin’ good, hey girl?’ He nods in the direction of the building.

Cassie shrugs. ‘If you say so.’ She continues along the garden path.

‘Athena’s visiting,’ he calls to her.

Again. A game of chess rests abandoned on the dining room table. Her mother has been in her room. Again.

In the kitchen, Athena lifts her chocolate and coconut covered fingers into the air. ‘Cassie, your mother’s teaching me to make lamingtons. Alex’s favourite!’

‘I like lamingtons too,’ Cassie says, dumping her schoolbag on the floor.

‘We know,’ her mother says. ‘Get your lunch box out of your bag and take your bag into your room. Then come back.’

Cassie unzips her bag and takes out her lunch box. She stands in the doorway and throws the box across the room, in the general direction of the sink. It hits the mark and splashes into the soapy water, sending spray over the floor and the window.

‘Cassie!’ her mother groans.

‘Sorry,’ Cassie mumbles and drags her bag across the floor, heaves it onto her shoulder, and walks down the hall to her room.

She sits on the bed and wonders if Athena will follow her. She opens the tarot, and thinking about Athena draws a card, the Hanged Man. The traitor, thinks Cassie: revolution, reversal, a warning that a shakeup is due. After ten minutes Athena doesn’t enter so she gives up and returns to the kitchen.

Athena stands at the sink flicking soapy water at Alex. Alex rolls up the tea towel and flicks Athena’s calf. Athena squeals and laughs. Cassie watches her mother watching. Watches her mother smiling.

Cassie sits heavily in the kitchen chair.

‘How was school?’ her mother asks.

Cassie shrugs. ‘Tiring.’

Her mother comes around the table and sits in the chair next to her. She places her hand on Cassie’s shoulder and says, ‘I went to the hospital today.

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