Secrets of the Land by Kate Mahony

Author:Kate Mahony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Aoife

Taranaki 1977

The two new girls had grabbed the seats at the back of the bus where Suzie normally sat. Aoife could see the two little Lawson kids picking up their school bags and making ready to get off. It was their stop. Their mother met them in her ute if it looked like rain. Aoife waited till they were at the door to the bus, then shot out of her seat. The bus stayed motionless as she got off quickly. She waited till it had moved off before crossing the road.

That first time she and Mam had walked right to the back of the farm, she had noticed a gate leading to the small side road. The gate was partly hidden by the hedge and was called a Taranaki gate. There were others like it on the rest of the farm. It was made of wire and batten, and stretched between concrete posts, with a barbed-wire top and five plain wires. It wouldn’t be all that easy to climb but she would face that problem when she got to it.

She walked along the side road, peering into any gaps in the hedge, looking for the gate. She found it after a while and climbed over it carefully, making sure the hem of her pinafore dress didn’t catch in the barbed wire. A sudden gust of salty wind made her look up. Grey clouds loomed on the other side of the farm. A rumble came, a sound that could only be thunder. If she ran, she could make her way across the paddocks back to the house. As she took a step, thunder sounded again and then a sudden heavy down pour. Cold drops slid down the back of her neck. The rain became small hard balls of hail and she had nothing to cover herself with.

A small group of cows-in-calf that Da had bought at the auction had moved to stand under a big tree with over hanging branches. She was afraid of approaching them, lest one of the more skittish ones stood on her foot with its sharp hooves. One of them, and then another, had turned and were now eyeing her. What if they decided to stampede and race towards her? Looking about for a place to shelter, she spotted a sizeable gap in the boxthorn hedge in the opposite corner. She walked towards it deliberately and confidently so the heifers wouldn’t chase after her.

Once there, she bent down towards the opening. The space inside was bigger than she expected. A person could stand up in there easily. It was surprising one or two of the cows hadn’t found the hole and ventured inside but people always said cows could be dumb. They followed the leader, stuck with the herd.

Aoife squatted and wriggled herself inside. It was like a secret lair. A sharp acidic scent flowed up from the ground as if one of the younger, smaller heifers had crashed its way in and done a wee. Tossed in a corner was a tin cup, old-fashioned looking, like a mug a boy scout would take camping.

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