The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody

Author:Isobelle Carmody
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742283999
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2009-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

It was almost an hour before the patrol car roared back past us and back round the corner, sending up an irritated spume of gravel.

When it had disappeared Indian stood up and stretched luxuriantly. The Tod did the same and we both laughed. Moments later we were running across the overgrown paddock towards a dark plantation of pines, The Tod bounding along behind us like a mutated rabbit.

At the fence line, Indian held the barbed wire up while I got through, and I did the same for him. The Tod scooted underneath, his ears pricked up with excitement.

We had to walk bent over to get under the pine branches, because the trees were so close together. There was a heavy silence in the deadness under them and it was unexpectedly dark, the smell of pine-needle sap almost overpowering.

We came out of the trees to a view that took my breath away. A steep rocky hill sloping down to a short, white curve of beach.

‘Moonlight Head,’ Indian announced, smiling at my reaction.

A sharp wind blew the smell of the waves into our faces as we clambered down the rocks to the beach. The waves unrolled on to the shore with a silky whisper and the clouds parted to bathe the beach in golden autumn sunlight.

‘Unbelievable,’ I murmured.

Indian gave me a meaningful look. ‘It feels like we’ve come out of a dark cave, doesn’t it. The road back there is the border of Cheshunt.’

It might have been my imagination, but it did seem as though a great weight had lifted off my shoulders now we had officially left Cheshunt. By the time we reached the sand, the waves crashing against the shore sounded deafeningly loud, as if they were a tidal wave building up steam.

‘It’s funny how people are about noises,’ Indian mused. ‘If that noise was a factory people would complain it was too loud, but because it’s the sea we just think how great it is.’

The Tod raced around in frenzied circles of delight, sticking his little snout in every hole or indentation. When he looked up at me I burst out laughing because his nose and face were caked with sand. His black eyes stared at me out of the sand mask as if to ask what was taking me so long, then he raced off again.

‘Hey!’

I jumped around and saw Danny waving madly from the far end of the beach. The Tod streaked off towards him, and we followed at a slower pace.

Danny punched me lightly in the arm. ‘You made it.’

‘Thanks to you and Indian,’ I said seriously.

He grinned. ‘Lucky I walked you home last night. So what happened?’

‘Wait,’ Indian said.

Ten minutes later we came around a clump of seabrush and the rest of them were sitting on towels in a sheltered part of the beach.

‘This is a good spot,’ Danny enthused. ‘The wind isn’t too strong. Less sand in your sandwiches. And best of all, you can’t be seen from above.’

Seth was wearing faded jeans and a bulky handknitted cream jumper, one hand wrapped loosely round the neck of a bottle of coke.

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