The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane

Author:Fiona McFarlane [McFarlane, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

Here is Constable Robert Manning, First Class, out on the plain. It’s late at night; Robert is cold, hungry, tired, riding a tired horse, and following a girl. The girl is Cissy Wallace. If asked how he found himself in this situation, he wouldn’t be entirely sure. All he knows is that, shortly after he and Cissy arrived back at the Wallace farm, delivered tidings of the footprints, and received the news of the handkerchief, Cissy came to him and said, ‘Let’s go.’

And Robert, who intended to talk her out of looking for her father, said, ‘Wait a tick.’ He had so many responsibilities: instructions to give, arrangements to make, bloodied handkerchiefs to inspect, a sunrise meeting at the scuffed rock, and Minna expecting him home tonight. God, Minna waiting for him in the dark—soft, tight, squealing Minna—breathless, sweat on her belly, biting her pink lip, bucking, rolling, laughing—and not leaving him even when he slept, but coming into his dreams with her hands and her mouth. My God, Minnow! Your goddamn mouth.

‘Wait a tick,’ Robert said to Cissy Wallace.

He went out into the wheat with the oldest Wallace girl, the one who found the handkerchief. When they returned to the house, someone came to him and said that Cissy Wallace had ridden off to look for her father—she couldn’t be stopped—and would he go after her? He did. When he caught up to her she said, ‘You were taking too long.’

He tried to talk her out of the pointless excursion: the day was getting on, her father knew how to take care of himself, they couldn’t even be sure where to look for him.

Cissy said, ‘You promised.’

‘One hour,’ said Robert, and they rode together, following Fairly Creek north-west. After half an hour, he announced that it was time to go home. When she refused, he said, ‘I’m heading back. You can come with me or not, as you please.’

He turned his horse and set off for Undelcarra, sure that she would follow him. She didn’t. So he turned again and caught up with her, mindful of Foster’s injunction to keep her from getting lost. They had several arguments. He thought of forcing her off her horse and onto his—he would lead her horse and keep Cissy Wallace right in front of him in the saddle, where he could damn well see her. He thought of striking her, but he had never struck a white woman. When he ordered her to come with him in the name of the law, she laughed. He did pity her—her brother was missing, she wanted her father, she was a child. He imagined Minna out here alone. So he stayed with Cissy, thinking that she would tire as the day came to an end. When the sun set in the bizarre way it had been lately, he asked, ‘Are you just going to keep on?’

Cissy scratched behind one ear and said, ‘Yes, I am.’

So Robert kept on with her, and here they are, late at night, still riding.

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