Nowhere Else by Fiona McCallum

Author:Fiona McCallum [McCallum, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4608-0191-8
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

Graeme led her out the back door near the kitchen, out under a verandah and across to an iron gate in the back fence. They went to where a large weeping native pepper tree grew beside the far shed, encircled by a high steel mesh fence. Two huge black and white dogs stood up on their hind legs with their front claws hooked into the mesh, whining and wriggling, obviously thrilled at the thought they were being let out. The closer Graeme and Nicola walked, the louder they whined and the more furiously their tails wagged behind them.

‘Come on then,’ Graeme said, going over and opening the gate. ‘Stay down!’ he yelled, as they clambered around her. She tried to push them away from her crotch and laughed off their attentions.

‘Not bad lads,’ Graeme said, ruffling their ears once they’d settled down and were standing calmly beside them.

Nicola followed Graeme to a white ute parked in the shed, and got in.

‘Come on then, up,’ he called. The two dogs leapt effortlessly onto the back. They clambered onto the bales of hay covering the tray. ‘Come here.’ She watched as he clipped them onto short lengths of chain behind the cabin. ‘To keep them safe,’ he said, noticing Nicola watching. ‘So they can’t fall off the back. Was there anything in particular you wanted to see?’

‘No, I just want to get a bit of an idea of farm life, really,’ she said, with a shrug. ‘Thanks so much for this – I really appreciate it.’

‘No worries.’

They drove out into the paddock, where Graeme unloaded the hay as hundreds of sheep ran towards them from all directions. Nicola was pleased she was safe in the cabin – did sheep bite? They weren’t at all skinny like the ones she’d seen the other day.

Back in the cabin, Graeme explained that they were the important ones. ‘I’ll keep hold of these ewes as long as possible. The rams are in another paddock – I fed them earlier. You can’t do anything without good breeding stock. And the drought has to end eventually, right?’ he added with a lopsided grin. Nicola smiled back.

‘So you plough all you have into feeding the buggers. Hence the tension back there,’ he said, tossing thumb back towards the house.’

‘Sorry?’

‘You have to be born on a farm to really understand …’ Understand what? Nicola wondered.

‘The townies come out here thinking we only work five months of the year and the rest of the time we’re off fishing or available to do work around the house. Dorothy’s been a farmer’s wife for thirty-odd years and still doesn’t like the sheep and everything else on this place coming first. I did the house up in the early days to keep her happy – an expense I really could have done without. You do your best, but it’s rarely good enough,’ he shrugged.

Nicola was beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. What did his private life have to do with her? ‘I suppose you’re wondering why I’m telling you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.