Ellen Sutton squinted up at the crystal-clear sky, the sun shooting shards of light like a polished chandelier. Above, the thrum of Ashley’s small aeroplane echoed across the empty horizon but she struggled to spot it in the endless pale blue. She craned her head out the open window of the little red bull buggy just as she hit a crab hole, smacking her skull into the doorframe. ‘Bastard,’ she grunted through gritted teeth, wishing she could rub her head, but both hands were needed on the steering wheel. It would have been worse if her messy blonde bun hadn’t acted as padding.
A twiggy shrub appeared, one too big to drive over. Ellen gave a split-second jerk on the wheel and then another as she cut a path through the scrub like a pinball on the Indiana Jones machine she used to play at the Bowling Arcade as a kid. She never could beat her older brother’s score. A flash hit her eyes, light reflecting off metal as Ashley flew low over the treetops hunting for more beasts to her right. The loud rumble of his plane gave her goosebumps. She wondered what it would be like to swoop low looking for cattle. Was it just work for Ashley or was it exhilarating? Ellen needed excitement and hard work to keep her mind from wandering down the dark path she’d been trying to avoid. Unsuccessfully. At least the flies kept her busy. With a wave she shooed the buzzing mass gathering at the corners of her mouth, chasing moisture in the bone-dry air.
It wasn’t the gazillion flies or the intense heat. It wasn’t the red dirt, crimson as if blood had soaked the soil, nor was it the sparse bushes – the only visible green until you came upon a small pocket of grass where the cattle liked to graze. It wasn’t any of these things that made her feel so far from home.
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