Read Out of Alice for Free Online Page B

He’s been getting a few bad heads lately. It could be that his eyes need checking. Kids with ALL,’ she explained, using the medical abbreviation for the disease, ‘can suffer all sorts of latent effects from the treatment – learning difficulties, stunted growth, problems with vision. I’ll get his eyes tested next time we’re at the hospital. He might need glasses.’
    â€˜It must be so hard.’ Sara caught a slipping comb, scooped up a handful of curls and pinned them back in place. ‘Do you have much help on the property?’
    Beth was making sandwiches for lunch. ‘None. Len does it all now. We employ men for the musters, but we haven’t done one this year. Len and Jack between them can handle what needs doing. It’s mostly pushing scrub, bore maintenance, lick runs, repairs – there’re always repairs when you can’t afford to replace equipment.’
    â€˜Does he work here, then, Jack?’
    â€˜He helps out, and he’s the district’s general handyman. That’s why he’s fixing Mavis’s fridge. Alec, he’s Mavis’s other half, is a great bloke but he’s useless with tools.’
    The kettle shrieked. Sara found the teapot and hunted along the shelf for the tea.
    â€˜Blue tin, at the end.’ Beth pointed, setting aside Sam’s meal. ‘He can have it in his room,’ she explained. ‘Do you have siblings, Sara?’
    â€˜I was an only.’ Her smile was crooked. ‘My mother told me often enough I wasn’t wanted, so there was never going to be a second child.’
    Beth looked shocked. ‘That’s too bad.
Not
happy families, then?’
    â€˜No. What about you? Were you a happy kid?’
    â€˜You bet!’ A reminiscent smile touched her lips, deepening the creases about the brown eyes. ‘Jack and I both were, but I don’t know about my poor mother! I was a terrible tomboy. Always on a horse, or down at the cattle yards or catching snakes. That was our big thing for a couple of years – we were mad about snakes. God, when I think back!’ She slapped the last sandwich on the plate and rewrapped the bread. ‘The last one we ever caught was a big brown – longer than I was tall. It could’ve killed us both and a couple of horses, too. We had it pinned down with a forky stick and were arguing about how to bag it when Dad turned up.’ She grinned. ‘Jack got the walloping of his life. Bit unfair, seeing as I’m two years older. I was yarded up in the house and garden for a month over it, and I had to learn to sew. I was going to run away a dozen times.’
    â€˜So you grew up on a property. Near here?’
    â€˜Closer to the Alice. Arkeela Downs – Jack’s got it now. It’s only small, five hundred square miles. He sold off most of the herd to settle our parents in town the year before last. A good thing as it’s turned out, because he got the rain we didn’t last summer, so there’s agisted stock on it at present. Right.’ She closed the fridge door and picked up Sam’s plate. ‘Lunch. I’ll go see how he’s feeling now.’
    At three o’clock when school ended, Sara walked down to the horse yards with the children, carrying one side of the feed bucket with Sam. They had spoken to her of their ponies and she had pictured roly-poly Shetlands, but the reality looked like full-sized horses. Becky’s was a bay mare called Star (for the mark on her face, Sara learned) and the odd-coloured gelding with the crooked blaze was Sam’s.
    â€˜He’s called Lancer.’ His young owner rubbed the horse’s face.
    â€˜What do you call that colour? He’s a sort of red,’ Sara observed.
    â€˜Yes, he’s a red roan. There’s heaps of different roans: red, blue, strawberry. When it rains we could teach you to ride. If you stay,’ he added.
    â€˜I plan to.’ Sara