‘Yeah, of course.’ Across the yard, Nathan could see a kid’s bicycle leaning against the house. ‘How are the girls today? This morning they seemed a bit –’ He tried to find a better word and failed. ‘Strange.’
‘God knows. It’s hard to tell with Sophie, but Lo’s taking it very hard. She was worked up already, even before all this. She’s got the idea into her head that the place is haunted.’
‘By what?’
‘I don’t know. The stockman, probably. He’s the usual suspect. You all went through that phase as kids yourselves.’
The wind blew across the plain and in the distance Nathan could see a spiral of dust rise like an apparition.
‘It’s not hard to see why she thinks so.’ Liz followed his gaze. ‘When I first came to live here we used to have a stockman – a living one – who reckoned this whole area was haunted by the settlers’ dead children. The ones who died badly. Childbirth or accidents or illness, I suppose.’
There were plenty to choose from, Nathan thought. The child mortality rate had been sky high. Not a single white baby born in the town had survived until the 1920s.
Liz’s eyes shone with tears. ‘He used to say the ones who wandered off called the loudest. For the rest of their lives, their mums would hear them crying out in the wind. Do you think that’s true?’
‘That this place has ghosts?’
‘That the mothers would hear their lost children in the wind.’
‘Oh.’ He reached out and took his mum’s hand again. ‘No.’ He really didn’t. If that were true, the outback air would howl so loud the dust would never settle.
Chapter 13
The backpackers were setting the table for dinner when Nathan put his head around the kitchen door. He’d left Liz sitting under the gum tree with her own thoughts and come inside. Simon and Katy both looked up, the clatter of cutlery falling silent as they saw him in the doorway. Nathan had the distinct impression they’d stopped speaking abruptly.
‘Sorry,’ he said, then wondered why he was apologising. ‘Have you seen Bub?’
Simon shook his head. ‘I thought he was out with you and Harry.’
‘Never mind. Thanks.’
Nathan didn’t hear the low murmur of their voices start up until he was completely out of the kitchen.
He found Bub in the living room, sitting on the couch with his feet resting on Nathan’s sleeping bag. He was playing a video game, something involving shooting and a masked man. Cameron’s painting looked down on them from the wall; a scene of serenity in contrast.
‘Hey.’ Bub barely glanced up as Nathan came in.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Nothing. This.’ He nodded at the screen. ‘You want to do two player?’
‘No, it’s all right.’
Nathan pulled his sleeping bag out from under Bub’s feet. ‘That’s my bed, you know.’
‘It’s mainly the couch, mate.’
Katy walked past the open door and returned a second later carrying a clean tea towel. Bub’s eyes followed her with raw longing.
‘I bloody love her.’ He heaved a dramatic sigh.
‘Oh yeah? What’s her last name?’
Bub grinned. ‘I dunno, but I can tell you what it’s going to be.’
Nathan had to smile. ‘I think you’re a bit late, mate. Looks like she’s spoken for.’
Bub’s face darkened a little. ‘It’s a bloody crime, great girl like her with a Pommy prick like him. He’s not even keeping her happy.’
