Page 63 of Play Me

Chapter Nineteen

CADENCE

If you cut me open, you’ll see me bleed red earth.

Not gush out in thick rivulets, but in dust whirls, small tornados carrying my body and spirit into the wind, scattering me over this beautiful, burnt, vast, dry, copper red land.

I may be first generation Australian, a child of immigrants, but the day I was born, the first breath of air I inhaled carried with it tens of thousands of years of Australian history and tied me forever in with the people and the land, so that my story would start and end here.

And it’s why I brought Sebastian here, of all the places in the world, it’s here I wanted us to come, to be the place where we would get to know each other.

Amongst the harsh heat of the desert sun, and the crisp cold breeze of night.

With the echoes of the spirits of the Aboriginal people around to witness the promises our bodies and hearts made to each other, and bind us together with their blessings.

***

“Cadence! LOOK!” Sebastian parks the Jeep on the side of an abandoned paddock and quickly jumps out, pointing his phone camera out into the horizon.

“What?” I call after him.

“It’s a kangaroo!! With a little joey!” He squeals, and I can’t help but laugh at his childlike excitement.

“Er, yeah, we have a few of those around,” I tease him, secretly committing the squeal to memory.

I lean on the hood of the car, watching him run a few steps and then stop, trying to get close to the mama kangaroo and her baby. After posing for a few photos, she gets sick of him and bounces off lazily, in no rush to get away from the human.

He jogs back to me, his face split open into a giant grin, waving his camera. “Got her! Oh, that was so cool.”

“Yeah, I guess you don’t see too many roos jumping down the Champs-Élysée.”

“Pfft, even if they did, Parisians would just scoff and say they’d seen it all before.”

“Maybe on their dinner plates!”

“Quoi? You don’t EAT kangaroos here, do you?” He looks like I’ve just suggested we eat a human baby.

I shrug, “Sure, not a lot but yeah, you can get kangaroo meat at any grocery store.”

He turns to me, absolutely horrified. “You are savages! Cute little kangaroos hopping around, you catch them and then EAT them?”

“What are you so horrified about, you eat foie gras!”

“That’s goose, geese aren’t cute! They don’t carry their adorable baby geese in a front bag.”

“Front bag?” I’m confused. Sometimes I forget that English isn’t his first language until he comes up with something golden like this.

“You know, the hole in their furry tummy.”

“You mean ‘pouch’?” I spit out.

“Whatever, savage.”

“Which reminds me, you owe me breakfast...and dinner! You didn’t feed me last night after all that show and dance about Cadence’s wish is your command.”

“You fell asleep, honey.” He shrugs and doesn’t look at all apologetic.

“But then I woke up.”