narratorAUSTRALIA Volume Three

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  Luce sat on Kate’s knee, fizzing and gurgling as Kate bounced her up and down.

  ‘Who’s my favourite little granddaughter,’ Kate sang.

  ‘Your only grandchild, full stop,’ laughed Tara.

  Kate hugged Luce, breathing in the baby smell of her soft hair.

  She felt an overwhelming surge of protective love for the little girl. It was the same intense feeling she had experienced when Tara was small. That determination to make the world safe for them, to protect them from hurt and sickness and to wrap them in a cocoon of happiness and love.

  Tara smiled fondly at her mother. It filled her with happiness to see Kate so besotted with Luce.

  ‘I think I’ll take a few plastic bottles of water with me to the coast house. The rainwater from the tank is fine for bathing and washing-up, but I worry a bit about giving it to Luce. I saw a possum on the top of the tank last weekend.’ She wrinkled her nose.

  ‘Use the filtered water from the jug in the fridge for Luce’s bottle. I filled it this morning,’ said Kate.

  As Tara made up Luce’s bottle with formula, she sniffed the water. Although filtered, it looked a little cloudy. Probably leftover residue from the bushfires. Dad had assured them it was perfectly safe to drink. If anyone could guarantee the quality of their drinking water it was her dad, she told herself.

  Kate came up and stood beside her, Luce propped on her hip.

  ‘Dad told me Owen Lockley is working at the plant.’ She scrutinised Tara’s face for her reaction to this news.

  Tara looked thoughtful. Owen Lockley.

  They were friends in high school. Tara had always been outgoing and confident, pretty, with long thick hair the colour of dark chocolate. Owen was shy and socially ill at ease.

  It was an odd friendship: the popular girl and the nerdy boy. She had felt a little sorry for him because of his dysfunctional home life. But she had genuinely liked him. She knew that he was smart and sensitive, easily hurt.

  In the last year of high school Owen had declared his love for Tara. She had to let him know as gently as possible that they could not be together, that the feelings were not reciprocated.

  He had reacted with a dour acquiescence. Afterwards he distanced himself from Tara entirely.

  She was happy for him when she heard that he had been accepted into the Defence Academy.

  It had saddened her to later learn of his expulsion. There had been some trouble with other students, in particular a female cadet. The young woman officially complained that he had been stalking her after she had rejected his amorous attentions.

  Owen’s mother had died shortly after this, from lung cancer.

  He had taken a labouring job for a while. He then went overseas, staying away for twelve months − the Middle East, someone had said.

  Sighing, Tara gathered up Luce and quickly plugged the baby’s mouth with the bottle before she could wail. She hated leaving her grandmother.

  Kate hugged them both goodbye.

  After Tara drove away, Kate went to her bedroom to lay down. A feeling of weakness and dizziness had suddenly overcome her. Her head ached.