~ 11 ~
AthenaThe sweet tickle of wattle flowers fills the air. Cassie balances the plate of jam drop biscuits on the fence post and opens the gate.
‘Going up the hill?’ Alex calls from the back veranda.
‘Yeah,’ she turns through the gate and picks up the plate of biscuits. The sun caresses her shoulders.
‘You should take a hat.’
‘What are you, my mother?’ she answers.
She could go down the front drive onto the roadway to the old Schmidt house, but it would take three times longer. Instead she heads behind the house, through the back gate, past the wood pile, through the clump of bush that separates the house from the back paddock, and past the old shearing shed. The neat furrows ploughed the day before upset her even steps and she concentrates to keep the biscuits on the plate. Large
