~ 5 ~
SightCassie’s sweaty hand slips around the plastic handle of her new school port. The school building rises above them, the sun splayed across the peeling paint on the weather boards. They walk underneath the building, its tall stumps like the opening of a cool cave. The older kids zip in and out from the heat to the cool in a chaotic game.
‘Can I go play?’
‘Not yet.’ Her mother leads her towards a long set of stairs beneath the building. She pulls the plaits from Cassie’s shoulders and runs her hand along the trail they make down her back. ‘Your father and your poppy went to school here too.’
‘Poppy as well?’
‘Yes, when the school was new.’
‘What about you? Did you go here too?’
‘No, I didn’t grow up here,’ her mother replies.
At the top of the stairs they turn onto a long v
