Chapter 32
It was after seven before the back door slammed and Charlie limped in. ‘Whatever happened to you?’ asked Sam. ‘Did you have a fall?’ Charlie shook her head, but she looked worn out, covered in mud, with grazed elbows and a sunburned face. Sam fetched disinfectant and tissues, and began dabbing at the broken skin on Charlie’s skinny arms.
‘Ow!’ she pulled away.
Sam persisted, taking Charlie’s elbow gently in her left hand, and cleaning it with her right. ‘You have to be careful about infection,’ she said, ‘or you’ll end up right back in that Melbourne hospital.’ Might not be such a bad thing, thought Sam uncharitably. ‘Where have you been anyway?’
‘Up in the wetlands, below the Snake Creek watershed.’ Charlie pulled an exercise book from her backpack. ‘Some i***t has let catt
