There was never any point calling the police. Nearest station was an hour away and they shut at 5 and opened at 10. No point putting in a call to the mob who run this country now. Like they’d care what happens out here. Out here, we’ve always taken care of ourselves. Even before the invasion, no-one gave a stuff about us. We’re a town full of ferals, unemployed no-hopers, old folks who’ve never left, religious crazies and drunks. Our town has one major attraction: the rents are so low that even we can afford them, and no-one with any money wants to move in. When I was a kid it was a bit better – we had a school and swimming pool and a library, a supermarket, two churches, a bank and a pub. Now, we’ve got a pub. Priorities, eh? The night I’m telling you about, I was half-way through reading Pride and Prejudice for about the eighteenth time. Maybe we never stop dreaming of our Mr Darcy. I’d certainly done a fair number of auditions for mine. All turned out to be Wickhams. Just took me a while to find out. Every time. The first rays of dawn were hitting the tops of the scraggy gum trees. Birds going crazy, singing hello to each other. That’s another reason I liked that shift. No matter how I felt at day’s end, how cruel the world seemed as dusk fell, I’d always feel my heart lift when the birds start to chorus the dawn. The small insect-eaters use the first light to catch unwary bugs. The Corellas and Cockatoos lift into the first rays and shine like golden angels in the light. The Magpies sing so sweetly that they make the rest of them sound like a raucous bar fight. I got really annoyed if a customer turned up around dawn. So, I was really annoyed that day. I hadn’t heard a car or a bike or a truck, so I was a bit worried when I heard someone mucking around with the water tank out the back. It was all the water we had, and we guarded it preciously. It doesn’t rain much in these parts and no one takes kindly to people stealing water. God knows there are plenty desperate enough to try. I copped a look out the back window, but it was just shadows out there. I could dimly see something moving and I didn’t like it, so I unlocked the gun-safe and got the rifle out. 57
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI3ODI1