Page 29 of Wings Above the Mallee

She fiddled with the frayed edge of the sticking plaster, and he made out the purple of a bruise around the edge.

‘No. They’re so eager for their bottles, they butt into my hand really hard. Despite only having one row of teeth, Karmaa’s managed to graze a chunk off my knuckles.’

Gavin had lowered himself into the car. ‘You coming back into town with me, then, Amelia?’ he called. ‘Or hanging around here?’

‘What? Oh, I’m with you,’ Amelia said, seeming suddenly flustered, as though she’d forgotten the older man’s presence.

‘You take care of that hand, then,’ Heath said awkwardly.

‘Sure. I’ll see you at the meeting next week?’

‘You drew the late shift again?’

Amelia regarded Heath for a moment, then gave a small smile. ‘Like I said, not much to do around here. So I volunteered.’

She slid into the car alongside Gavin, but didn’t break eye contact with Heath.

‘Even if it’s just to throw a spanner in Faelie’s works.’

13

Amelia

When Amelia caught herself applying mascara in the bathroom mirror with Dusty perched on her head and watching curiously, she took a step back. What was she doing? Her interactions with Heath over the past month hadn’t been exactly encouraging. He was unreadable, swapping between being inexplicably friendly and downright taciturn.

Scowling into the mirror, she finished the mascara—only because it would look odd if she went out with one eye done, not because there was a risk she might run into Heath before the RAG meeting that night. It was common knowledge around town that the man was something of a hermit.

‘Dusty!’ she groaned as the bird tugged strands of hair from the braid she had spent too long perfecting. Dusty clacked her beak, jumping from one of Amelia’s shoulders to the other. ‘Fabulous, I look like an untidy haystack.’ She shook her hair loose. ‘With your styling, and Karmaa and Kismet leaving white hair all over my clothes, I think Faelie just about has cause to fire me.’

The two lambs skittered into the bathroom, their tiny hooves clattering on the tiles as they skidded to a stop. Kismet, always the more adventurous of the two, took a goat-like leap, clearing the side of the bath. She landed in the sloped tub, looking around in apparent surprise, then emitted a high-pitched bleat.

‘Got yourself into that mess,’ Amelia said.

The lamb eyeballed her for a moment, then took an entirely impossible jump up onto the bathroom counter.

‘No, Kismet!’ Amelia scooped up the animal and placed her on the tiled floor. ‘Remember, we worked out you’re a sheep, not a goat. Now try behaving like one.’

Dusty flew up to the shower curtain rail and snapped her beak admonishingly.

‘Out, all of you.’ Amelia shooed the menagerie from the bathroom and down the hall to the open back door. Dusty fluttered to the branches of the gnarled peach tree and started stripping the last of the tenaciously clinging curled yellow leaves.

Amelia turned her face to the sky. Eyes closed, she took a moment to refocus, determined to embrace the new day. The first touch of sunshine always held a tantalising promise of renewal, as though, if she could find the way to allow the light and warmth within, the misery, grief, remorse and guilt could be burned away.

Except she needed those emotions to fill the emptiness inside her.

Amelia snapped her eyes open then bent to take the nappies off the two lambs. They were growing so quickly, she’d have to size up again next week. ‘Dusty, you’re in charge of these monsters.’

Dusty swooped down, landing on Karmaa’s back. The lamb froze, then started cavorting and twisting, trying tounseat the magpie. Amelia chuckled. It was becoming harder to leave her little family each day. But for the sake of her mental health, she had to force herself to keep moving, keep working, keep … hiding.

‘Afternoon tea sorted,’ James announced to the office in general, brandishing a plastic-wrapped tray of cream-filled jelly cakes.

‘Make sure you put one aside for me,’ Amelia called, looking up from the documents she was sliding through the scanner. Normally she would remain silent rather than engage, but she was determined to do better. ‘Nothing like a sugar high to get us through the day.’

‘For those who have time to snack,’ Faelie observed as she stalked into James’s office and closed the door.

‘She’s in a raregiumar dona, that one.’

Amelia was surprised at the lift in her mood as Sean Brennan approached her desk. ‘If that means foul temper, I promise you, it’s not that rare.’

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