Read Online The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Judith Clarke
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so you could see how once she’d been a different person. The person who’d chosen the beautiful name Francesca for her baby girl.
A great branch of lightning tore across the sky and in its livid light she saw a strange creature hurtling down the narrow road that led away to the hills – a thin, dark, rigid thing that carried some softer, paler shape upon its back.
Clementine didn’t move. Let it get her then! She didn’t care anymore. She didn’t care if it was a hobyah carrying a great big bag, she didn’t care if it leaped on her and stuffed her in the bag and took her home to gobble; because if Fan was gone then nothing really mattered anymore.
Only Mum and Dad. Especially Dad. How would Dad feel if
she
went away?
It was raining now. Big heavy drops fell like coins onto the dust at her feet. She dashed the tears from her eyes,looked up and saw that the strange dark creature was only a rusty old bicycle, and the shape on its back was Fan.
Fan on her dad’s old bike! How could she have forgotten? Hadn’t Fan told her she’d run away to those hills one day? Hadn’t she planned to go on her dad’s old bike?
Fan skidded to a stop in the middle of the track, a few yards from her cousin. She threw the old bike down and it lay on its side in the mud, wheels spinning, while Fan stood beside it, head down, crying. Clementine ran to put her arms round her. Fan’s hair, escaped from its plaits, felt cold, and it was darker, too, the colour of treacle instead of wild honey, and her face was streaked with red stripes where the dust had muddled with the rain and tears. Even in the gloomy light, Clementine could see the marks from Aunty Rene’s strap on her cousin’s legs, and they made her feel sick. They shouldn’t
be
there – they made you feel the world had gone all wrong.
‘I couldn’t get there,’ Fan sobbed. ‘I couldn’t get there, Clemmie! I rode and rode, and they were still as far away as ever, just like the other time. And then I started thinking how I hadn’t left you a note or anything, and you wouldn’t know where I’d gone, and how you’d worry, like you do, and so – ’ she gave a long shuddering sigh, ‘so I came back again.’ She pressed her face down into Clementine’s thin shoulder and they stood together silently, while the thick cold rain poured down.
‘She shouldn’t hit me,’ Fan whispered.
‘I know she shouldn’t.’
‘Because I’m
Yirigaa
. I’m the morning star, see? And that means I’m – I’m a kind of princess. My friend said so.’
‘I know.’
Fan lifted her head and stared back hopelessly at the elusive hills. ‘I just can’t seem to get there.’
‘You will.’
‘No I won’t.’
‘Yes you will. Why do you think you won’t? When you’re grown up, what’s going to stop you then? You’ll drink
Griffiths Tea
up there one day, I bet. You’ll taste ambrosia.’
Fan didn’t say anything. On the ground beside them one wheel of the old bicycle still spun, a faint sibilant whisper beneath the rain. Fan put out a hand and stilled the wheel with a single fingertip, and then there was only the rain.
‘And when you go there, I’ll come too,’ said Clementine.
‘Would you? Even when we’re grown up?’
‘Of course.’
‘Promise?’
‘Cross my heart.’
Fan stepped back and beamed at Clementine. She gave a little skip, grabbed two handfuls of her cold wet hair and flung them over her shoulders triumphantly. ‘When we grow up!’ she shouted, and her laughter flew up in the air.
The very next morning Clementine and her mother left for Sydney on the diesel train. They were going home a whole week earlier than they’d planned because Mum and Aunty Rene had quarrelled. ‘Can Fan come with us?’ Clementine longed to ask. She didn’t though, because she knew what the answer would be. They were leaving so fast there wasn’t even time for Mum to say, ‘We’ll see.’
It would be almost five years before Clementine saw her cousin
A great branch of lightning tore across the sky and in its livid light she saw a strange creature hurtling down the narrow road that led away to the hills – a thin, dark, rigid thing that carried some softer, paler shape upon its back.
Clementine didn’t move. Let it get her then! She didn’t care anymore. She didn’t care if it was a hobyah carrying a great big bag, she didn’t care if it leaped on her and stuffed her in the bag and took her home to gobble; because if Fan was gone then nothing really mattered anymore.
Only Mum and Dad. Especially Dad. How would Dad feel if
she
went away?
It was raining now. Big heavy drops fell like coins onto the dust at her feet. She dashed the tears from her eyes,looked up and saw that the strange dark creature was only a rusty old bicycle, and the shape on its back was Fan.
Fan on her dad’s old bike! How could she have forgotten? Hadn’t Fan told her she’d run away to those hills one day? Hadn’t she planned to go on her dad’s old bike?
Fan skidded to a stop in the middle of the track, a few yards from her cousin. She threw the old bike down and it lay on its side in the mud, wheels spinning, while Fan stood beside it, head down, crying. Clementine ran to put her arms round her. Fan’s hair, escaped from its plaits, felt cold, and it was darker, too, the colour of treacle instead of wild honey, and her face was streaked with red stripes where the dust had muddled with the rain and tears. Even in the gloomy light, Clementine could see the marks from Aunty Rene’s strap on her cousin’s legs, and they made her feel sick. They shouldn’t
be
there – they made you feel the world had gone all wrong.
‘I couldn’t get there,’ Fan sobbed. ‘I couldn’t get there, Clemmie! I rode and rode, and they were still as far away as ever, just like the other time. And then I started thinking how I hadn’t left you a note or anything, and you wouldn’t know where I’d gone, and how you’d worry, like you do, and so – ’ she gave a long shuddering sigh, ‘so I came back again.’ She pressed her face down into Clementine’s thin shoulder and they stood together silently, while the thick cold rain poured down.
‘She shouldn’t hit me,’ Fan whispered.
‘I know she shouldn’t.’
‘Because I’m
Yirigaa
. I’m the morning star, see? And that means I’m – I’m a kind of princess. My friend said so.’
‘I know.’
Fan lifted her head and stared back hopelessly at the elusive hills. ‘I just can’t seem to get there.’
‘You will.’
‘No I won’t.’
‘Yes you will. Why do you think you won’t? When you’re grown up, what’s going to stop you then? You’ll drink
Griffiths Tea
up there one day, I bet. You’ll taste ambrosia.’
Fan didn’t say anything. On the ground beside them one wheel of the old bicycle still spun, a faint sibilant whisper beneath the rain. Fan put out a hand and stilled the wheel with a single fingertip, and then there was only the rain.
‘And when you go there, I’ll come too,’ said Clementine.
‘Would you? Even when we’re grown up?’
‘Of course.’
‘Promise?’
‘Cross my heart.’
Fan stepped back and beamed at Clementine. She gave a little skip, grabbed two handfuls of her cold wet hair and flung them over her shoulders triumphantly. ‘When we grow up!’ she shouted, and her laughter flew up in the air.
The very next morning Clementine and her mother left for Sydney on the diesel train. They were going home a whole week earlier than they’d planned because Mum and Aunty Rene had quarrelled. ‘Can Fan come with us?’ Clementine longed to ask. She didn’t though, because she knew what the answer would be. They were leaving so fast there wasn’t even time for Mum to say, ‘We’ll see.’
It would be almost five years before Clementine saw her cousin
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