Read Online Outback by Robin Stevenson - Free Book Online Page B

nerves. It’s been less than two weeks since we left civilization but it feels like much longer.
    There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave the desert.
    Nat laughs when I confess this to her. “Slurpees,” she says. “Steak pies. Ice cream. Mangoes. A cold pint of Cooper’s ale.”
    Out my window, I watch the blue sky, the dusty red-brown land, the vastness of the landscape. And I realize something: I’ll come back here. I’ll take photographs that show the beauty of the desert, the glow of the morning sun, the changing colors of the rock. I’ll make everyone see the ancient strength of this place.
    I’ll show them how it puts everything else in perspective.
    Nat and I fly back to Adelaide together. From the airport, I phone my mother and tell her about Mel, but it turns out she was notified last night. Mel had her listed as his next of kin. She’s been freaking out all day, waiting for me to call.
    â€œI’m sorry,” I tell her, after I explain everything that has happened. “About Mel. I shouldn’t have left him.”
    â€œYou could have died too,” she says. “Honestly, I could kill him.”
    The image of Mel lying facedown in the desert flashes into my mind. “Yeah. Well…”
    â€œOh god. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” she says. “But Jayden…he had no right taking you and Natalie out there. He didn’t even discuss it with me. At the university—that’s what he told me.”
    â€œI know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you either.”
    I can hear her sigh over the phone. “It’s okay. I’m just relieved you’re okay.”
    â€œMe too.”
    â€œI’ll get your flight changed,” she says. “Get you back here as soon as possible.”
    â€œNo rush. Nat says I can stay as long as I like. I wouldn’t mind staying a few weeks, since I’m here anyway.”
    â€œYou and Nat…It’s none of my business, but are you…?”
    â€œNah. Just friends.”
    â€œYou sound different.” She hesitates. “I was so worried about you before you left. And now all this…But you’re okay, aren’t you?”
    â€œI’m good,” I tell her. “Really good.”
    â€œYou sound good.” She clears her throat. “Um, Anna dropped by the other day. She hadn’t seen you at school and wanted to check that you were all right.”
    â€œBetter than all right.” I picture Anna’s round face, her long fair hair, her worried blue eyes. “If you see her again, say hi for me,” I say.

Chapter Fifteen
    Mom really wants me back home, but in the end we compromise on two weeks. I stay with Nat in the brightly painted house that she shares with a bunch of other students. Girls with dreadlocks and bandannas and pierced noses; girls who wear pajamas all day, who cook tofu and soy beans in the big old kitchen, smoke dope on the front steps, pet the various stray cats that have moved in. They treat me like Nat’s little brother and it feels fine.
    I ride the tram down to the beach at Glenelg, try surfing with reasonable success, go out dancing with Nat and her friends. I eat a lot of steak pies. Nat buys me a disposable camera and makes me do all the tourist stuff: we feed kangaroos at a wildlife reserve, rent pedal boats on the river, eat gelato and watch the buskers in Rundle Mall.
    I try not to think too much about Mel. It isn’t until I’m packing to go home that Nat and I discover we still have his bag.
    â€œIt was in the laundry room,” Nat says. “Under the dirty laundry.”
    I take it from her and open it up. A cold shiver runs up my spine as I remember the last time I undid these buckles. “Nat? If we hadn’t found that sat phone…”
    â€œWe’d have made it,” she says confidently.
    I’m not so sure. I think we had a chance, but it was a