Read Online The Yellow Papers by Dominique Wilson - Free Book Online Page A

away from her body. She was laughing at him. Shattering every dream he’d ever had. Even the birds were laughing at him. If he were not a man he would cry. He tried to move away but she held him tighter.
    â€˜Mu?’ Sahira stroked his chest, his belly. Her hands moved down the front of his thighs. Teased him by moving back up to his chest then down again. ‘Mu?’ Her hand moved slowly to his groin. Soft butterfly-wing caresses. ‘It was a very nice little fish …’ His stomach muscles tightened and he felt himself growing, swelling beneath her fingers. ‘… a very, very nice fish,’ she mumbled, kissing his back. Chen Mu groaned with pleasure and reached back, his fingers grasping her buttocks, pulling her closer still. ‘… and not so little a fish, after all …’
    She pulled him down to the ground and sat astride of him. Took off her chemise. Leaning forwards so that her breasts brushed his lips, she swayed gently from side to side to tease him as his mouth sought to grasp them. He breathed deep her scent. Twigs and rocks dug into his back but he ignored them. She felt his breath come faster and guessed he would not last much longer, so she lowered herself onto him and he gasped at the moist warmth of her. He wanted to go deeper, to crawl right inside of her, to never come out. He arched up against her, lost in a vortex of ecstasy as she rose and sank above him. The ground beneath him no longer existed, the river no longer existed, even Sahira no longer existed as he exploded inside her in a series of spasms that left him trembling.
    She lay curled beside him with her head on his chest as he stroked her still damp hair. He felt sleepy. Content. Happy even. Wounded pride forgotten, the vision of his erect penis as a fish jumping for insects brought forth a smile, and he kissed the top of her head. She shivered and he realised it would soon be dark. Time to go back.

    Next morning, even before sunrise, Chen Mu was awakened by the kelpie’s bark and the sound of a horse and sulky approaching the homestead at a fast pace. He rose and looked out. The whole house was lit up, and he recognised the doctor hurrying into the house. He dressed and crossed the yard to the kitchen.
    He found Mrs Hannigan and Sahira at the kitchen table, gazing into their tea, sombre looks on their faces. Nora was sitting on the floor in a corner of the kitchen, sobbing, her apron over her head. Sahira looked up as he walked in and gave him a weak smile.
    â€˜What’s wrong?’
    â€˜It’s the Mistress,’ Mrs Hannigan answered. ‘She’s real poorly. Turned bad during the night.’
    The housekeeper came into the kitchen. ‘Doctor says its childbed fever, poor woman. And the Master up the high country and all ….’ She shook her head and sighed. ‘I suppose you’d better make her some broth,’ she told Mrs Hannigan, ‘though she won’t even be wanting that before too long …’ She left, mumbling something about having to send someone to fetch the Master back.
    That evening when Chen Mu went to the river to swim, he expected Sahira to join him but she didn’t come. He went to the kitchen for his evening meal with the other servants, expecting to see her, only to find she was relieving Mrs Dawson’s personal maid. The talk around the servants’ table centred on Mrs Dawson’s rapid decline. He went back to his hut and sat on the front step, waiting. Willing Sahira to come. And though he waited till well after nightfall still she did not come.
    He lay in his bed listening to the sounds of the night, tormenting himself. To him, their lovemaking had been more than just a joining of two bodies, but did Sahira feel the same? He remembered her laughter at his penis bobbing in and out of the water. Maybe that was how she saw him – a joke, something to make fun of. She had probably told Mrs Hannigan all about it. They