Wild Lands

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Authors: Nicole Alexander
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with heruntil the end. Forget your duties until she slips from this world to the next. But while you sit by her side, ask her, for both our sakes, if her time here has been happy. She will answer yes.’
    â€˜Kate … Kate?’
    Madge was breathless. The woman halted abruptly on seeing the Reverend and stood rooted to the spot in the dim light of the schoolhouse. ‘I beg your leave, Reverend sir, but I’ve news. It’s your mother, Kate,’ she faltered. ‘She’s gone.’ Madge moved towards them, twisting a dirty apron between her hands. ‘I would have come for you but there was no time. I only went in to see if she wanted a little water. She was awake, so I propped up the pillows, but her eyes never opened, not even to blink. But she asked for you, she did, said a few words and then the breath left her.’ Madge let out a little puff of air. ‘Just like that and she was gone.’
    A band of tightness circled Kate’s chest.
    â€˜Kate, did you hear what Madge said?’ the Reverend spoke loudly. ‘Your mother is dead, may she rest in peace.’
    â€˜What, what did she say?’ asked Kate breathlessly.
    Madge pressed her mouth together, rolling the skin until her lips all but disappeared. ‘She said to tell you that she was sorry.’
    An air of expectation seeped from the Reverend. Flicking through the pages of the bible, he placed the book in Kate’s hand. ‘John, chapter five, verses 24 to 26. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
    â€˜ Shall not come into condemnation , think on it, Kate.’ The bible was swiftly removed and the Reverend strode down the aisle. ‘I’ll make the necessary arrangements, however the body will need to be washed and, Madge, you will, from this moment onwards, speak to Miss Carter with regards to all meals.’
    Kate sat heavily on one of the benches. She felt as if all the air had left her body, that she would never breathe again. The olderwoman approached silently, an eyebrow lifted. ‘Well, that’s that then. At least she went quiet. Not a whimper.’
    It was difficult to believe that her mother was dead. ‘I should have been with her.’
    â€˜Rubbish. You sat with her last night and the night before that. And besides, Lesley Carter wasn’t the type to put up with mollycoddling. She was a survivor, your mother.’ Madge sniffed. ‘Well, a woman has to be. But in the end when your time’s up I reckon it makes no difference if there’s someone holding your hand or not. Once you’re on the way to the boneyard there’s no stopping the journey.’
    Kate didn’t agree. No matter what Madge said she knew the comfort that could be given by the touch of a hand. She’d seen it in her father’s eyes. ‘Do you think my mother was happy here, Madge?’
    The cook turned up her nose. ‘Happy? What’s happy? For some it may be a good meal, others a place to sleep, for meself any year without a thrashing is a boon. You’ll be right. Set yourself up in the cottage. Do as he says. There are worse places than this. You’ll see things will turn out like a good baked loaf.’
    Kate waited until Madge had left and then sank to the ground and began to sob.

To where ’neath glorious clustered stars
The dreamy plains expand –
My home lies wide a thousand miles
In the Never-Never Land.
    â€˜The Never-Never Country’ by Henry Lawson, 1906

Chapter 4
    1837 July – on the western side
of the Blue Mountains
    The two men stood on the sloping earth where the dense trees rose from low ground between grassy hills. The land below was damp from recent rain and would be hard to burn, so they concentrated on the hill, knowing that the southerly wind would drive the flames

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