Near my feet something was moving and my eyes opened wide. A spider. A real spider – dark and thick and as big as my hand, moving up the bottom of the canoe. Moving up between my legs.
I called out for Peter. I turned my head and looked up at him but his eyes were closed. He was standing lost, chanting blind, and he could not hear me. He could not help.
The spider moved steadily up past my knees and I could see all of its eyes and the tiny hairs on its legs and on its back. I got my raincoat and wrapped it around my fist. With a swift movement I punched the spider hard. I twisted my fist into the carved wood of the canoe over and over and over, and I kept my fist there. I did not breathe.
‘What was it like?’ Peter asked, his eyes suddenly open, suddenly awake.
‘Brown. Brown with black stripes.’
‘Bad,’ he said. ‘Very bad.’
Then he told me to look up.
‘There is your kingfisher.’
So close I could have reached out and touched him. The littlest kingfisher – so perfect, so small. And he stayed with us, perched on his reed. He stayed still and let me take my photo.
He even smiled.
‘It is good luck,’ Peter said. ‘Good luck for us.’
I put my camera away. My bags are packed and ready and I wish that Peter would come back. I wish that I could say goodbye. When he came to my tent last night he was angry. I hadn’t zipped my door all the way to the bottom and he said I was stupid. He told me that I was just another stupid white person who didn’t listen, didn’t understand anything. I tried to say sorry but he would not stop to hear me. He just kept on talking fast and wild.
And he told me about the boy.
Twelve years old and he wanted to sleep in a tent all by himself. His parents wanted it too because they were annoyed by their boy. He was a bother to them – a bother on their holiday. Peter told them it was a bad idea but they would not listen. And they got their way because they were rich, because they were guests and could do whatever they wanted.
Peter checked on the boy many times every night and he did not sleep so that he could be always listening for the boy. He always made sure the boy’s tent was zipped tight. But on the fourth night, hippos came into the camp and woke everyone up. The boy wanted to take pictures of the hippos, so he unzipped his tent. Peter yelled at him to get back inside and the boy did. The boy listened. Finally Peter heard the hippos leave and he heard the boy sleeping.
And finally, exhausted, Peter fell into sleep too.
But hyenas came.
They smelled the boy. Smelled the sneakers he had left by the door of his tent, and they smelled his warm body sleeping. And the door to the tent wasn’t zipped all the way to the bottom.
Peter woke to the high-pitched cackle hyenas make when they have made a fresh kill. When he got to the tent they had ripped the boy to pieces.
The sounds of the night die down and from inside my tent I imagine the light hitting the plains, warm and golden. The sun is finally rising. The sun brings peace. Hunting animals are full and it is time for them to slumber in a shady place. It is time for the gentle animals to gather on the banks of the river and drink, time for the hippo to take to the water and rest weightless once more.
And it is time for Peter to walk his country – to survey all there is.
I can see him there, his head twitching this way and that. Looking and listening. Speaking with the trees and with the sky. Talking to the clouds.
Just a soft slow chant.
Peter’s song.
If you would like to find out more about Hachette Australia, our authors, upcoming events and new releases you can visit our website or follow us on twitter.
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Discover more about Favel and read some of her short stories at:
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Turn the page to find out about some other Australian authors published by Hachette Australia …
Kindling
by Darren Groth
A father – Nate, doing the best he can to honour his wife’s memory and his child’s future.
A son – Kieran, learning to make his way in a world he’d rather not engage with.
Two lives burned by the past and redefined on a smoke-filled summer afternoon when a young boy attempts to make amends.
Kindling is a poignant and achingly beautiful novel about heartbreak, healing and heroism.
‘An engaging novel.’ GOOD READING
The Weight of Silence
by Catherine Therese
The story of a girl losing and finding herself in the secrets that shape her life; the power of family, silence, language, grog and love … of becoming who you truly are. A mother before she’s a woman; a girl who carries a shard of windscreen glass, votes for herself and believes in holding rain.
The Weight of Silence is a brave beautiful book that will break your heart and mend it in the same breath.
‘a heartfelt, funny and deeply moving memoir about flawed families, unconditional love and growing up too fast but turning out okay anyway’ CANBERRA TIMES
Still Waters
by Camilla Noli
In the suburbs, a young mother is looking after her two children. She has been a successful career woman in control of her life, sexually aware and used to attracting any man’s undivided attention … if she wanted to.
But now her control is slipping away. Motherhood is devouring her identity. Her two children depend on her and her husband adores her new role in the home. He is no longer focused on her. Her children are stealing his affection. Her own desires are secondary to everyone else’s.
She wants to reclaim her sense of self, her power. Just because she is a mother doesn’t mean she will protect those she is supposed to love.
For her, everything is conditional. And everyone is in danger.
‘a chilling page-turner’ HARPER’S BAZAAR
Fractured
by Dawn Barker
A compelling, emotional debut from a brilliant new Australian author.
Tony is worried. His wife, Anna, isn’t coping with their newborn. Anna had wanted a child so badly and, when Jack was born, they were both so happy. They’d come home from the hospital a family. Was it really only six weeks ago? But Anna hasn’t been herself since. One moment she’s crying, the next she seems almost too positive. It must be normal with a baby, he thought, she’s justadjusting. He was busy at work. It would sort itself out.
But now Anna and Jack are missing. And he realizes that something is really wrong … What happens to this family will break your heart and leave you breathless.
An unforgettable novel that brings to life a new mother’s worst fears.
Past the Shallows Page 15