‘It’s great, eh?’ she breathed, looking around at the other two. ‘Yeah.’
They stared ahead into the wind and were quiet for some time. Katerina, Carmel and Jude. It was wonderful being up there, feeling their hair blowing back and the sharp cold raindrops starting to spit into their faces.
‘It’s gonna pour,’ said Carmel. ‘We’d better go.’
The others murmured agreement, but no one moved. They looked down through the drizzle and saw the blurred outline of the campsite below. A few figures were moving about.
‘That will be Vince for sure,’ said Carmel, pointing at a figure crouched at the fire. ‘He’s getting it going again.’
‘No, I think its Juan. That green coat.’
‘I don’t think its anyone we know,’ Jude said mischievously. ‘It’s a colony of aliens. We are the only humans left after the Third World War.’
They shivered and laughed, all suddenly aware of themselves standing on that hill in the odd, grey, luminous light under a glorious shining sky. Everything had converged, become somehow precious. Carmel linked her arms through the others’.
‘We should go now,’ she said again softly. ‘I don’t want to get soaked.’
‘Yep,’ Jude said. But still no one moved.
It was that feeling that they were all hanging on to. The feeling that only happens in the dead of night, or, like now, in the very early morning, in the drizzling rain, when the clouds part for a moment and a fat pink sun stares across the world like the benevolent eye of God. The wonderful, fleeting sense that they were the only three people still alive in a beautiful, beautiful world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to warmly thank the following people for their help during the writing of this novel: Juan and Nellie Torres, Alex Varga, Louise Young Harrington and Colin Mclaren.
My sincere gratitude also to Erica Wagner for her hard work and enthusiasm throughout the process of creating this work and to Chris Warner for his support and encouragement.
I heard, read and watched many accounts of the coup in Chile and the events leading up to it. Two books I would especially like to acknowledge are: Victor Jara – An Unfinished Song by Joan Jara (Jonathan Cape, London, 1983) and Audacity to Believe by Sheila Cassidy (Fount Paperbacks, London, 1978).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maureen McCarthy is the ninth of ten children and grew up on a farm near Yea in Victoria. After working for a while as an art teacher, Maureen became a full-time writer. Her novels have been shortlisted for numerous awards and include the In Between series, which was adapted from scripts Maureen co-wrote with Shane Brennan for SBS TV; Ganglands; Cross My Heart; Chain of Hearts; Flash Jack; When You Wake and Find Me Gone, Rose by any other name, Somebody’s Crying and Careful What You Wish For.
Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life was first published in 1995. A much-loved bestseller, it was made into a highly successful 4-part mini-series for ABC TV.
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