Les Wilson, a month after his forty-first birthday, looked hard at the sky, squinting away the wind and the dust and the late afternoon sun. He walked back around to the south side of the house, took the hat off his head and sat down on the porch. He was not sitting down to go to sleep. He was just sitting down. An hour later he came to with a start, his right leg numb where the cane of the chair had got its fingers in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sun and the heat had not abated. There was no rain anywhere on the horizon, or on any of the horizons. He checked his watch and decided against going back to the fencing which had to be done before they could do the ploughing and sowing which was there was no point doing anyway. A cup of tea instead, was the thing to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He pulled off his Redbacks at the door, knocking them together to shake off some of the dust, and listened around the house for his wife. He shook some dust off his hat and put it loosely back on his head. Not a sound, not a rustle, were audible. In the kitchen he measured out the water for two cups, plus a bit for steam, and put the kettle on the electric stove top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He crept upstairs, stepping on the very edges of the boards so they would not creak, feet coming down heel first along the thin rug running down the hall, and found his wife in the second room on the right, her back to the door, facing out the window, the needle ducking in and out of a quilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les took a breath for steadiness, held his hat in his right hand which went back and forth, 1 and 2 and 3, while he took aim. Les had been the world Frisbee champion among his brothers, and anyway a hat was easier to control than a loop of rope or a plastic toy; he could not miss from this range. Then the hat left his hand, although they did remain connected to each other, and floated more than flew, descending like a bird landing onto his wife\u2019s unsuspecting head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Jesus Christ!\u2019, she yelped, turning around in the chair to face the door. \u2018You\u2019re bloody lucky I didn\u2019t stab myself with the needle!\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les grinned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Cup of tea, dear?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jenny frowned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You\u2019ve got an odd way of asking, haven\u2019t you? Besides, I heard you coming in the Ute, even if you did coast in the last little bit. You can\u2019t tell me it took you an hour to sneak up the stairs, can you?\u2019, Jenny chided. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nup. I sat down on the back porch and before I knew anything about it I\u2019d nodded off.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh, very good then! And how come you were asleep?\u2019, she gloated, relishing the chance to get one back for the hat trick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I was tired, wasn\u2019t I?\u2019, he replied. \u2018And who was it that was still in bed when I got up before dawn this morning to go off fencing, and still in bed when I left the house?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018So how\u2019s the fencing going then, dear?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nowhere bloody near finished. We\u2019re halfway across from the top paddock down to the road, but then we still gotta go from the top paddock across east to the edge of Cooper\u2019s place.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You\u2019ll get there. You\u2019ll get there, I guess. What about that cup of tea?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kettle wasn\u2019t whistling but Les went to trot down the stairs again, before he was interrupted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018And what about my kiss hello?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He bent over the chair and kissed his wife on the lips, then the forehead, then both cheeks. Her arms around his neck grew heavier, as she held him down. One hand went for his crotch, finding what she knew would be there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh hello\u2019, he muttered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her fingers found the zip and started to pull down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018What, now?\u2019, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Now.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The kettle\u2026\u2019, he replied, rational faculties weakening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The kettle takes at least five minutes\u2019, she said, looking up at him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019m flat tired,\u2019 he protested. \u2018Been up since dawn.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh, been up since dawn then\u2019, she said mocking, \u2018you just had a nap, though. My poor little man.\u2019 She smiled up at him again. \u2018Besides, I missed you today, with just my sewing here.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She pulled him down onto the floor, and then took charge. While the clothes were coming off he thought about their last visit to the clinic and the reasons they had been given by the Doctor, and about how they were both over 40, about how it could be a low count or any one of a number of other reasons. Jenny could not bear it, the child or the knowledge, and now grabbed him whenever she could, and smothered the grief with pleasure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not a bad life for a bloke, he thought, lifting his bum up so the trousers could slide off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it was all finished she laid down next to him on the floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kettle whistled down stairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les pulled his trousers back up and as he reached the top of the stairs Jenny called out,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018White with one!\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I know, I know. We have been married twelve years, you know.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She went out and in the next door, got the shower running and turned over the hourglass on the ledge. When she was finished cleaning herself she leaned against the shower wall and waited for the rest of the minute of sand to trickle through the slim waisted glass, her hair hugging the back of her neck. She sobbed a little, on her own, surrounded by tiles, and drew her arms around herself to hold it in, hold it together, as she did now after being with Les and remembering again what it meant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les fiddled with tea leaves and looked out the window at the sun going down, poured his wife\u2019s tea quickly out of the pot so it would be light like she wanted it and left the pot on the bench to brew his own. Proper tea, he called it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She came downstairs in a dressing gown and sat at the kitchen table, sipped out of the cup and pronounced it to be perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018What do you want for dinner, Les?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was watching the steam from the tea pot being drawn slowly out the window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Les? Dinner? Hello?\u2019, she said, startling him a little, so that he spilled some tea from the pot on his hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nothing yet. Gonna go back into town for a bit and buy the boys a drink for helping with the fencing.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The fence is half theirs. They should be helping you. And you said yourself you\u2019re not even halfway finished.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yeah. But I\u2019m the one that wants the fence up. And you know my Dad used to let their cattle have a bit of extra space and they used to give us some of the meat, for the favour.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yes. I know Les. But fencing is expensive enough.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It\u2019ll be one beer. Maybe two.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t treat them right. I\u2019m just saying, well, you know what I mean and there\u2019s no point mentioning it again.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yep\u2019, he said, nodding slowly. \u2018Money\u2019s tight.\u2019 He sipped his tea for a little while, thinking about where he would actually be going tonight, after the pub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Do we need anything? Butter? Bread? Anything?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Well, what do you want for dinner?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Steak and mash is fine.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Then we need cheese for the mash.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les finished the tea and went upstairs to retrieve his shirt and hat, then kissed his wife goodbye, the lips, the forehead and then both cheeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Right. Cheese for the mash. Won\u2019t be long dear. Promise.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I know,\u2019 she replied, raising one eyebrow. \u2018I might start missing you again.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He grinned, flushing red a little, and pulled the Redbacks on again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Back soon\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the way into town he swore and muttered under his breath as he passed the petrol station, \u2018of course the bloody price is up again. The government gives a bit back to farmers for petrol but of course it\u2019s not enough, but they always bloody have enough in Canberra don\u2019t they. Nobody gives a stuff about how we\u2019re getting along when it hasn\u2019t rained for months.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now past the council chambers where another rant was mutteringly directed, then four blocks along main drag and he came to the other edge of the town, over the squarish wooden bridge, then turned right and pulled across the slightly more grassy part next to the road, with no kerb to dodge or worry about, and into the slightly more dusty part that served as a parking lot for the pub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sun was just inching down now and he counted the Utes out the front. There were four. That was all of them so he was last one there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He saw them around a table in the corner, no one saying a word, in jeans and boots all colours of the mud rainbow, hats off. From the bar he ordered five schooners and asked Sally to bring them over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Boys,\u2019 he said, pulling himself onto a stool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Les,\u2019 they grumbled in return, almost in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018How\u2019s it going?\u2019 said Cooper. His name was Solomon Cooper, after the biblical King, so he told everyone to call him Cooper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Good mate.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018And, ah, how\u2019s the wife?\u2019, asked Cooper with a grin. Cooper\u2019s classical blonde wife, Angela, was revered by men for some distance around. Cooper was satisfied and led the group when it came to dirty talking and dirty jokes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yep. Still going strong,\u2019 replied Les, chuckling, embarrassed again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were two people in the World who knew that Jenny would never bear, the rest just knew that she was trying, very regularly, because Les talked more than he should have about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin, Frank and Jeff all chuckled as well, before taking long slugs out of their beer, to get the dust out of their throats. They grumbled about the fencing and the heat for a bit, then fell silent and gulped more beer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018So.\u2019 Jeff put down an empty glass on the table. \u2018Are we ready to go.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They looked back and forth at each other and all eyes met assenting others. As they chorused \u2018see ya Sally\u2019 and \u2018thanks Sally\u2019 back through the door she replied \u2018OK, seeyaboys!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They got separately into their cars, not actually thinking about who they might be fooling, although it was nobody, and drove separately around the town and pulled up in front of the church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sandstone church was tiny. It had been built more than 75 years ago to accommodate the people of the town and district and could still fit them all today. Inside, under the raised and arched ceiling, under the massive square support beams, were the pews. The pews were made of the same wood as the roof support beams, godforsaken iron wood that some poor bastard and his horses had to drag more than 50 miles \u2013 they were miles then \u2013 to the church site. There were 13 pews on each side of the aisle and each pew could fit seven adults of a Sunday morning, or ten kids if they squished in together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they filed in through the open front doors Father Dawkins stood at the edge of the pulpit, next to but not leaning on the lectern. He held his hands together in front of him, and greeted them by name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Thanks for coming out tonight, father, and for letting us come here at a funny time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You\u2019re very welcome, Jeff, you all are. The house of the Lord belongs to everyone, and of course it\u2019s always open.\u2019 Did that sound too put-on? Then he added, \u2018anyway, I know how hard it is for you blokes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Mmm. Remember to bring the prayer, father?\u2019, asked Frank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yes, Frank. I\u2019ve got it right here.\u2019 He reached inside his cloak for the single piece of paper he had been rereading in spare moments all day. He wanted to do it from memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You ready to go then, boys?\u2019, asked Father Dawkins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yep\u2019, \u2018can\u2019t see why not\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019ve come this far\u2019, the five men chorused back, almost in time. They unfolded their pieces of paper from various different pockets and read over the prayer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Alright. All with me then.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six male voices filled the church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It is the month of February, and it\u2019s stinking bloody hot, and we haven\u2019t had any rain for months. This happens every time this year. Soon it\u2019s time for us to start sowing crops and selling cattle again so that we can put food on our tables and everyone else\u2019s as well. The country\u2019s depending on us.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They glanced at each other again, all eyes assenting still, and continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Our Lord above, we don\u2019t want you to take anyone else\u2019s rain off them, but we know you don\u2019t want us to suffer, and someone\u2019s gotta be out here farming and living on the land and producing. Lord, please just send some rain.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Amen.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ceremony was over. They kneeled, heads bowed and eyes closed, for quite some time. The priest crossed them all and they went on their way, thanking him once again for coming over from his house on what was, after all, a Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the way out Les heard Martin ask Frank whether he thought it would make any difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Dunno Marty. But I bloody well hope so. And in the end that\u2019s all we can do, except for selling up and moving into town. And it\u2019ll be over my dead body before that happens.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Too right\u2019, replied Frank. \u2018Jeez I hope we get some bloody rain.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Les pulled up to his house later on that night, he saw that the kitchen light was off and that only the upstairs bedroom light was on. He checked his watch. 9.05pm. He cursed himself. Then he remembered that he had forgotten the cheese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again he shed his Redbacks at the front door and clapped them together to shake more dust off. He opened the fridge door and the steak and mash glared at him accusingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He marched straight up the stairs this time, no tiptoeing, first door on the left, and found the lighted bedroom to be vacant. From the window he saw Jenny in the dressing gown, sitting in the cane chair out in the garden, or what garden there was now that only the native plants could survive. She was facing east and watching the moon rise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He went out the back door with no shoes on, hoping she would not be upset. She turned her head to him at the sound of the door; Les stood still to see what kind of look it looked like. It looked friendly, and he walked across the little hollow where there used to a be frog pond which had dried up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Sorry I\u2019m late, dear. And, um, I forgot the cheese. Sorry dear.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It\u2019s OK. I\u2019m not upset at you.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He moved a step closer now so that he could kiss her on the forehead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018How come you were late?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Well, I said one beer but it might have been two.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Well which was it?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Two. Look, I told you it\u2019d be one or two. And it was only two.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You told me you\u2019d be home for dinner is what you told me.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Look. I\u2019m sorry. We were just yakking and I didn\u2019t notice the time.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018So you only went to the pub all that time?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018What? Where else would I have gone? Didn\u2019t go to the petrol station, I can tell you that much. Nearly at two dollars.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nowhere,\u2019 she replied. \u2018Never mind about it. It\u2019s time we went to bed.\u2019 As she put her arms around him, her dressing gown fell open and she was naked against him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He carried her upstairs, wondering how she could possibly know he hadn\u2019t been at the pub all that time. They got into bed, him in charge this time. Afterwards he fell asleep immediately and did not hear her sob again, and did not see her wrap her arms around her chest, to hold on and hold in, and did not see her fail to hold, as the rain came inside, through the window into her heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
February, a February with four Wednesdays, stole past, and no rain came, although the five men continued their weekly fervour. They’d planned this carefully; they made Wednesday ‘fencing day’ so that they’d always have to ‘just go have a quick drink’ afterwards. On the second Wednesday they told their wives they were going to play cards, and gathered again with Father Dawkins. Martin asked if it was really alright to pray for something in particular, if that was, you know, how it worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Ask and you shall receive\u2019, the priest replied. \u2018You have no idea of the miracles that can be worked if enough people pray. There are recorded instances of sick people leaving their hospital beds when people prayed for them, even though they had no way of knowing it was happening. I don\u2019t see how it can rain if we don\u2019t pray.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin nodded, wordless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the third Wednesday Frank mumbled his way through the prayer, avoided the eye of Father Dawkins when they were crossed, and sat down on the small step of the church as the five men left, just after the sun called quitting time for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin sat down as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018This is bloody ridiculous, I reckon.\u2019 Frank was not known in the town for wasting time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Gotta do something,\u2019 Martin replied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yeah, but I look like a right idiot on my knees in there. I reckon if I seen myself doing that I\u2019d burst out laughing, have a real good chuckle.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018So you\u2019re gonna give it away?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nope. I told you blokes I\u2019d come along. Can\u2019t back out now. Or not yet anyway.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018OK,\u2019 said Martin, who did not use two words if one would do. He stood to leave, jingling keys in his pocket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Marty.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yep.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018What ya reckon about this?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Might just work. How the hell would I know that it won\u2019t work?\u2019 He looked back at the church, at the stained glass windows on either side of the large wooden doors. \u2018Need the rain, don\u2019t we?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the last Wednesday in February, after having taken a break from the fencing because there were now less stock to fence in, Les, Cooper, Frank, Martin and Jeff came back to finish the section heading east from Les\u2019s top paddock over to join up with the edge of Cooper’s place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the first Wednesday in March, clouds spread here and there and still summer-warm, they finished the last little bit of it early in the day and decided a BBQ at Cooper\u2019s place would be the best way to occupy the afternoon. Les went back and picked up Jenny and some bread and onions and they drove the 2km back to their neighbours\u2019 house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out the back Cooper, in a singlet and shorts, but still with his sun hat on, watched the BBQ and nothing else. They went into the kitchen where Angela was slicing tomatoes and lettuce, and counting eggs, five foot ten in bare feet. She wore a white cotton dress with spaghetti-thin shoulder straps that threatened to give up at any moment, straps that did not seem well-designed for the cleavage they had to contend with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there was more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was pretty as well, hair down past her shoulders and a smile that never seemed even slightly forced, small waist for one so endowed, and athletic legs, thirty-six years old but looked mid-twenties, and only one child who was now 10, named Felix after his grandfather, but asked his friends to call him Cooper as well, who was now out riding a motorbike on the farm somewhere, a little 50cc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jenny took the eggs and bread out to the BBQ and Angela took two carrots from the fridge, slicing mechanically and rapidly, and as she started the second carrot she said to Les, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Thanks so much for getting Cooper\u2019 \u2013 even his wife called him Cooper \u2013 \u2018on to that fence. He\u2019s wanted to do it but would never have started without you.\u2019 She grabbed a beer from the fridge and twisted it open, handed it to Les. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yeah, no worries. They\u2019ve wanted one put in over the other side of our place, we wanted it, we knew Cooper did, so we just figured we\u2019d do it all in one go. Now if it rains we\u2019re set.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yeah. Well, pray for rain, I guess,\u2019 said Angela, shrugging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yeah. Pray I guess,\u2019 sighed Les. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angela reached into the oven for a cheese-encrusted potato bake and as she turned to try and hear Les it slipped from her towel-covered hands back onto her front. The earthenware dish, surprisingly heavy when full, grazed her belly and she shrieked and lurched forward and dumped the dish onto the kitchen table, swearing under her breath. Oil and cheese-melting had leaked out of the dish and ruined the front of her dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Shit, are you alright?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018No. It hurts like hell.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh Christ. We better get some water or something on that burn.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les took the ice cube tray from the freezer and handed it to her. In the bathroom he flung things from the cupboard, looking for the First Aid kit or the salve. He found the first of these and turned to go back to the kitchen, and was stunned to find Angela standing in front of him, naked except for white cotton underwear that concealed very little, holding the stained and oily dress in the other hand, which she threw in a cane basket of washing in the corner, breasts supple and the size of half a honeydew melon. She was rubbing an ice cube on her belly and saying something about a tube of cream her mother always used to use, which should be in the first aid kit. He had never before wanted to be an ice cube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Les knew that this was an emergency, that the poor woman had burnt herself, and that he was supposed to be helping, but for a long moment he was unable to do anything other than break the tenth commandment. Against the white tile background she stood like Venus, except that Venus covered herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Picking up his jaw, Les recovered his dignity enough to look somewhere other than her chest, but his eyes went all the way down before coming all the way back up, eventually to her eyes. She continued smiling, happy regardless of the world<\/em>. She looked down and noticed something else Les had noticed, that her underwear was oily and had become translucent. Rubbing her belly still, but with a new ice cube, she slid the underwear over her hips on one side and then the other and flicked it into the washing basket with her foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les dropped the first aid kit on the floor, as his hands fell to his sides, rationality gone with them. He had not spoken since she entered the bathroom. She reached out and handed him the ice cube, which he took without hesitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Just here, is that where it hurts?\u2019, he asked, the ice cube circling around the red patch above her belly button. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Mmm.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Angela had her back to the door, and when Jenny came back in the house, wondering why there was no salad or plates or potato bake, and no one in the kitchen, she could not see the red welt on Angela\u2019s stomach, or the ice cube in her husband\u2019s hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She raised one eyebrow and departed in a hurry. On the way out she told Cooper she had to get something else from their house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018No probs\u2019, Cooper replied, not even looking up from the BBQ to see her face beginning to contort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les had left the keys in the ignition and she was glad not to have to look, glad to be able to disappear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the bathroom Les was possibly even more stunned than before, two contradictory thoughts preventing any resolution toward action – could he run out and apologise, did she realise it was an accident – and he was still magnetised by Angela, completely naked and undisturbed in her casual smiling radiance by the very brief appearance of her neighbour\u2019s wife, behind her back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He looked down at his hand. The ice cube was long gone and he stood with his hand touching her belly, following the glacial path of the melt water with his eyes. He drew his hand away and saw that it was not nearly as bad as before, the red welt was fading away, and with it his alibi. There would be hell to pay for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les looked into Angela’s eyes, for somewhere must be written her motive. They were happily married with a child for christ’s sake, and what if Cooper comes in, and what if… His hand, taking the initiative, crept up her belly and all that she did was watch it gliding higher. The hand reached its intended destination and began to explore what it found there, mapping the contours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Les spoke, or whispered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Crikey.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Again he looked into her eyes, took one step closer, but received no clear sign of her intention; and all that was on her face was still that same assured smile. His rough hands were out of his control now. She did not seem to notice the calluses. Probably as bad as Cooper’s, he thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She made no move toward him over the next minute; merely basked in her power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Three drips caught Les’ attention, he turned to the tap, and his hand dropped away, his index finger just brushing her nipple on the way down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He turned the tap tight and then moved back towards Angela Cooper. His left hand, shaking, settled onto her hip, and he wiped some water away from there with his thumb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two more drips broke the spell again and Les whirled around impatiently this time, and was horrified to hear Cooper’s voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘It’s raining!’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Angela came out of the fog. She walked over to the window and on tiptoe tried to crane her head out the window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In came her husband’s voice again, through the window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘It’s raining! Bugger me, it’s raining.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n She couldn’t see out the window and Les grabbed her by the hips from behind and lifted her up. She rested her arms on the windowsill and angled her nose into the air. The earth was fragrant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘It’s raining,’ she said. ‘Can you believe it’s raining?’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Shit. It is too’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Try and sound excited then!’. She ran out of the bathroom, Les savoured one last glimpse; he stood there dumb and when she came back past in a new dress she stopped at the bathroom door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Yeah. Excited.’ Said Les to no one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Don’t you want to come out and see the rain?’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Yeah, of course.’ In his mind it was already flooding, and he had made the ark, and there were two on it. ‘Look, what was-‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Nothing. But it was fun, right?’ Then she strode down the hallway, and out through the kitchen into the rain. Les watched out the window as she held both arms up to droplets, her dress getting wet, Cooper frantically dragging the barbecue under the pergola, still shouting ‘It’s raining! oh my sweet lord it’s raining!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n Les went out into the rain, Cooper grinning at him maniacally and clapping him on the shoulder, and now Les noticed his car was gone and looked back up the road toward his house, and past his house to the wall of dark cloud that met the ground out to the northwest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Turning now to Cooper he said, ‘That looks like trouble.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n A day later they’d had 134 millimetres of rain. The river was about 15 minutes away from going over it’s banks and Les sat in the sewing room, talking to his wife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Don’t you see? We’re right in the flood plain here. You know Dad nearly lost the place 30 years back. We need to go into town, get to the higher ground while we can still cross the river.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘What were you doing in there with… with her?’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘She burned her belly, on the baking tray I think.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘You think?’ Her shoulders shuddered and her arms came up to wrap around them again, to hold together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘It doesn’t matter. It was nothing. I went to get the first aid kit from the bathroom and she came in there just to get her dress off and put it in the washing.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Just to get her dress off? COME OFF IT, LES.’ She started to work away at the ring on her third finger, trying to slide it over the finger joint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘No, look, just, no, stop doing that, you don’t have to shout. Look we didn’t do anything.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘No. WE DIDN’T,’ she screeched, shoulders heaving now. ‘WE. CAN’T.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Please, just stop it, just don’t shout, you know, it wasn’t anything, nothing happened, she was stark naked because she had to change her dress and I just…’<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘YOU JUST WHAT, LES?’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I… I couldn’t stop staring. And then she gave me an ice cube to rub on the burn. And I wanted to help. Christ, I’m so sorry, I just, I wasn’t in control at all. I just lost it. You know I love you.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Oh, well that’s great then. And did you help? Did you help, Les?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘No. I don’t know, look, I just lost control and I did something stupid, you know, not that anything happened at all really. Oh christ I’m just so sorry, say you won’t hate me forever. Say you won’t.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I won’t hate you Les.’ Now his arms came around her shoulders and she burst, sobbing, on the floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Why can’t we Les, why can’t we do it?’ she wailed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I don’t know.’ Encircling her he watched the rain out the window. ‘All we’ve got now, all we’ll ever bloody have, is this farm. Which is about to get flooded. And I don’t know why.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n His eyes salted in the corners, and his mouth quivered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She set her cheek against his, and in her heart the valves reopened, and she loved him again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘We need to get out of here while we can still cross the bridge into town.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘OK Les. I’ll go with you.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n They grabbed whatever they couldn’t do without and ran through the still-driving rain to the ute, throwing in the sleeping bags, food and toiletries, and a dusty old photo album, Les’ muddy Redbacks slipping on the pedals just as the wheels of the ute slithered in the mud. He crept out of the driveway in second, going easy-easy-easy, and then on the main tar road which was already six inches deep with water he gripped the wheel tight all the way into town, where they arrived just in time to get across, the ute getting caught in the current a bit and bumping against the wooden railings on the edge of the bridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les steered out of and they made it across, though the car became amphibious for a second when they reached the end of the railings, where the water was gouting around the large support poles, but then the front tyres found tar again and the car heaved itself out of the currents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les and his wife Jenny headed for the highest building in the town; the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There Les found Martin, Frank, Jeff and Cooper, but not Angela who had stayed at their house because it was further up the ridge, and would be safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘G’day Les. Let’s get stuck into these sandbags,’ said Cooper, who was holding a shovel out to his neighbour. Les took the shovel and began to do what everyone else in the churchyard was doing, building a wall to keep the water out, should it come to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All afternoon they toiled in the rain, as children ran down the street to the river to see how far it had come. When the wall was done, and they had moved the pews to one end, when they had done all they could, they all sat down to a dinner of tinned-this and packet-that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They all prayed with Father Dawkins and then fell into an exhausted sleep. The priest stayed awake, walking in and out of his churchyard occasionally and shining a torch down the road, at the rising water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At 4am Les was shaken awake; Father Dawkins whispering ‘I think the rain has stopped, Les. It’s been about an hour now. I think it’s stopped.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les groped around for the edges of the sleeping bag, shaking himself out of his first solid sleep in a month. Father Dawkins was going around gazing at the sleeping faces, then moving on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les threaded his way through to the altar at the front, and sat himself down in the front row, the only row that didn’t have other pews upside down on top of it. Other figures came spidering over the upturned pews towards him, and he was joined by Martin, Frank, Jeff and Cooper. And finally by Father Dawkins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He sat on the edge of the alter in front of them. They sat along the pew, in identical legs-stretched-forward postures, toes pointing out, like tin soldiers. Their jeans were all covered to the knees with mud, and they had slept in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Well boys,’ he whispered. ‘We have prayed unto our Lord. And I would say our Lord has answered.’ He suppressed a smile, then added, ‘Emphatically. I think maybe we should keep this to ourselves.’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Les Wilson, a month after his forty-first birthday, looked hard at the sky, squinting away the wind and the dust and the late afternoon sun. He walked back around to the south side of the house, took the hat off his head and sat down on the porch. 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