Page 142 of Queenslander

“Did you read that in a book?”

“Encyclopedia.” So nonchalant.

“Proud of you, kid.”

“Love you, mum.”

“Love you, baby.”

The kid-sized motorbike helmet Ronnie ordered had arrived in the mail. She walked toward Rainbow with the helmet tucked behind her back.

When Ronnie held it out, Rainbow squealed, jumping up and down. Ronnie crouched to show her how to put it on, teaching her how to widen the straps, pull it on over her head, then make sure it sat level two finger-widths above her eyebrows. Satisfied, she patted the top of Rainbow’s helmet. “What do you think, angel? Want to go for a ride?”

The Kawasaki sat in the machine shop at Upsend Downs where she had left it. She straddled it now and rode it out onto the lawn, then idled with the motor running, playing Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” over the bike’s speakers while Rainbow climbed on behind her.

“Let’s go to the lake and get ice cream!”

“Rock and roll. Hold on.”

Rainbow’s arms tightened around her waist.

“Don’t let go.”

Careful not to go too fast, Ronnie cruised down the gravel drive and out onto the country road. Far above, a V-formation of migrating Sarus cranes trailed them like a kite.

Pickup trucks lined either side of Ronnie’s drive. Relatives had come for the barn raising, even Mattie, who flew in from London two days after winning the Rugby World Cup. Ronnie’s footy teammates—half the South Cairns Cutters Womens and a handful of friends from the men’s team—helped volunteers from Lionheart assemble wooden arches flat on the ground. Jack Collins, the boys primary school soccer coach, worked alongside his wife and kids.

Debbie Collins ran kegs off the back of a ute under a waratah with blossoms like bush fireworks. Blaise and Nonna blasted ABBA, keeping volunteers fed on bratwursts and burgers while two of Reg’s firefighter recruits ran the grills.

Rainbow and her friends picked wildflowers, then discovered a dirt pile to run down. Two-year-old Jesse followed Rainbow with wide eyes as she alternated between holding his hand and carrying him around on her hip.

Ronnie gave the signal to the crew to raise the first arch. Sweaty volunteers pulled on long ropes and hauled the frame upright with her. She pulled as hard as she could, rope biting into her hands through work gloves. As giant beams rose magically off the ground, it looked like they were erecting an upside-down ship.

Still no sign of Nev. According to the grapevine, the police station had released her after twenty-four hours, but Peggy had kidnapped her for ‘Collins family bootcamp,’ deep cleaning the pub in exchange for Brad not pressing charges. If Nev had been there, she would have shaken hands and chatted with everyone, drank too much coffee and whiskey, or played the fiddle.

Their houses would be close as the crow flies, but to drive there on roads they would have to trace the outline of two lungs or a mishappen heart.

At sunset, Mattie whistled from where he sat perched atop the timber roofline a few ribs away from the cross-joist Ronnie was hammering snug into a beam.

She turned to see what he was pointing at. Shading her eyes, she squinted against the sun. Up on the hill, silhouetted against the horizon, a figure on horseback wore an Akubra hat.

Relief.

Euphoria.

Her favorite feeling.

“The Night We Met” played on a radio below the unfinished barn, bringing her back to the night she played Russian Roulette with post box numbers.

She had replayed that scene in the broken room over and over, trying to get it right. Each time she did something different. Each time Nev did something different. It could have gone down so many ways. On the best nights Ronnie stayed.On the best nights she didn’t drive off into the darkness alone. Rainbow was born on the farm.

One part of the dream never changed, a memory so deep it had become part of her. When Nev locked eyes with her above the shotgun’s mouth, Ronnie’s soul flew back into her body and every atom in her danced.

She looked around for the nearest extension ladder, spotting one at the end of the beam with an unfamiliar queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The distance to the ground made her slightly dizzy, like a spin on a merry-go-round, as she calculated how to reach the ladder. This new fear of heights would take getting used to. She hadn’t been up this high since falling off the screen house.

On the next beam, Mattie waved his hands in the air before cupping them around his mouth. “Neville’s back!”

Ronnie scooted on her bottom down to where she could reach the framing below with her feet, then carefully slid the sole of one boot after the other down the rafter toward the extension ladder, all while hugging the beam. “Don’t call her that.”That’s the woman I’m going to marry.She froze, halfway to the ladder. The thought surprised her, but she knew it was true the same way she knew anything. A laugh burst out of her, once, loud, then kept coming. Once she started, she couldn’t stop.

Oh, man. This will be fun.

New mission: convince Nev. She had no idea how she would do it.