Diamond Spirit by Karen Wood Page A

Diamond. As Hetty will be going to university next year, we would like to give you Dodger. We know that no horse is ever as special as your first, but he has always been a reliable mount, and we hope you get the years of pleasure with him that we did. We know you will take good care of him.
    Enclosed is a small packet of mulga seeds. They are a fodder tree that we grow out here to feed the livestock. Dodger loves them. We thought they might be nice to plant over Diamond.
    All our love,
    Auntie Margaret, Uncle Paul,
Hetty and Simone
    Jess was stunned. They obviously hadn’t heard what a disastrous partnership she and Dodger had formed so far. What was worse, there was now no way she could justify buying Walkabout.
    Silence fell over the lounge room and they all looked at each other. ‘Dodger’ had become a dirty word since that day on the river flats.
    ‘You don’t have to accept him if you don’t want him, Jess,’ said Craig.
    Jess thought about it for a while. ‘It’s okay, I’ve asked Harry to have a look at him anyway.’
    Her parents both stared at her in surprise. ‘Really? Do you think he’s safe?’ asked Craig. ‘He went mad last time you rode him. Look what he did to your face.’
    ‘I don’t know why he behaved so badly for me, Dad,’ said Jess. She had been wondering about that all night. ‘Harry said he might be able to work out what’s wrong with him.’
    ‘I’m not keen for you to ride him all the way to Harry’s place, Jess,’ said Craig.
    ‘I’ll just lead him over. I won’t get on him unless Harry thinks it’s safe.’ Plunging on, she added, ‘I need a horse to ride so I can go to the Longwood campdraft in March.’
    ‘The what?’
    ‘The Longwood campdraft. It’s a sport where you round up cattle. There’s really good prize money.’
    ‘Rounding up cows in Longwood? What on earth are you talking about?’ said Craig.
    ‘We thought that I might be able to win enough money to buy Walkabout.’
    ‘Win two thousand dollars? Jess, I don’t think you realise how much money that is. Besides, how are you going to get to Longwood?’
    ‘Grace said I could go with her family – they have room for an extra horse on their truck.’
    ‘Jess . . .’
    ‘Dad, I have to give it a shot. It’s the only way I can get the money to buy her.’
    ‘But Longwood is a seven-hour drive from here. It’s in the middle of nowhere. You can’t just pack up and head off in a truck with a bunch of people we barely even know, on a horse that you barely know. What about school? What about your chores? Are you mad?’
    Aaargh! Why do parents have to find so many problems with everything?
    ‘Aunt Margaret and Uncle Paul live out there. We haven’t been to see them for ages. I thought maybe we could go for a holiday?’
    Caroline and Craig exchanged glances. Jess knew her mother had wanted to visit her sister for some time, especially now that they hadn’t spent Christmas together. Jess looked pleadingly at Craig, knowing that he was the one she had to win over.
    ‘We could make a holiday of it, Dad. And Dodger could see his old home.’
    ‘Hang on a minute, what about the farm? We can’t just up and leave in the middle of the herb season,’ said Craig, looking at his wife and recognising with alarm that she was rubbing her chin, which meant she was actually considering this crazy idea. ‘We have to prune the citrus trees, and what about the goats? You’re not serious, surely?’
    ‘The campdraft isn’t until March. The herb season will be over,’ Jess said quickly, ‘and we could do the pruning early. I’ll help in my spare time.’
    Craig raised one eyebrow at her. ‘And the goats?’
    ‘Won’t they be okay turned out for a week?’
    ‘What about the milkers?’
    ‘There aren’t any,’ said Caroline. ‘You know they’re all dry at the moment. Actually, it would be a really good time to get away.’
    ‘Yippee! We’re going!’
    Jess jumped up and threw her arms around her