Salt Rain by Sarah Armstrong Page B

went after them, the damp air cooler than she had expected. Her mother appeared beside her. ‘Are you going to help with the milking too, Mum? Why does he need all of us?’ Julia longed to be back in bed.
    Her mother called out, her voice unusually commanding. ‘Mae!’
    Mae turned back.
    Their father looked at his wife, his eyebrows raised. ‘Well, I’ll get the cows in! Julia, seeing you’re here, you put the barley out.’ He opened the gate and walked into the dark paddock, his torch sweeping before him.
    Their mother walked over to Mae and took her arm. ‘I think I know why you’re sick.’
    Mae started to cry again, her head dropping down.
    ‘How long since your last menses?’
    Mae’s voice was quiet. ‘Four months, maybe five.’
    ‘Five months! Mae! Why haven’t you said anything? Does Saul know?’
    She shook her head. ‘It’s not him.’
    ‘Go down and do what your father asked, Julia.’ Her mother pointed to the dairy, where the cows were waiting. Julia could hear her father calling to the barking cattle dog. She couldn’t move. Nothing seemed real, this conversation her mother and Mae were having, Mae crying. All four of them down at the dairy in the dark.
    Mae took a breath. ‘It was a man from the Show.’
    ‘Did he take you by force?’ Her mother’s face was shocked.
    Mae shrugged then shook her head and lifted her hands to cover her eyes. Her mother took Mae into her arms. ‘What a mess.’
    Their father came into the yard. ‘Julia! Have you put the barley out?’ He stopped at the sight of Mae in her mother’s arms. ‘What’s going on?’
    No-one spoke. Julia slipped past him and in the dairy door.
    ‘I said, what…is…going on?’ When there was no reply, his voice turned hard. ‘Mae, go and start the milking.’
    Mae pulled her mother’s arms off her and walked silently back towards the house.
    He roared, his voice shocking in the still morning. ‘I said get inside there and start work, Mae! Do you hear me?’
    ‘I’ll do it,’ Julia’s mother took a step towards the dairy. ‘I’ll do it.’
    He shook his head and grabbed her arm. ‘Stop, Bess. I want an explanation. Now.’
    Julia watched from the dairy door as her parents looked at each other. Behind them Mae was already walking up the steps into the house.
    ‘She’s pregnant.’ Her mother looked away.
    There was a long silence. Julia waited, fear for all of them tightening in her stomach. The cows shuffled behind her and the dog slumped at her feet and scratched itself. She wanted to run after Mae.
    Her father was still staring at her mother. He turned and walked into the dairy. ‘Get out of here Julia. You’re bloody useless. Get back to the house.’
    Julia ran across the yard. At the top of the steps she turned and looked back—there were the familiar sounds from the dairy and in the sky, apricot streaks and a light blue glow. It was one of the most beautiful and most awful sunrises she had ever seen.

chapter twelve
    The old woman stood waiting at the front door, looking around her at the plastic pots piled high on the verandah and the weeds growing up through the boards. Her disdain was clear to Allie even from where she sat perched in the branches of the mulberry tree.
    ‘Grandma!’ Julia called from the paddock.
    ‘Oh,’ the old woman walked to the end of the verandah. ‘There you are. I’ve tried to phone you a thousand times, Julia, but you don’t answer.’
    Julia came up the path shaking her head. ‘No, no. I’ve been planting down the paddock. Come inside. Time for a break anyway.’ She pulled off her boots and pushed the door open.
    Allie slid down out of the tree and stood at the open window looking in. The old woman was wearing a pink dress and her shoes seemed too big for her thin legs. This was Mae’s beloved grandmother, putting down her worn handbag and picking up the wooden casing of an old clock Julia had taken apart. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to ring me about coming down