Skyquakers by A.J. Conway

became far too
fascinating to disregard. And he was too cute, too playful. Michael played tug
of war with him with some rope. Sarah hugged him and let him lick her face in
adoration. Eventually it was declared, after extensive whining and pleading, that the dog could stay, on condition that if he
proved to be a threat, he would immediately be cast out.
    ‘Cast out? No, he ’ ll be shot, ’ James asserted. ‘ I ’ m not
putting our safety in jeopardy because the kids are amused by a glowing mutt. ’
    Of course, Moonboy was never a
hassle, never an inconvenience, and never posed as any sort of threat to the
safety of the settlers. He spent his days catching flies and following Ned. He
sometimes disappeared and reappeared in ways Ned was yet to comprehend, but he
was as affectionate, as curious, and as loving as any normal dog.

 
    If Ned was the baby brother, and Moonboy was the family pet, then naturally Elizabeth and James adopted the roles of
mummy and daddy. Technically Elizabeth was still in charge of her students, and
they still called her Dr Lizziein her presence, but as for
James, he had lived a bachelor life in Darwin until now; eleven kids and eight
farms were not what he expected to inherit. As far as the students knew, the
two – biologist and diving instructor – were ‘ old friends ’ ,
but it was a bipolar love-hate relationship. At times, the students heard them
screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs in the fields, or crashing
pots in the gallery kitchen. Other times they saw them entangled by the
fireplace, keeping warm from the downpour. They were certainly sleeping
together, but as parents do, they were very evasive of the topic and made sure
that none of the kids ever heard or saw them. Whether they were actually in
love was entirely irrelevant; for now, the sex was therapeutic, a way to
release tension after a hard day ’ s work or another emotional
breakdown, or simply because they needed it.
    Ned liked Dr Lizzie more than James. She was extremely fit,
the fastest runner on the baseball team, a hard thrower too. She was a team
leader, whose students looked up to her for encouragement and orders. She was
also the nanny, the nurse, the therapist, and the bedtime storyteller. She had
dived off of almost every coast from Monkey Mia to the Great Barrier Reef, and
told magnificent stories of the crystal waters of Thailand and Costa Rica. She
had hiked through the thickest jungles and wadded through wetlands and into
mystical caves of far-away worlds, looking for rare algae or some kind of sea
cucumber. She had never had a desk job and never planned to stop adventuring
into the deepest oceans of the world. She was engaged to be married once, which
she let slip accidentally one night after four glasses of wine, but it didn ’ t
work out.
    Red-eyed James was not fond of Ned or Moonboy ,
nor did he enjoy his days at Zebra Rock. He was a bit of a slavedriver in the fields, telling the students to keep digging and picking if he saw them
slacking. Despite the dominant ‘ chief of the village ’ persona he was attempting to adopt, the students all hailed Elizabeth as
their queen and much preferred to take orders from her. But James, over the
months, went through short periods of insanity-driven tyranny. He was
incredibly watchful of people’s food intake, as though they had to ration the
plentiful fruits of their labour, and sometimes he ’ d
confiscate an electrical device, such as an iPod or a digital watch, claiming
it needed to be destroyed so that it wouldn ’ t set off
‘alien radars’. This happened to Ned ’ s radio, and he screamed and
fought with James for his right to keep Lily until Elizabeth finally returned
it to him. He was arrogant and invasive of personal space: three times he told
Michael and Violet to go to their beds after catching them sitting together on
the veranda of the gallery. They only did so because they were too tired to
argue.
    Elizabeth refused to let James