Somewhere around the Corner by Jackie French Page B

hair. The water spat and hissed as it landed on the coals.
    Young Jim looked up. He was carving something by the fire, scraping at the wood with his pocketknife so the shavings fell in little curls over his knees. Barbara bent over to look.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘A brooch for Ma. She can wear it tonight if she wants. See, it’s a flower. I reckon if I thread a bit of wire back here—’
    ‘It’s lovely,’ said Barbara.
    Young Jim grinned. ‘I’ll make you one for next week if you like. Hey, what are we going to do now?’
    ‘Nothing,’ decided Elaine. ‘I’m staying clean for tonight.’
    ‘Let’s go get some eels,’ suggested Young Jim. ‘Hey Ma, you’d like some eels, wouldn’t you?’
    ‘Urk. Nasty slimy things,’ protested Elaine. ‘We’ll get mud all over us.’
    ‘Well, you don’t have to touch them. You can just play Lady Muck and watch us catch them. You coming, kids?’
    ‘No, they’re not,’ said Ma firmly. ‘You lot can go if you want. At least you can wash yourselves after. I’m not cleaning this lot again before tonight. You can take your lunch with you. Two slices each and mind you don’t cut them too wide, that bread’s got to last till tomorrow lunch because I’m not making any scones till then, and will someone please eat that tomato jam—it’s going to go to waste if you don’t.’
    ‘We’ll eat it Ma,’ said Young Jim soothingly. ‘You going to come, Elaine, or not?’
    ‘I suppose.’ Elaine uncurled herself and stretched. ‘But I’m not touching any eels, mind. And I’m not carrying them either.’
    Young Jim hunted around for string and bits of meat from the night before.
    ‘That’s how you catch eels,’ he explained to Barbara, as they started down the track. ‘They grab hold of the meat and won’t let go. Then you just haul them onto the bank.’
    ‘That’s when the real fun starts,’ agreed Elaine. ‘These great slimy things wriggling all over the place trying to get back into the water and biting if you get anywhere near them.’
    ‘Garn, they aren’t that bad,’ protested Young Jim.
    ‘They’re worse,’ said Elaine decidedly, pushing a branch out of her way. The track was filled with midday shadows; short and fat, thick with gum leaf scent and dancing sunlight and the faint tang of smoke from hot dry wood.
    ‘I reckon everyone in the gully’s having a wash,’ said Young Jim. ‘I bet shirts and skirts are hanging on every bush.’ He kicked at a rock. ‘Makes you mad, doesn’t it? I mean, I bet up in Sydney there are rich people with marble bathrooms and gold taps and…and everything. Down here people like Ma and the Hendersons don’t even have a bath they can fit their knees in.’
    ‘I liked bathing in the sunlight,’ said Barbara dreamily. ‘It was like having someone pour warm smoke down your back. I bet my skin’s gold if I could see.’
    Young Jim pulled back the neck of her blouse and peered down her back. ‘Nah,’ he said, ‘still the same colour. Pink and lots of freckles.’
    Barbara tried to kick him. He dodged, laughing. ‘Nah,’ he went on seriously. ‘That’s not the point anyway. I mean, I don’t mind having a bath under the gum trees. Cripes, I reckon it’s better than a marble bathroom any day. I mean rich people can bathe in the sun or bathe inside. We don’t get to choose.’
    ‘I’d choose sunlight any day,’ said Barbara.
    Elaine snorted. ‘That’s all very well when it’s sunny,’ she informed them. ‘How about in winter and your knees freeze because you can’t fit them in the tub?’
    ‘See, that’s what I mean,’ said Young Jim.
    ‘Well, you go and get your soapbox and tell everyone then,’ said Elaine tranquilly. ‘Not us. We’ve heard it all before.’ She thrust her hands through her wet hair again, untangling the rat’s tails as it dried in the sun.
    The eel pool was down near the main road, where the creek slowed down to a more sedate pace after bubbling down the