Mountain Ash Read Online Free PDF Page B

when?’
    â€˜Since the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Andersen or whoever made up that fairytale said so.’
    Jodie could almost see the gears of her daughter’s brain grinding as Milly looked down at the frog.
    â€˜Ribbit!’ it croaked.
    Milly glanced back at her mother. ‘What’s say we leave him down here then? Behind us, near the creek that runs to the crossing? He won’t like it up there on that dry hill.’ She nodded towards the roof of the old miner’s shack they could see just above them.
    â€˜Great idea,’ said Jodie, trying her best not to sound triumphant.
    Milly glared at her mother with suspicion. ‘Are you pleased?’
    â€˜For the frog,’ said Jodie hurriedly. ‘Nothing to do with me.’ She tried her best to act like it didn’t matter one iota to her whether they ejected the horrible disgusting amphibian from the ute.
    Milly twisted her lips and seemed to consider the frog a moment more. She then bailed out of the vehicle, her short legs hitting the ground before she turned and dragged the frog in its box towards herself. ‘You sure about that kissing thing?’
    Jodie nodded. ‘Sure I’m sure.’
    â€˜Pinky promise?’ said her daughter, raising a little finger and pushing her hand across the seat at Jodie.
    â€˜Pinky promise,’ said her mother, raising her own little finger and linking it with her daughter’s, secretly thanking whoever the hell wrote that fairytale for the kissing twist.
    â€˜Well then,’ said Milly, taking back her hand and pulling the box into her arms, ‘I’ll only be a minute. Don’t go away.’
    Jodie’s heart twisted in her chest. As if she would ever leave her. Since the campdrafting accident Milly had become veryclingy, and who could blame her for that? Milly’s father, Rhys, had gone riding out of their lives and off into the wild blue yonder six years before, when she was only a baby. Then her grandpa had gone. A reluctant departure to heaven for sure, but gone all the same. And her grandmother, Jodie’s mother, didn’t care. Bribie Island and all its retirement glamour were far too interesting to leave to spend time with a mere granddaughter. Or a daughter, for that matter. In a nutshell, the word ‘Gone’ had become the story of their lives. It was just the two of them now.
    Jodie watched in the side rear-view mirror as Milly’s denim-clad bum moved quickly away from the ute, back towards the other side of the gravel track, through the gateway they’d just entered and across the dozy tarred road. The little girl disappeared as she dropped to the ground and was swallowed by tall slivers of mustard weed and fronds of scotch thistle. Jodie pictured her squatting in the patch of grass among the weeds, her freckled face scrunched with concentration as she carefully emptied the box by the side of the creek. Jodie could just hear the sound of tinkling water, as the stream swished over flattened river rocks.
    She was a wild thing, that little daughter. A will-o’-the-wisp of boundless energy, an adventurous spirit filled with buckets of naive love. A lot like a younger Jodie. And this was the thing that scared her the most. How could she keep Milly protected from the darker side of the world? How could she provide her with the security – financial, yes, but more importantly emotional – she needed to grow into a confident and well-rounded woman?
    Jodie took her eyes from the rear-view mirror and glanced up towards the solid corrugated iron glinting in the afternoon sun. The walls of the shack were now also shining like theywere saying, Come hither. Come and make this your home. Jodie sighed. She knew up there the view of the Great Dividing Range was incredible. She also knew the house was now decorated, in part, with their own stuff. The patchwork quilts she’d made over the years were gracing walls, couches and beds,