Novels 01 Blue Skies by Fleur McDonald

Amanda went and flicked the power switch back on, saying ‘C’mon let’s get going. We’re a shearer down now, so we won’t get as many crutched. We need to keep moving.’
    Amidst the noise of everyone returning tensely to work, Slay walked out with his esky and shearing gear. As he passed Amanda, he leaned forward and whispered:‘I won’t forget you, bitch.’

Chapter 11
    At the end of a very busy week, Amanda sat on the verandah nursing a beer. She was pleased to see the end of the crutching and most of the sheep work for the time being. The large workload had been harder to manage than she’d expected.
    At the beginning of the week while getting the first mob in for preg-scanning, she’d felt sad that her mother was no longer there, yet she couldn’t help but feel a bubble of excitement welling in her chest. This was what she had always wanted. A farm that was hers, that she could run the way she wanted. Turn into a tidy, well-organised, profitable piece of land.
    Louise, the vet, had arrived on Monday morning, joking that she’d not been expecting to pull out the preg-testing scanner until next year.
    ‘What are you up to, Mandy? Did you re-mate your dry ewes?’ Amanda had explained that since her mother’s death they’d been knocked around a bit. ‘Dad and I forgot to take notes of what happened when. I have an awful feeling that we may even have forgotten to put the rams in with one mob! I just need to know what I’m dealing with.’
    ‘Well, we’ll soon find out,’ Louise had said and proceeded to set up while Amanda moved the mob into the forcing yard and down the race to the scanning crate. The sheep work had just reinforced that she needed a working dog. She wouldn’t be able to handle sheep work without one. Sourcing a good, partly trained pup now topped her to-do list.
    The two days of crutching and three days of preg-scanning had made her ache in places she’d forgotten she had. Her thighs were even sore to touch from rousing in the shearing shed and using her knees to force the sheep into the race. Amanda now realised that she wasn’t as fit as she’d thought. In fact, she was coming to understand that running a farm and having to do all the manual work herself was a bigger job than she’d imagined.
    The major blemish on the week had been the run in with Slay, and that still played on her mind. His parting words had been laced with menace and his features twisted with hate. His threat had left her uneasy. Amanda was certain he would get over it! He wasn’t the first shearer to be sacked on Kyleena and she was sure he wouldn’t be the last.Overall, she was pleased with how the week had panned out. It had taken nearly a month to get to this point, but she was feeling a sense of satisfaction.The sheep were sorted.They were in the mobs that would be easy for the husbandry practices that she intended to implement. The ones that she’d thought may not have been mated were pregnant! She was so relieved when Louise hadn’t called out ‘Dry’ once in the first twenty sheep, Amanda had almost wept with relief. There would be more lambs than she had budgeted on.
    There was a creak of boards and Amanda realised her father had sat down next to her and was looking out over the darkening green pastures of the front paddock. Like her, Brian had a beer in one hand, but he also had a whisky in the other. She watched him out of the corner of her eye.
    Since the signing of the papers a month ago, he’d been conspicuous by his absence. Oh, he was around. Amanda would hear the low hum of the radio in his office as he sat with his glasses perched on the end of his nose, pretending to be buried in paperwork, when really all he was doing was staring at the desk, lost in memories, a glass of whisky always within reach.
    At night she’d hear him in the bathroom or roaming the house. Sleep didn’t seem to come easily to him, whereas Amanda fell into bed exhausted each night.
    This last week, though,