Barramundi Triangle - a prequel to Songlines

Deja Vu

The conversation with Harry had been bugging me all afternoon. No mysteries to be solved, no secrets to discover, but something was still off. My hot chocolate tasted terrible, for starters. Aunt Lily had even put a marshmallow in it, and used real chocolate, but I couldn't drink it. I put it down on the bench and walked to my bedroom, but when I got there, I couldn't remember what I'd gone there for, so I went to the lounge room. Aunt Lily was watching TV.

'I'm going to feed the chooks,' I told her as I walked right through the room and out to the hall.

'What? Why? I fed them this morning,' she said.

'I'll just check they're okay in this wind.'

'The chooks? Really?' She turned the TV off. 'Lainie, wait. Come here.'

With impatient steps I came back and picked up the remote. If she wasn't going to let me go outside, maybe I could watch something.

'What's going on?' she asked. 'Are you just upset about the Tatura Show or is there something else? You've been pacing around the house like a weaned calf. Ten minutes ago you flipped through all the TV channels and decided there was nothing good to watch and now you're doing it again. Why so restless?'

'Dunno. It's nothing, I guess. I've just got this nagging feeling. Like when you've seen something before. What's that called again?'

'Déjà vu?'

'Yeah. But it won't go away.'

I went over to the window and pulled back the curtain. The wind was throwing things around the farm like its parents had just banned it from watching TV. In a fit of temper, the storm had already chucked around buckets and horse rugs and empty chook feed bags and had torn Aunt Lily's jeans off the washing line and tipped over my old plastic wading pool. But it refused to rain, as if it was still too cranky to cry. I watched as a huge branch fell from one of the trees near the river. For such a heavy piece of wood, it travelled a long way before it hit the ground.

It looked dangerous out there. No one should be outside in this.

I turned back to my aunt. 'Noah's mum said she was dropping Noah home and then heading into town after she left here, right?'

'Yes. I think she was planning to do some shopping while Nicole's practice match was on.'

'Do you think they'd be home yet?'

Aunt Lily took the remote from me and turned the telly off again.

'Probably not yet, no. I'm sure they'll be back before dark though. Are you worried about her driving home in this wind?'

'What? No. Why would I be worried about Mrs Ashbree driving home? Is Noah's dad still in Melbourne?'

'Yes, until Thursday. Liam and Caleb are around though. What's bothering you, Lainie?'

I looked outside again, but the window was facing the wrong way so I walked into the kitchen and looked out towards the ridge where the tree tops were thrashing about. Dark clouds were trying to gather, but the wind was dispersing them too fast to form. I wished the storm would just hurry up and break. No one should be out there.

'Why would anyone be out there?' my aunt asked. I hadn't realised I'd said that out loud.

'Looking for treasure,' I said, feeling a bit sick.

'What?'

'Nothing. I don't know. It's just... Noah gave me this look as he was leaving. Caleb would notice if he went out on his dirt bike, wouldn't he?'

'Went where?' Aunt Lily looked alarmed now. She stood with me by the window. 'You think Noah's out there somewhere?'

I shrugged. Why would he be? I was being stupid. I told her so, but she picked up the phone. It rang for a long time before she gave up and hung it up. Then she went to the back door and put on her coat and boots. 'I'm going to talk to Harry.'

I followed her out, because I couldn't stay still. Were the twins out looking for Noah? Was that why they didn't answer the phone?