Barramundi Triangle - a prequel to Songlines

Barramundi Secrets

On Monday afternoon I sat cross-legged on the end of Noah's hospital bed, unwrapping a chocolate for him. Mrs Ashbree had bought me a huge box for raising the alarm. She didn't know anything about my near death experience, and neither did Noah, and they were never going to find out so long as Harry and my aunt kept their promises.

'But how did Harry even find me?' Noah asked.

'I guess he has some cool Aboriginal tracking skills we didn't know about,' I hedged, wondering the same thing. We'd gone pretty much straight to the right place, maybe because of Sergeant Loxwood's description. He'd mentioned that my mother had helped the police find the spot by following the river, so we'd known roughly where Noah would have headed...that must have been it.

'Yeah, he certainly seems to have more Indigenous blood than you do. Not that you'll listen to him about those sacred marked tree stories.'

'Hey, did you hand in your essay?'

He scrunched up his cheek. 'I forgot. It's done, though,' he said defensively. 'I think it's inside my maths book, in your locker.'

'Why on Earth would it be in...?' Then I remembered. 'That might be a problem,' I said, tugging my lower lip.

Noah picked idly at the bandage on his chest and shrugged. 'I'm going home tonight, and Mum said I can come to school tomorrow. I'll just hand it in then.'

'That's not it,' I said. 'But you do have a pretty good excuse for an extension, if they believe your book really was in my locker.'

One blond eyebrow asked me why.

'Because some idiot set my locker on fire over the weekend.'

Noah sat up straighter. 'What for?'

I bit into a heart-shaped chocolate filled with pink goo. 'Who knows why Ben does anything? I swear, he's the bane of my life. I think he needs some sort of psych assessment. Maybe he'll get one now.'

'How can you be certain it was him?'

'Because he told Jake, who bragged about it to everyone at recess, and Tessa dobbed him in.'

Noah looked like he wanted to start ranting about him, which, if he had to write his whole essay again, was only fair, but I wasn't in the mood so I changed the topic.

'Harry went and got your dirt bike yesterday. He says you busted the gudgeon pin. Noah, why the hokey did you stay out there for so long once the weather turned? It's not like there was anything to find out there. Even if you'd just come back to the track we could have come and got you much sooner. Did you get lost?'

He fiddled with the foil from the chocolate with his one good hand. 'I thought I was heading back to the track, but somehow I kept getting drawn north, back to the river. I guess my subconscious was trying to take me straight home, even though that wasn't the fastest way. Then I got skewered by that branch so I kept away from the trees and then the bike cut out on me. I'm sorry I was so stupid, not telling anyone where I was going. I just wanted to get some answers for you. About your mum.'

'I did get answers, Noah. I pestered Harry until he caved and told me. There are no diamonds, and my mum...I guess she was just like us. She stuck her nose in where she shouldn't have and got herself in trouble, but it all worked out fine.'

Noah looked out the window to the west, and the darkening sky. 'No secrets hidden out in the Barramundi Triangle, then?'

From the hospital window we could barely make out the line of trees that marked the ridge. Too many buildings in the way.

'No, Noah. Nothing out there but the trees, the rabbits, a few rock wallabies and the singing river.'

'Yeah,' he mumbled, his eyes thoughtful. 'But whose song does it sing?'

THE END

Lainie and Noah's story picks up again a few years later - checkout my website for more details