The Drive Home
- Reads 389
- Votes 63
- Parts 19
MatureOngoing2h 28m
Last published Thu, Jul 20, 2023
A matchbox clutched in my fist, I stand and watch my house disappear under billows of black smoke. Flames tear up the walls, licking and slurping like rabid dogs, and smoke pummels into the air like a beacon for the whole town to see. Debris falls like snow as all me and my parents' stuff goes up in flames, crumbs of white ash and black leaves drifting to the ground.
Wait.
No.
I didn't set fire to any leaves.
I see it then: that flicker to the left, beyond the melting corrugated iron of my bedroom walls. The bush is on fire. I've caught the bush on fire.
~*~**~*~*~~*~**~~**~*~
After burning down his family home and accidentally starting a bushfire, Pavo flees to the desert. His past looms like a churning black cloud of smoke, figuratively and literally, and the last thing he expects is to form a life-changing friendship with another traveler. He's convinced his life is over, but this traveler shows him another side of life - a tender side - and Pavo realises that maybe he has a life to fight for after all. But will he be able to outrun everything he's done?
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Lou Young has always seemed quiet and studious with a bad case of perfectionism. In her final year of high school, she's determined to knuckle down and focus only on doing well, but when Hayden Ramona hurtles into her life, with bad jokes and a bad case of hair dye, she's forced to face what's she's been hiding from all these years. The last thing Hayden Ramona planned on was moving to a quiet rural town in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, where people still wince at the word 'gay'. But now that he's here, he's going to make the most of it, ignore people with bad mullets and definitely not get distracted by a certain sandy-haired boy. Annie McLean has been teaching at Glendale Secondary School for over four years now and this year she's back...just a little different from the last. Annie was expecting that coming out as a trans woman would be rough, especially when you teach a bunch of hyper 15-year olds, but wasn't quite ready for the aftermath. Better than Sticks is set in rural Australia and is an original coming-of-age work exploring identity, sexuality and family.
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