Love or Money by Peter McAra Read Free Book Online Page B

the place will be a mess. Oh, do we have your permission, Ms Landowner?’
    â€˜Of course. Could I help? I don’t know much about weeds, but —’
    â€˜Wonderful. We’ll teach you all you need to know. Hey! Dwayne. Come back to Daddy.’ The toddler had wandered away. He turned and hurried back to his father, clutching a handful of nuts he’d collected. ‘Look, Daddy. Nuts. I wanna eat them.’
    â€˜No, mate. Make you sick.’ Hamish held out his hand for the nuts, threw them into the scrub, then hoisted his son onto his shoulders. The little boy beamed down at her, then wrapped his arms round his father’s neck. In that moment, Erin sensed the simple, elemental love between father and son.
    â€˜You’ll be wanting to get Dwayne home to his Mummy,’ Erin said, giving them an excuse to leave.
    â€˜Er…no. But we’ll head on anyway. We want you to enjoy your walk.’ He stepped past, brushing her hand with his fingers. ‘Bye.’
    Her skin tingled with the touch. He’d meant nothing — it was just a country way of saying have a nice day. But his eyes, all through their brief exchange, had burned. Every time the two of them met, those eyes behaved with a will of their own. They were sending a message. But what? The man had a partner and a child. He was off limits, she told herself yet again.
    â€˜Bye bye, Erin.’ She looked up to see the little boy waving from his father’s shoulders.
    â€˜Bye, Dwayne,’ she said, surprised the child had remembered her name. And for no reason, she felt happy.
    Erin walked on alone. Over the last twenty-four hours, every time she needed space to think, Hamish Bourke kept invading it. He was the opposite of Todd — tall and rangy compared to Todd’s watermelon shape. He was folksy where Todd was urbane, relaxed where Todd was driven. Once more, she knew she’d done the right thing to break with Todd. Why did she need to keep — Thud-thud! Thud-thud! The sound was loud, close. A kangaroo burst onto the track, looked full into her face as it stood stock-still, quizzical. A movement flicked Erin’s eyes to the kangaroo’s pouch. A joey peeped out. She could have sworn they smiled at her — both mother and baby. Then, with a healthy bound, the mother kangaroo hopped away into the scrub.
    But the friendly animals had opened a mind picture. Good. Anything to shove Hamish Bourke aside. For the past week, Erin had felt edgy — needy for a new book idea. For days, she’d asked herself what kids really wanted in their stories. What made a classic? She thought of Pinocchio, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland. Maybe kids wanted magic — the possibility that things could happen that were not part of the world they knew, their parents wrapping new rules around them each day. New versions of don’t-go-there, that’s-not-nice, don’t-touch-that. Growing up was about learning the rules. Kids liked to play at breaking those rules — dressing up, playing house, believing in fairies and monsters.
    Well then, a book that broke rules, perhaps with an Australian flavour. Maybe with a kangaroo, like the one that had just hopped into her mind. So, a kangaroo called Katy that could hop somewhere magical - into the past? With, of course, a little girl in her pouch, called Katytoo. The pair could hop into Cinderella Land, or meet up with Little Red Riding Hood. They’d get along fine with the Three Bears, of course. The Three Little Pigs, even. As soon as she returned to the cottage, she’d draw a smiley kangaroo and a little girl with pigtails, peeping out from its pouch.
    The world of the kangaroo and the little girl hijacked Erin’s entire afternoon. Deciding against another Golden Dragon night, she sprinted to the local general store before it closed and bought some survival basics: fruit, vegetables, cereal, milk, coffee, eggs, bread, a few cans of this and