Ygfi

Sweat and noisy conversations kept her away from sleep. She wanted to shed covers that weren’t there, to cool down and make her family shut up. The ceiling fan pushed at stubborn air as scrapings of light slunk through the flyscreen to drape her body in a peripheral blue. She wished the atmosphere was cool like this colour. She sat up and felt the night through the window. The streetlights looked faraway and lonely and the stars were mostly hiding. Christmas lights threw a warm glow across the front yard and she gazed, half asleep, at their hypnotic pulse, until a silhouette formed out of the contrasts. The boy from next door, sitting

The wind chimes had lost their voices to the evening bluster. Pieces of trees battered the roof like they were trying to get inside and the house groaned in response. Roland’s head felt like a storm already; out of work, out of home, out of money. He watched the clock move through an hour. Then, as the air settled, he stepped outside. The clouds were retreating, exposing the endless calm of the stars. Distant city lights flickered in silent opposition. When his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he noticed a car wheel at his feet and frowned. He looked up. The scene before him kicked the air out of his chest. The gum tree at the end of t