One

I didn’t understand why I was screaming. The air outside was clear, purified by the trees of outer Melbourne. The sunlight was pale and softly warm and the only formation I saw when I looked in the sky was pastel eucalyptus leaves. It was a promising day of early spring, relief for cold knuckles. What’s more, I was on borrowed time, it was the school Curriculum Day, a welcome event as year six was growing stale.

I was screaming on my best friend June’s eleventh birthday party. June and I and her other friend had walked in Velcro sneakers across gravel tracks. June’s sister and mother were also there, they had walked a different route.