About Where a Hand is Always Needed

by Kara Larson
18 pages / 3800 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Before Graeme moved east to New Zealand and met a young Kiwi intern named Amiri, he spent a summer in the outback of Australia. Sent to live with an aunt and uncle after trouble in school with another boy, he wasn't looking for adventure, but sometimes adventure finds you. And you never know when a person who'll change your life comes crashing down in the Outback.

Featuring Greame from And a Chook Shall Lead Them in Family Matters, Sliding down the Pohutakawa Root and Defining Right)

Sample

Graeme helped Uncle Mark and some of the other station hands clear brush from the long drive that led up to the house. It was hot work, and the sunlight seemed to reflect off the red sand. Graeme was relieved when his cousin Jamie thrust a canteen into his hands.

"Thanks, Danny boy." Graeme smirked at his younger cousin, knowing how much Dan hated the nickname.

Dan elbowed Graeme in the side. "Fuckin' city drongo." At least it was said with an affectionate grin. Maybe it was a good thing that Graeme only had sisters. While he appreciated his boy cousins' company, he wondered sometimes if all they did was talk about their penises and how many girls they were gonna screw once they left the station.

Graeme couldn't help looking forward to uni, too, even if it wasn't the girls he was looking for. Some of the station hands were nice on the eyes, but he wasn't gonna admit to perving at the men on the station to his cousins. He was almost eighteen, though. And he knew full well that Auntie Keitha had caught Dan, not even a year younger, behind the main barn with one of the hands' daughters just last month.

"Whaddaya think of Sam, eh, cuz?" Dan asked, elbowing Graeme again. He nodded oh-so-subtly at the oldest girl still on the station, the daughter of one of the hands who took lessons with Dan and the others. "Nice spunk, eh?"

Graeme shrugged. She was pretty, like some of the blonde things who hung out at Bondi at home. Truth told, the son of the station vet looked a mite better to Graeme -- half Aborigine, tall and lanky, curly reddish-black hair and skin darker than Graeme's. "Strewth," was all he could think of in reply.