Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
T he drive to Cairns was lengthy and they stopped overnight at small motels along the way. By the fourth day, they were getting closer to their destination, and Evie peered out the side window at the cane fields that lined the sides of the road. Dark mountains rose on the western side of the highway, heavy clouds with bruised bottoms hanging low over their peaks. It was the first time she had been to North Queensland, and Mother said it would be a lot hotter and more humid than where they had come from.
She noticed the weather changing as they drove up the highway that wound its way along the coastline of Queensland. Wide open plains with low shrubs and smaller hills in the distance, now gave way to ranges on the western side that were higher than any she had seen before. Sometimes, the ocean appeared on their right, and she gazed at the sparkling water, often dotted with islands lined with sandy beaches. A couple of seaside towns they stopped at overnight brought back memories of Stradbroke Island, and she tried not to think too much about past holidays. Everything she saw reminded her of Chris, and as much as she tried to push him from her mind, he was always there.
Apart from asking Evie to pass her an apple or a biscuit, Mother had driven in silence. That left plenty of time to think. When the prospect of starting school somewhere new, away from all her friends and Chris became too much, Evie curled up and faced the window. Father had put her pillow in the passenger seat and she could push her face into it, pretending to be asleep. Although the sound of the Beatles and Carole King was really starting to get on her nerves, the cassettes Mother played non-stop relieved any need for talking.
Once they passed Townsville, her mother breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps she felt she had put a safe distance between them and the issues down south. She started to talk a little, relaying stories about the small towns they passed through. She had grown up in Cairns and also lived in a few different towns they now passed through. At least her stories broke the monotony of the trip, and Evie listened and asked a few questions. It was going to take a bit of getting used to Father not being with them, and she could tell from the tone of her mother’s voice that she was also pining for a person she was driving further and further away from. Annoyance rankled Evie. That person was not her father.