It isn’t really that I believe in the warnings, I’m doing as culture dictates – respecting my elders and following their advice.

Yep, that’s why I don’t want to go out to the Potters’ property.

Which begs the question – why was Laney out there with them boys? She believes in this stuff wholeheartedly, she would never have defied Nan. Not on her own anyway. Troy must’ve talked her into it. Probably justifying it by saying only the mountain is taboo. If they were at the house they had no reason to go near that place. I play around with the idea for a bit, throwing flour, sugar, milk and butter in a bowl and stirring on autopilot. Yeah, that must’ve been it.

For the very first time in my life I don’t have enough chores to suit me. After I shove a few batches of patty cakes in the oven I clean the kitchen, do another wash, prep for school tomorrow. Hell, I would have done the toilet and bathroom – my two most hated jobs – if Mum hadn’t done them on Sunday. With the cornmeat and veggies prepped all I need to do now is set them cooking at the right time, and it’s only just gone 6pm. Every window and door in the house is flung wide open in a desperate and futile bid to attract a breeze or something cooler. The oven is off, but it has lifted the temperature into the torture zone. The heat pushes me outside.

I grab a big bottle of cold water from the fridge and go to the chairs around the fire pit in the backyard. Mum had called in from Mundubbera to let me know what was happening (which was nothing) and also to check I was where she’d told me to be. When I asked to join one of the cars she just hung up, and I felt my blood reaching the same temperature as the house.

May is a no-go so what else can I do?

Nan always said to listen to our special dreams and Pop had all but said the same, but I can’t bring myself to see them as anything more than delusions of a worried mind. I’ll work this out real logical.