The Crossing
Kris reckoned it was important not to have cuts anywhere on your body.
"The crocs can smell the blood from the other side of the lake," he said for about the hundredth time this summer.
We all knew that's where they were. The other side. The side where the flame trees grew. That's why we stayed on the safe side. The one with the grassy banks and the pontoon in the water.
Even Dad couldn't convince me on this one. "The only crocs living in Lake Karimu are two freshwater ones that were put in there as a joke a few years ago," he'd say. "They're not going to hurt anyone."
I didn't understand the joke. And I didn't believe him.
Kris made more sense. He made sense on a lot of things. Especially when you were lying on the pontoon and staring up at the clouds as they came over from the tablelands.
Illustration by Kim Gamble.
"The crocs can smell the blood from the other side of the lake," he said for about the hundredth time this summer.
We all knew that's where they were. The other side. The side where the flame trees grew. That's why we stayed on the safe side. The one with the grassy banks and the pontoon in the water.
Even Dad couldn't convince me on this one. "The only crocs living in Lake Karimu are two freshwater ones that were put in there as a joke a few years ago," he'd say. "They're not going to hurt anyone."
I didn't understand the joke. And I didn't believe him.
Kris made more sense. He made sense on a lot of things. Especially when you were lying on the pontoon and staring up at the clouds as they came over from the tablelands.
Illustration by Kim Gamble.
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Publication History"The Crossing" was published in 1992 in the NSW Department of Education Touchdown School Magazine, featuring a series of illustrations by Kim Gamble. Parts of the story also appeared in my adult story, "The Long Distance Swimmer" that appeared in Northern Perspective.
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