Free Short Story: Outback Love, Part 2 by Neale Sourna

Outback Love, Part 2

by Neale Sourna

Coober Pedy, South Australia; 1919

Green. I miss the color green. Green trees, both evergreen and deciduous, and green azalea bushes ready to spring bloom, dripping with rainwater or glistening with morning's kiss. There is no green or dew kisses here because in this dry, hard place, "like the lifeless moon, after Armageddon", we never had our honeymoon, Pete and I.

"I'm not him, I'm not Joe, Maddy, not the man who sent you those letters that brought you here, but … but, if you'll h-have me—?"

"Yes. Without question," I'd said, and he'd blushed horribly, nodded mutely, and we were betrothed.

We were married by a great talkative preacher on hostile and diligent mission to convert and subvert the kind aborigines to his God. Then, Pete and I spent an uncomfortable, unconsummated wedding night lying side by side, and then he'd risen early, but I'd finally convinced him to sit still for breakfast only to have him seem increasingly guilty about dawdling his day away with me.

So, a half day into our honeymoon week, he returned to mining the opal, and that lonely way was our way for too long.

"Are y'happy here, Maddy, with me?" I'd wanted to say a bold, unquestioning "yes" again, but my nod was not so doubtless.

He's a fine man, but this is a daunting new world—this post Great War, Australian outback, this barren place of castaways. Pete was clearly avoiding any marital intimacy with me; a fine start that. Shouldn't a man be happy and take relish in his new wife, especially if he truly loved?

Still your mind and heart, Maddy girl. Mama always said I should curb such harsh, unfeminine thoughts and keep all such masculine tones of disappointment or...http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/081125-outbacklove-02.html

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Free Short Story: Outback Love, Part 1 by Neale Sourna

Outback Love, Part 1 [an Australian Western]

by Neale Sourna

Coober Pedy, South Australia; 1919

I'd come from a lush place, of trees and wide rivers, and had sailed a long, exhaustive time, thousands upon thousands of miles from my home, a half a world away, after receiving his letters and deciding I'd be his wife; even though I'd never met him face-to-face.

Pete'd waited several days at the port, her ship was late, and he'd wondered what she'd actually be like. People often weren't like their letters. He'd read every one, more than once.

I sighed; there wasn't a tree for miles round, not even a decent bush, as Pete drove the wagon into the interior. My God this is a large country, and barren. And my future brother-in-law seems a nervous sort, as he fidgets beside me and barely speaks to me.

The woman made Pete speechless, this soon-to-be sister-in-law. Just being beside her made him nervous. She wasn't beautiful, but she was a fine looking woman, fine enough that—.

"Ma'am?"

"Pete, we're to be brother and sister, call me Maddy." He didn't touch her name, as if it were too intimate a thing for him.

"Why're you here, ma'am, a … a fine lookin' woman like yourself, and smart too, well spoken, you could have anyone. You even read and write, but you come all the way HERE?"

"For your brother." Pete was silent a long while, then quietly asked.

"His letters that good?"

"Well, I...." I was alone with this work-hewn stranger, hundreds of miles from any other person, whether friend or foe, so my lot was cast, as I stared at his strong, and possibly deadly hands. I'd never....http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/081125-outbacklove-01.html

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