Arcadium (28 page)

“Love, love,
love.” Liss starts blowing exaggerated kisses to us. “Mwah, mwah,
mwah!”

I turn and look
at Kean.

Seriously,
siblings can be so annoying sometimes.

Kean grins at
me and plants a soft kiss on my lips.

I know the
infection is still out there, wreaking havoc and destruction across
my country. It may never end.

But I also
believe that out there, somewhere, someone is searching for a cure.
They’ll never stop. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like a cure, but if it
doesn’t happen, then I think this is enough for me.

This is my
cure.

# The End #

About the Author

Sarah Gray was born in
New Zealand, grew up in Australia and now lives in England. When
Sarah isn’t writing you’ll find her working as an outdoor activity
instructor or a wedding photographer’s assistant.

Thanks

I’d like to offer a most heartfelt thank you to you,
the reader, for taking a chance on Arcadium. Any typos or errors
are entirely my fault and while I don’t have an editor I’ve done my
best to eradicate those pesky little things. Head on over to my
writing blog if you’re interested in all things Arcadium related
and once again thank you for reading!

Connect with Sarah
Gray

Blog:
http://sarahjacinda.wordpress.com

Twitter:
@sarahjacinda

Smashwords:

Australianisms

Bull Rush:
A
schoolyard game (That goes by a thousand other names too) played on
a square area. Kids line up on one side, while the person who is
‘it’ stands in the middle. All at once they have to run to the
other side and cross the line without being tagged by ‘it’. If they
are tagged they must stay in the middle and help to tag the
runners. The runners keep going until there is only one person left
and they are the winner! I remember playing this until it got
banned from my school for apparently being too dangerous.

Damper:
A simple
bread made of flour, butter and milk that bush folk used to make
back in the day.

Home and Away:
An extremely popular, extremely long running Australian TV series
showcasing Australian beach culture. Stone the flaming crows! Loads
of Australian artists began their career here, like Kylie Minogue,
Danni Minogue and Delta Goodrem just to name a few.

Melanoma:
Ok, so
this isn’t really an Australianism but loads of people I meet don’t
know what it is. Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer
caused by excessive sun exposure (that includes UV exposure from
solariums). It’s bad… really bad. And it’s one of the most common
cancers in Australia. So wear your sunscreen people!

Stonking: ‘
It’s
stonking hot’ means extremely or it’s freaking baking! But if
something is stonking full stop it usually means positively
awesome.

Tim Tams:
Seriously the best biscuit ever. I don’t know why it isn’t
available worldwide. In the UK it’s kind of like one of those
penguin biscuit things… but way more indulgent. For you poor souls
who’ve never had the pleasure, a Tim Tam is like creamy chocolate
stuff wedged between two chocolate biscuit slabs and then dipped in
chocolate. And then there are all the other flavours like double
dipped and white chocolate and caramel and a thousand other types…
excuse me while I drool.

Vegemite:
A dark
spread (like jam or peanut butter) made of yeast. Vegemite has a
really strong, salty taste. You either love it or hate it,
apparently, and I love it. It’s fab on toast.