Authors: Alison Booth
Stillwater Creek (36 page)
I was interested to read in your last letter that you want to be a journalist. That would suit you, Zid, with your love of writing and history. One of the teachers told me that newspapers offer cadetships, so you might want to check up on that. By the way, did I tell you that my good friend Eric Hall is coming to stay with us in Jingera for a week or so towards the end of the Christmas holidays? He comes from near Walgett and you might remember I visited his family's property last year. Flat as a pancake out there, so he'll think he's in paradise at Jingera.
I'm really looking forward to coming home.
Yours sincerely,
Jim
She laughed out loud at the
Yours sincerely
, wondering how long she would have to know Jim before he could write anything a bit
more affectionate. She always made a point of signing her letters to him
With love from Zidra,
just as she did with all her friends.
With love from Zid
mightn't go down so well if people thought she was a boy, though.
Jim's abbreviation of her name was nice and no one else ever thought to use it, although it wasn't as nice as Lorna's name for her,
Dizzy.
Together the nicknames made a good combination, she thought:
Dizzy Zid
. There was something glamorous and light about the name Dizzy.
Now she found that thinking about Lorna was bringing back all those feelings she'd been keeping squashed down ever since reading her letter and, having forgotten a handkerchief, she sniffled into her hands.
Lorna had been taken from her family almost four years ago. Zidra remembered waking from a nightmare at that time, convinced that Lorna was telling her something. Telepathy was how her mother had described it. Of course Zidra hadn't known then that Lorna was being taken away, only that she was in trouble. After that, Zidra's own life had become difficult. It wasn't just the loneliness and fear that she felt after her best friend vanished, but also the vulnerability. It was only Jim's friendship that had kept her going.
And she hadn't spoken to Lorna about any of this. Although longing to, she hadn't seen or spoken to her for years.
