A Home Like Ours Fiona Lowe (good novels to read .txt) 📖

of her business. Just like Charlene, only with less swearing.

But today Helen hadn’t bossed Jade all morning and she’d hardly said anything over lunch. Something was off. Jade didn’t know why she cared, but part of her wanted grumpy Helen back.

‘Hey, Helen, you know how you’re obsessed with vegetables?’

Helen’s brows rose above her glasses, lightening the frown lines. ‘I’d hardly say I’m obsessed, but go on.’

‘I planted some of that ginger root you gave me.’

‘I hope you soaked it in water first.’

There was no ‘Good idea, Jade’, like Fran at the library would have said, but Jade got a zip of delight at hearing familiar Helen.

‘Well, duh, I YouTubed it.’

Aima said something that was probably ‘Come on, you lot, it’s time to go to English class,’ and the women rose and said goodbye. Helen left too, muttering something about a meeting.

Milo was asleep and as Jade didn’t need to be anywhere, she pulled out Anna Karenina. It was getting interesting. Anna had just discovered she was pregnant with Vronsky’s baby and Vronsky wasn’t exactly happy about it. Jade could relate. Corey had disappeared for two months after she’d told him she was pregnant.

But he came back, she quickly reminded herself.

‘Hello, Jade. What are you reading?’

She glanced up at Fiza’s lyrical voice and held out the book. ‘A crazy Russian love story.’

‘So many words!’ Fiza laughed. ‘I cheated and watched the movie.’

‘How’s your maize?’

‘I’m scared to look.’

Jade really wanted to get back to her book. ‘They’re just plants.’

Fiza’s sunny smile faded.

Jade didn’t understand why the seedlings’ survival was so important to the other woman, but something made her say, ‘I could come and look with you.’

‘Thank you, but you are reading. I will tell you what Lachlan suggests.’

Jade had closed her book and was standing before she realised what she’d done. ‘Nah, all good. Let’s go and check them out.’

Lachlan was waiting at the tent with a massive white bag filled with brown pellets. He pulled off his hat just like Bob did. Jade wondered why they did that when the point of a hat was to keep the sun off their faces. He pushed his sunglasses up too and just like the first time she’d met him, she noticed his eyes were ringed by thick chocolate lashes. Had Bob looked like this when he was younger?

‘G’day, Jade. Hi, Fiza, I reckon I might have a solution.’

Fiza’s smile returned. ‘That’s wonderful.’

‘Is that chook poo?’ Jade peered into the bag. She’d read it was loaded with nitrogen so it was good for the garden.

‘Better! Worm castings. They’re full of bacteria and fungi, protozoa and nematodes.’

Fiza’s brow furrowed. ‘I am a nurse. This is good bacteria like inside us?’

‘Yeah, pretty much.’ Lachlan’s face lit up with enthusiasm and his hands moved as he talked. ‘It converts the inorganic forms of nutrients in the soil to organic ones so the plants can use them. It means stronger plants, so they’re more resistant to disease. We’re getting good results with all sorts of crops so it’s worth a shot with your maize.’

‘So I just dig it into the soil?’

‘Yep. And I’d keep the tent over them until the seedlings have doubled in size and they’ve lost their yellow tinge.’

Jade thought he was expecting a lot from worm poo. ‘You sound confident.’

‘It’s good stuff.’

‘What if it doesn’t work?’

‘Steady. No negativity around the plants.’ But his face crinkled in a smile.

Jade snorted. ‘Fiza, you better sing some African songs to your maize. You know, trick them into thinking they’re in Sudan.’

‘A wimohweh, a wimohweh …’ Lachlan broke into ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.

Embarrassment for him filled Jade. ‘I thought you didn’t want to traumatise the plants.’

He laughed, but didn’t look embarrassed or pissed off. ‘It’s that or “Circle of Life”. I could ask the choir to come down. We sang “Ipharadisi” last year, although I think it’s a South African freedom song.’

‘Ipharadisi is Paradise in Zulu,’ Fiza said.

‘A long way from Sudan, right?’

Jade was gaping at Lachlan. ‘You’re in a choir?’

‘Yeah. The Boolanga Blokes. It’s a bit of fun and we raise some money for local charities.’ He swung his attention back to Fiza. ‘Do you need a hand spreading the pellets?’

‘You are very kind, but I would like to do this myself.’

Jade would have let Lachlan help. ‘Why?’

‘For my father,’ Fiza said quietly.

Jade’s gut squirmed. She had learned by sixteen that trying to impress her father wasn’t worth it. When she was thirteen, she’d won the essay prize at school and had wanted her father to know. Wanted him to be proud of her. She’d sent an email to the address Charlene had on her phone, but he’d never replied. For three years she sent him her high school reports, and then one Christmas he sent her ten bucks and a card saying You got your brains from me.

In year ten, Charlene had hassled her to work as many hours as she could, which meant less time for school. Jade’s marks had dropped and then her teachers—especially Mrs Kastrati—hassled her to work harder, but they were easier to ignore than Charlene. That report was the first one she didn’t send to her father. And he hadn’t asked about it, which had hurt more than the teachers’ comments of a disappointing year and needs to apply herself to reach her full potential.

The last time she sent her father anything was when Milo was born. The email had bounced and the text message said undeliverable. At least having no way of contacting him saved her from more disappointment when he turned out to be as useless a grandfather as a father.

‘Fair enough, Fiza,’ Lachlan was saying. ‘I get it—it’s your project. But if you don’t mind, I’ll keep an eye on them. I reckon by this time next week we’ll have much happier plants.’

‘I hope so,’ Fiza said.

‘Catch you later,’ Jade told her, and turned the pram down the hill. Lachlan fell into step beside her.

‘Your peas sprouted?’ he asked.

‘Not yet.’

‘Should be soon, eh?’

‘Yeah.’

Say something else. But all her