Chapter 10
250 Words
More change was in the air. A young trainee arrived, ensuring there was no more teaching for Nora. Old Stewart McKenzie died, leaving his business to a nephew who had no need of Harry’s help. The farm was paying its own way, but every setback of weather or prices took a toll, and Nora worried that the heavy work and the long hours were damaging Harry’s health. He was nothing but wiry muscle over slender bones, and damp weather cramped his breathing. His lungs had never been the same since he lay bleeding all day under the smoky air of Mont St Quentin. When Charlie once more won big at the races and offered to buy Flat Ridge from them, insisting on a price they all knew was rather greater than its current worth, they didn’t refuse. Although Nora was sorry to leave her childhood home, the home she had re-made with Harry, at least it was staying in the family. There was enough money to buy back that double-storey Semaphore house she had always loved, the house the MacTierneys used to own for holidays. In the middle of 1924 the whole family moved back to the city. Harry had work lined up with Darcy Hartigan, who ran a tree nursery south of Glenelg. Kath returned to an office job, but not to live with her mother. She stayed on to help Harry and Nora make a new home for the children.
All their dreams and ghosts came with them.
- Writer
