The Scarecrow

The Empty Flinders

~ The Empty Flinders ~

           The Flinders Ranges; four hundred and thirty kilometres of South Australian outback. Several prolonged hours edged from the city of Adelaide as well as from its closet neighbouring town making the Flinders in the middle of nowhere. That being said it was its own place, with natural beauties besides lots of land, something the Melaen family; a small family consisting of only three members hungrily wanted. Peter Melaen, father of the family and the only male had been driving in their now to be called 'baby-blue' Pontiac Streamliner for over six hours. Driving with Emily Melaen and youngest of them all: eight year old Abigail, (or as her mother called her 'Abi'). Whenever she would use the nickname she would bear a heart warming smile which read the words 'I love you, you cheeky bastard'. The car pulled up the road which led to the drive, the road was isolated, a main road but only being passed every half an hour or so. Peter swung his head back at Abigail cocking up a grin,
"Thank lord we finally made it".
          It was their rental home, a nice large wooden house with large paddocks that were filled with darkened dehydrated grass and trees, each paddock was surrounding most of all borders that came across the house's perimeter. The family was renting the house and five paddocks all for a reasonable price that they could all afford hoping they'll stay for a year before moving back to the city of Adelaide. They had a neighbouring paddock owned by no one at the current time. The house next door was smaller but their paddocks stretched longer out and seemed to have been taken care of. Their landlord was just around ten kilometres up the road. The landlord owned both blocks of land and another few houses around the area. The Pontiac Streamliner pulled up the drive which sent the car tremblingly from the stones it kicked up. Abi sat her face against the window and her hair fell beneath her shoulders, the paddock at the front which was the smallest seemed to only be composed of high grasses. The slab they parked upon sent the car onto a curb.
"Alrighty them maladies scram!" Peter chuckled as he seized Mrs Melaen and began to tickle her, as she screamed in laughter which turned to kissing Abi jumped out as her boots touched the gravel drive. With her fingertips still a placed on the car she wandered around to the boot,
"Oh mother may I get Charlotte out of the car?"
Her mother, as she was being pecked on the neck gave a calm answer before again bursting into laughter,
"Yes honey."
Abi undid the boot of the car and grabbed her suitcase which conveniently was placed lastly on the top; she dragged it out before it fell to the ground. She held it up, unclipped the locks. Then grabbed Charlotte, a warn down bunny doll that she wasn't allowed have with her during the drive because last time she threw the piece of shit doll out the window sending them back ten minutes looking for her.
  The time now one in the afternoon so the sun blared directly down, no clouds to be seen. 
"Now Abi darling, don't go playing in the fields god won't protect you from brown snakes",
Mrs Melaen said giggling holding Abi by her hair, she giggled back as she skipped into the house.

*****

           After a few hours of packing Abi finally chose her room after changing twice, it was down the main hall on the right hand corner. A large room with a big window that glared the sun through heating it up. She saw that a black doll was left in the corner of one of the cabinets; in confusion she shouted down the hall,
"Oh, mother there's a new doll in this room!"
Coming into the room Mrs Melaen saw the doll staring down towards the ground,
"That's nice isn't it, the landlord must have left it their when he heard we have a child, remember to keep it safe because it is the landlord's after all."
She said as the heels of her shoes tapped the ground at every step. She introduced the new doll, now named "Lucy", to Charlotte. It went onto five o'clock and Abi came to the dinner table in the main room on the table was a beautiful dinner filled with veggies of all kind and a nice portion of steak.
"Now speak our prayers",
Mrs Melaen said as she held hands with both Abi and Mr Melaen,
"Dear lord, we thank you for your generosity on our luck, thank you for our privileges, and our beautiful new house; Amen",
"Amen",
Both Abi and Mr Melaen said before starting their dinner.
After eating their dinner Abi went to bed and Mr and Mrs Melaen started drinking wine on the table,
"Oh, this place is so big and beautiful",
Emily Melaen said to Peter as she poured another glass; he looked up at the ceiling and mumbled in an echo,
"We hit the jackpot",
"Well, if you ask me, this is the best way to spend it",
Emily said raising her glass,
"I'm so sorry, it must have been a pain having to drive so long"
Peter chuckled as he took her hand and lifted Emily up and into bed.
Later during the night Abi laid against her back as she tried to sleep cuddling her doll as the other sat in the corner. To her surprise she could hear rustling in the nearest to the window field. It sounded as if something wandered by.