Generation Next (MxM MxMxF Polyfidelity - Book Seven)

Chapter One

Nine Years Ago

It was pissing down. That was to say, the skies had opened up, and for three days it rained, and it poured.

The farm looked beautiful, verdant and glistening on day one. Every leaf and every blade of grass was soaking up the nutrients of a very late winter rainfall; happy to receive it.

On day two, the livestock were less than pleased with the ongoing downpour. Paddocks were quickly becoming wetlands and the sodden cows stuck to the more elevated areas of their paddocks than they usually would. Yesterday's greenery was now brown with mud as the slushy ground churned up underfoot. And the overall feeling from other farmers in the area was still a reasonably resolute "well we do need it."

By day three; the general consensus was that the rain could well and truly "get fucked" now.

While the township of Lake Crane would be more than okay, the floodplain that surrounded it was made up of a dozen or more farms that weren't so lucky.

For Sarah's family farm; the paddocks surrounding the long and winding driveway back to the road were mostly underwater. Any stretch of green that wasn't submerged; was too unstable to stand upon anyway, with thick brown mud you really wouldn't want to try walking in.

Far from the green of the inundated pastures; the flowing deluge reflected the constantly grey cloudy sky back at it. Coupled with the unrelenting downpour; Sarah King's whole world was nothing short of a big soggy mess.

Not unlike all of their neighbours, the King family's farm was predominantly flat. However, what set them apart, was a gradual but prominent rise from the public road to the centre of the farm. A long gravel driveway ran halfway up that hill to the main house. It was a typically Aussie looking homestead. It only had one level, but the house looked huge with a neat pitched roof, and a full chimney at either end. There was a weather-beaten veranda that framed the rest of the building and allowed Sarah and her family to make the most of whatever shade the sun's location allowed for on hot days.

The yard was sparsely covered with grass owing to the different farm vehicles that were parked on it now and then between the scatter of sheds, dog kennels, and the chicken coop.

It was home, and Sarah loved it.

Further up the hill was another reasonably sized but presently unoccupied house where their grandparents used to live. They still used it as a temporary home for employees from time to time, but Sarah knew that one day it would be David's house when he had a family of his own.

At the top of the hill was the dairy with dirt-tracks spidering from here out to every corner of the farm.

Being so high during a flood gave them a feeling of comfort and security despite the island their home was quickly becoming. Not all of the farmers in the district were so lucky. Sometime in the past, and it was still said even today; Sarah's family were known as the King's of the hill.

The rain was torrential, though. And while the height of King's Hill might keep them well above the flood line, it didn't do anything to protect them from the sky opening up.

The runoff poured down the gravel driveway and pooled into the yard about their house before running further down into the paddocks. Though the house would never go under, this still made everything very, very wet, and extremely muddy.

"Get! In! There! You! Stupid! Bird!" Sarah growled through clenched teeth.

She fought to hold onto the rooster with one hand, while her other held tightly onto the wire door of the makeshift crate into which she was trying to stuff him.