<p>Four days later her daddy rode into the yard at sunrise. The first thing he noticed was that the scrawny working dogs that hung about under the verandah had gone. His one milk cow lurched and bellowed about the scrub in distress.</p><p>He found Jill asleep under the table and cursed himself as a fool for having left her. He lifted her up, grimacing to see the stained frock and grief-slimed face. Jill opened one eye and wet herself with simple joy at finding him there. She laughed in his face. His heart beat faster at the all-inclusiveness of her look. He crooned her name in his own cracked dawn chorus.</p><p>‘Daddy, oh Daddy,’ shrilled his little one, his baby.</p><p>High up, high as heaven, a kookaburra’s laugh smashed through the bush until it was swallowed in mist that shrouded far-off hills. The sound vanished in a glittery tremble of leaves. It left a lot of quiet behind.</p>