Everyone deserves a place to call home

The vividly bright flowering fields sprawled out as far as the eye could see, meeting the far distant shoreline of the Ketren river as it wove throughout the lush bushland of the national park bringing with it the icy waters of the newly melted snow from the mountains. The fact that she was leaving just as Summer was beginning seemed a tad unfair, afterall...shouldn’t she be rewarded after suffering through another drawn out and intense winter?

The potent summer sun was deliciously warm on her exposed skin as she lounged about on the porch hammock in an old sundress, taking in as much sunlight as she could before she traded in the pristine nature and warmth of her hometown for the towering skyscrapers and artificial lighting of the concrete jungle...all for the sake of education.

It wasn’t that her local college was bad, but that’s all it was...a TAFE. It wasn’t a university and it certainly didn’t have even a fraction of the course variety that the bigger universities offered. Unfortunately, it meant she had to commute to the city for this and with a 4-hour commute, either way, her parents had insisted, albeit begrudgingly that it was more efficient both financially and with life in general for their daughter to stay on campus during the week and either come home on weekends or they would come and visit her...depending on the week.

After having 4 of their 5 children just decide to either work in the family nursery or in her sister’s case manage the one decent and somewhat fancy restaurant in the nearby town, it was up to her to ‘ be the educated one’ as her parents had put it. They were laughing when they said it but Lexi knew that despite their lighthearted attempts at brushing off the fact that their kids were content with never leaving their birthplace or searching for new experiences weighed heavily upon them. 

She had spent quite a few nights lying awake in bed, listening to the cicadas and looking out her bedroom window at the glistening moon as it stood out amongst the vivid tapestry of surrounding stars. It was at times like these that she had accidentally overheard her parent’s quietly discussing sensitive topics such as the family business and their children’s lives. They had always made it very clear that they didn’t expect Lexi and her siblings to stick around and work for the family business, they wanted them to explore and learn...to experience.

It just so happened that as the years went by her older siblings either left and returned quite quickly or didn’t leave at all….and who could blame them? Lexi was sure they all agreed with her, they lived in paradise...why would they abandon that? Perhaps it was accidentally overhearing these conversations, perhaps it was her love of learning...or perhaps it was her desire to make the world a better place...to leave a lasting impact and work on global challenges that had Lexi making the decision to temporarily leave her comfort zone and head off into the big smoke to study sustainable agriculture and engineering. Who knew...maybe she would come up with the next agricultural technology that would take humanity that next step closer to sustainability?

She was broken out of her musings by her 2 year old niece yanking with a surprisingly strong grip at her right foot which was lightly skimming the stained wood of the porch as the hammock swung. 

“Hello missy moo.”

Lexi beamed at the freckled young girl with such bright hair it verged on neon orange. With her vivid hair, freckles and worn blue overalls her niece truly embodied the agricultural vibe of the region. While other toddlers were dreaming of being Disney princesses or fairies and mermaids Missy had fully embraced living on a nursery and helping her mum out as she pleased. During the Summer and Spring this was great but in the colder months, Missy had to stay indoors out of the cold which ended up driving most of them around the bend. The child’s energy seemed infinite and locking that energy up in an old farmhouse while the rest of her family worked outside wasn’t always the best combination.

Fortunately, it was a beautiful day...the perfect weather for spending the last proper weekend with family until Lexi headed off to try the university experience.

“ I wanna go get icecream and gummies!”

The girl chirped in her high pitched voice as she swung her distinctive bright braids around and looked up at Lexi with her large jade eyes.

“ Go ask your mum.”

Lexi said as way of reply as the little girl sprinted off surprisingly fast for her small figure. That would buy her a few more minutes of peace before she would no doubt have to take a bundle of her siblings kids to the local store to get their daily afternoon frozen treat. Who knew...perhaps they’d actually come this time and not just leave their youngest sibling to be a ‘babysitter’ to their offspring.

A grin pulled at the corner’s of Lexi’s lips as she heard the enthusiastic shouting of multiple kids and spied a small herd of under 8-year-olds sprinting through the flowering fields towards the porch where Lexi continued to swing. Whipping her phone out of the hammock folds she sent a quick text to the biggest ice cream addict she knew...Joe. Joe was one of the nursery workers a few years older than her who lived a couple of houses over, of course out here that meant several kilometres away but he was still counted as a neighbour and considering the fact that he had been working at the nursery, he was 15 he was practically family.

As his nearly instant reply came through Lexi’s face fell as she read his text.

“ I’ll be there in 5 minutes, last ice cream trip before you leave homemade gelato for fancy city sorbet?”

While she knew his tone was teasing Lexi couldn’t help the twinge of sadness that niggled at her. Sal, the local grocery store owner, sold homemade ice cream his wife made on the side...icecream that made walking 2km with a bunch of young kids in the heat worth it. Made with fresh dairy probably milked that morning and proper flavours it put any other dessert to shame, including the fancy expensive city sorbet that had given her a brain freeze and upset stomach on the rare trip they had gone into the big smoke when she was in middle school.

She was interrupted once more from her thoughts by a team of hyperactive kids. With a laugh she got out of the hammock with as much elegance as she could muster and rounded up the kids into a somewhat dignified group as they headed towards the driveway where they would meet Joe and start the trek towards the small shopping strip that had all the community needed; Sal’s grocer, a kind of all in one store that sold everything from clothes to kitchenware and a collection of eateries that included a couple of somewhat fancy restaurants yet mainly milkbar type places. Her sister was the manager at the fanciest one which sold fusion foods and had reached it’s ‘high status’ by being the only one where you could reserve a table at and had actual linen napkins. Perhaps they would visit her, she was working that afternoon after all.

The sight of Joe’s lanky frame leaning casually against the flowering Jacaranda tree, it’s violet flowers spread out wide around him seemed to be almost symbolic for Lexi. A symbol of home that she was surprised to realise affected her quite strongly...perhaps she subconsciously wasn’t as ‘okay’ with going away as she let on.

The easy chatter they slipped into as they headed off towards town surrounded her like a warm childhood blanket, she knew it would be memories like these that would get her through probably countless all-nighters as she worked her butt off during the uni semester. It would be these memories that she would hold close to her, like armour to protect her against the great unknown of the wider world.

As these thoughts set in, she inhaled deeply and took in the world around her. The sweet smell of flowers intermingled with the rustic smell of newly cut grass and paddocks as winter crops were harvested. The vivid periwinkle sky contrasted brightly against the lush multicoloured paddocks of flowers and crops bordered by scrubby bushland and the glimmering local river winding its way lazily through the landscape.

The laughter and animated chatter of Joe beside her and her nieces and nephews had a contented smile stretching across her face as she rolled her shoulders back and warmed her face in the potent yet comforting sunlight. She knew she was going to be okay. She was going to make the world a better place, not only for her families sake but because everyone deserved to experience times like this...everyone deserved a place to call home.