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Sport 35: Winter 2007

Kerry Popplewell — Short Grass

page 69

Kerry Popplewell

Short Grass

There were several of us and though I was never certain who my companions were or how many of them there might be, I knew I was not alone. For a long while we followed a track through bush, before finding ourselves in a clearing of smooth, short grass. At first, we thought the small building which stood there might be a hut in which we could stay; but, getting closer, we saw sunlight washing in through the open door onto a bed where a woman lay asleep under a quilt of bright patchwork. Beside her, on a low cushioned chair, a small gold and white dog, a Jack Russell perhaps, lay curled and it too was sleeping. Neither woman nor dog stirred. It was very still, for the wind, which earlier set branches grating and plunging in the high trees, had entirely dropped. If there were birds, they were silent, though insects went past among tiny motes that flashed white in the warm air.