The Farmer’s Wife. Rachael Treasure

its tongue madly like a monitor lizard.

      Out from behind a curtain stepped a woman who had striking white hair, plaited like a Native American’s and tied with elastics sporting summer daisies.

      ‘Jesus! That’s his name,’ she added as explanation. ‘I’m so sorry about the dog.’

      Despite her white hair, her face was tanned and youthful-looking, even though from the look of her slim strong hands she was definitely old. Her eyes were stunningly green and seemed to see right into Bec. But it was her serene and generous smile that told her all. This woman was utterly alive. How long has it been since I put flowers in my hair? Bec wondered. This woman, whoever she was, looked so energised and above all free from troubles, apart from a crazy dog.

      ‘Can I help you with anything?’ the woman asked, scooping up the dog.

      ‘Gosh, where to start?’ Bec laughed quietly. ‘No, I’m fine. Thanks. Candy from the store said I should come and have a look.’

      ‘Ah, bless her. What about your little ones? Can I help them with anything?’ The woman stepped forwards and stood before the boys. ‘Hello, I’m Evie,’ she said to Ben and Archie, ‘and that little cretin you are patting is Jesus Christ. Annoying little mutt.’

      Archie tilted his head to the side and looked up at her, clearly fascinated.

      ‘Here, pick a crystal that you’d like to put in your pocket,’ she said to the boys.

      ‘Really?’ Bec asked. ‘Are you sure …?’

      The boys hesitated, blocked by their mother’s discomfort.

      ‘Go on,’ Evie said.

      Archie reached out, his small fingers hovering over the counter that had crystals sorted into boxes, then he plucked out a perfectly rounded reddish-brown polished stone with mysterious swirls embedded within.

      ‘Ahh, good choice, my son,’ Evie said. ‘The carnelian. This little crystal will help you connect with your inner self and give you courage!’ She looked directly at Rebecca with those green eyes that could be crystals themselves. ‘It also has a reputation for rekindling intimacy within marriage,’ she said above the heads of the boys.

      Rebecca’s eyes slid away. Her cheeks coloured.

      Ben, who was normally the more forward of the two boys, reluctantly reached out for a black speckled crystal with blue hues and a dusting of white, like the Milky Way was somehow captured within.

      ‘And you, young man, you’ve chosen the sodalite. “The longest distance you will ever travel is the journey from your head to your heart.” This stone will clear confusion and give inner peace. It can help clear rifts and arguments. Now I know you don’t fight with your brother, but this stone has called you. Maybe to help others around you who are arguing?’ This time both the boys and Evie looked at Rebecca.

      Ben looked back to the palm of his hand where the round polished stone lay. ‘But how do they work?’ he asked, clearly awed both by the stones and the strangeness of the woman.

      ‘Rocks contain energy. You’re from a farm, right?’

      Ben nodded, eyes wide with curiosity.

      ‘Well, all that land you walk on and the mountains around you has an intelligence, an energy. A universal intelligence and energy. The same as what is in your body, my body, your mummy’s body. You with me?’

      Ben nodded. ‘It’s life,’ he said.

      ‘And death and everything in between,’ Evie said. ‘Science has proven that everything in the universe is in a constant state of vibration. You know vibration?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Ben. ‘Like when Mum drives on the corrugated road and the things on the dash vibrate off onto the floor.’

      ‘Yes! Good boy! Well, even you hold a vibration. And crystals are the same. If you look at them under an electron microscope, you can see them actually vibrating. Unlike us humans, who waver between good and bad moods, being happy and sad, these crystals are stable and their vibration is steady. Because of this they can help us heal our unsteady vibration.’

      Ben closed his hand over the crystal.

      ‘And now for you, Mum? A store-opening gift for you?’ Evie asked.

      ‘No, please, really … You have a living to make.’

      The woman smiled gently at her. ‘You must allow people to give you gifts,’ she said.

      Just as Bec felt compelled to select a crystal, her phone buzzed.

      It was Charlie.

      ‘Excuse me,’ she said, pulling the phone from her battered old leather handbag, the one her mother had given her for Ag College graduation years back. She flicked the text onto the screen: Too hot here to work. The crew has knocked off early. They’ve gone to pub. I’m fixing ute.

      Bec couldn’t help herself rolling her eyes. Sure he was fixing the ute. He’d be at the pub. Always the pub. If she could pick up the Fur Trapper Hotel and fling it off the mountainside, she would. How many times had that place kept her husband away for hours and her at home trapped with the babies and the blowflies? Guiltily she looked at Ben and Archie. They were such dear little boys. If only she had time to enjoy them. But everything seemed to be crammed in around running the house and the farm business. And running after Charlie’s apathy. This was the first day Bec could remember ever taking it slow with them.

      Sensing Bec’s mood, Evie had ushered the boys to the largest fountain and had passed them twenty cents each to make a wish. Her kindness made Bec feel obligated to buy something, and this too made her feel a little flushed and annoyed. Charlie counted the pennies she spent.

      She cast her eye over the colourful racks of clothing — perfect for Candy, but not at all for her. Come wintertime she knew the summer Indian cottons would be replaced by alpaca beanies and jumpers all looking as if they were made from yak fur. In her mind, she echoed Charlie’s sentiments: ‘Hippy shit.’ She felt rude thinking such thoughts. What if the old woman could read minds?

      Instead she wandered to the book section. Her eyes, used to popular fiction and agricultural publications, grappled with the titles: The Anatomy of Peace, Practical Spirituality, A New Earth, The Children of Now, The Vortex.

      ‘Anything that catches your eye?’ the woman asked.

      ‘I really don’t have time to read.’

      ‘You have an iPhone. Perhaps a downloadable CD, then you could listen to it on that. I sell earphones too. Or you can listen when you drive. You must drive a lot.’

      Bec was beginning to regret coming into the shop. This seemingly kind shopkeeper was actually a pushy saleswoman. She had to get out of here and back to the farm. She’d call in at the Dingo Trapper Hotel and drag Charlie out by the collar on the way. Surely she couldn’t be expected to feed the dogs and dish up tea, along with all the washing to get in off the line, all before the seminar? Especially after his secret trip to the Trapper the night before in the new Deere. If he got back on the booze today, he’d be rotten by tonight and wouldn’t take in anything Andrew had to say, let alone be ready to put in a full day’s work on Monday on the farm.

      Just wanting to get out of the place, she grabbed up a CD titled The Law of Attraction by two rather normal-looking Yanks, Esther and Jerry Hicks. ‘I’ll take this one.’

      ‘Good choice. If you’re open to it and ready for it, this book could be the start of you creating a life beyond your wildest dreams. It comes with a booklet. It’s out the back. I’ll get it for you.’

      Before Bec could say ‘don’t bother’, the woman was gone.

      Frustrated now, she gazed out the shop window onto the quiet Bendoorin main street. Across the road the service station was adding on a takeaway shop and next to that the motel was receiving a facelift. Then at last the woman was