“Watch out, Jemimah!” Jarrah shouted, but before Jemimah could turn around she was swept off her feet and flung into the air. Her stomach fluttered as she felt herself falling, but instead of the hard landing she instinctively tensed for, she sank softly into what felt like an old feather mattress and looked like a cloud of snow.

She propped herself up onto her elbows as Mitch’s cheeky grin appeared at the edge of the cotton trailer. She grinned back but shook her head at him, her cheeks warming. It still made her very self-conscious that a boy five years her junior had easily tossed her into the trailer as though she were made of nothing.

“Move on back now!” he waved her unrepentantly toward the back of the mesh sided trailer. “Make room for the incoming!”

Jemimah crawled across the top of the cotton which filled the trailer to about waist height. It was a strange sensation under her hands - soft and scratchy. The freshly harvested cotton was like a huge mound of cotton wool but with hard seeds buried inside each cotton boll, and scattered here and there were dried and brown leaves that crunched under her.

Jarrah managed to evade Mitch and Jamie’s attempts to grab her, but her two school friends were precipitously pitched into the trailer just as Jemimah had been. The girls scrambled to their feet and began to bounce up and down like children on a stiff inflatable jumping castle.

Jemimah moved toward the tailgate again as Ashley began tossing up Marlene’s children. She reached them just as Bailey was deposited with a gentle bounce into the cotton. He was grinning widely as he made his way deeper into the trailer, while his brother and sister turned somersaults alongside him.

Jemimah put out her hand to Gabi and helped her up, as Ashley gave her a boost from behind and climbed up after her. Another family and an older couple followed them in, and Jemimah was glad to see how many of the church folk - and a few of their neighbours - had made the trip out to the Hart’s for the social night. Even Nan Turnbull had come along - offering to fill in for Angie’s absence - but had declined a place in the trailer to stay back with Mrs Hart preparing the supper.

Karen and Colin Anderson and Leanne and Richard climbed on too, along with a couple of local teenagers Jemimah knew only by sight. The noise inside the trailer grew as the children began throwing handfuls of cotton at each other, the closest these country kids ever came to a snowball fight.

A mischievous idea for revenge came into Jemimah’s mind, and she balled up a huge handful of cotton and held it ready behind her back, waiting for Mitch’s entrance. He and Jamie clambered on and the moment the youths looked in her direction she pitched her ‘cotton ball’ at Mitch as hard as she could. It was heading right on target too - an unexpectedly accurate shot - when a gust of wind suddenly sent it veering off course. It looked as though it would shoot right out of the back of the trailer when Jack’s face appeared at the tailgate and the cotton cannonball hit him full on the mouth.

As he spluttered, Jemimah quickly turned tail but it was like trying to run on pillows – and Jack launched himself into the trailer after her with a flying leap. He never got off the ground though, as Jamie, Mitch and Richard piled on top of him and he was fully occupied wrestling the teens until they had to suspend hostilities to help a late arriving family on board.

Jack climbed to his feet, tufts of cotton clinging to his jumper, beard and hair. Jemimah couldn’t help giggling at his appearance. He fixed her with a fulminating glare, making sure she knew he hadn’t forgotten her initial assault on him.

From her perch well toward the other end of the trailer, Jemimah tried to stare him down nonchalantly, but felt her nose tickle and then sneezed uncontrollably half a dozen times. Jack rolled his eyes at her, and called out to everyone to get themselves settled in.

He climbed back out of the trailer, shutting the doors closed behind him. A few moments later the tractor started up, and then with a lurch, pulled the cotton trailer along the dirt roads intersecting the huge cotton farm.

It was a magical experience. Jemimah lay back on the soft cotton and watched the stars pass overhead. Several of the younger people took the ride standing - squealing as they toppled over when Jack took the rises up and down the levy banks around each cotton field. After the first circuit of about half an hour, Jack stopped the tractor to check whether the group was ready to stop for supper. A chorus of “No, go again!” and “More, please!” greeted him, and although he made a great show of complaining before trudging back toward the tractor the spring in his step betrayed his pleasure in his appreciative guests.

The next circuit seemed to pass by even more quickly, the trailer lurching up and over the levy banks and with a few extra thrills of sudden stops and starts that had the children and teenagers screaming with excitement.

When they finally pulled up behind the Hart’s home, the glow of an outdoor fire greeted them. Jack looked tired, but satisfied as he unlocked the back of the trailer and was thanked vociferously as he helped out his passengers.

It was a bit of a let-down to jump down from the trailer to land on solid, unyielding ground, but everyone flocked gladly around the fire-pit. It was barely cold enough to justify the warmth of the flames, but the picturesque effect of the glowing coals was alluring - and the sight of the supper table lined up with skewers and marshmallows and chocolates for melting was greeted with ravenous enthusiasm.

“Have you eaten s’mores before, Jemimah?” Jamie sidled up beside her, handing her a skewer.

Jemimah shook her head. “No. What are they?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” He grabbed a paper plate and on it placed two plain biscuits, a marshmallow and a thin chocolate bar which he broke in two, placing one half on each of the biscuits. “Now you have to get this toasted just right …”

Jamie skewered the marshmallow onto the tip of the thin wooden stick and held it over the glowing coals, rotating it carefully so that it toasted evenly. After it was browned to his satisfaction he placed it onto one of the chocolate covered biscuit halves, topped it with the second one, held it firmly and slid out the skewer.

Jemimah was uncomfortably aware that Jamie continued to single her out for his attention and while his regard for her was sweet, she felt embarrassed for him as his crush was becoming increasingly obvious to everyone else. She was praying for wisdom in how best to handle things without hurting his feelings, but for the moment she really didn’t know whether she should be doing more than just trying to keep increasing the circle of people they were with on the social nights. She caught Leanne’s eye as the girl joined them at the fire-pit, smiling as she stepped back to make room for her to toast her own marshmallow.

“Here!” Jamie turned around and presented the s’more to Jemimah. “What do you think?” She took it from him and bit into it gingerly.

“Mmm!” Her eyes widened as she tasted the concoction. The toasted marshmallow was hot and gooey on the inside and had melted the chocolate into a warm, richly sweet dessert. The plain biscuits that formed the outside of the sandwich kept it from being overbearingly sweet.

“That is great, Jamie. Thank you,” she murmured, taking another dainty bite. “But why are they called s’mores?”

Jack had come up behind them as she’d asked the question, and answered himself. “Well, do you want some more?” When she looked at him blankly he repeated. "S’mores, Sparky. 'Cause you always want some more. Now this is how a real man makes them. "

Jemimah shook her head slowly when the pun sank in. Somehow Jack always managed to hijack Jamie’s overtures of friendship and make both her and Jamie look foolish.

Jack skewered a marshmallow and thrust it deep into the coals until both it and the stick ignited, then held it up in triumph - a glowing orb of orange and blue flame like a flaming meteor. He gave it a few more seconds, extinguished it with a hearty puff of breath, slapped it between two chocolate and biscuit halves and handed it to Jemimah.

“Oh. Thank you, but …” she held up her other hand still containing the yet unfinished s’more Jamie had made for her, grateful for the convenient excuse. “I just couldn’t.”

She handed it back to Jack, and took a step backwards. “This one is quite enough for me. I’m going to make myself one of the hot chocolate drinks I saw over there.” Feeling it wise to escape Jamie’s monopoly of her, she turned to Leanne who was beside her. “Can I make you one, too?”

Leanne walked with her, but shook her head. “No, while Mum’s not looking I think I’m going to try a coffee.”

There was a slightly daring glint in the girl’s eyes and Jemimah nudged her conspiratorially. “You rebel!”

Leanne giggled with her, but Jemimah thought she understood her young friend. The Andersons were by no means unnecessarily strict, but they were very careful of Leanne and Richard. It was a hard age to want to be a bit grown up - but not want to do anything wrong either.

She and Kerren still laughed about Jemimah turning eighteen and desperately wanting to do something ‘adult’ that was still ‘okay’. In the end all she’d come up with was replacing her library card with an ‘adult’ one and signing up at the Electoral office to register to vote.

Smiling to herself, she poured a hot chocolate while Leanne made her illicit coffee, carefully weighing the rival merits of the different coffee flavours before they made their way together to the table where Nan had just sat down.

Nan was such a comfortably familiar person that Jemimah impulsively greeted her with a kiss on the cheek as she sat down on the bench beside her. Realising what she had done, Jemimah blushed and ducked her head down.

“Did Angie get away okay this morning?” Jemimah asked, warm with embarrassment but grateful for the comfortable ‘family’ feeling that surrounded her.

“Only just,” Nan chuckled, and related the story of how Angie had wanted to call in on the Winslow’s first, as she was making the most of her study leave from work by staying over with Sonja on the Sunday night before heading back home on the train on Monday morning. Jemimah almost asked if Angie would be planning to visit Michael while she was in Sydney, and stopped herself just in time. If Angie wasn’t - and since it hadn’t been mentioned she probably had no intention of visiting her brother - the question might make Angie look bad. Besides, it was less than a fortnight since Michael had left The Plains - it was probably only to Jemimah that it felt like months already.

She smothered a yawn and looked across at Leanne who was taking small sips from her mug. “So how is the coffee?”

Leanne looked up as though caught in some furtive act and put down her cup. “It’s awful!” she admitted with a grimace.

Jemimah joined her laughter. “Did you try sugar?”

Leanne nodded. “Lots of it.”

She pushed the cup away with a sigh. “It’s no good. I can’t make myself drink it.”

“Well, I’ve never been able to stand it, either. It’s your birthday coming up soon, isn’t it? Turning fourteen?”

“Yeah, Sunday week.”

“How about on Saturday week I take you out for your birthday for morning tea in Narrabri? There’s a new café there that serves the most scrumptious hot chocolate. We can have cake of the day and thoroughly indulge ourselves without having to go anywhere near coffee.”

Leanne’s face lit with delight. “That would be great - thank you so much! I’ll check with Mum, but I’m sure it will be okay.” She rose and disappeared into the house.

“That’s very sweet of you,” Nan put a hand on Jemimah’s arm.

Jemimah shook her head. “No, it will be a treat for me too. Leanne’s the sweetest girl. And through my teenage years it was the younger grown-up ladies in my church taking me under their wing which made so much difference when it was so hard to fit in at school as a Christian. I’ll be very grateful if I get a chance to do the same for Leanne.”

Another yawn rose up but Jemimah was unable to stifle it, and excused herself apologetically to Nan.

“A hard week at school?” Nan asked.

“Yes, it was. But I think it’s more that I had a disturbed sleep last night. There seems to be a big rat or something in my ceiling - it started off right above my bed, but a few hours later I could hear it in the top of the built in wardrobe so it must have found a way into there.”

She covered another yawn and shuddered. “I hate to think of it getting into my clothes and things, so tomorrow I’ll have to pull everything out and see if I can get a trap or something.”

She shuddered again at the thought of having to deal with a rodent - dead or alive.

“Did you say you’ve got a rat?”

Jemimah jumped as Jamie sat down beside her, she hadn’t heard him coming. Mitch took the seat opposite that Leanne had just vacated.

“Well, I guess it’s a rat. I didn’t see it … just heard it through the night.”

Jamie nodded. “Yeah, during harvest a lot of stuff comes up out of the fields. If it’s just a rat that’s okay, though. What did it sound like?”

“Kind of a dragging sound. It wasn’t like the little scurrying of a mouse - I’ve heard that before in the walls. That’s why I think it must be something bigger - and maybe it was dragging something along to make a nest.”

“Was it a shuffling sound like this?” Mitch asked, dragging his cup in a zigzag motion across the wooden table top.

She nodded.

“That’d be a snake then, not a rat.”

Jemimah felt the warmth drain from her body.

“Yeah, that’d be right.” Jamie agreed. “Seen quite a few this year. Some red-bellies, too. Once we get the machines into the field it really stirs them up. Didn’t anyone warn you about them?”

“Yes, but I thought that was just about going into long grass, or picking things up outside that they might be hiding in or under. I didn’t think they’d come into the house.”

“Unfortunately they do, sweetheart, it’s one of the downsides to living out in the bush,” Nan rubbed Jemimah’s arm. “That’s why we’ve always got a cat inside the house as well as the dogs outside.”

“It’ll be keeping the mice down for you, though!” Mitch added, as though there was some humour in the situation. Jemimah could think of nothing except the sounds she had heard all night, sliding across the ceiling and possibly into the top of her wardrobe. Had there been a snake in there this evening when she’d pulled down her jacket to wear? She felt ill, the sweet taste of the hot chocolate now sickening to her.

“But … what do I do about it? Aren’t snakes a protected species?”

Mitch cleared his throat and said something under his breath that sounded like “maybe in the cities” and exchanged a glance with Jamie.

Nan turned her attention to Jamie. “Do you think you and your Dad or your brothers could take care of that for Jemimah?”

“Sure. We’ll have a go at it tomorrow. Mitch is staying over to get a day’s work in, he’ll enjoy the hunt, too. We’ll just have to work it around the picking, that’s all.”

“Thanks.” Jemimah swallowed, her mouth dry now as she contemplated going back into the cottage overnight. Had she left her bedroom door open? Could it be anywhere in the house now? Sleeping in her car was looking like a better option.

Mitch was watching her with amusement. “You’ll be okay – if you meet Mr Snake during the night I’m sure he’ll be just as scared of you as you are of him.”

“You won’t be running into any snakes, Jemimah – you’re coming home with me tonight. The boys can give us a ring tomorrow when they’ve dealt with it for you.” Nan fixed Mitch and Jamie with a firm look, “Right boys?”

“Sure, thing!” Jamie was already on his feet. “I’ll go find Dad and let him know.”

“Thank you,” Jemimah breathed, turning to Nan. “I don’t want to impose on you but if it’s really no trouble …” she began to explain to Nan but was cut off.

“Nonsense, it will be a pleasure to have you. Gabi’s staying over here tonight ready to help with the picking, and with Angie away too, the place will seem empty – it will be lovely to have your company. What’s more, I came over with Gabi, but Michael insisted he come and pick me up rather than have me drive on my own at this time of night – if we go home together there’ll be no need to drag him out of his study. And Ashley will be more than happy for the excuse to drive Gabi home tomorrow afternoon. That works out beautifully for everyone, doesn’t it?”

Jemimah could only smile at the grace of the woman who made it seem like Jemimah was doing her the favour. “Thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I’d better duck home and pack a bag.”

She took a fortifying breath as she stood up. Surely if she put all the lights on in the house, and was very, very careful …

“Do you really need to? We’ve got a supply of spare toothbrushes and between the girls and I there’s sure to be spare pyjamas.”

Jemimah dropped back down into her seat, exhausted with relief.

“Well, then,” Nan stood up decisively and patted her shoulder. “If it suits you, I think we should head off. I’ll just go and say goodnight to the ladies and let Gabi know the plan.”