Jemimah looked across the three long trestle tables where the children and grown-ups sat finishing their sausage sandwiches and allowed herself to finally breathe out with relief. She couldn’t believe the day was all but over -- and without anything more going wrong for her.

The children had behaved beautifully during the march, the school captains had delivered their speeches with great maturity, and now the volunteer parents had turned off the barbecues after grilling the last of the sausages.

There were still hours of cleaning up ahead of her, but her official responsibilities were just about finished. ‘Thank you, God’, she murmured belatedly, feeling guilty about her cynical surprise that for once her prayers actually seemed to have been answered.

“Here’s the rest of the snags,” one of the aproned dads said, handing her the last plate of sausages. There was no longer anyone queuing at the barbecue, and after checking that the cooks had had enough to eat themselves, Jemimah began to circulate around the tables, checking if anyone wanted seconds.

At the far end of one of the tables sat Bailey Hart and Beau Gatley, their heads close together with endearing intensity for two five-year-olds. She smiled, pleased to see the friendship that had formed in the latter weeks of last term growing stronger. Bailey mightn’t be able to run about with the other children, but he certainly held his own as a conversationalist.

As she worked her way down the table, she could hear Beau’s higher pitched voice over the murmur of adult chatter. “So how come you closed your eyes at the Anzac thingy -- and that man up the front closed his eyes, too. That man you said is your pastor?”

“’Cause he was praying to Jesus. You have to close your eyes when you pray,” Bailey answered him around a mouthful of sausage.

“Why?”

“Um. ‘Cause you can’t see God. And you close your eyes to help you think about him.”

“So can you see him when you close your eyes?”

“No ... you can’t see him ... ‘cause he’s in heaven, with my Daddy. But God can hear you and see you. He can hear everything you say and see everything you do. “

Hearing the direction their chatter was heading, Jemimah looked around in a panic, only partially relieved to see that Julie Gatley was well out of ear shot where she stood with a group of mums at the far side of the covered area.

“But how can God hear you if he’s in heaven and you’re here?”

“He’s not just in heaven. He’s everywhere else too, all at once,” Bailey explained, putting his arms out wide as he spoke. “And he’s bigger and stronger and everything than us, so he can see us and hear us all the time. Do you pray to him, Beau?”

Beau shook his head.

“But you got to pray to God, Beau. ‘Cause otherwise it’s like getting a present and not saying thank you. God gives us everything. And he gave us Jesus. It’s bad and selfish not to say thank you.”

Jemimah’s stomach clenched. If Beau went home talking about God again - and with the message that he was bad and selfish because he didn’t pray - his parents would really hit the roof. She stepped forward to intervene, but one of the other parents stepped into her path and began talking to her. Jemimah nodded to give appearance of listening, while still concentrating on the boys’ continuing conversation.

“So what do you do?” Beau was asking. “Do you just have to close your eyes and say thank you?”

“Yep, but you don’t just have to say thank you. You can ask God for everything you need too.”

“Really? Like Santa?“

“No, not like Santa ‘cause ...”

Now Jemimah’s heart was really in her mouth. Not only was Bailey talking about religion, he was about to tell Beau there was no Santa. She knew instinctively that would seem an even worse crime to the Gatleys than anything they’d already accused her of. She excused herself from the parent and pushed through to the boys, desperate to stop Bailey from making things any worse.

“’Cause ...” Bailey had stalled, perhaps his mum had warned him about not telling other kids about not believing in Santa, “he’s not like Santa ‘cause God ALWAYS hears our prayers and always answers.”

“Do you boys want another sausage?” Jemimah hoped that the distraction would be enough, but after putting a sausage on each boy’s plate, Bailey looked up with a big grin. “God does always answer prayers -- do you know just before I was praying how much I wanted another sausage! Cause I only got one little one and I am so hungry.”

“Really?” Beau looked thrilled. “If you pray you always get what you want?”

Jemimah was shaking her head, as much in dismay at the ongoing conversation as in answer to his question.

Bailey looked up at Jemimah with a frown. “Not always, is it, Miss Parker? ‘Cause sometimes God knows better than us what we need, so we mightn’t ask for the right thing. But we can always ask. And God always gives us what we need, even if it’s something different.”

Jemimah caught Bailey’s open gaze, putting her index finger to her lips to form the shush signal the children knew so well from class, and then laid her hand on his shoulder as she bent down beside his ear. “Do you know, I think Beau’s parents would like it better for them to be the ones who tell him about God, and not you or me, okay?”

His face seemed to crumple, but he nodded obediently. “Okay, Miss Parker.” Then he added in a loud whisper, “But I don’t think that they do.”

It was too hard to swallow past the lump in her throat to answer, so she just squeezed his shoulder gently before letting go. Her heart felt sick as she moved around the remaining tables, distributing the last of the sausages. At least she knew now why Julie’s boys were coming home talking about God -- and why the version that filtered through two five year olds before reaching antagonistic parents had not been one she recognised.

Bailey only meant well -- but now that she was under such close and critical surveillance it could only lead to more trouble if she let it continue. But what could she do? Hopefully the hint she had given him would be enough for now.

Perhaps if she talked to Marlene about it ... but guilt filled her even with the thought of it. Marlene would be thrilled to hear her son was telling his friend about Jesus -- Jemimah could not imagine telling her she’d told Bailey not to. But Marlene wasn’t in her situation; she wouldn’t understand why the version of Christianity that Bailey was sharing with Beau was only going to bring down more trouble on Jemimah’s head.

She could only hope that Beau would forget the conversation and that it never came to his parents’ ears...

The relief she had felt ever so briefly at the day’s success had completely vanished under a new cloud of dread, and Jemimah dragged herself through the next few hours until the last of the parent helpers had finally left.

When the last of her cleaning up was completed, Jemimah returned to her classroom. It wasn’t worth going all the way home, only to come back into town for the film that Marlene had organised in the community hall for the social night, especially when she was so behind with her school work.

She had no desire to go to the social night, to spend any more time with the local people and wondering if every conversation that stopped when she approached was about her, but she’d made a commitment and saw no option but to see it through. And she really couldn’t face the following week without making some progress on her paperwork.

The afternoon dragged slowly by, but her preoccupation with Bailey and Beau’s conversation allowed her to make little headway on the backlog of school work. She was gazing despondently across the classroom when a shadow darkened the threshold and Julie Noakes appeared in the doorway.

Her arrival seemed so inevitable that Jemimah didn’t move, didn’t speak -- just sat waiting for the storm to break on her head. Julie was clearly agitated, her face pinched and taut, but her words were completely unexpected.

“You haven’t seen Beau have you?”

When Jemimah shook her head Julie went on, “Been looking for him for the last couple of hours -- thought he was with his brother and his friends, but they say they haven’t seen him since the barbecue.”

Jemimah rose quickly, the sense of relief that Julie wasn’t there to accuse her making her feel like she was floating. “I last saw him while he was eating lunch. Didn’t he leave with you?”

“No -- he and Kai were playing with their mates, I told them I was going home and for them to come back for tea. Kai’s been back for a while now, but no-one’s seen anything of Beau. He said he was never with them. I’ll keep on looking -- you’ll let me know if you see him, won’t you?”

“Of course. I’ll go round the school now, just in case he’s been playing here somewhere. Have you notified Sergeant Beavan?”

Julie shook her head. “No ... not yet. Beau probably is just with some other boys ... and it’s probably all okay, but I’m just starting to get worried. I’ll ring around everyone again.”

The words ‘I’ll pray for you to find him quickly’, leapt to Jemimah’s tongue, but she closed her lips against them, opening her mouth a moment later to suggest they exchange mobile numbers. “Since he was last seen here, I’ll keep the lights on and wait here until I hear that you’ve found him.”

“Thanks,” Julie said absently, shaking her head in disbelief, “Why does stuff like this have to happen only when Shane’s away?”

Jemimah grabbed her phone and headed out of the classroom door not long after Julie, intent on making a thorough search of the school grounds. She felt horribly guilty for reacting with relief when she heard Julie had come to tell her Beau was missing -- missing! -- rather than safely home and telling his mum all about his conversation with Bailey. If only she could find him curled up in some cosy spot in the school playing with his toy cars ...

She looked carefully under each of the school buildings, behind the utility shed and all around the boundaries of the school, but saw no indication that Beau was, or had been, playing on his own in the school yard. As she passed the back area where the bush bordered on the school fence, she forced herself to peer into its foreboding depths, shuddering at the mere possibility of him wandering in that direction.

The predicted afternoon clouds were already beginning to darken the sky and Jemimah hurried back to the school room, hoping against hope Beau might already have turned up. But her classroom stood empty, lit brightly against the grey evening. She stopped in her doorway and phoned Julie, letting her know that she’d seen no sign of Beau at the school and was sorry to hear Julie had no positive news either. Julie was planning to ring around all of the parents of the boys’ friends again, and Jemimah offered to ring around the rest of the class’s parents in case any of them had seen or heard anything that might give them a clue.

First of all, though, she rang the Turnbulls and left a message for Angie to go on to the film night without her -- relieved her friend was in the shower and that she didn’t have to defend her decision to stay at the school until Beau had been found. It was growing darker now -- and she was starting to feel more and more concerned for the little boy. If ringing around the other parents didn’t offer any clues she wasn’t sure of what the next step should be -- but she did know that she would do anything she could to help find him.

Jemimah opened up the class contact list, but already knew the most obvious person to ring was Marlene. Beau had been last seen talking with Bailey -- he may well have seen who he left with. Yet, she hesitated ringing her friend. What if Bailey had already told his mum that Miss Parker had asked him not to speak to his little friend about Jesus?

She felt sick as she held the phone in her hand, hating the guilt and the fear and the conflict swirling around inside her. At that moment she hated her job, hated her life and wished that she had never come to Jacaranda Plains. Things would never be this horribly hard if she’d knocked back the job and stayed at home in Newcastle ...

And yet, there was a little boy missing and maybe she could do something to help find him. Taking a deep breath she tapped in Marlene’s number, her heart constricting as her friend answered the phone. But Marlene mentioned nothing about Jemimah’s conversation with Bailey and, as soon as Jemimah had explained about Beau being lost, suggested she put Bailey on the phone to talk directly to her.

He was hesitant at first, and after overhearing Marlene’s explanation to him that ‘Miss Parker wanted to talk to him about his friend Beau’ Jemimah had a sinking feeling that poor Bailey probably thought he was going to get told off again about his conversation with his friend.

But when Jemimah explained that Beau’s mummy didn’t know where he was and that she wondered if Bailey might know where he’d gone to or who he was with at the end of lunch, Bailey loosened up and told him that Beau had gone off with his brother and rattled off three other boy’s names that Jemimah knew to be their regular playmates.

“They said they were going to go look for the Yowie,” Bailey went on, “where you saw it in the bush. But that’s silly...” Jemimah’s legs felt weak and she leant back against the edge of the desk, hardly taking in the rest of Bailey’s chatter “...that’s silly because no-one really believes in Yowies -- except Uncle Jack -- but Mum says no kids are allowed to go into the bush because if you said you saw something scary there must be a good reason not to go in there and it is very important to obey.”

“Thank you, Bailey,” Jemimah said with difficulty, “I’d better hang up now and let Beau’s mum know where he was going. Thank you so much for your help.”

She hung up numbly, unable to believe that she had brought even this on Beau and the Gatleys by her reporting what she’d seen in the bush. Of course the rumours would have intrigued the boys, and now it seemed inevitable that with the bush ruled out of bounds they would have gone investigating for themselves sooner or later. But why had the other boys returned and not Beau? Maybe he’d gone with them after all? But then, where was he?

In any case, she had to ring Julie and let her know what she’d found out. Jemimah had just keyed in Julie’s number when the sound of a car screeching to a stop in the quadrangle right in front of her classroom brought her quickly to her feet. It was Julie, and by the time Jemimah reached the door, Julie was already out of the car, pulling her older son Kai by the arm towards Jemimah’s classroom.

Jemimah ran down the stairs to them, and saw that Julie was red-faced with emotion and Kai’s own eyes were red with crying.

“This little--” she started to talk before she had even reached Jemimah, shaking her head in anger, “has been lying to me. One of his friends at least finally told his mum the truth. The boys went into the bush behind the school -- and say they saw a yowie or something that scared the life out of them. Anyway, they ran - but when they got out Beau wasn’t with them and they said they were too scared to go back and look for him. Then one of the older boys said they’d be in big trouble if anyone knew they’d gone in there and made them all promise not to tell.”

Julie took a deep breath, and shook her head. “It’s been hours since then. I’ve rung the cops, but Sgt Beavan’s on a call out of town. He’s on his way back now though, and is gonna meet me here and probably arrange a search. But it’s already nearly dark. Might be better going and looking for him myself than waiting that long.”

“No -- I’ll go,” Jemimah said without hesitating. “You wait here for Sgt Beavan and tell him everything you know. It’s going to be dark any minute and if Beau’s still in the bush on his own ...” She bent down to Kai’s level. “Can you describe to me where you were when you last saw Beau?”

He nodded, tears spilling over his eyes. When Jemimah put a comforting hand on his shoulder she felt him trembling and she instinctively drew him close. “I’m so sorry,” he sobbed, pressing his face into her shoulder.

“I know,” Jemimah replied soothingly, glancing over his head at the foreboding sky and trying not to think about how similar the night was to the one she spent lost in the bush. “But you can help Beau now by telling us everything you know about where you were.”

He nodded again, and in between sobs told her about finding a clearing not far from a creek and a little cave under the trees . . . and then seeing a huge monster with big ears and fangs and then them all running. She hugged him quickly and then straightened up, the urgency of the situation sending adrenalin surging through her. No-one else might believe her about the yowie, but she knew it was true -- and Beau was out there alone with it.

“I know that place,” she told Julie breathlessly. “There’s a fork to a little track about halfway along the main cross-country track. I don’t know how to describe getting there from this direction, but I think could find the way now if I saw it. But I’ll have to go now before it gets any darker, or I’ll have no chance of recognising the track.”

She barely registered Julie’s thanks as she sprinted across the playground and toward the dark bush she’d thought nothing on earth could ever entice her to enter again.