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"This
woman is nothing like your mum," said Mrs Walton, without
taking her eyes off the road. Max wondered what she meant.
Could there be two people with nothing in common?
And how similar must two people be before you say they're
like each other? Someone like his mum would be
tall and slender, with a fair skin and black hair that
now had to be dyed every week. She'd expect a lot from
people, because she was so good at everything herself,
She'd work in a big office block, shuffling paper, 'managing'
and 'supervising'. He felt obliged to say something.
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"What's
she like?" he asked. They were heading west, on a road
that kept them travelling in the same direction. The country
was becoming flatter and drier.
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2 |
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"Well,
I've only met her twice. She's just an ordinary woman.
She doesn't say much. She spent twenty years looking after
kids, I know that." She tried to think of something else
to say. "You'll have to find out for yourself," was all
she could manage in the end.
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Mrs
Walton was nothing like his mum, either. She was short
and rounded, with greying hair and an air of practicality.
She would probably control herself if she was angry, rather
than throw things. There was very little she had in common
with his mum, apart from the belief that kids should follow
the directions given by their elders and betters. He could
imagine her wearing some kind of a uniform.
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Max
stared out of the window, trying to find something, anything,
out there apart from grass, cattle and scrubby trees.
As he scanned the horizon dejectedly, he was the first
to notice a distant petrol station on the plain in front
of them.
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5 |
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"I
need to go to the toilet, Mrs Walton, could we please
stop soon." He called her Mrs Walton, even though she
had told him to call her Gloria. He couldn't help
it. She seemed too much like one of the teachers at school.
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6 |
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Max
felt better as soon as he got out of the car. He didn't
really need to go to the toilet, he just wanted a break.
It felt good to walk around to the back of the building
and be filled with the scent of dust and eucalyptus, and
the sound of birdsong.
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7 |
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When
he returned to the car, Mrs Walton was sitting in the
driver's seat, sucking a peppermint. She offered him one.
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8 |
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"No
thanks." Max hated peppermints.
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9 |
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