The Gift

By Lindsay Johannsen

Ingrained ideas and notions often prevent those of widely differing cultural backgrounds from getting along, though from time to time events conspire to rub their noses in it. This story involving my Dad and Step Mum is true, but I was just an eight YO schoolboy and so only overheard fragments of it being told to others. As a result I've had to paint a picture around it and change or invent names...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lindsay Johannsen
• Release date: Mar 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310040122

Lindsay Johannsen

There's not a lot to tell really, though on reflection, looking back on it through the lens of one’s recollections and memories, the whole business seems more akin to an extended Huckleberry Finn adventure, but set in the vastness of Central Australia. Born, raised and schooled in Alice Springs; taken from the leafy glades of learning mid-way through Year-eight to work at my father's remote little copper mine; later employed for some years driving his cattle-hauling road trains – him having pioneered road trains and the cattle hauling business (see "Kurt Johannsen: A Son of the Red Centre"). Married in the fullness of time; built a bush homestead on the northern edge of the Simpson Desert and raised a family there, all while running a small tungsten mining business and provisioning the hundred or so Aboriginal people local to the area who adopted us. Sold our mine and homestead a few years after the kids had flown the coop, acquired a forty foot (12m) touring coach, converted it into a big steel-wheel mobeel Palaise-de-passion motor home and took to the roads of this great land of Oz - in the main visiting our offspring (most of whom had moved to coastal regions), our grandchildren generally and a couple of great grandies, plus various friends and associates from years gone by. So these days all I have to do is keep the missus happy – my Bride my Precious Lamb and Flower of the Early Mid Morning. 'Anywhere you wish, my darling,' I tell her. 'You just say the word and we'll be on our way.' So it's free as the breeze, we are now, out and about having wild and exciting adventures and being amazingly cool generally. Best job I ever had.

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THE GIFT

Published by Lindsay Johannsen at Smashwords

Copyright Lindsay Johannsen 2015

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes.

This story is presented to you free of cost. I insist on maintaining my copyright, however, though until such time as I amend this notice please feel free to disseminate, reproduce, copy or distribute it amongst your friends and/or enemies to your heart’s content, provided you do this for non-commercial purposes only and the story remains complete and in its original form. My preference, however, is for you to recommend to others that they download The Gift from Smashwords themselves, so enriching my life with a warm glow of satisfaction in lieu of any monetary reward.

Thank you.

National Library Of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data:

Author: Johannsen, Lindsay Andrew

Title: The Gift

Cover art and design bungled by the author.

Also published at Smashwords by one’s sylph: the novels McCullock’s Gold and The Cassidy Chronicles, plus a poem and some other short story rubbish, a couple of children’s stories and a couple of Christmas yarns.

To order the McCullock’s Gold paperback version or contact the author please visit

www.vividpublishing.com.au/lajohannsen

THE GIFT

Daphne set off homeward, weary in heart and soul. Her door was barely a hundred metres away, up a gently rising track, but just then even that short distance seemed beyond her. With considerable mental effort she continued to put one foot in front of the other, disappointment aching like a