Early October 2005

Joseph Garbarla squatted on his heels at the front of the circle of wailing mourners.   Old Weari-Wyingga had been leader of the tribe since the other male Elders had been killed in December 1984.   Now the tribe was without a leader.   In the circle, Suzie Wanjimari, the old man’s cousin, lovingly washed his naked corpse.   Although sixty-nine, Suzie was a very sexy woman.   Watching her perform the ritual topless, as she always was in warmer weather, Garbarla felt himself aroused by the sight of her opulent breasts, and large erect nipples.

Seeing the silver-haired lubra glance at him, Garbarla blushed, thinking, ‘She must have read my mind!’    ESP was a power Suzie claimed to have.   And which Garbarla — despite his Western education — half believed she really possessed.

Suzie risked giving Garbarla a teasing wink — obviously knowing the effect she had on the forty-eight year old man — then returned her attentions to old Weari-Wyingga.

*      *      *

Neil Ulverstone stepped almost daintily through the strawberry patch.   Despite being a hulking giant of a man — built like the proverbial brick shithouse — Neil was a gentle man and took great pains not to clomp all over the as yet unripened fruit.   He had been weeding the field for hours when he stopped for a much needed break.

Straightening, he grabbed at a crick in his back with one hand and stared in amazement at the grinning, ghoul-faced scarecrow at the other end of the small patch.

“Now where the hell did you come from?” he said.

Neil started slowly down the strawberry patch toward the scarecrow, whose trunk and limbs were made from large red-gum boughs, held together by tree gum.   The head seemed carved from the same great log as the torso.   Crude eye sockets and a gaping mouth had been carven.   The eyes were large blue opals; the teeth triangular, rough-cut stones.

“My God, someone’s gone to a lot of trouble making you, haven’t they?” said Neil as he got within a few metres of the object.   Despite its ugliness, Neil had to admire the ingenuity of the construction.   “Jesus, the teeth have been filed to perfectly fit into the sockets!” he said.   “It’s even got….”