Epilogue

S ean stretched his legs out on Boodjin—Boyagin Rock—and leaned against Jack beside him. It was early and still cool, the heat from what was shaping up to be an unseasonably warm September day threatening as the sun rose in the distance.

“You good?” Jack asked, his arm sliding around Sean’s waist to tug him close.

“Yeah,” Sean breathed and leaned against Jack’s side.

He’d come home to talk to his mum, to talk to his other ancestors in the cemetery. He’d realised, standing at her gravestone, what Jack had meant back in the hospital when he’d said, “It was good in the end. You were good.”

His mum had sat across from him at the dining table at his and Jack’s place, struggling to catch her breath; her constant sharp inhales and short exhales had become a background noise to his worry at that point. It’d been early, Jack still sleeping in the other guest room after creeping out of their bedroom just before dawn.

“I need to tell you somethin’,” Sean had begun.

She’d smiled, nodded, said, “Go on then, I ain’t got all day.”

Sean took a deep breath and spoke on the exhale. “I’m gay. I like, uh, boys. Men.”

He’d been too scared to look at her, but her huff of air could not have been anything other than a laugh.

“What a surprise,” she’d replied like it wasn’t a surprise at all. And all the fear and anxiety left him as he looked into her watery, smiling eyes—no shock, nothing there but fondness and a look that told him she’d probably always known and had never cared.

“I know this whitefella’s ya boyfriend, eh?” she’d said and tried for a deep breath as Sean nodded. “He said sorry for all that business in Midland?”

Sean nodded. “Yeah, he was just bein’ stupid. He didn’t mean it.”

“Musta been scary, eh?” she tilted her head. “You boys feelin’ thataway and playin’ footy? Pretty brave to be together.”

He didn’t remember what else she said, but he remembered how he felt—like the thing he’d been so terrified of was all in his head; her love continued like an unbroken river and flowed over him that morning and still to this day when he sat at her headstone and told her what’d happened, asked her if she was doing alright, wondered how she thought he’d go next season. The trees around the cemetery rustled with an unusual breeze for that early, their leaves swishing with the sound of a couple of ringnecks feeding and calling, and he knew she was there telling him he’d done good and she was doing good too.

“I love comin’ up here,” Sean said to Jack afterwards, sitting on that rock and taking in the sunrise.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Jack looked around. “Quiet.”

“But I reckon we got a few hours before Jayden’s BBQ,” he rolled his head on Jack’s shoulder and looked up at him. “And there’s a few things we could do before we gotta be there.”

Jack blushed, but tightened his hold. “Lead the way.”

Sean cackled. “So easy for it, Jackie.”

“Stop makin’ it so good and I won’t be.”

“Never.”

They were camping at an empty spot nearby and Sean thought about how he’d have to get creative with some rope, but even without the four-poster bed to tie it to, he knew Jack wouldn’t move once he told him not to. And he’d definitely move when Sean asked him to.

He took Jack’s hand and pulled him to his feet, pushed up to kiss him and felt how much Jack loved him, had probably always loved him, in the way he kissed him back like there was nothing else in the world he’d rather be doing than standing on this rock and kissing his boyfriend for all of Country to see.