I steer us onto Plane Tree Drive, navigate round Botanic Park, then pull up near the zoo to let my daughter out. She closes the door, hurries off. “When do you want to be picked up?” I call after her. Amidst her disappearing flutter comes, “I'll text you. I might catch the bus!” But she’s still three, tearing around the Moreton Bay figs in fairy wings, with peach stains on her face. Isn’t she? Playing on slippy banyan roots, fellow fae folk in tow? I grip the wheel like I used to grip her hands—before that girl actually flew.
Linda Kohler's work appears in The Marrow, Bracken Magazine, Five Minutes, and elsewhere. She lives on Kaurna land in South Australia. lindakohler.com Instagram: @linda_jkohler