Chapter 4

After school, Dad picked us up and when we got home we found that Mum and Rob were (still?) out.

"Can I watch the telly?" Sarah asked.

"Sure. But get yourself a glass of milk."

I looked in the fridge. Mum must have gone shopping as there was a lot of food. I guessed this was a good sign. I tried to "see" what was going on, but failed ... though I could tell neither she nor Rob was as dark as yesterday. I took a (fresh) apple and went into the study. As expected – hoped? – there was email from Rachel, Osaka is an hour ahead of Perth.

That cheered me up. I'd had another – um – discussion about my "Journal." I was very stubborn: if it was my journal, then it was my journal. There might be spelling errors to be corrected (there weren't), but otherwise it was mine. And I was still reading the Keneally, and getting ever more irritated by the behavio(u)r of the authoritative British. [That "(u)" is for you, Mr. Simmonds!]

My dad's a patriot, I guess, but he's friendly to everyone. Rachel's part Japanese. There are aboriginal friends in Queensland. But Australia wasn't "empty" when the English invaded, settling the transportees here. It's very disturbing.

I heard mum's car and then she and Rob were here. I went to say "hello."

Rob didn't look well. "Gramps," I asked, "Could you explain something to me?"

"Pat? What do you want?"

"Sit with me and I'll explain." I took his and and led him to the sofa. "I'm reading King Solomon's Mines."

"Yes?"

"Well, you know all about mines, right?"

"Maybe not all."

"I don't understand about the diamonds."

"What's the problem?"

"I thought diamonds come from volcanoes."

"Not quite. Kimberlite, the main mineral diamonds are mined from, is an igneous intrusion. It comes from molten stuff being forced up from deep in the earth. There are diamonds in the north of this state and in the north of the territory, and there aren't any volcanoes there, but the hot insides must have been squeezed up, like toothpaste, as the Australian Plate pushed against the Asian Plate. The big bump must have been about one-and-a-half billion years ago."

"Gosh! But what about Africa?"

"Well, it's been a long time since I studied the plate tectonics of Africa. But, as I recall, there are several pieces to that one. One crack runs down the Red Sea and another through the Rift Valley, which runs from the Arabian Sea south through East Africa. The Rift is deepest in Kenya. Now, your Hunter Quatermain started out in Durban, right?"

"Yes."

"So they must have trekked through Swaziland and what's now Zimbabwe and Mozambique to Kenya. Go fetch your atlas."