How It Feels To Float

When Jasper and Biz arrive in Temora, their first goal is to find the sheep farm where Biz’s father grew up. They walk down the main street, and when school lets out, the kids mock Jasper and even spit on him. It is only then that Biz realizes that Jasper is gay. They are determined not to let the incident stop them. “Fuck the whole world” (298), Biz decides.

They hire a taxi and head to the Grey farm. Biz knows that her father was supposed to work on the family’s sheep farm but left for the city instead. She also knows her father’s mother abandoned the family when her father was only six. They arrive at the farm. In case things go wrong, they ask the taxi to wait for them. The men they meet barely recognize her father’s name. Biz begins to take photos of the farmhouse and of the land sloping down in the background, picturesque landscape photos of sheep against a grove of trees.

As she walks on the farmhouse’s veranda, Biz thinks of her father growing up there: “Maybe there was happiness in this house?” (310). When Jasper offers to drive the taxi back to town because the driver has been drinking, the driver simply leaves.