"Did you see the way the rocks changed colour at sunset?" Enthused Ashley. "It was as if we were transported briefly from one place to another. A...a mystical place of pinks and blues!"

Tullula mentally rolled her eyes but nodded at her companion just the same. Her cousin Ashley was a bit on the dramatic side. A bit 'flowery' as her dad would say. But the other girl was okay for all of that.

"Yeah." She said, by way of encouragement and comment.

Then she tripped a step as she stubbed her toe on a rock on the road and cursed. You could barely make out the while line down the middle of it as it was now quite dark and they were travelling by starlight. There were no street lamps here, so for the first time she was finding her way around by the stars. They weren't nearly bright enough, even if they were kinda pretty.

"And the little creek hidden away at the bottom of the ravine, I swear I was waiting for a bushranger to jump at us! The stately gums and the cockatoos and the old submerged FJ that had been turned into a diving board...it was strait out of a picture in one of our art history books." Ashley was still going.

"I loath art history. It sucks the life out of art." Tullula sighed.

"And the cafe, with the linen washing up towels decorated with leaf imprints from being left at the bottom of a stream. You don't see that every day." Ashley continued, ignoring her cousin, determined to hold on to her good mood. "I've never had a milk shake made directly from an open carton of milk, either. That was so cool. Plus, totally yummo. Was yours nice too?"

"Fab." Said Tullula shortly. They had reached the house at last and she led the way inside, opening the flywire door, flipping on the lights and switching on the fan that lived on top of the fridge as she passed.

"Finding the cave at the back of the waterfall earlier, that was the best bit of today for me." Ashley sighed dreamily. "I'm going to draw it. I brought some pencils and stuff. There are so many things I want to capture though, I may have to stay an extra week."

"We can go again tomorrow, if you want." Tullula offered grudgingly.

"Cool. Okay, I bags first shower!" and Ashley raced off to her bedroom and grabbed her things. Before long the houses old water pipes were singing a long and mournful song.

Tullula went and sat on the lounge in front of the TV. But she didn't turn it on. Instead she drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, thinking.

"My sunshine was here, and I never knew it." She whispered to the blank TV screen.

She'd seen things she'd never seen today, hidden waterfalls, a rockwall painted in designer speckles by the setting of the sun - and stars. Vast fields of stars. And it was stupid that she should be surprised to find the local deli was some quaint wayfarers stop, and not the normal cafe/mini store/petrol station that most towns had. And that the ANZAC memorial was more heart wrenchingly poignant than any she had ever read about or seen on TV.

It was really stupid because she'd lived here, in this one small town, all her life. But only now, when she had an energetic cousin to show around, had she taken the time to really look and see it. Normally she and her friends stayed near where the local video store was and hung out, telling each other how much they were looking forwards to getting out of this rat hole and into the city. The city where the sun shone brighter with promises they yearned to have come true.

She had missed so much. Her own town was another land to her now, a wild, beautiful place. For just beyond the last bushfire break, and across one lush green paddock adventure lurked, bushrangers hid, bunyips dwelt, talking animals made their homes. Or they would have, if only she had gone there sooner, when she could still believe in such things.

But she was growing up now and the city beckoned. It called and she would follow. But she would try harder now. The city would not be just the place she worked, the supermarket, the chemist's, the mall. She would not let it. She would find the treasures hidden in plain view, the nick knack shops, the galleries, the parks and odd corners. She would bring the sunshine to where she was.

But for now she would spend this summer with her cousin Ashley and maybe she could still find some of the magic of this wonderful place. This place where she had always lived. This place she didn't know.