Brandon has just graduated from university as a primary school teacher. As he travels to his first teaching post, he wonders what he’s got himself into. From the airplane, the tiny town of Gunnanilla looks no bigger than a cattle station. And when he lands, he steps into heat such as he has never encountered before. Sweating and feeling faint from the extreme temperature, he meets his new boss Mark Petersen, the racist principal of the only school for miles around. Then he meets the school’s other teacher, Mark’s wife Trina, and the students, most of whom are Australian Aborigines. Life in the small town is no picnic. In the summer, the heat is unrelenting. In the wet season, the town is cut off from the outside world and all deliveries are brought to a halt. There is only one television channel. To top it all off, there are any number of poisonous creatures around, such as snakes, scorpions, and spiders. How’s a poor city boy like Brandon, who’s interested in fashion, music, and clubbing and none too confident with his sexuality, going to cope? Enter the handsome, rough-around-the-edges miner, Frank. When Mark warns Brandon that Frank is gay, it seems this town might finally have something to keep him entertained. But how can he meet Frank without drawing attention to his own sexuality? How can anything possibly happen between them in such rough, tough, and macho surroundings?

Desert Country

Brandon booked a room at the Wellington Hotel. It was cheap and he had to share a bathroom, but his room was neat and clean, and it smelled nice. Before he did anything else, he stripped down to his underpants and T-shirt, grabbed a towel, and padded down the carpeted hall to the bathroom. There was one other occupant, a man not much older than him, who was shaving naked at the mirrors. They nodded at each other before Brandon stepped into one of the vacant cubicles and removed his clothing.


As he was washing himself he kept thinking about the man at the mirror, wondering if perhaps they’d end up fucking in the steamy bathroom. His cock grew hard at the thought, but then he thought about Frank and jerked off instead.


Chapter 26