When I was young, up to the age of about 5 years old, my family lived in the country. We lived about halfway along a small street, and directly across the road from us, an elderly couple lived, and at the back of their house was a huge garden, filled with lots of trees and flowers, and a fishpond.
             All my grandparents lived in the country about four hours away, so the elderly couple across the road became grandparents to my sisters and myself. We called them Nanna and Uncle John. Because I was not yet at school, when my dad was at work and my mum was resting for another night shift at the hospital, I spent most of the day across the road.
             I remember one day when my mum was busy cleaning, I snuck out the front door and crossed the road to visit my Nanna and Uncle John. My Uncle John was an electrician so he was always busy in his shed fixing something, so instead I found my Nanna sitting out the back on the porch. The house was built on a hill, so when you walked out the back door, there was a porch going about 2 meters out from the house, stretching from one side of the house to the other. At the edge of the porch was a sudden drop about 3 meters down. To get down to the backyard, you had to walk down steps, which were at one end of the porch. Once you had descended the steps, there was a couple of meters of grass, then after that was where all the interesting trees grew.
             I used to spend a lot of my time exploring that garden. At that age, it seemed so big to me, with all those tall gum trees and beautiful flowers. That day, my Nanna wasn't in the mood for a tea party on the porch, so instead I climbed down the steps and headed straight for the garden. It was always dark in amongst the trees, because no sunlight could break through the foliage. I never made it down to the back fence, it was too scary, the garden was like a miniature forest to me. I didn't know what could be lurking down there in the shadows. There were a...