Fiona Higgins

“Paula laughed, remembering more of her mother's words: Better to be unhappy in a Mercedes-Benz than unhappy on a bus. To which Paula had always responded, I'd rather be happy.”
― Fiona Higgins, Wife on the Run

“Paula had never tired of the road and its secrets: the petrol stations manned by friendly country folk, the sugary treasures hidden in milk bars, the deserted public toilets attached to grassy picnic areas in quiet, shady gullies. Meat pies and cream buns, Big Ms and barley sugar. Her father’s tuneless whistling accompanying Bing Crosby cassettes, the relaxed look on her mother’s face, Jamie’s endless backseat tournaments of I-Spy, Twenty Questions and Thumb Wars. The back aches, the bursting bladders, the bush wees. The exquisite limbo of transit, the mysteries of dirt roads in indeterminate locations. The feelings of optimism and anticipation on departure, rivalled only by the tedium of the return trip.”
― Fiona Higgins, Wife on the Run