A Sheep Called Pepito

What made the whole saga worse was that Ray had been the one reporting the event and had allocated four full pages of pictures to go with the story, including a cover shot of the sheep in free fall (before it hit the van), and the caption above it, proudly proclaiming: A new world record!

Facts right, Ray, get the facts right, if nothing else.

The Sheep Shearer's Gazette had always been Ray Bender's baby. It was Ray who started the ball rolling in his first year with Outhouse Publishers. Up until then, Murray Glandman had been producing a few ad hoc cheap quarterly farmer oriented publications that were beginning to show some respectable sales figures, but Glandman realised he needed someone with a flair for journalism, editing and a love of the outback life, even though Outhouse and Glandman were both suburban creations and would always remain as such. Someone who had a love of country life as much as he had. Ray had come from a family of famous shearers, but he had never shorn in his life, opting instead to pursue a career in journalism, so when Ray approached Glandman with an idea that could work, he brought his best friend, Noel Poole along as well. Two issues later, Ray had realised they needed somebody who was still working the sheds to act as a legitimate authority for the journal. Someone who was still very much in touch with things on a ground roots level. Someone who knew the jargon as well as the job: a person who held a measure of respect in the sheds around the country. Ace shearer, Kevin "Bluey" Zedoff was semi retired and looking for a way to stay in touch with all his shearing mates. The opportunity presented itself and Bluey became the third member of the crew. His first interview with Johnny "Sugarbaby" Richmond from the La Grange sheds in Western Australia earned paeans of praise from the readers of the journal for insightful, compassionate and honest journalism, and since then, Ray more or less gave free licence for Zedoff to reign where he chose. They didn't always know where he was or what kind of story he was pursuing, but he never failed to come up with a top story every time. With Bluey in the field, Ray and Noel could concentrate on getting the end product to the consumer every second month.

This was why Ray said he did not know what the interview with Fisher was about. The only thing Ray knew was that Bluey said Lionel was very keen to have this interview and the story that was promised to them would make world headlines.

"Somebody said something about Flying Saucers out that way. You know anything about that?" Noel asked.

Ray said he had heard some rumours going around, but Bluey assured him he wasn't going out there on some X Files adventure.

"I think Bluey might be tailing one of them things. He might have heard some hot goss on the grapevine."

"I hope not," Ray said sternly. "Last thing we need with Lionel Fisher is more controversy. We need a good, factual, warm hearted story about shearing men and women. I'd like to include at least one interview per issue. We don't need silly stories about aliens running rampant out there." The look on Noel's face forced him to continue. "Sure, it might sell oodles of copies, and God knows we need it, but what about our integrity? Am I the only one worried about this?"

Noel shrugged as he chewed on a biro.