Krubi's Dreamtime

Chapter 1

T he air in the room suddenly exuded fear, a fear as subtle as the clinking of ice cubes in a glass of water. Jamie’s eyes opened wide, his Adam’s apple yo-yoed along his throat as he mouthed a silent scream and fled the room.

The three fingers, resting on the slowly moving overturned glass, fell away as each participant burst into gales of laughter at the youth’s urgent departure. Amidst the hilarity, Kaylene chuckled to Todd, ‘Well, he certainly changed his tune. Wasn’t this his idea? He’s been nagging us to hold a seance for days now.’

‘Give the kid a break,’ Todd answered. ‘His spirit’s willing but the flesh is weak, if you’ll excuse the pun. He only thinks he wants to know the mysteries of life, but the sudden confrontation with the possibility of anything supernatural causes his survival instinct to take over.’

Outside the old army barracks, the surrounding desert was as still as death. The group sat around a circular table, trying to conjure up likely spirits they felt inhabited the redundant rocket-tracking station set in the South Australian Desert. In just another week or so, the complex would be deserted yet again, to revert to the empty shell it was when Kaylene arrived three months beforehand.

There was now time to relax and enjoy the peaceful outback with its amazing beauty, which each member of the group had come to love, despite their disappointment at the government’s rejection of their plan to make the complex into an overnight tourist bus stopover. Wildflowers bloomed in abundance, a rare sight unless torrential rain flooded Lake Eyre, which is normally just barren salt plains, but recent rain had majestically turned it into a desert oasis for every type of bird and fish, after a break of the thirty-year-old drought.

It was in this once-barren wasteland that Kaylene fell in love with Todd, a part-Aboriginal who had asked her to marry him and return with him to his hometown in Gippsland in Victoria. But for the next week, the group, who were complete strangers before they met in the desert, had time to enjoy the desert’s majestic splendour, without the back-breaking work they’d endured for a venture that failed to eventuate.

Todd pushed his chair back from the table and said, ‘I’d better check on him. Be back in a minute,’ and he left the room.

Kaylene and Brett exchanged glances. Brett’s brow furrowed as he said, ‘Perhaps we should have known he would crack up. He didn’t really expect the glass to move, you know. He’s scared of his own shadow. I think it comes from his old man’s fire and brimstone sermons. Poor bugger was brainwashed into religion as a kid. I reckon that’s why he tries so hard to convince people that he’s an atheist. The truth is, he wants to disregard all the stuff his parents pounded into his head, but he can’t. It’s instilled in him now that Jehovah is the only god and you’re not supposed to have an open mind. But all this Aboriginal dreamtime stuff we’ve been involved in up here has really blown his mind. Now he doesn’t know what to believe. The only reason he wanted the seance was to prove to himself that it was all bunkum. He’ll be okay. Don’t worry!’

The pair lapsed into silence as they awaited Todd’s and Jamie’s return. The warm evening air embraced them like a hug, each immersed in their own thoughts. Brett broke the silence again to declare, ‘It was a stupid idea anyway. Let’s give it a miss and just watch a video.’

‘Perhaps you’re right, but it amuses me to think how enthusiastic Jamie was about the seance initially. It was he who raced around cutting up paper to write letters and numbers on and setting up the little table. If we’d rejected his idea, he’d have been really disappointed.’

The image of Jamie’s preparations, searching for a suitable table and glass, flashed into Kaylene’s mind, and she smiled. He had ordered everyone to take it seriously, and when the three others were sitting quietly at the table, Kaylene said to him, ‘Come on, Jamie, sit down and put your finger on the glass.’

His face had blanched at the thought, and he whispered hoarsely, ‘Not me! I’ll just watch.’

The others had laughed but decided to go ahead without his input, and they joked around about catching any spirit that happened to be flitting around. Brett deepened his voice and chanted, ‘If there are any spirits present, please go to Yes . . . or No, if you so choose.’

Todd added, ‘Any ol’ spirit will do—whisky, gin, you name it. We’re not fussy.’

Kaylene scowled at them and hissed, ‘Will you two be serious? Turn off the overhead light, Jamie. Use the lamp. That might help.’

Five minutes later, the jovial atmosphere changed. The glass on the table began to move very slowly towards the word ‘Yes’.

Kaylene assumed that Todd was manipulating it, but when she looked enquiringly at him, he was gazing at her with the same expression, as if he thought she was responsible for the movement. Brett too had a doubting expression on his face, but Jamie, who was standing back from the table, moved forward as if hypnotised, his eyes fixed on the glass, his mouth agape. ‘It’s movin’ . . .’ he began, before his voice dwindled away.

‘Would the spirit present like to spell out his or her name please?’ Kaylene asked in her best imitation of how she imaged a medium would sound, still not believing that the glass was moving unaided.

The group was amazed when the glass slowly moved around the table as if in search of a particular letter or word. Kaylene whispered to Brett, ‘Quickly write down any letter it stops at.’

When he removed his finger from the glass to pick up the notepad, it kept moving until it came to the letter ‘M’ and stopped. The tension in the room grew thick as they watched the glass move again and stop at the letter ‘A’, then on to the letter ‘Y’. It was at that moment that Jamie exited the room post-haste.

Whilst Kaylene and Brett waited for Todd to convince Jamie that no ghost was about to attack him, Brett tentatively rested his finger on the glass, only to snatch it away as if burnt when the glass began to move again. The couple stared dumbfounded at it until Kaylene found her voice and hissed, ‘Put your finger back quickly, Brett,’ as she also placed her finger back on the glass.

It began to circle the letters once more, stopping at the letters ‘O’ and ‘R’ before returning to the centre of the table.

Brett wrote down the word ‘OR’ and said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense. OR and MAY. What do you reckon?’

She shrugged her shoulders in puzzlement, and before she could answer, Todd and Jamie re-entered the room, each carrying a couple of stubbies of beer, one of which Todd offered to Brett. Jamie seemed more relaxed, and Todd winked at Kaylene, behind his back, to assure her that everything was fine.

‘Do you want us to stop all this nonsense, mate?’ she asked.

‘Nah, I’m okay. Just got a bit freaked out when that bloody thing moved, but Todd explained how it’s caused by all the combined energies in the room or somethin’ just as weird. Go ahead, I’m still interested. What have you got so far?’

‘Not much. Two words . . . OR and MAY. We must have interrupted it,’ Brett explained as he passed the notepad to Todd. His face changed from a smile to a deep frown as he studied the words.

‘What’s up, Todd?’ Kaylene asked.

‘This isn’t two words. It’s only one. You’ve got them in the wrong order. It spells mayor. Isn’t that what they called that Whitticker bloke, whose monument is out in the courtyard?’

‘Of course, the Mayor of Mirikata. That’s what Ron always called him. It’s written on the tombstone,’ she stated unnecessarily.

‘Sufferin’ Christ!’ Jamie expostulated, his eyes widening. ‘Try explainin’ that, Toddy boy!’

‘I can’t,’ he answered soberly, ‘but now I’m really curious. Let’s see what he has to say.’

He pulled a chair close to the table and placed a finger on the glass. ‘Come on, you lot, let’s get serious.’

Brett and Kaylene joined him at the table. Jamie stood back against the wall. Todd said to him, ‘If you’re not joining us, grab the notepad and write down anything we get, even if it doesn’t make sense.’ The youth did so with obvious reluctance.

Again, the atmosphere in the room became tense as Todd spoke softly. ‘Is this Mr Whitticker?’

With little hesitation, the glass moved to the word ‘yes’.

‘Was it you who frightened Jamie when he first arrived at Mirikata?’

Again, the answer was ‘yes’. Kaylene glanced at Jamie to see how he was coping, expecting him to make a dash for the door at any moment, but he had straightened his shoulders slightly, as if to say, ‘I told you so!’ He took a step closer to the table as he scribbled the results on the pad.

‘Why did you do it?’ Todd asked.

The glass suddenly raced around the table, this time without hesitation, spelling out the words, ‘bit of fun’.

Jamie scoffed, ‘I didn’t think it was too bloody funny!’

Kaylene said, ‘Tell us something to prove your identity. Did you know Ron?’

‘yes.’

‘What would Ron know about you that we don’t? We’ll verify it when he returns from Port Augusta.’

‘Sarong’ was the next word written, and the group looked quizzically at one another.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Jamie demanded, leaning forward towards the glass as if he imagined a tiny person trapped inside.

‘Who wore a sarong? Your wife, someone else, or you?’ Todd asked.

‘Me’ was the answer.

‘Tell us more about it,’ Todd suggested.

‘Fell off.’

They were the last words written, and immediately the tenseness in the room dissipated. At that moment, the group was startled by the jangling of the telephone in the dining room across the walkway. Jamie leaned closer to the glass and said very seriously, ‘Don’t go away. I’ll be back in a minute,’ as if to the tiny inhabitant in the overturned glass. He hurried to answer the phone as everyone burst into laughter at his antics.

Todd got up to replenish everyone’s drink. Kaylene watched him, admiring his indigenous good looks. The small amount of Aboriginal blood in him served to enhance the honey-coloured hue of his skin. His blue eyes betrayed the other side of his Caucasian father.

‘When did Ron say he’d be back, darling?’ she asked as he passed her a drink.

‘Sometime tomorrow, he reckons. When are you and Jamie heading out for the Alice, Brett?’

‘In a couple of days, I think. My girlfriend Carmel is meeting us in Coober Pedy on Friday. She’s coming with us for a trip to Uluru,’ he answered.

The seance was discarded as the three companions discussed future plans. The caretaker Ron had travelled down to Port Augusta to make arrangements to move there once Mirikata was closed for the second time. Todd and Kaylene intended moving down to Traralgon, where Todd was still a police officer, to get married and settle in Todd’s home. Jamie and Brett, lifelong friends, planned to travel around Australia before returning to their homes in Castlemaine, Victoria.

The group went outside to enjoy the cool evening air in the breezeway between the buildings. There was no hurry to leave the complex now because there was almost a month’s supply of food in the pantry and freezer, so they relaxed with Brett strumming his guitar and singing. Jamie joined them shortly afterwards, looking disappointed that they’d abandoned the seance just as it was getting interesting.

‘Who was on the phone, J?’ Brett asked.

‘That barman from Coober Pedy. He’s booked us into the motel next Friday night, so we’d better take as many photos of this place as we can before the army takes it over again.’

‘Right. Has Carmel been in touch with him yet?’

‘He didn’t mention it, but he did have some news about John McIver’s accident. He reckons that he wasn’t as bad as they first thought. He’s not a paraplegic, but he’ll be laid up for a few months. Hope his accountant knows we’re still waitin’ for our wages. I didn’t work me guts out in this hot desert for the good of me health,’ Jamie declared.

‘That’s what I like about you, mate. You’re so full of compassion,’ Todd chuckled sarcastically.

‘Why be a hypocrite? The bloke’s a bastard. Bein’ smashed up doesn’t make him a nice guy. I reckon he’s getting’ just what he deserves.’

Kaylene stepped in before there was an argument about the raw deal they had all endured at the hands of Mirikata’s owner, John McIver. Jamie could not understand how Todd would not want to get even with the man who had disrupted all their lives.

‘Don’t worry about your money, Jamie. It will be in the bank by Friday. If not, I’ll give you a personal cheque and get it back when our account is settled.’

The following morning, Ron arrived back from Port Augusta and informed Kaylene over breakfast that he had put his Adelaide house on the market and had already found a suitable place to live in Port Augusta. Many of his old army buddies still lived around the Woomera District.

Jamie wandered into the dining room fresh from the shower and greeted Ron warmly, saying, ‘Welcome back, Ron. How was your trip? No hassles, I hope. We had some fun while you were away.’

‘It went well, but it’s amazing how pleased I was to see this place again. I’m really going to miss it. Who would have believed we could grow so fond of a deserted army base in the middle of the desert? And yet, when I drove in at daybreak, I felt I’d arrived home,’ Ron said with a touch of melancholy.

‘I know exactly how you feel, Ron,’ Kaylene said. ‘I hated this place when I first arrived. Remember how I cried with homesickness? You must have wondered what you’d struck, but now I love the place as much as you do. I find it hard to accept that John McIver isn’t going to protest to the government. He owns this place outright, so they have no right to tell him how he should use it.’

Todd entered the room, smiling broadly at Ron, and stood beside Kaylene as they chatted.

‘Oh, the government doesn’t mind what they do with the old base, but they own the road between here and the highway, and they’ve forbidden us from using their road, so in essence, they have managed to snooker us. Of course, they can’t stop John and his family from using the road, but he’s in so much trouble at the moment that he hasn’t got time to worry about any new ventures. I guess we just have to lick our wounds and put this whole fiasco down to a learning experience.’

‘Yes, unfortunately, you’re right,’ she agreed.

Todd put his arm around her waist and drew her against him, saying, ‘Come on, Krubi, let’s not get maudlin. Some good came out of it. You met me, and we’re about to start a new chapter in our lives together, or would you rather stay here and flog a dead horse?’

She reached up and kissed him gently and said, ‘Of course not. I can’t wait. Gippsland is one place I’ve never been.’

‘Righto, you two, don’t go gettin’ all mushy. You’ve got the rest of your lives to do that,’ Jamie interjected. ‘Tell Ron about our talk with the spooks.’

Ron looked amused as Todd and Kaylene explained their evening of enticing ghosts to the complex until Todd asked, ‘Was there anything unusual about that Whitticker bloke, Ron?’

Ron chortled and answered, ‘Lots of things. He was a real character. To start with, he couldn’t tolerate the heat. It brought out an unbearable rash in him so bad that he couldn’t wear trousers.’

Jamie jumped in, excited, as he stared at Ron and said, ‘Yeah, so he wore a sarong, right?’

Ron looked at him in surprise and said, ‘How could you know about that?’

‘Old Whitticker told us about it,’ he declared, which deepened the frown on Ron’s face. ‘Todd tried to tell me this talkin’ to ghosts was all mumbo-jumbo, but I knew all along that there were ghosts here, an’ nobody would believe me. Now we can prove it, and I won’t be able to get out of here soon enough.’

The group discussed the happenings of the previous evening, and Ron reinforced Jamie’s opinion by describing a day when his friend’s sarong fell off in front of a crowd of people. Although Ron didn’t doubt their story, he remained sceptical, and an intense debate ensued. Before they could come to an amicable decision, Brett burst into the room, slamming the door behind him, a frightened expression on his face.

‘What’s wrong, mate?’ Todd asked.

‘There’s a black bloke heading this way.’

‘So it’s probably Bimbo. Is he riding a horse?’

‘No, he’s walking straight out of the desert, and when I say he’s black, he’s really black, almost blue-black. This old man looks as if he’s never seen civilisation. He’s wearing a skin cape across one shoulder and carrying a spear, like something out of Australian Geographic magazine. I reckon he’s a nomad. He’s got a long grey bushy beard and is wearing a lap-lap,’ Brett explained as if he couldn’t believe his own eyes.

Todd and Kaylene exchanged glances, then smiled knowingly, and said simultaneously, ‘Goorie!’ and to Brett, Todd said, ‘No worries, mate. It’s an old friend of ours. Wait here. I’ll go and welcome him.’

He ambled out to greet his friend. Kaylene watched them from the shaded walkway near the living quarters. The hot desert haze shimmered around the old Aboriginal’s feet, giving the impression that he was floating. Todd’s shoulders straightened imperceptibly as if to demonstrate the respect he held for the approaching elder, whose ebony skin took on a polished teak appearance in the morning glare. The two figures met beside the abandoned telescopic dome. Unlike white Australians, neither offered his hand in friendship as this was not the way of the indigenous people.

Kaylene wished the pair were closer to the complex so she could hear the conversation. She knew enough about Goorie to realise that his visit was extremely important as he rarely communicated with the white race. He considered their invasion of the outback in four-wheel drive vehicles that cut through his tribal land to be blasphemy against his culture and dreamtime spirits.

Todd’s head nodded occasionally as Goorie waved the spear he was carrying in various directions. Todd turned towards Kaylene at one stage when the old man pointed the spear in her direction, making her step back behind the barracks wall, embarrassed for trying to eavesdrop.

Ron joined her and asked, ‘What’s the big con-flab about, do you know?’

‘Wish I did. They both look very serious, whatever it is. Todd will probably tell us when he comes back. We’d better go in. They’ve already spotted me sticky-beaking.’ She followed Ron back to the living quarters where Brett and Jamie were peering through the kitchen window, in an effort to see what was happening.

‘Buggered if I can see anything. Can you, Brett?’

‘Only the back of Todd’s head. Do you reckon that’s the old bloke they stayed with in the desert?’

‘Who else would it be? None of the station hands at Steve’s joint dress like that. He looks like somethin’ from the Stone Age. Wonder what he wants. Wanta get the ol’ truck out an’ pretend we need somethin’ over near the dome?’ Jamie suggested.

‘Don’t bother!’ Kaylene called from the doorway behind them, causing Jamie to overbalance off the chair he was kneeling on and fall heavily against Brett, who in turn knocked some kitchen utensils to the floor in a noisy clatter.

‘What the hell are you boys doing in there? Wrecking the place?’ Ron laughed from behind them.

‘Jees’, Kaylene, you frightened the hell out of us,’ Brett grinned guiltily.

‘Well, you shouldn’t be squizzing out the window, should you? Todd will tell us what’s going on when he comes back. And yes, it is the same Aborigine we stayed with in the desert. Until Todd gets back, why don’t you boys start taking the photos you wanted? Next time you travel this way, this place will either be inhabited again by the Air Force or demolished, so you can preserve it for posterity.’ They scrambled past her and went to their rooms to collect the cameras.

‘I’m going to really miss those boys, aren’t you, Ron? Can you imagine how dull this place would have been without them?’ Kaylene pondered as she poured them tea and sat down opposite the caretaker at the table.

‘Yes, they’re a pair of characters all right. I often wonder what keeps them such good mates. They’re complete opposites, and I’ve never heard them agree on anything. I’m sure they just like to argue.’

‘I think they grew up together in the same small town and consider each other family,’ Kaylene supposed. It was obvious to her that if the boys ever agreed, the fun would go out of their friendship. She studied the craggy face of the older man sitting across from her. She also considered him family, the father she lost so long ago when her parents were killed in a road smash. But fate had seen fit to lead her to this wonderful man in the least expected place. Out of adversity, she had replaced the father she had so loved.

‘What are you going to do now, Ron?’ she asked. ‘I can’t see you settling down to retirement.’

‘No, love, I’ll stick around here a while and finalise things. Put new locks on the buildings to prevent vandals destroying the place until John either sells it back to the government, which I think was his intention all along, or then settle down in Port Augusta and catch up with all my mates from my Air Force days. It breaks my heart to see all our work go to waste because some short-sighted government official saw fit to close us down. All our effort was for nothing,’ he said, trying to hide the sadness she saw in his eyes.

She covered his work-worn hand with hers, smiled, and said, ‘How can you say that? We’d never have met if Warren hadn’t talked me into running this whole project. You’ve filled my life with contentment, when I was most vulnerable, and where would I be now if I hadn’t met Todd? This experience is my dreamtime story, or karma, and it can only get better. Why don’t you come down south with us?’

‘Newly-weds don’t want some old geezer interfering with their new life. I’d just be in the way.’

‘That’s not true. Sometimes I need an ally against Todd. He can be very pig-headed, you know. Besides, even though I’d be prepared to live on a riverbank with him, I doubt our baby would take to a life without television and other luxuries.’

As she spoke the last sentence, she watched the delight creep into Ron’s eyes. He spluttered, ‘You don’t mean . . . You and Todd . . . a baby!’

Her eyes reflected her happiness. ‘We most certainly are! Haven’t you noticed how green around the gills I’ve been the last couple of mornings? This having a baby isn’t half the fun it’s cracked up to be.’

‘Well, I’ll be damned! That’s great news. Perhaps it is better that you go down south. You’d have to depend on the Flying Doctor up here, if anything went wrong. Is Todd happy about it?’

‘Ecstatic. He can’t wait to get to Gippsland to brag about it. We intend to get married in a little church in Tarraville, near where he grew up. It was built in the eighteenth century. You’ll have to plan on coming down. Otherwise, who will give me away?’

He stood up and hugged her, saying, ‘I’d be honoured. With Todd in the police force, your future should be secure. I’ll really miss you, love. The past few months have been terrific. Just wish the whole project had panned out for all of us.’ He let her go, and she heard a lilt of sadness in his voice as he turned away.

‘Don’t be so gloomy. We’ll expect you to come down there every holiday. And my offer still goes for you to live down there. After all, our baby will need a grandfather, and you’re the nearest thing he has.’

‘Tempting offer, but my twenty-five-year-old son is living in my house at the moment, and I’d like to get to know him better. We don’t have a lot in common.’

An hour later, Todd walked into the bedroom where Kaylene was packing their belongings into boxes. He took his shirt from her hand and led her to the bed where he sat her down and crouched down in front of her to say, ‘I’ve got something to tell you, Krubi, and I want you to listen carefully.’

She ran her fingers through his curly hair and gave a nervous laugh. ‘Don’t be so serious. It can’t be that bad. Is this about Goorie?’ A sudden chill ran down her spine, and she held her breath, waiting for Todd to negate her concerns.

‘It’s about what he knows. He came to warn me against going back to Gippsland. He had a vision of me being attacked by a renegade tribe.’

‘That’s ridiculous! There are very few Aborigines left in Victoria, let alone tribes of them. Why would he tell you such a preposterous story? Is it because he doesn’t want you mating up with me. You’re not going to take this seriously, are you?’

Todd stood up and walked to the window and gazed out at the shimmering desert, as if it could answer him. His shoulders hunched, and Kaylene became concerned as the seconds stretched to minutes with just the hum of the air conditioner’s rattly motor. Finally, he turned to her, his jawline firmly set in determination.

‘No, I won’t give you up, no matter what he says,’ he declared.

‘So it is about me. Who does he want you to marry, some desert lubra he chooses?’ she spat.

He returned to her side. His eyes filled with unshed tears as he took her in his arms and kissed each eyelid before laying her back on the bed. He snuggled into her side and whispered, ‘There’s no need to worry about me marrying some lubra. My blood’s too tainted by the white man for Goorie to purify it. No. I think he genuinely cares what will happen to us if we go and felt compelled to warn us. He cares about you as well, but his visions are rarely wrong, and I don’t want to put you and our baby in jeopardy if there’s no need to do it. So we need to take heed of what he told me.’

‘Which is?’

‘He travelled all night to get here before we left, and that couldn’t have been easy at his age. So let’s at least examine the message stick he carried. Firstly, he didn’t say I shouldn’t marry you. He warned that many white fellas would object to our union and will cause trouble for us. He had no answer when I asked if they’d be happy to see me take a full-blooded Aborigine girl as my woman. He knows I can never be fully accepted by either race, so is it fair to thrust my beliefs on you? I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t, so you need to think seriously about it and decide if you’re strong enough to withstand the racial slurs we’re sure to encounter. I’m used to it but you’re not.’

She didn’t need to think about it. She knew that she would walk through fire to be with him. ‘How can you even ask me that? We can’t worry about stuff that may never happen. Isn’t that why the marriage vows say ‘for better or worse’? You’re stuck with me, and we’ll weather any storm we have to no matter where we live.’

‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ he said as he kissed her, ‘but that means we’ll need to cut our holiday short. We’ll be leaving tomorrow.’ Instead of helping her pack, he pulled her close to him, saying, ‘Another half hour won’t make much difference.’

She pushed him away in annoyance and spluttered, ‘How can you even think about making love when we’ve just been warned that things are not going to be as rosy as we expected. If we have to leave, let’s do it now. We’re wasting time!’

He released her reluctantly, saying, ‘I’ve heard it called lots of things but never a waste of time.’ He turned and began dragging clothing from the wardrobe.

As they packed, Kaylene’s mind flitted back to the high hopes she had when she’d accepted the position of overseer of the Mirikata project and how hard her team had worked to fulfil a dream, only to have everything crumble down around them. How did she know this drastic life change would not end up in the same deep disappointment? Her confidence was at its lowest ebb, and had she not fallen in love with Todd, she would have been back in Melbourne working at some day care centre. His love had given her a lifeline, and now she depended on him to maintain the self-esteem she’d procured whilst working in the outback, but she knew that she would follow him to hell rather than be without him, so she had no choice but to take a chance on a better life down south.

She followed him out to the car and trailer with a heavy box and watched him pack their belongings. He was stripped to the waist, and she admired his muscular body glistening in the sun as a trickle of perspiration ran down between his pectoral muscles and disappeared beneath his belt. She sighed and decided that tomorrow was too far away to worry about.

As she passed him the box and was about to return to the complex for another, she glanced across towards the radar building and saw silhouetted against the waning sun the figure of Goorie, one foot resting on his knee, his spear pointing to the sky, like a grim warning not to disregard his words. Despite the desert heat, a cold shiver ran through her body.

Chapter 2

J amie and Brett were packed and ready to leave early the following morning, both nursing hangovers from the previous evening’s celebrations. Brett loaded their guitars into the boot of his car, and Jamie walked towards Kaylene and Todd, who were also ready to leave. As he approached, Kaylene pondered on how this boy had developed into a man in the short time he’d worked for her. Gone was the chubbiness he carried around his waist, and his body had trimmed and hardened with the physical labour he had endured. His once pallid skin had tanned to a copper colour, and his greasy punk-style hair, which used to hang over one eye, was now long and shiny and worn in a short ponytail down the back of his neck. His twinkling chocolate eyes smiled at Todd as he said, ‘Mind if I kiss ya missus, Toddy boy?’

Without waiting for an answer, he kissed Kaylene on the mouth as one would a mother. ‘It’s been great workin’ for you and Ron, Kay. Wish we didn’t have to break the team up. Never thought I’d enjoy workin’ for a woman, but we’ve had a great time, except for the ghost of course, haven’t we, Brett?’ he called over his shoulder as Brett approached to bid them farewell.

‘Sure have. We can put that ghost episode down to J’s imagination. That poor old Mayor is going to be really lonely with nobody to terrorise, whadda ya reckon, Todd?’

‘I don’t know, mate. I’ve heard that these outback ghosts like to travel. He’s probably sitting in the back of your car now. I don’t think he’s seen Uluru yet,’ Todd teased.

‘Bullshit!’ Jamie spluttered, ‘Ghosts are stuck where they die. You can’t scare me any more than I’ve been scared since comin’ here. Come on, Brett, let’s hit the road. Your bird will be waiting for us in Coober Pedy.’ With a final hug for Kaylene and a handshake for Todd, they climbed into the car. She smiled when she saw Jamie check the back seat before they drove out of the military compound.

Ron came out to see them leave, and Todd said, ‘We’d better follow suit, I guess,’ as his arm encircled Kaylene’s waist. Ron had trouble meeting their eyes as he tried to make light of the situation. It was obvious that he was dreading the parting. He held out an envelope and handed it to Kaylene, saying, ‘Jamie asked me to give this to you when he left.’ She opened it to find a sketch of Mirikata, as it could have been once it was landscaped, with a caricature of her portrayed as a carnival spruiker, waving a flag, and another of John McIver as a devil hiding behind a palm tree. Included with the sketch was a note from Jamie that read: Kaylene, I wrote this little poem for you when the fat man decided to ruin our plans. Hope you like it. Love, Jamie.

Jamie’s Lament

Now that’s the deal. I’ll do this for that,

We’d bargain till death to make white look black.

But it’s just a game, no winner, no loss,

The outcome’s foreseen, ‘cause Kaylene’s the boss.

She just waves her finger, leans forward, mouth straight,

‘You’ll do what I say or no food on your plate!’

She’s easily won though, crawl a bit, she’ll cross.

But beware of glass in your dinner. Don’t argue with the boss!

Be seein’ ya,

J

Kaylene’s eyes filled with tears, but she laughed nervously and handed the note to Todd. ‘That Jamie’s such a card. He hasn’t even met John McIver, and yet that sketch of him is the spitting image, bushy beard and all. I’m really going to miss those boys,’ she said with a sigh.

‘Don’t worry, Krubi, this country isn’t half as big as you think. We’ll see them again, mark my words,’ Todd said.

It was mid-afternoon before they left the compound. Ron’s pensive mood had not improved all day, and the atmosphere was tense by the time they’d finalised their packing. All of Todd’s efforts to cheer the older man fell on deaf ears. Finally, Ron walked them to her car and solemnly shook hands with Todd. ‘See you look after this little girl, young fella. She’s very special.’

‘Cheer up, ol’ mate, it’s not forever. We expect to see you down south for our wedding. Otherwise, we’ll come visit you the first chance we get. She’s my world now, so you can bet your life I’ll take care of her.’ He noticed that his words hadn’t cheered Ron at all, so he winked and added, ‘Besides, who’s going to do my washing and cooking if I have to throw her out?’

She raised her hand to hit him but he grasped her wrist and twirled her around until her body was hard up against him as she hissed, ‘You male chauvinist! I might just stay here with Ron!’

Finally, they drove out to the Stuart Highway for the last time. Her final view of the military compound was through a haze of unshed tears. The interior of the vehicle was heavy with silence, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts. Ron had passed Kaylene a letter addressed to the Mayoress of Mirikata, but she delayed opening it until she was in a better frame of mind. Ron’s pain-filled eyes seemed to float before her eyes, and again she wondered if she was making the right choice.

They reached Glen Dambo around twilight. Todd pulled in to refuel the car to save them stopping too often on the long journey. ‘Do you want to stay overnight here, Krubi? We can get an early start tomorrow and be in Victoria by late afternoon.’

‘I don’t know. It doesn’t look like much of a place,’ she answered.

‘Don’t be such a snob. If we have to live on a riverbank in Gippsland, this will be luxury,’ he quipped as he headed for the motel office. She nodded agreement and stayed in the car, too emotional to care where they stayed.

Ten minutes later, Todd walked back to her accompanied by the