Curse Of Wexkia (2 page)

She giggled. ‘Nope.’

They hopped off the horses in front of the tack shed. A wet-paint sign was rammed into the ground. Nell touched her finger to the shed. ‘Ugh. It’s still wet.’

‘No. We just put up those signs for fun,’ Sam said. ‘Do you have to test everything?’

Ignoring him, she hosed the sweat off Shrewdy and the cold water reminded her of her crocodile spirit.

She said, ‘Sam?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Does a crocodile make noises like purring?’

‘I think they do when they mate. Mostly they make low roars to each other. Why?’

‘Oh, no reason.’ She had definitely had too much sun.

‘You’re weird, you know that? Go on in and I’ll make sure the horses are okay. And don’t eat all the pikelets.’

She grinned and ran to the back of the Queenslander. As she passed Sam’s herb garden she noted how well they were growing in the sandy soil. She slowed. She hadn’t chosen a major yet, preferring to try a number of subjects before she made up her mind. Sam had known what he was going to study since primary school. Music. He had always been able to sing and pick up musical instruments easily.

She hooked her helmet on a hook beside the back door, glad Annet had made her wear it that morning. After pulling off her boots, she pushed through the screen door. It slammed shut behind her. She jumped and turned around. Huh. Carl still hadn’t fixed the spring thing at the top that made it close smoothly.

‘Sam?’ Annet called out from the other room.

‘Only me,’ Nell said.

‘Help yourself to the pikelets.’

‘Okay.’

A large tray full of pikelets sat in the middle of the round kitchen table, a jar of plum jam and a bowl of cream next to it. Sam didn’t have to worry. No one person could eat all the pikelets.

She sat down at the table, spread the jam and dolloped some cream on top. As she ate, she sat back feeling completely at home in the Frederick’s home. Of course she did. She spent most of her time there when her father was away. And the whole family spent nearly all their time in the cosy kitchen.

Oh, they had a formal dining room and a sitting room but that was only used if they had guests or for special occasions. The television and game consoles were set up in the old living room. Sam and Nell used that room the most. Annet liked to cook so spent most of her time in
front of the stove and Carl preferred to stay with her when he wasn’t writing in his study.

Annet entered the kitchen with a small, white timer in her hand. A towel was wrapped around her shoulders and her hair was wet with newly applied colour. She was in her thirties and didn’t have one grey hair, but she loved red rinses. Nell had always wanted fair hair like Annet’s natural colour. She would have also liked Annet’s lightly tanned skin. A lot of North Italians had the same colouring. Sam definitely took after her, in looks anyway, though his personality was a clone of Carl’s mischievous side.

‘Hello, sweetie. You caught me. I thought I’d have it rinsed off by the time you got back.’ She looked down at the floor in front of the back door.

Nell followed her eyes. She’d left wet prints from the door to the chair.

‘Speaking of looks, why are your socks wet? And your hair?’

‘Um …’ At least her top and riding pants were nearly dry. She sighed. No use in making up stories with Annet around. ‘I fell off Shrewdy.’

‘Are you hurt?’

Nell shook her head. ‘No. Just my pride.’

She narrowed knowing eyes at Nell. ‘Was that before or after you kids raced the horses?’

‘During.’

‘Oh, Nell. You’ve been told a million times not to race. Wait till I see Sam. He’s supposed to look after you, not get you killed.’

‘It’s not his fault. I took off before he could stop me. The beach was so still and quiet, I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, Sam’s already ripped it up me.’

Annet shook her head, a small smile on her face and
Nell knew she wasn’t really angry. She had never seen Annet say one real cross word to anyone.

‘Oh, but, Annet, I was so close to beating him this time.’ The crocodile’s image sprang into her mind.

‘What’s wrong?’

Nell threw her a smile. She had to learn to watch her expressions around Annet. The woman had a weird sense of what others were feeling. ‘Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how close to winning that race I was, that’s all.’

‘Never mind. Eat up. We still need to put some meat on your bones.’ She leant against the serving bench.

‘Aren’t you sitting down?’ Nell said.

‘No. I don’t want to get colour all over the back of the chair.’ Bzzzz. ‘About time. I still have packing to do.’ Annet put the timer on the bench and started out the door.

Packing? ‘Wait,’ Nell said. ‘Are you going away?’

‘Ah-huh. We have a six am flight to Melbourne tomorrow so we’re staying in Cairns for the night.’

‘Sam didn’t say anything.’ So that was the reason for the hair colour.

‘He doesn’t know yet. Carl only got the call this morning. His publisher wants to see him, something about a movie deal. You know what it’s like. Ooh. They make me so mad sometimes. They never give him any notice. Don’t worry; you and Sam aren’t coming with us this time.’

‘You’re leaving us both here?’ They’d only ever gone away without her when her father was home.

‘No. No. Didn’t I tell you? Your father will be back from his business trip today. Only Sam will be staying here alone and I think he’s old enough to cook himself a meal or two.’

‘Now that, I want to see.’ Her father was coming
home. He’d only been gone for a couple of weeks. That was a shorter trip than usual. She wished she knew what he did. All she knew was that his trips took him to different places, some far away and that he researched potential outlets for his employer’s clients.

Whatever it was, she never knew whether to be excited or depressed at his return. She loved him, but sometimes, she wasn’t so sure how he felt about her. His trips away from home had become more frequent and much longer during the last year. When he was at home, he spent most of his time in the library.

‘Make sure you remind Sam he has to clean up afterwards.’

Nell stood. ‘I will. And I’d better get home and make sure the house is tidy for Dad. Can you tell Sam to come over when he’s finished scoffing all the pikelets?’

Annet laughed and nodded. ‘Sure. Don’t forget to tell your father about your acceptance into JCU. He needs to give the final go ahead.’ She turned to go, but stopped and looked at Nell. ‘And, sweetie, tie your hair up off your face before you go home. It’s all straggly.’

N
ell pedalled her bike south through the thick line of coconut palms that bordered the path and separated the beach from the rainforest.

Glad of the shade, she stopped and gazed back at the beach. More images from her nightmares floated across her mind. The crocodile and Shrewdy joined them. They were just dreams from Carl’s stories. Sam’s father told his stories in such amazing vivid detail, science fiction intertwined with Aboriginal tales would give any girl nightmares.

‘Koo koo koo kaa kaa.’

Nell started and only just managed to keep her bike from tipping as the kookaburra’s rollicking laughter seemed to mock her.

‘Oh, be quiet.’ She regained her balance. The bird looked different. His eyes were black and way too big. The crocodile’s eyes were the same.

The bird cut short his call. His gaze appeared despondent as he sat on the power line. As if in a sulk, he buried his beak into his puffed out white-feathered chest without taking his eyes off her.

‘Oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead and laugh if you want.’

He seemed to brighten and broke into song.

Nell shook her head. Now she was talking to a kookaburra. A sulky kookaburra at that. She gazed up. His
eyes were the usual brown and smaller. It must have been the light.

She propped her bike in the bike rack Carl had made for her at the corner of her two-storey house and noted the white weatherboards needed painting. Why hadn’t she ever noticed the peeling paint before and why did two people need such a big house anyway? She shrugged. For some reason, she seemed to notice a lot of things that day.

She strolled along the short path to the front stairs, picking the little purple flower heads off the weeds that poked out from under the house.

Once on the front veranda, she could just see the roof of the Frederick’s house. She decided to go around to the ocean side of the house where she blew the flower heads off her palm towards the ocean.

The French doors to the living room were open which meant her father was already home.

She took her boots off and kicked them against the wall.

‘Is that you, Nell?’

‘Yeah, Dad. Be there in a tick.’

She peeled of her wet socks and threw them onto her boots. At least the rest of her was dry. She touched her hair. Oops, except that. Plucking off a hair-band from her wrist, she tied as much of her curls back off her face as she could and walked through the doors.

Her father had just entered the living room from the foyer. At the sight of her, his pace picked up. ‘Hello, love,’ he said as he took Nell in a hug.

She hugged him back. ‘Hi, Dad.’ When she let go, she said, ‘Sorry I wasn’t here when you got home. Annet only just told me.’

‘That’s all right. I haven’t been here long.’ He turned
and sat on the sofa. ‘Come and tell me what you’ve been up to while I’ve been gone. Are you enjoying your holidays with Sam?’

‘Yeah and a heap of people came up to ride the horses last week. That was fun.’

‘Yes. I’ve been thinking how lonely it must be for you here. Maybe we should move to somewhere where you can have friends close by all the time.’

‘Leave here? Oh, I don’t think I’d like to leave here forever. I mean, I like going away sometimes but I really like coming back. And I love the Fredericks. I’d miss them way too much.’

He laughed. ‘I know you do, love. I do too. However, you are getting older and you can’t stay isolated all your life. Never mind, we’ll talk about that later. How about you clean yourself up and make me some coffee. I’ll join you in the kitchen after I’ve unpacked.’

She pushed her hair behind her ears.

‘I think we need Annet to trim those curls of yours.’

‘No. I like it long and I’ll keep it neat. Promise.’

He smiled. ‘We’ll see.’

Not for the first time, she wished her mother was there to take her side. Asisa had black curls and fair skin too but her eyes were brown. Nell had blue eyes like her father. But that’s where any similarity ended. His hair was straight and blond and his skin tanned easily. She sighed. She could wish until the world ended but nothing would bring her mother back. Asisa had died the night Nell was born.

Her father tilted her chin up to him. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yeah. Just thinking about Mum is all.’

‘I know, love. It’s hard with only two of us. I’m hoping that will change in the future and I won’t have to spend so much time away from you.’

‘How will it—’

‘Hold any questions until I get back.’ He rose to his feet and headed for the foyer.

She stood up and called after him. ‘Okay, but don’t be long.’

Nell walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. Annet had helped decorate the whole house, but the kitchen was the only room where she had full rein. The curtains above the sink opposite were full of vivid parrots. Jars of every colour in the rainbow lined the bench top on both sides of the stove and a sturdy wooden table stood against the side wall. Nell and her father ate there when they were by themselves. No. She couldn’t stand not spending some of her life in that room if they moved away for good.

While she waited for the water to boil, she poured herself a glass of sarsaparilla and sat down. The jug clicked off. ‘Hurry up, Dad,’ she mumbled. Leaving the coffee unmade, she sat back and drank her soft drink. By the time she’d finished, her father still hadn’t joined her. What was keeping him? She had so much to tell him and especially wanted to let him know about university. He would be proud of her.

Humph. Annet was worried when Nell asked her to help her with the enrolment form. She said they should get David’s permission first. Nell had pushed though. She said she’d spoken to her father about uni and he was all for it. It wasn’t really a fib. At the start of grade twelve, she had asked if she could go on to university. His reply was vague as usual. He said, ‘We’ll see when the time comes.’ That wasn’t a no. And he seemed okay with it at the time.

Nell wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there but it seemed like forever. She decided she’d go and hurry him up.

The doors to the foyer were closed. That was strange. Her father’s voice floated through from the other side. He was probably talking to Carl.

A man spoke. His voice was the deepest Nell had ever heard. Not Carl.

She breathed out. Goose bumps sprang up all over her skin. No one ever visited them. She reached for the doorknobs, but hesitated. She hadn’t fixed her hair. Blast. She pulled the band out and hurried in front of the wall mirror above the sideboard in the dining room. Using her fingers to comb her hair back, she pulled it as tight as she could into a ponytail and tied it. Not bad.

Back at the doors, she couldn’t make out any words the throaty stranger said but he sounded agitated.

Maybe she shouldn’t interrupt. She shrugged.

Opening the doors wide, Nell stepped in front of the stairs. She wasn’t sure whether it was the sound she made or her father’s eyes darting in her direction, but the visitor promptly concealed what looked like a dark-green beret on his head with the hood of his lime-green cape. Who on earth wore their hats so tight over their heads? She didn’t see the beret properly, but it looked like it had crooked lines all over it. And what was with the cape and the weird brown uniform? Now that was the weirdest fashion she had ever seen, especially during summer in the tropics.

The men stood in front of the palm-filled alcove created by the sweeping staircase. Her father was tall but his visitor was a full head taller.

The stranger kept his back to Nell.