Fog a Dox (7 page)

The horses wheeled into the Bush Nursing Centre carpark and without a word two of the riders dismounted and hauled the third from his horse.

‘Dave, I'll find a paddock for Sparkle and leave her there. Bring her back when you can. I've gotta get back to do the milking. Look after me cousin, won't ya.' Tiger looked at Albert with concern but he knew he couldn't stay and wait for the nurse. His cows would already be dawdling in to the dairy. He had to get back.

Dave just nodded and dragged Albert to the front door.

The Bush Nursing Centre was an old building no larger than a biggish house. It was four in the morning, a time when the only nurse on duty had her quiet time, her version of afternoon tea. She wasn't happy to hear banging at the door.

Dave could hear her grumbling even above his own laboured breaths and Albert's painful gasps.

‘I'm coming … Middle of the night … Who would be making so much … ? What is it?' she demanded as she flung open the door.

Her eyes roamed over the scraggy old beast with an even scraggier old beast in his arms. Drunks, wouldn't you know it. Of all the … She looked closer and realised that they were just ordinary old bushmen, but that knowledge didn't do much to improve her humour. She'd been a bush nurse for twenty years and seen enough smelly old wrecks crawling out of the bush on their last legs.

‘Don't bring your drunken mates in here and …' she began, about to give them a dressing down in her best matronly voice, when her eyes fell on Fog.

BUSH NURSE

‘Ahhhhhhh!' she screamed, ‘A wolf, a wolf, a … a …
fox
!'

Dave was beyond fright. He had to rest his arms.

‘Shush, don't be stupid,' he said steadily, ‘it's a dox, as anyone can see. Look, out of the way, I've got a sick man here.' Involuntarily Nurse Foran stepped aside, surprised at having been told to shush for the first time in her adult life. She quickly regained her poise and squared her shoulders ready to put this old weasel in his place, but he
staggered past her and stumped along the corridor peering into the rooms to his left and right and, before she could stop him, he'd lowered Albert onto a freshly made bed.

‘You can't …' Nurse Foran began but the filthy bushman turned on her with mad glittering eyes.

‘Shush,' he said, ‘this man is nearly dead.' The nurse wasn't going to put up with this insolence and was about to deliver Hygiene Lesson Two when she realised that not only did she have two derelict bushmen in her hospital but the fox was in there too, and preparing to bite the patient's hand.

‘Ahhhhh!' she screamed again.

‘Shush,' said Dave, ‘it's a dox, this is his master. This dox has just saved this man's life. He deserves a medal for what he done, not you screamin' ya lungs out.'

‘What's a dox?' A small voice asked from the other side of the darkened room.

‘Now look what you've done,' the nurse blustered. ‘You've woken the leukaemia patient with all your noise.'

‘I haven't made any noise at all, madam, so
shush and the little boy can get back to sleep.'

‘I'm a girl,' the voice said. ‘My name's Maria and I want to know what a dox is.'

Dave was trapped in a conversation, something he'd been avoiding for decades. He was also upset by the fact that he'd carried his only friend for eleven kilometres and then ridden with him over the range to the only hospital in the district and all the nurse wanted to do was scream.

‘See,' Nurse Foran snapped, ‘this little girl is very sick and you've burst into her room and dumped this man and his … vermin in her room.'

‘Sorry, miss,' Dave addressed Maria, ‘my mate's had a bad accident in the bush and I've carried him on me back for ages and then the horses …'

‘But you can't just dump him where you like, this patient needs all the …'

‘I'm not a patient. I'm Maria and I want to know what that animal is. It looks like a fox with a collar.'

Albert moaned and at last the nurse's professional instinct took over and she took his wrist to feel his pulse.

‘Well, miss …' Dave began.

‘Maria.'

‘Maria. Well, it's not really a fox, it's like a cross between a fox and a dog. It's a dox.'

‘Rubbish,' Nurse Foran blurted as she examined Albert's arm, ‘no such thing.'

‘Why's he got a ruby on his collar?' Maria asked, noticing the dull gleam of the gemstone winking in the light from the corridor.

‘Because … because he's a really special dox and he belongs to me mate.' Dave turned to Albert. ‘This poor fella here with the broken arm.'

‘Who said it's broken? I've seen worse,' the nurse said firmly, her voice belying the gentleness with which she cut Albert's shirt away from his arm and removed his boots.

Ever smelt a bushman's socks? Nurse Foran had smelt a few in her time and Albert's weren't the worst by any means, and so she calmed a little and began organising splints and drips, beds and bandages in a blur of efficiency. Part of her bluster came from the fact that Doctor Glock was a stickler for pristine sheets and polished floors and had a way of making Nurse Foran feel like
dirt beneath his feet if he found even the slightest blemish in
his
hospital.

‘So,' Maria pursued her questioning, ‘how did your friend get a dox?'

‘Well, Albert is a really kind man you see …'

‘Albert? Albert you say?' Nurse Foran looked closer at the patient she was covering in snow-white sheets, ‘Albert Cutts? Is this Albert Cutts?'

‘Yes,' Dave replied.

‘Why didn't you say so, you stupid man?'

‘You wouldn't stop screaming.'

Nurse Foran ignored Dave's pertinent comment. ‘Albert Cutts is a good man. Everyone says so.'

‘And you must be Crazy Dave,' Maria said, ‘my dad's told me about you.'

Dave slumped into a chair and watched as the nurse bathed and dressed Albert's arm. It always turned out like this. Every time he came into town it was always, ‘Ah, look there's Crazy Dave.'

‘You don't look crazy to me,' Maria said.

‘Neither's Albert,' Nurse Foran added. ‘There are some men who never hurt a fly. Not many mind you, but Albert's one of them. My sister
would have married him if he'd ever asked.'

Dave said nothing. Albert was well known for his kindness and honesty. He was considered a bit of a curiosity for the lonely life he led, but he was respected. No one called Albert crazy.

‘Are you crazy?' Maria insisted.

‘He's different that's all,' the nurse interrupted. As she injected painkiller into Albert's … well, bum. Where else would you administer a painkiller? ‘Some men just keep to themselves and get on with their lives in private. That's the way Albert has always lived. The man who woke you up with all his noise may be the same. Probably a respectable man if the truth is known, even if he does drag vermin into a little girl's ward.' Nurse Foran ignored the fact that Fog and Queenie had slipped under the bed and out of sight.

‘Do you like being called Crazy?' Maria asked.

Dave didn't answer.

‘They call me Constipation,' Maria continued, ‘Because my name's Coniliopoulos. They think it's funny.'

‘Some people are easily amused,' Nurse Foran
assured Maria, ‘especially kids at school.'

Nurse Foran should know. Her mother must have had a brain seizure the day her daughter was born and called her Nora. Nora Foran. Borin' Foran, Gnawin' Four an' Twenty pies. Borin' Nora Foran Twenty. Funny as a dead pigeon, the kids at Nora's school. ‘Ahh,' the boys would pretend to vomit, ‘this pie's disgustin', it's Borin' Nora Foran Twenty.' Hah, hah, very funny.

‘People will say anything sometimes to hurt other people. Don't worry too much about it Maria. I'm sure David doesn't. Especially with a good friend like Albert. Who'll live to one hundred if I'm any judge.'

‘How's his arm?' Dave risked a question.

‘The arm is good, but some of the fingers could be better. Just as well you brought him when you did. Accidents like this can cause toxic shock. You've saved his life, David.'

‘Fog done it, nurse, Fog saved his life. Fog come and got me. Without Fog Albert would still be trapped by the log. Fog is the real lifesaver, nurse.'

‘Nora, David, I think you can call me Nora.'

‘Nora Foran?' Maria asked, suddenly realising why Nurse Foran knew so much about how names can hurt.

‘Yes, Maria, Nora Foran. Now I suggest you get some sleep so that you don't wake up the new patient, and you David … ah …'

‘McKinley.'

‘Mr McKinley, I suggest you take these animals home and come back in the afternoon when Albert will be in a much better condition.'

Maria watched the dox and dog follow Dave out of the ward.

That's not a dox, she said to herself, that's just a fox with a collar. But I still don't know
why
it's a fox with a collar.

Dave came back later in the day but Albert was asleep. They couldn't shift him easily while he was so ill so he was still in Maria's room.

Dave didn't know what to do so he sat in a chair and pretended to read a magazine about film stars and princesses.

‘Where's the dox?' Maria asked from behind him.

Dave had hoped she'd be asleep too.

‘At Albert's house. I took him back there to keep Brim company.'

‘You both live in the bush?'

‘Yes.'

‘Do you get lonely?'

‘No, I've got a dog.'

‘What's its name?'

‘Bess.'

‘Bess, that's a short name.'

‘Queenie Bess.'

‘Queenie Bess. That's better. I like that. What sort of dog is she?'

‘You saw her last night, she's part dingo.'

‘You really are strange aren't you? A fox and a dingo.'

‘Fog is a dox, I told you that.'

‘I think it's a fox with a collar.'

Dave shrugged.

‘I read all day and watch Discovery Channel every chance I get. What else is there to do in
here? I know a lot about animals.'

‘You like animals?'

‘Of course, doesn't everyone?'

‘Some don't. It's good that you can learn about them while you're in here.'

‘I'm dying.'

It was like a sledgehammer hitting a wedge. The two blows rang as clear in the room as struck metal in a frosty valley. Dave's ears hummed in surprise and confusion.

‘I heard them tell Mum. They thought I was asleep. I knew I could trick them into telling the truth.'

‘I'm sure … ah …' Dave knew that as the only conscious adult in the room it was his job to reassure the child that she'd be fine. ‘I'm sure … ah … I'm sure the doctors have …'

‘No, I'm dying. They said so. Mum cried all over the place. She's still crying. Every time she comes in that's all she does.'

Dave stared at her, meeting her eyes for the first time, entranced by the overwhelming hopelessness of any dumb lie he could think up. He kept his
mouth shut.

‘You know what I'd like to do?' she said.

‘No,' he answered with relief. It was any easy question to answer. He had no idea what dying children wanted to do. Apart from live.

‘I'd like to see your dox. I'd like to pat her.'

‘It's a him. Fog. He's a boy. It's Albert's fox really.'

‘There, you said it. Fox.'

Dave stared stupidly, not crazily, but dumb, nothing smart to say.

‘You admitted it was a fox. You're scared people will shoot it if you say it's a fox aren't you?'

Dave swallowed hard but his head nodded in ascent.

‘I think it'd be wonderful to have a wild animal as a friend. That's why I want to see where you live. You and Albert.'

‘But there's no road, just a track, you'd …'