Jack & Harry (14 page)

‘What's this place, Reynold?' Harry asked.

‘This place called Menzies … got cuzins 'ere, eh?'

‘I read about it at school, I thought it was bigger than this.'

‘Used to be, years ago. Nuttin' 'ere now just a pub, post office 'n a coupla shops.'

The truck stopped outside the post office, unloaded some parcels and a canvas mailbag then moved down the street to the hotel where Ted drove the truck down the side of the building and pulled to a stop in the rear yard. He switched off the engine and he and Father O'Malley exited the cab. ‘Jump down, boys,' the priest said. ‘Stretch your legs, we'll be here for a few minutes.' He and Ted went into the building.

A short while later Father O'Malley came out of the rear door with three tall glasses of raspberry cordial and lemonade. ‘Thought you might like to whet your whistles, boys. Ted and I are just finishing some business with the publican and we'll be with you shortly.' He walked purposefully back inside.

Reynold grinned and said ‘They havin' a pick-me-up for the trip.' He sat down cross-legged on the ground leaning his back against the truck wheel, ‘Yu bloke better sit down too, they gonna be a while.'

‘What are they doin', Reynold?' Harry took a sip from his glass.

‘Yu boys been nowhere, eh?' Reynold drained his glass. ‘They havin' a little drink wit' the man what owns this pub. They be out in little while.'

Jack and Harry decided they would go for a short walk to have a look at the buildings in the main street and maybe buy some lollies if they could find a shop. ‘You comin', Reynold?' Harry asked.

‘Nah, Rennol wait for yu boys 'ere eh?' He leant further back against the wheel of the truck and pulled his weather-beaten felt hat down over his eyes to shade his face from the ever intensifying heat of the sun.

The two boys came to a general store that sold petrol and had some signs leaning against its walls that advertised Craven ‘A' cigarettes, Arnott Biscuits and Plume kerosene. They bought a jar of boiled humbug sweets and three peanut bars from the lady behind the counter.

‘You boys new in town?' She placed the lollies in a brown paper bag and pushed it over the timber counter to them.

‘Just on our way through.' Jack looked up from the comics piled on a shelf beside the cash register.

‘You read 'em you pay for 'em.' The woman pointed to the comics.

‘What? Oh, no … I was just lookin' at the covers.' Jack closed the magazine he was browsing and placed it back on the pile.

‘OK then. It's just that I have to be very careful here as they get pinched as quick as you can say Jack Robinson.' The woman busied herself with a feather duster, brushing it over rows of canned vegetables and Camp Pie neatly shelved behind her.

‘Not a lot here is there?' Jack commented. ‘The town, you know.' He pointed vaguely out the door. ‘I thought Menzies would be bigger than it is.'

‘No, not now.' The woman looked thoughtfully into space. ‘There was a time … long before I came here,' she added hastily. ‘At the turn of the century when this town had over ten thousand people living here. There were a couple of breweries they say and, believe it or not, thirteen pubs! Now it's just the one pub and the town hall, still without its clock,' She chuckled ‘The clock's somewhere on the bottom of the ocean, ship sunk on the way out from England and they've never ordered a replacement and that was fifty-odd years ago. Council hasn't changed much over the years.' The woman laughed to herself as she went on dusting the shelves and seemed to forget the boys were present.

They left the shop and began to walk toward the hotel when they were confronted by four young Aboriginal lads of roughly their own age who barred their path.

‘What yu white boys doin' 'ere then, eh? Yu don' live 'ere, mate, do yu?' The bigger boy poked Jack menacingly in the chest.

Jack, taken aback at this unprovoked aggression, looked to Harry for support.

‘We're just travellin' through, mate,' Harry explained. ‘On the mail truck.' He reached out and nudged Jack's elbow to guide him forward.

‘Where yu tink
yu
goin', white boy?' The apparent leader of the group stepped in front of them. His companions moved up beside him, their fists clenched. ‘Yu come inta town lookin' for trouble, eh?' The leader spat on the ground at Jack's feet.

Harry looked sideways at Jack who nodded in agreement. They knew this was a threat that no talk would get them out of. They would have to fight to get past the four young men standing between them and the hotel where the truck was parked, so Jack put the jar of humbugs on the ground behind him knowing it was dangerous to fight with glass in a pocket. Harry tucked the peanut bars in his shirt, sniffed loudly and took a step backwards bringing his fists up in a defensive move. Both Jack and Harry were nervous. They had never encountered this type of belligerent behaviour before and although they knew they could both handle themselves under normal circumstances, to face four unknown assailants was disconcerting.

They didn't see Reynold appear but heard his voice behind the four boys facing them. ‘Hey, Winston! What yu doin' fightin' wit' me mates, eh?'

A look of surprise came over the leader's face and he spun around to see who had spoken to him. ‘Rennol … what you doin' 'ere?' He was now obviously confused.

‘These boys they named Jack 'n Harry. They mates, travellin' wit' me back to the mission. What yu go doin' takin' 'em on for? They do nuttin' to yu.'

‘We did'n know they yu frens, Rennol.' Winston licked nervous lips and looked from Jack to Harry then back at Reynold. Winston's three supporters took a step back from the confrontation.

‘Yeah, well they are 'n if yu wanna fight them yu gonna 'ave to fight me too.' Reynold stepped passed the four young Aboriginals and stood beside Harry and Jack. Reynold spat on the ground in the same manner that Winston had done earlier.

‘Hey, Rennol, we jus' make mistake, eh? No need to go get angry 'bout it.' Winston looked to his three friends. ‘That's right, eh?' The boys nodded in agreement, looking nervously at Reynold.

The threat was over. Jack and Harry stood alone together as the five boys greeted each other with much hand shaking and back slapping then Reynold introduced them to the boys who just minutes before had been threatening to assault them. Cautious handshakes were passed around and then Reynold said they had to go to catch the mail truck.

They never mentioned a word of the encounter to Father O'Malley or the mailman. The boys were already seated in the rear of the truck when they came from the hotel, climbed into the cab, started the motor and drove from the hotel yard. As the truck turned onto the main road leading out of town Winston and his friends waved cheerily from where they were standing. Reynold waved back but Jack and Harry didn't feel it was necessary.

‘Thanks, Reynold,' Jack said. ‘Coulda been a bit nasty.'

Reynold just shrugged his shoulders as the truck gathered speed heading toward Leonora on its way to Mt Margaret Mission.

Jack took the humbug mints from his pocket, unscrewed the lid and held the jar out to Reynold, ‘Take a few, Reynold.'

Harry then retrieved the three peanut bars from his shirt pocket. He handed one each to Jack and Reynold.

‘Yu buy me one
too
?' Reynold was stunned.

‘Yeah, why not, we're together aren't we?' Harry replied ripping the paper from the bar of chocolate.

‘I tink I laik yu boys.' Reynold took the paper off his chocolate, screwed it into a ball and threw it out to be snatched away by the wind ‘Rennol 'e laik yu a lot.'

They grinned at each other as the truck rattled on into the day, tarpaulin flapping and V8 motor throbbing. The three boys sat silently together on the rear tray of the truck and devoured the peanut nougat bars covered in rich dark chocolate, the seeds of an unspoken bond beginning to take root between them.

It was late in the evening when the truck pulled into Mt Margaret. The last part of the trip had been uncomfortable as they were thrown about on the tray from the rough and rutted road leading into the mission. Choking dust had blanketed everything and filled their throats and noses. They felt with every breath that they were sucking bucket-loads of red sand into their lungs and were glad when the truck slowed and a few pale lights indicated they had, at last, arrived at Mt Margaret.

Even though it was late, the truck was greeted enthusiastically by a group of people of all ages and what seemed like a hundred barking dogs. There was laughter and rapid-fire talk, much in a language that Jack and Harry couldn't understand although they knew the joy was due to Reynold's return to his family. They didn't get to speak with Reynold after he jumped down from the truck. He was swiftly enveloped in a large group of people and whisked away followed by a group of excited children skipping along behind the group, with the inevitable barking dogs darting around the perimeter, dodging the odd kick aimed at them by the children.

‘Let's bed down for the night, boys,' Father O'Malley said. ‘Grab your swags and crawl up near the truck there. I'll be staying in that hut just over there.' He pointed to a small fibro sheeted building with a corrugated iron roof, just visible in the starlight. ‘Ted will be sleeping in the truck cab and we'll sort a few things out in the morning, Not much can be done tonight as everyone's too excited to have Reynold home again.' He bade them goodnight and faded into the darkness.

The boys found it almost impossible to sleep in the unfamiliar swags, the strange environment and being bedded down out in the open with the occasional dog sniffing at them and growling as they melted back into the night, after being yelled at, to, ‘Get away, you mongrel, shoo!'

The night sky was ablaze with more stars than they had ever seen before and they watched them from their swags for a time. The noise from the nearby dwellings eventually subsided, broken only occasionally by a shriek of laughter and the odd barking dog but as they were exhausted, they eventually drifted off into a restless slumber.

Jack was not sure exactly what woke him. It might have been the heat of the early morning sun and at first he thought he must still be asleep and dreaming but it happened again. A soft tinkling sound followed by silence then the noise again, louder this time. He opened one eye slowly and peered out of the swag to see a bunch of small children sitting not more than five feet away staring at him and Harry in their swags.

The children, dressed only in an assortment of shorts and ragged pants, consisted of both girls and boys of between what he figured to be about two and six or seven years old. Two little girls held completely naked babies and there were three dogs lying quietly beside them. The children were staring intently at the two boys and then they whispered softly among themselves and giggled. This was the tinkling noise that Jack had heard, the soft gentle sound of children's laughter. At first he didn't know what to do or why they were there but when he reached out and nudged Harry's still form in the swag next to him and sat up there was a shriek from the children. They leapt to their feet and ran away screaming and laughing followed by three barking dogs.

‘Yu bloke awake at last, eh?' Reynold appeared before him. ‘Them kids bin watchin' yu for 'ours.' He rolled his eyes in mock exaggeration and laughed. ‘Come on, git up, day 'e almos' gone. Yu come now 'n meet some fam'ly. I tell 'em yu mates from Kalgoorlie 'n we travel up 'ere together.'

Jack and Harry stretched. They were sore from the pounding of the truck and stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, their bodies not yet used to the rigours of bush life.

They followed Reynold over to a group of men, women and young men about their own age. There were no girls in the group seated around the ash-grey camp fire but they did catch a glimpse of two girls some distance away who quickly turned their faces when Jack and Harry glanced in their direction.

Reynold introduced them proudly to his family. ‘These boys they me cuzins, this one 'e me brother, Nigel, this woman she me aunty 'n these …' He went on pointing to the group gathered around the fire, not mentioning anyone by name except his brother. Nigel stood and held out his hand to Jack and Harry but the others remained seated or squatting around the fire and only nodded a greeting as Reynold pointed them out in turn.

Introductions over, a tall thin woman of indeterminate age, dressed only in a faded cotton dress and with tousled hair and broken teeth, stood and picked a steaming billy from the coals. ‘Yu laik tea?'

‘Yeah, they laik tea, eh, boys?' Reynold answered for them. ‘Go get yer mugs 'n we 'ave some brekfas.'

The boys took their cue and left to get the pannikins from the haversacks beside the truck, welcoming the break from what seemed to them to be a very awkward time. When they reluctantly returned to where Reynold and his family were Reynold poked a blackened lump of something from the fire with a stick and after blowing ash from it broke it into large pieces ‘Yu share our tucker 'cause we mates. Yu laik damper?'

The thin woman poured steaming black tea into the pannikins and threw a handful of sugar into each one. ‘Yu stir 'im wit' a stick,' she said.

They held the damper tentatively and were self-conscious realising that everyone was watching them silently. When the boys bit into the damper and took a sip of the strong, sweet black tea however it was like a signal and all gathered at the fire began to talk animatedly to them and ask them questions.

‘Rennol 'e tell us yu share yer choclat wit' 'im,' one of Reynold's ‘uncles' said. ‘Good to share tings wit' frens.'

The damper was surprisingly tasty washed down with the hot tea and certainly filling. Breakfast over Reynold led them, his brother and three other boys away from the fire to a large dead log under the shade of a tree. ‘Now we work out what we gonna do, eh? Where yu boys goin' from 'ere, Jack?' He straddled the log, his bare feet dangling in the dust.