Somewhere around the Corner (14 page)

‘Do you think it’ll flood?’

‘Shouldn’t be surprised,’ said Young Jim, towelling his hair with a bit of sacking as he came in the door. He was in dry clothes too, the cut-off trousers Barbara had first seen him in and the same blue faded shirt. It seemed so long ago now, as though Poverty Gully was the only real world there’d ever been.

Young Jim knelt on the bed next to Thellie. ‘Look at that rain,’ he marvelled. ‘You’d think someone had turned on all the taps in heaven.’ He looked around. ‘Where’s Dad?’

‘Down at the school.’ Ma bustled in, a plate of stew in either hand. ‘You get this into you before you catch your death of cold. There’s more if you want it. Sergeant Ryan brought up some old tin from down the valley. Mr Henderson thought a verandah out the front would be a good idea. You can eat your lunches there when it rains.’

‘I suppose he brought it up in the police car.’

‘What if he did?’

‘I’d like to hear what Sydney’d say if they knew about it.’

‘What Sydney doesn’t know won’t hurt them. Sergeant Ryan keeps better order in this valley than the lot of them up there with their batons and arrests.’

‘That’s right, you tell them Ma.’

‘And none of your lip either,’ said Ma. ‘Or I’ll be making some arrests of my own.’ She looked up at the ceiling where a large fat drop of water was gathering. ‘If there’s any tin left over we could do with a few repairs. What I wouldn’t do to have a proper roof over us by winter.’

Barbara smiled to herself. She wondered when Gully Jack would come up. After dinner, probably. She couldn’t wait to see Ma’s face, and Dad’s.

Thellie edged over to Barbara and peered at her stew. ‘You still hungry?’ asked Barbara.

Thellie took her thumb out of her mouth. ‘No. Ma made me eat all my pumpkin. My tummy says it’ll burst if you stick a pin in it. I want a story. Will you tell me a story, Bubba?’

Barbara looked at her, her face still smeared with stew, her big eyes clear and happy. It was funny the way her old life was just a story to amuse the kids now. It was so far away it almost didn’t hurt at all any more.

‘Okay. What’ll I tell you? Hey, do you know about Big Macs, and pizzas, and video games, and—’

She talked between spoonfuls of stew, while the water thundered on the roof and slid down the sides of the shack. Young Jim sat whittling in his corner, smiling to himself as she talked. She put her empty
plate down and Thellie curled up on the bed beside her. The other little ones curled up too, and the stories of her past life entertained them as it rained.

‘And the cars make so much noise it’s like an ocean, always roaring, and there are no horses on the streets at all.’

‘Not even pulling the baker’s van?’

‘Not even the baker’s van.’

‘Or the milkman’s either?’

‘Or the milkman’s.’

‘Where do you get the manure for your gardens then?’

Barbara was nonplussed. ‘Oh, I suppose people just buy fertiliser from the garden centre, or the supermarket.’

‘What’s a supermarket?’

Thellie could have been asking about fairy palaces, or dragons with scales like rainbow-coloured armour.

‘It’s a great big shop, a hundred times as big as Nicholson’s, with everything on shelves. You just walk down with a trolley and pick up what you want.’

Thellie bounced up and down.

‘And you don’t have to pay?’

‘Of course you have to pay, but not till you get to the checkout—that’s when you want to leave the
shop. Not like down the valley where you have to ask the man behind the counter for the things you want.’

‘Can you get ice-cream in the super things?’ asked Thellie dreamily.

‘Of course. There’s whole freezers full of ice-cream, great big buckets of it, all different sorts, and frozen yoghurt and ice-cream cake and sorbet and…’

‘I’ve had three ice-creams,’ said Joey importantly. ‘One on my birthday two years ago, and one from the machine at the railway station when we came down here, and—’

‘I’ve had an ice-cream too,’ broke in Thellie.

‘Not as many as me you haven’t,’ said Joey.

‘Have so too. I’ve had—’

‘Finished,’ exclaimed Young Jim. He held up his carving so it caught the light. The lizard’s eyes were shut and its mouth was open. Its forelegs were long and straight and its tail curled around toward its head. Young Jim brushed the wood chips off his lap.

‘What do you think of it?’ He tossed it over to Barbara.

She ran a finger over it. ‘It’s beautiful. Look at its eyes and everything, and the way its skin folds under its chin. It’s exactly like the dragons down on the rocks.’

‘You keep it then,’ said Young Jim.

‘Can I really? But—’

‘Just rub a bit of dripping into it to stop any cracking,’ ordered Young Jim. ‘And don’t you let it get wet, mind, or leave it out in the sun.’

‘Hey, the rain’s stopping,’ said Joey. ‘Look.’

Barbara knelt on the bed and peered out the window. The rain had gentled to a thin, wet, mist. Fat clouds hung over the ridges, round as Dulcie’s scones. The first streaks of sunset lit the horizon, grey then pink, and gold below.

‘Almost like it’s morning just over the horizon,’ said Young Jim.

‘I suppose it’s always morning somewhere,’ said Elaine. ‘Come on, let’s go and see the creek. There’ll be a flood for sure!’

The air smelt clean, like freshly washed socks. Diamond raindrops shimmered in the casuarinas, and the bark of the gum trees shone cream and orange.

The kids raced down the hill, their bare feet pressing the wet dirt and grass.

‘Hey look, it’s not up yet.’

‘Won’t be long!’ yelled Young Jim. ‘Listen!’

There was a rumbling up the gorge as a wall of water swept around the bend.

The clear creek water was smothered by the flood, sucked under by the raging silt and mud and water. Boulders ground together like giant teeth as they rolled over and over under the swirling foam. The ground shuddered beneath their bare feet.

‘It’s frightening,’ whispered Barbara. ‘Everything so calm and peaceful then suddenly this comes from round the bend.’

‘Can’t hear you!’ yelled Young Jim over the noise of the water. ‘No you don’t, Joey. You keep away from the edge.’

‘I won’t fall in,’ said Joey indignantly.

‘Says who?’ Young Jim grabbed his hand.

‘Where’s Thellie?’ demanded Elaine. ‘Blast the kid, there she is over there. She’s heading for Gully Jack’s channel.’

‘Probably wants to see if it’s flooded too,’ said Young Jim. ‘Thellie! You come back here! Thellie!’

‘She can’t hear above the flood,’ said Barbara. ‘I’ll go and bring her back.’

‘Don’t be long!’ Elaine called after her. ‘It’ll be pitch dark soon.’

The grass along the creek bank was slippery, dark green and pointing upwards like it had drunk deep. The whole gully had changed. The groan of the water smothered the song of wind and leaves; the smell of the flood not the scent of bark and bush. The trees glowed as the light of dusk filtered through the raindrops on the leaves.

‘Thellie! Thellie, come back here.’ Barbara tried to yell above the noise of the water.

Thellie looked up. She was standing by Gully Jack’s channel. The channel was empty, although the creek lashed high and furious beyond the wall at the
end. Already the waves were eating at the remaining dirt, tearing into it and gradually swirling it away. Thellie shook her head as Barbara beckoned and pointed down.

‘What is it?’

Thellie’s eyes were wide. ‘Is that gold?’ she asked.

Barbara looked down into the channel. Part of Gully Jack’s stonework had collapsed. A pile of rocks lay tumbled in wet mud and one of them had cracked in two. She could see dark grey specks and bright white quartz, and in the centre a ring of dull yellow.

‘It can’t be gold. Things like that don’t happen.’

‘I think it’s gold,’ said Thellie with certainty.

‘Maybe you’re right. It’s got to be gold, nothing else would gleam like that. A nugget in the rock. Oh, wow, wow!’ Barbara shook her head in disbelief. ‘Gully Jack’s found gold and he doesn’t even know it.’

‘We could take it to him!’ Thellie sat on the muddy bank as though she was going to wriggle down.

‘No way. You stay just where you are.’ Barbara peered down at the mud and rock below. ‘It’s dangerous. That channel’s going to flood any moment. We’ll have to get him and see if he can…Thellie, no!’

The ground was moving. Sodden with water, the bank under their feet was slowly collapsing. Barbara
flung herself back as her feet tried to follow the subsiding soil.

‘Thellie! Are you all right?’ She clambered back to the edge of the channel on her hands and knees. ‘Thellie!’

‘Bubba, I fell.’ Thellie’s voice was frightened. Her face was small and white as she peered up.

‘Did you hurt yourself?’

‘I banged my knee.’

‘Is that all? Well, you get up here now. It’s not safe.’

‘I can’t. It’s too far up.’

‘Heck!’ Barbara lay down on her stomach and stretched out her hand. ‘Come on, I’ll pull you up. Can you grab hold of my hand?’

Thellie stretched, standing on tiptoe. ‘I can’t reach.’

‘Well, climb up then. Come on, it’s not far, and then I’ll grab you.’

Thellie thrust one small bare foot into the mud. She tried to wedge her fingers into the dampness up above. Her foot slipped as the sodden clay collapsed again.

‘Bubba, it won’t stay still.’

‘Well, stand on a rock or something.’ Barbara looked around frantically. They needed a rope, or
someone with longer arms to pull the child out, but she couldn’t leave Thellie like this to get help, not with the flood and the darkness. There was nothing else for it.

‘I’m coming down,’ she called, ‘Look out.’ She aimed for a clear spot below, and jumped.

The shock of it jarred her. Mud squelched through her toes, around her ankles.

‘Okay, you get on my shoulders and I’ll heave you out. All right?’ Barbara tried to get close to the bank, but the fallen rocks and slipping mud were in the way. ‘We’ve got to hurry. Up you go. One, two, three—now grab on to the bank and heave.’

‘I can’t.’ Thellie was nearly crying. ‘It’s still too far up.’

Barbara bent down so Thellie could climb off her shoulders. She put her arm around her, one eye on the foam that swirled above the muddy wall at the end of the channel. Thellie was shivering. ‘It’s all right Thellie. It’s all right. We’ll get out somehow.’ She glanced at the wall at the end of the channel again. Was that water trickling through?

‘Bubba! What’s happened?’

‘Jim, and Elaine. Thank heavens. Thellie fell and I can’t get her out.’

Young Jim’s face was grim. He’d seen the trickle of water at the end of the channel too. ‘Heave her up,
then I’ll have a go. Thellie, reach out towards me. Hurry, blast it, hurry! Bubba, can’t you get any closer?’

Barbara shook her head frantically. ‘The bank just keeps collapsing.’

‘Struth! It’s no good. This flaming edge’s collapsing even more. Elaine, get Gully Jack. Hurry! Tell him to grab some rope. Run! That wall’s going to go soon.’ He bent down to the channel again, careful not to get too close in case more soil and rock hurtled down below. ‘Are you sure you can’t climb up?’

Barbara shook her head desperately. How much time did they have before the water flooded in? ‘All the stones are loose, and the walls just collapse when we put any weight on them.’

‘Can’t you climb up on one? Look, I’ll see if I can roll a boulder down. Maybe if you or Thellie stand on that.’

‘No!’

‘What is it?’

‘Don’t go away. I’m scared. Please stay till Elaine gets back.’

‘Bubba, it’ll be all right.’ Young Jim looked desperately at the end of the channel. The trickle of water was eating the mud away as it came through in a steady stream. The floodwaters must be tearing at the other side.

‘Don’t leave us.’

‘Of course I won’t leave. I’ll always look after you. I’ve just got to…oh, here they come. Gully Jack, over here! Hurry!’ Young Jim’s voice was high with relief.

Gully Jack’s whiskery face appeared over the edge of the channel. His hands looked big and hard and capable.

‘You all right down there? You just hold on then and she’ll be right.’ His face disappeared, but his voice floated down, calm and reassuring. ‘I’m just tying the rope to this tree.’ His face came back, framed by the anxious faces of Young Jim and Elaine.

‘Right. Now you grab it as it comes down. That’s the girl…now tie it around Thellie’s waist, as fast as you can, but don’t fumble it. That’s the ticket…good. Now lift her up as far as you can. You get the other end, Young Jim. Elaine, you grab it too. Now haul her up. Carefully now.’

Thellie rose slowly up, out of the channel. The mud grasped at her, trying to suck her in, but the hands above were too strong. She disappeared over the edge.

Barbara was alone. She leant against the wet wall, waiting for the rope to fall again, almost sobbing with relief. It was going to be okay. She could just see Gully Jack above her, quickly untying the rope from Thellie.

‘Gully Jack! Hurry! It’s going!’ It was Young Jim’s voice, choked and desperate.

Barbara turned. The wall at the end of the channel had vanished. In its place was a wall of water, higher than her head, brown and frothy, crashing down the channel towards her. She could smell it; the stink of flood had taken over the world. She could feel it; a deep vibration through the earth and air.

Time seemed to change and the world slowed suddenly. The terror was slowed too, seeping through her feet, her legs, her arms. Even if the rope came down now she couldn’t reach for it, she couldn’t move. Terror held her still. Faintly, through the fear, she heard Young Jim above her, his arms stretched uselessly towards her. ‘Bubba…Bubba…hang on.’

His voice altered. She heard another voice, an older voice, but somehow still the same.
‘Things are different around the corner…around the corner you’ll be safe.’

She could feel the thunder of the water through her feet. It crashed and bit towards her, but it moved so slowly…everything was slow. Would it take her slowly too…churn her slowly under foam and froth, crash her slowly against the grinding boulders? It couldn’t be happening, not like this. She had to run…she had to move…but there was only one way she could go now.

‘Bubba!’ Young Jim’s voice was despairing.

Barbara shut her eyes.