THIRTY-TWO

Mum was going crazy in the kitchen, trying to get everything ready. She said I had to feed all the animals because everyone else was too busy getting ready for the party. She looked at her watch and said she’d never have it all done in time. Aunty Ve shook her head and winked at me. I decided I’d be better off outside feeding the animals—starting with the chooks. By the time I’d got to the poddies pen, fed Buzz, and shut them all in for the night, it was getting dark. When I went back to the house, there was music spurting out into the garden in bursts. I went round the side of the house to see what was happening—hoping I’d avoid Mum. I found Dad wrestling with the old hi-fi speakers and an extension cable. I asked what he was doing and he said, “A party’s not a party without music.” He’d got a dodgy connection, though, and until he found it, all we heard was the odd cough and splutter from Willie Nelson. Then Lloyd and Elliot showed up. They were both all scrubbed and clean, like new.

When Dad fixed the dodgy connection everyone cheered. Aunty Ve came out then with piles of cutlery and plates, which the fellas helped her put down on the table. She told me I needed a shower and that I’d better get a move on before Mum blew a gasket. As I went through to the bathroom, Emily ran past me flicking her wet hair in my face.

After I’d had my shower and I’d washed out a whole week’s worth of knots, smoke, sweat, and dirt from my hair, I heard the Crofts’ horn shouting their arrival, so I ran outside to see them.

Greg carried two whole crates of beer with him from the car, while Mary and Ron carried the food they’d brought. Penny had come too. She was with Dick, who just wheezed along with them—I guess carrying that chest of his must have been enough. I dunno what was inside it, but it sounded heavy. Mum and Dad stood outside the house to let them in. Penny, Mary, and Ron followed Mum into the kitchen with the food, while Dick and Greg went with Dad round the back to get a beer. They came back out and talked nonstop about the muster. It was almost dark, the sky was inky blue and Dad was standing in a white pool thrown into the garden by the outside light. As moths and mozzies danced around him, Dick and Greg asked how Dad thought we’d done out of the muster. He said he hoped we’d made enough to keep us from going under. Dick slapped Dad’s back and said, “Sure you will—we’ve seen worse, you know?”

When I looked behind me, I saw Bobbie and the Pommie. They both looked real clean, sort of shinier than they usually did. Bobbie’s hair was tied back in this silvery thing, but she’d made a bit of a mess of it—she’d missed a load of bits, which dangled down in her eyes like curly spaghetti. Her face wasn’t like it normally was either. Her lips looked wet and her eyes were all dark. They looked like they couldn’t open properly. I’d never seen her look like that before, and I guess I was staring at her because she said, “What are you looking at?” I felt dumb then, so I looked away and said, “Nothing.”

The Pommie had her hair down round her shoulders, but her face was all weird too. Her eyes seemed real big and sparkly, she just seemed shinier than normal somehow. I looked round and saw Greg was staring too. When he saw me looking at him, he started studying the bottle of beer he was holding, like he’d noticed something real interesting on the label. When he looked up he saw Bobbie and the Pommie chatting with Lloyd. Greg got up and dragged his chair over to where they were sitting.

Not long after that Mum, Aunty Ve, and Penny started bringing some of the salads out to the table. The barbecue had been lit and Dad threw a few of his burgers on the hot plate. They hissed and Mum reckoned they smelled real good. They smiled at each other. I hoped they wouldn’t kiss. They didn’t get a chance, though, because that was when Reg and his mob rumbled into the yard.

Seeing them was the strangest of all. I dunno what they’d done to themselves, but it was a bit like when you dipped a paintbrush in turpentine. All the bits of desert, which had got stuck in the sweat on their skin and on the wind in their hair were gone. The bloodstains on their clothes had disappeared and even their boots looked clean. Aunty Ve whistled at them and shouted, “Look, girls—it’s the bloody Chippendales!” Reg laughed, and lifted his cap off toward Aunty Veronica, and said in a voice a bit like the Pommie’s, “Good evening, ladies.”

Dad was laughing and said, “Jesus, Ve! Let the fella get a beer before you start hitting on him, will you?” Aunty Ve laughed. Dad handed all the fellas some beers and then held his in the air in front of him. He said, “Thanks again—we couldn’t have done it without you fellas.” Everyone said, “Cheers!” and then they took a big drink from the bottles. That was when Reg said, “And here’s to Danny—the Camel Man—for saving the day.” Dad smiled at me and I heard his voice clearer than anyone else’s when they all said, “To Danny!” I don’t think I’d ever felt as tall as I did then.

The voices around me hummed. Everyone was talking about the food, the home-brew, or where the fellas would be working next. I was too busy thinking about what Reg had said to join in with them. But then I heard the Pommie say something to Greg and Elliot about getting everything ready for when she left tomorrow. I didn’t know she was leaving. I asked what she meant, and she said Mum had told her that Aunty Ve was going to be staying at Timber Creek for a while to help Sissy with the baby and things, so we didn’t need Liz to work for us any more. She reckoned it was all organized—Liz was going to get a lift back to Alice with Reg and his mob when they left in the morning after the party. I felt funny about that. I didn’t know what to say. My face felt hot. I looked at Liz and she looked at me. I dunno why, but she said, “We can write to each other, if you like. I know it can be lonely out here sometimes, but you’ll be at boarding school soon.” I told her I was OK. I had Buzz. I dunno why, but I couldn’t say anything else after that. My throat kind of closed up and Liz looked a bit sad, or something.

Greg said Liz would be back in civilization soon, as I walked away. I dunno what made me do it, but as I walked past the table I picked up one of the bottles of home-brew and hid it behind my back. I went round the side of the house and took a big gulp of it. It tasted bad. I still didn’t like it and that made me mad. I wanted to be like Dad and the others.

When I heard Mum say the meat was ready, I went back round into the garden. Dad went over to the barbie and loaded the burgers, ribs, and sausages onto a couple of plates. Aunty Ve put them on the table and shouted, “Get started.” When everyone sat down and started eating, it was quiet enough to hear the crickets croaking. Bobbie said, with her mouth half-full: “That’s shut us up!” And Dick nodded, he said, “Bloody good tucker as usual, Sue and Ve,” and Reg raised his bottle of beer and said, “Hear! Hear!”

After we’d eaten, Mum and the girls cleared the table and us fellas stayed outside and talked about the cattle. Greg and Elliot didn’t join in. They were talking about the Pommie. Greg wanted to know what Elliot’s game was. Elliot wasn’t happy about that—I could tell because his face was red and he looked at the ground, like he didn’t know what to say. “Well? You making a move or what?” Greg asked. By then Dad and everyone else was listening too. Elliot looked at Greg and said, “What’s it to you?” And Greg laughed and said, “I just want to know the lie of the land, mate . . .” Everyone laughed then—even Elliot. I dunno why they talked like that about Liz. I didn’t like it. I wanted to talk about the cattle, or cricket. I hated all that stuff. It made me want to puke. I noticed a half-empty bottle of beer on the ground and got up and pretended to move it out of the way. No one noticed me take it and put it round the side of the house with the empty one I’d had earlier. I took a quick drink of it and even though it was warm and tasted worse than the first one I didn’t throw up.

Liz came out to collect the last few plates from the table, so the fellas stopped talking about her. She asked, “What’s going on out here?” Dad and Greg both said, “Nothing,” at the same time, so Liz looked at them like they were crazy and went back inside.

Soon after that I noticed the music had gone off. I went round the side of the house with another half-empty bottle of the home-brew, had a gulp of the beer and went inside to change the CD. Then I went outside, round the side of the house to where my empties were. I drank the last of the dregs out of the bottles and sat on the ground. I dunno why, but all of a sudden I wished Jonny was with me.

When I went back into the garden where everyone else was, the Crofts said they had to get back—because it was late. Dick yawned. I said I didn’t want them to go. Dick smiled and said we’d do it all again next year, when Reg and the fellas came back to muster. I said I wouldn’t be around the next year because I’d be at school in Alice. I don’t think Dick knew what to say, so he rubbed his bony hand in my hair.

While everyone else waved the Crofts off, I took another bottle of the home-brew—a full one this time—and went round the other side of the house and necked it, just like I’d seen Dad and the fellas do. It didn’t taste as bad as the other bottles I’d tried. I reckoned it must have been a different batch. My belly felt like it was going to burst, though, and then I did the biggest burp I’d ever done. As I swigged from the bottle, I thought about Liz. I didn’t want her to leave the station. After everything with Buzz and the muster, it felt like we were mates, or something.

As I went back round to where the party was happening, I noticed a light was on in the shop. I thought someone must have left it on by accident, so I went over to turn it off. Walking was kind of strange though—the ground kept moving and everything looked a bit blurred. I reckoned it was just because it was dark. When I got nearer I thought I could hear voices. I tried to remember how much of the beer I’d drunk, but then I saw Sissy and knew what I was seeing was real. She was in the shop with Gil and little Alex. They were kissing. I didn’t even think about what I was doing, I just threw the door wide open and shouted, “What d’you think you’re doing?” But the words didn’t come out right. Sissy turned round and said, “What?” like she hadn’t heard me. I swallowed and told them they’d be in big trouble if Dad found them. That’s when Gil said, “I only wanted to see Alex again. I don’t want trouble.” He had his hands in the air. I pointed at him, but it looked like the room was moving. I felt crook. I swallowed some spit and had to bend over to steady myself. That was when Sissy said, “Are you drunk?” at the same time as I threw up all over the floor. “Aww! Gross!” she shouted, then picked Alex up and carried him outside. Gil tried to get hold of my arm, but I shrugged him off and fell over. As he held out his hand to me I told him he was a mongrel. I heard Sissy say, “Jesus, Danny. He’s trying to help you.” Then I heard them laughing, and that made me real angry. I got to my feet and said I was going to kill him. I don’t remember things too well after that. Sissy grabbed my arm and called me an idiot. She kind of marched me across the yard to the house. I remember thinking she seemed real mad with me. She must have taken me into my bedroom because I can kind of remember lying in bed and her pulling my boots off. But that’s it. Nothing else.