FATHER WHITE’S HUT, THE TIME OF FEAR AND
CONFUSION (18 MAY 1789)
He was tired. So many new things: the smells, the white ghosts, the angry woman who had stared at him. He hadn’t understood the words, but he knew she didn’t like him.
Worse was the knowledge that outside this hut was an empty land: only the white ghosts, the trees, the animals. None of his people left. A land of ghosts. White ghosts, and dead ones.
He tried to shut his mind to ghosts.
The bed here smelt better than the one in the hut where the man had died. There were other smells too. Food smells, strange, but good.
The woman came in. Even her footsteps sounded angry. She was small, but her thick clothes made her look bigger. Why wear so many clothes when the wind was warm?
‘Here’s your supper.’
Nanberry sat up and took the container from her hand.
‘You stupid heathen! You don’t drink stew! You use a spoon. Like this, see?’
He watched carefully to try to understand what she meant. This was a new world. He had to learn its rules.
‘Spoon.’ He lifted it the way she had shown him. The food tasted different from a spoon. But it was good.
‘Say thank you.’
‘Thank you,’ he said cautiously. He held out the empty container.
For the first time she gave an almost-smile. ‘Liked that, did you? You won’t get better than my stew at Government House. I’ll get you another helping, and then I’d better feed that wretched o’possum. What does a fine gentleman like the Surgeon want with an o’possum and a native?’
At last Nanberry lay down, his belly full. He listened to the woman clang and clatter behind the wall. He heard the man called Father White come in. He shut his eyes, pretending to be asleep. He was too tired to try to talk. He was afraid that he might cry again too.
A warrior didn’t cry.
He watched Father White take off his clothes and put on a nightshirt, then lie in the bed. Father White was fat, as he’d thought.
Father White’s clan had good food. But there was no laughter, no singing. Outside he knew the sun had sunk behind the mountains. It felt like his own sun had sunk forever too.
He slept. And then he heard the scream.