From the moment Keith climbed out of the shaft, it was chaos.
There were faces all around him, and lights, and voices all speaking at once.
Mum and Dad were hugging him and crying all over him.
He tried to tell them to be careful of his painting because corrugated iron rusted easily, but they weren’t listening.
He saw the Corolla parked nearby, headlights aimed at the shaft, so he went and put the painting in the boot.
Then two men in white overalls led him over to a bright yellow tent sitting next to a red helicopter.
Tracy came out of the tent and saw him and broke into a huge relieved grin.
‘Jeez, you’re a prawn,’ she said and hugged him so tight Keith could feel his face going as red as the helicopter, partly from embarrassment and partly because she was squeezing all his blood up into his head.
He was glad when he got into the tent and discovered that the two men in overalls were doctors. At least doctors were used to that sort of physical contact.
While the doctors checked him over they explained they were from a nearby coal mine, only four hundred kilometres away, and that they often came over to patch people up and to do a bit of fossicking.
Then he found himself back outside with a blanket round his shoulders and a hot drink in his hands and all sorts of people he’d seen on the diggings crowding round him.
The ultraviolet man touched his blanket for luck.
A middle-aged woman in a cardigan and gumboots who Keith didn’t recognise until he saw that she was wearing a fluffy dressing gown underneath, took his photo.
The ex-Department of Main Roads post painter offered him a beer until the woman in the fluffy dressing gown told him to stop it.
Then Curly, bald head and wrinkled face looking strangely off-white even in the yellow rays of the morning sun, gripped his arm and took him to one side.
‘Sorry I damaged your mine,’ said Keith.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Curly, ‘and anything you found is yours, no questions.’
He leant closer with an anxious glance around to make sure no one was listening and Keith could see that he was going to ask at least one question.
‘That tunnel you escaped through,’ muttered Curly, ‘the one that runs from my claim into the, um, claim next to mine, has anyone asked you about it?’
Keith was just about to say no when they were interrupted by the roar of a motorbike. The man with the beard and the European accent got off and came over to Curly and handed him a wooden sign daubed with faded red lettering.
It said Trespassers Will Be Stabbed.
Curly went even more off-white.
The man took the sign back and handed Curly some Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets.
Then Mum and Dad appeared with Tracy.
Keith saw that Mum and Dad were holding hands.
‘Come on love,’ said Mum to Keith, ‘let’s all go for a little walk.’
The sun was above the horizon as they walked slowly between the mullock heaps.
Keith tried to concentrate on the warmth on his face so he’d forget the knot in his guts.
It was no good.
Every time he glanced at Mum and Dad holding hands it got tighter.
Then Tracy spoke.
‘Shall I go first, Mr and Mrs Shipley?’ she asked.
‘Alright love,’ said Mum, ‘you go first.’
‘Keith,’ said Tracy, giving him a big grin, ‘this is for you.’
She held out the opal.
‘I know I found it,’ she went on, ‘but we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you nicking off, and we wouldn’t have been down that mine if it wasn’t for you painting the store, and I wouldn’t have been writing stuff on the wall if it wasn’t for you keeping my spirits up, so it’s really yours.’
She put it into his hand.
Keith looked at it for a long time because he wanted to choose exactly the right words for what he was going to say.
He looked at Tracy and his guts tingled so much that they almost unknotted.
‘Jeez you’re a daft bugger,’ he said, grinning. ‘And if you don’t send me a postcard from Peru I’ll come over there and boot you up the bum.’
He put the opal back into her hand.
Dad cleared his throat.
‘Keith,’ he said, ‘before you react hastily, wait till you understand why Tracy’s making such a generous offer.’
He cleared his throat again.
Oh no, thought Keith, Dad’s got to have his tonsils out and it’s to pay for the operation.
But he knew that wasn’t the real reason.
‘Keith,’ said Dad, ‘Mum and me have talked about it for most of the night, and we’ve decided not to split up.’
‘We’ve decided to stay together,’ said Mum. ‘For your sake. We’ve talked about it and we’re determined to make it work.’
‘And the opal is to help with the financial problems,’ said Tracy.
Keith stared out across the mullock heaps, which were glowing in the morning sun and looked like mounds of gold.
He took a deep breath of cool, clear morning air.
This was the moment he’d come halfway across Queensland for, halfway around the world really, and he’d never dreamed it would be like this.
But it was, and he knew exactly what he was going to do.
He took another deep breath and even though he felt sadder than he ever had before, the knot in his guts was suddenly gone.
He turned back to Mum and Dad. They were both smiling as hard as they could, but Mum’s forehead was still furrowed and Dad’s mouth was still droopy.
‘That is what you want, isn’t it love?’ asked Mum in a shaky voice.
Keith looked at them both and slowly shook his head.