Katherine tried to initiate conversation. ‘So, Benjamin, what brings you to this part of Australia?’

‘I keep bees. Jist bringin’ some queens outta Queensland.’

‘That’s interesting. Where do you keep bees?’

‘Gotta property in WA.’

‘Oh, where abouts?’

‘Outback.’

‘I’ve never been to WA. Why do you come along the dog fence, I’d have thought the main road is more direct. Not that I mind! If you didn’t I’d still be waiting there!’

‘Quarantine.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Can’t bring bee stuff ‘cross state borders so I’m taking ‘em the back way. I sell honey, wax, bee products an’ even hire me bees for pollination but I needs new queens. Stupid law. Them Tassies sell honey in WA but the law says I can’t take in me Queensland queens.’

Katherine was genuinely interested in the bees but the conversation was difficult. After answering each question Benjamin remained silent, awaiting the next prompt.

‘That does sound a bit silly. How do you transport the bees?’

‘In the ute. Under the tarp in special boxes. Trailer’s got empty hives jist with pressed wax for makin’ honeycomb. Need to expand the business.’

‘Where’s your place, near Perth?’

‘Outback.’

‘Anywhere near a big town?’

‘Nope.’

They lapsed into silence. It was clear Benjamin was not going to be chatty. Katherine leaned back, closed her eyes and dozed. The monotonous hum of the engine and steady drum of the wheels on the dirt road was broken only by an occasional metallic clatter as a larger stone hit the underside of the vehicle. The narrow-set headlamps lit the road ahead, creating deceptive shadows that turned every small bump or hole into a boulder or cavern. With Carolyn fast asleep in her arms Katherine thought about the excursion with Alec and how pleasant it had been. What a shame that it ended like this!

‘Are ya religious at all? Do ya know your Bible?’ The sharp, unexpected question interrupted Katherine’s thoughts.

She sat up. ‘Ah, not very well. My Dad was a farmer, mostly sheep. He died a while back. We, that is the whole family, went to church pretty regularly and I got married in our local church. My father-in-law is a minister, Reverend David Thompson, so I guess we’re sort of religious.’

‘If youse religious you’d know your Bible. How well do ya know ya Bible?’

‘Well, I know bits of it. I mean, I don’t read it much but I believe in the teachings of the New Testament.’

‘So you believe in what the Bible teaches us. An’ God?’

‘Yes, I suppose I believe in God. Why?’

‘Ya supposes so. Well, ya should believe in the Bible, all of it, an’ the rules it tells us. Did ya know the Ten Commandments was the very first laws in the world? And God is real. He talks ta me. I ‘ave visions an’ he talks ta me then. If ya follow what God tells us an’ follow his rules there’d be no problems.’

This was more than an unexpected conversation. It was making Katherine feel uneasy. Fortunately, Benjamin settled into contemplative silence.

After a while Benjamin slowed the four-wheel drive and turned to Katherine. ‘I’m tired. We’ll camp for the night an’ finish tomorrow.’ Katherine almost expected him to say, ‘if that’s okay with you,’ but he said no more. It was a statement of fact, not a suggestion.

Katherine answered as if she had been given the option. ‘Yes, I suppose that’s wise if you’re tired. And it will be easier to find Alec in Ceduna in the daylight!’ She hid her disappointment. Her hopes of a hot shower and warm bed were to be denied. She also hid the germ of anxiety that perhaps, after his strange claim to have visions from God, Benjamin might not be all he seemed.

Benjamin pulled out a rolled swag from under the tarpaulin and threw it unceremoniously on to the ground. It landed with a dull thud. ‘Ya kin take the swag. It’s clean an’ it’ll be okay for ya an’ bubs. I’ve got meself a blanket an’ sleepin’ bag.’ He pulled out a second bundle from the back of the Land Rover, and after scraping the ground with the side of his boot, threw it down about two metres from the swag. He passed Katherine the torch. ‘In case ya need ta get up in the night,’ he explained.

He turned off the vehicle side-lights and shut the doors. The sudden loss of light made the night seem darker. Katherine could hear the rustle of clothes and saw from the faint starlight that he removed his boots, socks, trousers and shirt. These he rolled neatly to use as a pillow. Wearing only a singlet and underpants he slid into his bag, leaving Katherine uncertain as to how to organise her own sleeping arrangements in the dark.

More by feel than sight Katherine slipped, fully dressed, into the swag hoping it was as clean as Benjamin indicated. She put Carolyn gently down next to her. Her nappy was still dry so she made no attempt to change it. Once in the swag she found it uncomfortably warm so opened one side to let the cool night air through. She lay quietly, thinking about the day’s events and wondering if tomorrow would see some sort of return to normality.

Within minutes she heard the rhythm of Benjamin’s breathing change and increase in volume. She listened for a while, looking up at the clear sky and bright stars. The moon was the merest sliver of crescent and the stars seemed brighter than she had seen them before. Even as she stared at the night sky her eyes grew heavy, languidly closed and she fell asleep.

* * *

It was still dark when the cracking of twigs woke her. She sat up suddenly, uncertain where she was. Benjamin was snapping small twigs and dead branches from the abundant accumulation on the ground to feed a fire, next to which was the billy. Katherine looked at Carolyn, still asleep but twitching. A hint of the day to come made the stars more difficult to see against a lightening sky spread with thin clouds.

‘Mornin’,’ said Benjamin.

‘G’morning,’ came her sleepy response, half swallowed with a yawn as Katherine covered her mouth. She felt like a wreck, her eyes still gummed with sleep and her hair all tousled from a restless night. While camping with Alec had not been five star, at least she had slept on a mattress. The swag was separated from the hard ground by very little material. ‘What’s the time?’

‘Dunno. Early.’

Katherine got up and walked carefully into the bushes, looking for a private place for a morning pee. She returned, combing her hair with her fingers, to find Carolyn fully awake and on the verge of crying. She picked her daughter up and climbed into the parked Land Rover to feed her. Benjamin stayed beside the fire and by the time Carolyn was fed and changed he had made tea. He came across to the vehicle and passed her a steaming mug. ‘Got sugar, but no milk.’

‘No problem, I can drink it black.’

‘Good, ‘cause milk ain’t easy ta come by out bush. Sometimes I use powdered but t’aint the same.’

‘Black’s fine, thanks.’

‘How’d ya go with bubs if ya lived out here with no milk?’

‘I guess I’d use powdered. Lots of beef or sheep stations don’t have access to dairy products. They survive, so do their babies.’

Silently they packed up the sleeping gear and were back in the Land Rover just as the dawn light warned of the rising sun, still hidden below the horizon.

The same routine continued as the previous night, driving without speaking, the vehicle bouncing along the track.

Suddenly Benjamin asked, ‘How old are ya?’

‘Just over twenty one. I was born the day Japan surrendered, fourteenth of August,’ Katherine replied without thinking, a little surprised by the abruptness of the question.

‘I’m gunna tell ya a story from the Bible.’ Benjamin looked sideways at Katherine for a brief moment before turning to look into the road. Any interest in her or her age seemed to have passed. ‘There were a Levite livin’ in remote mountains an’ he took himself a concubine.’ He looked at Katherine. ‘That’s a word what in the Bible also describes a wife. But she up an’ left him an’ went back to her father’s house in town.’

As he spoke, Benjamin changed, not only in the manner of his speech but also his body language. Katherine thought that he sounded as if he were preaching. He knew the story off by heart. His voice became louder and more precise. It was almost the voice of another, perhaps a preacher who might have taught him.

Benjamin looked directly ahead as if concentrating on the road. ‘This Levite followed her and stayed with her father for a time. Each time he tried to leave he were persuaded to stay longer. Eventually when he did get away it was late in the evening. He went with his woman an’ his servant but didn’t get very far before night. They stopped at a town called Gibeah. At that time this place belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. They decided to make camp in the open, in the town square ‘cause there were no other place. But an old man in the town offered to take them into his own home.’

Katherine was fascinated. The story itself was interesting but more curious was the fact that Benjamin was reciting it to her in this unusual tone of voice.

‘There were there some larrikins in the town and they attacked the house and demanded the old man give them the Levite so they could bugger him. Ya know what that means?’

‘Yes, I do.’ Katherine blushed. ‘This isn’t a very nice story, is it?’

‘No, but it’s God’s message. The Bible’s his true word so’s it tells us how to live. Anyways, the old man was angry an’ shocked that these larrikins wanted to do this to a traveller and instead offered his own daughter and the concubine for the men to do what they wanted. His daughter was a virgin. They took em an’ raped the concubine all night. In the morning she was left on the doorstep of the house, an’ she died there.’

‘That’s terrible. It’s a terrible story,’ said Katherine. ‘I didn’t know that story. Probably not one of the Bible stories they talk about in Sunday School or even in church. I guess it just shows what little regard they had for women in those days. I mean —’

‘That ain’t the end of the story,’ interrupted Benjamin sharply. ‘Don’t ya want to know what happened?’

‘Oh! Sorry, yes. What happened?’

‘The Levite cut up his wife, or concubine — whatever ya wanna call her — into twelve bits. He sent one piece of her to all the tribes of Israel so that the evil behaviour of the men of Gibeah would be known. This led to one helluva war and the tribes formed an army to attack and punish the people of Gibeah, who were the Benjamites. First they asked that the crims be handed over so they’d be punished but they refused an’ instead went out with an army. The Israelites lost more than twenty-two thousand men. Then there were a second battle an’ they lost another eighteen thousand.’

Katherine interrupted the flow of the story, saying, ‘Gee, you know your Bible. How do you remember all those numbers?’

‘Don’t interrupt. Yeah, I know me Bible well. Real well. All of it an’ I know what God tells me.’

‘Sorry,’ was Katherine’s chastened apology. She was surprised at the unexpected vehemence of Benjamin’s response to what she thought was a polite, almost flattering comment.

‘But there were a third battle an’ the men of Benjamin were ambushed an’ they lost. Gibeah was burnt an’ more than twenty five thousand Benjamites killed.’

Katherine did not realise the Bible had such bloodthirsty stories and was about to make a comment on the huge death tolls when Benjamin continued his flow, causing her to quickly shut her half open mouth.

‘Because of what happened the men of Israel swore a promise to God that none of them would give their daughters to the Benjamites as wives. Later they realised this would mean the tribe of Benjamin would die out an’ they didn’t want a tribe of Israel to vanish. After all, they’re the Chosen People of God. So they changed their mind but couldn’t break their solemn oath to God.’

‘Are you Jewish?’ Katherine asked, thinking that Benjamin might be relating this story to his own religious history.

Her question remained unanswered as Benjamin droned on. ‘The men realised people from one place, called Jabesh Gilead, were not there when the promise were made to God so didn’t have to keep it. So they sent an army there an’ killed all the men an’ their wives, an’ they captured the virgins to be wives for the Benjamites. But there were still not enough women so the Benjamites set up an ambush in some vineyards. When the women came out for a celebration an’ dance the Benjamites captured the girls an’ took them for wives. So wadda ya think of all that?’ Benjamin’s voice changed again and it was clear that the rehearsed story ended with the question. He turned and looked directly at her.

Katherine was nonplussed and unsure of how to answer. Her mind was still fascinated by the way in which Benjamin told the story, even to the names of the ancient biblical towns. ‘Well,’ she hesitantly ventured, ‘it’s a pretty bloodthirsty story. And I don’t think it says much for the people who felt that they could just go killing and raping and enslaving others just because they thought that they were chosen by God. It makes all the women seem just property, not people. I mean, the story makes it seem okay to hand over a wife and a virgin daughter to be gang-raped rather than stand up to a mob.’

She wasn’t sure as to what more to say. Cautiously she ventured, ‘I am not sure that the God those ancient people believed in is the same God we believe in today. I mean, do you think God would have approved of the killing, abductions and raping?’

Benjamin didn’t respond. After a while he said, ‘God don’t change. It’s people what change. People ignore the Bible rules an’ its teaching. Same God then as now.’

‘But what about the New Testament, I mean —’

‘God’s law says it is right. In Deuteronomy it’s written that if God delivers your enemies into ya hand, ya can take captives. An’ if ya see a comely woman among the captives and like her ya can take her as a wife. God gives her ta ya an’ ya can take her home. But before she can live there, she’ll shave her head an’ cut her nails an’ take off the clothes she was taken in. Did ya know all that?’

‘No, I didn’t, but that’s all the ancient words of the Old Testament. The New —’

‘I had me a wife once. She didn’t like livin’ in the bush an’ she upped an’ left. Took her to Perth to buy some clothes an’ stuff.

When we gets there, she jist turns round an’ tells me, I ain’t sticking ‘round in some godforsaken desert. So she jist walks off and never looked back. That were ‘bout five years ago. Bin on me own since then.’

‘Sorry to hear it,’ responded Katherine. ‘I guess it must’ve been pretty hard for her on her own out in the bush and even harder for you when she left.’

‘Mmm. But if ya make a promise to God, no matter what, like ta love an’ obey, in sickness an’ in health, then, well, it’s jist wrong to jist up an’ leave.’

‘Yes, I suppose it is. Didn’t you talk about where you lived and how hard it could be before you got married?’

‘Oh, yeah. I did. Guess she didn’t get how hard. Mebbe she thought I had money or summit. I did get some when me folks died. Mebbe that’s all what she wanted.’

The conversation waned. Katherine closed her eyes and thought of how to make contact with Alec in Ceduna. She felt pretty certain he wouldn’t have found help to return to the Kombi yet, so would be happily surprised to find her in town. She’d start searching at the garages. She knew the one he liked from when they passed through on their way north: the Ceduna Roadhouse and Garage.