Smoky Joe's Cafe (18 page)

I
can hardly believe my eyes, not only are there maybe fifty members of the Vets from Hell on their Harleys outside Maureen's house, but also this red Kenworth truck has pulled up. It's not new but someone's done a damn good spray job. It's got a custom-built back on it which is also red duco and buffed to a high shine like an Arnott's biscuit van, only it's longer. There's an air conditioner unit on the top of the roof and what looks like a small electricity generator. On the side, in beautiful sign writing in white and gold letters, is written:

The last of the big bikes rev their engines and then shut down and we see Shorty and Lawsy grinning and waving at us from the footpath.

‘C'mon, over here!' Shorty yells.

I take Wendy's arm and I can feel her shaking. ‘What the hell? What's going on?' I say as we reach the pavement.

People are clapping and yelling, the original Smoky Joe mob are now standing along the side of the big rig, Bongface has his smile on and the others all look very bloody pleased with themselves.

‘Good on ya, Wendy! Thommo!' people are shouting.

We're grinning and saying gidday to the boys, not quite knowing the exact reason for the general merriment, but waiting for a proper explanation. To tell the truth, we're a bit embarrassed and a bit choked up at the same time.

Lawsy takes Wendy's arm, ‘Want to take a look inside?' Wendy sniffs then nods.

‘It's nice,' I say to Shorty, ‘good rig.'

‘It's ten years old, but it's been rebuilt from the chassis up,' he points to the bikies, ‘The boys did it, built the back as well, sign writing, the lot. Mate, wait ‘til you see the inside.'

We move around to the rear of the giant Kenworth.
There's a door open in the back and steps leading up into the van. Above the door it says ‘Surgery', Wendy goes first, then me, followed by Shorty and Lawsy. Inside is a bloke about my age, maybe a little older, nuggetty build, short with bluish stubble even though he's close shaved, black Irish I reckon. He's wearing a white jacket and there's a stethoscope around his neck, so he must be either a nurse or doctor. Behind him are two women, also in white coats.

‘This is Doctor Mike McGraw,' Lawsy says.

The bloke takes a step towards us and extends his hand to Wendy. ‘Just Mike will do fine,' he says smiling.

‘Wendy Thompson,' Wendy says, trying to smile. ‘I'm sorry, I must look a mess. This is,' she gulps, ‘well, a bit of a surprise.'

‘A nice one, I hope,' Mike says, grinning.

Then he turns to me, ‘You probably don't remember me, Thommo, but I was an Australian MO on duty at the US Hospital in Vung Tau when you came to see about your mate Mo Jacka after 6 RAR got back from the stoush at Long Tan?'

‘Yeah, of course,' I say to him, shaking his hand, ‘How ya goin', Doc.' I'm lying, I wouldn't have known him from a bar of soap, but it's not all that surprising.
After we'd pulled out of the rubber plantation and returned to the base I'd requested special permission to go to Vung Tau to see Mo. Sounds crazy now, but at the time I was paranoid, what with his head missing, that they wouldn't have him properly identified so that he could be sent home. I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours in the last twenty-four and I guess I was that rooted I wouldn't have noticed the doctor attending if he'd been Mr Magoo in a white coat.

Then Wendy and I are introduced to the two ladies, Sue and Marlene, one is a nurse and the other a lab technician. We are told they were both veterans' wives. What we don't know, and learn later, is that their partners are dead, the one from cancer while the other's gone and chopped himself. Vietnam has struck again. Sue turns out to be a highly qualified nurse and Marlene has a science degree and has worked for the Red Cross Blood Bank for nearly ten years.

Mike McGraw explains that the interior of the Kenworth is a complete surgery and at the back, in a separate room, there's a fully equipped laboratory. It's all been certified by the Health Authorities as a travelling laboratory. There's even a reception area for volunteer patients, where their medical history is taken down and their records kept.

‘We're going to find an unrelated matching donor for Anna,' Shorty grins, ‘even if we have to test every person in Australia.'

Now Wendy loses it completely, she can't stop crying and I'm pretty choked myself. I put my arms around her, ‘I dunno what to say, mate,' I keep repeating, grinning like an ape and shaking me stupid head.

Eventually though, we pull ourselves together and Wendy says to Mike McGraw, ‘It's such a very long shot, doctor, a million to one chance that we'll find a match-up.'

Mike nods, you can see he knows the odds, ‘We'll never know if we don't try, Wendy.'

Shorty cuts in, ‘Wendy, you helped make this all possible. Without you I don't think we would have gone very far. You'll be happy to know the business is over, Nam Tran says the bees have stopped buzzing and we're fresh out of honey.'

Lawsy laughs, ‘In our case you could say we've had a very successful liquidation sale!'

Shorty continues, ‘Our accumulated resources are going to help a lot of vets' children, veterans as well.' He waves his hand, indicating the surgery, ‘One of the ways we'll do this is the Anna-mobile. We're going on the road, we'll find every Vietnam veteran
we can throughout the country, check him out, check his kids out, talk to his partner. Get their stories and lobby the government, this time using our
own
medical records.'

He turns to Mike McGraw. ‘Mike here has spent most of his time since coming back from Vietnam at the Prince of Wales Children's Hospital Cancer Unit. We've got all the gear we need right here. Can you show us the lab please, Marlene?'

We walk to the front of the van and Marlene opens the lab door. There's only room for two inside so she and Wendy go first and I stand at the door and look in. I must say it looks pretty impressive, not that I'd know what I'm looking at of course.

‘The latest automatic serum dispenser, typing tray scoring system, oiler, the whole kit and kaboodle,' Shorty says behind me. You can hear the pride in his voice. ‘We have the freezer unit and the facilities to do the basic tissue-typing tests right here. Then any samples that look like they could be a match have to go to Sydney for further analysis. Mike's got that process well in hand.'

Lawsy cuts in, ‘You've seen the side panels, we'll offer a $10,000 reward for any member of the public who matches Anna's tissue type and is ultimately
approved for a bone-marrow transplant.' He looks at Wendy and me, ‘We know it's a long shot, but, well, we talked it over and the boys felt we had to give it a go.'

That night there's a big party held in the regular Vets from Hell's local pub in Bankstown, so the cops don't take too much notice. Everyone involved over the past year is invited, the pub is full to overflowing and I can't believe we've managed to keep the whole scam quiet for nearly a year. It's a real credit to the brother and sisterhood. Wendy says I have to make a bit of a speech to thank everyone for the Anna-mobile. I try to get her to do it, but she won't. ‘It's your job, Thommo,' she insists.

I'm not much good at this sort of thing but I have a go, Wendy's standing beside me. I'm halfway through when I lose the plot. Then someone starts singing ‘For they are jolly good fellows' and the mob take it up and I'm saved.

Wendy, Maureen and me get home after midnight. For once I'm not pissed. I want to stay sober to be with me wife all night. We end up in Maureen's kitchen having a bit of a late-night fry-up or, if you like, early breakfast, coffee, bacon and eggs. We eventually get to bed around three o'clock. It's been a bloody long day but it's amazing what good news can do for the cuddle factor.

Shorty and Lawsy have been to see everyone involved in the Smoky Joe scam and each participant receives an envelope with a nice little gratuity on top of what they've already earned over the past year. They are also told never to talk about their role in what's happened, that it's a Vietnam veterans' secret and must be kept that way.

Of course we're not in the absolute clear, we've got nearly a million dollars in cash that we can't explain if the Taxation Department come snooping around. Though Lawsy says there's ‘ways and means' and he's in the process of applying to have the Vietnam Veterans Self-Help Association registered as a tax-free charity. He's pretty confident he'll get it through.

Any hopes I might have had of getting my wife back to a calm and settled life are soon dashed. Wendy is smart enough to realise that a thing like the Anna-mobile is not going to go unnoticed, that the media are going to see it as a big story and that we have to get all the ingredients right so that it can become an opportunity for having a go at the government. She talks to Shorty and he calls a meeting of the original Smoky Joe mob, plus Maureen. The only one missing is Nam Tran. Naturally we ask Shorty how come Nam Tran's not present? He says he'll explain later.

Shorty tells us how they've filled in Nam Tran's lab on the farm and dismantled and burned or trashed all the other bits ‘n' pieces. He's back to rice, citrus and a bit of winemaking. Then he says, ‘I've got a bit of a confession, it's about Nam Tran.' He stops and looks around at all of us. ‘He's gone to the States.'

I guess we're all stunned. ‘Why's that?' Macca asks eventually.

‘He's going to try to do the same thing there.' Shorty clears his throat, ‘Look, I haven't been entirely truthful about him, you see he's a doctor. I mean he was Viet Cong all right, that's true enough, but he was a surgeon in the North Vietnamese Army.'

‘So why couldn't you tell us that?' Bongface asks, a bit aggro. ‘What difference would it have made?'

‘Well, that's just it, he had his own agenda. He wants to build a hospital in his own country to look after children affected by Agent Orange. I promised him one-third of what we made in return for his supplying the marijuana seed and his expertise with growing and refining the dope. We couldn't have done it without him. If he can do the same with the veterans in America, it's a much bigger market, he'll get all the money he's going to need.'

Lawsy stands up, ‘Nam Tran's also given us a way
to launder the money, which means we're clean.' He doesn't explain any further, but goes on to say, ‘We've been incredibly lucky with the scam, we got in and out in less than a year, not enough time for the drug squad to really get going. If we'd continued much longer, well, the chances are they'd have been onto us and we'd have been blown out of the water. Nam Tran's expertise, his hash honey, was the difference that made the difference.' He looks at Wendy, ‘That and the way it was distributed and sold so that we caused no ancillary crime, kids never got hold of it and there was no harm done to the general community. In my opinion Nam Tran earned his share.'

There is complete silence in the room. I don't know what to think. Do I feel betrayed? Obviously Lawsy was in on it as well. Then I think to myself, ‘Typical bloody army, they tell you just enough to get the job done but never the whole story.' Still, it looks like the battle is won. A man should probably punch Shorty out. Maybe I'm a weak bastard, but what with the Anna-mobile, I mean, what can I say? The whole thing stinks? No way!

To my surprise Wendy stands up and turns to face the mob. ‘I know I feel a lot better having heard what Shorty has just said,' she blurts out. ‘Kids are the same
everywhere, they don't start the wars but they're usually its victims. I'm very glad we're helping Nam Tran's people.' She sits down next to me and I can feel her trembling. What she's just said I know I wouldn't have had the guts to say, even to me mates.

Then Maureen, who is sitting with Wendy and me in the front, turns around and says, ‘When my brother Mo died in Vietnam I was pretty bitter. I asked myself a lot of questions I couldn't answer, and nobody seemed able to answer them for me. Why did Mo have to give his life for his country when his country shouldn't have been fighting the North Vietnamese people in the first place? When his country didn't care about him? So when Wendy asked me to help with the Smoky Joe scam I thought it was a way to fight back, to help Mo's mates and the forgotten and neglected warriors, to do something in Mo's memory.'

It's all come out so fast Maureen's hardly taken a breath. Then she says real quietly, ‘But now there's something I can be proud of, we're helping our own children, helping ourselves to get better and we are helping the children of Vietnam. I feel good about that, Mo would too.'

We're all pretty choked, but Animal says, ‘Jesus! I think I'm gunna throw up!'

The laughter this causes clears the air and I guess Shorty is almost forgiven for not spilling the beans on Nam Tran. After all, what can you expect from a bloody sergeant?

Shorty says Wendy's gunna talk to us. I touch her on the arm as she gets up, she's still the general and I'm the grunt, but I love her more than ever.

‘Shorty has asked me to tell you about Anna's condition,' she starts, ‘so you'll know what we're up against. You all know by now how Thommo and I feel about the Anna-mobile. We will never be able to repay your love, whatever the outcome. We thank you all for taking a blood test on Anna's behalf when you first knew about her. Now our greatest delight is that others will benefit as well, veterans' kids and vets themselves, that the Anna-mobile is not only for Anna.' She stops and takes a breath. ‘I have to tell you that the chances of finding a bone-marrow match-up are very remote. You see, what's happened to our daughter is that she no longer has an immune system. That is, she no longer has any white blood cells to fight off infection. If we can find a matching donor, the bone marrow taken from the donor and infused into Anna could give her a new immune system, that is new white blood cells to fight off infection and so kill the leukaemia. Usually the
donor comes from within the family and even this is rare enough. Finding an unrelated donor . . .well, we're going to have to be very, very lucky, one chance in a million lucky.'