True History of the Kelly Gang (12 page)

Who do you want called my mother all the skin on her body raised in bumps her braided hair straining against the fright of her scalp.

No answer.

Who are you? But she knew already it were the Banshee she retreated to her door so her children would be safe behind her.

Who do you want?

The Banshee made no answer my mother had been told from her youngest years that you must not interfere with the Death Messenger and she knew of the man whose hand were burnt and the one held against the wall of his cottage all night long and she knew an hour’s luck never shone on anyone who molested a Banshee but she were in another country far from where the Banshee should of been so when she held up her lantern then the Banshee turned away and give a kind of shiver as you see in them with bad tempered natures. She were an ugly old crone but now she revealed her long and golden hair which she set about combing as if to soothe herself. My mother knew all the stories of the comb she knew the bone comb & steel comb & comb of gold & now she witnessed the dread implement move through the hair and knew the thing to do were get into bed and shut her eyes but my mother were a Quinn and this were not her character.

You tell me who you want my mother shouted.

I were far away walking across the grassy flats knowing nothing of what was transpiring but I can locate the time exactly as you will soon see.

Said my ma Its Ned aint it? Its my little Neddy that you want.

The Banshee didnt answer so my mother took up the splitting axe Jem had left laying against the door and she swung it in both hands like a Scotsman then sent it whooshing through the dark towards her.

At this very moment I were north of Crooked Crossing as it were called. I heard the Banshee cry. It were not what they say it were not like a vixen fox but a dreadful shriek that would turn a strong man’s bowels to water it filled the whole vault of the heavens. I lay down on the dark earth with my hands across my ears feeling the clay quiver beneath me and even when the noise were gone I didnt move but lay on the cold ground as it sucked the warmth out of my blood. I did not move until the dawn when I stood up I were stiff and grey as if I myself was turned to clay. I went to the end of the gully where Tom Buckley lived he had built a pitch roof over the hollow stump of a giant gum and thereby constructed a very pretty house. I opened the door it were very dark a miner’s cottage with many shelves and everything in its proper place all except the owner who I immediately saw lying in the middle of the ffloor one leg folded underneath. He were dressed in the uniform of some foreign king I don’t know why. The uniform were very old and Tom Buckley dead an old bachelor and no wife or child to mourn him. Not knowing what to do I borrowed his horse and set off for home as fast as I could go.

When our brave parents was ripped from Ireland like teeth from the mouth of their own history and every dear familiar thing had been abandoned on the docks of Cork or Galway or Dublin then the Banshee come on board the cursed convict ships the ROLLA and the TELICHERRY and the RODNEY and the PHOEBE DUNBAR and there were not an English eye could see her no more than an English eye can picture the fire that will descend upon that race in time to come. The Banshee sat herself at the bow and combed her hair all the way from Cork to Botany Bay she took passage amongst our parents beneath that foreign flag 3 crosses nailed one atop the other.

In the colony of Victoria my parents witnessed the slow wasting of St. Brigit though my mother made the straw crosses for the lambing and followed all Grandma Quinn’s instructions it were clear St. Brigit had lost her power to bring the milk down from the cows’ horn. The beloved saint withered in Victoria she could no longer help the calving and thus slowly passed from our reckoning.

But the Banshee were thriving like blackberry in the new climate she were with us when ice were on the puddles and when all the plains from Benalla to Wangaratta was baked hard as Hell. Even when the bush quivered in a eucalyptus haze the angry flies droning without relent the Banshee would not go home and her combs was at different times reported in Avenel and Benalla and Euroa and beneath the new bridges on the Melbourne road.

When I heard the Banshee wail I never doubted what it were and once on Tom Buckley’s pony I galloped home all the time praying no one in my family had been took. I tore a switch from an Ovens wattle and drove the gelding brutally the golden blossom broke and lay like salt across his bleeding flanks.

It were a shock to finally see the home I had dreamed of so many lonely nights for now it appeared v. small its bark roof swaybacked all around it broken grey tree trunks some standing others fallen. It were a wet winter morning the creek raging there were low grey cloud and a threatening cold wind off the mountains. I witnessed a great kind of desolation such as I had not remembered there were not a crow or magpie not a butcher bird sitting on a fence. In the silence I were certain the Banshee had been about her deadly business and I pushed the horse along the flooded track fearing for Mother’s life.

The creek were too high for the pony so I removed the boots and walked across the fallen log it were still our only bridge.

The dogs begun to bark then I saw our Gracie she were 4 yr. old and running screaming from behind the pig house it were a moment before I realised she were larking. Then come our broad strong Maggie calling Gracie Gracie I’m going to tan your hide.

And then Jem come up from behind the peppercorn he had grew 2 in. since I seen him last he were broad and strapping his feet were bare and muddy his dark eyes gleaming to see me home again and I knew no one were dead.

My mother followed walking with her left hand rested against her stomach the way a woman does when another heart is beating in her womb. This were Bill Frost’s improvement nothing else. No bridge no more land cleared and the pastures filled with docks and dandelions it broke my heart to see them yellow flowers.

My mother said Where’s Harry?

All around our feet was abandoned logs the mother and son once cut together with the crosscut saw.

And how is Harry said she is he well? She did not demonstrate none of her feelings towards me. In truth she had been more forthcoming with the Banshee.

Old Tom Buckley’s dead he’s lying in the middle of his hut.

She crossed herself then put her hands on both of my shoulders feeling that all my bones was solid and correct. She smiled at me. You’ve got strong aint ye?

You’ll see.

What will you do Son?

I come home to work around the property.

My ma began to silently shift the metal pins around her hair.

I won’t argue with Bill Frost I said if thats what you’re worried about I won’t glower at him or nothing.

Gracie wrapped her arms round my legs and were picking at my bowyangs.

I’ll be his right hand man I said all I want is to work about our property.

But my mother now were looking away to the smudgy grey horizon it were obvious she saw nothing useful there.

Well what about the old Harry?

I don’t think thats no concern of yours said I.

Is Harry nabbed is that it?

No he aint nabbed I come back home I should of thought that would make you happy.

Is there a warrant out for you as well?

I come back home I said the adjectival pasture is filled with dandelions and docks no one cleared nothing while I were gone.

My mother sighed and shook her head Dear God Jesus save me.

I said I aint in trouble.

Jesus you don’t know nothing about my problems Son.

Well anyone can see you aint done nothing to meet the requirements of the Act.

My mother looked around her property you could not deny it were a sad and ruined sight no new fencing not a single acre claimed.

They’ll take away your lease said I.

At this my mother suddenly turned upon me slapping me fiercely about my ears.

Where’s my money she cried where is my adjectival money?

Gracie let go my leg I felt her melt away.

I came home to help.

I know you b––––rs stuck up the Buckland Coach. You stuck up Reed Murphy’s Station too your sister read me all the papers.

The bushranging aint as profitable as you’d expect.

You aint got nothing for me?

Nothing.

Then what am I to do my mother cried.

I come home to help.

You can’t come home I paid the b– – – – r 15 quid to take you on. You are his apprentice now.

The mother and the son stood separate in the middle of the home paddock the chooks all droopy and muddy the pigs with their ribcages showing through their suits the waters of the Eleven Mile already receding leaving the spent and withered oats lying in the yellow mud. The son felt himself a mighty fool he’d been bought and sold like carrion.

At breakfast next morning my mother continued to speak despairingly she were exhausted with her life she said and seeing I had brung home no money she did not know what she would do.

Bill Frost now were occupying not only my mother’s bed but also my father’s chair he were so smug his ruddy face shaved smooth and glistening with salve I asked what he could think to help our property.

Give it back to the blacks he said then burst out snickering no no the blacks don’t want it give it to the Irish just joking Ned thats a very good question and it just happens I have the answer here. He pulled a crushed envelope from his back pocket I thought he were about to produce the latest cattle prices but the envelope contained a piece of brown and yellow cloth. Said he This is your mother’s salvation Ned it is what I promised her when I asked her for her hand.

Hand? I never heard no mention of this before I looked to my mother but she had set the baby on the ground all her attention taken by the scrap of cloth.

What is it Bill she asked.

This item is worth 4 times as much in New South Wales as it is here in Victoria. Frost looked around the table as if he were a magician we should all admire.

Do not tease me Bill.

He released the cloth into my mother’s hands. All I have to do is row this across the Murray River and its worth 4 times what I paid for it. Now don’t that beat churning butter Mrs Kelly?

My mother caught my eye a sharp triumphant look. It must of been the smuggling she were always attracted by courage and now wrongly imagined she had found her equal in that quality.

As for me I did not glower or nothing but when I saw my mother give Bill Frost the butter money I suggested to young Jem he come outside. As we left the front veranda I picked up 2 axes and once behind the cowbails advised my brother that we must do the labour which the boundary rider had no taste for. It were this or we would surely lose our land.

Jem were only 9 yr. old but he listened to me v. serious his brow furrowed his dark eyes never left my face and when he understood my strategy he said he were damned if he planned to go back slaving for our aunts then he cut his hand upon his axe and I done the same. We mixed our blood together and proclaimed an oath he said I do swear to be true to my captain or corrovat until death.

It were a Sunday and Bill Frost were not required at his employment but soon he left the property.

Might as well begin said I.

We made our oath beneath a mighty ironbark it were 8 ft. across as old as history its bark so black and rough it were like the armour of a foreign king.

Might as well said Jem then spat upon his hands and laid his axe into the brutal bark the flesh were sour and red we removed it in great glimmering slabs Jem’s axe were 5 lb. I rested often so as not to shame him.

I could of dropped 2 normal trees before dinner but this one were a grandfather we both worked throughout the day the flies was in our open mouths our hands black and sappy we ate no tea neither but continued on until the light were sucked from the sky it were then I heard a creaking sound.

If you have felled a tree you know that sound it is the hinge of life before the door is slammed.

A tree falls slow and fast on the one hand it takes forever and on the other it is swift as a guillotine. I called to Jem to flee he stopped to look back and still I can see his handsome dark eyes his puzzled brow. Then there come a very small tearing noise like a single sheet of paper being ripped apart and I reached and pulled Jem’s head close to my breast. The ironbark went. It fell like a whole empire collapsing its crown crushing into the adjacent grey box I heard the sound of a thousand bones breaking all at once. The trunk bounced into the air and shot back on itself passing us with all the weight of God himself He travelled like a cannon an inch beside my ear.

Our mother had noticed the ringing axes all through the day but until my shout she imagined it were our neighbour Bricky Williamson. Now she felt the earth shake she come running through the dusk and Maggie & Dan & Gracie strung out behind her they was the flesh of her flesh in order of their birth. They was shouting and fighting through the fallen canopy my mother tore her way between the branches she almost stood on top of us. She never wept but now lay down upon the darkening earth shaking us with her sobs her fat salt tears upon our dirty faces. Feeling the child in her belly I pulled away to help her to her feet.

My mother blew her nose. We was brave boys v. good she said she would henceforth assist us in our labours.

I were the man now so I told her we all knew she were with child I said we would look after her and make her farm successful she could depend on us.

I had not known I would say this nor had my brothers and sisters but when they heard my speech they come to my side vowing also to look after their mother. Dan were 7 yr. old he couldnt lift an axe without making a danger to himself but he made his vow all solemn and my mother thanked him. No one said nothing about Bill Frost or Mother’s hand.

At night the man himself returned to find me sitting in da’s chair he didnt say nothing but hurried to my mother in the skillion.

My mother said O let him be. After that it were all whispers but when Bill Frost brung his plate to sit amongst us he wore a smirk upon his ruddy face. So said he spooning gravy and potato into his mouth You boys is going to clear 10 acres is that so?