Walking to the Stars (14 page)

"Got family everywhere,” Talgerit said proudly. “Bet they kill a roo for us, the Kutter Kich mob."

They drove out of town, with the wind buffeting the van around, jolting over the broken road, slowing right down where the wind had blown sand across the road. Huge tanks stood beside the road, and they didn't look like water tanks.

"Wheat silos,” Nick explained when Samuel asked. “This area used to crop heavily, before the salt ruined the ground. It'll probably slowly return to good soil, as the mallee scrub grows back and reclaims the area. Then some poor bastard will have to pull all the bloody stumps out again. Of course, we should have stopped cropping this area years before we did. Probably never should have bothered coming here in the first place."

"You're talking like a blackfellow, Dr. Nick,” Talgerit said from the back of the van. “Whiteman should just have sailed on past, gone ruined someone else's country."

"Mine,” Samuel said. “Whiteman sailed to my country, Talgerit. Made a mess there, too."

"Really, eh?” Talgerit said. “Didn't know that."

"Think the Noongars and Kooris and Ptinjarra people have won after all,” Nick said. “Not many whitemen left, Talgerit. They'll be all gone, in a few hundred years."

Talgerit said, “Just us blackfellows left after that."

The shapes in distance, moving slowly through the scrub, were larger than Samuel expected, when the van rattled past them. Samuel craned past Nick, staring at the herd of animals, all of them bigger than horses and the shape of capybaras.

"What are they?” Samuel asked, as Nick coaxed additional speed out of the van.

"Trouble,” Nick said. “Let's hope we can get past them. They're diprotodons."

"No good to eat,” Talgerit said. “So we make them stay out here, away from the whiteman farms."

The van shook and rattled over the rough road, and the creatures broke into a run, chasing the van.

"Talgerit?” Nick asked.

"They won't catch up,” Talgerit said.

Talgerit was right, and the van charged over the top of the next hill and down a long slope, with Talgerit and Samuel hanging onto anything they could find to stop themselves being shaken apart while Nick clung to the steering wheel.

"Gone now,” Talgerit called, looking back, out of the filthy back window of the van, and Nick let the van slow down again.

Samuel turned around in his seat, to look back at Talgerit.

"So, the Noongar keep the diprotodons away from the farms? To protect the crops?"

"That's right,” Talgerit said. “And the whiteman teaches our children and shares Dr. Nick with us. And you, Samuel."

"There's more to the agreement,” Nick said. “In exchange for allowing whiteman to farm, whiteman has to stay unarmed, not make war, and respect Noongar ways. No killing Noongar animals, like the thylacines on our farm. The thylacines are supposed to be there, and we're not."

"What about the military presence?” Samuel asked.

Talgerit stared out the front windscreen. “One day, they'll be gone, too. We've got most of our land back, there's only a small bit left under military control."

The trees became gradually taller, and Samuel actually spotted someone in a paddock, walking behind a cow pulling a plough, turning the soil over slowly. The person raised their hand in greeting as the van drove past.

They drove past a farmhouse, close to the road, smoke rising from its chimney, and a huge faded sign out the front, crudely painted, that said,
Trespassers will be shot
. Shotgun pellet holes peppered the sign.

Sheep grazed the paddocks, and the occasional cow. A woman on a horse rode past them, going the other direction, and she waved a greeting, too, and Nick and Talgerit waved back.

Samuel saw other faded, and shot, road signs
. Hyden, Bush Living at its Best
they said.
Hyden welcomes safe drivers.
An arrow pointed to Kulin, and another to Kondinin. This had been a population centre once.

People were still there, in the townsite, when the van rattled into the town in the afternoon. A hand-painted sign outside what used to be a petrol station, said
high-grade vege oil
, and a store had tables of dry goods outside and a generator chugging away beside it.

People looked out of windows and doorways, and children pointed as they drove past the school. Nick drove through the town and continued on, following Talgerit's directions, past a faded
Wave Rock
sign.

The camp was more substantial than Ed's, with a windmill spinning slowly and feeding a water tank, and shacks with chimneys and doors. Children milled everywhere, shouting and running with the yellow dogs.

Talgerit slid the back door of the van open as soon as Nick had stopped it, letting his dog out into an instant dogfight, and Samuel watched as small children climbed over Talgerit, shouting greetings.

Flies swarmed over Samuel's face immediately, and he rubbed at his face, moving them off.

The adults ignored the dogfight, too, rushing up to greet Talgerit, and Nick raised his voice over the ruckus and said, “Come on."

Talgerit said something and pointed at Nick and Samuel, and one of the elderly men hobbled over to them and held out his hand. “Balgang,” he said. “Brother's son Talgerit says you've got scars."

Nick pulled his sweater up over his head and undid the buttons on his shirt to show his chest, and nodded at Samuel to do the same.

Samuel exposed his chest, feeling very self-conscious in front of the crowd. The children were still giggling and pointing and Balgang reached out a filthy finger with a cracked and yellow nail and traced it over Samuel's new ridges of scar tissue.

"Where are you from?” he asked Samuel. “Are you a blackfellow, eh?"

"I'm a whiteman from Guyana,” Samuel said. “I came here on a boat."

Balgang nodded and smiled, glistening huge teeth against the black of his skin, and people began slapping Samuel and Nick on the back and greeting them.

They sat down under a huge tree, in the shade, all the adults, and the children went back to running around. Someone went over to hit the fighting dogs, separating them and cowing them both. Samuel waved at the flies on his face, again, and Nick handed him a twig and said, “Here, use this."

They were given water in an ancient plastic bottle, and Samuel managed to put aside his squeamishness enough to drink from it without wiping the bottle first, then he passed it on to Nick.

"Are you going to treat any of the people here?” Samuel asked Nick in a low voice, watching a child with infected and crusty eyes run past, and he swished at the flies more fervently.

"No,” Nick said quietly. “Pete is the doctor here, he lives in Narrogin, comes out here to Hyden and the camp. Not my patients, not my place."

"There are other doctors?” Samuel asked. “I thought there were just you and Marsia."

"Kevin is in Margaret River, Linda lives in Collie. There're at least two doctors and a hospital in Geraldton, and probably the same in Carnarvon. I don't know about the Far North, but Derby had a hospital, as did Broome. Karratha was wiped out, bombed out of existence, so there's nothing there, same for Kalgoorlie. There's an unknown number of nurses out there, too, delivering babies and sewing up wounds and doing what they can."

"And the bio-plant at Albany?” Samuel asked. “There must be doctors there."

Nick looked grim. “That's a military installation, any medical staff there are serving officers. They don't look after the population."

"Who do they think is going to invade?” Samuel asked. “Who'd want to?"

It was warm, even in the shade, and the surface the children played on was red gravel. The windmill clacked above them, and Nick looked around the camp, too.

"I suspect New Zealand thought the same way,” Nick said.

They went out roo shooting, piling into the camp vehicles, after the young men, Talgerit included, had spent the afternoon making shotgun shells, melting scrap lead in the camp fire and pouring the metal into a concrete mould to make pellets, then rolling the shot up in card with a primer and a charge.

In the dusk Samuel could barely make out anything as the car he was in bounced and crashed through the bush, squashed in beside Nick in the front seat.

Talgerit was sitting out of one of the back windows, only his legs in the car. He banged on the roof, and the driver braked hard, stopping the car, and making all the following cars stop, too.

Talgerit scrambled completely out of the car, so he was standing on the buckling roof, and Samuel heard two shots, close together.

"Got it!” Talgerit shouted, and people piled out of the cars and crashed through the bush.

Something shot out of the undergrowth, right beside the car, and Samuel jumped and grabbed onto Nick. “What was that?!” he asked, watching... something lope down the track. “A spirit?"

Nick laughed, hugging Samuel hard. “No,” he said between bursts of laughing. “That was an emu."

"A what?” Samuel asked. “It was huge! Why aren't we hunting emus?"

"They're all feather, no meat,” Nick said. “And virtually impossible to shoot. You shoot one, feathers fly in the air, and it keeps right on running."

Two of the younger men from the camp appeared on the track, carrying a huge kangaroo between them with difficulty. When they tossed it in the trunk of the car, the car rocked with the weight, and the smell of the animal filled the car. It smelled hot and gamey, and Samuel was just a little appalled that he liked the scent.

They repeated this process, loading a roo into the back of each of the three cars. It was completely dark when they headed back to camp, the three cars careening down the rough track impossibly fast, no lights on at all, bumper to bumper.

When they got back to the camp, Talgerit took Samuel's arm and dragged him aside. “Don't leave the camp,” he said. “Yes, eh?"

"Yes,” Samuel said, surprised at the intensity in Talgerit's voice. “Why?"

"There are things here,” Talgerit said. “Not like Jerramungup. Don't go into the bush, even to shit."

"What kind of things?” Samuel asked.

"You watch, tonight, at the edge of the camp, you'll see them. You want to shit, you tell me and I'll take you into the bush."

The fire roared, so the sparks flew up into the night in the easterly wind, and the stars gleamed, no clouds in the sky at all.

When the kangaroos had been gutted and skinned, the dogs fought over the guts, and the hunks of flesh were tossed onto hubcaps and put over the fire. Damper, made by the women from flour and water, was thrown onto the hubcaps beside the meat when it began to cook, and the smell of roasting meat filled the air.

Samuel could follow very little of the conversations around him, just catch the occasional word, but he was happy to sit and listen to the people laugh and wait for the meat to be cooked.

The roo tasted stronger than the roo that Talgerit had brought to the farm, gamier and more pungent, but the damper cooked in the meat juice was filling and delicious.

After dinner, the littler children gathered around Balgang and another elder, Vernon, clamouring for something, and once the grownups had smiled and patted their heads, the children settled down, sitting quietly in front of the elderly men, the best behaved Samuel had seen them so far.

Balgang clapped his hands and held them out, and Samuel stared as his hands filled with light, shining out even in the firelight. The light gathered up, into spheres, and he sent each sphere floating off into the night, like soap bubbles. Vernon did the same, and with the release of each sphere, the children laughed and shouted and pointed, and the air above the camp was spotted with these bubbles rising slowly, then fading away in the darkness.

Nick leaned across to Samuel and whispered, “Magic,” to him, and Samuel wasn't sure if that was an adjective or an explanation.

Balgang said something that obviously meant ‘enough', and stopped making the spheres, as did Vernon, and the children were bustled off into the shacks, where their faces appeared at the doors intermittently, making adults get up from the fire and go and settle them again. People began to sing, taking it in turns. Samuel couldn't understand the songs either, and he lay down on the dirt, his head on Nick's thigh.

Nick's fingers stroked over Samuel's cropped hair, finding the tiny curls that were already forming and unwinding them, then stroking down Samuel's neck slowly and gently.

The singing went on and Samuel's mind drifted off, back to his own home, impossibly remote from where he was, and he gasped and sat up suddenly.

There was a small person, not a child but still tiny, covered in hair, scurrying through the bush behind the cars, darting out of sight.

"The other people,” Nick said, putting his arm around Samuel and drawing him close. “They want to steal the food."

"What are they?” Samuel asked.

"Don't know,” Nick said. “I think they're a
Homo
species. Guess they could be a remnant
floresiensis
population. Could be something else entirely. The whole issue of human habitation of Australia is contentious, beginning with the
Homo erectus
populations that survived until ten thousand years ago, and going on from there. Was contentious. I doubt anyone argues about it anymore."

"I had no idea...” Samuel said, then he trailed off. “I could never have made the trip by myself,” he said, feeling very vulnerable.

"Lie down again,” Nick said, patting his knee. “You're safe here, and we'll sleep in the van tonight."

Samuel lay back down again, and but he kept one hand tightly wound around one of Nick's while the singing went on.

Talgerit woke them, long before dawn, and they slid the van door open slowly and quietly. Balgang was waiting for them in the darkness, along with some of the other adult males, and Talgerit took hold of Samuel's hand and they started off through the bush.

Samuel couldn't see a thing at first, since the moon had set already, but slowly he began to be able to make people out in the gloom, as they seemed to shine faintly. They walked for what felt like a long time, and Samuel became acutely aware of exactly how loud he was, even louder than Nick. Every breath rasped out loud, and grass cracked and snapped under his feet, and the people around him moved silently, passing around bushes, clambering over boulders, and it felt like there were many, many people moving around them, all silently.