The Audrey of the Outback Collection Page 20

  Did it always do that, or had he just winked at her? Audrey didn’t dare look up at him again. He might see in her eyes that she was hiding something.

  Janet had said a good tracker could find anyone, anywhere. He could tell everything but what they ate for lunch. And maybe even that. This tracker was already so close to where Janet was hiding. He’d find her, and then they’d take her away in the big black car. Her mum and aunties would be calling her and she might never answer.

  Twenty-eight

  The car drove off, back the way it came. For now, it was heading away from Janet.

  If she saw the car, she’d be scared. She might try to hop away, but she wouldn’t get far. Or would she huddle inside the cubby and hope the policeman and tracker didn’t see her? Whatever happened, she was out there alone.

  Audrey, Price and Mum stood outside the house, watching the dust cloud. Douglas was inside, still playing trains. He was the only one who didn’t feel the tightness in the air. It was just as though a thunderstorm was brewing, when the air was charged, ready to spark. But there were no clouds in the sky. The thunderstorm was right there on the ground.

  Mum took Audrey’s hand.

  Audrey squeezed her fingers.

  ‘You took that meat, didn’t you, sis?’ said Price.

  Audrey nodded.

  ‘Where is she?’ Mum’s fingers twitched against Audrey’s.

  It was a direct question. One that Audrey could not avoid answering. Besides, Mum already knew she’d seen ‘the girl’. Even if they hadn’t spoken the words to each other. And Audrey couldn’t lie straight out to Mum.

  ‘In my pirate cubby.’

  Mum’s cheeks were still red, but there were white patches beneath her eyes.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ said Audrey. ‘They’ll send her to some place where she has to wash floors and carry big buckets. And it’s too hard for a little girl.’

  ‘I’m not sure we can do anything.’ Mum sighed. ‘It’s the law. That was a policeman. I don’t know what your father’s going to say about this. We should have told the police what we know. And we can’t actually stop them.’

  ‘You did good, Mum.’ Audrey squeezed her hand yet again. ‘Janet said her family are calling for her every day. She wants to go home to her mum. If a policeman came to take me away, Janet would try to stop them. She’s little, but she’s strong. Except for her bung foot. She can’t walk properly.’

  Mum bit her lip.

  ‘I have to warn her,’ said Audrey. ‘Please don’t tell me not to go.’ Her legs jiggled. Her feet wanted to run.

  Her mum said nothing.

  Audrey slipped her hand free of her mother’s warm grasp and swallowed hard.

  ‘If I go to gaol, you can have my treasure tin,’ she told Price. ‘There’s a ripper emu egg in there. You can put it on your string.’

  Price rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t want your egg. You keep it. You won’t go to gaol. Besides, I’m coming with you.’

  Every second counted.

  Twenty-nine

  Audrey ran. Usually Price was faster because his legs were longer. But this time he matched his pace to hers.

  ‘What are we going to do when we find the girl?’ asked Price, his words short and clipped from lack of air.

  ‘Janet,’ said Audrey. ‘Her name’s Janet. And I’ll take her home to our house.’

  ‘Audrey, she isn’t a kitten you can drag around with you.’

  She swerved around a thick cluster of trees, dodged a tall ant hill and kept running.

  Her feet hit the ground as she belted along and she felt it all the way up to her knees. Both of her thick plaits bounced against her back.

  ‘Dad’ll be back soon. Then we can work out what to do.’ She slowed again and pointed to a slab of rock. ‘This way. We won’t leave footprints if we run on hard rock.’

  Price looked at her. He seemed surprised that she’d had such a clever idea.

  There wasn’t time to stop and try to brush away their footsteps. Every second counted.

  ‘Wish we had the billycart,’ she called to her brother. ‘We could tow Janet home.’

  The billycart had been left out in the bush somewhere and there had been no time to search for it. Douglas often dragged it behind him into the bushes, but returned without it. It was like hide-and-seek, but without the seek.

  ‘It’d be slow going in the sand,’ said Price. ‘I’ll piggyback her if she can’t walk.’

  That would work. Janet was only small and she wouldn’t weigh much.

  ‘Let’s go that way.’ Audrey pointed to their left.

  Price and Audrey leapt from one sheet of flat rock to another, until the rock petered out.

  Then they were back on red sandy soil. The sound of their running feet changed in the soft sand.

  Audrey stumbled. Her legs were tired.

  Price grabbed her arm, but she stayed on her feet. Her cubbyhouse had never seemed so far away. She wondered if people could run so far and so fast that they melted into a heap on the ground.

  Finally she saw her cubby through the trees. ‘There it is,’ she panted.

  Price didn’t answer. He was puffing hard.

  Audrey forgot about her sore feet and the painful heat in her chest. All she could think about was reaching the cubby and getting Janet back to the house.

  Price shot ahead. He crashed right through a large saltbush instead of running around it.

  He stopped abruptly, his chest heaving.

  Audrey was only seconds behind him. She caught up, ignoring the stitch in her left side.

  She looked down at the ground. There were no footprints. No sign that anyone had been here.

  ‘Wait here,’ Audrey whispered to Price. ‘She’ll be scared of you.’

  Audrey crept forward and whistled.

  There was no answer.

  ‘Janet,’ she hissed.

  The only sound she heard was the wind in the bushes. Then the crows: caa, caa, caa.

  Audrey pulled the brush door aside.

  Thirty

  Price poked his head inside the cubbyhouse. ‘Are you all right, Audrey?’

  Audrey looked up at him. The sun was bright behind him and his body looked dark and tall, like a shadow.

  ‘She’s not here.’

  Audrey’s red cardigan had been dropped on the ground inside the cubby. The notebook, with pencils scattered around it, was next to the cardigan.

  Price squatted on his heels in the open doorway. ‘They must’ve got her.’ His voice was hushed, as though he was nervous about waking someone from sleep.

  Audrey’s heart was thumping around in her chest and she couldn’t think properly. She’d tried to protect Janet. But the men had caught her anyway. Audrey couldn’t speak straight away. If she did, she’d start crying.

  Janet would be scared, and upset that she couldn’t reach her mum and her aunties. She might even be angry. But it wouldn’t make any difference how she felt. Those men with the buttons would still take her down to Quorn to carry heavy buckets and iron clothes.

  ‘She …’ Audrey swallowed. ‘Janet’s only little. A strong wind would blow her over. What’s her mum going to do when she doesn’t come home?’

  Price reached one hand out towards Audrey, then let it drop. ‘I’m sorry, sis.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Why’d they leave this stuff behind?’

  ‘I don’t …’ Audrey paused, tapping her chin with one finger. Then she said, ‘There’s no prints.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘There’s no footprints, no marks on the ground. If those men dragged Janet out to the car, there’d be marks in the sand. They wouldn’t come back to wipe out their footprints.’

  ‘Has she walked out by herself?’ asked Price. ‘I thought you said she couldn’t walk properly.’

  ‘She can’t. Her ankle looks like a paddy melon. It’s all puffy.’

  Audrey picked up the notebook and opened it.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Price. ‘Did
she leave you a note?’

  Audrey studied the open pages of the notebook before answering, ‘Sort of.’

  She turned the book around to show Price what Janet had drawn on the page. The pictures looked as though they’d been done in a hurry, and weren’t nearly as neat as Janet’s usual drawings.

  ‘Why are you showing me pictures?’

  ‘They’re not just pictures. They’re stories.’

  She beckoned her brother inside the cubby.

  Price had to bend over to fit under the roof.

  ‘Look!’ said Audrey. ‘This circle is the cubby. That line means she’s left the cubby and she’s travelling somewhere. I don’t know where. I can’t read it good enough. See these shapes, the small one and the bigger one?’

  Price nodded.

  Audrey moved her finger across the page. ‘The small one’s Janet and the other, big one, is a grown-up. She’s gone with someone.’

  ‘But who? The policeman?’

  Audrey shook her head. ‘See this shape, like a little bag? It’s where the native bees keep their honey.’

  Price looked puzzled.

  ‘Bloke found the honeybag.’ Audrey closed her eyes and held the book to her chest.

  ‘What’s Bloke got to do with Janet?’

  ‘Janet is telling me that Bloke has taken her, without saying it’s her!’ said Audrey. ‘She’s smart, Janet.’

  ‘Are you sure Bloke’s got her?’

  ‘Too right. They were running away on their own. Now they’re running away together.’

  ‘Will Janet get home to her mum?’ asked Audrey.

  Thirty-one

  Audrey knelt on the ground beside the wooden crosses at the back of her house. She held red and brown wildflowers together while her mum tied a bow around each bunch.

  Then her mum placed one bunch on Esther’s grave, and the other on Pearl’s.

  ‘Will Janet get home to her mum?’ asked Audrey.

  ‘I hope so. She sounds a determined little girl. And Bloke’s strong, she’ll be able to carry a little girl like that, no problems, even with her swag. Bloke’s been on the road for years and she knows the bush well. I’m sure she’ll do her best to take Janet back to her mother.’

  ‘Bloke was in a place that made her sad when she was little, just like Janet. Then she met a new mum and dad. Bloke’s got three brothers and she hasn’t seen them for a long time. I reckon Janet and Bloke are both girls looking for their families. ’Cept Bloke’s a lot older and she’s got no teeth.’

  ‘When did Bloke meet Janet?’

  ‘They didn’t tell me. But I think Bloke might have known about Janet before Janet knew about her. Bloke was sort of … different when we were playing knucklebones. It was like I had an itch on my back, but I didn’t know exactly where to scratch it. Bloke was trying to say something and I didn’t get it.’ Audrey lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘I reckon secrets make people different. Anyway, I thought she was talking about her family.’

  Mum patted Audrey’s hand.

  ‘Will I ever see Janet again?’

  ‘One day, maybe.’

  ‘Dad said he’d tell me more about Pearl and Esther one day. But he hasn’t done it yet.’

  Mum brushed twigs from the ground around the bunches of flowers. ‘He will, when he’s ready.’

  ‘You could tell me all about them instead.’

  ‘I think your father wants to do it. Be patient with him. He’s working up to it. He took two years to get the courage to ask my father if he could marry me.’

  ‘Was your dad a dogger, like Dad?’

  ‘No, he was a camel breeder.’

  In a nearby tree top, a kookaburra laughed.

  Audrey turned to look at the tethered camels. Stumpy stood with them. He wasn’t tied, but sometimes he liked to talk to other camels. Audrey heard Janet’s voice in her head, That camel, he your family?

  A shiver ran down Audrey’s spine.

  Janet was the biggest secret Audrey had ever had. The secret was almost too big. Bloke also had a secret, about the orphanage and her lost brothers. Audrey wondered if everybody had secrets.

  ‘Mum … have you ever lied to me?’

  ‘If I say no, straight out, that could be a lie. But I try not to lie.’

  ‘Do you tell me everything?’ asked Audrey.

  ‘Not everything. Some thoughts in my mind are grown-up things.’

  ‘You knew I had a secret, didn’t you, Mum?’

  ‘I suspected.’

  Audrey reached out and helped Mum brush twigs and pebbles from the girls’ graves. ‘When mums sus-pec-t, that means they know. You didn’t ask me about my secret.’

  ‘I was waiting for you to decide what to do,’ said Mum.

  ‘What if I decided wrong?’

  ‘If I made every choice for you, you wouldn’t learn to make your own. And I trusted you to make the right one in the end. The hardest choices are not between right and wrong, but between two rights … ooh.’ Mum put one hand on her swollen tummy.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Audrey leaned closer to her mum.

  ‘It’s the baby. He just decided to play football.’ Mum took Audrey’s hand and held it against her tummy.

  Something small and firm pushed against Audrey’s hand. ‘I can feel it,’ she whispered. ‘But girls can play footie, too. It might be a girl.’

  ‘Audrey Barlow, you are quite right.’

  ‘There’s been a lot of secrets around here lately, but I know one thing that’s not a secret. This is the best family in the whole, right to the edge, across the big sea, including the Antarctic, world. Stumpy thinks so too. Fair dinkum.’

  Interesting Words

  Billabong: waterhole

  Billy: tin container used to

  boil water

  Blowfly: a fly which deposits eggs

  or legless larvae (maggots)

  in carcasses, meat, sores

  or wounds

  Bonzer: excellent

  Bunyip: a creature in Aboriginal

  legends

  Chook: domestic chicken

  Cockatoo: a crested parrot

  ‘Cocky’s corsets’: something good

  ‘Come a cropper’: fall

  Cooee: a call used to attract

  attention in the bush.

  It rises in pitch on the

  last syllable—ee.

  ‘Cop this’: look at this

  Damper: a kind of bread made

  from flour and water,

  which is cooked in hot

  coals or ash

  Dill: a silly person

  Dingo: Australian wild dog, often

  brownish-yellow with

  pointy ears. It doesn’t bark,

  but howls. Dingoes are

  known for attacking farm

  animals, such as sheep.

  Dogger: someone who catches

  dingoes for payment

  Dray: a cart with no sides, used

  for heavy loads

  Drover: someone who drives

  cattle to a market, often

  over a long distance

  Dunny: outside toilet

  Dust devil: dust caught in a

  whirlwind

  Emu: a tall Australian bird,

  which cannot fly

  Fair dinkum: true

  Gammy: injured

  Goanna: a large Australian monitor

  lizard

  Gully: a small valley, usually

  cut by water

  Hander: to be hit on the hand at

  school as a punishment

  Hessian: coarse, rough cloth made

  from jute, used for sacks

  or carpet backing

  Honeybag: native Australian

  beehive

  Joey: baby kangaroo

  ‘Kick the bushes’: go to the toilet in the

  open air, usually behind

  a bush

  ‘Knock me bandy’: to be surprised

  Knucklebones: ani
mal knuckles, usually

  from sheep, used for

  playing a game

  Koala: a furry, grey, Australian

  marsupial with big ears,

  that lives in gum trees

  Lanoline: fat from sheep’s wool

  Meat safe: a cabinet which keeps

  food cool

  Ning-nong: silly person

  Possum: Australian marsupial that

  lives in trees and is most

  active at night

  Quandong: Australian native fruit

  Rattler: freight train. ‘Riding the

  rattler’ meant jumping

  onboard without a ticket,

  to get a free ride.

  Saltbush: hardy, low-growing

  drought-resistant plant

  found in the Australian

  bush

  Scrub: a large area that is covered

  with trees or shrubs,

  particularly in the

  Australian bush

  Skink: a small lizard

  Smoko: tea-break

  Spinifex: spiky grass that grows in

  inland Australia

  Squeezebox: accordion

  Sundowner: a bush traveller who

  arrives at a homestead at

  sundown, too late to do

  any work

  Swagman

  (or swaggie): a bush traveller who

  carries a swag (a bundle of

  belongings) and earns

  money from odd jobs

  or gifts

  Tank stand: a framework to support a

  rainwater tank

  ‘The big spit’: vomit

  Three-cornered jacks: small, hard prickles

  ‘Tickets on yourself’: conceited, thinking too

  much of yourself

  Tucker: food

  ‘What d’ya know’: Australian greeting, a way

  of saying hello

  Wombat: a burrowing marsupial

  animal

  About the Author

  Christine Harris has lived in different parts of South Australia, some of them isolated country areas.

  The directions to one of her houses went like this: ‘The first fridge on the right, fifteen kilometres after the last pub.’ Kangaroos jumped past her kitchen window, and she once found a snakeskin in the shed.

  She spent much of her childhood in the wild places of her imagination, as a princess in a castle, a pirate on the wild seas, an archaeologist. Even her best friend, Jennifer Hobbar, was imaginary. But Christine only realised this when she tried to visit Jennifer’s house and had no idea where it was.