Barefoot and Lost (56 page)

    
My milking has improved
, I can now finish Daisy by the time
Owen
has milked the other three. My hands do not hurt as much, and in the dairy I now do everything while
Owen
feeds the calves and pigs. We are now going in for breakfast at eight-o-clock.
Owen
reckons that, if we keep on improving our time the cows will be milked before we get up.

     It is Christmas Day but nobody has told the cows
, they are
as usual
waiting at the milking shed
at half past six. Breakfast this morning is only boiled eggs and toast.
Gloria
says we must save room for the Christmas lunch, she has been preparing it for
days,
and there is no way we will be allowed to leave any.

    
Gloria
’s sister, her husband, and their daughter are coming from Ballarat to stay for three days, also a squatter called
Bill
Hamball
. I have never met him he lives on his own
in the forest
about nine miles from Gadoona where he grazes about four hundred sheep. It has been traditional to have him here at Christmas, as it was to have his father.
Owen
says he is quite a character; you could listen to his yarns for ever and never get bored so, including
Bill
, there will be nine of us for lunch.

     Bill Hamball is a small wiry man with jet black hair sh
owing from underneath his bushman’s hat
. His shoulders are broad and his thin legs bowed, I’d say he’d be about sixty five if I hadn’t been told by
Gloria
that he is eighty three. He is the first to arrive, in a two wheeled carriage drawn by a grey horse; sitting behind him are two border collies. As soon as
Bill
stops the horse the dogs jump down, tails wagging, and do what all dogs do, sniff the trees and then cock their leg.

     ‘
G’day
young fella, ow yer going?’

     ‘Good thanks,’ Stan taught me to say that; even if you are dying he reckons nobody wants to know your medical history so you just say, good thanks, and let them work it out for themselves.        

     ‘So you’re the fella that walked here from
Perth
?’

     ‘No sir, I got trains and trucks to
Mount
Gambier
, and then walked from there.’

     ‘Thought as much, couldn’t see yer walking the Nullabor; so where’s about in Pommy land do yer come from?’

     ‘Born in
London
and lived in
Hastings
.’

     ‘Don’t mean much to me, I aint never been and don’t have any inclination to go, too many bloody people, no wonder you Poms are coming here looking to find a bit of space, yer must be standing on each others toes over there.’

      ‘No
Mr.
Hamball
, It’s not like that.’

     ‘You won’t convince me, I went to
Melbourne
once, about thirty years ago, everybody pushing and shoving, I couldn’t handle it, caught the next train home. I was in such a hurry to get out of the place I forgot I’d gone there to join up, don’t expect they missed me though, the war was over the next year anyway.’ 

     Whilst
Bill has been talking he has un-hitched his horse, taken off all the harness and is now leading her to the yard where the cows come for milking. At the gate he unclips the bridal and gives the horse a slap on the rump, she canters around the yard a couple of times then
rolls
in the dust at the bottom corner.

     ‘Do yer like it here at Gadoona?’

     ‘Its fantastic,
Owen
and
Gloria
are so good to me I feel like I have been here all my life.’

     ‘You’re an orphan aint yer?’

     ‘Yes, both my parents were killed in the war.’

     ‘Then here is good for you and
Gloria
,
Adam
would have been about your age now.’

     ‘Who’s
Adam
?’

     ‘Oh shit, me and my big mouth, if they aint told yer then it’s not for me to say.’

     ‘Told me what, what are you talking about?’

     ‘Sorry mate, you’ll have to ask
Owen
.’
Bill
walks away from me up the path to the house, me, and his two dogs watch him go.

     The clatter of a car going over the
cattle ramp draws my attention. I turn to see a gleaming blue, American car, with chrome bu
mpers and white walled tyres, roll
to
a stop
in
the yard.
Gloria
wal
ks up behind me. ‘My sister and
entourage
,
and a new car to boot, we won’t hear the end of that.’ The driver’s door opens; a tall gaunt man slithers out, and runs around to the rear passenger door. With one hand he opens it, the other hand he offers to assist the lady seated in the back seat. An older version of
Gloria
emerges, her hair is not quite so red, she is shorter and fatter, but without doubt,
Gloria
’s sister. The other rear door opens, from it a younger version of
Gloria
’s brother in law steps out, if I hadn’t been told they had a daughter I’d have sworn it was a boy of thirteen.

     ‘Come and meet my family;
Phillip
, this is
Hope
, my brother in law
Claude
Cuthbert
and my niece May.’
Hope
smiles with her mouth, but not with her eyes. May blushes and smiles at me
Claude
without any expression at all holds out his hand for me to shake. His grip is not like Skeeter or
Stan
’s but more like shaking hands with a wet fish.

    
Hope
in a loud affected voice says, ‘Oh darling, I am so pleased to meet you, I have heard so much about you. I had conjured up an image of what you would be like but, in reality you are quite different, strange isn’t it?’ I’m not sure what she means; does she mean I’m better than expected or worse? I don’t care because I don’t like her, she is, what Gran would have called, a right toffee nose in fact she could be Bateman’s mother.

     ‘Glorr, do you like our new car?
Claude
took delivery on Monday; it has been on order for three months. I was so worried we would have to drive here in the old one.’

     ‘Your other Chevy wasn’t exactly old, was it?’

     ‘I know darling, but it wasn’t new when we got it, didn’t set the right impression you know.’

     ‘No, I suppose not, shall we all go inside,
Owen
is bound to have a bottle of bubbly on ice.’

     The dinner has been fantastic; I have never seen so much food on a table.
Owen
has carved, also helping
Gloria
serve and clear away the dishes. Stan is doing the washing up
, May and I
are drying.
Claude
is drinking yet another glass of wine.
Hope
’s contribution is to sit at the table, with one of
Jack
’s cigarettes in a long holder in one hand, and a glass in the other, passing comments. ‘Darling, the meal was divine, Darling, you are such a clever clogs. Darling, why is it that you are so domesticated and I am not? Darling how you do it just amazes me.’
Jack
has left the table, taking his cigarettes with him; I’m pleased to see he is smoking Kensitas. As we finish and everything is put away
Hope
rises from the table, stubs out her cigarette and says,

     ‘Darling, let me give you a hand;
Claude
, lift your glass.’
Claude
picks up his glass and the wine bottle. Hope removes and folds the
table cloth, ‘There you are,
finished, surprising how quickly things get done when we all get stuck in.’

     ‘Oh Hope, I was going to leave that on for tea.’

     ‘Darling, I could never do anything right in your eyes; you will just have to put it back on yourself, I am bound to do it wrong.’ We all look at each other;
Claude
drains the last of the wine into his glass.
Owen
smiles and says,

     ‘I think I can hear Santa coming, shall we all adjourn to the Christmas tree?’

    
Bill
is Santa, but he is the strangest Santa I have ever seen, he is not fat, he has a red table cloth over his shoulders and a red woollen hat. It has been agreed that we won’t open our presents until Santa has finished handing them out
,
but it is taking ages. Santa can’t see the writing and, when he can, he can’t read it,
Jack
has to keep helping him out. It is so funny, every time he asks
Jack
to read for him
Jack
says it is for him, he now has a pile bigger than anyone else.

     So far I have four parcels, one is a round box about a foot in diameter, another is also rounded, I have examined it without opening, and it feels like a bowl. One is definitely a book; the fourth is flat and heavy. Santa has given me two more one sausage shaped, eight inches long, the other the same shape but twice as long. Santa has now finished. Jacks pile is twice the size of anyone else’s.
Hope
only has two parcels and is not looking very happy about it.
Jack
starts to open my cigarettes, ‘Thanks Phil very thoughtful.’ Opening another one he says, ‘Oh, this is not for me, it’s yours
Auntie
Hope
, how did this get here?’

     ‘You tease
Jack
, how many more of mine do you have?’

     ‘Only a few,’
Jack
hands them over, everyone laughs.
Hope
has now lost that look as though she had something on her shoe that she had just stepped in.

     I open my big round parcel from
Hope
,
Claude
, and May to find it’s an Akubra bushman hat, it’s a perfect fit.

     ‘
Hope
, how did you know what size to get?’
Owen
answers,

     ‘Quite simple really, the hat of mine you wear is a bit big so we came down a size, then a contraption invented by Alexander
Graham Bell came into play,
job done.’

     ‘I get it, a telephone.’ The book is from
Bill
, about Aboriginal folk law, and the heavy present is a pair of fencing pliers in a holster,
from
Stan
to be worn on my belt, just like the pair he carries.
Next I open the present from
Jack
to find a leather stock whip.

     ‘
Be careful with that, I will show you how to use it, they can be lethal if you are not careful.
’

     ‘
Thanks Jack,
when will you show me?’

     ‘
This arvo, when everyone else has nodded off, unless, of course, you find something better to do. The small sausage from
Gloria
and
Owen
is
next; I have decided to leave the bowl until last. Inside is a collar and leash, I look up, everyone is looking at me, I do not know what to say,
Owen
grinning says,

     ‘The other end of that is in the kennels.’ Still lost for words, looking at the chrome disc, on it engraved
is,
DEFOR, owner, P Snell, and the telephone number for Gadoona.

     ‘Is he really mine, can I go to him now?’

     ‘You still have one parcel to open, but you’ll see it is more for Defor than you so you had better take it to him.’ As I suspected it is a bowl, a dog’s water bowl.

     ‘
Phillip
, can I come with you?’

     ‘Yes May if you want to’

     ‘
Phillip
, don’t let Defor loose, keep him on the leash. We don’t know how he will behave around sheep. I’m sure Skeeter would not have given him sheep dog training, also don’t walk him too far, his leg is not one hundred percent yet.’