Butterfly Hunter 01 (23 page)

He was absolutely
astounded. “No … No, that’s too much.”

“
Too much to
carry?” Charlie asked, as if testing him.

“
Too much
honour,” Dave protested. “I’m just an ordinary bloke.”

“
Do you know
where you were conceived?”

“
Well.
Somewhere out here, actually. Mum and Dad had been trying for a
while, and she came with him on one of his trips – I guess he was
gonna be away for, you know,
those
days. Anyway, he said by
the time they got back home they knew already.”

Charlie nodded, as if this
confirmed it all for him.

“
And I was
born in Cunnamulla,” Dave continued. “Though I wasn’t meant to be.
Mum didn’t come along on many of Dad’s trips, but she thought it
would be her last chance for a while. And I arrived
early.”

“
Old man
grunter chose you,” Charlie said, as if there were no point
arguing. And maybe there wasn’t.

“
But, Charlie,
it’s never done, is it? No one’s ever actually passed the really
sacred stuff on to a white fella.”

“
I’m
thinking,” Charlie said again. “That’s all. I haven’t even told you
the Ancestor’s real name yet. But you should know what I’m
thinking.”

“
Of course,”
murmured Nicholas. He reached to grasp Dave’s hand for a moment, as
if to convey his faith.

“
I’m gonna
talk to the elders about it. They might say no, they might say it’s
not the Ancestors putting these thoughts in my head. There might be
more and more talking, long time arguments. But I won’t even start
with telling them if you’re not willing.”

Dave thought about it, but
even in the midst of his astonishment he could hardly consider
denying Charlie’s request. It would mean going back to the
waterhole, maybe once a year, maybe more. Learning the songs to
sing there, the rituals to perform. He’d make a fool of himself for
a while, but there’d be no one to see except Charlie. And in
return, there would be a place where he belonged. There would be
land that needed him, a song that needed him, no matter how useless
he was otherwise.

“
If you really
think I’m worth it,” Dave said.

“
The land
needs us all,” Charlie said in an uncanny echo of Dave’s thoughts –
and Nicholas took Dave’s hand in his again, and this time he didn’t
let go.

“
All right. I
mean, of course. Yes,” Dave said. “Thank you,” he added. Which
wasn’t anywhere near enough, but was all he had.

He and Nicholas walked
back to the hotel together after that, and Dave was so stunned he
didn’t even realise until they got there that they’d been holding
hands the whole way.

“
Can you find
your way back there?” Nicholas asked once the satnav flickered and
died.

“
I’d hope so,”
said Dave. “I’ve done this often enough now.”

“
And it’s your
land. You have a connection with it.”

He quibbled, driving
further along the road by instinct. “It’s not
my
land. More like, I’m
its human. If Charlie’s even right.”

“
I think he’s
right,” Nicholas said. He was still rather awestruck by the whole
thing.

So was Dave, come to that,
though he retained a scepticism, too. Or a sense of reality, maybe.
He suspected the Aboriginal elders Charlie consulted would soon put
an end to such notions, and it would all come to very little –
well, very little beyond the honour Charlie had done him to even
consider such things.

“
What do you
think?” Nicholas asked, looking around them at the endless scrub.
“I feel as if we’re close already, but then nothing looks
familiar.”

“
Most people
think it all looks the same out here.”

“
No, there are
subtle differences, if you’re open to seeing them …” Nicholas
turned to grin at him. “You’d know that better than me.”

He returned the grin, but
had to shrug. “It’s a weird place; it seems to change every time
we’re here. I have to go on instinct.”

“
Go on,
then.”

But actually he had to go
against his instincts. It seemed to work if he did the opposite of
whatever his sense of direction was telling him. So Dave turned
right instead of left off the track, feeling completely mad – and
ten minutes later they crested a rise, and drove down into the
broader valley.

“
You’re
brilliant,” said Nicholas.

At which Dave blushed. He was
doing way too much of that lately.

All of Nicholas’s
clumsiness disappeared when he was having sex, all his
uncertainties, and he seemed to completely lack any kind of
self–consciousness. The man just took charge and went with it. And
Dave found himself more than happy to go along with it,
too.

One afternoon Dave found
himself on his back on the mattress atop the Cruiser, and his arms
were over his head, his hands each wrapped around the roof rack
railing. It’s just as well he’d chosen the steel, for it was taking
all the tension of his flexed arms and stomach as he took most of
his own weight. Nicholas was supporting Dave’s hips, to an extent,
while he knelt there with his thighs wide, powering into Dave as if
there were no tomorrow. It was awesome. And the stamina of this
guy! This slim Englishman, who had at times seemed so delicate,
could come in a moment or last
forever
– and by choice,
too.

Afterwards, Dave found that his
grip on the railing had kind of locked into place. Nicholas leaned
in to help gently prise his fingers back into some semblance of
human shape. He pressed a kiss to each one as it was freed.

“
Mmm,” he
murmured as one hand was done and they began work on the other.
“Maybe next time I need to tie you down instead.”

“
Mmm,” Dave
agreed, finding that he liked the notion – as long as it was
understood that Nicholas would then have his thoroughly wicked way
with Dave. “Not a chance, though,” he had to add.

“
Ah, come on,”
Nicholas chided. “I heard that note of interest in your
tone.”

“
Not while
we’re out here, mate.”

“
Why
not?”

Dave’s hands were both
free now. He tentatively stretched them out, and then cradled them
on his chest while the blood circulation recovered. “What if
something happened to you?”

“
I hope
something would!” Nicholas retorted.

Dave laughed. “I mean,
what if something bad happened to you, and I couldn’t free myself?
Chances are, you’d fall off the side of the Cruiser, hit your head,
and by the time we’re found I’d have lost my tackle to
sunburn.”

Nicholas pondered this
disturbing notion. Considered Dave’s well–used and well–loved
tackle. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?”

“
No, we
can’t.”

A winsome look turned his
way. “So maybe in town … ?”

“
Maybe,” he agreed. And thought with a rush,
Definitely.

Even the butterflies
seemed to shift to second priority for Nicholas now. The
butterflies had laid their eggs
– neat
rows of little prickly pale green spheres – and Nicholas had taken
umpteen dozen photos, but then they just seemed to get on with
living. As did Nicholas and Dave.

The two of them spent all
their time hanging out together, talking or silent or both of them
reading; having ridiculous amounts of sex or lying around idly,
randomly touching or sitting quite separately but so very
aware
of
each other. They shared the chores around the camp, the cooking and
the cleaning and the organising, because no matter how
self–indulgent Dave was being otherwise, he wouldn’t let such
things slip. Nicholas had learned all of Dave’s routines by now,
and helped without being asked or expecting to be thanked. They
worked together well. They did everything together well.

“
I know we
do,” said Nicholas, with the happy kind of smugness that no one
could possibly take exception to.

“
Oh. Am I
thinking out loud again?”

“
It’s one of
your most endearing traits.”

“
My most
idiotic, you mean.”

“
No, not at
all.” They were lazing about on the ground near the pool, staying
just within the dappled shade provided by the eucalypts. Even so,
over time Nicholas’s skin had turned a delightfully pale gold
colour. All over. Dave dragged his gaze away from the man’s narrow
rear when Nicholas looked across at him, and continued, “I feel
that I can always trust you to be yourself. There’s never any
pretence. None at all.”

Dave couldn’t help sulking
a bit. “Don’t wanna be simple …”

“
Oh, you’re
not. You’re as complex as anyone. But you’re honest, and open.
That’s marvellous, to me. I think … I suspect it’s an Australian
thing.”

“
Dunno.” He
thought about that for a while. “I guess, maybe. Denise was always
– very direct.”

“
What about
your parents? Were they like that?”

“
Well,
actually my dad was English.”

Nicholas sat up with a
surprised laugh. “He was?! So you’re half English … I didn’t know
that.”

“
I’ve never
thought of myself that way. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong
with that,” he added with a grin that Nicholas shared. “But Dad
just totally fell in love – with Australia, with my mum, with the
Outback. He never went back, not even for a holiday.”

“
And your
mum?”

“
Australian.
Well, you know. I think the family were originally English and
Irish, but they’d come to Brisbane yonks ago. I don’t know how many
generations, but back into the great–greats, yeah? So what with all
of that, I just think of myself as Australian.”

Nicholas was nodding
emphatically. “And you are, and that’s great. But it’s cool that we
have something in common, isn’t it?”

Dave grinned at him, and
reached to stroke his fingers across those cheekbones, to push back
across his sensitive ears into that thick dark hair. “It’s cool
that I’m a bit English, too,” he agreed. “You’re kind of a bit
Aussie now.”

And they just watched each
other for a while, as if they’d never quite get enough.

Eventually, though, Dave
cleared his throat. “Um, which town d’you want to go to this time
for supplies? I was thinking, maybe we should go back to Woop Woop,
so those guys can apologise to you.”

Nicholas twisted up his
mouth. “Not necessary.”

Dave thought some more,
but said it anyway: “We can get our own back. We can walk into
Drongo Central, holding hands. They won’t know
what
to do with
themselves.”

Nicholas offered him a
momentary grin. “Tempting, but no.” Then he said, “Why don’t we go
to Cunnamulla? Your birthplace. You can show me where you were
born. Was it at the hospital, or – ?”

“
Sentimental
idiot,” Dave said fondly. At which Nicholas just smiled a bit
mysteriously, and winked at him. And Dave found he didn’t mind very
much at all.

After the Cunnamulla trip
worked out, Dave came up with a bolder plan still. “Not the next
trip,” he suggested while they were still sitting around after
dinner one evening, “but maybe the one after? We’ll have been out
here seven weeks. You’ll be just over halfway through your three
months. Why don’t we do something crazy, like go to
Brisbane?”

“
Brisbane!”
Nicholas repeated, clearly startled.

“
It’s not so
far, if you’re up for a day’s drive. It’s about ten hours from
Cunnamulla. We could drive there one day, stay for two nights, then
drive back again.”

“
Oh,” the man
said. He sat up a bit straighter, and thought about it. “I suppose
… I’ve got used to being out here. It didn’t occur to me to go back
to the city.”

“
We could stay
at my place,” Dave said, suddenly finding that he couldn’t quite
meet Nicholas’s gaze. “I’ve lived there all my life. My mum and dad
bought it when they got married.”

“
I’d love to
see it.”

“
Won’t be
anything fancy like you’re used to, but I like it. Bit big for one
person, mind. It’s built in this architectural style – an
Australian style called Federation Bungalow. Which isn’t as dire as
it sounds. It was a bit of a wreck when they bought it – I’ve got
the old photos – but we did it up over the years.”

Nicholas was watching him,
mouth slightly agape. He stirred himself to say, “I’m sure it’s
lovely.”

“
Yeah, well. I
belong there, you know?” Dave looked about at their secluded
surroundings. “If Charlie’s right, and I belong here, then it’s as
well as there. Cos that’s my home.”

Nicholas said, with a full
heart, “I’d love to stay there with you, even if it is only for two
nights.”

“
And …
you can meet Denise,
maybe.”