Drowning in Her Eyes (12 page)

The next day they toured the University of New England and inspected the colleges, Jack steadily seduced by the promise of an independent life style, the great sporting facil
i
ties, his beautiful cousins, and the lovely summer weather. It was midsummer but the temperature was about ten degrees cooler than Goondiwindi, and last night he had slept with a blanket. In the distance beyond the sporting fields, beside the tennis courts, was a small building with a flagpole in front of it. Jack asked them to drive him there, ostensibly to look at the tennis courts. He noticed a sign in front of the small building. It said
:
Sydney University Regiment (New England Company)
.

He said nothing, but the germ of an idea began to stir in his brain. In the morning, they bade farewell to the cousins, and headed for home. It all convinced Jack. He would b
e
come a student of agriculture at the University of New En
g
land.

Meanwhile, not far to the north in a small country in Indochina, small
men
and women, dressed in black
and
carrying AK47 assault rifles, began to enlist supporters. They had a sure fire method. Enter a village, shoot the headman, and impose a rice levy.
They d
ig tunnels to cach
e further weapons and supplies, and r
ecruit young men and women. Their met
h
od was convincing. Join us or we will shoot you too.

Armidale, New South Wales, Australi
a
—
1964

Marci looked around the kitchen of the house they had leased in this small
university city
. It was no mansion, but it was roomy, well positioned, and comfortable. James Junior was ecstatic
—
he had a room to himself at last! His sisters
,
now deemed young women, needed privacy from male co
m
pany in the intimate confines of a bedroom. It is funny how fate intervenes, she mused. The bus had climbed the Great Dividing Range to the city of Warwick. Then it had travelled south over the border to the State of New South
Wales.

Sixty miles short of the scheduled overnight stop at Tamworth, the bus shuddered, belched a cloud of blue smoke, and ground to a stop. Its condition was terminal, and the passengers were ferried to Armidale for the night. Wa
k
ing in the early January morning, Jimmy and Marci decided to go for a walk. Here, in the New England Ranges, the cool summer day, the songs of the birds in the early morning ch
o
rus, and the friendly smiles and greetings of other walkers had captivated them.
“Darling,
” said Marci,
“I think I could like it here.
” Jimmy, whose thoughts were evermore turning to the concept of Divine intervention, was convinced she was right.

As they walked, they passed the large Catholic Cath
e
dral. Organ music and the sounds of singing wafted toward them from the open door. On impulse, Jimmy took Marci by the hand and took her into the building. An early mass was in progress.
“What are you doing?
” she said.
“
You know I
'm not
Catholic.
”

“I want to give thanks to God for bringing us to this beautiful place,
” said Jimmy.
“This is as good as any other of His houses.
”

They knelt in the back row and said some silent prayers. After
wards
, they crossed the street to the town
's central park. Here they observed many familiar trees
—
elms, oaks, and birch abounded. It was quiet, in the lull before the wor
k
ing traffic began, and both felt an extraordinary sense of peace. Presently, Jimmy rose from his seat.
“Come on. I
'm hung
ry and there are three children
to
convince
.
”

* * * *

They took
no convincing
.

The girls had been out, also.
In a small milk bar,
they
had met a young couple
attracted by their accents. The youngsters told them
there were several American families in the city
—
staff at the university
—
and urged the
girls
to contact them. They gave them the name of Cyrus McKenzie, a Professor of z
oology.

T
he family met for breakfast at the h
otel. Be
fore either parent could speak, James Junior excitedly told them he had seen a baseball diamond
.
Sarah reported the presence of fe
l
low Americans, and Susan bubbled over about the beautiful trees and lawns.
Marci
thought of once more cooking and caring for her family
, and the thought
felt good. To do it in a nice place felt even better.
Once again, Jimmy looked to the heavens.
It was all falling into place.

There was excited conversation for a while when finally Marci said,
“Daddy and I would be happy to stay here for a while. How would you feel about that
?
”

Th
ey spent a frenetic month setting up their house, fin
d
ing a good used Volkswagen Beetle, and enrolling in educ
a
tional institutions. Sarah and James Junior were to start at Armidale high school
.
Susan would commence an arts d
e
gree at the university. They made a number of good friends including Professor McKenzie and his family, along with the other expatriate Americans. One day
,
while attending the university enrolment office, Susan met a nice young woman called Bernadette Willis. They became firm friends. Jimmy had found a job as an electrician and general maintenance man at the Teachers
' College. So, the Bakers settled into their new home.

Meanwhile, not far to the north, in a small country in Indochina, reports were i
n
creasing of slain villagers and young men disappearing. The small men and women in black with their AK 47s and Chinese
-
made rocket launc
h
ers attacked a compound of soldiers. More than 100 died. The reports did not appear in Australian newspapers.

Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
—1964

Jack Riordan left
Ballinrobe
on a
hot,
clear
February morning. He
'
d b
ade
his family farewell the day before. De
n
ni was off to Brisbane, and his parents, reluctant to let her go all by herself, had gone with her. Jack wondered how they would keep up with her Mini, for she drove it like a racing car. That day
he
'
d hauled out his rifle, Sam, and the old Land Rover and spent time saying goodbye to
Ballinrobe
. He took great comfort from this reconnection to the land, for he knew he might not be back for almost three months.

Although Jack had endured ten years in boarding schools, he had no idea what living
at
a college would entail, but he was looking forward to the freedom of action long denied at school. Today
Ballinrobe
took second place. A ri
s
ing tide of excitement overwhelmed him. As he climbed into the ranges, the cool breeze and the lovely trees, already changing into their autumnal brilliance, tugged at his hear
t
strings. The country was so different. The fields were an e
m
erald green, unlike the brown summer fields of
Ballinrobe
, shimmering in the heat haze. The sheep were in small mobs, most of them very different to his familiar Merinos. Some of them had black faces and legs. He was looking at meat pr
o
ducing sheep, and what meat it was! New England spring lamb was famous throughout eastern Australia.

Instead of the wide flat fields of
Ballinrobe
, he saw pre
t
ty hills and valleys, and entirely different trees. The mou
n
tain eucalypts were there, but there were many northern hemisphere trees, poplars, elm, birch, huge radiata pines, an occasional oak or sequoia. Each valley seemed to have a small clear stream running through its bottom, lined with willow and hawthorn. Trees surrounded the homesteads. To the west and south-
west sides, thickly planted windbreaks protected them from the winter winds. Some of the stoc
k
yards had roofing for protection. This country was cold in the winter, with snow on occasions. The mountain air was clean and cool. Occasionally, he saw brilliant parrots, cri
m
son and blue, shining green, red, and ye
llow, swooping across his path.

He arrived in Armidale around noon, found Aunt Lil
's house without difficulty, and was warmly welcomed.

“Why don
't you have some lunch with us, now, and then go out to your college this afternoon. It will take a few hours to settle in and get your bearings. You can start on books, stationery and timetables tomorrow. Come back for dinner tonight. There are some people we would like you to meet,
” said his
a
unt.
“Yes,
”
Bernadette
said
, with a myster
i
ous smile
.
“Some
really
interesting people.
”

* *
*
*

The main campus of the
u
niversity bestrode a hill. The administration building was the spectacular 1800s hom
e
stead of a once large pastoral holding, long ago broken up for closer settlement. At the foot of the hill lay the sporting fields and the men
's colleges. Jack had been lucky; he had a room in Robb College, an almost new and attractive building of modern Swedish design. He went to reception to be regi
s
tered
and
collected a key, along with a sheaf of instructions, rules, and the penalties for breaking them. He was disa
p
pointed to learn that one of the rules forbade the presence of women in students
' rooms.