FOLLOW THE MORNING STAR (32 page)

He was in this reflective mood when he rode up to find Snowy squatting in the shade of a tree near the stockyard. He’d been thinking of Snowy, strong images of the old man had been popping into his head all morning, so seeing him here at Cricklewood was no surprise.

Ernie dismounted and greeted Snowy with a grin. ‘What’s up, Snow?’

‘Not a lot. No worries. Jist takin’ a break.’

‘How’s TR? Any news on the boss and them missin’ bulls?’ Ernie squatted beside Snowy, the reins looped over his arm.

‘Reckon she’s gotta lead on ’em last I hear. Hard t’say if she’ll get all them fellas back. TR is walking round pretty good on sticks. Uses the chair sometimes. But he’s still sorta lost.’

‘Must be hard for him eh?’

They sat in silence for a bit. ‘So whaddya know, Snow?’

Snowy looked at the handsome young fellow beside him. ‘I reckon your time is comin’, Ern. You bin initiated, I’m watching you these last months. You come on pretty good. Nice and steady. You don’t get up to no mischief, so I figure it’s time I pass on some more of the learnin’ to you. I ain’t so young and I shouldn’t take this with me.’

‘Traditional laws and special knowledge stuff, you mean?’

‘Yep. When a young fella proves he’s worthy of learnin’, by how he lives him life, then it’s time.’

‘You gonna start, like now?’

‘When we git back to Tingulla. It’s not somethin’ I hand over like a book. Too much t’take in all at once, so I give you little bit by little bit. I gotta show you tings, show you places, tell the laws and the legends so you understand the beliefs ’n’ all.’

Ernie looked a bit overwhelmed. ‘That’s a big job. You reckon I’m up to it, Snowy? And anyway, you ain’t crook or nothing are you?’ He looked concerned and Snowy smiled.

‘No, that’s why we should start dis one pretty soon. But slow. Like building a house. First we do the floor, then the walls, then you put the roof on and soon you start doin’ stuff
by yourself, windows ’n’ doors ’n’ all them other bits. You gotta understand your spirit power and learn how to use him.’

‘The others know this is goin’ on?’

‘Nope. I never say much. Millie she probably figure it out in time ’cause you ’n’ I will be spendin’ time together, to go to special spirit and sacred places to learn the ceremonies.’

‘I understand, Snowy, and I know you is my tribal family, and I’m the one to get it passed on, but we gotta live in two worlds now. How is this traditional law gonna fit in with what’s goin’ on outside?’

Ernie had great respect for the tribal elders and knew the knowledge that had kept their culture alive for so many centuries now rested in frail heads and hearts.

‘No fella kin live good in the future till him know the past. And we is losin’ it, Ern. The grog has got to a lot of the old fellas. Others reckon they don’t know nothin’; fact is, they know stuff, but don’t know they know it. So we gotta teach the kids ’n’ keep passin’ it on.’

Ernie nodded. ‘I know what you mean. Well, I’ll do me best, Snowy.’

The old man rocked on his heels and looked satisfied. Their past and their future, the origins of all life, and the laws to live by interpreted through the legends, would pass into Ernie’s hands and the spirits of their shared totem would be pleased.

‘We head back to Tingulla now, eh?’

‘Righto, Snowy. Things are shipshape here. The men have come back from Tingulla now shearin’s over. Also, some old bloke turned up,
a swaggie, name of Chipper. Said he’d met Queenie on the track.’

‘He bin workin’ here or campin’?’ asked Snowy.

‘He’s a worker all right. Struth, can he swing an axe!’ declared Ernie. ‘He cut a stack of fence posts like a ruddy machine. Every one of ’em identical. Said he might hang around for a bit, which suits me. So, Snow, I guess we can head back today.’

The young man and his elder briefly clasped hands. A bridge had been crossed.

The next day at Tingulla, Dingo sat at Queenie’s desk finishing up the paperwork on costs of the shearing and sale of the clip. He wrote her a note and pinned it to the top of the file as the phone rang. Millie picked it up somewhere in the house but quickly appeared at the office door.

‘It’s America. That French friend of hers, Henry whats his name.’ Millie seemed flustered. ‘You’d better talk to him, Dingo, I don’t git that flippin’ accent of his.’

Dingo smiled as he reached for the phone. Henri the hotelier who had wanted to marry Queenie. Millie had never thought the match should go ahead and in a way that had been the catalyst for her to bring Queenie and TR together.

‘Henri, this is Dingo McPherson. Queenie is out in the bush, can I help?’

‘Dingo! How nice to speak to you. I’ve just received a long letter from Queenie. I am most distressed to hear about TR. Is he any better?’

‘Not much. Physically he’s making slow progress. No return of his memory yet. It’s all very sad and difficult. I’m helping out for a bit.’

‘That is a great pity. Well, Dingo, I know you are privy to some of Queenie’s business plans so I will speak to you so you can pass on this news, yes?’

‘Sure, if it’s business.’

‘Queenie wrote to me that she is selling the Kurrajong Hotel and she had always promised me first refusal. I’ve spoken to my company directors and bankers and I would be very agreeable to buying the hotel. We would make very few changes as I know it is run superbly. In a few months I will come out and review matters. So tell her yes, I accept her offer.’

‘I had no idea she wanted to sell,’ said Dingo in surprise. ‘She must have some plan up her sleeve.’

‘Dingo, she says she wants to set up a fellmongery and a tannery . . . What is this?’

Dingo laughed, rubbing his thinning white hair. ‘Well, I’ll be . . . it’s a place that takes the wool off the sheep hides and the tannery treats the skins. Turns it into leather.’

‘Ah, I see. It makes sense now. She is thinking of going into wool and leather fashions, I believe.’

Dingo grinned. ‘You’ve got to hand it to her, she doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Never mind, Henri. Did Queenie say if this was something she and TR had been working on by any chance?’

‘No. I get the impression she had come up
with the idea since his accident. Please, wish them well. I will begin drawing up documents for the sale.’

‘Righto. I’m sure shell be pleased. She’s out in the scrub chasing some lost bulls, she should be back pretty soon.’

Henri looked down from his office to the traffic sliding along elegant Fifth Avenue and smiled wistfully at the memory of beautiful Queenie. She was probably happier in the Australian bush than she ever could have been here in the metropolis. He supposed she had been right in refusing to marry him. He sighed. He also knew he could never compete with the incredible bond of love that had bound her and TR together. But in his own way, Henri still loved her.

‘Ask her to telephone me when she is able. I hope things become happy for them very soon. Au revoir, Dingo.’

‘Hooroo, mate, nice talking to you.’ Dingo hung up the phone and wandered outside to find TR. He was sitting in a chair, staring into the garden, a newspaper dropped in his lap. ‘G’day, mate, how’s it going?’

TR shrugged. ‘So so. What’s new?’

Dingo winced internally seeing TR so dispirited. ‘I’ve been talking to some hotel bloke, friend of Queenie’s. She’s selling her hotel in the Blue Mountains to raise some capital for a wool venture. She talk to you about it in the hospital?’

‘Nope. Of course, she could’ve talked to me about it before . . . but then I wouldn’t remember that, would I?’ TR’s voice had a bitter edge.

‘No matter. But when Queenie gets back I reckon you should get involved in this wool thing. Starting from scratch now.’

‘Give me an interest?’ asked TR with a wry smile.

‘Sort of. But you’re a smart man, TR, and Queenie respects your advice and opinions. That hasn’t changed. Getting in with something new that’s just starting up means it doesn’t matter what went before. You’re right at the starting blocks with Queenie on this one.’

‘I’ll think about it.’

Dingo nodded and didn’t say any more, but he was slightly heartened. TR hadn’t sounded as negative or bitter. He’d talk to Queenie. This new project could possibly provide some common ground for her and TR to start getting to know one another again. They had always been such a great team together. Playing, working, loving, they sparked off each other, supported each other, and shared such a bond it made outsiders wonder that two people could be so close. And everyone secretly wished they had what Queenie and TR shared.

Millie made sure Jenni was out of the house and made a phone call to Mrs Quinn. Later Millie said to Jenni, ‘Mrs Quinn rang, she wants you to go over for dinner tomorrow night. Thinks you need a break.’

‘Really? Just me? What about TR?’

‘Give him an evenin’ off, luv. Take one of the cars and go over, they always have nice
dos. You haven’t had a break since you arrived, it’ll do you good.’

‘Well . . . I don’t like the idea of the long drive back on my own.’

‘Oh, dinner at the Quinns’ means staying the night. They always have a big breakfast and everybody heads off after that. Them’s a country style dinner party. I told her you’d go. TR, Jim, Dingo and me will manage just fine.’

‘Well, in that case . . .’ Jenni looked rather pleased at the idea.

Later Millie had a quiet conversation with Snowy, who listened then nodded, ‘Tomorrow night. We’ll set it up.’

Millie watched Jenni drive off to the Quinns’ in the late afternoon then hurried down to find Jim, who was in the meat house hacking chunks of meat off a frozen carcass. The meat house still was an old-fashioned shed, but it had been modernised with a cold room and freezer. Jim worked at the solid wood block with well-worn knives that reflected decades of service. Millie heard the thwack of the meat chopper and knew he was preparing her order for the week’s meat.

‘She’s gone. Now, how do I tell TR what we got planned?’ she announced, holding open the screen door.

‘Come in or out, Millie; either way close the door, luv. Flies.’

Millie stepped into the shady coolness, pulling the flyscreen door shut. ‘Would it be better if you spoke to him, Jim? Being a white fella. If he don’ remember nothin’ then he might think I’m just talkin’ rubbish.’

‘I think Dingo’d be best to talk to TR. I can’t go to this shindig you’ve cooked up anyway. Seein’ as I’m not initiated. But Dingo has been, he knows tribal customs. Let him take TR under his wing.’

‘You’re right, luv. Can I take some of them chops now, I’ll grill ’em up for dinner with some garden vegies.’

When he’d finished in the meat house, Jim washed his hands under the tap at the old tank beside the shed and went to find Dingo who was in the chill room built onto the woolshed. Merino skins were stacked in large piles in their raw state between layers of salt and hessian.

‘She’s got a good old stockpile of hides here,’ commented Dingo to Jim. ‘This will go to the fellmongers no doubt, and be the start of Tingulla’s wool enterprise she’s setting up.’

‘What fellmongers?’ asked Jim. ‘None around here.’

‘The one she’s building. Well that’s the plan as I understand it, she’ll tell us all about it when she’s back I’m sure.’

‘That Queenie. She’s a real . . . aw heck, what’s the word. You know them blokes that’re always doing things, settin’ up shows and stuff, doin’ deals . . . ’

‘Entrepreneur. That’s right. Always full of bright ideas and schemes. But unlike most people, Queenie isn’t just talk. She makes them happen.’

They both chuckled fondly. ‘Did Millie tell you she called this mornin’ to say she got them bulls?’ asked Jim.

‘Yeah, she did. I’ve heard of that Mitchell,’ said Dingo. ‘Nasty piece of work. They caught the blokes he’d hired to do the duffing and they all squealed like stuck pigs. He won’t get away this time. A lot of people have to thank Queenie for this I think.’

The two men headed back outdoors. ‘Where’s Snowy?’ asked Dingo.

‘He’s in the bush getting things ready. Millie said you had to meet him at the southwest corner after tea.’

‘Right.’

‘Er, Dingo there’s one other thing. Millie wanted you to tell TR what’s goin’ on.’

‘He doesn’t know?’

Jim shook his head. ‘Millie figured he might not want to do it, and she wanted Jenni out of the picture. Nothing against the girl, but well, it is sorta secret stuff, right?’

Dingo nodded. ‘Women. They always make things more complicated than they need be. I’ll just tell TR we’re takin’ him out.’

After dinner Millie busied herself in the kitchen with the dishes while the three men relaxed on the verandah. Jim leaned back in his chair and rolled a cigarette. ‘You blokes best be getting a move on, eh?’

‘I’m intrigued to say the least, Dingo,’ said TR with a smile. He liked Dingo enormously even knowing they’d been friends in what TR referred to as his past life. In his mind, their friendship had only just begun.

‘Get those sticks of yours, and I’ll bring the Toyota around to the steps here.’

Jim helped TR into the passenger seat, half lifting him off the ground as the step up was so high. TR winced in pain and Millie cautioned him to be careful. Jim shut the door and went around and shook Dingo’s hand. Then, standing with his arm about Millie’s waist, they watched the red taillights of the vehicle disappear down the driveway.