Novels 01 Blue Skies (3 page)

Chapter 4
1934

Twenty-year-old Michael Greenfield swung out of his
Dodge truck and landed with a soft thump on the
ground. A puff of dust rose around his ankles and
he brushed away the small bush flies that clustered
around his eyes.

Standing stock-still, he listened. He’d been told
there was a river running through this piece of land
and he would find it by listening and then following
the sound. This was where he would set up camp.
But he heard nothing, except unfamiliar birdcalls.
He glanced around at the low scrubby bush, which
was also foreign, and took a couple of tentative steps.
The land was covered with trees and small scrubby
bushes – he was still to learn all the names – yet it
was easy to walk through and the richness of the soil
was plain to see. Yes, the potential was there.

To admit he felt apprehensive would be to admit
weakness, but the mixed emotions of excitement,
awe and anxiety gave way to a certain trepidation;
his adviser had warned him of the harshness of the
environment.

As he walked through the bush, stopping once in
a while to listen for the river, he kept an eye open
for Y-shaped branches and a long straight one. These
would hold up the canvas for his humpy.

Stumbling over a tree root, he gasped as a long,
thin black snake with a yellow belly reared up, its
head flattened, ready to strike. Michael froze. A
new-found friend had boasted that there was at least
one snake to every acre in Esperance, a fact Michael
hadn’t been pleased to hear. After what seemed like
hours, the snake backed down and slithered on its
way. His first lesson.

As his breathing and heart rate slowed, he finally
heard the trickling water. Glancing around to be
certain the snake had gone, he walked towards
the noise.

Time had passed quickly since Michael had come
ashore after landing at the docks in Esperance. He
had been met by a Mr Frank O’Connor from the
Agricultural Bank, as his father had promised, and
this gentleman had proved to be most obliging.
Mr O’Connor had not only provided all the supplies
and equipment he would need over the coming
months, he had introduced him to many other
settlers. If he knew why Michael had left England, he
gave no indication.

Michael’s flatbed Dodge was loaded with tea,
flour and sugar, all in fifty-pound bags, two axes,
saws and a wedge, along with a file to sharpen them.
There was a canvas for his shelter, a wagga and
palliasse – Michael had realised as Mr O’Connor
listed what was on the back of the truck that it
wasn’t just the names of the flora and fauna he
needed to learn, there was a whole new language.

He had been told a drover would arrive with his
livestock in the coming days. The sheep, cattle, pigs
and chooks would provide meat, milk and eggs, and
Mr O’Connor had even thought to find him a good
dog, not only for work but for company.

After a week in Esperance, learning from the other
settlers and Mr O’Connor, Michael had reluctantly
left the homely setting of his boarding house room,
the beer house and company to start his new life in
the wilderness, far from his family and the comforts
to which he was accustomed. He had even begun to
miss England – but no, he would not think about
home. He had come to forget misdemeanours caused
by others and forge a new life for himself. He would
not allow himself to have regrets.

He found a forked branch and, with unpractised
hands, started to saw. To build his new home and
what he hoped would be his empire.

Chapter 5

Amanda crouched down under the tractor, unscrewed the oil plug and watched as the thick, black oil poured from the hole. It didn’t look like it’d been changed in years! She shook her head, knowing that her father was perfectly capable of this job, but insisted on having a mechanic do it.Well, it was obvious the mechanic hadn’t been doing his job. She tucked the spanner under her arm and wiped her oily hands on a rag, thinking about her father.

At this moment, she’d take a bet that he was in the house changing from his work clothes into a fresh set. She didn’t know where he was going this time, but he was spending more and more time off the farm. And whenever he was home, he seemed lost in thought or locked in his office.

As the last few drips fell from the oil well, she thought about how lost in grief he was, but if she was able to continue on, surely he could too.

The click of boots on gravel sounded behind her and she turned and saw him appear around the corner of the shed.

‘You there Mandy,’ he called.

‘Yeah,’ she said walking out. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as she saw his frame stiffen.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he said, nodding towards the oily rag in her hand.

‘Changing the oil in the tractor. It doesn’t look like it’s been done for years!’

‘The mechanic looks after the tractor.’

‘I know, but there was a filter and enough oil here and I thought I’d save us some money. Plus, it’s not like there’s much happening today.’

‘Well that’s about to change. You need to go out to Karru paddock quick smart and get the sheep in. I’ve organised Natty and the shearers to come and crutch tomorrow,’ he said brusquely before turning to leave. ‘I won’t be back ’til late. Got a pastures field day on down at the research station.’

Amanda didn’t even realise she was holding her breath until she heard his ute start up. Fuming, she threw the spanner viciously on the floor. Who did he think he was, issuing orders like she was a workman?

Amanda opened the paddock gate and swung it against the fence so the sheep could walk through. As she rode towards the ewes, she started to assess them, then let out a snort of disgust. Dags as big as fists hung from their hindquarters and she could see where the ewes had been tearing at their wool. Bloody lice. She would have to say something to her dad when he returned tonight. See if she could convince him to buy some long-wool lice treatment. At least he’d tried to beat the problem of flies by crutching early but the shearers would have a fit when they saw the rear ends of those sheep.

The lambs that stayed close to their mothers were obviously from different lambings. Some looked to be four months old, while others were newborns; all were unmarked. In the ideal lambing, ewes would be mated for six or eight weeks, so that all the lambs could be marked and then weaned at the same time, rather than end up with a higgledy-piggledy mess. As well as crutching tomorrow, she would have to try to mark the lambs.

A feeling of claustrophobia hit Amanda so strongly that she had to stop the bike. Did she really want to go on with this? Her father had always been a good farmer and the mess that was in front of her wasn’t his way of running a farm. It was almost as if he’d given up. She couldn’t understand why he would – he still had to do something since her mother had died; why let Kyleena get so rundown while he grieved only to have to build it back up again?

Amanda had done a lot of thinking about the inheritance her mother had left her. The half-share in Kyleena gave her a lot more say in the decision making than she had ever thought possible. Maybe it was the way to give her dad some space. Help him find his feet again. If she could get him to agree to some of her ideas, or at least give her some slack to run things the way she wanted to, maybe if the hard yakka was taken out of his hands, he’d
want
to start farming again. And she might want to stay. Hope filled her as she started the bike again.

As the sheep slowly made their way into the yards, Amanda noticed her dad’s ute parked at the end of the driveway. She would have thought he was long gone by now. As she watched, a white sedan appeared at the front gate and parked next to the ute. Brian materialised and shook the hand of the older man, who was dressed in a suit and a tie. After some discussion, the man opened the door of his car, pulled out a briefcase, put some papers on the bonnet and handed Brian what seemed to be a pen. It looked like her father signed some documents, passed them back and held his hand out to the man. Then Brian climbed into his ute and headed down the drive. Meanwhile, the other man got into his sedan and drove towards the shed and sheep yards. Amanda revved her bike to finish getting the sheep into the yards, chained the gate and walked out into the open so the man had no choice but to stop and talk to her.

‘Hi, can I help you?’ she asked as the car slowed and the window was wound down.

‘No thanks. I caught up with Brian and I’m just on my way now. Can’t turn around in that narrow drive of yours, which is why I’ve come up to the sheds,’ he said, smiling at her as he put his hand out the window. ‘I’m Malcolm Mackay, manager of the Western Bank.’

‘Amanda Greenfield,’ said Amanda, shaking his hand.

‘Ah, you must be Brian’s daughter? I can’t believe we’ve never met in all the time that I’ve been working with your parents. Then again, you went to boarding school and then on to college. I must say, I’ve heard so many glowing reports about you from your father.’

‘
Have
you?’ said Amanda, incredulous.

‘Oh, yes. He’s very proud of you. Especially since you topped your class at college then agreed to return home when he needed you most. He’s taken your mother’s death very hard. How are you coping?’

‘Oh well, I guess we all have our moments. So can I help with anything?’ she asked, pleased that her dad had been talking about her so highly to others.

‘No, no. I caught Brian in the driveway and he’s signed the papers that I needed. I’m just about to start talking to a valuer to work out how much Kyleena is worth. We’ll move on to thinking about advertising once we know more. As I said to your father, Kyleena is bound to be worth a great deal, being such a large parcel of land so close to town. Anyway, I’d best be off, I’ve got another appointment shortly. Great to meet you, Amanda. Bye.’

Amanda gaped at him, bewildered.‘Wait a minute . . .’ she began, but Malcolm had already wound his window up and started to move slowly forward. Amanda ran beside him and banged on the window. ‘What do you mean? Kyleena’s not for sale,’ she said.

Malcolm wound down the window. ‘Sorry?’

‘What are you talking about? Is Kyleena for sale?’ She could hear the panic in her voice.

Malcolm shook his head. ‘No, no, Amanda, you misunderstood. I didn’t say it was for sale. I can see I’ve shocked you. I
am
sorry. Brian told me he was going speak to you last night, he must’ve run out of time. We’re having the farm valued so you and Brian can assess your options.Your parents have been facing problems for some years. Selling is only one option though. We’ll talk it all through after we’ve had the valuations done.’

‘I haven’t heard anything about this! What sort of problems?’

‘Financial circumstances I’m afraid. Between you and me, I don’t think Brian has the desire to go on farming since your mother passed away.’

‘What?’ said Amanda in a shrill voice. Surely he couldn’t be serious – Brian loved this land.
She
loved this land.

‘Maybe you need to take this up with your father. I’ll be in touch soon,’ said Malcolm, his face sympathetic.

Reeling from shock, Amanda slowly made her way back to the yards and leant heavily against them. She’d had no idea that the farm was so deeply in debt. How had that happened? Her mother had never said anything to indicate there was a problem. And her dad, well it had been a while since Amanda had had an in-depth conversation with him about anything.

Suddenly everything made sense. The fences that were in bad condition, the weeds that had taken over the laneways, and the machinery that was being patched up instead of fixed properly. What Amanda was seeing on Kyleena hadn’t just happened overnight. The state of disrepair was not the result of the seven months since her mother had died; it had been happening over years.

Amanda spent all day making sure everything was prepared so that the crutching would run smoothly. She had drafted the sheep and marked the lambs that needed it. The bleating of lambs wanting their mums filled the air. Normally the noise wouldn’t have annoyed her, but today with her head in a whirl, it irritated her. She felt overwhelmed by panic, thinking Kyleena could be yanked out from beneath her.

As the day wore on, she went about her jobs thinking through possibilities until a plan began to take shape. It was almost as if she was on automatic pilot as she swept out the shed, which was filled with dust from the summer, put new emery papers in the grinder so it was ready to sharpen shearing gear.

As the sun finally started to sink, she ran all the ewes up into the shed, ready for an early start the next day. Utterly spent, but satisfied at a job well done, Amanda hoisted herself on the board of the shed and sat there, legs swinging, listening to the shuffle of the sheep and mulling over her plan. She was sure that it was workable.

The house was dark and quiet when Amanda entered, but she knew where her father would be. Knocking gently, she opened the office door and found him sitting at his desk, surrounded by beer cans. A half-empty bottle of red wine was at his elbow.

‘Wha’ do you want?’ he slurred, looking at her with bloodshot eyes.

‘I need to talk to you,’ said Amanda tremulously. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that Kyleena was in financial trouble?’

Brian’s face clouded over. ‘How did you find out?’

‘Does it matter? I know now. And I know that you’re going to have it valued, which means you intend to sell. When did you plan to tell me? When you expected me to help pack the farm up, load the trucks and send the stock to the sale yards? How could you do that? Why was it all such a secret?’ Amanda knew her voice was rising but she couldn’t stay calm.

‘You don’t understand. Wouldn’t know what your mother and I have been through.’

‘Dad, please, why are you shutting me out? I could help you, we could work together. We could save Kyleena together if you wanted to involve me. Isn’t that what Mum would have wanted? For goodness’ sake, you can’t completely drop your bundle the way you have. I know you miss her – I do too – but we’ve got to move on together, otherwise we’ll fall apart.’ But Amanda’s impassioned plea fell on deaf ears.

‘Don’t bring your mother into this,’ Brian shouted. ‘It’s my farm and I’ll do what I want with it.Your mother would do the same thing.’

‘No,’ said Amanda,struggling to control her emotions. ‘She would’ve talked to me. She would’ve talked about her grief and sadness if you’d died instead of her. She would’ve included me in the decision making and not treated me like a labourer for the past seven months the way you have.

‘Do you really think I’m going to let you sell what you, Mum and your parents worked so hard for?’

‘Who the hell do you think you are, comin’ in here and talkin’ to me like that? Get out!’ he roared, pointing a finger at the door.‘Get out of my office and get out of my house!’

‘You can’t sell Kyleena without my permission and you know it.’ Amanda called over her shoulder as she fled the office, slamming the door behind her. Running to her mother’s study she dropped onto the couch and began to sob.

Amanda had no idea how long she lay there crying but when she finally stopped, her mind was made up. She went to her room and collected her clothes and photos, then returned to the study for her computer and books.

As she drove away, she promised herself she would only come back into this house as the owner. She would save Kyleena for her mother, for Michael and Grace Greenfield, and for herself.