The Road to Winter (18 page)

The three of us move upstream of him and lie on our bellies to drink. The water is cold but refreshing. I splash it up on my face and over my hair. Kas has taken her boots off and has her feet dangling in the water. She smiles. The sun filters down through the fern fronds and I find a spot to sit in its warmth. Willow comes and joins me. Her hands ferret in my pockets and pull out the last of the breadcrumbs.

Kas has headed further upstream, where she takes off her jumper, then peels her top up over her head. With her back to me, I can see the knobs of her vertebrae like buttons down the middle of her back as she leans over and splashes her arms and chest with water.

‘Nice spot for a picnic,' she says when she's back, dressed again.

‘Excellent,' I say, putting on a toffy voice. Willow smiles for the first time this morning.

‘I've cut some sandwiches,' Kas says, dropping her hands into an imaginary basket. ‘Now, Miss Willow, I have peanut butter, jam or cucumber.'

‘What's peanut butter,' she says. ‘Butter comes from cows.'

Kas and I glance at each other.

‘I remember peanut butter,' I say. ‘I was a crunchy man, myself.'

‘Smooth for me,' Kas says.

Willow looks at us like we're speaking a foreign language. Kas hands her an imaginary sandwich.

‘Is this blackberry or raspberry jam?' Willow asks, playing along now.

‘Which one do you like best?' Kas asks.

‘Blackberry!'

‘Then blackberry it is.'

Willow takes a big bite and pretends to chew.

‘Scrumptious,' she says, and we all laugh.

But the game falls away quickly. We are going to struggle without food. Kas leads Yogi out of the stream. I figure if we follow the water we might be lucky and find our way to the top.

It's slow going. The mud sucks at our boots and Yogi has to duck under the low-hanging branches and ferns. Eventually the banks give way to rock again, and we are able to climb out onto slabs that aren't too steep.

Kas keeps to the edges with Yogi while Willow and I scout ahead for the best route. We are a good twenty metres above Kas when I look back to see her pulling in vain on Yogi's reins. He has come as far as he can in the steep terrain. He's a lather of sweat again, digging in his front hooves and leaning back against Kas's efforts.

‘Stay there, Kas,' I yell. ‘Let him rest. I'm going to see how far it is to the top.'

I'm able to move fast, and before long the rock slabs grow wider and the bush thins out on either side. The forest opens out into an old logging coup with a track winding its way up to the very top of the ridge. Over in one corner I can see a pile of logs and a flatbed truck almost completely overgrown by weeds and vines.

When I go back and tell Kas what I've found, her face brightens.

‘I don't think Yogi will make it, though,' I say. ‘It's really steep and slippery. We might have to let him go, Kas.'

She steps out onto the slab and surveys the incline, then heads off to get Yogi.

‘He won't make it,' I call after her. ‘He's got no grip on the rocks. You can't lead him up.'

‘Watch me,' she says defiantly.

Before I can say anything more, she has swung herself up onto Yogi's back. Straightaway she drops the reins low on either side of his neck, leans forward and reassures him with long, steady pats.

This is mad, I think, especially when we are so close to making it to the top. I can't let her do it.

I reach out to grab the reins, but she checks Yogi and backs away.

‘Finn,' she says, calmly. ‘Take Willow and show me the best route. I'm going to watch from here.'

‘Have I got a choice?' I ask.

‘No.'

I take Willow's hand and retrace my steps up the sloping rocks. Every now and again I turn and call to Kas, while at the same time laying fallen branches out on the rock shelf, marking the route.

Finally I lay one across the path where they need to turn into the bush, but it'll be a miracle if they make it this far. It's steeper than I thought.

‘Careful,' I yell and I see Kas wave. Willow and I move out onto the rock shelf to watch.

Kas starts to climb, gently urging Yogi up the slab and shifting her weight to keep them both balanced. They start off okay, but halfway up they come to a mossy section and I see Kas hesitate. Her eyes dart back and forth across the rock, searching for the best route. She gives the slightest nudge to Yogi's flanks and he edges forwards. Half-a-dozen times his hooves begin to slip, but she corrects him before he has time to panic.

They're soon within a few steps of the turn into the bush, though they still have a gap of close to a metre to negotiate where a crack splits the rock. Willow and I are just above them now.

I can hear Kas soothing Yogi. ‘Last little bit, boy. If we can get over here we're home free. We'll be in the bush and it'll all be over. I promise.'

The sweat is dripping off Yogi and his muscles quiver. Now that she's closer, I can see that Kas is sweating too. She wipes her hands on her pants and steadies herself again.

In one quick movement she lunges, taking Yogi with her. She tries to turn him into the bush, but he barely gets his front legs up before he starts to slip. His back legs splay as he slides slowly towards the drop. In one movement, Kas throws herself forwards, lifting the reins over Yogi's head and landing on the rock above him. She holds the reins tight and braces herself. Yogi's eyes are wide with terror.

Quietly, without any hint of panic in her voice, Kas says, ‘Finn, move towards me. Slow. Don't spook him or he's gone.'

I edge down the rock until I'm beside her.

‘Now,' she whispers, ‘take the reins and keep them taut.
When I say, pull with everything you've got.'

She starts to inch her way along Yogi's flank, stroking him all the way down to his back legs. She makes a soothing ticking noise with her tongue.

‘You ready, Finn?' she says. ‘Don't pull suddenly, just increase the pressure.'

‘Now?' I say.

‘
Now
.'

Kas has disappeared from view behind Yogi. I begin to pull, feeling his whole weight against me. I hear his hooves skitter, but I soon realise Kas is under him at the back, placing herself between him and the drop and pushing his legs. I don't know how it happens but Yogi finds some grip and lunges past me, hitting me flush in the chest and knocking me to the side. He crashes into the undergrowth.

I look back to see Kas lying flat on the rock on her stomach. My blood runs cold—until she props herself up and smiles.

‘See,' she says. ‘Easy!'

Willow climbs down off the rock above us and throws herself at Kas, who catches her. Then the two of them edge across to sit down next to me in the fringes of the bush. Kas is limping heavily.

‘You okay?' I ask.

‘Just a kick to the thigh. It's not the first—and it won't be the last. You?'

‘Fine. Just winded.'

‘Come on,' she says struggling to her feet. ‘Let's find Yogi.'

It's easy to follow his tracks through the bush. He's forced his way through to the logging coup and found some grass on the edge of the old track. His flanks are scratched and bloody and there's a cut halfway up his front leg, but otherwise he looks okay.

We collapse into the grass. Kas flexes her leg, trying to keep the muscles moving, while Willow dozes in the sun. I know we have to get moving to have any chance of getting back to Angowrie by nightfall, but there's such a sense of relief that we've found our way up the ridge that I just want to enjoy it for a moment.

Kas winces as she gets to her feet. She's in more pain than she's letting on.

‘Show me,' I say.

She turns her back, undoes her belt and eases her jeans down to her knees. I hear her intake of breath when she sees it for the first time.

‘How does it look?' I say, still sitting down.

‘Like I've been kicked by a fucking horse,' she says.

She turns around. There is an almost perfect half-moon welt in the middle of her thigh.

‘There goes your modelling career,' I say, keeping the smile from my face.

‘Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,' she says. ‘But I reckon this'd already done that,' she says pointing to her birthmark. ‘Not much work for freaks.'

She turns her back to me again and pulls her jeans up.

‘It's okay,' she says, trying to smile. ‘I'm used to it. Mostly I forget it's there, until I hear the whispers and see the sideways glances.'

She fusses with her belt, straightens her T-shirt and pushes the hair off her face.

‘Rose tell you about Longley? The feedstore?' she asks, still looking away.

‘A bit. Enough.'

‘It's the only time being a freak was any advantage. The men stayed away from me.'

‘You're not a freak. You're…beautiful.'

The words slip out before I can stop them.

She laughs, but it's bitter. ‘I don't need your sympathy, Finn,' she says. She pauses. ‘Horses, they like me. They don't care how I look.'

Willow has woken up.

‘Can I ride on Yogi, Kas?' she asks.

‘Sure you can,' Kas says and moves over to pick her up. But when she bends down her leg buckles underneath her and she falls.

‘I think there might be two of you riding Yogi,' I say.

‘I can walk,' Kas snaps.

‘Not if we want to get to Angowrie today.'

She doesn't respond, but continues to flex her leg.

‘I'm going to look around the old truck for something we can carry water in,' I say.

I have to fight my way through creepers and undergrowth to get to the truck. The doors are rusted closed, but I manage to prise one open. There's a plastic water bottle wedged under the seat.

I head back through the bush to fill it in the creek. I have
to crawl out onto the rock slab and lie on my belly to get the bottle under the flowing water. As I'm crouched over the creek, I hear another noise. Men's voices.

I keep low until I'm back in the cover of the bush, then I take off as fast as I can.

Kas struggles to her feet when she sees me running towards her. I don't need to tell her. She lifts Willow onto Yogi's back, but struggles to climb up herself. I get to her side and boost her up.

‘How many?' she asks.

‘Dunno. But we've gotta move. Now!'

I'm not sure if Yogi senses the danger, but he seems suddenly more lively. He breaks into a trot, heading up the track along the side of the coup. I have one arm around Kas's waist and she holds Willow in front of her.

Kas's talking to Yogi. ‘Come on, boy,' she says. ‘Just give us ten minutes. We need to get a break on them.'

I keep looking back to the spot where we came out of the bush at the bottom of the coup, but there's no sign of movement. The track we are on re-enters the forest closer to the top, concealing us from anyone further down.

Eventually, Kas slips off Yogi's back and I follow. Willow
stays on to ride for a while.

‘So, did you see them?' Kas asks.

‘No. But I heard them.'

The track widens as we get closer to the ridgeline, where we come to a T-intersection.

‘I reckon this is the logging track that meets the coast road just below Pinchgut Junction,' I say. ‘If Ramage's men are still guarding the cutting, we should be able to avoid them.'

‘How far do you reckon?' Kas asks.

‘Hard to tell, but it can't be more than ten ks.'

As we move along the track I keep my eye out for prickly currant bushes. They're about the only bush food I know. There's plenty of them in the scrub down closer to Angowrie. The bright red berries are easy to spot. I tell Kas, and she starts looking off into the bush as well.

It takes us a couple of hours to get to the coast road. We don't hesitate, swinging south as the road starts to descend. It's mid-afternoon by then and my energy is draining away. Kas is limping badly now, but she refuses to ride.

‘And I thought your sister was stubborn,' I mutter.

She lets that go but, with her back to me, says, ‘I reckon you fell for Rose. Makes sense. A boy on his own for years, then a beautiful girl is chased into town. I bet if she had been a boy you wouldn't have been so quick to help.'

When she turns back I can see she's smiling.

‘If she was a boy,' I say, ‘Ramage wouldn't have been chasing her.'

The sun is still high enough to warm us when the road swings briefly out of the shadows. I can hear kookaburras in the distance and every now and again the snapping of twigs as a wallaby takes off into the undergrowth. At one point I think I pick up the smell of the ocean.

Kas is ahead of me. She's taken her jumper off and the dark skin on her arms glints with sweat.

‘There is something I've been wondering,' I say, ‘but I don't know how to put it…'