Four Fires (91 page)

Mrs Rika Ray has become Bozo's operations manager in John Crowe Transport and she's tough as nails and the two temporary drivers who drive for Bozo call her The Old Crow' because she really cracks the whip and they can't get away with anything.

She's also the company bookkeeper and Bozo says they're beginning to have a real business.

She's got the bank's trust and they'll give her an overdraft, which he doubts they'd do for him if she wasn't there. Even though the bank won't lend money to a woman without her husband's approval, they think very highly of her.

Bozo tells how Mrs Rika Ray's got the bank to eat out of her hand. She'd been at John Crowe Transport about six months when they suddenly found themselves in financial difficulties. What's happened is this, a contract they'd been promised has fallen through and Bozo has already paid cash for a second-hand truck they were going to need to do the work involved. Mrs Rika Ray goes through the books and says, if they're super careful and don't try to expand too fast, they can scrape through for another six months. What this means, Bozo says, is that they won't have a brass razoo to invest in infrastructure if something big comes along.

'What's that mean, infrastructure and something big comes along?' I ask him.

'Well, say some company needs transport for the goods they sell and don't want to own a fleet of trucks, so they put out a tender, just like the council did for the garbage collection. Then it's up to us to put in a price for doing the job,' Bozo says, 'You don't just get the job because you put in the cheapest price. You also have to prove to them that you've got the organisation and the trucks to do the job. That's called your infrastructure. Well, we don't have the infrastructure if a big chance comes along because we've got no investment capital and no chance of borrowing from the bank.'

So they're existing on the smell of an oily rag and things are pretty shaky back at the ranch. Then Mrs Rika Ray comes in one morning and says, 'Bozo, we are asking the bank they must jolly well lend us five hundred pounds pronto, we are giving them collateral all the trucks, they will not refuse, you will see, it is guaranteed in the cards, which I am throwing every day now for one week only.'

Bozo panics. The Diamond T and the old Fargo truck John Crowe bought from the shire council and the VW van and the new secondhand truck are all they've got and worth altogether, at the most, about eight hundred pounds. If they can't repay the loan and have to sell
Page 428

them to repay the bank, they'll probably get six hundred, maybe six hundred and fifty tops for a quick sale. They'll be broke and out of business.

'But you said we could hang on for six months and hope things will get better? We're doing okay really, there's money coming in and we're paying our petrol bills at the garage. It's just that contract falling through has mucked things up a bit,' Bozo protests.

'Bozo, I am looking at the tarot cards, once I am looking, twice I am looking and then I am looking again and again until I am going blue in the face, every time the same, they are saying we are getting very very lucky, very very soon!'

'Or we'll be going very very broke, very very soon, Mrs Rika Ray,' Bozo says reluctantly.

Bozo does business by the business book and Mrs Rika Ray does business by the tarot cards and the two don't really mix that well. Only so far she's been right in almost everything they've done.

It was her said she didn't trust the people who pulled out of the contract and maybe they should wait before they bought the extra truck. That was also the tarot cards told her that, so it's not as though they're all the one way.

They go along to the bank manager and Mrs Rika Ray is very persuasive and the bank has the trucks valued on the second-hand market and there's a bit to spare on the conservative evaluation they get, so they know their money is safe as a house.

Anyway, Bozo is still a bit of a hero around the place because of his Olympic medal. Mrs Barrington-Stone has given Bozo a reference, which is another of Mrs Rika Ray's ideas. So the bank manager, Mr Fred Mullins, who is new in town, asks a few more questions around the place. Again they get lucky with the people he asks, like Big Jack Donovan and Mr Sullivan and then, oops!, Magistrate 'Oliver Twist' Withers. Much to Bozo's surprise, he says the Maloney family are extremely hardworking and trustworthy and he gives Bozo the big thumbs up.

It just goes to show you shouldn't always condemn people just because they're not the same as you. Well, they get the loan which Mr Mullins says must be repaid in six months or the bank will foreclose on them. 'There'll be no excuses acceptable,'he warns.

'This is your first loan and if you're late in your repayments, I can assure you, it will be your last/

he says to Bozo. He also gives them a bit of a lecture about how he's taking a big chance on them, which he shouldn't really be doing as they have no history of borrowing blah-blah-blah and so on and so forth.

Mrs Rika Ray takes the cheque and has Bozo drive her into Albury where she puts the whole kaboodle into a three-monthly interest-bearing deposit with the Bank of New South Wales.

That's the whole thing, see. They don't touch the five hundred pounds but struggle along to make ends meet like she'd originally said they could.

Then three months later they phone up and ask the original bank manager, Mr Mullins, if they can have an appointment. He says yes, then there's a pause on the phone and Bozo hears him clear his throat, 'I hope you are not going to disappoint me and ask for more money, Mr Maloney. I have taken a chance on you and it's my reputation that's at stake. I just want you to know that I meant what I said.'

Bozo then says, no, it's nothing like that, they don't need a new loan and want to see him about another matter.

They arrive at the bank for the appointment and, to cut a long story-short, Bozo hands Mr Mullins the five hundred pounds in cash plus the interest on the loan for three months, which isn't a lot more than the interest they've earned from the Bank of New South Wales anyway. Then they thank Mr Mullins for his help.

The bank manager is that chuffed that he's been paid back three months early he offers them another loan. Mrs Rika Ray says, 'We are thanking you very, very much, Mr Mullins, but we are not needing it. We are very, very grateful to you for helping us. Now, we are thanking God and the little fishes, because we are doing quite well also.'

Page 429

Six months later they get this chance of landing a big contract with a new supermarket chain that's starting up in country centres and they need a local transport company to do the grocery cartage for all of north-eastern Victoria for them. Bozo puts in a tender and he's told he's won the contract, but has to have three dedicated trucks to handle the work. Of course, they've got Buckley's.

Mrs Rika Ray then says the tarot cards are saying good things again. So off the two of them trot to the bank manager and show him the

confirmation from the supermarket chain and they ask for a thousand-pound loan. 'Certainly,'

says Mr Mullins, 'you have an excellent record for early repayments with us, will a thousand pounds be sufficient?'

Now that's how smart Mrs Rika Ray turned out to be. Bozo says he couldn't run the business without her. Like I said, she's also taken over the Bitzers which are now Bitzers One to Twelve.

Even though Bitzers Three and Five have since died, she's topped them up and called the two new doggies by the old numbers and added the others, and now she's got herself a complete dog circus with a whole lot of new tricks she's taught them to do. Whenever there's a charity fete or something going on, they're the star performers, jumping through fiery hoops, boxing each other. They wear these tiny little red boxing gloves on their front paws and jump up on their hind legs and people bet which dog will fall over onto his back first, which is counted as a knockout. If the fight goes on too long, Mrs Rika Ray says a word and one of the dogs falls onto his back and is knocked out. The dog boxing alone makes a small fortune.

By the way, Bozo still has to drink nasty green herbal stuff which she brings to work in the mornings. She still lives in the hut and bathes in the stream but it's got an annexe built onto it for the dogs who are not allowed into her humpy. Once a prisoner from the gaol escaped, hid all day and went bush at night. He saw this humpy in the moonlight, but he never got within spitting distance before the dogs got him. Next morning, after giving the prisoner breakfast, Mrs Rika Ray marches him all the way into town, up the hill to the prison and delivers him to the front door. He's got about a hundred bites from the ankles to the knees and she's treated them with herbs so they won't get infected. Mr Sullivan thanks her and calls the doctor to give the prisoner a tetanus injection.

Remember, I also sit my matriculation exams that year. In fact, I'd just finished them the week before Sarah's graduation. Of course, I didn't do as well as she did, not even half as well, but I think I passed okay and Nancy wants me to go to university if I get the marks. The Victorian Forestry Commission are giving out a scholarship and Mr McDonald, the district officer, is keen for me to apply for it. But I don't know. It sounds attractive and Nancy is dead keen I should do it, but

I've seen Mr McDonald and he seldom gets out in the bush, mostly he's in his office pushing a pen and he doesn't even have a degree. I've noticed before that blokes with degrees always end up behind desks.

Besides, there's been something nagging me for months, ever since Tommy's death this idea has been knocking around in my head. I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and it's there.

It's there first thing in the morning when we get up for the garbage run. I know it's mad and it don't make sense, in fact, just the opposite, but I want to join the army. Yeah, I know, knowing what I know and what Tommy's been through it's a bloody stupid idea, but I can't help it, that's what I've set my heart on doing.

Nancy goes spare. When I finally summon up enough courage to tell her, she's in the kitchen rolling pastry for sausage rolls for little Colleen's birthday. I tell her right off, because if I don't I'll lose the

courage.

'Mum, I've decided to join the army.'

Page 430

She doesn't move for a moment, then she turns around and I think she's going to brain me on the spot. 'Join the what?'

'The army, I've made up my mind.'

'Over my dead body, Mole Maloney!' Only the way she's coming at me with the rolling pin, I reckon it's going to be over mine. Even for Nancy, you've never heard such a fuss, it's nearly as bad as when Sarah told her she was pregnant.

I've spoken to Bozo long before I went to see Nancy and he thought it was a ratshit idea and said I should go to university, or if I didn't want to, he'd like me to join him in the transport business.

But after a while he could see it was no good, that I'd made up my mind.

'You're a bloke who thinks about everything first, Mole. I've got to give you that. Been the steady one. But I have to ask you one last time, are you absolutely sure that's what you want to do?'

I've always thought of Bozo as being the steady one, I've just been the person standing there listening, stickybeaking, so it's a nice compliment, I think. 'Yeah, that's what I want,' I tell him.

'Definitely.'

'Righto then, I'll support you with Nancy. Better speak to Sarah first though, you'll need her on your side as well.'

So the day after Sarah's graduation, I take her aside, tell her and ask her to help me with Nancy. I've got to admit, like Bozo she's not happy and tries her best to dissuade me. When she sees she can't, she says, 'Will you go to Duntroon? If you get a university entrance pass in your exams you could take a degree with them, they'll pay for you to study and you'll still be in the army and be an officer.'

I wonder what she's thinking when she says it. To my knowledge she's never seen Murray Templeton since he ran away. Now he's graduated as an officer. We've seen him around town a few times.

Once when Bozo and me were at a footie game we saw him with his uniform on, the one pip on his shoulder. Naturally we didn't speak to him and he looked over and saw us, but he didn't come over or wave or anything. Bozo said he was a bloody coward. It was like he didn't know who we were. Now Sarah, like always, guesses what I'm thinking.

'No, Mole, I don't love Murray, that's all over long ago. I've got my daughter and that's the best thing that's ever happened to me. It wouldn't upset me in the least if you went to Duntroon and became an officer.'

'Nah, I want to join the proper army, I don't want to be an officer.' She has another go at me and points out how disappointed Nancy is going to be in me. But in the end Sarah gives me her blessing. Funny, she says the same thing as Bozo, that I've always thought things out and am the steady one in the family. I'm not so sure now that that's supposed to be a compliment, although they both said it like it was one. Sarah then smiles, gives me a big hug and a kiss, and says, 'Mole, 111 always love you whatever you do, you'll make a wonderful soldier.'

Morrie, when he hears, says the world's not a safe place and good soldiers are needed and Sophie bursts into tears, she can only remember one kind of soldier.

I don't want to go on about Nancy. She raves and sulks for a week and argues with Bozo and calls Sarah who's gone to Queensland with Morrie and Sophie for their first holiday in six years.

Templeton's staying with us because little Colleen loves to have her and the other way round.

The three of them, Morrie, Sophie and Sarah, are having a rest, Sarah needs one before she starts as a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne in January. Nancy calls Sarah at her hotel and speaks to her for an hour and I can hear her arguing. It must have cost a fortune and I'm feeling guilty. Then Nancy comes off the phone and sits down, while little Colleen makes her a cup of tea and gives her a Bex. Templeton climbs into her lap and Nancy strokes her flaming red hair that's just like her mother's. After a while, she calls me over and says,
Page 431