Hunger Town (40 page)

Andy handed me a mug of tea, sweetened with condensed milk. I leaned back, sipped it and while the fire warmed my feet the darkness enfolded me. It was a beautiful place, redolent of eucalypts. Maybe we could manage to stay here. But as I swatted at mosquitoes I knew that at least we would need to chase protective nets before a second night.

Later two men in an old tin lizzie rattled and clanked along the track into the clearing. We had just finished a plate of rabbit stew, prepared by Andy, and with my hand in Harry's I felt very peaceful.

Nathan and Jock and Bernie, who had been sitting with us around the fire, got up to meet them. Harry looked up. ‘Better see what's going on, Jude.'

‘Mm.' I was sleepy. ‘Don't forget you have a date with me in the river.'

He squeezed my hand. ‘A bit cool, Jude.'

‘Mm,' I joked, ‘but you promised.'

Sometimes he wasn't quite sure about how serious I was and he looked at me uncertainly.

‘Of course it's too cold, Harry,' I laughed. ‘Go and meet the men.'

I picked up my torch and found my way to the pit lavatory. It was primitive but adequate.

Andy had left a bucket of water outside our hut and a piece of soap on the grass beside it. I ladled some over my hands, looked doubtfully at the slightly discoloured water in the bucket, decided that others used it, and cleaned my teeth. Heaven only knew how long Harry would be, so I made up our beds, put on my pyjamas and lay down on my stretcher. Immediately the mosquitoes began their nightly torture. I pulled the sheet over my head and cocooned somewhat airlessly fell asleep. I didn't even hear Harry come in.

Flocks of screaming galahs and corellas woke me at sun-up. I unwound myself from the sheet and peeped out the door. An idyllic morning greeted me. I dressed, took one of the rough towels and prepared to creep out. Harry still slept. I studied his face. It had grown thinner. Even in sleep his lips were compressed as if still disapproving of Nathan's arrangements. His nose jutted more and his cheekbones were sharper. I had once known him as an ebullient carefree boy. Now I looked at a mature man. Only his mop of bronze untidy hair still made him look youthful and vulnerable because of it.

Had I similarly changed? I supposed that I had, from the rough fifteen-year-old slinging hash and giving lip in the Chew It. I was now a young woman, no longer feeling the need to be rough to assert my independence but still an intensely individual person with no talent for compliance.

Harry's fluctuations between asserting his own individuality and complying with Nathan's drive to submerge every personal difference in Communist Party policy frequently caused conflict, not only between us, but these days in himself. It was only a couple of weeks ago that he had commented to me rather sadly, ‘I once thought that being a communist was a simple belief, that they'd pay me to dance and be a musician, and that I'd happily go on doing both for the rest of my life. Now I know that Nathan doesn't think dancing or music are important and sometimes I get the feeling that he is just indulging me, or worse, patronising me, and I search around for something in myself to tell me what it means to be a good communist.'

I understood that what he believed in or didn't believe in troubled him and as I had no addiction to any system of belief I remained silent. Whatever I said might appear dismissive of his worries. After all, he wasn't asking me my opinion, he was merely sharing his doubts with me.

I closed the door gently and wandered across the clearing. A yellow-crested black cockatoo spread his huge wings and took flight. A flock of tiny green budgerigars had settled on the grass for a feed. They carpeted the edge of the clearing. The occasional flashes of azure on their wings looked momentarily as if tiny fragments of the sky had fallen amongst them.

A short track led to the river bank and ended as usual in a narrow beach of coarse sand. Here was a tiny cove where the water lay still and benign but further out I again saw debris swept into the surging current. There was no one about, so I slipped off my clothes and entered the water to my thighs. There was no pull of the current so I floated a little and swam a few strokes. It was cold but not as chill as I had expected. I came out, dried myself on the rough towel and put on my clothes. When I emerged from the trees I saw Andy and two other men preparing breakfast on a grill over the open fire. I could smell bacon. They saw me and stopped awkwardly. I grinned at them. ‘I've had a swim.'

They relaxed. Obviously young women who went for an early morning swim weren't as delicate as they had imagined. I received a warning to be on my guard in the current, which was a ‘real nasty bugger', and I promised I would.

‘Like some brekky?' Andy asked.

They handed me a tin plate, a knife and fork, and ladled several strips of bacon and a couple of fried eggs onto it. Bacon and eggs were almost unheard of these days in the Port. How could people in Mildura live in such an idyllic world?

Tousle-headed and sleepy Harry found me and skewered himself a piece of my bacon. ‘Mm,' he said, ‘when did we last taste bacon?'

‘You haven't had your early morning bath,' I teased. ‘You don't deserve it.'

‘In the river?' He shuddered.

‘Yes, in the river.'

‘Ah, well,' he was resigned, ‘save me some bacon.'

‘Plenty here,' Andy said.

With mock amazement, Harry sighed. ‘Did you hear that, Jude? Plenty here and he means it.'

When he returned breakfast was in full swing and Nathan and Jock had appeared. Bernie had returned to Mildura with the two blokes who had come in the tin lizzie.

‘What did they want, Harry?' I asked.

He hesitated and glanced at Nathan as if for approval in telling me.

I was sharp as I so often was when I felt Nathan's influence shadowing us. ‘What did they want, Harry?'

‘They want us to help set up a branch of the Communist Party.'

‘But you came here to do that. It isn't a surprise, is it?'

‘No, not entirely.'

‘What do you mean “not entirely”?'

He hesitated again, throwing a how-much-do-I-tell-her look at Nathan, and then said, ‘It won't be as easy as we thought. That's all, Jude.'

After breakfast Harry told Nathan bluntly that we wouldn't sleep here another night and that he could cough up enough funds for our hotel accommodation. Nathan demurred and grew sulky, saying that Harry came to do a job and that the Party was short of money. After all, it was only for a few nights.

Harry was belligerent. ‘It's your mistake, Nathan. You fix it.'

Once again I interrupted their dispute. ‘Let's go into town and see if they've got any mosquito netting and we can look at the pub. But it's not too bad here, Harry.'

‘Not too bad?' He looked stunned. ‘Not too bad, Jude? It's dreadful. Two camp stretchers, an earth lavatory, and the river to wash in?'

‘Yes,' I responded dreamily, recalling my morning swim and my bacon and eggs. ‘Quite lovely, actually. And the whole place smells of eucalypts. And the sweet smoky fragrance of burning wood from the fireplace. And the birds in the morning are glorious.'

Harry was speechless and Nathan smirked. For that I could have smacked him. He deserved a reminder of how far he could stretch my endurance. ‘But if there are no mosquito nets, then it'll have to be the pub,' I snapped at him.

This compromise didn't appeal to Harry. ‘I want a proper room, Jude, and a proper bed. This place isn't right for you.'

But I didn't mind it as much as Harry did. Harry had grown up in a genteel house in Adelaide. I had been reared on a hulk. A hulk wasn't a telegraph men's camp but maybe it had prepared me for more adventurous accommodation. ‘Come on,' I placated him, ‘let's see what's available.'

So Nathan drove us in to Mildura and parked in the main street. It was a sizeable, seemingly prosperous town with wide roads and shaded footpaths beneath overhanging verandahs. We found a general store that seemed to sell everything from clothing to hardware. Harry, still determined, said he'd go in search of a pub, and I could look for mosquito netting if I wanted to. He marched off, offended that I had seemingly rejected his care. His stiff back told me that he considered himself betrayed.

Nathan and Jock went off together, saying rather mysteriously that they wanted to meet a friend. It was a perfectly normal sunshiny morning with quite a few people busy about the street and I sighed at the continued secrecy of the Communist Party. Nathan always trailed a sense of conspiracy that seemed to create its own threat. I wished Harry were free of it.

I wandered through the store searching the shelves but eventually had to appeal to the shop owner. He led me to a shelf where there were rolls of green netting and asked me how much I wanted. Of course, I didn't know. Helplessly, I said, ‘Enough to drape over two camp stretchers.'

He pursed his lips. ‘How you goin' to do that?'

Once again I didn't know. He looked me up and down. ‘From down south, are yer?'

‘Yes, Adelaide. Actually Port Adelaide.'

He assessed me. ‘Where yer stayin'?'

‘At a camp out of town. The telegraph men's camp.'

‘Strange place for a lady to stay.'

I was defensive. ‘I'm with my husband.'

He smirked. ‘Husband, eh? What's he do?'

I would have preferred not to answer but I was cornered between him and the shelf and I needed the netting. ‘He's a musician.'

‘Plays in bands, eh?'

‘Yes.'

‘Lookin' for a gig?'

‘Yes.'

That seemed to satisfy him. ‘You'll need some long bamboo poles to fix crosswise at each end of your stretcher and then you pull the nets over them. But you want made-up nets, not this stuff.'

He led me to another shelf. ‘How many do you want?'

I hesitated. Should I say two or four? ‘Four,' I said.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Other band members?'

‘Yes. That's right.'

‘Play yourself?'

I allowed myself to be confiding. ‘No, I'm tone deaf.'

He looked me over. ‘I'm sure you've got other assets.'

I ignored his leer.

‘Better watch yer step out there.'

‘Snakes?' I asked.

‘Yair. Two legged ones. A lotta red raggers camp out there.'

‘Really?' I pretended shock.

‘Yair. Regular commie bunch. Red raggers. We don't care for them much in this town and we know how to deal with them.'

My hackles rose but I didn't look up from counting out my money.

‘What do you do to them?' I continued to search in my purse.

He snorted. ‘Whatta we do with them? Shove ‘em on the first train outer town or throw ‘em in the river. After we've roughed ‘em up a bit. Just to stop ‘em from comin' back. That gets rid of ‘em. Good riddance to bad rubbish I says.'

He dusted his hands. ‘Don't want that sorta riff-raff here. You and your musician
husband
 …' he leered at me again. ‘You take care out there. You don't wanna get mistook for a red ragger.'

I took the nets and hurried out, knowing that his eyes followed me to the door.

Harry was waiting gloomily by the car. He noted my flushed face. ‘All OK, Jude?'

‘No.' My voice was tight. ‘I've got the nets but I've just had a conversation with the most sickeningly abominable man. I don't know how I kept a still tongue in my head. This is not a safe place, Harry.'

‘No?' he jibed at me. ‘But only a short time ago you told me it was quite lovely.'

I was impatient. ‘Don't be spiteful, Harry. I wasn't talking about people.'

He relented. ‘No, you weren't. The bloke in the pub wasn't friendly, either. Quizzed me within an inch of my life. And advised me not to associate with the red raggers at the telegraph camp or I might end up dead in the river one night. How's that for hospitality, Jude?'

I had a lazy day at the camp reading a book and sketching the red gums by the river. Bernie arrived later in the afternoon and he, Harry, Jock and Nathan spent the hours conferring while Nathan took notes. We had purchased some food in town and I left the men to muck around preparing it but none of our group was very adept at camp cooking so Andy did most of the work and didn't seem to mind.

As darkness approached Harry sat down beside me anxiously. ‘I'm worried, Jude, and don't know what to do.'

‘Why?'

‘We have a meeting in town tonight.'

‘Yes, but you expected this.'

He grasped my hand and held it tightly. ‘I don't like it, Jude. I think this is a nasty town.'

‘But we're not in town, Harry. We're out at the camp.'

‘But I don't know whether it's safe, Jude. I can't leave you here tonight on your own and I don't like to take you with us. There could be trouble.'

He still clasped my hand so I squeezed his. ‘Don't be silly, Harry. We've met trouble before. It'll be simpler if I come with you and then you can keep an eye on me.'

He groaned. ‘A choice between Scylla and Charybdis.'

I laughed. ‘Honestly, Harry, that's far too dramatic. It's only a meeting. You're making too much of a few threats from some loud-mouthed roughnecks. What are they going to do? Shoot us up? It isn't the Wild West.'

But he was silent. At last he said, ‘I need to go to the meeting, Jude. It's expected.'

‘Of course it is. Stop worrying. You don't want me to stay here, although I'm sure I'd be quite safe with Andy, so I'll come with you.'

His response was strangely violent. ‘There's no way I'm going to leave you here, hoping someone else will look after you.'

So that's it, I thought. Nathan has been needling him, trying to persuade him to leave me at the camp.

‘Well, then,' I said quietly, ‘if you feel like that it's far better if I come.'