Red Dirt Heart 03.5 (4 page)

It’s an Australian Outback kind of tinsel.

“No need to look so smug,” I said, looking up at Trav.

Wearing his post-orgasm smirk and half-lidded eyes, he was now leaning his arse against my desk in front of me from where I still sat in the chair. “True. You should be the smug one,” he drawled. Then he put his fingers under my chin and whispered, “You’re very good at giving head.” He leaned down and kissed me, tasting himself. “Swap me places. It’s your turn.”

I got to my feet and leaned right against him, kissin’ him nice and slow. But then I heard a voice followed by the back screen door. I growled in frustration, and maybe a little disappointment, but went and unlocked the office door.

It was Trudy and little baby Gracie. “Oh boy, it’s much cooler in here,” Trudy said. She looked hot and bothered. Actually she looked exhausted.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Sure. Just wondering if there was an old pedestal fan not in use I could borrow. Can’t seem to keep this little one cool enough.” Little Gracie was so tiny. Well, as tiny as babies are, I supposed, and she was wearing just a nappy, but she looked hot too. “Bacon’s looking over the air conditioner in our place. It’s just not working like it should. I keep giving her baths and wiping her down with a damp cloth, but it’s just
hot
.”

“I know just how she feels,” Trav said, drawing his thumb down Gracie’s cheek. “That was me yesterday.”

“Stay in here,” I told her. “I’ll get the pedestal fan from our room for ya, then I’ll go give Bacon a hand. We’ll get it fixed twice as fast. But you should stay in here until then.”

I didn’t really give her a chance to argue. I put the fan in the lounge room and along with the bouncer we kept in the main house, saving Trudy from havin’ to bring one with her every time she came up from their place. By the time I put on my boots and hat, Trav had taken charge. He had Gracie in the bouncer under the fan, talking baby-speak to her, and Trudy was standing in the hallway.

“He told me to go get some sleep while I can,” Trudy said.

I couldn’t help but smile. “He’s bossy, isn’t he?”

“Well, if I’m under house-arrest, I may as well be helping out when I’m able,” Trav said, not taking his eyes off Gracie. He was slowly bouncing her and bein’ all big smiles and bright eyes. It was clear that he adored her.

I had to admit, seeing him with her did something to my insides. I had never even contemplated a family of my own, not until he mentioned the other week about getting married and maybe havin’ kids together. It was just something I never dreamed possible. But now… well now I had to lot to think about.

Trudy patted my arm and gave me a look-at-you-looking-at-him smile, and I felt myself blush a dozen shades of red. “You should,” I said, changing subjects. “Go and have a sleep, that is. While you can. I’ll go see what’s up with your air conditioner.”

As soon as I walked outside, the dry air sucked the breath from my lungs. It was a baking heat, the sun was sweltering and I could feel the heat of the ground through the soles of my boots.

It sure was a hot one.

The red horizon was shimmering like a mirage, and in the hundred metre walk to the staff cottages, I could feel the sweat already running down my back. It made me smile. The blistering heat of the desert was disgusting and gritty, dangerous, and an earthly reminder of just who was in charge out here.

I loved it.

Or maybe I was just smilin’ because life was good.

I had to tell myself to stop grinnin’ like an idiot when I got to Trudy and Bacon’s cottage. Bacon had the casing off the air conditioning motor, which was, thankfully, on the shaded side of the house.

“Trudy’s havin’ a kip,” I told him. “Travis is on baby-sittin’ duty, and I’m here to give you a hand.”

“Thanks, mate,” he replied, handing me a wrench. And as we worked on the motor, just givin’ it a service and cleanin’ the dust out of everything, I thought about what he called me.

Mate.

It wasn’t too long ago he called me boss.

I had to admit, I liked the difference.

After a while of working in silence, when Bacon was cleaning out the filters, he asked, “So, Travis hasn’t clued in yet?”

“Nope.”

“He’s gonna hate you.”

I laughed. “No he won’t.” Then I made a face. “Well, hopefully not for too long. He still thinks we think Christmas is no big deal.”

“Well, this is first year it’s been different,” Bacon said. “For both of us. Been a helluva year, huh?”

We slid the casing back over the motor and started to screw it back down. “It sure has.”

“Whoda thought this time last year that I’d be a dad,” Bacon said. “Or that you’d…” He paused to find the right words.

Come out? Meet Travis? Ask him to stay? Fall in love? Be happy?

I finished his sentence for him. “Have everything I ever wanted? Certainly not me.” I sighed. “It’s all so different now.”

“It is,” he agreed, wiping the sweat from his brow. “And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

It was then I noticed the garden hoe leaning against the veranda. Each cottage was a two-bedroom house on piers and footings, which meant there was a good two foot clearance under each house. I bet anything you like, if I walked to the back door, there’d be a long-handled shovel or something similar there as well, and having that kinda thing by the door around here could only mean one thing. “You got a snake?”

“Yeah, saw him this morning,” Bacon said. “Brown snake, about five foot long.”

Shit.
“You should have said something.”

He shrugged. “Never used to worry too much. But now with Grace… Well, it’s different now.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it is.” I picked up the hoe. “Come on, we’ll hunt it out.”

Now if anyone else did what I did, I’d be pissed. If Travis did it, I’d be
royally
pissed and serve him a lecture about bein’ three hours from hospital and bein’ plain old stupid. But it was me, and I’d done this kinda thing a hundred times before. Now, I was strictly all for the conservation of animals, and this snake was truly only lookin’ for somewhere cool to sleep, but it was just like Bacon said: things were different now. Grace lived in this house, and if a newborn baby was ever bitten by a brown snake, you could forget the three hour trip to hospital. She’d probably be dead before they could run her the hundred metres to the homestead.

So, with the longest stick I could find, I crawled on my belly under their house. It didn’t take long to find the snake, coiled up in the cool dirt by a house pier. It weren’t too happy to see me, nor me it, if I was bein’ truthful. Meeting one of the deadliest snakes on the planet, face-to-face, wasn’t how I pictured spending Christmas Eve. Pokin’ it with a stick earned me a hiss, but I could manoeuvre it to keep its head away from me. Eventually it got the message and backed off, slitherin’ out the other side of the house. “He’s comin’ your way!” I called.

“I see him,” Bacon yelled.

I got the hell out from under the house and raced around the back to see Bacon take a swing with the shovel. With perfect aim, he relieved the snake’s body of its head. Of course, even headless, it still squirmed and thrashed. Bacon shuddered. “Ugh. I hate how they do that.”

“Yeah, it’s gross. Good shot by the way.”

“Thanks.” He let out a bit of a laugh. “Thanks for going under the house for it.”

“No worries. Just don’t tell Travis. Or Ma.”

He laughed. “Deal.”

I picked up the tail of the snake and nodded toward the detached head. “You good with that?”

“Yeah, I’ll go bury it.” He looked at the long, still-wriggling body of the snake. “What you gonna do with that?”

I shrugged. “Tell Travis we’ll bake it up like some Aussie Christmas delicacy or some shit.”

He barked out a laugh.

And then like some Christmas miracle, the wind changed direction. “Feel that?” I asked.

Bacon grinned. “Yeah. Means cool change.”

I could feel the sweat on my skin coolin’ in the breeze already. “Halle-freakin-lujah.” I nodded back to his house. “Go inside, enjoy your air conditioning. I’ll tell Trudy it’s all good when she wakes up.”

I left him to it and walked back up to the house, feeling the already-cooler breeze on my back. I found Travis on the back veranda with little Gracie enjoying the cool change. “How nice is that breeze?” he asked, then did a double take at what I was holding. “Charlie, what the hell is that?”

I slung the snake over a low-lyin’ branch of the tree in the backyard. “Outback Christmas tinsel.”

Travis stared at me. “Um, I don’t think tinsel should bleed. Or be headless. Just saying.”

I climbed the veranda steps and gave Trav a quick kiss. “It was under Gracie’s house, and that just won’t do.” I kissed the little girl on the forehead. “That just won’t do at all.”

“Did you get the air conditioning working again?”

“Yep. Just needed a clean out. Is Trudy awake?”

“Nope. Ma’s in the kitchen and threatened bodily harm to anyone who wakes a new mother.”

“Fair enough.”

Trav looked back at the snake. “You just gonna leave that there?”

“Yep. It’ll wriggle till the sun goes down,” I told him. “Bacon buried the head. The venom can still kill ya, even when the damn thing is cut in two.”

Just then, Billy came out of the shed and up toward the house. He saw the snake. “Oh, thanks boss. Fresh dinner!”

Trav’s nostrils flared, and his mouth formed a watery line. “Serious?”

“Makes real good eating,” Billy said, inspecting the snake.

Trav looked at me. “Is he serious?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Aboriginal folk have been eating snakes and lizards for forty thousand years.”

Trav eyed us both cautiously. “You’re taking the piss, aren’t you? Like with the pine tree?”

Billy laughed. “No, bein’ serious now. For real, Travis. We eat them.”

It took a little convincing, but Travis finally shook his head. “How do you cook them? And aren’t they all bone?”

Just then, Trudy came out the back door. She looked tired still and her hair was all flat on one side, but at least she’d slept a bit. “Here’s my girl,” she said, taking Grace off Trav.

“Sleep okay?” I asked.

“Like the dead. Must have needed it more than I realised,” she replied.

“We’ll babysit any time you like,” Travis said. “Me and Charlie will, that is. She was great company. Uncle Billy was just telling us how he cooks and eats snakes.”

Trudy nodded slowly and walked down the steps. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll take you guys up on that.” As she got closer to the tree with my dead-snake-tinsel she called out, “Hey Trav?”

“Yeah?”

Trudy didn’t turn around. She just kept on walking and replied, “They’re bullshitting you again.”

Travis looked at me, then at Billy, and Billy cracked up laughing.

“God, I hate you both.” He put both hands on his hips. “You don’t eat them at all.”

“Some people do,” Billy said, his usual half-face grin lit up. “But I prefer steak. Or Macca’s.”

Travis looked at me. “I expect you to be on my side.”

“What?” I feigned innocence. I’m thinkin’ my smile didn’t help none. “He could totally eat a McSnake burger.”

“I hate you so much right now.” Trav stomped back inside, the screen door slamin’ behind him. “I’ll never believe another word you say.”

“Not even if I told you I have a Christmas surprise for ya?”

His reply came from somewhere in the house. “Nuh.”

* * * *

Maybe I pushed him too far. Maybe he still wasn’t feeling great, or maybe he was still pissed over the snake thing, because he was quiet after that. Even after dinner when the house was all quiet, I pulled Trav into the lounge room, he was still out of sorts. “Okay I lied. I do have one Christmas tradition,” I said.

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Something I do every year, every Christmas Eve without fail.”

One corner of his mouth pulled up. “Yeah?”

“I watch my favourite Christmas movie.”

His smile died and he raised one eyebrow. “Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, Charlie.”

“Yes it is. There’s Christmas carols in it.”

“It’s true,” Ma chimed in from somewhere down the hall. “He watches it every Christmas Eve.”

I started to whistle
Jingle Bells
like John McClane does, and when that didn’t work, I sang it until Trav smiled. “Okay, okay, I’ll watch it. Again. Please don’t sing. Ever.”

Not even offended, I put the DVD on and claimed the sofa first. I laid down on my side and patted the seat to show Trav where I wanted him to lie in front of me. He did, with a reluctant sigh, and we settled in to watch Die Hard.

It didn’t take long before I realised Trav wasn’t even watching it. He was staring at the Christmas tree. I kissed the back of his head. “You okay?”