The Long Green Shore (20 page)

Surely one should dance and sing and pound a comrade on the back—we won! But we feel lost and lonely and there's a breathless wind in the high air. We sit about in our doovers and speak quietly and casually—and it's only when you look at a man's eyes that you realise he is seeing something beyond the mountains and the trees—a vast, slow, broken wheel is turning in the sky—and in some strange way he is unbelieving and afraid of what he sees.

Pez chopped the side out of a biscuit tin and found some black paint somewhere.
THE ROAD BACK
, he daubed in bold letters and planted it beside their doover, with an arrow pointing back down the track to the sea.

He spent a deal of time outlining to Janos an ambitiously alcoholic project for the first civilised pub they encountered.

It was almost dark on the night of the day the war ended when Janos rose to take the first trick at guard.

‘How are you feeling, mate?' asked Pez. ‘I'll take it if you like.'

‘No, I'm all right.'

‘You sure?'

‘Yeah,' said Janos with a grin. ‘I'm a big boy again now—I'm not afraid of the dark any more.'

He went down to Harry Drew's doover to get the Owen for guard.

Those of us further down the hill heard the single, flat explosion of the shot from the crest of the ridge, and the long cry—stretcher bearers! stretcher bearers!—came pelting down the hill.

We heard their shod feet thudding on the corded track as they ran up the hill and, after a while, we heard them returning—the careful, dragging trample of their feet, as though they carried something heavy.

‘What happened?' someone called from the darkness beside the track.

‘Owen went off accidentally.'

‘Anyone hurt?'

‘Yes, Janos.'

‘Is he bad?'

‘He's dead.'

And the earth stood open to receive its dead.

This man born of woman, who had but a little time of life, lay shrouded in a grey blanket. To lie in cold corruption in the black earth—in the alien earth where the leaves weep for ever for the rainforest.

Pez and Harry Drew and Sunny dug his grave—narrow and not too deep—and the cross is painted that says, NX13686 Private W. E. Janner.

The rest of the platoon, loaded ready for the track, stand bareheaded in the rain. Connell, who came up that morning and had waited for the burial, stands behind Pez.

And when it is done, except for the earth heavy on him, Pez steps forward, and scraping a handful of sticky clay, casts it on him. And Connell steps forward and throws a handful of earth into the pit himself—then walks hurriedly away back down the track.

The platoon moves off and Pez and Harry Drew and Sunny shovel the thick earth furiously and silently into the pit, smooth the mound and plant the cross at the head.

They climb into their packs and Pez picks up the
ROAD BACK
sign that had stood outside their doover.

He walks to the grave and, bending over awkwardly under the weight of his pack, plants it firmly at the foot, with the arrow pointing away down the track towards the sea.

Harry Drew leads off the track, with Sunny after him.

Pez follows.

The drums are beating in the hills.

Pez sat in his tent at the new camp on the beach, writing a letter.

Dear Mrs Janner,

I am writing this on behalf of the platoon.

Your son died saving some of our lives.

We were cut off and surrounded and there was a break made through our lines. Bill stopped that breakthrough and saved us. But he was killed doing it.

We will never be able to tell you how we felt about him. All we can say is that he died most bravely and he was our friend…

What the hell! He
could
have died like that a thousand times—instead of the monstrously stupid chance of a gun going off accidentally.

Private W. E. Janner…used to know a man once of that name…Janos we called him—the God that looks forward and back.

Why shouldn't he write a lie like that to her—it could have been the truth. What the hell would she care, anyway? She never really knew him. All she'd want to do would be to cry over him a little.

Not that
we
weep…
our
hearts are dry—but our brother Janos is dead.

Pez walked out of the tent and, in the rich moonlight, ploughed across the unfamiliar sand of the new camp to the beach.

There was a wind blowing high that did not blow. A broken wheel was turning in the sky. There was a bugle call transfixed by the spear of stars, pinned like a curlew call between the earth and sky.

The bay was empty and the seas stretched barren far away. But soon the seas would bring ships and there would be a coming home and a heart singing. We must go on down a long, long track. But at least when he got home there was a door to knock on—even if an uncertain door.

God, there must be a meaning. Fiercely he was certain that there must be a meaning.

Surely, while we live we are not lost.

Oh Janos, Janos my brother!

Surely we are not lost—while we live.

Dancing on Coral

Glenda Adams

Introduced by Susan Wyndham

The Commandant

Jessica Anderson

Introduced by Carmen Callil

Homesickness

Murray Bail

Introduced by Peter Conrad

Sydney Bridge Upside Down

David Ballantyne

Introduced by Kate De Goldi

Bush Studies

Barbara Baynton

Introduced by Helen Garner

The Cardboard Crown

Martin Boyd

Introduced by Brenda Niall

A Difficult Young Man

Martin Boyd

Introduced by Sonya Hartnett

Outbreak of Love

Martin Boyd

Introduced by Chris Womersley

The Australian Ugliness

Robin Boyd

Introduced by Christos Tsiolkas

All the Green Year

Don Charlwood

Introduced by Michael McGirr

They Found a Cave

Nan Chauncy

Introduced by John Marsden

The Even More Complete

Book of Australian Verse

John Clarke

Diary of a Bad Year

J. M. Coetzee

Introduced by Peter Goldsworthy

Wake in Fright

Kenneth Cook

Introduced by Peter Temple

The Dying Trade

Peter Corris

Introduced by Charles Waterstreet

They're a Weird Mob

Nino Culotta

Introduced by Jacinta Tynan

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke

C. J. Dennis

Introduced by Jack Thompson

Careful, He Might Hear You

Sumner Locke Elliott

Introduced by Robyn Nevin

Fairyland

Sumner Locke Elliott

Introduced by Dennis Altman

The Explorers

Edited and introduced by

Tim Flannery

Terra Australis

Matthew Flinders

Introduced by Tim Flannery

My Brilliant Career

Miles Franklin

Introduced by Jennifer Byrne

Such is Life

Joseph Furphy

Introduced by David Malouf

The Fringe Dwellers

Nene Gare

Introduced by Melissa Lucashenko

Cosmo Cosmolino

Helen Garner

Introduced by Ramona Koval

Wish

Peter Goldsworthy

Introduced by James Bradley

Dark Places

Kate Grenville

Introduced by Louise Adler

The Quiet Earth

Craig Harrison

Introduced by Bernard Beckett

Down in the City

Elizabeth Harrower

Introduced by Delia Falconer

The Long Prospect

Elizabeth Harrower

Introduced by Fiona McGregor

The Watch Tower

Elizabeth Harrower

Introduced by Joan London

The Long Green Shore

John Hepworth

Introduced by Lloyd Jones

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

Fergus Hume

Introduced by Simon Caterson

The Unknown Industrial Prisoner

David Ireland

Introduced by Peter Pierce

The Glass Canoe

David Ireland

Introduced by Nicolas Rothwell

A Woman of the Future

David Ireland

Introduced by Kate Jennings

Eat Me

Linda Jaivin

Introduced by Krissy Kneen

Julia Paradise

Rod Jones

Introduced by Emily Maguire

The Jerilderie Letter

Ned Kelly

Introduced by Alex McDermott

Bring Larks and Heroes

Thomas Keneally

Introduced by Geordie Williamson

Strine

Afferbeck Lauder

Introduced by John Clarke

The Young Desire It

Kenneth Mackenzie

Introduced by David Malouf

Stiff

Shane Maloney

Introduced by Lindsay Tanner

The Middle Parts of Fortune

Frederic Manning

Introduced by Simon Caterson

Selected Stories

Katherine Mansfield

Introduced by Emily Perkins

The Home Girls

Olga Masters

Introduced by Geordie Williamson

Amy's Children

Olga Masters

Introduced by Eva Hornung

The Scarecrow

Ronald Hugh Morrieson

Introduced by Craig Sherborne

The Dig Tree

Sarah Murgatroyd

Introduced by Geoffrey Blainey

A Lifetime on Clouds

Gerald Murnane

Introduced by Andy Griffiths

The Plains

Gerald Murnane

Introduced by Wayne Macauley

The Odd Angry Shot

William Nagle

Introduced by Paul Ham

Life and Adventures 1776–1801

John Nicol

Introduced by Tim Flannery

Death in Brunswick

Boyd Oxlade

Introduced by Shane Maloney

Swords and Crowns and Rings

Ruth Park

Introduced by Alice Pung

The Watcher in the Garden

Joan Phipson

Introduced by Margo Lanagan

Maurice Guest

Henry Handel Richardson

Introduced by Carmen Callil

The Getting of Wisdom

Henry Handel Richardson

Introduced by Germaine Greer

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony

Henry Handel Richardson

Introduced by Peter Craven

Rose Boys

Peter Rose

Introduced by Brian Matthews

Hills End

Ivan Southall

Introduced by James Moloney

Ash Road

Ivan Southall

Introduced by Maurice Saxby

Lillipilly Hill

Eleanor Spence

Introduced by Ursula Dubosarsky

The Women in Black

Madeleine St John

Introduced by Bruce Beresford

The Essence of the Thing

Madeleine St John

Introduced by Helen Trinca

Jonah

Louis Stone

Introduced by Frank Moorhouse

An Iron Rose

Peter Temple

Introduced by Les Carlyon

1788

Watkin Tench

Introduced by Tim Flannery

The House that Was Eureka

Nadia Wheatley

Introduced by Toni Jordan

Happy Valley

Patrick White

Introduced by Peter Craven

I for Isobel