The Outback (14 page)

Jonas did not
immediately return, but instead seemed to strike up a promising conversation
with the local pair. When the three Irishmen got back from their smoke they
were impressed by his confidence to go it alone.

‘Quite the dark horse,
isn’t he,’ commented Stephen. ‘How come you didn’t go with him?’ he then asked
Hiro.

The Japanese man tucked
his head between his shoulder blades. He had a very slender, wiry frame that
gave him an almost contortionist appearance, like a posable wireframe model.

‘Too shy,’ he explained.

Before they could
embarrass the Asian further they were briefly interrupted by Jonas returning
from the girls at the bar.

‘What are you doing back
here so soon?’ asked Matt. ‘You didn’t scare them away, did you?’

‘No, no,’ he said. ‘I
need to speak to Colin.’

He turned to the
Irishman.

‘Do you have much weed
left?’ he asked.

Colin was instantly
sceptical.

‘A little; why?’

‘The girls wanted to
know. They said that all backpackers were stoners and asked me if I could get
them any weed.’

‘What did you tell
them?’

He looked for Stephen’s
reaction, but his friend’s expression gave nothing away.

‘I said that I could get
them a joint; just the one to take back to their place.’

Colin was extremely
apprehensive, but he also did not want to disappoint his friend. He was torn
between risking word of his stash spreading through town on the one hand and
letting Jonas down on the other. So long as it was to be a one off and no money
changed hands, he reasoned that he could probably get away with it.

‘Okay,’ he agreed. ‘But
on one condition.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Promise me that you’re
going to get laid tonight.’

‘I’ll try my best,’ the
German promised.

Whilst Jonas’s excited
libido spread laughter throughout the group, Colin silently asked himself if he
had done the right thing.

It was not long before
Jonas left the bar with the two girls in tow and it was widely assumed that
none of them would be seeing him again that night. Their assumption was to be
proven true regarding the German, but one of the girls who earlier left with
Jonas returned after about an hour with a group of young locals. These
newcomers glanced over to the table where the backpackers sat several times
before one of them, who appeared to be the original girl’s boyfriend, came over
to speak to them.

‘Excuse me,’ he began.
‘Are you the friends of that Dutch guy who is with Libby?’

Colin looked the man up
and down. His instincts told him to expect trouble.

‘We don’t know any Dutch
guy,’ he answered, a tad puzzled by the question.

‘I think that he means
Jonas,’ said Rose. ‘He must have told those girls that he was Deutsch when he
was trying to impress them. He probably thinks it sounds more sophisticated
than German. The two words are similar so I can see how they made the mistake.’

Colin gave a nod of
understanding and then turned to answer the stranger.

‘Yeah, we know him. What
of it?’

The stranger stole a
cautious glance over his shoulder before carrying on. He appeared nervous and
his manner was awkward and uncomfortable.

‘The girls said that you
had some weed. I was wondering if maybe you could sell us a bit.’

Colin felt his stomach
tighten. This was exactly the situation that he was hoping to avoid. He knew
that he should have trusted his gut and not given in to Jonas so easily.

‘Not us, sorry.’

He turned back to face
his friends at the table, but the local was not willing to give up so easily.

‘Aw, c’mon, mate,’ the
man pleaded. ‘It’s not like I’m on the scrounge or anything. I’ll pay you a
fair price for it.’

Colin began to feel like
he was being watched. In fact, he knew that he was being watched. People had
not stopped staring at the backpackers since they sat down. He needed to get
rid of the potentially troublesome local and he reasoned that the quickest way
to do that would be to just go ahead and make the deal. It was against his
better judgement, but he could tell that the Australian was not going to give
up and he did not want to risk creating a scene.

‘Okay,’ he conceded.
‘But not here. We’ll go outside.’

Stephen followed them
out to keep watch. When they returned they urged the others to drink up quickly
as they thought it would be best not to stick around for too long, in case
other prospective buyers made themselves known. Colin insisted that the
Australian understood that the deal was strictly a one off, but he also knew
that now people knew he had weed, there would always be somebody wanting to
make a deal with him. He simply could not chance hanging around the bar any
longer.

‘Have I at least got
time to powder my nose?’ asked Rose, barely able to contain her frustration.

‘Make it quick,’ replied
Colin.

The Irishman was
anxious. To make matters worse, shortly after Rose left, he heard a familiar,
yet most unwelcome voice from behind where he stood.

‘Should you children be
in here on a school night?’ asked Rhett.

The old man sounded
alert and Colin guessed that he could not have been in the bar long, but he was
nervous as to what he may or may not have seen. Stephen was facing Rhett and
had to answer, whilst Colin and Matt tried their best to pretend they had not
heard. Colin mouthed “get rid of him” to his friend.

‘We’re actually just on
our way out,’ said Stephen. ‘We only called in for the one, to check this place
out.’

‘That’s a shame,’
replied Rhett. ‘The girls will be out soon. Things usually start to pick up
after that.’

He eyed the trio
suspiciously. Niall and Hiro managed to slip away unnoticed, but Colin and Matt
could not leave without passing Rhett, so they were forced to remain. All the
while, they prayed that they would not be pulled into the conversation.

‘Maybe you can tell us
all about it in the morning,’ said Stephen. ‘Like you said; tonight’s a school
night.’

The communal door
leading onto the respective toilets opened, but it was not Rose or Jenny that
stepped out. It was the local that had earlier bought the weed from Colin.
Stephen put his head down, hoping that he would not be recognised. The man
walked past without acknowledgement, but when he came to Colin, he gave the
Irishman an enthusiastic pat on the back.

‘Fuckin’ legend,’ the
man said to him.

They all knew that it
was too much to hope that Rhett did not notice this and they were right.

‘Friend of yours?’ the
old man asked.

Stephen made a show of
looking over to the guy, who was now walking back to join his friends at the
bar.

‘Don’t know the fella,’
he said, then turning to Colin he added; ‘how about you?’

His friend shrugged.

‘I know him,’ said Rhett.

The Australian did not
elaborate further. He did not need to as the tone of his voice said it all. The
tense silence that followed was broken only when the girls returned from the
bathroom. Neither of the sisters attempted to disguise their revulsion upon
seeing Rhett. Colin and Matt put their arms around their respective partners
and along with Stephen, the five of them walked past the Australian to the
exit. No farewells were exchanged and the three men in particular knew that the
tension was likely to extend into work the following morning.

They all left quietly,
but the silence was quickly broken when they got outside.

‘What was he doing
there?’ asked Jenny.

‘It’s his town,’
answered Matt. ‘I imagine he’s a regular in that place.’

‘Well, thank God that we
left when we did. It is bad enough having to tolerate him at work. I could not
stand having to see any more of that man than is absolutely necessary.’

‘I think that his seeing
us was more of a problem,’ said Colin.

‘What do you mean?’
Jenny asked.

The night air had a
sobering chill to it and she shivered as it pierced the flimsy material of her
blouse.

‘It’s just a hunch,’
replied the Irishman, ‘but I think that Rhett may not be his usual cheery self
at work tomorrow morning.’

Chapter 18

A slightly later start of
seven o’clock was scant consolation for having to work on a Saturday. Jonas was
the only person smiling as the backpackers waited for the bus to arrive. He had
returned to camp several hours after the others the previous evening and was
the only one to end the night on a high, both metaphorically and literally.

The German was eager to
boast of his exploits, but nobody was in the mood for listening. Neither were
they particularly talkative themselves. The entire camp was eerily silent but
for the maniacal laugh of a kookaburra bird high in the branches of a nearby
tree. The creature captured the mood perfectly.

The lull was eventually
broken by the drone of an approaching engine. The familiar white bus pulled into
the park, but Rhett was not seated behind the wheel as expected. It was being
driven by Sam with an ever smiling Paul by his side. As it came to rest, the
younger man stepped off to greet the group.

‘Where’s Rhett?’ asked
Jonas, who was glad of the chance to actually speak to someone.

‘He phoned up earlier to
say that he’s running late,’ replied Paul. ‘He won’t be in until lunch time, so
we have an easy morning ahead of us.’

‘Did he say why?’ asked
Stephen.

‘Nah, the old man never
gives anything away. My guess is a hangover, so he’s likely to be extra cranky
when he does show up.’

‘Well, his loss is our
gain.’

They all climbed onto
the bus and set off on the hour long drive to the field. The rising sun
revealed a pure, cloudless sky without hint of any impending storms that could
shorten their day.

When the bus arrived at
the field everybody could see that the previous day’s sandstorm had done a
thorough job of covering up the wood that had to be cleared. It was apparent
that shifting it would be a slow process, which was something that Rhett would
never tolerate, making his absence a timely one.

They soon got started,
but with less rigidity to the formation that people took up around the tractor.
Nobody had the responsibility of having to police their own section as the work
was distributed and shared equally among all. The only constant carried through
from previous days was that Celeste, as usual, was to do absolutely nothing.

Without the pressure of
a strict supervisor watching the group’s every move the morning passed swiftly
and pleasantly. It could even have been considered fun. There were certainly
worse places to be than outside in that field on a sunny day. Of course,
everything would change shortly before midday when Rhett was due to arrive.

Matt was the first to
spot the old man’s ute as it approached the field. He expected trouble
immediately and called out to warn Colin, but much to his surprise, the
Australian remained in the vehicle after parking up.

‘How long has he been
here?’ asked Colin, joining his friend at the side of the trailer.

‘He just turned up.’

Colin took another look
in the Australian’s direction.

‘What do you think he’s
waiting for?’

‘I don’t know,’ replied
Matt. ‘I don’t think that he has even looked at us yet. It’s almost like he’s
in a trance.’

The Australian remained
motionless. It looked to the pair like he was sleeping.

‘The old git’s too hung
over to even get out of the car,’ said Colin. ‘I’ve probably been worrying for
nothing. I bet he got so wasted last night that he doesn’t even remember seeing
us.’

The boys were preparing
to go back to work when they were startled by a sudden scream. The sound
originated from behind the trailer where the girls were working. When the two
men looked at one another, they each read the concern in the other’s face.
Chances were that it was one of their girlfriend’s whom had cried out.

‘What’s wrong? Matt
called out, jogging to the scene with Colin following closely behind.

Jonas and Hiro were
standing with their backs to him and blocked his view. As he passed them he
began to feel a sickly sensation in the pit of his stomach. Somehow, he just
knew that Jenny was going to be the one in trouble. Everything had been going
far too well between them. He was never this lucky.

Sure enough, it was the
younger of the two sisters who lay on the ground, her face contorted in agony.

‘My hand,’ she
whimpered. ‘I think that I cut it on something.’

‘Let me see,’ said Matt.
‘It’s probably just a splinter.’

At least he
hoped
that it was just a splinter. Tenderly taking her hand, he checked over the
stricken area. He was immediately drawn to a rash-like red circle about an inch
in diameter, which blemished the soft, fleshy area between her forefinger and
thumb. At the centre of the wound were two tiny pin pricks.

‘That’s not a splinter,
she’s been bitten,’ declared Paul, who was standing over Matt’s shoulder.

‘I can’t have,’ Jenny
protested. ‘I would have seen a snake. There’s nothing there.’

‘Not a snake,’ replied
Paul. ‘You’ve been bitten by a spider.’

The Aboriginal called
for his father and then ordered the others to search around for the spider.
Matt wanted to stay and comfort Jenny, but he knew that it would be best not to
interrupt Sam whilst he administered first aid. His time would be better spent
looking for the creature responsible. Until he knew what they were dealing with
it would be impossible for him to rest easy.

He overturned the
scattered pieces of timber in a frantic search for any signs of movement,
whilst silently praying that when the culprit revealed itself it would not have
a red back.

‘I’ve found something,’
called Niall. ‘I don’t know if this is the one that bit Jenny though. It looks
far too small to have caused so much pain.’

‘That’s our man,’
confirmed Paul, squatting down to inspect the guilty arachnid.

Matt took a look at the
creature at the centre of the drama. It was no bigger than a thumbnail and to
his great relief displayed no tell tale red stripe. The only marking it bore
was a small white dot at the base of its abdomen.

‘This is good, isn’t
it?’ he asked. ‘As long as it’s not a red back she will be okay, won’t she?’

‘It’s a white tip,’ said
Paul.

The Aboriginal’s
features were entrenched in dread.

‘I don’t understand,’
said Matt. ‘I’ve never heard of a white tip. They aren’t deadly, are they?’

‘No, they won’t kill
you,’ replied Paul. ‘These little buggers do a lot worse than that.’

***

Rhett was feeling more
than a little frustrated. An early morning shot of vodka had failed to improve
his mood. Neither had a second. Nor even a third. In the end he had imbibed
almost half of the bottle, but still he felt no better.

Those kids were causing
him no end of trouble. It was bad enough that they were refusing to deal with
him, but now they were actually muscling in on his business. They had not just
cost him that one sale last night either. Because they had undercut his price
by so much his regulars were sure to now accuse him of ripping them off.

What he needed more than
anything was time to cool down, but missing work was not an option. He
suspected that the two Abo’s had it in for him. If he failed to turn up due to
a hangover, even on a Saturday, those two would delight in reporting it back to
Joe in Brisbane. The pom would not give him a second chance.

When he arrived at the
field he could see that the tractor had barely moved from the previous day. It
was obvious that those foreign layabouts had been slacking without him. This
really pissed him off, but he was in no position to reprimand them in the state
he was in. All he could do was park up and try to get some rest. Before he knew
it he had fallen asleep.

His slumber did not
last. He had no idea how long he slept, but it could not have been for too long
as the sun was not far into the West of the sky when he was woken by a loud
hammering on the side of his car door. It was the old Abo and he looked
agitated.

‘Christ, Sam, go easy,
will you.’ He looked the big man up and down and then his eyes turned to the
weeping girl behind. Whatever the trouble was, it was the last thing that he
needed. ‘Why’ve you stopped working?’

‘The girl needs medical
attention. Got bitten by a white tip.’

Rhett knew he would be
expected to take the girl into town. Given that the nearest antivenin was
stored at the police station, this was not an idea that appealed. That bastard
Sheriff Lee would know he’d been drinking and slap him with a DUI for sure. An
even greater worry was the matter of what he had stashed under cover in the
back of his ute. He would sooner let the girl’s arm rot off than face the law.

‘You take her on the
bus,’ he instructed. ‘I’ll look after things here.’

‘The sister is coming
too,’ insisted Sam. ‘She cannot be expected to stay whilst worrying about the
girl’s safety.’

Rhett did not offer an
objection, but he drew the line at anyone else leaving early. He should have
just called it a day then and there, but he did not want to give the others the
satisfaction of finishing early, even if it meant punishing himself further. He
decided that he would drive the tractor himself in Sam’s place. With hindsight,
it was to be a decision that everyone would come to regret.