The Outback (7 page)

Chapter 7

The second pre-dawn start
came more easily than the first. This time Matt was anticipating the bus’
arrival and leapt straight from his bed the moment he heard it pull into the
park. He did not do this out of enthusiasm. He simply knew that the longer he
remained in bed, the more difficult he would find it to get up.

‘Jesus, you’re keen,’
said Colin.

The Irishman was not
quite as prepared for the day to begin as his roommate.

‘We have another
wonderful day ahead of us in the field. Who wouldn’t be keen,’ joked Matt.

He put on fresh
underwear, but the rest of the clothes he dressed in were the ones he had
discarded after the previous days graft. They were caked in mud, but dirt was
the least of his concerns. There was no escaping the grime of the field, so why
try? After all, there was little point in spoiling another set of clothes
simply for the sake of feeling a little bit fresher for a few hours.

Rhett did not prove to
be as patient a chaperone as Joe and he repeatedly honked the horn until
everyone was out of bed, dressed and on the bus. Even though he was now the
boss and had arrived to take them to work, he sulked as if merely being there
was an inconvenience. It was like he was an annoyed parent dragged out of bed
in the middle of the night to go and collect a group of recalcitrant teenagers
who had long outstayed their curfew.

Once all of the kids were
accounted for it was time to leave. The road they traversed was the same as the
previous day, but Matt was surprised by how little of it he recognised. That is
to say that there were no specific landmarks or unique features that he
recalled from the earlier trip. The road itself was all too familiar. It
started out in complete darkness until the rising sun split the world in half;
blue at the top and red at the bottom.

Sam and Paul were again
the first to have arrived at the field and this time they set a small bonfire
to welcome their fellow workers. Once off the bus, everyone huddled around the
flames to warm themselves in its protective heat. Rhett allowed them all ample
time to bring their body temperatures up to a comfortable level before
beginning work. This was, of course, to ensure that he would get the most out
of them in the field, rather than an act of genuine kindness.

Once sufficiently
warmed, the gang took their respective places around the tractor. As usual,
Stephen and Niall were separated from the group as they took on the duty of
clearing the large, deeper buried and harder to shift wood. Rhett went with
them, which came as a welcome relief to all but the two Irishmen.

Matt was fortunate this
time to be given wide duty so he took the side where he would be throwing to
Colin. The Irishman insisted on this as he said that the temptation for his
friend to take revenge on Hiro was much too great for them to chance working
together so soon after the accident. Matt took this in good spirits, but it left
him wondering if the Japanese man was harbouring more guilt than he let on.

The shift in duties also
afforded Matt with a more relaxing morning. He missed the camaraderie of
working as part of the pack, but solitude had advantages of its own. He was
pretty much free to set his own pace for the day. Naturally, he decided to take
it easy. So long as there was nobody standing over him cracking a whip he
reasoned that there were certainly worse jobs than stick picking.

Morning smoko provided
him with his first opportunity for a bit of social interaction. Having spent
the morning further out in the field he was the last to make it back to the tractor.
By the time he got there several different groups had already formed. He knew
instantly which of these he wanted to join.

The three Irishmen were
stood behind the trailer smoking and Matt guessed they were talking about Rhett
as they regularly glanced in his direction. The Australian remained deeper in
the field to tender one of the fires, which he had earlier made with Niall and
Stephen. This was most likely just an excuse for him to avoid having to attempt
any sort of socialising with the backpackers as there was nothing he could
possibly have in common with any of them.

Jonas and Hiro,
meanwhile, were sat on the back of the tractor. The German was talking
animatedly, which was quite common for him to do. Hiro did not seem to be
listening too intently. Although he probably would not have understood much if
he did. He was preoccupied with staring at Celeste who was pacing up and down
with a cigarette about twenty feet or so from the tractor. She, too, liked to
keep her distance.

Even in her scruffy work
clothes the French Canadian oozed sensuality. Matt had known many girls like
her in the past. If they were on the coast she may even have been the kind of
girl that he would have gone for, but not here. In such a close knit environment
a girl like that could only spread discord. When living in such a tight
community harmony took precedence over hormones.

The sisters were
standing at the front of the tractor cab with Sam and Paul, laughing and joking
with the two generations of indigenous men. This was the group that Matt wanted
to be party to, but as he approached, he was called over from elsewhere.

‘Hey, Matt,’ Jonas
hollered. ‘How are you doing; this job is good - yes?’

Matt was left with no
choice but to join the German and his Japanese companion. It would have been
rude of him not to.

‘It’s certainly a lot
easier,’ he replied. ‘A little on the quiet side though. Do you not miss having
anyone to talk to?’

‘Sometimes, but it is
also good to have one time.’

The expression was not familiar
to Matt; he assumed that it was a German saying.

‘How about you?’ he
asked, turning to Hiro. ‘Do you like working alongside the girls?’

The Japanese man was
clearly still distracted by Celeste and averted his attention only long enough
to give a brief answer.

‘Is good,’ he replied,
whilst nodding his head enthusiastically. ‘They talk fast, but if concentrate,
I understand.’

‘That’ll be Rose,’ said
Matt. ‘She could talk for England that one.’

Hiro again nodded before
refocusing his attention on the Canadian girl. Being unable to keep up with
most of the conversations that went on, Matt could understand why he chose to
occupy his attention with a more visual stimulus and there were few sights more
stimulating than Celeste.

‘What do you think they
will plant here when the field has been cleared?’ Jonas asked.

It was not a question
that Matt had given much thought to, but what they were doing had to have some
purpose. Although what crops could possibly grow in such a dry wasteland he
could not begin to guess.

‘Perhaps they will just
litter it with more wood,’ he joked. ‘That will keep the stick picking industry
going strong.’

‘That is what I think
too,’ replied Jonas, oblivious to the sarcasm as ever. ‘People would not come
to this town otherwise, so this is how they bring us in.’

‘And then what?’ Matt
asked, interested to see if his companion was going anywhere worthwhile with
his theory. ‘Our contribution to the local economy is a lot less than what they
are paying us for the job.’

‘They breed with us,’
Jonas answered, triumphantly.

‘They breed with us?’

‘Think about it. This
town is tiny. There are only about two hundred people, which means they are
all, how do you say - relative.’

‘You mean everybody’s
related,’ Matt corrected. ‘There may be one or two potential inbreeds about (he
was thinking about Rhett in particular), but I don’t think it’s become a
pandemic just yet.’

‘You wait and see,’
Jonas promised. ‘The local girls will be queuing up outside of my door before
long; all wanting my strong Deutsch seed.’

Jonas’s seed was the
last thing Matt wanted to think about. On the other hand, it was reassuring for
him to discover just how immature the young German was. With a sophisticated
girl like Jenny he did not think that he had much to worry about in regards to
any rivalry from Jonas’ quarter. As conceited as it sounded, he knew that he
was the one with more to offer the girl.

***

Colin was feeling
troubled. During the morning break he received some unsettling news from
Stephen and Niall. They had both spent the morning working alongside the gaffer
and in doing so picked up some interesting information relating to the man in
charge of them. He hoped that the concern they had shown was not warranted. To
try and take his mind off it he attempted to strike up a conversation with
Hiro. Success was proving elusive.

‘Jeez, you’re a tough
nut to crack, aren’t you? I’d pay a hundred dollars to know what was going
through that head of yours right now.’

The Japanese man merely
smiled and bowed his head. It was a gesture that Colin was receiving with
frustrating regularity. He knew Hiro possessed basic English skills, so there
had to be some way to get through to him.

‘You can hardly blame
him for his lack of comprehension,’ said Rose, who had been amused from afar by
Colin’s failed attempts at bridging the lingual divide.

‘What’s that supposed to
mean?’ Colin asked.

‘Well, your accent can
be a little strong. Even Jenny and I have trouble understanding you sometimes.’

‘That’s right,’ added
her sister. ‘A lot of the time I can only guess at what you are saying.’

Colin may have walked
all too easily into their ambush, but he was not about to let two private
school girls tell him how he should or should not be speaking English. There
was nothing incomprehensible about his accent. If anything, he thought that
their airs and graces made them the ones that were difficult to understand.

‘I’ll have you know that
the Gaelic accent is considered to be one of the most down to Earth and
friendly accents spoken anywhere in the world,’ he said. ‘Everyone loves the
Irish.’

‘Well, you cannot really
hold a grudge with someone if you do not know what they are saying,’ replied
Rose, who was clearly in the mood for some flirtatious teasing.

‘Is that why you find me
so irresistible, because you cannot understand a word that I say to you?’ he
asked.

‘I have no idea what you
just said, but it makes me feel hot.’

She had a stick in her
hands and she began to suggestively run it through her fingers.

‘Oh please!’ exclaimed
Jenny, snatching the phallic branch away from her sister. ‘Will you two get a
room. You are not only embarrassing each other, but also Hiro and myself.’

‘A minute ago he
couldn’t understand us and now he’s getting embarrassed,’ said Colin. ‘Make
your mind up.’

‘I only said that he
could not understand you. I imagine he has no difficulty whatsoever with what
my sister has to say.’

‘Well, let’s ask him,
shall we?’ He turned to face Hiro. ‘Who is the easier to understand; me or the
girls?’

‘Ah...’ the Asian began,
before turning towards Rose and Jenny for guidance.

‘Hiro, do we speak
clearly enough for you?’ asked Rose.

‘Yes. Is hard for me,
but okay,’ he replied.

She offered Colin a
satisfied smile before turning back to Hiro.

‘What about Colin; can
you understand him?’

‘No, no, no,’ he
replied, whilst shaking his head with a greater than required enthusiasm.
‘Ingreesh difficult, but Irish - impossible.’

The girls laughed.

‘They’re both the same
language,’ protested Colin.

Hiro again looked to the
girls.

‘He says that English
and Irish are the same,’ said Rose.

Hiro laughed.

‘Ree-ry?’

‘Colin speaks English
too,’ confirmed Jenny.

The Japanese man looked
genuinely surprised.

‘My Ingreesh not good,
but his terrible.’

‘In that case, I will
keep quiet from now,’ said Colin. ‘It’s not like anyone understands me anyway.’

‘Can you say that again
when Niall is around?’ asked Rose. ‘Communication would be made much simpler by
an interpreter.’

‘I’m not saying anything
to you ever again,’ he sulked.

‘I hope you are not
planning on keeping this vow of silence on Saturday.’

‘What happens on
Saturday?’

‘It is Paul’s birthday
so we are having a party for him.’

Colin looked at her with
feigned disappointment.

‘And when were you
planning on inviting me to this little shindig?’

‘I just did. Paul does
not drink alcohol, but I thought that we could get him a cake.’

‘Pierro will make cake,’
said Celeste.

The Canadian’s
interruption was intended as a statement rather than a suggestion. Her
inclusion in the conversation quickly cooled the other girls’ enthusiasm to
speak so freely.