The next day, they began to build the sixth fold. Mel made this one larger than any of the others she had built, and Alinta helped as best she could, but there was very little she could carry as she trudged back and forth. The rains had stopped, but it was still cold. She waddled, her back hurt, and she could not bend over to pick anything up. Still, she tried to help as best she could, and she expertly wove wood and plants into the crosspieces that Mel put in place.
They were almost done with this fold weeks later when the sheep began to give birth. Mel showed Alinta what she had to do to help sheep that might be in distress. Alinta tried her best, but she was limited by her girth, and Mel wouldn’t let her do too much because of her pregnancy. Alinta was sure she was being overly protective, but at the same time, it felt good that the woman obviously cared. Mel taught her how to listen to a sheep, who made almost no noise as it gave birth, so she could recognize when it did bleat in distress. Alinta brought sheep to Mel’s attention time and again, saving them from a horrible death or from the loss of their lambs as the grazer helped to deliver them. Alinta also learned to reach in and help the sheep, the squeezing on her hand painful as she sorted out legs while the acids bit at her skin.
Mel was extremely solicitous to Alinta, concerned for the welfare of her and the baby she was carrying. Alinta began to realize Mel cared for more than just the child, she also cared for Alinta herself. She was hopeful that they could also have more as she knew she cared a lot for the other woman.
It was exhausting work, and the days blended as they helped the sheep to give birth. Mel repeatedly asked Alinta to stop. “Please, just keep me supplied with hot stew and keep me warm,” she begged Alinta as she waddled around the large flock looking for sheep to help and leaning on her gathering stick to help her. Alinta did keep her supplied with the large stew they had made, adding wild vegetables she had gathered, which the white woman seemed not to notice. The result was a delicious, hot meal that they both enjoyed as they worked non-stop. Mel insisted Alinta sleep, but after a few hours, she’d be up helping again. Mel was hard at it as well after even fewer hours of sleep.
Alinta was concerned that Mel slept so little. She herded the sheep to and from the field, but it took so much longer than usual as they were giving birth along the way. Sometimes, she would let the flock go on ahead, the dogs around them, as she stopped to help one of the sheep sort out the many lambs inside that were preventing each other from being born. Alinta brought them both food, so they could keep working. She saw Mel stumbling from sheep to sheep and worried about her. The smell of the afterbirths attracted predators. Not just dingoes were drawn in. Hawks and other birds and animals were also drawn by the odors, and the dogs were busy protecting the flock. One day, Mel’s lack of sleep nearly cost her several lambs when the dingoes attacked in a large pack. Mel fired at them with one barrel and then another, and the dogs converged on the predators and fought them off. Frightened at seeing the two pregnant bitches among the throng, Mel pulled at the dogs, earning a snap and a bite from them. Blood was streaming down her hand where she was bitten, but she finally got the bitches away as the rest of the dogs chased away the dingoes. She tied the two bitches up near their hut as Alinta looked on wide-eyed. She quickly helped to bandage Mel’s hand as Mel reloaded her gun.
Mel went back to work as soon as she could, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to save them all. When she lost sheep and lambs, she skinned the carcasses and put them into bags, cutting up the meat and drying it out with the intention of using it for dog food. She wouldn’t eat the dried mutton, but with water added, she thought the dogs might. Alinta could help with that, using the knife she proudly owned and so admired to cut up the carcasses once Mel explained what she wanted done with them. Mel knew that some grazers would have burned the carcasses, but she didn’t want to waste anything, and the dried meat could be stored in the extra empty kegs she had from using up her supplies or even in the bags that went on the packhorses. Rows of drying meat hung around the fire, the smoke keeping flies at bay as Mel continued to help her sheep. Alinta waddled about the forest collecting dried tree limbs to keep the many fires going and dry the meat for Mel.
There were some young lambs whose mamas rejected them because they had too many lambs to care for, and there were one or two lambs whose mamas had died. Alinta watched as Mel tricked some of the mamas who had lost lambs into caring for the rejected lambs, cutting the skin from the dead lambs and putting it on the orphaned lambs. When the orphaned lambs were too fragile, rather than watch them starve to death, Mel butchered them. These were added to the dried dog food supply she had started, and Alinta cut them up willingly for her.
Mel cried from exhaustion, startling Alinta, who had never seen the larger woman cry before. Alinta held Mel tenderly, her arms conveying the deep empathy she was unable to express in words yet. Mel slept in the Aborigine’s arms that night as the births tapered off and exhaustion finally took her. She woke up frantic, afraid she had missed some sheep, and she was surprised to find Alinta still holding her. Alinta smiled down at Mel, caressing the side of her face when the Yank looked up, startled. Mel leaned up and placed her lips on the other woman’s, then pulled away. Surprised, Alinta touched her lips with her fingertips, wondering at the touch that seemed to tingle. Mel smiled, pulling farther away and getting up to check on her sheep.
“It looks like a good crop,” she said proudly as she gazed at the many sheep and their lambs gamboling along beside them. Some were too wobbly to do much more than fall flat on their faces as she let them out to graze. Slowly, the dogs pushed the sheep into the valley, pushing aside the native wildlife as the sheep spread out to munch on the grasses. Their lambs learned to walk and eventually run, becoming stronger with every passing day. Mel glanced at Alinta, who smiled at her shyly, still in wonder over their shared kiss that morning. She brought Mel a plate of food as she watched over her sheep and stayed to watch her eat what she had prepared for her.
Mel showed Alinta how to castrate the males and mulse all the new lambs, cutting a notch in the castrated lambs’ ears, so they could identify them as wethers. Alinta understood now that these wethers were for food for them and the dogs. The skin from around the anus, the tail, and the testicles were all thrown into a bucket, and when it was full Mel would throw everything on the fire to burn. The smell of burnt wool was terrible, but the meat smelled good. Mel explained that she didn’t want to leave the meat around to attract predators, indicating some of the birds and complaining that they were as bad as dingoes, and they were big enough to carry off a newborn lamb. Alinta watched them closely as she worked, wondering why she didn’t feed the testicles to the dogs.
Once this huge chore was done Mel said they had to move to another paddock, so the grass would have time to regrow. Having such a large flock was not a good thing, and the grass had been chewed down. Mel explained that a sheep would eat down to the roots, making it impossible for the grass to regrow. They moved slowly, some delay due to all the lambs and some because Alinta was enormous. Alinta was miserable on the horse, but she wouldn’t let Mel know. She wanted only to help this woman she thought of as her mate. Alinta carried a dog tied up in bags on either side of her saddle. Mel had told her the dogs were carrying pups. They looked as uncomfortable as Alinta felt up there. Mel built their next hut alone since Alinta was too exhausted to help her.
A few days later, Alinta gave birth. She took her cues from her vague memories of what the women of her tribe had talked about, her mother’s advice, and what she had witnessed as the sheep gave birth. She barely made a peep when the pains were upon her. Her natural, healthy vitality made it a relatively easy birth, and she effortlessly delivered a daughter. Mel had helped, and she stared wonderingly at this little miracle. Mel wiped the little girl down with a clean cloth and handed her back to Alinta, who looked at her daughter eagerly, examining every feature minutely. Alinta noticed her daughter’s skin was lighter than hers. It was not as white as Mel’s, but she had th
e features of a white person. Alinta loved her daughter instantly. She wondered if her own mother had felt this joy upon her birth. She didn’t remember her siblings’ births well, so she couldn’t compare.
Mel burnt the afterbirth in the fire, then went to check on the sheep. She came back to tell Alinta that one of the bitches had given birth at the same time. She gazed on this amazing woman. She was so hearty she might have given birth all alone. Mel’s only contribution had been the knotting and cutting of the cord. She watched as Alinta offered her breast to the hungry infant. The sucking began immediately, and she saw the woman cringe slightly when the baby latched on to her engorged nipple. That looked painful to Mel, and she turned to stoke the fire, filling the pot, or billy as it was called, with water and then sprinkling tea in it. Alinta looked down proudly at her healthy daughter, thrilled as she sought and obtained nourishment from her body. As she fed the baby, Mel brought her some tea. It had taken some time for her to get used to the beverage, but the white woman seemed to like it, and it was much different from the coffee they had run out of, which Alinta preferred.
Alinta sleepily watched as Mel left to move the sheep out of the fold. She stopped to talk to the bitch that had given birth. From where Alinta lay she could see the dog wagging its butt as the grazer talked to her, then going back to cleaning her pups. Alinta slept a while to regain her strength, then she woke to feed herself and the baby. She slept again and fed the baby again. The baby didn’t seem to feed long, but at least she was getting some nourishment. Something about this little girl stirred all the maternal feelings Alinta hadn’t realized she had carried deep inside her. She glanced out to where she knew the sheep were and wondered what Mel might be thinking about her child and what she might be thinking about Alinta. She had feelings for the big woman. She wanted more of that lip on lip, that kiss that Mel had bestowed on her long ago. She’d thought often of it. She wanted Mel to be the baby’s other parent. She only wished she could find the English words to make her wishes known to the white woman. After the baby finished feeding, she fell asleep, and Alinta got up to relieve herself, cleaning herself afterward. She now understood that Mel wished her to clean herself, and although water was precious to this woman raised in the desert, and she didn’t like how it made her skin feel, she obliged the other woman. She saw where blood had dried on her, and she watched it swirl away in the water as she cleaned up. Alinta quickly hurried back to the hut, not willing to leave the baby alone too long. She started dinner for Mel and was pleased to see her when she passed by with the sheep that night.
Alinta looked at the woman differently now…from her hat to her broad and blocky face that looked comfortable and kind to the aboriginal woman, to her stocky body that rippled with muscles. Mel had extraordinary strength in that body and had used it to build the folds for the sheep. Alinta admired her greatly. She had also been her teacher and still taught her many things. Alinta retuned the wave and smile as she greeted the grazer.
Over the next two days as they rested at this fold, Mel thought about the long trip south they would soon have to make. According to her calendar—the stick she used to count the days—they should be heading to meet the shearers soon.
Alinta, not understanding what shearer meant, just understood that they would be taking a long journey soon and listened to Mel’s concerns.
“Have you decided on a name for your daughter?” she asked Alinta, wondering how much the Aborigine understood each of the English words after so many months together.
Alinta was surprised. She had never thought to name her own child. In her tribe it was the man’s right to name his children. She looked at Mel in consternation. “No,” she admitted, almost ashamed to admit it. “Mel name daughter?”
“You want me to name your daughter?” she asked to clarify, something she had gotten into the habit of doing long ago to help Alinta with her English.
Alinta nodded, understanding clearly what she was asking.
“I’ll think about it. A name is very important.” Mel considered, sucking on her pipe. She had not thought of names, and she looked at the child being held in her mother’s arms as the mother moved about busily, putting together their dinner and getting the dogs’ food ready at the same time. Alinta hadn’t needed much time to rest after giving birth. What an amazing woman! Remembering her tutor’s Greek philosophy courses, and she thought of the Amazon women, one of which was incarnate standing before her. Primitive perhaps, but just as strong as those warrior women of old.
Alinta nodded again, pleased that Mel would name her child. She looked down at the little girl, amazed that she had given birth to her. Her skin was much lighter than Alinta’s, and while she didn’t understand all that genetics had given the girl, or who her father really was, she knew that somehow the white man had influenced her daughter’s makeup. She didn’t quite fully grasp that the rape of her person had caused this little girl, that Bradley’s use of her body had impregnated her. Instead, she thought of the first time she had felt the little girl move inside of her and how much Mel had influenced her. She thought of Mel as the baby’s other parent, and she believed Mel’s influence and presence in Alinta’s life caused the baby to be female and to look white.
As Alinta finished feeding the dogs and moved to dish up their food, Mel thought about the name. As she ate, she explained her reasoning to Alinta, not sure how much the simple woman might understand.
“There was an ancient woman in Greece, an Amazon woman, who was the enemy of a great god named Achilles,” she told the woman, who listened, not moving as she stared raptly at Mel. Mel took a bite of her food, gesturing with her fork as she spoke. “That woman fought with a queen named Penthesilea at a place called Troy and against the god, Achilles.” She really wondered how much of this story Alinta would comprehend as she didn’t have the same understanding about other places, but she wanted to make her understand somehow. “The name Ainia,” she pronounced it ah-nee-ah, “means swiftness.” Alinta was probably the fastest woman Mel had ever seen before her pregnancy slowed her down. “Your daughter will be named for an Amazon woman, and her name will mean swiftness.” She finished her meal and put down the plate, holding out her hands for the baby that Alinta handed her. “Let’s name your daughter Ainia, which sounds a little like your name, Alinta but is even more special because she is named after that amazing Amazon woman.” Mel looked down at the little girl, seeing that Alinta had cleaned her up completely since the morning when she had given birth. She smiled at the little girl and asked, “Are you, Ainia?”
Alinta didn’t understand everything Mel told her, but she did understand that she was naming her daughter after another tribe woman, an Amazon. She liked that the name was like her own, and she understood that her daughter’s name meant swiftness. She would constantly ask Mel to repeat the story of the fight between the queen and the god and Ainia’s involvement in it. It would become her favorite story, and she felt Mel had chosen correctly, as she had known she would. The white woman knew so many things and didn’t mind sharing them with Alinta. She was pleased with the name Mel had given her daughter.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The two women began their long journey back to Twin Station, owned by Fabiola and Carmen. Alinta watched as the sheep—many with twins, triplets, and even some with quads—moved along. She’d heard Mel say that she was so pleased with this crop of offspring that had more than doubled her flock. Alinta wasn’t sure what a crop was, but since Mel was pleased, she was happy.
Strapped to the horse Alinta was riding was a bag containing the pups that the bitch wouldn’t allow out of her sight. The dog followed the horse constantly and closely, eagerly waiting for the time when they would stop, so the puppies could be let down, and she could nurse them and clean them in her anxiety over their welfare. The other bitch was in a sling on the other side, still hugely pregnant and very unhappy to be tied to the horse. Alinta wore a wrap that kept Ainia tightly tied to her, so she could easily breastfeed the infant wh
ile riding when it was necessary. Behind her were the horses with all their gear piled high and the poles for making the temporary folds were dragging behind them.
The folds they had built so long ago weren’t big enough for this large flock, and the temporary fold was also used. Alinta was saddened when the remaining bitch had her puppies and they lost two before Mel could help. Apparently, one large pup had gotten stuck in the birth canal. The rest came out with no problem but not before those first two died.
Alinta worried that Mel wasn’t getting enough sleep. She seemed to be up more often on this trip with all the lambs and sheep to watch. She was losing weight, she was short-tempered, and she seemed down. Alinta did what she could to help, taking on more whenever she could by carrying Ainia and working one-handed if she had to.
As they came down off the domed hills, Alinta saw the dust on the horizon long before Mel spotted it. Hours later, Carmen and Fabiola came riding out of the trees with five packhorses behind them and accompanied by only two vaqueros to protect the senora.
“We thought something had happened to you. It’s late!” Carmen explained as she took in the enormous flock. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“Busier than I could have ever dreamed,” Mel answered, relieved to see her friends. The vaqueros nodded and immediately handed off the packhorses to Alinta before heading to help keep the flock in line.
“You didn’t lose any sheep?” Fabiola asked, surprised.
“Oh, yes. We lost plenty. But it’s these guys,” she indicated the baby, the puppies visible from the sacks on both sides of Alinta’s saddle, and the anxious bitches following at the feet of her horse, “that really made it all worthwhile,” she teased.
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