by Di Morrissey
‘What’s a wompo?’ asked Veronica.
‘A sugar glider,’ explained Jamie. ‘The animals will go back into the wild eventually. They were injured and we picked them up last time we were out in Jawoyn country. They’re well on the mend now. Thanks for coming, I hope it was helpful.’
‘More than you know. Thanks, Jamie. I’ll be in touch. See you, Billy.’
‘So long, Veronica.’ He took his dad’s hand as the taxi pulled away. Looking back, Veronica saw Jamie drop his arm around his son’s shoulders as they walked back into the house.
That evening she rang Sue.
‘Hi, Sis, how’re things going down there in chilly Melbourne? It’s a balmy twenty-five here,’ said Veronica cheerfully.
‘Well, lucky you,’ said Sue. ‘It’s cold and wet, though it’s been nice. But trying to get settled is a nightmare. I hate moving. When can you come and help me?’
‘Sorry, Sue, I’m in Darwin. Not sure when I’ll have a break from this story. I thought you’d be unpacked by now.’
‘We’re still in a temp house. Can’t find a house with a double garage and a nice garden close to town and close to a good gym. And as for finding a decent nanny . . . it’s all too hard. The girls are so bored, too.’
‘Why on earth are they bored?’
‘The DVD isn’t hooked up properly and their favourite toys aren’t unpacked.’
‘Take them to the park, feed the ducks, go for a walk,’ said Veronica.
There was a short silence. ‘That’s all very well Vee, but I have a hairdresser’s appointment, we have to go to a dinner party tonight and I can’t find a babysitter.’
‘Sue, your life sounds terrible,’ said Veronica facetiously.
‘It’s wearing me down and Philip doesn’t help – he’s working such long hours in this new job trying to make a good impression and I’m starting my new job soon. I asked Mum to come down but of course she’s too busy.’
‘You need to simplify your life. Downsize, have some quality time with your kids,’ said Veronica, thinking of Jamie’s family.
‘When you have a family, you can give me advice,’ said Sue briskly. ‘So when are you coming home and what are you doing again?’
‘Oh, just a story. I’m enjoying the north though. Darwin is very buzzy and the outback is stunning.’
‘Not my cup of tea. Well, I’d better run. Call us when you can come down. Hopefully we’ll be in a house by then.’
‘Sure. Good luck with it all, Sue. I’m sure you’ll manage.’
Veronica felt sad for her sister and herself. She loved her sister and wished that they had a closer relationship. But Sue’s life was her world and she wasn’t really interested in what was happening to Veronica. Veronica couldn’t remember the last time they’d had fun and a few laughs together, just the two of them.
After the lovely day, Veronica felt restless. She wasn’t hungry so she didn’t want to go out to dinner. She decided to settle down with a book she’d brought to read on the plane but hadn’t opened.
The ringing phone startled her.
‘Veronica, sorry to bother you.’
She sat up. ‘Not at all, Jamie. Thanks again for introducing me to your mother and family. It was a lovely lunch.’
‘Glad you enjoyed it. Mum is looking forward to talking with you more. I was just wondering if you might like to come with Billy and me tomorrow. We’re going out to Litchfield National Park for the day. It’s one and a half thousand acres on the Tabletop Range with lots of different habitats: monsoon forests, waterfalls, gorges and caves, termite mounds. It’s only about an hour and a half drive but we’ll be gone all day. We can swim in one of the falls and take a picnic.’
‘It sounds wonderful, I’d love to see it.’
‘Ask Eddie if he’d like to come along, there’s some spectacular scenery.’
‘I’ll ask him. I think he had a big date tonight so I’ll see if he’s up to it. It’s probably not country that fits in with my story, but handy to have on film, I guess.’
‘Just come for a relaxing Sunday, take a day off from your work,’ said Jamie amiably.
‘You’re right. I’ll tell Eddie that, too. So what time?’
Eddie wasn’t enthusiastic. ‘I’ve been there. I can’t see that it has anything to do with your story and if my plans for tonight fall into place I won’t be up for it tomorrow, anyway.’
‘That’s okay. I’m looking forward to it,’ said Veronica.
‘I bet you are.’
Veronica felt a shiver go through her as she recognised the belligerent tone of Eddie’s voice. ‘What do you mean?’
‘C’mon. He’s a good-looking bloke, nice enough, but you can’t take him home to mother, eh?’
‘Eddie, are you referring to Jamie?’ She wished she hadn’t got into this conversation. ‘He’s a colleague, just trying to be helpful.’
‘Come off it, Veronica. I saw the way you looked at him. You’ve never slept with a black man, have you?’
‘Eddie, I’m going to hang up the phone now. I know you’re a liar and a cheat and now I know that you’re a racist bigot. Maybe you’ve spent too much time with your redneck friends. I’m glad I left you,’ she said with some heat.
‘I left you, sweetheart. Well, have a nice day skinny-dipping in the cascades.’
‘Eddie, I’m not going to work with you again if you don’t apologise and please, never speak to me like this again.’
‘There you go, madam on your high horse. You can boss around the coloured help, honey, but not me. I quit.’
Veronica couldn’t believe the conversation. She knew that Eddie was selfish and could be spiteful at times, but even she found it hard to believe this present attitude. Then she realised, Eddie resented her as his boss. Her giving him orders that night at Brolga Springs must have really rankled with him. Clearly he was now saying anything to make working with her impossible. She was furious with him. He was such a professional but he obviously wanted out. What a chauvinist, she thought. Well, if that’s what he wants I’ll call Murphy at the station tomorrow and get Dougie reassigned. You’re not going to ruin this story, Mr Jarman, she told herself firmly.
It was a glorious morning. Veronica loved the balmy sunrise with a hint of the warm day ahead. She sat on her balcony with a cup of tea and watched palm fronds shine and stir in the first breezy breaths of the day.
She pushed the memory of Eddie from her mind and decided to enjoy the day and the company of Jamie and Billy. She’d looked up Litchfield National Park on the internet and it looked spectacular.
‘Did you bring your swimmers?’ Billy asked as she got into Jamie’s car.
‘I’m wearing it. Where are we going to swim? Nowhere near crocodiles I hope.’
Billy laughed. ‘No way! Where are we going first, Dad?’
‘Do you have a preference, Veronica? It’s probably best to have a swim in the middle of the day when it’s hot.’
‘Good idea. But I’m happy to go along with whatever you suggest. You’re the ranger, you must know the area well.’
‘He does. He knows shortcuts and secret spots,’ said Billy. ‘Don’t you, Dad? We go places tourists never go.’
‘Ah, local knowledge, that’s great,’ said Veronica with a smile.
‘It’s not so secret. It’s just that we like the tourists to follow the paths and use the facilities as that’s safer than people ploughing off the track on their own,’ said Jamie.
Jamie and Billy proved to be entertaining and interesting tour guides as they stopped at some of the popular sites. Veronica was fascinated by the remains of an old tin mine and by Blyth Homestead, which was a basic single room ringed by an open verandah with a sandstone floor.
‘It was settled around 1928 by a family who had to be very self sufficient,’ said Jamie. ‘They must have supplemented their income with tin mining and cattle but they grew everything themselves.’
‘Must have been a close-knit family,’ said Veronica. ‘It m
akes you realise how tough the pioneers had to be.’
Billy’s favourite place was the huge area of densely packed termite mounds which he said looked like ‘an ant city’.
‘Notice how they’re all facing the same direction – a north–south alignment,’ said Jamie. ‘That’s so they can control the temperature in their mounds.’
‘These mounds must be over four metres high,’ said Veronica, quite fascinated.
‘Further down the road we can stop and walk for a bit and I’ll show you some mounds that look like red dirt sculptures that’d beat the work of any contemporary artist,’ said Jamie. ‘We have fun deciding what or who they look like.’
Along the way Jamie and Billy talked about the animals and plants that lived in different habitats. ‘I’m bringing Sugar back out here to let her go when she’s big enough,’ said Billy.
‘Ah, your sugar glider,’ said Veronica. ‘And what about your baby kangaroo?’
‘He’s not ready to be set free yet,’ said Billy firmly.
‘You mean you’re not ready,’ said Jamie. ‘He’ll have to go sometime, matey.’
‘On the way to the cemetery you said something about what animals are left . . . What did you mean?’
‘Don’t get me started,’ said Jamie. ‘Australia is losing animals at an alarming rate. And by losing I mean they’re extinct.’
‘With diseases? Introduced pests? Development? Out-of-control bushfires?’ asked Veronica.
‘All of that but what’s worrying is that the mammal population is dying out in untouched remote areas.’
‘Dad says it’s feral cats,’ said Billy.
‘They are a disaster, we don’t know they’re there half the time. Unlike mining. We certainly shouldn’t be allowing full-on development like that till we know what we might lose and see if we can rescue at least some remaining species and put controls and programs in place,’ said Jamie.
‘That’s part of my dad’s job,’ said Billy proudly.
They swam in pools of clear water, the steep cliffs of a gorge carved by the force of water over aeons towering above them. As they swam, Jamie pointed out where the elusive bats lived and named the birds peculiar to this area. They sat on a warm flat rock and ate the sandwiches and fruit Jamie had brought along, washed down with water. It was simple, easy and well, comfortable was the word that sprang to Veronica’s mind.
Their final stop was at the mysterious Lost City. They drove along a rough, thickly forested track to where massive sandstone blocks and pillars were standing as if they were the remains of an ancient civilisation.
‘How did they get like that?’ asked Billy.
‘Who knows? Maybe the Romans settled here secretly,’ teased Jamie.
‘This is like coming across some anthropological site,’ said Veronica. ‘It’s eerie.’
As the sun began to set on the way back to Darwin, Veronica sighed. ‘This has been such a wonderful day. We crammed so much in. I’m so glad I’ve seen all those places. Thank you both so much.’
Billy was chuffed and bounced in the back seat. ‘Dad knows heaps more good places, don’t you, Dad? When are we going camping again?’ He touched Veronica on the shoulder as he told her, ‘We have to go out into our country and do men’s business and ceremonies.’
‘Billy, that’s wonderful. You’re very lucky, aren’t you, that you do all the same stuff as the other boys at school but you also learn about your nana’s culture.’
‘I think football is still number one on the agenda,’ said Jamie.
The lights of Darwin were glittering in the twilight when Jamie shifted in his seat and turned to Billy.
‘What say we ask Veronica to stay for dinner. You could make your speciality.’
‘Yes! Can you come, Veronica? Then you could meet my joey.’
‘Well, it depends. What’s your speciality, Billy?’
‘He makes a mean pizza,’ said Jamie.
‘You got me,’ said Veronica.
Like Doris’s house, Jamie’s home evoked old-style Darwin but it was much smaller. It was surprisingly neat without the clutter of books, memorabilia, art and collectables Doris and Alistair had accumulated over forty years of marriage. Billy tugged at Veronica, asking her to come out the back and see his pets while Jamie began to organise things in the kitchen.
Veronica was entranced with the tiny joey, which was sleeping in a cut-down pillowslip on a coathanger in the laundry. Billy picked him up and handed him to Veronica. The joey immediately gave her an affectionate lick with its sticky tongue.
‘That’s a kiss,’ said Billy.
‘Come on, mate, wash your hands and start getting that pizza going,’ said Jamie as he handed Veronica a glass of white wine. ‘I noticed you drank white, is this okay?’
‘Heaven,’ she sighed, as she sat in one of the old rattan chairs on the small patio.
Jamie hit a switch and the garden was bathed in a soft glow. Billy raced around with a long match taper and lit several fat candles.
‘That’s pretty,’ she said.
‘It’s for the mozzies,’ said Billy as he went inside.
‘Is he okay in the kitchen?’ she asked.
‘Oh yes, it’s ready-made dough he rolls out and plonks the tomato paste on and whatever else he can find. They’re, er, creative pizzas,’ Jamie grinned.
‘He’s so independent.’
‘He’s had to be in some ways. Not that he ever lacks for family around him. But I want him to be able to look after himself in town and in the bush. Mum’s taught him to ride, Dad wants to teach him to shoot, my sisters teach him manners and stuff and I’m trying to keep him in touch with his heritage. Easy stages, though. It’s his choice how far he wants to go with learning traditional stuff.’
‘I think it’s wonderful. Who taught you, Jamie? Your mother?’
‘Some. I’m still learning, too. But the elders, the old men, they’ve taken me under their wing.’ He gave her a direct stare. ‘Does that make you uncomfortable?’
‘No, why should it?’
‘I mightn’t look very Aboriginal, but my heart is. A lot of white Australians aren’t sure how to handle someone like me even if they’re three-quarters white, as in my case.’
‘I thought since reconciliation and the reports about the stolen generations and myriad other issues that we’d come past that,’ said Veronica. But then she remembered her unpleasant conversation with Eddie and realised that not everyone thought the way she did.
‘You’re a journalist, Veronica. You know that it’s the land claims, compensation claims, mining settlements and royalties being paid to traditional owners selling off their country that’s causing conflict,’ said Jamie. ‘And there are arguments between indigenous people over what’s the best use for their land.’
‘Where do you stand on the mining issue?’ asked Veronica bluntly.
‘Well, that’s a very broad question,’ he said calmly. ‘We have to develop some of the resource riches we have in the ground, but it’s where and how and who gets the profits. Kakadu for example, should be carefully protected from contamination from uranium mining.’
‘And the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef and the Kimberley should be carefully protected, too,’ said Veronica.
‘Exactly,’ said Jamie. ‘I’m trying to look at all sides. Looking at Australia from an environmental standpoint, we can’t keep going entirely the way we are. I want Billy to be able to see what I’ve seen, to be able to know that the last beautiful ancient landscapes of Australia will be there for his great-grandchildren.’ He put down his wine with a rueful grin. ‘I’d better go and see how the chef is doing.’
‘Can I help?’
‘Oh, maybe with the salad shortly. Enjoy your wine.’
The pizza was in the oven. Billy set the table while Veronica made a salad and Jamie dug among his CDs looking for some local music he thought Veronica might like to hear.
Over dinner Jamie asked about Veronica’s childhood and Billy a
sked if she had lots of brothers and sisters. They talked about Arnhem Land and how she could work it into her film.
Billy was very proud of his pizza which was a smiling red face: half a pineapple ring for the smile, tomato circles for eyes with slices of olives as the pupils, strips of green peppers for eyebrows, two slices of olives made the nose and melting mozzarella formed the hair.
‘Excellent, Billy,’ said Veronica. ‘Very creative.’
Jamie asked Billy to clear the table as he went to refill their wine glasses.
‘What’s for dessert?’ Jamie asked.
‘Surprise,’ said Billy.
Veronica watched the father and son and their easy but respectful camaraderie and couldn’t help comparing Jamie’s family with the chaotic life of her sister. Billy produced bowls of ice-cream sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and slices of banana.
‘Perfect,’ announced Veronica. ‘But I insist on washing up.’
‘Thanks,’ said Billy. ‘But we have a machine.’
After the dishes were in the dishwasher, Jamie made coffee while Billy went to his room. As they finished their coffee he emerged in his pyjamas with a book.
‘I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Veronica.’ He unself-consciously gave her a kiss and hugged his father.
‘Teeth?’ asked Jamie. When Billy had left he said, ‘It’s been a big day, he’s tired. And school tomorrow.’
‘Jamie, I have to say, he’s extraordinary,’ said Veronica. Billy seemed too good to be true.
‘Ah, we have our moments. But he has so many women keeping him in line. Makes my job easy.’
‘He hasn’t watched TV or been near a computer. Does he have one in his room?’
‘God, no. We share the computer, I like to monitor that.’
‘Well, he’s a credit to you.’
‘Thanks, Veronica. He’s a good little mate. I enjoy him. It’s just a shame that his mother can’t see him.’
‘It’s very sad about her. What happened?’ Veronica hadn’t liked to ask about Jamie’s wife, but now that the subject was raised, she felt she could.
‘Janine was killed in a car accident, not long after we arrived in the Territory. She was coming back from the shops and another car ran into her. We were both so excited when I got the job up here. Darwin seemed such an adventure after growing up in Melbourne and working in Canberra. We met at uni and we were both passionate about the environment, so this seemed a wonderful way to do something practical. Her parents were pretty cut up about her death, naturally enough, but they understood that I wanted to stay here. They visit as often as they can to see Billy. They are great people and love Darwin. They’re of Greek heritage, so they fit right into this multicultural city.’