Bilgarra Springs

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Bilgarra Springs Page 12

by Rotondo, Louise


  While she had been doing her best to get the last few in, Cal had been doing the gate at the other end of the run and Aurora had that incompetent feeling that she got when she felt useless for letting him down. More out of desperation to hurry up than anything else, and to get the last one in before the few that were already in there backed out, she climbed on the rails on the side of the yard and whopped the remaining stubborn beast on the rump with the branch hard enough to get its attention. It flew around and charged the rails, whopping its head into them with force. The movement had scared Aurora enough to get her to fling herself backwards, which luckily stopped her fingers or arms from getting crushed against the metal rails. She had landed on her bum on the ground.

  To add insult to injury, the beast had moved along the rails and was standing with its head inside the run, the rest of its body still outside, effectively stopping the gate from closing. A mixture of embarrassment and frustration had Aurora jumping to her feet, leaning over the rail and giving it another swat on the rump to get it to move forward. As it moved, she slid the gate home.

  By that stage the adrenalin from the fright had worn off and she bent over at the waist, resting her hands on her knees. If she was being honest with herself, the steer charging the fence had scared the crap out of her, and her legs had now started to tremble. Cal loped over to her in his long legged way, placing a hand on her shoulder and bending down slightly, trying to get a look at her face.

  ‘You ok?’

  Aurora straightened up and mentally pulled herself together. She was a little surprised that Callan hadn’t moved his hand.

  ‘Yeah. I hadn’t been expecting that last shit of a thing to do what it did and it scared the crap out of me.’

  ‘You not hurt?’

  She shook her head, aiming for a smile, which fell just short.

  ‘No, all good. Just my pride bruised and maybe my bum.’

  Callan gently squeezed her shoulder quickly before letting go.

  ‘Wouldn’t worry too much about it. We have all had run-ins one way or another with cattle. Ninety percent of the time they give you no trouble then you get the odd one that is unpredictable. If that one is difficult hopefully it will be one of the ones out of there this afternoon. It can be someone else’s problem.’

  Cal’s was clearly looking elsewhere when he finished speaking. Aurora followed his gaze. Two yards over, Keith was watching very attentively, his foot perched on the lower rail as if he would be up and over in a heartbeat if the situation warranted it. He was the last thing that Aurora wanted to deal with at the moment. Aurora figured that if she got back to what she was doing and brushed the whole episode off, Keith may just stay where he was. She looked at Cal who had now returned his attention to her.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘No worries. You want to keep going or you had enough?’

  ‘No I’m all good. I’m not giving up.’

  Cal flashed her a huge smile.

  ‘Good on you.’

  Aurora’s return smile wavered a little but it must have done the trick as he returned to what he was doing at the other end of the crush. They put the next few through, some staying, some going, and as it turned out, the one that had given her trouble was one that was going. She felt at least a little vindicated by that.

  There were no other mishaps and mid-morning Fiona came out to call them in for smoko. Aurora was moving a little more freely than she had been when she got up, and was really looking forward to sitting down for a bit and getting off her feet, except that her bum was still really sore and falling on it hadn’t helped.

  To add insult to injury, when they reached the courtyard, Keith promptly dropped down beside where she had taken a seat at the table. This was going to be an exercise in patience and biting her tongue. She was so not in the mood for his come-ons. She was tired and sore, and after the incident with the steer, her tolerance level had dropped to zero. She was sorely tempted to completely ignore him, although that would be really rude on her part. Salvation came in the form of Cal, who sat across the table from her, butting into Keith’s attempted conversation.

  ‘Aurora, do you realise that you’ve been here for a week and a half and we still don’t know what you do?’

  Aurora had been aware that this subject would come up eventually. She hated the way people’s treatment of her changed when they found out what she did. In Sydney, when they connected her with her grandfather, it was worse. He had been very well known and respected in legal circles and everybody tended to expect more from her because of it. She couldn’t imagine that this fact was going to be an issue out here, though.

  Aurora hesitated but figured that she couldn’t stall indefinitely.

  ‘I lecture at the University of Sydney.’

  Cal simply nodded.

  ‘What in?’

  Aurora guessed that this was probably going to be the point where things would change. She steeled herself to face the reaction before she replied.

  ‘Law.’

  Aurora was taken aback when Cal didn’t look intimidated and his only reaction was to laugh.

  ‘Better you than me. Fits though. I figured you were part of some profession. To be honest I thought that you might have been an accountant.’

  At that, it was Aurora’s turn to laugh.

  ‘Thanks. Accounting is even duller than law.’

  With the ice well and truly broken, Aurora spent the thirty minutes that they were there giving Callan a heavily censored version of her life. Cal’s taking over the conversation had very effectively dealt with Keith, for which Aurora was very thankful.

  When they returned to the yards it was more of the same and at that rate, they were going to be finished by lunch. Aurora was still having trouble with the tight muscles in her legs and her sore bum. The inactivity for morning tea hadn’t helped. She closed the gate after filling the run up again and squatted on the ground to stretch the offending muscles. At that point Rick yelled out her name in a way that got her instant attention followed by ‘watch out’ as he pointed behind her. He had her full attention and when she saw that he had risen to his feet she started to get concerned.

  Trying not to move too much she looked back over her shoulder to where he had been pointing and saw that one of the beasts had its head out through the rails and its horn was a bare half an inch from her backside. Fear kicked in pretty quickly.

  ‘Shit.’

  With lightning speed she instinctively pulled her bum in as much as possible given that she was squatting and inched forward on the balls of her feet a little to make sure she was well and truly clear. She couldn’t believe it. So far that was the only one that had come through all morning that had horns, and she would never have believed that they could get their head out through the rails like that.

  When she had put a decent space between herself and the horn, she stood up and took a further step forward, which coincided with the best pulling its head back in. Cal had heard Rick’s warning and had speedily come over to Aurora.

  ‘Didn’t get you did she?’

  Aurora’s eyes widened.

  ‘That’s a she?’

  Cal chuckled.

  ‘Sure is, assuming my anatomy is correct.’

  It was Aurora’s turn to laugh.

  ‘I don’t doubt that your anatomy is correct but I sort of assumed that it was only bulls that got cranky.’

  Callan looked as though he wanted to roll his eyes, although he didn’t actually do it.

  ‘You’ve been watching too much TV.’

  Aurora’s face had taken on the look of a little kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

  ‘Point taken and to answer your question, no, she didn’t get me.’

  Aurora was starting to feel very embarrassed. Nobody except her had run into any trouble with the cattle so far. Gerry had gone up and over the rails a few times to get away from a couple that had charged him in the yard, but none had connected. Aurora supposed that was the benefit of exper
ience for you.

  Callan’s sense of humour kicked in again, lessening her embarrassment a little.

  ‘Good. It would have made sitting down a bit uncomfortable for a while.”

  He paused for a second as if considering something very important.

  ‘But you would have had a damn good story to take home with you if she had connected.’

  Aurora did her best to pretend annoyance with him.

  ‘Thanks for that.’

  That only made him chuckle again before he replied a little more seriously.

  ‘If it makes you feel any better, when she comes through, the horns have got to go.’

  Aurora flattened her lips before she answered.

  ‘It doesn’t really, but I guess after that she won’t get another go at anybody.’

  ‘That she certainly won’t.’

  Cal took a step backwards.

  ‘Let’s get them finished.’

  Cal turned and went back to the crush and dealt with the next one. When he finally got to the cow with the horns he put a tag in her ear and ran the line of spray down her back. For whatever reason, it appeared that she hadn’t been put through the yards before, which Aurora figured explained why she was so cranky. Cal picked up a medieval looking piece of equipment and cut off first one horn and then the other. Aurora nearly emptied her stomach contents then and there. Blood was spurting out in a number of little fountains where the horns had been cut off. Aurora had never been one to deal too well with blood at the best of times and she had not long since eaten. She turned her head away; she couldn’t look.

  She heard the noise of the gates opening and closing and when she turned back she noticed that the cow had gone through into the yards with the ones that they were keeping and whilst the flow of blood has eased down, it hadn’t completely stopped and was landing on the cattle around the cow. Aurora turned her attention back to what she was doing. Her stomach was positively rolling and if what was in there stayed in there, she would be very surprised. She certainly didn’t feel too well.

  Eventually the last one was put through and the ones staying let out into the large paddock beside the yards. Apparently, Matt was going to ride out after lunch and open the gate on the other side of the paddock and let them into another much larger paddock. The truck for the ones that they were selling was due straight after lunch, and as it was almost lunch time now, the whole group wandered in to the courtyard. Aurora did her best to try and avoid Keith and headed for the kitchen figuring that was one place he probably wouldn’t follow.

  Lunch turned out to be a noisy affair, as usual. Aurora was finding that she was getting used to the noise and activity of being surrounded by a lot of people. If someone had told her that she would enjoy it a couple of weeks ago she would have laughed at them. She figured she would adapt to her solitary life again when she went home.

  When the truck for the cattle arrived after lunch she went and sat on the top rail of one of the yards, out of the way, to watch them load. Only Rick and Callan were needed and the others had wandered off to do their own thing for a while. Mike had come and perched beside her, not talking a lot, but throwing in the odd comment here and there. Aurora hadn’t had much to do with him so far. He was really young, she guessed early twenties, and seemed genuinely nice, but he wasn’t an extrovert and in a group that already had a few of those, he seemed to get lost.

  Very quickly it seemed to Aurora the cattle were loaded, both decks full and the truck departing. She felt a twinge of guilt knowing that they were destined to be eaten, but logically thinking, meat didn’t just appear on the supermarket shelves or in the butchers, so it had to come from somewhere. As the truck departed, Mike had wandered off, and Rick and Callan had disappeared into the shed, so Aurora made her way back to the kitchen. She hoped she was feeling a little less sore tomorrow.

  She found Trudy in the kitchen alone, head back against the back of the chair, eyes closed, a cup of tea on the table. Trudy opened her eyes and lifted her head as Aurora walked in.

  ‘They already finished out there?’

  ‘Sure have. It was quicker than I thought it would be.’

  ‘This lot of cattle obviously did what they were supposed to. Sometimes you get the odd one that gives the boys merry hell.’

  After this morning’s antics, Aurora could well imagine but said nothing.

  ‘I s’pose Rick has gone over to the shed to hide.’

  By Trudy’s raised eyebrow Aurora guessed that this was a regular occurrence. She simply smiled and nodded.

  ‘That’s his hidey-hole. Any spare time and that is where you will find him. Usually Cal as well.’

  Aurora’s smirk gave away the fact that Trudy was spot-on in her guess.

  ‘That pair are workaholics. Any time off and they scuttle over there.’

  Trudy sat up and rested her arms on the edge of the table. Aurora eased herself down onto one of the chairs.

  ‘The crew worked through the two weekends before you arrived. We had a heap to do and it had to be done then, but it has worked out well as the Calvin wedding is on Saturday, a couple of properties over, which is where Theresa has disappeared to. They are furiously fitting and sewing her bridesmaid dress, along with the other one, today and tomorrow. This arvo everybody is pottering around doing their own thing and tomorrow we are going over there for the pre-wedding barbecue...’

  Trudy’s mouth flattened a little and she shook her head a tiny bit, rolling her eyes.

  ‘The barbecue will become a drinking fest, a sort of combined buck’s and hen’s night, which if prior experience is anything to go by, will probably pull up just before dawn. All of us and one of the other neighbouring stations are staying Friday and Saturday nights, the other guests will arrive some time Saturday. The wedding itself is late afternoon on Saturday, and the process will be repeated again that night. We will start wandering home on Sunday, subject of course to sore heads etc. ‘

  Trudy could see the apprehension on Aurora’s face.

  ‘You should enjoy it. They are a fun group of people and we have known them forever.’

  Trudy smiled. Aurora didn’t look convinced. Trudy wrapped both hands around the mug of tea.

  ‘If there is something that you want to do this afternoon, feel free. You are welcome to stay out here if you want. I intend to sit around and do absolutely nothing until dinner.’

  Trudy doubted that Aurora would hang around. She had that restless look about her, leading Trudy to think that she had something that she wanted to be doing and it wasn’t sitting around doing nothing.

  ‘I think I might go and lie down and read for a bit. That doesn’t require too much movement.’

  Trudy laughed.

  ‘No worries. I will be around here somewhere if you get bored.’

  Aurora pushed herself up out of the chair, grimacing as her muscles protested. Trudy smirked and Aurora couldn’t help but smile at her.

  Aurora made her way down the hallway. Once inside her room she sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. It had been a tiring day so far. Her muscles were sore and she was uncomfortable. Then there had been the incidents with the cattle. Having to side-step Cal’s questions at lunch time had taken a lot out of her too. For probably the thousandth time she wondered why she couldn’t have had the usual, run-of-the-mill, type past. For her, answering questions in a way that didn’t invite more questions was an art form. As far as she was concerned it had been a day full of near misses.

  ten

  Black & White

  Time to herself during the day out here was a luxury and Aurora thought that she would definitely make the most of it. She very awkwardly moved from the bed over to the chest of drawers and pulled out the journal. She repositioned herself on the bed, this time sitting propped up against the pillows, and opened it up to the last entry that she had read. It was the entry where her grandmother was sore from riding. She could understand well what her grandmother had meant when she said ‘each time I move, sit
or walk at the moment they are paining me. The thought of getting back on for more of the same tomorrow fills me with dread’. Fortunately for Aurora there was no question of having to get back on today or tomorrow. For small mercies she was thankful.

  She turned the page to the next entry, dated three days after the last.

  20th January 1946

  What exhilaration. I do not know what could possibly compare to the feeling once I return home. The freedom of being on horseback, the vastness of the land and the knowledge that I am experiencing the world of the infamous and celebrated drovers, albeit on a much smaller scale. We didn’t have to move the cattle great distances and we were only out there for days and not weeks, but I cannot adequately describe it. Words simply cannot do justice to the feeling of complete and unfettered liberty. Three days of heaven. My legs and backside were still intolerably sore but that small discomfort was more than outweighed by the pleasure of the experience. I was amazed at the agility and the courage of the riders. They took off at a gallop through country thick with trees full of low limbs, dodging and weaving. Nothing was an obstacle over rocks or fallen trees, straight over the edge of long drops. They were amazing to watch. The intelligence of the horses surprised me as they anticipated and predicted the movements of the cattle. The rider and the horse form a formidable team borne from years of experience. I was content to trail along at the rear and observe. I have not the same fearlessness that they possess. Hellequin, with whom I have formed an unlikely alliance, was straining at the bit, quite literally, to be amongst the action. I was very much not inclined to join in and it took considerable amounts of concentration on my part to keep him firmly under control. I would have laughed at anybody that had told me that I would enjoy sleeping on the ground under the stars. It quite simply would not have been within the wildest imaginings of our acquaintances and friends in Sydney. Yes, the ground is harder than the lovely mattress on my bed at my parent’s house, but the stars...the stars were something else. An uninterrupted view as far as the eye can see of twinkling sequins set in velvet. It was absolutely breathtaking. The camaraderie and fellowship around the campfire was enjoyable. The yarns and poetry were far more enjoyable than some of the most lavish productions that have been put on at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The talk may well have been more bawdy had Fiona and I not been there. Normally just the men head out, but they thought that being a city dweller I may enjoy the experience, so Fiona came along, as otherwise, I would have been the only female in the group and as a married woman that would not have been appropriate. It was the most enjoyable experience that I have been blessed to have. The dust, the flies, the sore muscles, the hot sun it was all very much worth the effort and it is an experience that I will treasure until the day that I die.

 

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