Drowning in Her Eyes

by Patrick Ford

  “Jeez, Dad, he hardly shut up the whole bloody time,” said Jack.

  “Doesn’t like competition, old Ned,” said his father. “That was faint praise coming from him.”

  * * * *

  They drove back to the homestead in companionable silence. As they pulled up to the veranda, Paddy said, “That was good thinking, about putting those cattle on the road. We’ll have a head start on our neighbours when it’s time to sell. Clean up and come have a beer. We’ve some serious talking in front of us tonight.” The legal drinking age was still twenty-one, but Paddy, although he banned Jack from the pubs, was quite happy to share a drink with him after work. That way he could keep an eye on him and not let things get out of hand. After dinner, they convened in the large living room. Jack had noticed that his father ate only a meagre meal and looked as if he may have lost some weight recently.

  Helen began their conversation. “Jack, I know you want to join the army but I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

  “But, Mum…” Jack interjected.

  “Don’t interrupt me, my boy. You’ll get your say later!” She continued: “As I said, the army’s out of the question. You are too young and we won’t sign your application anyway. There is another reason as well. Your father will protest, but he is not a well man. We have been seeing all kinds of specialists, and it appears that he has a problem with his heart. He will not be able to work hard ever again. There will be no more long days in the saddle or on the tractor. Ollie and Mick can cope as long as you are home from time to time, especially in the busy periods.”

  Jack looked at his father. Paddy said “Sorry, mate. We’ve known for a while now but we didn’t want you to worry too much while you were doing your exams. I’ll be all right as long as I take it easy.”

  Helen cut in. “Your version of easy is very different from mine.”

  Paddy shook his head ruefully. “Bloody women,” he muttered.

  “Let’s press on,” said Helen, “If you go to university, you will be home about ten or twelve weeks a year. You will be finished each year in time for the wheat harvest. You should be here in May to help with the planting, provided we have sufficient rain. We can move shearing to August to accommodate your term break then. Denni is going to Brisbane. Perhaps you could study agricultural science at the same time and share a flat.”

  Paddy said, “Are you sure he needs to go away to university?”

  Helen rounded on him. “Paddy,” she said fiercely, “We’ve had that conversion a hundred times. You know we need a well-educated manager to take over Ballinrobe. Jack is clever but he needs to expand on his knowledge. Things happen fast nowadays, and he has not the time to gather experience like you did. You have given him a great start, but science and economics are going to be more important in the future than knowing how to drive a tractor or skin a roo.”

  Obviously, Jack was off to university, like it or not. He did not like the idea of living in Brisbane, with or without Denni. He had had enough of big cities. Four years in Sydney had seen to that. He said as much. It was a stalemate.

  A couple of days later, Paddy said at breakfast, “I had an idea yesterday and rang Lillian in Armidale.” Lillian was Paddy’s sister. “She says they have a good university there, with special courses in agriculture. Apparently, all the students live in colleges and have their own rooms. I was thinking that we could take a run down there after Christmas and look the place over. Lil has a heap of kids, and they could look after our little wide-eyed boy from the bush until he finds his feet. It’s time he got to know his cousins anyway. What do you think?”

  They all thought it was a good idea. Jack shot off a letter to the University for Course Information. Denni said she was pleased Jack would not be in Brisbane anyway. She did not want him disrupting her social life, mucking up the bathroom, and trying to seduce all her friends. “Can you imagine all that wet and smelly Rugby gear lying around? Ugh.”

  On Christmas Day, Denni and Jack woke to find everything very quiet. They walked around on eggshells for a while before they realised their parents were not even in the house. Jack went to the kitchen window. There were two strange cars parked outside. “Bugger,” yelled Denni, “the bloody neighbours are here for their Christmas drinks already and I look awful. Look after them, Jack, my life depends on it!” She disappeared at a run towards the bathroom.

  Jack decided to cut off the visitors before they got to the house. Perhaps he could keep them on the veranda while Denni made herself beautiful. Shit! That would take more than an hour, two if she washed her hair! He hurriedly put on a tee shirt and shorts and bounded down the steps toward the visitors’ cars. There was no one in sight! Jack looked around. Nothing stirred. He moved towards the cars. They looked new to him. Whose could they be? One was a Morris Mini, crouched low to the ground, bright red and very sporty. Not much good in the bush, thought Jack. You would tear the suspension out of it in a week. The other was a Holden utility. This was more like it. He could do with one of these. He would probably need a car if he were to go to Armidale.

  I wondered if Paddy would come to the party. It was a long way for the old Land Rover. Then the penny dropped. Jack could hardly believe it. Paddy had come to the party, and in a big way. He called, “You can come out now, you pair of crafty old buggers!” He swung back towards the house. “It’s all right, Denni, it’s only the Jacksons.” When she heard that, Denni screamed again. The Jacksons were neighbours and had a son about Denni’s age who had taken a fancy to her. She thought he was a bore. “He thinks with his groin, and only talks about the weather and wool prices,” she would say when teased by her family.

  Denni finally emerged. By then the Jacksons were there, along with several others, so Denni was able to avoid the son’s attentions. They all trooped out to show her the new car. She gave an excited scream.

  Helen said, “We thought you would need these vehicles when you both go away. The only condition is that you use them to come home frequently.”

  Christmas at Ballinrobe was a big day. Relatives and friends gathered for Christmas dinner. In the English tradition of the time, this consisted of roast turkey, baked ham and all the trimmings, followed by traditional Christmas pudding, complete with a silver sixpenny coin. Finding this in your pudding guaranteed good luck for the year to come. Jack didn’t find it. Denni did.

  * * * *

  Soon after New Year, they all travelled to Armidale. It was about a three-hour drive and the last hour or so took them along the top of the New England ranges. They stopped in the small town of Glen Innes, where Paddy revealed that his grandparents had lived here and were buried in the local cemetery. In Armidale, their relatives greeted them warmly. Lillian and her husband Bill had settled here many years before. Paddy and Lil saw each other infrequently, so there was plenty to discuss.

  After supper, the adults retired to the lounge for a long gossip. Jack and Denni gathered with their older cousins Maree, Bernadette, and John. Lil’s children were attractive and pleasant. Jack found the two girls, both stunning, one dark haired, the other a blonde version of her sister, fascinating. He reckoned that such attractive girls would have plenty of friends of the same stature. He was not wrong.

  The next day they toured the University of New England and inspected the colleges, Jack steadily seduced by the promise of an independent life style, the great sporting facilities, his beautiful cousins, and the lovely summer weather. It was midsummer but the temperature was about ten degrees cooler than Goondiwindi, and last night he had slept with a blanket. In the distance beyond the sporting fields, beside the tennis courts, was a small building with a flagpole in front of it. Jack asked them to drive him there, ostensibly to look at the tennis courts. He noticed a sign in front of the small building. It said: Sydney University Regiment (New England Company).

  He said nothing, but the germ of an idea began to stir in his brain. In the morning, they bade farewell to the cousins, and headed for home. It all convinced Jack. He would be
come a student of agriculture at the University of New England.

  Meanwhile, not far to the north in a small country in Indochina, small men and women, dressed in black and carrying AK47 assault rifles, began to enlist supporters. They had a sure fire method. Enter a village, shoot the headman, and impose a rice levy. They dig tunnels to cache further weapons and supplies, and recruit young men and women. Their method was convincing. Join us or we will shoot you too.

  Armidale, New South Wales, Australia—1964

  Marci looked around the kitchen of the house they had leased in this small university city. It was no mansion, but it was roomy, well positioned, and comfortable. James Junior was ecstatic—he had a room to himself at last! His sisters, now deemed young women, needed privacy from male company in the intimate confines of a bedroom. It is funny how fate intervenes, she mused. The bus had climbed the Great Dividing Range to the city of Warwick. Then it had travelled south over the border to the State of New South Wales.

  Sixty miles short of the scheduled overnight stop at Tamworth, the bus shuddered, belched a cloud of blue smoke, and ground to a stop. Its condition was terminal, and the passengers were ferried to Armidale for the night. Waking in the early January morning, Jimmy and Marci decided to go for a walk. Here, in the New England Ranges, the cool summer day, the songs of the birds in the early morning chorus, and the friendly smiles and greetings of other walkers had captivated them. “Darling,” said Marci, “I think I could like it here.” Jimmy, whose thoughts were evermore turning to the concept of Divine intervention, was convinced she was right.

  As they walked, they passed the large Catholic Cathedral. Organ music and the sounds of singing wafted toward them from the open door. On impulse, Jimmy took Marci by the hand and took her into the building. An early mass was in progress. “What are you doing?” she said. “You know I’m not Catholic.”

  “I want to give thanks to God for bringing us to this beautiful place,” said Jimmy. “This is as good as any other of His houses.”

  They knelt in the back row and said some silent prayers. Afterwards, they crossed the street to the town’s central park. Here they observed many familiar trees—elms, oaks, and birch abounded. It was quiet, in the lull before the working traffic began, and both felt an extraordinary sense of peace. Presently, Jimmy rose from his seat. “Come on. I’m hungry and there are three children to convince.”

  * * * *

  They took no convincing.

  The girls had been out, also. In a small milk bar, they had met a young couple attracted by their accents. The youngsters told them there were several American families in the city—staff at the university—and urged the girls to contact them. They gave them the name of Cyrus McKenzie, a Professor of zoology.

  The family met for breakfast at the hotel. Before either parent could speak, James Junior excitedly told them he had seen a baseball diamond. Sarah reported the presence of fellow Americans, and Susan bubbled over about the beautiful trees and lawns. Marci thought of once more cooking and caring for her family, and the thought felt good. To do it in a nice place felt even better. Once again, Jimmy looked to the heavens. It was all falling into place.

  There was excited conversation for a while when finally Marci said, “Daddy and I would be happy to stay here for a while. How would you feel about that?”

  They spent a frenetic month setting up their house, finding a good used Volkswagen Beetle, and enrolling in educational institutions. Sarah and James Junior were to start at Armidale high school. Susan would commence an arts degree at the university. They made a number of good friends including Professor McKenzie and his family, along with the other expatriate Americans. One day, while attending the university enrolment office, Susan met a nice young woman called Bernadette Willis. They became firm friends. Jimmy had found a job as an electrician and general maintenance man at the Teachers’ College. So, the Bakers settled into their new home.

  Meanwhile, not far to the north, in a small country in Indochina, reports were increasing of slain villagers and young men disappearing. The small men and women in black with their AK 47s and Chinese-made rocket launchers attacked a compound of soldiers. More than 100 died. The reports did not appear in Australian newspapers.

  Chapter 4

  Heaven on Earth

  Armidale, New South Wales, Australia—1964

  Jack Riordan left Ballinrobe on a hot, clear February morning. He’d bade his family farewell the day before. Denni was off to Brisbane, and his parents, reluctant to let her go all by herself, had gone with her. Jack wondered how they would keep up with her Mini, for she drove it like a racing car. That day he’d hauled out his rifle, Sam, and the old Land Rover and spent time saying goodbye to Ballinrobe. He took great comfort from this reconnection to the land, for he knew he might not be back for almost three months.

  Although Jack had endured ten years in boarding schools, he had no idea what living at a college would entail, but he was looking forward to the freedom of action long denied at school. Today Ballinrobe took second place. A rising tide of excitement overwhelmed him. As he climbed into the ranges, the cool breeze and the lovely trees, already changing into their autumnal brilliance, tugged at his heartstrings. The country was so different. The fields were an emerald green, unlike the brown summer fields of Ballinrobe, shimmering in the heat haze. The sheep were in small mobs, most of them very different to his familiar Merinos. Some of them had black faces and legs. He was looking at meat producing sheep, and what meat it was! New England spring lamb was famous throughout eastern Australia.

  Instead of the wide flat fields of Ballinrobe, he saw pretty hills and valleys, and entirely different trees. The mountain eucalypts were there, but there were many northern hemisphere trees, poplars, elm, birch, huge radiata pines, an occasional oak or sequoia. Each valley seemed to have a small clear stream running through its bottom, lined with willow and hawthorn. Trees surrounded the homesteads. To the west and south-west sides, thickly planted windbreaks protected them from the winter winds. Some of the stockyards had roofing for protection. This country was cold in the winter, with snow on occasions. The mountain air was clean and cool. Occasionally, he saw brilliant parrots, crimson and blue, shining green, red, and yellow, swooping across his path.

  He arrived in Armidale around noon, found Aunt Lil’s house without difficulty, and was warmly welcomed.

  “Why don’t you have some lunch with us, now, and then go out to your college this afternoon. It will take a few hours to settle in and get your bearings. You can start on books, stationery and timetables tomorrow. Come back for dinner tonight. There are some people we would like you to meet,” said his aunt. “Yes,” Bernadette said, with a mysterious smile. “Some really interesting people.”

  * * * *

  The main campus of the university bestrode a hill. The administration building was the spectacular 1800s homestead of a once large pastoral holding, long ago broken up for closer settlement. At the foot of the hill lay the sporting fields and the men’s colleges. Jack had been lucky; he had a room in Robb College, an almost new and attractive building of modern Swedish design. He went to reception to be registered and collected a key, along with a sheaf of instructions, rules, and the penalties for breaking them. He was disappointed to learn that one of the rules forbade the presence of women in students’ rooms.

  Jack was pleasantly surprised to find that his room, although small, was well equipped and had a pleasant outlook. Further exploration took him to a large communal bathroom conveniently close to his room. There were few fellow students around. Only first year students were required to be here for the first week before classes began. This week was called O Week, short for Orientation Week.

  Jack wandered around the college, finding and introducing himself to other new students, commonly known as freshmen. He also found there were some senior students who had come in early to help run the orientation programmes. From them he learned quite a lot about how things worked. During the next week, ther
e would be plenty of different meetings and functions to introduce them to university life.

  He spent an hour or two unpacking his clothes and arranging his room. Then he showered and headed back into town to Aunt Lil’s place. His uncle Bill was home from work and the two smaller children home from school. None of the guests had arrived. He sat with the family and drank a cold beer. They talked to him about the university. Bernadette had already completed a year and was a font of useful information.

  Soon, guests began arriving. The first to arrive was Professor Mackenzie with his wife and daughter, Ellie. The Professor was a pipe-smoking, tweed jacket with leather patches, caricature of an Oxford Don. However, he proved to be a down-to-earth type. He welcomed Jack and said he would be supervising Jack’s work in zoology. Upon learning that Jack had scored very well in school biology, he said, “You shouldn’t have much to worry about, but don’t expect any favours.” Ellie was friendly, but Jack had only a passing interest in her. She was a short dumpy and shy creature—not his type at all.

  Then some of Bernadette’s friends drove up in a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Jack was to learn that this type of car was a favourite of the university staffers and their friends and families. They were cheap to buy and run and were very reliable. Indeed, Aunt Lil had a neat green one in her garage. Here, they were universally known as V-dubs. Jack was right in his assumption that his cousins would have some attractive friends. The three girls who arrived were very pretty students about to begin their second year of studies. Jack was in awe of them.