The Road to Winter

by Mark Smith

  ‘There’s something else he’s told me.’ Harry pauses before going on. ‘Finn claims there’s another boy down on the coast who’s got a sister called Kas. Finn’s trying to find her to take her back to her brother. The girl’s got a birthmark on her face.’

  This last bit of information kills all the sound in the room and everyone turns to the back row opposite me. A girl stands up, and as the light hits her face I see the red birthmark running down the left-hand side. Even in the dull light I can see her skin is as brown as Rose’s. Her hair is pulled back and her eyes shine in the lamplight.

  Harry speaks. His voice is deep, grave. ‘Kashmala, do you know this boy? Have you ever seen him before?’

  The girl clears her throat. ‘No, I never seen him before. Not around Longley. And’—she pauses for effect—‘I’ve got no brother.’

  The room erupts again. I can hear Tusker’s voice rising above the others.

  ‘I told you,’ he says, ‘I told you he was a fuckin’ liar.’

  Harry waits for quiet again, then addresses Tusker. ‘I’ll ask you to mind your tongue.’

  Tusker smirks and looks away.

  Harry turns back to Kas and says, ‘Are you sure, girl? Come over here and have a closer look at him.’

  She walks slowly around the outer circle until she is next to me. While everyone is watching her, I slip the leather strap with the ring from around my neck and hide it in my hand.

  Kas has the same dark eyes as Rose, but her face is leaner, longer, and she’s a good six inches taller than her sister.

  She shakes her head. ‘No, I’ve never seen him before,’ she says again. Her accent is as strong as Rose’s.

  It’s darker over where I’ve been sitting so, while more anxious conversation breaks out around the room, I reach out and grab Kas by the wrists and push the ring into her palm. I’m close enough to see her eyes widen as she feels it in her hand, but she says nothing. I hold her gaze and give her the slightest of nods.

  ‘All right, Kashmala, you can sit down again now,’ Harry says. He looks at me like a disappointed father. ‘Sit down, Finn,’ he says, turning away.

  Tusker is on his feet. The others are staring at him, seeming to urge him on.

  ‘I dunno why we’re even having this conversation, Harry. The girl’s a Siley. She’s got no rights. She’s our property now. And if Ramage ever finds the valley we can use her to trade. The boy’s lied to us from the start. We can’t risk letting him go and him leading Ramage back here.’

  The others nod and grunt in agreement.

  ‘The lad’s done nothing wrong,’ says Harry above the noise of the room. ‘I dunno why he’s made up the story about the girl’s brother, but he’s seen her somewhere before. Otherwise how would he know about her birthmark?’

  ‘Come on, Harry, think about it. We know the girl’s a runaway. This just proves the boy’s working with Ramage. He’s from Longley too, and he was heading back there when we caught him. I say we keep them both here and have them work alongside the rest of us.’

  ‘They’re no one’s property, Tusker. They’re God’s children.’

  ‘Not everyone here shares your faith, Harry,’ says Tusker. ‘I don’t care whose children they are, they’ll stay here and work and they’ll feel my whip if they don’t.’

  The others are cheering and clapping now. As they push forward to pat Tusker on the back I get a clear view of Kas. Looking straight at me she brings her hand up to her face and I see the ring glint in the lamplight.

  ‘It doesn’t matter who they are, Tusker,’ Harry says, ‘we’ve got an obligation to treat them kindly. They’re just kids. Where’s your humanity?’

  ‘I lost my humanity when my wife and kids died. Where was your merciful God then?’

  ‘You know how sorry I am for your loss. I lost a daughter too.’

  ‘Sorry, bullshit, Harry! You were lucky. You’ve got a wife to keep you warm at night. And another daughter.’

  ‘You can’t blame me for that,’ Harry says.

  ‘I’m not blaming you, but we’re coming at this current situation from different angles. The girl’s old enough to have children. That’s about all Sileys are good for—that and working the fields. If they wanted otherwise they shouldn’t’ve come to this country in the first place.’

  Stella cuts in then. ‘They were children, Tusker. Children! They had no say in where their parents brought them.’

  ‘More bullshit,’ Tusker says. ‘Besides, everyone knows they brought the virus.’

  Stella sits up straight. I can feel her anger from here.

  ‘There’s never been any proof of that, Tusker, and you know it.’

  ‘That’s not worth wasting our breath on now. We got a problem here and we have to solve it. And we reckon,’ he says, looking around the chairs on his side of the room, ‘we reckon it’s too dangerous to let the boy go.’

  The others all nod in agreement and more noise breaks out around the room.

  Harry whispers something to Stella before facing the others again.

  ‘We’ve got no problem with them staying in the valley, but let them grow up, help work the farm and, when they’re old enough, choose their own partners. Stella and I will take them in, we’ve got room.’

  Harry’s voice is measured. Calm. The younger men on Tusker’s side seem to be swayed by his authority. But Tusker is shaking his head.

  ‘Why should you take them in? You got a wife. You got a daughter. We don’t have enough women here and we have to think about the future. Pity she’s so ugly.’

  The others around Tusker laugh and I feel the balance shift back to their side of the room.

  But Tusker has barely finished his sentence when Kas launches from her seat. She’s on his back in an instant, raining blows down on his head. Everyone seems to freeze, too stunned to move. Tusker is a big man and Kas’s punches just glance off him. As he brings his arms up to grab her, she leans in close. He lets out a yelp and hurls her across the floor like a ragdoll. His hand goes to his ear and I can see blood trickling through his cupped fingers. He brings his hands to the front of his face.

  ‘You fuckin’ bitch,’ he yells, jumping to his feet and standing over her. He raises his fist to hit her, but before he can land a punch two things happen at once. Harry grabs his raised arm and Kas directs a kick into his crotch. Tusker reels back in pain, as everyone in the room seems to dive into the heap of arms and legs and bodies.

  I take hold of Kas’s hand and drag her away from the fight. I think she might be unconscious, but once I get her to clear space behind where I was sitting she opens her eyes and stares at me.

  ‘Where did you get the ring?’ she whispers.

  ‘From Rose.’

  ‘Where is she?’

  ‘She’s safe,’ I say, as slow and clear as I can. ‘In Angowrie, down on the coast. I’m going back to her. Are you with me?’

  She doesn’t get the chance to answer. A big hand grabs her by the arm and drags her back to the other side of the room.

  A couple of the older men have pulled the fighters apart and some calm descends on the room. A man I’d heard them call Simmo stands between the two groups, an arm outstretched to each.

  ‘Righto, that’ll do,’ he says. ‘Back off, everyone.’

  People start taking their seats again. No one seems to be hurt, apart from Tusker who has one hand between his legs rubbing his balls and the other trying to stem the flow of blood from his ear. I can see a flap of skin hanging off the top where Kas has bitten him.

  ‘All right,’ Simmo says. ‘We all agree the boy and the Siley stay here in the valley. It’s too much of a risk to let them go. Unless we want to lock them up, they need to stay with someone. I say we separate them. The boy can stay with Harry and Stella and the girl with Rachel and me.’

  Everyone turns to the woman who’s been sitting next to Kas through the meeting. She must be Rachel. It seems like there’s agreement on this, going by the nodding heads and the grunts of ap
proval.

  Rachel takes Kas by the shoulders and marches her to the door. Kas swings around and looks right at me.

  ‘Finn,’ she calls across the room. ‘The answer’s yes.’

  When the meeting breaks up, Harry, Stella and I walk back to the house. As we approach the door, Stella grabs me by the wrists.

  ‘I want you to promise me something,’ she says. ‘When you walk through that door, when you enter our house, you don’t tell us any more lies. It’s the truth from now on, you hear?’

  The last week has been such a jumble of half-truths and lies that I hardly know what’s real and what’s not anymore. But there’s something binding in the way she looks at me.

  ‘No more lies,’ I say.

  She nods at Harry, and the three of us go inside and sit down at the table.

  ‘Now,’ Harry says, ‘you’d better give us the whole story, Finn.’

  So I tell them about Rose and everything that has happened since she arrived in Angowrie. I watch their faces carefully while I talk, but they don’t seem too surprised. Not until I tell them that Rose is pregnant.

  Stella is excited and angry.

  ‘She’s pregnant?’ she cries. ‘And on her own surrounded by Ramage’s mob? Why did you leave her down there?’

  ‘I had no choice. If I hadn’t gone, she would’ve gone herself. And that would’ve been even more dangerous. For her and the baby.’

  Stella smiles. ‘You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, Finn. Your mum and dad would be proud.’

  I don’t know what to say to this, but something warm glows inside me.

  We all fall silent. They’re both weighing up what to do, but I’ve made my decision. I made it the minute I saw Kas at the meeting. It’s just a matter of whether Stella and Harry are going to help us or not.

  ‘Tell me about when Kas arrived,’ I say.

  ‘She’s been here a few days now,’ Harry says. ‘One of our young blokes, James, got separated on a hunting party last week. He found his way over towards Swan’s Marsh and spotted the girl on her own. There was some sort of commotion going on in the town, and she took the chance to steal a horse and make off with it. James led her back here. To start with she was pretty happy just to have a feed and a roof over her head, but then she told us she had to leave.’

  He hesitates, twisting the wedding ring on his finger.

  ‘I’m sorry about what happened at the meeting, Finn. You didn’t see us at our best. You probably worked out that Tusker has pretty different views from mine.’

  I almost smile. ‘Yeah, I picked that up.’

  ‘Kashmala—Kas,’ he corrects himself, ‘has done a bit of work around the place, mostly on her horse. She doesn’t let it out of her sight. Sleeps in the barn with it. When I saw her ride it, I understood why.’

  Stella has been quiet but now she says, ‘We’re in a difficult situation, Finn. No one in the community is going to allow you to leave, especially not with Kas. But I can’t bear to think of her sister down there on the coast fending for herself. Not with a baby coming.’

  ‘There’s no use trying to escape,’ Harry adds. ‘They all know this country better than you do. Tusker and Wilson are good bushmen, they’d catch you before you made it to Pinchgut Junction, drag you back here and lock you up.’

  Stella leans across the table then and puts her hand on my arm.

  ‘What if we could get Rose here, into the valley with us,’ she says. ‘She’d be safer—and so would her baby.’

  ‘Being around the likes of Tusker doesn’t feel very safe to me,’ I say. ‘Look at the way he treats Kas. He’ll know straightaway that Rose is a Siley and that means her baby will be a Siley too.’

  ‘You’re not alone here, Finn,’ Harry says. ‘Stella and me will stick up for all of you. The most important thing is bringing that baby into the world safely. It’s the best chance Rose’s got.’

  I’m tossing everything up in mind. Maybe they’re right. I’ve got no idea what to do when the baby comes and I’m guessing Kas hasn’t either. Ray might be able to help us, but even he admitted he doesn’t know much about childbirth. Still, I don’t trust anyone here apart from Harry and Stella. The others could take the baby and force Rose to work on the farm.

  I tell them I need to sleep on it. I don’t want to be rushed into another decision that leaves me up shit creek. I console myself with the fact that I’m still the only one here who knows exactly where Rose is, though I worry that she’ll grow tired of waiting for me. If she does, I hope she has the sense to follow my directions to Ray’s place.

  The next few days pass quickly. Even though I’m edgy to leave, there’s something satisfying about working on the farm. I stay close to Harry most of the time, hardly talking to anyone else. We work along the river, getting the paddocks ready for ploughing. The soil is soft and dark brown. Harry says it’s good for cropping. There’s capeweed and thistles in thin patches and we work at rooting them out.

  Every now and then I scan the valley, looking at the other groups of workers for any sign of Kas. I think I see her once across the river, but I can’t tell at such a distance. And my eyes are drawn to the steep country leading up to the ridge. It looks rugged and difficult to climb but, if we could find a way, it’s the quickest way back to Pinchgut Junction.

  At the end of the day the different work teams return to their own houses. When we get close to ours, Willow runs out to meet Harry. He sweeps her up and carries her on his shoulders.

  Each night Harry goes to the community hall to meet with the others. He doesn’t say anything about these meetings or what’s being discussed, but I see the way he shakes his head at Stella when he returns each night. I get no news of Kas. Stella keeps talking about Rose and how we might be able to get her to come and live in the valley, and have the baby here.

  Time stretches and, before I know it, a week has passed. Every day I think of Rose. Is she getting better? Are the antibiotics working? Have the Wilders left Angowrie? I toss and turn at night and fret about escaping. But I have to get to Kas first. I can’t leave without her.

  I’ve been here for about ten days when I hear Harry and Stella talking quietly after I’ve gone to bed. I tiptoe into the lounge room and sit on the floor outside their room.

  ‘There’s not a chance, Stell. They won’t let us,’ Harry says. ‘It’s too dangerous. Ramage’s patrols will be out looking for the girl. We could lose everything we’ve worked for if they track them here.’

  ‘And what about the other girl, Harry? What about Rose?’

  ‘They don’t even know if she’s real or not. I believe Finn, but Tusker and the others don’t. They’re not prepared to take the chance, even to get another girl and a baby.’

  I can hear the anger in Stella’s voice. ‘Well, I’m going to help her, Harry. I swear to God, I’m going to. I don’t give a damn what the others think.’

  ‘They won’t let you leave, Stell. They’re watching us like hawks. They’d track you in no time and bring you back.’

  ‘And what about you, Harry?’ she says, louder. ‘Are you going to lie down and let them trample all over us?’

  ‘You know it’s not as easy as that. We’ve got Willow to consider. If I took off to look for the girl, you two wouldn’t be safe. You know what Tusker’s like.’

  ‘All right,’ Stella says. She leaves a long silence than adds, ‘Help Finn and Kas, then. Help them escape.’

  Harry is silent. Finally he says, ‘You know we’d lose them all. The three of them. They’d never come back to the valley.’

  ‘Four. There’d be four of them, God willing.’

  I hear the lamp being blown out in the room and the house falls into darkness. I sit for a while, trying to understand everything I’ve heard. By the time I get to my feet my knees are cramping and I have to navigate carefully back to my room so I don’t knock anything over.

  I’m just about to close my door when Stella calls out.

  ‘Goodnight, Finn.’


  The next afternoon, the decision is taken out of all our hands.

  We’ve just finished lunch when we hear a gunshot. And—with my heart rising into my mouth—the low throttle of a trailbike. Harry reaches behind the dresser and pulls out a double-barrelled shotgun. He lays it on the kitchen table, along with a small bag.

  ‘Stell,’ he says. ‘It’s loaded and there are more cartridges in the bag.’

  Seeing me standing in the doorway, he starts talking fast.

  ‘Finn, get Kas. Rachel’s place is the one closest to the woolshed with the lemon tree in front. Get her out of here. Head straight up the ridge, as high as you can. Keep climbing until you hit the old logging track. Turn right and eventually you’ll get to Pinchgut Junction.’

  He moves quickly toward the front door then but stops short of it.

  ‘Good luck, son,’ he says.

  Then he opens the door and steps outside.

  The rumbling of the trailbike comes closer. I look out through a crack in the curtains and see a dozen Wilders standing in the yard. They’re armed with an assortment of weapons, from chains to hoes and large knives.

  I recognise Ramage immediately, straddling the trailbike, a rifle cradled in his arms. There is a bandage around his hand, and his face is bruised and swollen. There’s bright tape around the fuel lines on the trailbike where I cut them. I curse myself for not having thought to slash the tyres too.

  Ramage kills the motor and the whole valley is plunged into silence. The men of the community have gathered in front of the house, most of them unarmed.

  Ramage grins. ‘Well, well, well,’ he says. ‘Ain’t you been the sly ones, tucked away in your little valley here? Selfish bastards keeping this to yourselves.’

  He sniffs the wind and makes a show of looking around the buildings.

  ‘Who’s in charge here?’

  Tusker moves forwards, but Harry holds him by the arm and calls out, ‘I am.’

  ‘And who might you be?’ Ramage sneers.

  ‘Name’s Harry.’

  ‘Harry. You hear that boys? Harry’s in charge here. Well, Harry, my name’s Benny Ramage and I’m pretty much in charge in this part of the country.’