The Burial

by Courtney Collins

  He heard one of them say, So we can carve up the blondie and feed him to her. I’ve heard that eating human flesh will increase your sexual appetite. So we could be happy men and rich men too.

  The men let out explosive laughs that Jack Brown thought would surely echo around the mountains. It was almost daylight again when they were finally asleep, though aside from their reclining bodies he could not be sure they were really sleeping.

  He crept in anyway. Jessie and Barlow were lying twisted on the ground, still blindfolded. He did not disturb them.

  He reached the closest man and with no hesitation cut his throat. He kinked the man’s neck so he would not gurgle and splutter and put his hand over his mouth in case he had any sound left in him. He moved from man to man in the same way and he was so silent about his task that none of the men woke the other and Jessie and Barlow did not hear him.

  The last man opened his eyes as Jack Brown pulled the knife across his throat. He held his hand across the man’s mouth and nose as the man struggled, the whites of his eyes turning over like stones in his head.

  He cleaned the knife on the last man’s coat and went to Jessie and Barlow and cut the ropes that bound them. They both stood up and fell over again, forgetting the cuffs that were still around their ankles.

  Where’s the key? whispered Jack Brown.

  It’s in my saddlebag.

  Jack Brown sought out Barlow’s horse from the others and unhooked the bag from the saddle. He emptied the bag on the ground and, finding the key to be there along with the police badge, threw them both to Barlow.

  What are you doing? said the sergeant. You’ll wake them.

  They can’t be woken, said Jack Brown.

  Jack Brown led out three horses and Barlow’s was one of them. They mounted the horses in silence. As Jack Brown settled into the saddle he was aware that the last man who had sat in the saddle was now dead, and he was the man who had killed him.

  VII

  I HAVE HEARD hard-hoofed creatures moving over me, coming to drink at the river. I have heard dry trees falling down, split to their roots, and strong winds collecting topsoil as dry as dust. And through my stone pillow, I heard my mother.

  They rode down into the valley, all three of them uneasy, two of them on stolen horses, Jessie in the middle, Jack Brown and Barlow on either side.

  Each of them was a wreck, thin and hollow-cheeked and looking grave. Both Jack Brown and Barlow had grown beards that were caked with dust and the clothes on their backs were putrid and drenched with the sweat of fear. In an attempt to conceal herself, Jessie was wearing Jack Brown’s hat, her hair tucked up inside it, and she wore Barlow’s jacket to give her bulk that she did not have. As they rode, they hoped they looked like any three ragged men crossing the field.

  It’s not safe to go back to the hut, said Barlow. We’ll take you to the Seven Sisters. You’ll be safer there till the constabulary arrive tomorrow.

  You mean safe till I’m arrested?

  You’re still worth a thousand pounds to any man who can read a poster or hear a rumour. So take your punt.

  Who has that kind of money anyway? asked Jessie.

  It’s probably all a ruse, said Jack Brown. But there’s enough men now who believe it.

  They were quiet for a while and then Jessie said, Sergeant, why are we crossing here in broad daylight?

  Because there’s nowhere to hide. Barlow was rigid in the saddle, kept his eyes straight ahead.

  They all breathed shallowly with the suspense of knowing they could be killed from a distant shot at any moment.

  They rode on.

  The wind picked up and Jessie had to hold down the hat on her head. They kicked their horses to a gallop and swayed out to ride with the wind at their backs. They kept pace with each other and found a rhythm as they rode through the long and crackling grass, and under the midday sun shimmering waves of heat rose up from the open field and from the far view made their separate forms indistinct from each other.

  When they reached the gate of the Seven Sisters it was almost dark. Jessie had never been inside the Seven Sisters though she had often ridden past it wondering if Fitz was in there. She noticed that it now looked like a welcoming homestead, which was different to any other time she had seen it.

  Barlow pulled up his horse at the gate and was staring at the sky.

  What are you waiting for? said Jack Brown. I thought you’d had enough stargazing in the mountains.

  I’m not coming with you. I need to go to the postmaster’s hut and send a message to get the constabulary here, to get her out alive. Barlow handed Jack Brown the handcuffs. They’ll need to see these on her, and for God’s sake make sure she’s not armed because they won’t have any compunction in shooting her.

  Is there another option? said Jack Brown.

  Barlow shifted in his saddle. The three of us could keep riding till we get shot, said Barlow.

  I’m a very dangerous woman to ride with, said Jessie. She laughed but behind it was the tired hollowness of it all.

  It’s time, said Barlow. He turned his horse away from the gate and set off in the direction of the postmaster’s hut.

  Bandy! Jessie yelled. Your jacket.

  Keep it, he yelled back. There’s a present for you in the pocket.

  Jack Brown kicked his horse and headed up the track but Jessie did not move. She sat on her horse and watched Barlow drift into the night.

  BARLOW RODE INTO the darkness. He knew himself changed. He could make sense of the place better in the dark, in a way he could not comprehend it through the heat and the glaring sun. The valley softened as the night sky opened up and he knew where he was. He could feel but not see the mountains in the distance, the fields, the forest, the river, and it felt as true as any dream he had dreamt and he was relieved that the dream would soon be over.

  Barlow knocked on the door of the postmaster’s hut and found the man awake and inside, already tapping messages.

  I’ve a message that’s more urgent than the rest.

  What is that, Sergeant?

  Barlow sat down beside the man at his desk and wrote out the words on a piece of paper: CONSTABULARY NEEDED NOW. SEVEN SISTERS. LADY BUSHRANGER CAUGHT. ANARCHY ON THE MOUNTAINS.

  You got her? said the postmaster.

  Barlow did not reply.

  Are you ready to be a hero, Sergeant?

  I think it is too late for that, said Barlow.

  • Barlow rode under the stars as a man unafraid of death. Riding up Old Road, he felt, at last, like he was a light himself.

  When he entered the hut, he did not bother to spark up a lantern. He could see well enough that the place had been trashed. He knew where there was rope and he was grateful that the rope alone had not been disturbed.

  He walked out to the tree in front of the hut and threw the rope around its thickest branch. And then, holding tight to the rope, he climbed up the trunk of the tree. He perched in the V of the branch and tied the rope around his ankles. Then he threw himself back. The loops in the rope tightened around his legs and spun him, around and around, beneath the tree.

  He was conscious enough to reflect that if he had hung himself by his neck his death would have surely come faster. But this was the way he chose, to give himself slowly over to gravity, vertebra by vertebra. It was his own death and he did not fear it.

  JACK BROWN AND Jessie rode up the widening track to the house. When they reached the back entrance, Jack Brown swung down from his horse. The kitchen door was open and the madam burst out.

  Jack! We’ve missed you. When are you going to give up your post at the policeman’s hut and come join us here for good?

  Jack Brown walked towards the madam.

  Hold up, she said. Don’t come any closer. You smell like a fucking trooper yourself. You need a wash and a good feed. And by the looks of her, so does your friend.

  What I need is a favour, said Jack Brown. I need a safe place to hide Jessie for the night. There’s a few r
ough men out to get her.

  And us all! The madam laughed. She’ll be right as rain. Is Lay Ping expecting you tonight?

  No.

  She’ll be real glad you’re here, Jack Brown. You’re all that we hear about these days.

  The madam set Jessie up in a room and gave her a silk robe for the evening and a skirt and a cotton blouse to change into in the morning. Jessie washed herself in the basin and put on the robe, which felt like cool water against her skin. She lay back on the four-poster bed with its flounces and embroidered flowers. A room like this was so foreign to her.

  That night she did not sleep. She stared up at the canopy of the bed. With candles burning on wooden chests on each side of it, the room cast its own moving shadows upon the canopy. She saw there a boy on a trapeze, his shadow moving along the roof of a circus tent. And just as she had seen happen so many years before, there he was, stepping out across the rope and falling.

  When she closed her eyes she saw herself hovering over the place where he landed. She could see her own hands stroking the dust where his limbs had fanned out, where his fingers had made trails.

  WHEN THE CONSTABULARY arrived the next day, Jessie was sitting on the veranda of the homestead, her feet cuffed together. She was wearing a style of dress she had never worn. The cotton blouse the madam had given her had a ruffle on each shoulder and the skirt fanned out in pleats. Before the sun was up, she had dressed and combed out her hair from its tangle of knots. All kinds of leaf matter had rained around her, and it was the only thing left of her in the homestead because she had fed her own clothes to the fire.

  Jack Brown sat beside her.

  They sat in silence and watched the six members of the constabulary beating a track towards them, tall in their saddles with a spare horse between them.

  Fuck, Jessie, said Jack Brown. Why didn’t you escape?

  I’m not dead yet, Jack Brown, she said and there was a grin on her face that Jack Brown had not seen for a very long time. Thanks for the hat, she added. Does it suit me?

  It’s dangerous out there now, Jessie. Everybody wants a piece of you. When the officers arrived they did not regard Jack Brown. They just lined themselves up in front of my mother and one of them said, Are you Jessie Henry?

  Call me Jessie Bell or Jessie Hunt or Jessie Payne, but not Jessie Henry, that was never really my name.

  It’s all over now, Miss Jessie.

  Two of the younger officers made a seat for her by crossing their arms and she held on to their shoulders as they carried her to her horse.

  This is the special treatment, she said. Officers, this is surely the nicest arrest I’ve ever had.

  The horse they had brought for her to ride was fitted with a side saddle. It was awkward even to look at and, more than being arrested, it was the thing that angered her the most.

  Jack Brown leant against the balustrade.

  Jessie raised her hand to him and smiled and said, Jack Brown.

  Jessie, he called after her.

  She tipped her hat and said, Jack Brown, long life.

  Jack Brown gave more of a salute than a wave and then he tucked his hand under the pit of his arm and he was disturbed by the force of his heart and the rate it was beating. He watched the constabulary charge off, and Jessie, riding between them, her hair whipping out in all directions. There were two men in front of her, one on either side and two behind her, all holding guns. How could she possibly escape?

  She did not turn around for a final glance or a wave but Jack Brown kept his eyes fixed on the back of her and watched her figure shrinking in the distance. He had an instinct to run after her, to track her, to follow her. But he knew it was time to leave that instinct behind.

  Standing there, he remembered his first sight of her, sitting by the river, contemplating what? He did not know. She looked to him now, as she had looked to him then, like a shifting thing on the landscape.

  Soon she would be gone completely.

  He wondered if she had always been an illusion and what, of any of it, had actually been real. Once upon a time, he had held her, he had smelt her, he had buried his face in her hair. With his own ears he had worn her silence, her laughter, her swearing, and with his own eyes he had seen her spit and ride and fall. She was real. He had prints and tracks and memories to prove it.

  Fuck, Jessie, he said and a tear rolled down his face and he knew then the truth of it. She would never be what he wanted her to be for him. She was not his lover and she was not his wife and she would never be. All his dreams of the two of them riding off together like two elemental forces combined, the mystery of what they might do together if they actually chose each other, all of that folded in beside him, an untracked path.

  Jack Brown did not hear Lay Ping opening the door or walking across the veranda to stand beside him. But he did feel her hand upon his back and from just the warmth of it, he thought he might dissolve.

  Come, she said finally. Come and lay down with me.

  It was still early morning and no one was about, and they entered the house as if it was their own. He followed Lay Ping, followed the tail of her robe, the swing of her hips, the twists of her hair. And in her room he followed her lead and they undressed and stood in front of each other. Then he was aware that everything in the room was utterly still except for their bodies, which were quivering.

  Jack Brown took hold of her hips and he kissed her shoulder and with his mouth he followed the trail of her tattoo down to the dip of her back. Then he knelt behind her; looking up, the view was as supple and miraculous as a mountain. Scattered above her arse were the tattoos of rocks, the god and a goddess and the word sorrow. Kneeling there, holding on to the bones of her hips, Jack Brown was grateful that he was a man and not a myth and he was alive enough to feel the heat of the body in front of him.

  THE CONSTABULARY RODE all day and they camped at night with my mother between them. The next morning they were up at first light as the fields folded around them, and they only stopped when one of the officers dropped his gun.

  My mother was not lying then when she said, I’ve an awful pain in my gut, Sergeant.

  Keep riding, men, yelled back the lead sergeant.

  If I could just relieve myself, she pleaded.

  The lead sergeant kicked his horse.

  Sergeant, I’d hate for there to be an accident on your lovely saddle and your lovely pony.

  Alright, stop! said the sergeant. Let the convict down.

  But her feet are cuffed, said one of the officers. And she says she needs to relieve herself.

  She’ll have to find some way, said the sergeant.

  The two young officers helped her down.

  Conceal yourself behind that tree, said the sergeant, pointing to the near distance. We don’t need to see you or any woman disgracing herself. But you must yell and you must keep on yelling.

  I’m sorry, Sergeant, said my mother. This may take a while.

  Be quick, woman, and get it over and done with and do not waste our time.

  The police officers watched her as she jumped, her legs cuffed together, her skirt tight around her, all the way to the tree.

  I’m here, she yelled.

  That’s it. Keep on yelling, said the sergeant.

  Behind the tree my mother yelled, I’m here, as she plunged a hand into the neck of her blouse and pulled out the key she had found in Barlow’s jacket. She opened the locks around her ankles easily and quietly, all the time yelling, I’m here. She yelled as she slipped off her skirt and dropped to the ground and she yelled as she dug her elbows into the dirt.

  Then my mother scuttled out into the long grass, as any escaping creature would do, except she had a clear voice within her and she yelled, I’m here, I’m here. And then she was silent.

  In the valley, sound travels and distance is difficult to judge. Voices echo and you may never find their true source.

  When they did not hear her, the officers stepped tentatively towards the tree.

&
nbsp; Miss Jessie! they cried. Miss Jessie, are you there?

  But she was not. Only the cuffs were on the ground with the madam’s skirt.

  The officers mounted their horses again and sought her in different directions. But north, south, east and west, they did not find her.

  She was on her stomach, snaking through the long, dry grass.

  Jessie is my mother.

  Forward and back I have tracked her. I have heard her like a song. I caught her voice here and there, and when I finally pieced it together, distinguished it all from the din, I knew she was mine to hear. I tracked her and all that she loved and some she did not, to know my mother. And then, as I felt in my own heart a wish for her freedom, in one single and shimmering note I heard her. She said: I am here.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  For wrangling and being in my corner, heartfelt thanks to my agent Benython Oldfield and publisher Jane Palfreyman. And thanks to all at Allen & Unwin, especially Ali Lavau, Clara Finlay, Siobhán Cantrill and Louise Cornegé.

  For long-time cheering and inspiration, enormous gratitude to: Ash Baker, Daniel Campbell, Kirsty Campbell, Maylise Dent, Ally Drinkwater, Helen Drinkwater, Jo Dunlop, Sophie Gordon, Anna Helme, Dan Johnston, Bob Kean, Fiona Kitchin, Lilith Lane, Gareth Liddiard, Kathryn Liddiard, Lisa Madden, Helen Marcou, Quincy McClean, Andrew McGee, Kerry McGee, Nick McGee, Jeanmarie Morosin, Ali Noga, Manas Pandy, Kate Richardson, Amanda Roff, Jackie Ruddock, Jasmin Tarasin, Jo Taylor and Meredith Turnbull.

  For space to write, thanks to Hedgebrook Writers’Retreat and Greta Moon.

  For a good start on things, thanks to my family—Collins, Diffley and Field, all combined.

  The Burial is the debut novel of Courtney Collins. Her second novel, The Walkman Mix, is in progress.

  Courtney grew up in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. She now lives in an old postmaster’s cottage on the Goulburn River in regional Victoria.