Barefoot Kids

by Steve Hawke

  Eventually he breaks the silence. ‘Is the rain going to come now Nyami?’

  ‘I don’t know Dancer. Might be we’ve left it too late. We’ve done everythin’ we can. We made that ceremony. We’ve called for the rain.’

  He pulls the piece of shell from his pocket and turns it round in his hands yet again. He seems to be talking to himself as much as to Dancer. ‘Somethin’ still feels wrong though. Everything’s tangled up. There’s the smell of a curse on this thing. Purri purri.’

  He drains the last of the tea and gets wearily to his feet. ‘I’m going to have a bit of a lie down lad.’

  The talk about what to do next swirls around Jirroo Corner as the rest of the family wakes and eases into the day. Janey is adamant they should call the police in; she reckons it has to be illegal to remove a human skeleton.

  Ally reminds her of Big Al’s threat. Janey argues that too much time has passed and, anyway, now they can prove a pattern of him thieving and threatening.

  ‘We can’t prove anything unless we catch him with the bones,’ Eddie points out. ‘He’ll just deny it. And Bella’s got her pendant back now, so he’ll deny that too. And don’t forget, he’s still got the declaration from those Japanese tourists to wave at you.’

  ‘He might have made that up too.’

  ‘Horse must know something,’ Buddy says.

  ‘Can you see him dobbing Big Al in?’ Dancer points out.

  ‘What have we got, if we boil it down?’ Mary says. ‘Janey found Bella’s pendant in his office. But there’s a little problem with that as we all know. And even then, if we pressed that, there’s nothing to prove he stole it. Someone could have handed it in. And as for the bones, it’s Buddy and Dancer’s word against his and Horse’s.’

  ‘Teoh Tom saw them too,’ Buddy points out.

  Buster puts an end to the discussion when he surfaces from his nap. ‘No police,’ he says. ‘They can’t help on this.’ He looks around at them all. ‘Enough talkin’ for now. We’re just going round in circles. Let things settle a little bit.’

  With the atmosphere at the house so flat, the kids ride down to Eagle Beach. They round the bend to the site office and see that a truckload of building gear and drums of diesel has been unloaded, and a start has been made on the cyclone wire fence around the site.

  Buddy heads down towards Teoh Tom’s, and his shout brings the others scurrying. The hut has been flattened. The old timbers and rusty sheets of tin have been pushed into an untidy heap.

  They stare dumbly. Not even Janey can find anything to say. There does not seem to be any point in returning home to summon the adults. They walk back to the site office and climb on their bikes, turning for the shack. But Buddy changes his mind. ‘I’ve got to find him.’

  ‘We spent hours looking for him the other day,’ Dancer tells him. ‘And he was there all the time, remember. He’ll show up when he wants to Buddy.’

  ‘That was before the bones, and before this. I’ve got to find out if he’s okay. And remember what Nyami said. Tom might know something about it all. Come on.’

  He looks at them hopefully. But none of them feels like traipsing through mangrove country. Dancer shakes his head.

  ‘Well I’m going to look.’

  ‘Just don’t do anything dumb bro.’

  The four of them head to the shack, leaving Buddy to his quest. But soon they are wondering whether they should have joined him; it would be better to be doing something rather than sitting round like this.

  Leaving the other three to their glum talk, Tich goes inside and pulls out her drawing things. She copies the outline of the engraving on Bella’s pendant from the sketch of Janey’s stuck on the wall. Then working from memory, she adds to that the lines on the piece that Buddy found.

  She goes back outside and shows it to the others, asking if she has got the new part right. ‘What are you up to Tich?’ Janey asks.

  ‘Nothing, just messing around.’

  ‘It’s a bit more like this,’ Jimmy says, taking her pencil and redrawing a couple of the lines.

  When the others decide to head down to the beach Tich says she’ll follow later. She takes a fresh sheet of paper and does her line drawing again. Glancing up, the concert poster catches her eye. She looks harder — looks at Janey’s sketch again — her drawing again. The poster again.

  She pulls the poster and Janey’s sketch down from the wall and spreads them carefully on the ground beside her own drawing, and gets to work.

  Buddy trudges back up towards the wreckage of Teoh Tom’s camp. He has pressed further into the mangrove wilderness than he and Dancer tried before. He has followed faint trails, contemplated footprints that look fresh to him, wishing he knew more of the tracker’s craft to tell how old they might really be. He has climbed trees and scanned the tangled bush, found odd signs and markers. He has called and whistled. And not a sign.

  The look on Teoh Tom’s face when he stepped out from behind the white gum and saw Buddy with the shell haunts his mind. He can only assume that the old man has seen what they’ve done to his camp.

  He pokes around amongst the pile of Tom’s things. There is a packet of the incense Tom often had burning, and a box of matches. He takes two of the sticks of incense from the box and pokes them into the dirt. He lights the incense sticks, then picks up his bike and walks sadly off, wheeling it along in the direction of the shack.

  ‘Jimmy! Janey! Dancer!’ Tich is dancing up and down at the crest of the low pindan cliff, screaming into the breeze at the top of her lungs. ‘Come here! Quick! You’ve got to see this!’

  Down on the shoreline they can hear her voice, but can’t catch the words. Jimmy waves at her to come down. She screams again, shaking her head and waving at them to come up. They sense her urgency.

  When they finally reach the shack Tich can hardly contain herself. ‘Look. Look,’ she exclaims, pointing at the poster and her drawing. ‘The missing piece. See!’

  ‘Slow down Tich,’ Jimmy tells her. ‘What are you raving on about?’

  Janey gets it first. She traces the lines of Tich’s drawing with a finger, completely astonished, trying to absorb it. ‘Tich, you’re a genius.’

  Janey holds out her arms, and Tich leaps into them. She looks over her shoulder at Dancer and Jimmy, her eyes full of wonder. ‘She’s found the missing piece.’

  With Janey’s help, Tich manages to get it through to them. She points to the copy she has drawn of the Garnet Investments logo. ‘Remember what Nyami said — That’s like Jiir, the way we draw him. See here, it’s like his wing is cut off. If those two lines there are his wing,’ she points to Janey’s sketch of Bella’s pendant, ‘they join up with these two.

  ‘And see, on this side it’s cut off too. That joins up with this one.’ She shows how it connects to the drawing she has made of Buddy’s shell. ‘And see here — Jiir’s tail — where all three join up.’

  The boys are thunderstruck. Tich has bent the shape of Big Al’s logo a little, for he has stylised and sharpened the lines somewhat. But it is the same bird, the same design, the same lines. Big Al’s logo fills the gap. It completes the pattern.

  ‘Does that mean Big Al’s got the missing piece?’ Dancer whispers, scared to think what that might mean.

  ‘It’s either that, or he got the design from someone who has it,’ says Jimmy.

  ‘It can’t be a coincidence,’ Janey murmurs. ‘But how would he have got hold of it? Old Jirroo gave one to Mimi Bella. One was with his bones — Buster reckons that should have been for him. But how the hell did Big Al end up with the other one?’

  ‘We know he’s a thief,’ Jimmy points out.

  ‘Yeah,’ says Dancer. ‘But he would’ve been a little kid, or not even born, when Bella got hers and Old Jirroo disappeared.’

  ‘It must be him,’ says Tich. ‘That’s why he knocked me over and stealed Bella’s, ’cause he already had one and knew what it was when he saw it.’ Her excitement has been replaced by something els
e, a feeling that is a mixture of fear and desperate curiosity.

  ‘She’s right guys,’ says Janey. ‘She must be. Nothing else makes sense.’

  ‘But what does it mean?’ asks Jimmy. ‘There’s Jiir, with his wings spread out. That’s clear enough. But what about the rest of it? What’s that funny looking thing under his tail?’

  ‘What are you guys talking about?’

  They are so absorbed, they have not noticed Buddy’s approach.

  They have to backtrack to bring Buddy up to speed. All the time as they do so, they are throwing up ideas as to just what it could possibly mean.

  The lower part of the design, formed by the main part of Bella’s pendant and the one Buddy found, is a circle, filled in by wavy lines which seem to represent water. In the middle, where the three pieces join underneath the bird, it is more confused. Beneath Jiir’s tail, there is an odd three-sided, open-ended shape, that no-one can make sense of.

  ‘And what’s that square in the middle of the wavy lines?’ Janey puzzles.

  Tich shifts the angle of her drawing. ‘It’s not a square Janey. You were looking sideways. It’s a —’

  She covers her mouth, as if afraid to say it. ‘It’s a diamond! Like in a pack of cards.’

  ‘It’s got to be a clue,’ Buddy breathes the words. ‘Jiir, water, diamonds. And something else.’

  ‘And it comes from Buster and Bella’s daddy,’ Janey says.

  ‘We’ve got to go and tell them,’ Dancer reckons.

  ‘No!’

  They all look at Buddy, who has spoken so vehemently.

  ‘You saw Nyami today. And Mimi, crying ever since yesterday. They’re worried sick already. Remember the band Janey. You said we had to keep that a secret until the right time. And you were right. It would have all gone wrong if you’d let Jimmy tell Little Joe. This is the same. We’ve found it. We should work it out.’

  ‘Buddy, this isn’t some band. This is —’

  Dancer never finishes his sentence. There is the sound of a huge explosion from the direction of Teoh Tom’s and the site office. Once they recover from the shock they all turn, to see a pall of diesel smoke rise like a black mushroom cloud.

  27

  The kids scramble for their bikes and race to the fire. By the time they get there the site office is well ablaze and the pile of building materials is a smouldering mess. The diesel drums have gone up in the explosion. Standing well back from the heat, they watch as the roof and ceiling of the transportable cave in, sending up a shower of sparks.

  ‘Serves him right,’ Buddy says.

  The others all look at him.

  ‘Buddy, you didn’t …?’ Dancer asks nervously.

  ‘No way!’ Then he gasps, realising.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The incense.’

  ‘What incense?’

  He tells them about lighting the two incense sticks, almost embarrassed. He had done it on the spur of the moment, like a private act of remembrance. But he can’t see how that could have started the fire. While Buddy is defending himself, Dancer hears a car approaching and cuts him off. They grab their bikes and take to the bush just in time to avoid being seen by Horse.

  They take the long route through the scrub. Buddy calls them to a halt just short of the main road, wanting to know what they are going to tell the adults.

  ‘The truth Buddy,’ Dancer is blunt. ‘You might be right. It might be something else that started it. And either way it wasn’t deliberate. But if we start making up stories and get caught out on something like this, we’re dead.’

  Buddy doesn’t argue, but nor is he finished. ‘Are we keeping the drawing secret?’

  That is when Tich realises she has left the drawings at the site of the fire. There is no question of going back. Horse will have raised the alarm and Big Al will be there. They can only hope that he won’t find the drawings, or if he does, that he won’t realise what they represent.

  ‘Well?’ asks Buddy, after this diversion. ‘What are we doing?’

  It is Dancer again who answers. ‘It’s all getting too heavy, Buddy. Too messy, too many mysteries and secrets.’

  ‘I dunno Dancer,’ says Janey. ‘Just think about what it was like this morning at home, with everyone so miserable. Now we’ve got to tell them about the fire. It’s all too much.’

  With Janey coming down on Buddy’s side, they reach an uneasy agreement. They will keep quiet, if only for that night. Tich will redo the drawing so they can have another look at it, and they will take it from there.

  What they had not expected is that news of the fire would beat them home. The moment they arrive, Ally, Eddie, Mary and Col are all over them with suspicious questions. It seems Big Al has got onto Georgie straight away, making allegations.

  When the grilling is over Buddy is glad they opted for the truth. Mary orders an early night for the kids, and none of them argue. In whispered exchanges they talk about going back down in the morning to try to retrieve the drawings, but in the end agree that with Big Al on the warpath it is too dangerous.

  Early next morning Tich is down on her knees on the floor, bent over a sheet of paper, surrounded by the other kids.

  ‘I think that’s it,’ Janey says.

  It has taken a few goes and lots of input to reproduce the intricate lines and interconnections to her own and the others’ satisfaction. Now the questions and ideas start flying.

  Jiir.

  A diamond — they think.

  Water. In a circle.

  And that funny shape.

  They can hear voices from the living room, but are too engrossed to be curious about them.

  ‘Is the circle a tank? Water in a tank?’ Jimmy asks.

  ‘Mmm, could be,’ says Janey, her finger tracing the circle, then the three-sided shape that sits beneath Jiir’s tail and protrudes slightly into the circle. It’s like a cut-off vee with a flat bottom … like a bowl with straight sides … like a …

  ‘Could it be a bucket?’

  ‘Could be,’ says Dancer.

  ‘Bucket … maybe a well. It’s not a tank. It’s a well.’

  ‘Teoh Tom’s!’ It is Buddy, leaping ahead. ‘A well at Eagle Beach. With a diamond in it! It’s got to be the diamonds.’ He springs up and bounces around the crowded bedroom, hardly able to contain himself. ‘It’s the diamonds. It’s got to be. We’ve found the diamonds.’

  ‘In Tom’s well?’ asks Tich.

  ‘What else could it be?’ Buddy insists.

  ‘And what? He doesn’t know they’re there?’ says Jimmy. This stumps Buddy. If the old man knew they were there, he wouldn’t have just left them all this time, surely. ‘Maybe they were there once. We’ve got to find him.’

  ‘You’ve looked for him twice now Buddy,’ Dancer reminds him. ‘And don’t forget, this has something to do with Old Jirroo. We’ve got to tell Buster.’

  ‘No!’ Buddy is vehement.

  ‘Why the hell not?’

  ‘It’s Tom’s well, we should speak to him first. And Nyami and Mimi have too many worries already.’

  ‘Janey?’ says Dancer. ‘How come you’re so quiet?’

  ‘I’m trying to think. It mightn’t even be the diamonds. It could be something else. Buddy’s right though, I reckon. Teoh Tom’s the first one we should ask, before we say anything to Buster. What if it’s some crazy coincidence and we just make Mimi worse?’

  Dancer keeps an uneasy silence, but the others agree. Before he can decide whether to push it any further they are interrupted by Mary calling from the living room in her come-here-right-now voice, ‘Buddy!’

  They all follow Buddy to find the woman from Welfare and Harry the police aide are there with Mary.

  ‘Harry wants to talk to you about the fire Buddy.’

  Buddy immediately has his back up, bristling with tension. ‘I told you everything.’

  ‘He wants to hear it from you.’

  ‘What’s she doing here?’ Buddy gestures at the Welfare woman.


  ‘Standard procedure when we’re questioning a juvenile Buddy; take it easy,’ says Harry.

  ‘You arresting me?’

  ‘I want to ask you some questions son.’ Harry is doing his best to put Buddy at ease, but the facts as he spells them out don’t look good. Big Al called them in last night, and they went back down there again this morning. There are bike tracks and five different sets of footprints up around the burnt-out office.

  Harry explains that they worked out that the fire started ‘down near the Filipino’s old camp — poor feller. And all round the spot where it started, there’s only one set of tracks. And looking at the five of you, and the size of them, they’re too big for Tich, and too small for you three big ones. That leaves you Buddy.’

  ‘I told everyone, I lit some incense. I never started any fire though.’

  Harry looks dubious. ‘I’m not saying you’re lying Buddy. But Big Al — Mr Steer — reckons there’s over fifty thousand dollars worth of damage down there, and he’s talking about pressing charges. What I want you to do is come with me and show me exactly what you reckon happened.’

  Buddy turns to the kids behind him. His eyes are on Dancer as he pulls his thumb and forefinger across his lips. Before anyone can react, Buddy bolts for the back door, shouting as he goes, ‘Dancer, tell Dad I didn’t do it.’ He grabs his bike and rides for dear life. He has disappeared by the time Harry and the others follow him out the door.

  Buddy has two things on his mind as he zigzags through quiet backstreets, peering round corners until he reaches the outskirts of town.

  Andy is due late tonight or tomorrow. He knows what he is doing is not sensible. He knows it will only make things worse. And he doesn’t know what his dad will be able to do to help him. He just knows in his guts that he wants Andy at his side before this goes any further.

  And he is thinking about Teoh Tom and the diamonds. He just has to find the old man, and find a way to make him tell whatever it is that he knows. He can only hope that the others keep their mouths shut, and give him time to track Tom down.

  He stashes his bike in a dense thicket at Eagle Beach and creeps towards the ruined transportable until he finds a concealed vantage point. There are two cars parked there, Big Al’s and Horse’s. Horse, Gus and a couple of others are doing what they can to clean up and secure the site. Big Al is nowhere to be seen.