Kerenza: A New Australian

by Rosanne Hawke

  That stops Ida, and she flounces off.

  ‘You don’t have to stick up for me,’ Valmai says. ‘Ida just thinks being English is normal and everyone else is odd.’

  Harry comes to ask if Valmai is feeling better, then rushes off to play football with an odd-shaped ball. Jacob sits nearby in the sun. He glances at us every now and then. I bet he wishes he was helping Da and Uncle Malachi. Today they’re bringing farm machinery from a paddle steamer at Swan Reach.

  On the way home Kitto talks about Will Penrose. ‘He comes from Cornwall too.’

  ‘So does Lottie,’ Elowen says.

  ‘And Harry said Valmai is a peach,’ Kitto says. ‘She’s pretty.’

  That makes me think. Will Harry like Valmai better than me? It’s when we’re close to home that I see Winnie in the scrub. I pull Tilly up.

  ‘Why are we stopping?’ Kitto asks.

  ‘I thought I saw someone.’ I search the trees but I can’t see Winnie after all. Did I imagine it?

  18

  Elowen and I wake up on Saturday wondering why it’s so dark. Surely it’s not a dust storm. Elowen’s outside first. She shrieks. ‘Clouds!’

  I stick my head out expecting a tiny cloud on the horizon, but there are huge grey clouds banked up. Not a piece of blue shows through. I send Elowen to the long drop first. Uncle Malachi and Da are under the pine trees. ‘Clemo, I suggest we get on with the ploughing if it rains or not.’

  Da’s scratching the stubble under his chin. ‘I don’t understand this weather.’

  Uncle Malachi gives a dry chuckle. ‘None of us do, Clemo. Why they sell us land where it never rains, I have no idea.’

  The talk of no rain is frightening, and I remember what Miss Polkinghorn said. No rain means no crops and no money to pay back the grain or machinery costs. I have a horrible thought: what about the horses? Could they be taken from us? I take Elowen’s place in the long drop and empty out Mam’s po. That’s when I hear the first spits on the tin roof and a mouse runs under the door. When I come out, Da grins at me. ‘I knew it would rain sooner or later. We’ll build a tank soon.’

  The boys help the men with the team, ploughing in the paddock. Kitto, Elowen and I rush outside and dance in the rain, the first we’ve seen here.

  It’s still raining lightly when I take the lunches.

  Jacob is sitting on the iron plough seat behind Bobbie, Queenie and five of our new horses all in a row, the plough stretched out behind him. As he turns the team to bring them the length of the paddock I watch their feathery feet, their tossing heads. Bobbie and Queenie are still the bosses and nibble at the nearest mare if she doesn’t turn when she should.

  ‘Magnificent, aren’t they?’ Da says. ‘Nothing will ever replace horse power. They can go where machines can’t. With a motor car, that plough would get bogged in the sand.’

  I smile, enjoying the beauty of them, hearing their little whinnies as they get closer. They know when Mam or I come it’s time to rest. Bobbie snickers me a greeting.

  Uncle Malachi says to Jacob, ‘You’re doing a good job, son, nice straight furrows.’ And something remarkable happens. Jacob’s face breaks into a smile. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him.

  Harry appears beside me with a homemade notebook.

  ‘What’s in there?’ I ask.

  ‘When I see a plant or flower I record it. Then I check if it’s in the book I have.’ He’s drawn the flowers too.

  ‘I used to press flowers in Cornwall.’

  ‘Between pages in books?’

  ‘Yes, though Mam didn’t like it if there was a blue smudge on the page. We had wild bluebells.’ And I sigh.

  ‘Come with me.’ The rain has stopped, and Harry takes me into the scrub to show me a bush. ‘This is called emu bush. The seed is so hard it can’t germinate by itself, but if an emu eats it and passes it then the seed will germinate and grow.’

  He moves me on to another bush that has little yellow flowers. They hang like miniature bells. ‘I’ve never seen bluebells, but will these do?’

  They’re smaller than bluebells, but Harry looks so earnest that I bite my tongue (as Mam would say) and nod.

  ‘Kerenza,’ he says softly, ‘there are lovely things here too – they’re just different.’ I think of how different it is here – dusty, dry, and the seasons are upside down.

  He picks a flower and hands it to me.

  ‘Imagine how tough this plant is, surviving without much rain. It’s learned to flower in winter.’

  I close my hand around the winter flower. In Cornwall the plants hibernate in the middle of winter.

  That afternoon I press the flower between two pages in my scrap album and put it on the bottom of my trunk so it will flatten out. I wonder if I can be like the winter flower and learn to live in the Mallee.

  Since I have a moment alone I take Da’s accordion out of its box. My right hand picks out a tune while I move the bellows in and out like Da. So far so good. Then I press a button with my left hand. Ouch, wrong one. It takes a while, but I find a button that sounds good with the tune. Maybe one day I’ll be able to play like Da.

  Later on the boys are in the stable checking the horses for sores and Gertrude is happily feeding. Harry says something strange. ‘Valmai is pretty, don’t you think, Jacob?’

  ‘Shut up, gazob.’

  The boys argue so I feed and water Tilly. I’ve just given Bobbie a comb and a rub when Elowen screams. We rush over to the fowl coop; even Jacob appears.

  ‘A dragon, a real dragon! It’s eating the hens.’ Her screams turn to sobs once she sees us coming. I think she’s imagining things, but when we reach her, it’s true. A yard-long dragon is stuck in the wire of the coop. The hens are outside fluffing their feathers and squawking.

  ‘It’s a goanna,’ Harry says. ‘It’s after the eggs.’

  ‘Look at the size of him!’ Kitto tries to get close.

  Jacob manages to pull the huge lizard out of the coop. ‘Stand back. I’ll let him go.’

  The goanna takes off and so does Kitto.

  ‘Kitto!’ I shout. ‘Come back!’

  ‘I can run as fast as he can!’ Kitto catches up to the goanna but it speeds up. I have visions of it turning on him. It looks big enough to take off his leg.

  ‘He’ll have to learn the hard way,’ Jacob says. ‘It won’t kill him.’ He sounds like Uncle Malachi.

  I don’t rest until Kitto returns. I’m glad Mam isn’t out here to see how reckless he is. At least the goanna has stopped Jacob thinking about a wild dog stealing the eggs.

  Third of July, 1911

  Dear Wenna

  It’s so cold at night now, but not as cold as in Cornwall in winter. There was ice on the trough when I went to milk Gertrude this morning. We are going to school but it’s really a hall and it will be used for dances and church too. Jacob doesn’t like school. He knows the men need him in the paddock but Uncle Malachi won’t budge. The men have finished ploughing and will start the seeding soon. I helped to pickle the wheat seed with formalin to kill smut spores, so the wheat will grow without disease. It smelt horrible and my eyes stung. Harry and I are collecting rocks in the dray for when Da starts building the house. I miss you. I wish you were here.

  I’ve met Valmai at last. She’s nice though a bit bossy. Jacob’s a bit nicer – I think it’s because Uncle Malachi is letting him do more farm work. I can’t find my secret friend, not since we burned the paddock. I hope she’s all right. Her dog has puppies and one of them will be mine. With everlasting love from your sis, Kerenza

  P.S. We have more horses. We bought them from Emily Carthew and her brother Thomas. I wish you could meet Emily – you’d like her.

  19

  Today I decide to take Harry and Kitto into the scrub after school to find Rouge and Winnie.

  Kitto’s excited. ‘Is it a nice dog?’

  ‘A red heeler,’ I say, and Harry whistles.

  ‘They’re an excellent breed.’

  But e
ven when I sing, Rouge doesn’t show. They’ve disappeared. It makes me feel as if Winnie doesn’t want to be friends any more.

  ‘I don’t believe you have a friend with a dog at all,’ Kitto says. ‘You’re mean, playing tricks on me,’ and he runs home.

  I trudge back with Harry and we hear Elowen squealing for us. We run, and I see Ribbon Singh’s wagon parked by our house. Raja and Rani have been given a bag of chaff each and they’re happily nosing in them. Elowen’s dancing around Ribbon as he takes a box from the back of his wagon. Kitto’s already there with Mam.

  ‘Ah,’ Ribbon Singh says when he sees me, ‘the daughter of the house.’ He smiles at Elowen.

  She giggles. ‘You said that last time.’

  ‘I having something for you,’ he says, smiling at me. He takes a paper bag from the box. ‘It took a very long time to find, but finding it, I did.’ He hands it to me.

  It’s a scrap album. ‘Thank you.’ Then I look at Mam. ‘Please can I have some money for it?’

  ‘How much?’

  Ribbon Singh tilts his head. ‘For the missahiba, threepence only.’

  Mam hands it to me so I can pass it to Ribbon Singh. We crowd around to see what else he has.

  There’s a box of fruit from Swan Reach – apples and oranges – which Mam pays for too, and a white paper bag of sweets for each of us.

  Elowen squeals, but even Harry and I are interested in the all-day suckers and boiled sweets. There are also black-and-white-striped humbugs, Da’s favourite. And there’s mail, a brown paper parcel. ‘For Harry Sahib.’ Ribbon Singh hands it over.

  Elowen and Kitto crowd Harry. ‘What is it?’

  ‘If it’s what I think it is, you’ll both be very happy.’ He pulls off the paper and produces a book. ‘Can you read that, Elowen?’

  ‘Dot and the – um –’

  ‘What’s painted on the cover?’

  ‘A kangaroo! Dot and the Kangaroo.’

  ‘Did you order it for them?’ I ask.

  He nods. ‘We can share it with Mary Jane when she comes.’ He bites his lip and I can tell he misses his sister. ‘When your jobs are done,’ he says to Elowen and Kitto, ‘I’ll read a chapter. It’s about being lost in the bush.’

  ‘Ooh.’ Elowen shivers with horrified delight.

  ‘There are rules about being lost in the bush. First you have to stay in the one spot. If Dot had stayed in the one spot she would have been found quickly.’

  ‘Don’t tell us yet!’ Kitto says. ‘Hurry, Elowen, let’s feed the chooks and get the eggs so we can hear the story.’

  I smile at Harry as they run off. Then I turn to Ribbon Singh. I have an important question to ask him. ‘Do you know a man called Clarrie and a girl, Winnie?’

  He tilts his head to the side. ‘Ji, often I seeing them.’

  ‘They camp in the scrub around here.’

  ‘I seeing them in Swan Reach some days ago.’

  ‘They’ve left?’

  He shrugs. ‘They moving every time. Maybe coming back.’

  Jacob still hasn’t come to terms with being at school. There’s a proper slinging match before we leave this morning.

  ‘I’m not a kid!’ he shouts at Uncle Malachi, and his voice cracks. ‘I can work as well as you. You said so.’

  ‘Get yourself to school. You can have Fridays off since the afternoon is sport.’

  Jacob mounts Banjo in bad grace and I feel sorry for Miss Polkinghorn not knowing a storm is heading her way. To make it worse, we find Valmai is away. Jacob seems calmer when she’s there.

  The storm starts blowing soon after we’re inside and Miss Polkinghorn asks Jacob to take out his algebra book. He actually swears. Everyone’s mouths drop open in shock, even Miss Polkinghorn’s. He stands up and his chair falls backwards on to Harry’s desk, upsetting the inkpot over his exercise book.

  ‘Jacob, calm down.’ Even Harry looks worried. He’s madly blotting his page when Jacob storms out of the room, shouting. ‘I’m not staying here. It’s stupid.’

  ‘Jacob, come here.’ But he doesn’t listen to Miss Polkinghorn.

  ‘I’ll get him, Miss,’ Harry says.

  It’s not long before we can hear the sounds of a fisticuff. I can see Miss Polkinghorn is in a quandary. ‘Miss, I’ll see if I can help,’ I say.

  ‘Thank you, Kerenza. But please don’t interfere – or you may get hurt.’

  ‘They’re my cousins, Miss.’

  I’m cross with Jacob and Harry. It’ll be all over the district that they can’t control their tempers.

  ‘Hey!’ I don’t stand close. ‘You’re brothers – stop fighting.’

  ‘Keep out of it,’ Harry puffs at me. Just then Jacob lands a punch right in his face and Harry falls over at my feet. Jacob hauls him up ready for another punch.

  ‘Stop it!’ I scream. ‘Look at you, fighting because you can’t do what you want.’

  ‘You don’t understand anything,’ Jacob says.

  ‘And you can’t disrespect the teacher.’

  ‘Teacher?’ he sneers. ‘She’s only seventeen if that. What does she know?’

  ‘She knows more than you. She’s done training.’

  He stands back, watching Harry sit up. ‘Both of you are stupid, sticking up for her. She’s not a real teacher.’

  ‘If you bad mouth her again I’ll tell her you think she’s a goose,’ Harry says.

  ‘You can’t do that.’

  Harry wipes the blood off his nose with his handkerchief but he doesn’t take his gaze from Jacob. ‘Watch me.’

  Jacob calms down, and I leave them to work the rest out. I’ve never seen Harry cross Jacob like that, and it makes me grin.

  20

  Twenty-fifth of August, 1911

  Dear Wenna

  It’s been over a month since I wrote because it’s so busy here with school and our jobs to do. Elowen loves school now and can read her primer already. It rained twice and the grass is a bit greener. The seeding’s finished and Da and Uncle Malachi are putting up fences for the horses. Now we won’t have to tie them to the slip rail. Jacob’s digging a cellar for Mam to keep food in when it gets hotter. He likes doing jobs for her. The garden is growing well and we’ve eaten some spinach already. The carrots are small and some have grown crooked but they taste all right. It’s getting warmer again. Kitto and Elowen haven’t been sick once. But Mam is plump and tired. Can you guess why? I miss you. All my love from your sis, Kerenza

  The crop has only grown three inches and it hasn’t rained again. It’s a pity we can’t get buckets and tip water from the well on the crop like I do with the vegetables.

  The men look worried all the time now. Uncle Malachi shakes his head when he looks at the sky. ‘It’s as if the rain dried up.’

  When we see a cloud we shout like a boy in the crow’s nest of a tall ship sighting land. But the cloud never drifts close.

  Magpies do though. There must be a nest in the tree near the long drop, for today Elowen screams. I run out wondering if the goanna is back and I see her on the way to the long drop. There’s a magpie swooping on her from behind, trying to clip her ear. I race over, shouting to scare it off. Kitto has the best idea. He finds Mam’s black umbrella and opens it just as the magpie swoops. The magpie retreats to the tree and looks at the umbrella with a baleful eye. Now Kitto is the fearless magpie hunter and Elowen won’t go to the long drop without him. He even brings the umbrella for Mam and me. Mam is amused. ‘Though I fear the umbrella ‘twill be ruined.’ She’s probably right – all that opening and shutting, as well as the pecking.

  ‘It’s only for a few weeks,’ Harry says. ‘The male is protecting the new chicks.’

  Tonight in bed I hear howling. Is it a dingo? Would Rouge howl like that? It’s close, and there’s a squawk from the hen coop. Da jumps up from his mattress, finds the rifle and races outside. Elowen doesn’t stir, but I follow him out. Harry appears at the doorway of their tent-room. He grins at me in the moonlight.

  Da
growls at the animal. ‘Get out of it!’ And he fires over the coop. A shape jumps and lollops away. Looks like Jacob was right about a wild dog, but I hope it isn’t Rouge.

  ‘Dingo?’ I ask hopefully as he returns.

  He nods. ‘I got there in time. It will help when they finish the vermin fence past Pyap West.’

  Mam’s awake when Da and I lie down again but Elowen isn’t. I cuddle up beside her to keep warm and imagine Wenna is on my other side, the way we used to sleep. As I drop off I’m thinking of Winnie. I wish she’d come back.

  On Sunday afternoon, Mam says Elowen and I can ride Tilly to Valmai’s by ourselves. Elowen can ride better now, and I urge Tilly into a trot so we can arrive as quickly as we can. I’m tying Tilly’s reins on their slip rail outside the house when Valmai sees me.

  ‘What a surprise,’ she shouts from the doorway. ‘Come in.’ She takes us to the parlour where she sits at the piano and shows me her music. We sing songs together, even Elowen, but Valmai doesn’t ask me to play. ‘You are a good singer,’ she says. ‘You should have lessons.’

  ‘I was having lessons in Cornwall.’

  ‘So was I, in Adelaide.’ Her face looks rueful and then she smiles. ‘But I can pretend to be your teacher. I’ll tell you when you’re out of tune.’

  I’m not sure I like that idea.

  Elowen says, ‘She’s never out of tune.’

  Valmai grabs my arm. ‘We can apply for a scholarship at a school in Adelaide and then we’d have music lessons.’ Valmai’s talking as if she’s already decided for both of us and I have a strange thought: I don’t think I want to leave.

  ‘It must be fun living with Jacob and Harry,’ Valmai says. ‘Do you play card games at night?’ She says it as if they are her best friends, and I wonder if Harry would forget about showing me things in the scrub if Valmai was his friend too.

  Valmai rushes into the bedroom and returns with a book. ‘I have another story to lend you. It’s called The Little Black Princess. It’s about an Aboriginal girl called Bett-Bett. I like it because it’s about the Australian bush. The author calls it the Never-Never.’