Stay:The Last Dog in Antarctica

by Blackadder, Jesse

  But Kaboom was right; Stay couldn’t go anywhere with a big hole in her chest. There was no other choice: she’d have to say goodbye to Chills and stay at Davis.

  She wondered if Jet had felt as sad as she was feeling right then, when he said goodbye to his first family.

  Chapter 15

  Bear put Stay up on the bench and spent a long time examining her crushed foreleg. He pulled out a small saw and began to cut it away. To distract herself, Stay thought about Chills. He’d left that morning with Beakie to fly to Mawson Station, one of the other Australian bases, in a little Twin Otter plane.

  Stay had gone with the others to say goodbye at the airstrip, a long stretch of sea ice that had been smoothed over to make a flat, clear surface. It was a brilliant, sunny day, with a light breeze. The pilot was already inside, running through the pre-flight check, and the plane was ready to go.

  ‘I was counting on you to call up a blizzard,’ Chills said to Kaboom. ‘Could have kept me here a few days until Stay was fixed. Is this the best you could do?’

  Kaboom gave him a hug. ‘I tried. Have a great season. Say hi to those Adélies for me.’

  Chills hugged Laser and turned to Stay. He looks self-conscious, Stay thought, as if he was embarrassed to say goodbye. He patted her on the head.

  ‘Oh, go on, give her a hug,’ Kaboom said.

  Chills crouched and wrapped his arms around Stay. She remembered he’d done the same thing the very first time they met, on the street in front of the supermarket in Hobart, and she felt warm and sad, all at once.

  Beakie said goodbye to Kaboom and Laser and gave Stay a pat. Then he and Chills clambered into the plane and in a few minutes they had disappeared into the sky.

  ‘There!’ Bear said, breaking into Stay’s thoughts and bringing her back to the present. ‘We’ll get that socket nice and smooth, ready for your new leg.’

  Stay heard him open a drawer and rummage around inside. He came back holding a piece of brown paper and started rubbing the edges of the hole in her chest with it.

  It was sandpaper. It felt awful and Stay wanted to growl. If she’d had real fur, it would have been standing on end. The sandpaper rasped and scraped and made her whole body feel restless and itchy. It was worse than having her leg sawn off.

  ‘How’s it going, Pooh Bear?’

  Stay was relieved to hear Kaboom’s voice.

  Bear looked up and grinned. ‘I feel like a dentist fixing a broken tooth.’

  Stay shuddered at the same time as Kaboom pulled a face. ‘Yuck, I hate the dentist,’ she said. ‘I had to have a filling down here last season. The doctor was the dentist and the cook was helping out!’ She came closer and looked at Stay’s chest.

  Bear gave the hole a final rub with the sandpaper and stood back. ‘There we go. All ready for the new leg.’ He picked up a light-coloured block of wood from the bench.

  Kaboom frowned. ‘She’ll look very odd with a square leg.’

  ‘It won’t be square. I’ll carve her a leg just like the other one. It will take a little while, that’s all.’

  ‘Can I take her over to the Met office while you’re working on it?’ Kaboom asked. ‘It’s a bit lonely for her in here.’

  Bear shook his head. ‘I need her here for fitting and making sure the leg is the same as the other one. She can come over and live with you and the Met Fairies when she’s done. As long as no one else gets her first.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘She’s had a few visitors already. Quite the popular dog on station. Everyone thinks they’ve got the best spot for her.’

  Stay saw Kaboom’s face fall. ‘But I’m looking after her for Chills. She belongs to him. Don’t let anyone dognap her!’

  ‘She might need a little more security,’ Bear said. ‘I’ve got a chain and a thumping big padlock so no one can get her out of here. She’ll be safe. At least until her leg’s fixed.’

  ‘OK,’ Kaboom said. ‘Chain her up.’ She patted Stay on the head. ‘Goodbye, girl. See you soon.’

  Bear laid the wood down on the bench. ‘Sorry, old girl, but my shift’s starting. I’ll work on you again tonight.’

  He looped the heavy chain through Stay’s good leg and around the bench. She heard the click of the padlock closing and then the sound of his footsteps crossing the floor and the dull thud of the heavy door closing behind him.

  The sound echoed through the machinery shop. It had a hard concrete floor, and hundreds of tools lined the walls. It smelt of grease and oil and timber and metal. It wasn’t a bad smell. Rather interesting. Stay would have liked a chance to investigate more.

  She was starting to get a little bored when the door opened again and some expeditioners came in.

  ‘Here she is,’ the first one said.

  They clomped across the floor towards Stay. She didn’t know them, though she remembered seeing them at a distance on the ship.

  One of them picked up the chain and padlock and rattled it. ‘She’s locked up. How did they know we wanted to pinch her?’

  ‘Everyone wants to pinch her,’ the first one answered. ‘She’s the queen of the station.’

  Stay quite liked hearing that and she sat up a little taller. It was surprising how often she found herself the centre of attention in Antarctica.

  ‘For now,’ another one said. ‘They’ll all get sick of her soon. By the end of the season, she’ll be lying in a rubbish heap somewhere, forgotten. I bet you.’

  ‘Done!’ the first one said, and held out his hand to shake on it.

  ‘You’re an idiot,’ the third one said. ‘She’s not even a real dog.’

  ‘It just won’t be the same without the huskies here,’ the first one said. ‘They’re taking away our culture. It’s not fair.’

  They were all silent and Stay could feel that underneath their joking they were very sad. She wondered where the real dogs were. It would be fun to meet them. They could be her friends, like Jet had been. She wouldn’t mind some dogs to talk to.

  Perhaps these men would take her to the dogs? She looked at the short one, who’d said she was the queen of the station, and concentrated on him.

  ‘It’s a pity the huskies are all at Mawson,’ he said after a while. ‘I probably won’t get across there to see them this season, and after that it’ll be too late.’

  One of the others slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Tough luck, boyo. You’ll never have the joy of sledging with the huskies — unless you go to Minnesota. I hear some of them are being taken there when they leave Antarctica.’

  ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘Nope. These dogs are celebrities. The last dogs in Antarctica. There’ll be a huge crowd to welcome them back to Hobart. The old ones will retire to a life of luxury and the young ones will go to America and keep working.’

  ‘I heard there’s a litter of puppies,’ the first one said.

  ‘That’s right, three new ones. Misty, Cobber and Frosty. Born to Cardiff and Cocoa.’

  The third man scowled at Stay. ‘And all we get here is the broken-down plastic dog. It’s not fair!’

  ‘Come on, you guys,’ one said. ‘Let’s go. It’s cold in here. Bye-bye, broken doggie.’

  Stay wanted to lower her ears and drop her head. He didn’t seem friendly at all, and she shivered a little.

  The dogs were far away, at Mawson Station, where Chills and Beakie had gone on the plane. Chills was probably playing with those puppies right now. He’d forget her in a moment once he saw real dogs, especially pups.

  Those men were right. She’d probably end up thrown in a corner on the scrap heap or chucked into Warren. Her luck had turned bad as soon as she’d landed on Antarctica, and there was no way to get home now.

  Chapter 16

  ‘Hold her still!’

  Stay was lying upside down in a most undignified position, staring at the floor. She felt Kaboom take a tighter grip on her good leg. As if she could run away, even if she wanted to!

  ‘OK, I’m setting t
he new leg in the socket,’ Bear said. ‘Brace yourself, Kaboom.’

  Stay felt Kaboom’s hands tense around her body. The heavy piece of wood scraped and wrenched and then slid into place. Bear wedged her new foot into the depression on the fibreglass platform that supported Stay. He gave it a tug. It fitted perfectly.

  ‘I’ll just put a little glue around the edge to make sure it doesn’t move.’ Stay felt the cold glue glugging around the socket where the new leg was fixed. Bear rubbed it carefully with a rag and gave her new leg a final polish. Then he turned her up the right way again, to Stay’s relief. He carried her across the room to the bench and sat her up.

  ‘There!’ Kaboom said, and clapped her hands. ‘You’ve done a fantastic job, Bear. It looks just like the other leg.’

  Bear dusted his hands on his pants and grinned. ‘No problem. It was fun to have a little project.’

  ‘You’re a good carver,’ Kaboom said, looking closely at his handiwork. ‘You’ve made an exact match. Even the paw is the same. Now can I take her over to the Met office?’

  ‘Sure,’ Bear said. ‘I want to get started on carving something else anyway.’

  He gave Stay a quick pat on the head and turned away. Stay had the feeling he was going to miss her, though he didn’t say anything. He’d spent hours on her new leg. He liked to listen to guitar music while he was carving. ‘The blues,’ he’d told her. ‘Best music in the world.’ Stay had quite enjoyed the long hours of music as Bear chiselled and sanded.

  Kaboom picked Stay up and headed out of the machinery shop. On the way through Stay noticed there were lots of people working. One section seemed to be for carpentry, another for mechanics and another for plumbing.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind leaving here,’ Kaboom said. ‘It’s a very cool place. People work on all sorts of interesting projects, especially over winter when they can’t go outside as much. But the Met office is nice too. We have a view over the bay, and everyone drops in to ask us what the temperature will be. Plus we let off a weather balloon twice every day.’

  She opened a heavy external door and the sunlight came blazing in, dazzling Stay for a moment. There was a rush of cold, crisp air as they stepped outside. Davis Station’s colourful buildings looked even brighter than usual.

  Kaboom set off down the road towards the frozen bay, treading carefully over the icy bits. Snow had fallen, melted and refrozen on the road, making a messy patchwork of icy mud. Stay felt a bit nervous about Kaboom slipping and dropping her — the last time she’d been dropped on the ice had been a disaster — but Kaboom knew the best way to get around the scary bits and they soon reached the Meteorology building. Kaboom pushed open another heavy door with her hip, stamped her feet on a metal grille just inside to remove the mud and snow, and carried Stay inside.

  ‘Ta da!’ she said when they reached the main office.

  Three people sitting at desks looked up and when they saw Stay they jumped to their feet and came over to make a fuss.

  ‘Oh, didn’t he do a good job?’ one of them said. ‘Perfect match.’

  ‘Stay, meet the Met Fairies,’ Kaboom said. ‘These are Rain and Hail, our weather forecasters, and this is Shine, the other weather observer with me. Shine and I have the important job of recording all the weather. The weather guessers are only here so they can tell the pilots if it’s safe to fly.’

  ‘Very funny,’ Hail said. ‘Is she staying here with us now?’

  ‘Sure is,’ Kaboom said. She looked around. ‘How about we put her in front of the window? Then she’ll have a great view outside, and people passing by can see her.’

  They all agreed and shortly Stay was sitting in front of what felt like her own special window, looking out at the sea ice in front of Davis Station.

  Shine looked at her watch. ‘Shift change,’ she said. ‘Kaboom and Rain, you’re on duty. Hail, want to come to the LQ?’

  ‘Sure,’ Hail said. ‘Let’s go.’

  Kaboom started putting on a grey coat. ‘Stay, you can watch from here. I’ll be filling the big white weather balloon up with hydrogen and then letting it off just down there. It goes up into the atmosphere and takes readings on air pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed.’

  ‘Enough with the weather lesson and get going!’ Shine said. ‘You’ll be late.’

  ‘Give me a little wave when you see me, OK, girl?’ Kaboom said.

  ‘Kaboom, you’re talking to the animals again,’ Hail said. ‘I’m getting worried about you.’

  They all laughed as Kaboom put up the hood of her coat and went out the door, followed by Shine and Hail. While Stay waited for Kaboom to appear, she looked out at the bay. It really was very beautiful in front of the station. She knew that the two rocky islands rising up from the sea ice were Gardner Island and Anchorage Island. Out in the far distance she could see tiny black shapes moving in funny, uneven lines — penguins making their way out to the navy stripe of the open sea.

  Kaboom came out of the Met building holding a white balloon about fifty times bigger than any balloon Stay had ever seen. She walked down away from the building to a clear space in the snow and looked up to see if Stay was watching. Stay felt a little thrill.

  ‘Ah, there she is,’ a voice said behind her. ‘All nicely fixed up.’

  Stay ignored the voice as Kaboom released the balloon and it sprang into the air, floating quickly upwards into the sky. It was amazing how fast it rose.

  ‘Hi, Dux,’ she heard Rain say. ‘What brings you to Met today?’

  ‘A certain dog,’ he said.

  The balloon had nearly disappeared. Kaboom was waving up at her and Stay wished she could wag her tail to show her that she’d seen it.

  Then a big pair of hands took hold of her and lifted her up, away from the observation window.

  ‘She’s coming back up to the Last Husky,’ Dux said, ‘so everyone can enjoy her.’

  ‘But Kaboom is looking after her!’ Rain said. ‘She belongs to Chills.’

  ‘She belongs to the Royal Guide Dogs, I believe,’ Dux said. ‘I want her where I can keep an eye on her.’

  Stay sent out a thought to Kaboom to hurry back upstairs. She liked the Met office and she’d be happy to stay there with Rain, Hail, Shine and Kaboom. The bar was too loud and too unpredictable. Everyone who wanted to dognap her could find her there. But she was too late.

  ‘You’re coming with me, old girl,’ Dux said.

  He tucked Stay under his arm, clomped down the stairs and headed outside before Kaboom reappeared. Like it or not, Stay was going back to the Last Husky.

  Chapter 17

  The wind whirled around the station and Stay could hear the sound of sleet hitting the windows like little stones. The sea ice was breaking up, and the strong wind was blowing it from the bay out to sea, revealing the water underneath. The miserable view from the LQ windows made her glad she was inside.

  She didn’t have that much else to be glad about. When Dux had brought her back to the LQ and put her up on the bar, he’d borrowed the big chain and padlock from Bear and locked her down tightly. No one could move her.

  He patted her on the head. ‘Stay there and make some money for the Royal Guide Dogs. No more mischief!’

  It wasn’t me who got into mischief! Stay thought, but he didn’t seem to hear her thought the way Chills or Kaboom would have.

  And so she stayed. Every evening after work was finished, most expeditioners gathered at the Last Husky to talk about their day over a couple of drinks. The Brewmaster was a popular person, Stay could see, and she learnt a lot about station life by listening in on the conversations.

  At first she was very popular. Almost every day someone would stand next to her, take a photo, give her a pat, or talk about where they wanted to take her. One wanted her to come to a place called Platcha Hut for the weekend, a little orange field hut next to a fjord where a small group was going hiking and playing cards, a trip they called a jolly. Another wanted her to come over to the Greenstore and s
ee how the year’s supplies were packed and retrieved. A biologist wanted to take her looking for specimens on the sea bed in the bay once the ice melted, and Shine the weather observer kept talking about taking Stay to Woop Woop, which turned out to be an inland airstrip where the planes could land once the sea ice had broken up. Laser wanted Stay to visit the LIDAR building, from which they shot a laser beam up into the sky and examined something called polar mesospheric clouds.

  But gradually, as they all settled in to their lives on station, people stopped noticing Stay. No one talked to her directly when they were with their friends, probably because of being teased. They didn’t even put money into her. No one used money in Antarctica, Stay had realised, and so they didn’t carry it. All the meals were supplied in the Mess and the kitchen slushy always set out fruit and bread and biscuits for anyone needing snacks. There was a big store cupboard called Woolies, where they went for supplies like soap and shampoo and sunscreen. Nothing was for sale.

  Everyone on station was busy, and when they finished a shift they were often tired. When Stay had first arrived, the sun had only dipped below the horizon in the middle of the night, creating just a few hours of twilight, with brilliant sunsets that turned the sky every shade from orange to purple. But now the sun didn’t set at all — and wouldn’t go down for another six weeks. People found it hard to sleep properly and they were sometimes snappy with each other. Stay heard them talk about having ‘big eye’, which meant not being able to sleep because it was too bright. She thought it was a silly saying — most people who couldn’t sleep had slitty eyes, not big eyes.

  Stay missed the way Chills had talked with her as if he could hear her thoughts. He could hear them, she was sure. Kaboom still talked to her like that, but she was busy with work and Stay didn’t see her that much. She felt lonelier in the midst of that big crowd than she had even on all those long nights alone on the streets of Hobart. It didn’t matter how hard she looked at someone and willed them to set her free, they couldn’t. She was chained up. Trapped. And not an adventure in sight. When she heard that the elephant seals had arrived in their summer mud wallow down on the beach near the station, she couldn’t rush out with everyone else to see them groaning and rolling around to loosen their old skins and let them peel off. The Adélie penguins over on Gardner Island were laying their eggs and, before the sea ice was completely gone, people hiked over to watch them. Stay couldn’t do any of it.