Despite his previous bad experiences, Rusty put his head close to Junie’s and – to everyone’s surprise – the cat rewarded him with a lick on the snout before flicking her tail and stalking up the back steps to the door. If Alice-Miranda didn’t know better, she would have sworn the cat sat there impatiently tapping her paw.
When Barnaby opened the back door, Junie was the first one inside. Rusty followed her, his tail wagging. The pair of them disappeared down the hallway past the large country kitchen.
Following the animals in, Larry put the kettle on while Barnaby pulled some mugs from the cupboard.
‘Hayden can you organise some drinks?’ the man said to his son. ‘Oh, and the bathroom’s down the hall if anyone needs it. Turn right into the other hallway and it’s the last door on the left.’
‘Is there still a phone in the study?’ Hugh asked.
Barnaby nodded. ‘Everything okay?’
‘We’re not sure. We went to visit Sprocket in town and he told us a half-baked story about some bloke called Taipan Dan going missing. Apparently Dan’s place is locked up tight and he’s gone, along with his cat, Junie, which is the name on the collar of that haughty creature you’ve just met.’
‘We found her about two hours from town,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘We couldn’t just leave her there in the middle of nowhere.’
Jacinta sniffed. ‘The pterodactyls would have eaten her quick smart.’
Hayden and Larry looked at one another, frowning. Lucas shook his head and pressed his finger to his lips.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ he mouthed.
‘Anyway, there was no sign of Dan,’ Lawrence said. ‘But half an hour on we came across a white Hilux abandoned on the side of the road. It had an esky full of food inside, jerry cans with diesel in the back and three quarters of a tank of fuel, as well as a whole lot of tools – shovels and the like. The engine fired first go. We had a bit of a look around but couldn’t see anyone – and there weren’t really too many places to hide.’
Barnaby’s brow furrowed. ‘I’ve come across a fair number of breakdowns over the years, but that seems odd.’
The others agreed.
‘Yes, I thought I’d give Sprocket a call and see what else he knows – if I can get him to focus for more than a few seconds – and then I was going to report the ute to the police in Coober Pedy. Just in case they wanted to investigate,’ Hugh said.
‘Oh, and I found this on the road near the car.’ Alice-Miranda pulled the ancient piece of paper with the squiggly lines out of her pocket and passed it to Barnaby. ‘It has Hope Springs written on the bottom. Do you think it means anything?’
He studied the page. ‘Looks like a map. Strange you found it blowing about in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of old records in the ledgers in my father’s study that might help you figure it out.’
‘Don’t you mean your study, Dad,’ Larry corrected the man.
Barnaby gave a sad laugh. ‘Of course. I guess I still think of it as my father’s even though he’s been gone for a very long time. You’re welcome to take a look and see if there’s anything interesting among all the old books, Alice-Miranda. Perhaps the missing part is somewhere there.’
‘May I take a look?’ Hayden asked.
Barnaby passed him the paper while Hugh took his mug and walked down the hallway to make his calls.
‘Maybe it’s a treasure map?’ the boy said. ‘Molly says there’s a legend of an opal reef somewhere on Hope Springs.’
‘Really!’ Millie exclaimed. ‘Where?’
‘Well, if we knew that we’d have found it by now,’ Hayden said with a grin. ‘And Mum and Dad would be rich and we could move to the city.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Larry scoffed as she walked into the pantry. ‘We’re never moving to the city!’
‘Molly’s been telling that story for years, and another one about some thief who made off with a big bag of opals from Coober Pedy and hid it out here somewhere,’ Barnaby said. ‘I’m not sure that either of them is true. It’s a bit like the legend of Lasseter’s Reef – a supposedly massive gold deposit on the western edge of the MacDonnell Ranges. No one knows if it really exists. The idea of a reef of gold or opals, not just a seam, is pretty wild. But if you kids can find it, well, that would make life easier for sure.’
Millie and Alice-Miranda turned to look at one another, their eyes glinting. ‘An outback mystery! Now that’s intriguing,’ Alice-Miranda said.
Larry returned with a large cake inside a dome, and set it on the table. ‘Dad and I made this yesterday. It won’t be anywhere near as good as Molly’s, but we used her chocolate cake recipe and the batter tasted yummy.’ Larry began to cut the confection, which was sprinkled with a fine layer of icing sugar. Alice-Miranda helped put the pieces onto plates and pass them around.
‘So I gather the difference between a reef and a seam is that a reef is a huge wall of minerals and a seam is what we saw at Sprocket’s place – just a line of colour through the rock face?’ the girl asked. She’d been thinking about the difference since Barnaby had mentioned the words.
‘You got it,’ Barnaby said with a nod. ‘I don’t think anyone’s ever found a reef of opals – it’s an old wives’ tale.’
Jacinta could think of something she definitely didn’t want to find. ‘You don’t have any of those dinosaur lizards around here do you?’ she said, then took a sip of her lemon cordial.
‘What do you mean?’ Hayden asked.
‘You know, that Chlam-thing,’ Jacinta said. ‘What was it called again, Millie?’
‘Chlamydosaurus,’ the girl grinned. ‘Also known as a frill-necked lizard.’
‘It’s not a lizard,’ Jacinta said. ‘It’s a dinosaur and you can’t tell me any different.’
‘Why would you think that?’ Larry asked.
Jacinta explained the trauma of her earlier encounter.
‘Molly says they bring bad luck,’ Hayden said. ‘She lives here with Ralph and their family, but they’re away on Sorry Business at the moment.’
‘Dad told us,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘Will they be back soon?’
‘We hope so,’ Larry took another bite of her cake then lowered her voice. ‘Dad’s a terrible cook – he burns everything. It’s a wonder we haven’t starved to death.’ Fortunately her father and Lawrence were too deep in conversation at the other end of the table for Barnaby to notice the jibe.
‘Why does Molly think frill-necks are bad luck?’ Millie asked. She hadn’t come across any information about that in her guide book.
‘She’s always telling us Dreaming stories, but the one about how the lizard got its frill makes her cranky,’ Hayden said. ‘She says they’re greedy show-offs.’
‘Well, the one we met was terrifying,’ Jacinta shuddered.
‘I don’t remember ever seeing one out here,’ Larry said. She looked at her father. ‘Excuse me, Dad, have you ever seen a frill-necked lizard on Hope Springs?’
Barnaby shook his head. ‘No, and don’t talk to Molly about them.’
‘That’s what we just said,’ Hayden added.
Alice-Miranda hopped up and headed down the hallway to the toilet, peering into the lounge room on the way.
‘Oh my goodness!’ she exclaimed. ‘Everyone, come and take a look at this!’
There was a screech of chairs on floorboards as Larry led the others to the room.
In the middle of the threadbare Persian rug, Rusty was lying stretched out on his side, sound asleep.
‘I think Junie’s found herself a new best friend,’ Alice-Miranda said.
The cat was perched on the dog’s body busily giving Rusty a bath.
‘Dad, we have to keep her,’ Larry begged. ‘They were made for each other.’
Barnaby chuckled. ‘Well, that is one of the strangest things I’ve seen in a while.’
‘Oh, they’re too adorable for words,’ Alice-Miranda said.
Jacinta and Lucas lingered at the back of the group. Jaci
nta smiled at the boy and he gave her a nudge. ‘So cute,’ Lucas said. ‘Like you.’
Jacinta blushed as Lucas held her hand while no one was looking.
Millie ran to the kitchen to grab her camera from her backpack.
‘Surely this has to win me the school photography competition,’ she said, and snapped away.
By the time the family and friends had finished their afternoon tea it was almost time to start dinner. Barnaby had planned a barbecue and Lawrence offered to do the cooking. It was the least he could do as a guest. That, and he’d had one ear on the children’s earlier conversation about Barnaby’s habit of burning everything. He liked his steaks medium-rare and it sounded like Barnaby was more a fan of charred-to-death.
After their discovery of Junie and Rusty’s fledgling love affair, the children had been shown to their sleeping quarters. Lucas was in the second bed in Hayden’s room, while the girls were shown to a sleep-out in an enclosed section of the back veranda, which held three sets of bunk beds and a couch as well as an ancient television set. Larry was moving out of her room for Hugh, and Lawrence had the guest bedroom.
They also had a good look through the house. It had a breezy wide screened veranda running all the way around, and was intersected by hallways that ran front to back, east and west, north and south. There were high ceilings with ornate plaster cornices, ceiling roses and antique light fittings. The timber flooring and joinery harked back to a different era, although it appeared that someone had installed a ‘new’ kitchen half a century ago, with a giant old-fashioned cooker in the middle of the original fireplace. The cupboards had been painted white and, even though it was old, the whole room was fresh and clean.
Now, Millie was out taking photographs in the garden with Lucas and Jacinta while Hayden played tour guide. Alice-Miranda had just brought her suitcase in from the car when she bumped into her father on his way to find Barnaby and Lawrence.
‘Did you get hold of Sprocket, Daddy?’ she asked.
Hugh shook his head. ‘No, he didn’t answer, but that’s not unusual. I did speak to the police in Coober Pedy and they’re going to send a car out tomorrow to have a look at that ute. They can’t get there today. A nasty accident has blocked the highway and it’s all hands on deck dealing with that.’
‘Did you tell the police about Junie?’ Alice-Miranda asked.
‘Sure did,’ her father replied. ‘They said they’d go and check on Taipan Dan, but apparently he’s quite the hermit. It’s no surprise he and Sprocket are mates – they’re both a trifle odd.’
‘I wonder why Junie was out there in the bush? Sprocket said that she and Taipan Dan were inseparable. I don’t like that she was all alone,’ Alice-Miranda said. She hated to think that something bad might have happened to the man.
Her father could only nod in agreement. He found the situation perplexing too.
‘I’m going to help Larry with dinner,’ the girl called after her father as he headed down the hall to the screened veranda.
Larry walked out of the pantry with some potatoes. She plonked them on the bench and pulled a saucepan from a cupboard under the bench. Then she picked up a peeler.
‘What would you like me to do?’ Alice-Miranda asked.
‘There’s a lettuce in the fridge, and some tomatoes and a cucumber too,’ Larry replied. ‘Maybe you could throw them together in a salad?’
Alice-Miranda nodded and went to retrieve the items. ‘Do you grow your own fruit and vegetables?’
‘Mum and Molly have a garden at the side of the house, but we haven’t been able to water too much lately. Since the bore’s broken, we have to save what’s left in the tanks for drinking and showers. You’ll have to let everyone know that it’s a three-minute limit and only once a day,’ Larry explained.
‘That’s fine,’ Alice-Miranda said, though she would have a quiet word to Jacinta, who was known to spend a questionable amount of time in the bathroom at school each morning. Their housemistress, Mrs Clarkson, was always telling her to hurry up and stop wasting water.
Alice-Miranda asked where she could find a salad bowl and set about pulling the lettuce apart, washing the leaves in the sink. She cut the tomatoes and cucumbers and added them too.
‘What’s it like living out here, so far from a town?’ Alice-Miranda asked. ‘It must be hard to make friends.’
‘I love it,’ Larry said. ‘It’s really peaceful, and there’s something about the size of everything. It gives you a sense of wonder, I suppose – that we’re so small in the world. Not in a bad way, though. Wait until you see the stars tonight.’
Alice-Miranda smiled. Larry sounded like an old head on young shoulders.
‘Lucas and I stared at the sky for an hour last night. It was one of the most magical things I’ve ever seen,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘I can imagine it will be even better out here.’
‘I’ll see if Dad will let us bring Grandad’s telescope out,’ Larry said. ‘As for friends, well, I know other kids from the School of the Air and every now and then we meet up in Coober Pedy or Alice Springs, but I don’t mind really. We’ve got Molly’s grandchildren, River and Storm, to play with. They’re like our other younger brother and sister. Stormy is so clever and seriously, River’s a cattle whisperer – the cows love him. He taught me how to hypnotise Molly’s chooks too.’
‘I’d love to see that,’ Alice-Miranda said.
‘We can try after dinner,’ Larry said.
‘Does Hayden enjoy it as much as you do?’ the girl asked. She was hunting around in the pantry and found a tin of beetroot, which she opened and poured into a bowl.
Larry shook her head. ‘No way. He can’t wait to go to boarding school in Adelaide, and then he says after school he’s going straight to uni and leaving for good. He wants to be a pilot and live in a high-rise apartment overlooking the beach. I couldn’t think of anything worse. It would feel like a prison to me. I suppose the one good thing would be less snakes.’
‘Are you going to boarding school too?’ Alice-Miranda asked.
‘Not if I have anything to say about it,’ the girl replied, peeling the last potato before lighting the gas stovetop. ‘Mum and Dad have booked me in, but I would much rather stay here.’
‘You never know – you might like it,’ Alice-Miranda said as she looked in the drawers for some cutlery. She began to set the long kitchen table. ‘Millie and Jacinta and I all go together and we have a great time. I can’t imagine being at a regular day school any more, though I know it’s not for everyone. Some girls get terribly homesick, but we do our best to make everyone feel welcome.’
‘We’ll see,’ Larry said, helping to put out some glasses. ‘Maybe if Mum and Dad make me go, I could come and do an exchange at your school – the way Uncle Hugh did when he met Dad.’
‘That sounds like a great plan,’ Alice-Miranda said. She began to tell Larry all about Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale, and the teachers and other students, and the way Miss Grimm used to be miserable but now she was lots of fun and had a little girl called Agnes who everyone called Aggie. By the time the girl finished, Larry didn’t seem nearly as averse to the idea of boarding school as she had been to start with.
The telephone rang.
‘Can you keep an eye on the potatoes for me?’ Larry asked, flinging the tea towel that had been over her shoulder onto the edge of a chair. She raced to answer the old handset on the wall inside the huge walk-in pantry.
The potatoes came to the boil and Alice-Miranda turned the gas down and let them simmer. Then she went to the fridge to find some butter to spread over the top of them when they were done. She closed the door and turned around as Larry walked back into the room, her face ashen.
‘Is something the matter?’ Alice-Miranda put the butter on the bench and hurried over to the girl.
‘That was Laura – she and Cameron are our closest neighbours over at Darley’s Creek. We share a boundary about one hundred kilometres to the east. Their four-year-old daughter, Matil
da, is missing. Laura thought she was with Cameron and he thought she was with Laura, but they worked out she’s likely been gone since early afternoon and one of their dogs is missing too.’
‘That doesn’t sound good,’ Alice-Miranda said. She couldn’t imagine being out there on her own. You’d be lost in no time. ‘Can we help?’
‘That’s why Laura called. She wanted to know if Dad was home. We have a helicopter in the back shed and there’s still an hour or so of light left,’ Larry said.
‘Go! I’ll finish getting this ready,’ Alice-Miranda said, just as Hayden and the other kids charged up the back steps and onto the veranda.
Larry rushed past them as they entered the kitchen.
‘What’s up with her?’ Hayden asked, heading straight for the fridge to get some cold water for everyone.
‘Emergency at your neighbours’ place,’ Alice-Miranda said, and told them what she knew.
‘We can’t just sit here and do nothing,’ Larry protested, while stabbing at a piece of perfectly cooked beef.
‘Dad said that there was no point us going out and getting lost tonight too,’ Hayden said.
‘As if that would happen to me,’ Larry rolled her eyes. ‘I know every inch of Hope Springs.’
‘No you don’t,’ her brother retorted. ‘Dad says there are places he’s never seen, and he’s been here a lot longer than we have. Stop showing off.’
Larry poked her tongue out at her brother and her freckles turned a darker shade of red.
‘Your father said that if Matilda’s still missing in the morning, we’ll make a plan and help with the search,’ Lucas said as he picked up another sausage and put it on his plate.
Barnaby had taken the chopper – a four-seater R44 that was used for mustering – to try to spot Matilda. The man didn’t like to fly much any more and, after a particularly close call he’d made sure never to mention to Evie, had paid for Molly’s son, Buddy, to get his licence down in Adelaide a few years ago. Buddy was a gun pilot – not afraid of anything. He could mix it with the best of the chopper cowboys in the bush.
Alice-Miranda in the Outback Page 6