On the morning of his departure, just after dawn, Mick went for his last walk with Blue, to the place where he had found his first petroglyph, that day so many months ago when he had gone out looking for snakes, armed only with Granpa’s rhyme. As he scrambled up among the rocks, he noticed something hanging in a bush that looked curiously familiar. He laughed with amazement and delight, and went to collect it, turning it over in his hands, smiling, and putting it over his head to make Blue bark. It was very bleached by the sun, and there was a crack on one side, but it was nothing that Taylor Pete couldn’t mend.
When Mick got home he presented it to his grandfather, who said, ‘My word! You found that?’ He took it from his grandson and laughed. ‘I’ve been missing this, even though we got a new one. This is the real thing, this is. Thanks, son.’
It was the wooden seat from the dunny, which had been whirled away by the cyclone.
Mick said goodbye to Lamington, and the horses, and the small black pigs, and the chooks, and to Blue, who sensed Mick’s sadness, and consented to sit still on the veranda with Mick’s arm around him until the plane arrived.
Dressed in his best and only suit, with the roo’s toe bone in his trouser pocket, Mick made his way with Blue, Taylor Pete and Grandad to the makeshift landing strip. Pete insisted on carrying Mick’s case, which contained only a few clothes, his roo’s femur and his torch. Granpa had asked him to leave his cricket bat behind, so that they would have one when he came back. When the droning of the little Cessna was heard in the distance, Taylor Pete took a small bag out of his pocket, closed with a drawstring. ‘Here, mate,’ was all he said. Mick opened it and peered in. It contained a small red rock and a handful of red earth. Mick closed the pouch up again and put it in his pocket.
Pete bent down and scooped up some red dust. ‘Put your hands out, mate,’ he said, and he meticulously rubbed the dust into Mick’s palms, and in between the fingers. ‘No escape now,’ he said.
Mick was taken away by the same Cessna that had delivered him so long ago, piloted by the same crazy man, who came in to land, ran his wheels along the ground and then looped up before returning.
As the plane taxied to a halt beside them, Taylor Pete shook Mick’s hand, and Granpa hugged him round the shoulder. Granpa said, ‘Thanks for taming Willy. It’s a shame he went. I’ll get another thoroughbred for when you come back.’
The boy went down on his knees and put his arms around the dog’s neck. Then, too numb to speak or to cry, dressed in his suit, with dust on his knees, and his hands stained red, Mick climbed into the aircraft, and left the Pilbara.
As the plane banked away in the direction of Port Hedland, Mick looked down and saw the homestead, and Taylor Pete and his grandfather still waving, becoming smaller and smaller. Then he noticed a dark-red spot hurtling along behind, in pursuit of the plane, kicking up a small trail of ochre dust in his wake.
Blue got as far as Cossack before he lost the last lingering scent of aviation fuel.
AFTERWORD
THIS BOOK CAME about in a peculiar manner. After the success of the film of Red Dog, its producer, Nelson Woss, who was by now bonkers about red cloud kelpies, decided to make a prequel.
We know almost nothing about Red Dog before he became the Pilbara Wanderer, although we do know that he was originally called Blue. Nelson’s film would necessarily be a fantasy. When it was in the can, it occurred to him that it might be a good idea to have it novelised so that a book could come out at the same time as the film, in 2016.
When the idea was suggested to me, I was very hostile to it, as I am far too grand and snobbish to turn other people’s stories into novels, and in any case I was busy with an enormous trilogy. However, I then read the script, which I liked enormously, and decided that I was not too grand after all. Furthermore, I am almost as bonkers about Western Australia as Nelson is about red cloud kelpies, and I knew I would take pleasure in travelling back there, even if only in my imagination. Like Red Dog, this book was written for twelve-year-olds, and will probably be read mainly by adults.
Novelists are routinely appalled and dismayed by what scriptwriters and film directors do to their stories. I have therefore been completely shameless about diverging from the script, excellent though it is, because revenge is sweet.
Louis de Bernières
GLOSSARY OF AUSTRALIANISMS
Anzac bickies: sweet biscuits popular in Australia and New Zealand.
Bandicoot: Australian marsupial, looks a little like a rat.
Barramundi: kind of fish.
Blue: violent dispute.
Boondocks: the middle of nowhere.
Boomer: large male kangaroo.
Brumby: wild horse.
Bull catcher: vehicle equipped with a large bull bar at the front.
Bunaga: this is a kinship term, relating to skin groups or moieties.
Bundy: Bundaberg rum, a popular Australian rum. Every Aussie gets horribly drunk on it at least once in a lifetime.
Bunyip: large creature from Aboriginal mythology that lurked in swamps and other waterways. It has entered mainstream Australian folklore.
Bush tucker: food sourced from the outback.
Daggy: ill-kempt.
Damper: crude bread made without yeast, much relied on by the early pioneers.
Dinkum: genuine, honest.
Dreamtime: the spiritual belief of Australian Aborigines about the origin of the Earth and its creation stories.
Drongo: slow-witted person.
Dugong: marine mammal that looks a bit like a seal.
Dunny: lavatory.
Esky: insulated plastic hamper for keeping food and drink cool when you are travelling.
Full as a goog: very drunk.
Galah: kind of cockatoo. Can also mean a fool or an idiot.
Garfish: long, thin fish, also known as a sea needle.
Goanna: kind of lizard. There are about 30 different species of goanna, and their length can be anything from 20 centimetres to 2.5 metres.
Going bush: disappearing on your own.
Gum trees: eucalyptus trees. Australia has an amazing number of different kinds.
Gwardar: kind of snake. Highly venomous.
Jackaroo: young man who works on a sheep or cattle station.
Libby’s: company known for its tinned food.
Longneck: bottle of beer.
Maban: Aboriginal leader who is believed to have spiritual powers.
Mob: group of animals.
More front than Myer’s: to be very confident. The phrase refers to Myer, a large department store in Melbourne with a wide shopfront.
Mulla mulla: species of plant that grows in abundance throughout the Pilbara.
Perentie: biggest Australian lizard; it can be up to 2.5 metres long.
Pigsnout sandwich: enormous sandwich suitable for a really greedy person.
Pilbara: mining region in Western Australia.
Poinciana tree: type of tree with vivid orange or scarlet flowers.
Red cloud kelpie: type of Australian sheepdog.
Sandgroper: someone from Western Australia.
Snaggers: sausages.
Spinifex: prickly undergrowth.
Station: rural property where sheep and cattle are raised.
Stiff bickies: bad luck.
Stubbie: small beer bottle.
Swagman: from Australian folklore, a person who travelled around the country on foot, carrying with him his personal belongings – his swag – usually wrapped in a bedroll.
Tinnie: can of beer.
Ute: pickup truck.
VoVos: kind of biscuit topped with raspberry jam and coconut.
Walkabout: whitefella term for a wander in the wilderness. Originally part of the initiation of young Aborigines.
Woop Woop: imaginary outback town a long way from anywhere.
Yakka: work.
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Epub ISBN: 9781473545748
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Harvill Secker, an imprint of Vintage,
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Harvill Secker is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
Copyright © Louis de Bernières 2016
Illustrations © Alan Baker 2016
Based on a screenplay by Daniel Taplitz
Executive Producer – Nelson Woss
Louis de Bernières has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Excerpts from ‘Alone in the Evening Shadows’ and ‘Australia’ from The Drover’s Cook & Other Verses, published by Hesperian Press in 1984
Every effort has been made to trace and contact all holders of copyright in quotations. If there are any inadvertent omissions or errors, the publishers will be pleased to correct these at the earliest opportunity.
First published by Harvill Secker in 2016
www.penguin.co.uk/vintage
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781910701997
Blue Dog Page 9