by Tony Birch
‘I’ve got to call in just along here a bit. Have to pick up a mate.’
‘Pick up a –’
‘Hey, it don’t need explaining. He’s coming back with us. We’ve got some work on.’
‘What work?’
‘Enough!’ Ray shouted at her as he thumped the steering wheel with his fist. ‘Fucken enough.’
The road was rough but it didn’t stop Ray from driving faster. He gripped the wheel and stared through the windscreen. He didn’t slow until he saw two rusted milk cans guarding a track leading into a farm. He turned in and headed for a house in the distance.
The house was unpainted fibro, the walls covered in a grey mould and the tin roof so rusted it was dirt-brown. Behind the house we pulled up alongside a car graveyard: thirty or maybe forty wrecks parked in the weeds and long grass. Some of the cars had no doors. Others had missing side panels and bonnets. And a couple sat on low brick stacks with their wheels missing. One car was parked on its own next to the back veranda of the house. It looked expensive and almost brand new, except for a damaged front panel. And it had been cut clean in half.
As soon as Ray got out of the car we heard loud barking. When two large dogs ran out from behind a shed and charged at him, he jumped back in the car and locked the door. The dogs were covered in mud and dust and grease and shit. One of them ran around the car snarling. Gwen wound up her window just as the other dog jumped at her and butted the glass with its head. Its face was covered in scabs and old cuts and, when it opened its jaws, I could see it had a mouthful of broken teeth. Rachel jumped down from the seat onto the floor and squeezed herself behind the driver’s seat.
Gwen screamed at Ray to do something, but he was just as frightened as the rest of us and couldn’t move.
The dogs went quiet all of a sudden. I looked across the yard and saw an old man hobbling towards the car. He was dragging a leather whip behind him. His skin was black and his bare arms looked like charcoaled tree branches.
He stopped and spoke quietly to the dogs, ‘Get off, you fellas, get off.’
When they didn’t move he threw his arm back and cracked the whip across the back of the dog at Gwen’s window. It jumped in the air and slammed itself against the car door. Rachel screamed and the dog circling the car took off from where it had come from, yelping in pain, like it had been whipped too.
The old man gave the second dog a couple more cracks before it gave up. It dropped down from the car, looked at the old man and opened the side of its mouth and snarled. Yellow froth dripped from its cracked tongue. The old man raised the whip in the air to be sure the dog got a good look at it.
‘You get off, old fella. Or you can have some more of this, here. You don’t wanna try me, boy.’
The dog slowly backed off and waddled away. Ray wouldn’t get out of the car until both dogs were well out of sight. When he did, he and the old man gave each other a hug and slapped each other on the back and laughed.
‘Jesus Christ, Magic. Fuck. He should keep them locked up. They’ll end up tearing someone to pieces.’
The old man chuckled as he ran the whip through his hand. ‘Oh, they’ve already done that, Ray boy. Killed plenty. That’s why we keep the buggas. You was shitting your pants there,’ he said, laughing. He nodded towards the road beyond the farm. ‘We been letting them fellas run loose. Had a bit of trouble lately.’
‘He never said a word of it to me. Spoke to him on the phone yesterday.’
‘Not the stuff ya talk about on the phone. You know better than that, yaself. We been sellin a cut-and-shut two weeks gone. Flash car. Import. Don’t work out for the fella buyin. Wants his money back. Boss says no and that fella’s not happy. Not one bit. Says him and his crew be payin us a visit. An they will, soon enough.’
‘They serious?’
‘Oh yeah. Serious. But you know what he’s like. Serious too, with money. We sold it fair and square and they take a risk. That’s the business. Always been the way. He won’t be givin them boys a thing without some trouble to go with it.’
Ray looked over at the house. ‘He inside?’
‘Yeah. Got a mighty sore head. Finished cookin last night. Had a big night. Run up a card game for the lads off the farms. Pay day out here. They come over for the game.’
‘He win?’
‘Maybe. Maybe not. He never tell me. Cunnin bugga with money. You know that, good as me, Ray.’
Ray walked around to the passenger-side window and tapped on the glass. Gwen wound down her window.
‘Jump out. I want you to meet a mate of mine.’
‘This old Abo bloke?’ Gwen sneered. ‘I don’t want to meet him.’
Ray stuck his head through the window. ‘Keep it down. Magic’s a top bloke. Good as any white man. It’s my mate inside I want you to meet.’
He opened the door. ‘Get out.’
Gwen followed Ray into the house. It was steaming in the car. I took a good look around for the dogs before hopping out, but stayed next to the car, with the door open, ready to jump in if they came back. I heard a pig grunting off in the distance, then a painful cry, and then nothing.
Rachel wouldn’t get out. She jumped on the front seat and stuck her head out the window to get a good look at the old man. He watched us just as closely as he spat on a piece of rag he took from his back pocket, and passed the leather whip through it. When he’d finished cleaning he pocketed the rag again and looped the whip around his neck. He walked over to me.
‘What’s your name, young fella?’
I looked at his leather-worn face, into his eyes, a pair of dark marbles surrounded by dull yellow.
‘Jesse,’ I croaked, spitting out a mouthful of dust.
‘Jesse. That’s a good name right there. I knew a Jesse fella one time. We was on the mission together. Skinny little fella. Smaller than you is now. He could look after himself, that boy. Fight like his life was in it. He went out west, across the desert. Fightin in the ring, on the road, in the tents. That poor fella, he died, fightin the grog.’
He came closer, lifted a hand and placed it on my head. I was too scared to move or open my mouth.
‘He was like you, I think? Yella Fella. You a Yella Fella?’
‘Yella Fella?’
‘Yeah. Bit of that fella, this fella, and then another fella, all mixed together.’
He cocked his ear, as if he’d heard something behind him. He patted my head a couple of times and slowly took the whip from around his neck and gripped the handle as he looked over at Rachel.
‘And you are, missie?’
He rested against the car and offered her his hand. ‘Don’t you be afraid of old Magic. I’m a harmless fella.’
‘Her name is Rachel. And it was the dogs that frightened her, not you.’
‘Well, don’t worry about them mongrel fellas. They come back, old Magic will deal with them proper.’
He turned back to Rachel. ‘And that’s a mighty name too. A Bible name. I remember that from mission days. Good book, that one.’
‘My pop,’ I said, ‘he told me that too, that Rachel is from the Bible. The Old Testament.’
‘Old Testament. You right with that, boy. Your old pop must be a smart fella.’
Magic had the softest voice. He sounded more like a woman than a man. And he was real friendly.
‘Why do they call you “Magic”?’ I asked. ‘Is that like black magic? The Dreamtime?’
He laughed out loud. ‘What do you think I am, boy? A voodoo fella? Bullshit, all that Dreamtime. You don’t be thinkin about that. No. It’s like this. Rachel girl, you be good and come on out. You get out of the car and I’ll show you some proper magic. Come on, now.’
I opened the door for her and she slowly got out of the car. Magic reached into his pocket and took out a twenty-cent piece.
He placed it in the palm of his hand so we could get a good look at it. He closed his hand, lifted it to his mouth and blew on the back of it. When he opened his hand again the coin was gone. He showed us his other hand. It was empty too.
‘Wow,’ Rachel said, laughing. ‘How’d you do that?’
He reached behind her ear with his hand, opened it and showed her the same coin. ‘Can’t tell you that one, girl. It wouldn’t be no magic, then. But here. You take this one and you keep it for your own good luck one day.’
As Rachel was about to take the coin from his hand I heard the bark of the dogs. They ran out from behind the shed. The bigger dog, the one with the scabby mouth was heading straight for Rachel. She dropped to her knees and cowered next to the back wheel of the car.
I was sure she would be attacked. As the dog was about to pounce on her Magic stepped between them. The dog jumped at him. He raised his knee, just high enough. The dog crashed into it and collapsed at his feet. It was stunned and couldn’t move, like all the life had been knocked out of it. The second dog turned and headed back to where it had come from.
As the dog lay on its side sucking for air, Magic walked slowly around it, stomping on the dog with the heel of his boot. He kicked it in its ribs and along its back. When the dog tried lifting its head off the dirt, Magic said, almost feeling sorry for the animal, ‘Don’t you try gettin to your feet, not yet, old boy.’
He stepped back and took a last swing at it with the toe of his boot. Its body shook and blood ran from the side of its mouth. Magic gave it a gentle tap in the stomach with the toe of his boot.
‘Come on, get off, fella. Get off.’
The dog got slowly to its feet, took a step and fell. In the end it got up and staggered away, towards a cut-down drum filled with water. Rachel jumped up and climbed back into the car.
Magic smiled at me. ‘Don’t worry yourself about him. He’s a dumb bugga. Take him a long time to learn, that’s all.’
He looked down at his boot, took the rag out of his pocket and wiped away the blood and spit.
‘I tell you, any fella, don’t matter who he is, man or a dog. Anyone out there in the bush too. You whip him hard enough he can do anythin you want him to. Just about.’
He threw his shoulders back. ‘Magic, he learn quick as the wind, a long time back. They give me a good whippin when I was a lad, and I learn good.’
I heard a door slam, looked across the yard and saw Gwen walking from the house. She didn’t look happy. Ray was next to her, carrying a large bag over his shoulder. I could see a man behind him, pulling on a denim shirt. He was taller and thinner than Ray and had long greasy hair and pale skin the colour of milk.
He spotted the dog dragging itself over to the water drum. ‘Hey, Magic, what’s up with Pup?’
‘Oh, he’s just worn out. Runnin round like crazy after these kids. Got too excited, the fella.’
‘Excited? He looks fucked to me.’
He was a step away from me when I saw the mark on his cheek, just below his eye. It was tattoo. The teardrop tattoo. I looked down at the ground as he walked straight by me like I wasn’t there and followed Ray to the back of the car. Ray opened the boot and threw the bag in. I could hear them talking, real quiet.
Ray slammed the boot down and walked to the driver’s side of the car. ‘Kids. This is Limbo. Limbo. The kids.’
Limbo didn’t bother looking at us. Ray ordered Gwen into the back seat with us. As she was getting in he patted her on the arse. She pushed his hand away.
‘Fuck off, will ya.’
Ray looked over at Limbo and laughed. ‘Fuck off yourself.’
Limbo got in next to Ray and turned to Gwen as we were about to drive off. ‘Sorry about this. Putting you and your kids out. Ray and me have a job on. We’d arranged this before you come on the scene.’
She said nothing and stared at the back of Ray’s head. Limbo looked at me, and then Rachel. She pointed at his cheek. I was sure she was about to say something and I dug an elbow into her side. She pushed against me.
‘Don’t, Jesse.’
She tapped Limbo on the arm. ‘You’ve got a crying mark on your face. Are you sad?’
Limbo touched the tear and pulled the skin down, over his cheekbone. He had a bloodshot eye.
‘Yeah. I’ve been sad. Lot of times. The world’s full of sadness.’
Gwen wrapped an arm around Rachel and pulled her closer.
Limbo stuck his head out of the car and said to Magic, ‘Any trouble you call Pickett in town. He knows how to get hold of me.’
‘Won’t be no trouble, Lim,’ he said, looking at me. ‘Hey wait up, boss. I got something for the boy.’
He walked around to my side of the car and offered me the twenty-cent piece. ‘It’s gonna be dark, later on, sometime soon, boy. Clouds gonna come. Rain and thunder. You got to take care. This is help for you.’
Before I could take the coin Gwen butted in. ‘Sorry. He don’t take money from strangers. I taught him that.’
‘We not strangers.’ Magic smiled. ‘We old friends.’
It was dark by the time we saw the lights of Adelaide again. Gwen was restless and asked Ray to pull into a takeaway off the highway.
While Ray was all for it Limbo was against the idea. He coughed as he spoke and it was hard to make out what he was saying.
‘We don’t need to stop and eat, Ray. This can wait.’
Ray looked at Gwen in the rear-view mirror. ‘What about it, babe? We keep driving?’
‘I said I was hungry,’ she insisted. ‘So are the kids.’
Ray hit the indicator and turned off the highway. Limbo huffed and puffed.
‘Who’s running the show here, bro?’
‘Cool it. Man’s got to eat and we got plenty of time.’
Gwen jumped out of the car, slammed the door and headed for the café with Rachel. Limbo leaned against the bonnet and lit a cigarette.
‘Jesus Christ, Ray. We gotta front up on time for the meet, or it could fuck up on us. And here you are taking orders from your woman. You cunt-struck or something?’
Ray looked over at me. ‘Keep it down, Lim.’
‘No, I fucken won’t. I cooked the gear, I’m having a say.’
Ray took a step towards him and glared until Limbo lowered his eyes to the ground.
‘Good. You’ve had your say, now come on, it’s my shout.’
The café was called The Devil’s Kitchen. We ate in silence. Gwen looked up at Limbo from her plate of hamburger and chips every minute or so, like she was about to say something nasty him. Her mouth had got her into a lot of trouble over the years. I was praying she could keep it shut. Limbo didn’t eat a thing. He sulked and looked at the bottom of an empty drink can. I took a quick peek at the tattoo on his cheek and wondered what he might have done in prison to earn it.
When they’d finished eating Gwen and Rachel bought ice creams and headed back outside. I was stuck between Ray and the wall and couldn’t get out of the booth without asking and I didn’t think that would be a good idea, right then. Limbo took a ring from one of his fingers, a plain silver band, and spun it across the table. Ray drank black coffee as he watched him.
‘Hey, Jesse. How do you reckon my old mate here got his name? Limbo. It’s not his real name, of course. Why do you reckon they call him that?’
I didn’t know and told him so.
‘Don’t matter. Take a guess.’
I shrugged my shoulders.
‘Fuck it, Jesse. Do you have to be so miserable all the time? Limbo and me are trying to be your mates here. Take a guess.’
‘Cause he got sent there one time? To limbo, like in the Bible?’
‘Hey, that’s not bad. You’re close.’
Ray drained the last of his coffee.
; ‘You want to tell him, Lim, where you were sent?’
Limbo snatched the spinning piece of silver from the table and stuck it back on his finger.
‘This kid don’t like me. Don’t like you either, Ray. You tell him, if you like. I don’t give a fuck. Don’t have time for guessing games. This is fucken kids’ stuff.’
Ray tapped out a drumbeat on the tabletop with his knuckles and told me the story of how Limbo got his name. It was after he’d been arrested, charged and remanded for armed robbery.
‘In the history of the South Australian prison system no one spent more time on remand, waiting for his case to come up, than this boy. How long were you on the yard waiting, Lim? Two years?’
‘Two years and three fucken months.’
‘You get it, Jesse. More than two years in limbo before his day in court. That’s how he got his name.’
Limbo lit up another cigarette. ‘And when I finally got my day in court they gave me another six years to go with it.’
‘So you got out?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean? Course I got out. I’m here.’
‘Then it’s not right, calling you Limbo. It should be Purgatory, your name.’
‘Purgatory?’
‘Yeah. Purgatory is where you go after you die, and you stay there until somebody says enough prayers for you to go to heaven. It’s dark and cold there and you can be there for a long time. People pray for your soul so you can get out. Limbo is different. It’s a place for babies that die before they are baptised. They die with sin on their soul, but it’s not their fault because they’re too little to have done anything wrong. You never get out of Limbo. That’s different.’
Ray whistled. ‘Like a life sentence, without parole. That’s fucken deep, for a kid your age. Who taught you that shit?’
‘My pop. He goes to a church where they give out these books, picture stories. I looked at them.’
‘This pop you stayed with, he Gwen’s old man?’
‘Yep.’
‘And where’s he live. Where’d you stay with him?’
‘In Victoria. Melbourne.’