Falling Into Queensland

by Jacqueline George

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  Japan had not returned before it was time to open the bar. Midge took Shirley down and began to show her around, as if she was training a new bar maid. There was not much to learn. The beer came in bottles or cans, sitting in polystyrene coolers. The customers drank straight from the bottle. She had only to take the right beer from the refrigerator, pop it into a cooler and pass it over. Meat pies and a microwave to warm them. Packets of crisps. There was no till, just a cash drawer. They had rum and vodka, served from optics on the wall, and that was it. If the customers wanted to drink anything else, they brought it themselves.

  Shirley stood behind the bar and surveyed her new domain. It was a low room, stretching across the width of the building. The steel walls and support piers had been painted in utilitarian cream. On one side, opposite the entrance, was a large opening with a safety railing. It looked out on the machinery of the dredge. The pool table was central, and sat in a ring of light from spots mounted on the ceiling. The floor was covered in lino, comfortable under her bare feet.

  Mongo was her first customer. He hurried into the bar with a big smile. “Hey, Shirl. You"ve come to the Gold Digger"s. Give me a Midstrength.” He put a twenty dollar note on the bar. She gave him his red can of beer, changed the note and set his change back on the bar. Mongo pulled up a stool and settled down to chat. She could see he was having trouble keeping his eyes on her face.

  “You visiting Japan, then? It"s good up here. Peaceful like. Where"s Japan, anyway?”

  “I don"t know. He left at breakfast time.”

  “That"d be right. Always busy, Japan. Doing stuff to make money. Isn"t that right, Midge.”

  “That"s right, Mongo. And we never know when he"s coming back.”

  “Sometimes he goes to Melbourne. He flies when he does that. Not like me. I go by bike. Get a good ride down to Melbourne. I could take some stuff, but he always says it"s too dangerous. I don"t know how the stuff goes down.”

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  “Shut up, Mongo. You know you"re not meant to talk about things like that.”

  “But it"s only Shirl. Shirl"s alright; she"s Marilyn"s girl.”

  “Never mind that. Japan doesn"t trust her yet, so talk about something else.”

  Mongo had run out of conversation, and took his beer over to the pool table. Midge grinned at Shirley. “Mongo"s alright. Not smart, but his heart"s in the right place. You going to be OK if I run upstairs a minute? I wish I knew when Japan"s coming, but the food has to be ready whenever it is. Have a beer yourself, if you like. I"ll shout you. Put it on Japan"s tab.”

  “You want to play pool, Shirl?” called Mongo from the table.

  “I"ve heard about girls playing pool on the Makepeace

  River.”

  Mongo was embarrassed. “Aw, Shirl. I didn"t mean that. I meant properly. Come and play properly. I like watching girls play pool.”

  I bet you do, Mongo, she thought. I bet you do. She went to play anyway. She had been naked since she arrived, and no longer cared if he looked at her or not. She played until the next customers arrived, and returned to the bar to serve them.

  Japan did not return until late. He brought with him a young girl with dark wavy hair and a leather jacket. She had two rings in her

  nose.

  Japan came up to the bar and looked over it to check her hair. “Right, Shirl. See you"ve settled in. This is Kelly. Give her a beer, and a Gold for me.”

  She passed a beer over to Japan. He took it and went upstairs. Kelly was looking around the room, and did not turn back until Shirley called her. “A Gold, I guess. So this is it. I"ve heard so much about Makepeace. I"ve come to join.”

  “To join?”

  “Yes. I"ve heard it"s cool up here, and I can do stuff to help around the place.” She took a deep swig of beer.

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  “Stuff?” asked Shirley.

  “Yeah. Like teaching. The kids, I mean. Or anything. I don"t

  care.”

  Shirley could not imagine what Kelly could teach anyone, even children. She seemed young enough that she could still be in school herself.

  “I expect Japan will find something for you to do around the place,” she said diplomatically.

  “Yeah, right. He"s says I can join tomorrow, if the others agree.”

  Shirley spent the night up on the greasing platform again, but this time she had a sleeping bag, a pillow, and an inflatable mattress. Japan did not even chain her up. He knew Shirley understood there was no chance of escape on foot. She spent a comfortable night, sometimes waking but quickly dropping off again under the friendly stars.

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  Chapter 19

  Sun light on her face woke her, but she did not climb out of her sleeping bag until the sun had risen enough to warm her. She yawned and stretched, before leaning on the railing to admire her kingdom. The forbidding landscape looked more friendly after a good night"s sleep, or perhaps she was just getting used to Australia. She rolled up her bed and went down to the toilet in the bar.

  In daylight, the Gold Digger"s Delight looked dark and uninviting, and smelt of smoke and stale beer. Japan and Midge were not moving upstairs so she began to restock the fridge with drinks. She was mopping the floor when Japan appeared at the doorway.

  “That"s good, Shirley. When you"re done, Midge is making breakfast. See you,” and he was gone, heading out to the car park. Not wonderful but it was nice to have her work recognised. She stood the mop in its bucket and went upstairs.

  She ate breakfast outside and chatted with Midge. There was not much work today. Midge had some housekeeping, and if Shirley could take care of the bar, they would be free for the rest of the day. Japan had given permission for a visit to the river, but Midge did not want to do that until late afternoon, when the sun had lost some of its bite. Shirley did not mind. She wanted to improve her bedroom and borrowed a light tarp and some rope. If she could make some sort of awning, she would be able to sit upstairs even during the heat of the day.

  It was while she was enjoying her new private shade, lying on her bed and reading a magazine, that a movement on the nearby hillside caught in the corner of her eye. She stood up and went to the railing, hoping to see a wallaby. The hillside was bare, with only scattered clumps of brown grass struggling to survive amongst the rocks. The thin soil could not support more.

  There was nothing on the hillside, and she was ready to turn away, when she saw it again. From behind a rock near to the top of the slope, a hand was waving. Quickly she looked around.

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  Everything was still, and no sound disturbed the heat of the afternoon. She returned a covert wave with her hand held in front of

  her, and watched amazed as a straw hat covered in grass rose slowly into view, followed by a bearded face and faded blue shirt. She found herself staring at the wide, chunky figure of Tom Bombadil. He raised a pair of binoculars and studied her.

  Shirley looked around again. No one was watching her. What was Tom doing up here? Surely he did not expect to rescue her? She searched the hillside again but could not find him. It must have been an illusion, but she kept searching. Again, movement caught her eye, and she found him, presumably lying down and scanning her with his binoculars. Under his camouflaged hat, he looked no more than a clump of grass with a shadow.

  “Shirl, Shirl, are you ready to go?” It was Midge, calling her for their trip to the river. She dropped her magazine and climbed down.

  Midge was wearing a golf cap and thongs, and she had brought the same for Shirley. Shirley laughed at herself as she dressed to go out, and followed Midge down the stairs.

  In the depths of the dredge, Midge went to a shiny red quad bike. It started easily and its brassy exhaust echoed from the metal walls. Midge eased it down a ramp onto the car park.


  “Climb on, unless you"re walking.” Shirley clambered awkwardly onto the pillion seat and sat with Midge between her knees. “Don"t worry, we"re only going slowly.” Midge let out the clutch and the quad settled into a noisy trot.

  They followed an asphalt path barely wider than the quad. It turned from the car park into the wasteland of the valley bottom, starting out along a narrow gulley between the ridges of gravel left by the dredge. They were approaching a home, a small caravan with permanent awnings on either side. There was furniture and a television in the shade, and a large motorbike, but no-one seemed to be at home. Just before they reached the caravan, the path turned sharply. A way had been cut through the long mound of gravel and the path led between low concrete walls holding back the toe of the

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  loose slope. There was just enough space for the quad to pass. Shirley remembered these paths were designed to stop intruding cars, and they would certainly do that.

  They went on, stretches of path winding along the gullies, followed by dog-leg turns to cut across the spoil ridges. They passed junctions in the paths, and more huts and caravans. Some of them had cute gardens.

  Midge took a final turn and came to a heavy gate. She dismounted to unlock it, but left it open behind her. “It"s a bit faster now, but bumpy. Hold on tight.”

  They were travelling on dirt now. A track had been cut straight across the landscape, pushing the tops of the gravel ridges into the hollows between. They continued on a giant roller coaster, up and down, up and down, until the track turned a corner and Midge pulled up at the river. They had crossed the valley. When Shirley looked back, the dredge was out of sight. In front of them, the Makepeace River babbled lazily in its bed of rounded cobbles. It was clear and shallow.

  On the other side of the river, the ground rose steeply into the endless rolling bush country she had seen from her bedroom. The track crossed over and appeared faintly beyond, climbing into the hills.

  “Come on, let"s have a soak.” Midge lifted a small esky from the carrying rack in front of her and Shirley followed her into the river. They walked clumsily across the river bed to a shaded spot and sat in the deeper water next to the bank.

  “This is the life,” said Midge. “Tourists pay a fortune to come to places like this.” She pulled two cans of beer from the esky and passed one over. “Cheers! Here"s to the new Makepeace girl.”

  Shirley sipped her beer. “I don"t think I really want to do more than visit,” she said tentatively.

  “I guess not. Still, you"ll be welcome any time now. Come and stay for a few days. You don"t have to stay with us. I"ll get one of the couples to give you space, so Japan won"t be all over you. Just

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  bring a couple of boxes of food from the supermarket, and your grog. Won"t cost you anything, and it"ll be fun.”

  Shirley thought about it. It would certainly make a change from Port Bruce. She wondered if she could come with Marilyn. She seemed to be accepted around here.

  “Midge, you remember that new girl. Kelly, wasn"t it? She was talking about joining.”

  Midge snorted. “Another stupid bitch. They know bikies never treat girls well. They might give them somewhere to roll out their swag, let them cook and clean, but they"re never going to be a proper member. Girls never get a patch, you know. But they keep coming. Think it"s all glamorous and sexy.

  “I suppose I shouldn"t criticise. I used to think that way, a few years ago.”

  “But she said she was going to join.”

  “Yes, and that really pisses me off. Someone"s spun them a line that they can come up here and play one round of Makepeace River Pool, and they"ll be famous. A queen bee or something. Bloody stupid! And Japan encourages them. Says it gives the guys a chance of some free pussy, and besides, the girls might just stay on. He says we need more girls to make us a proper community.

  “He still treats the girls like shit, though. He wants them to stay, but he never helps them. Sometimes they take a fancy to one of the single guys, and hang around for a while. The smart ones get out as soon as they can.”

  “You mean that Kelly is going to play pool?”

  “That"s what she wants, stupid bugger.”

  Shirley tried to imagine what would bring a girl to offer herself to all comers at the pool table, and then a thought struck her. “Did you ever do that, Midge?”

  “Ah, well. You"ve got me.” She took a drink from her beer can and sat back. “I didn"t mean to do it. I was just a bit drunk and horny. I don"t know, it seemed a good idea at the time, but I wasn"t doing it to impress anyone.”

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  Shirley thought some more before asking, “What"s it like? It"s hard to imagine.”

  “Oh, OK, I suppose. If you"re in the mood. They had me coming all over the place to start with. I think I must have gone a bit numb after a while because I didn"t come anymore. But it was OK.”

  “It didn"t hurt?”

  “Oh no, but I was all hot and ready before they started. No – it was good, but I never did it again. Wasn"t in the mood, I suppose.”

  “How many men were there?”

  “Eleven. We counted them up afterwards. Eleven, and I think some of them had two goes. I don"t know, because I wasn"t counting!”

  “But you must have been sore afterwards,” insisted Shirley.

  “I was a bit swollen next day.” She opened her thighs and looked at her pussy, pale and naked in the centre of its fantastic tattoos. “I"m a tough old bird, I guess. I must have had miles of cock up me, at one time or another.”

  Shirley went back to thinking about how it must have felt to have a line of men queuing to use her, and how she would feel when she met them again in the morning.

  Midge must have been thinking similar thoughts, because she volunteered. “I"ll tell you what though, I thought I was a pretty hot piece of stuff afterwards, and so did the guys. The sheilas weren"t so keen, though, but we"re like that. Always jealous.”

  Shirley worked the bar again that night and watched with trepidation when Kelly arrived. She sat at the bar for a while and enthused about the Makepeace with Shirley, before wandering off to play pool – proper pool. Japan was not there that night, so Kelly"s debut seemed to have been postponed.

  With a sense of routine, Shirley started next day in the bar again, cleaning and restocking. There was a lot of neglect to make up for, and she resolved to do a little extra every day. After breakfast, she washed a section of the ceiling, managing about a third of the room. After the ceiling, she would have a go at the walls – that

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  should be a little easier – and the bar needed to be sanded and re-

  varnished. She hoped she would not be around long enough to run out of work.

  She went up to her shaded bed to take a siesta, and to watch for Tom Bombadil. She was ready for him today, and lay searching the hillside for a sign. He came like magic. Suddenly, there was a clump of grass at the crest of the ridge that had not been there moments earlier, and Tom"s hand gave a tentative wave. Without getting up, she waved back, to let him know she had seen him. He raised himself until she could see his head and shoulders.

  Then he confused her. He had a message, and wanted her to understand. He was pointing at the sun, and bringing down to the western horizon. Tonight, she translated. He pointed at the dredge and circled his fingertip, before putting his hands together under his cheek to show sleeping. Fine, so far. Tonight, when everybody is asleep.

  He tapped the back of his wrist, and held up a finger. One o"clock. He pointed at himself and the car park. Then at her and the car park again. Finally he pointed at them both, and with a flat palm showed the road out of the valley.

  Numb, she stood at the railing and nodded. He sank back into the ground, and within seconds, the clump of grass had disappeared.

  She
lay on her mattress unable to sleep. Tom had come for her. At one o"clock, she would meet him in the car park and they would escape. Her heart raced, and she forced herself to lie still.

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  Chapter 20

  There was a buzz in the bar that evening. It had started to fill early, and there were several people, single men and couples, Shirley had not seen before. The music was loud, and the conversation became louder as the men drank. Shirley and Midge were kept busy serving drinks, and dropping the empty bottles and cans down their chutes into recycling bins on the deck below. The women stopped by to say hello to Midge, and to look Shirley over, before gathering around a corner table to gossip and sip at mixed drinks. Kelly stood drinking with the men, laughing and enjoying their attention. It was a cheerful evening on the Makepeace River, and Shirley had no time to think of Tom. She put him to the back of her mind. There would be plenty of time to worry about him after midnight.

  Picking his moment, Japan called for order. He was jovial, the host of the bar. “Guys, Guys! Listen up.” The men stood expectantly, but Shirley noticed the women were disdainful. They sat back with their arms crossed, and neglected their cigarettes.

  “Guys, tonight is one of those very special occasions when we welcome a virgin to the Makepeace River...” His announcement brought catcalls from the men and an embarrassed grin from Kelly. “This here is Kelly, I see you"ve been getting to know her. Well, tonight we"re going to fix her little problem for her. So Kelly, go over to Midge there, and she"ll get you all ready.”

  Midge was flustered. “Oh, fuck. I wasn"t expecting him so soon. Take her out the back, Shirl, and get her gear off. I"ll just run upstairs for a couple of towels.”