Cockatoo

by Christopher Cummings

  That evening Tina forgot all about Barbara and Willy and their problems when Andrew appeared at her house just before tea time. “I came over to check on the details for the bird watching next weekend,” he explained.

  Tina was thrilled and once again glowed with happiness and admiration. Andrew was shown in and at once asked her parents. Her father at first frowned but her mother smiled and immediately gave him the times and other details. That sent Tina into raptures of anticipation and she had to resist the urge to run over and throw her arms around him. As it was she walked back to the door with him and tried to convey her feelings through her eyes and face. But as she did she was overcome with shyness and the fear that, if she was too forward, she might scare him off.

  That night she could hardly sleep for her heated fantasizing and happy thoughts.

  At school next day it was all she could do to keep her secret to herself. Her desire was to shout her joy to the whole world but fearing teasing and gossip of the wrong sort she stayed silent. And there was plenty of malicious gossip- but luckily not about her. During morning break as she sat under the school eating she heard a group of Year 9 girls discussing an alleged sexual incident between Barbara and Scranton at the movies the previous Saturday night. It sounded improbable and disgusting to Tina but she had to admit she had not even known Barbara and her friends were there until afterwards.

  This exploded into another incident a few minutes later at the drink taps when Barbara arrived and overheard one of the girls. Tina did not hear what the girl said but saw her look at Barbara and then blush and look hastily away.

  Barbara obviously heard the girl as she looked very hurt. She had a drink and then walked over to where her friends sat along the seat to Tina’s left. Tina watched out of the corner of her eye and noted that they also looked like they were talking about Barbara.

  Barbara stopped a few paces from them and said angrily, “People are talking about me. What are they saying?”

  Her friends looked embarrassed and obviously did not want to answer. Barbara loudly insisted saying, “Please tell me what people are saying.”

  A Year 9 girl named Fiona, a pretty blonde who Tina thought was rather nice, met her eye and said, “It isn’t very nice Barb.”

  “Whatever it is, it isn’t true and I want to know,” Barbara cried.

  Fiona nodded. “Apparently David Scranton is boasting to all his mates that he had sex with you in the movies on Saturday night.”

  Gillian nodded. “Except I heard it was in the park and that you had to run away with no clothes on when the cops came,” she added.

  Tina winced inside and thought, ‘Ouch! I hope no-one ever says things like that about Andrew and me.’ She saw Barbara go red with embarrassment and anger.

  Barbara cried angrily, “But that’s not true! We didn’t leave the theatre at all.” She turned to Karen. “You know that. You were there.”

  Karen looked embarrassed. “Not all the time. I went outside with Martin for a while,” she said.

  “But we didn’t do anything. Gillian, you were there too. You know that,” Barbara cried. She was now looking very hurt and upset.

  Gillian shrugged. “He had a good grip on your tits when I came back,” she said.

  Once again Barbara flamed with shame. “That’s all he did, and I wouldn’t let him go any further. Oh, the bastard! Who does he think he is?” she shouted.

  None of them answered this. It was all very hurtful and upsetting. Barbara stood defiantly in front of her friends. “Who told you anyway?” she demanded.

  Nicole pointed. “Donovan,” she said. Donovan was a boy in their class. The gaze of every girl there followed Nicole’s finger and saw Donovan talking to Willy and his friends on the far side of the quadrangle. From the body language it appeared that Donovan was taunting Willy. ‘What’s going on?’ Tina wondered.

  There was a follow up to this during the lunch break. Tina had just sat down to eat her lunch when a disturbance over past the end of the building attracted her attention. She could just see what was going on because the building was held up on concrete posts and had no side or end wall. Only a few people obscured the view- at least until the shouting started. Then a crowd quickly began to gather, making it hard for Tina to see.

  It was Barbara again. She had marched up to Scranton and confronted him. “Hey Scranton, I want to talk to you,” she called.

  “And I don’t want to talk to you,” Scranton retorted. He went red in the face making Tina think, ‘He’s guilty alright!’ But Barbara confronted him. “I’ve heard you are saying we did things at the movies last Saturday night.”

  “So?” Scranton put his hands on his hips and sneered at her.

  “So stop saying things that aren’t true,” Barbara snapped.

  “I’ll say what I like,” Scranton replied.

  Barbara glared at him. “You do and you will regret it,” she said.

  “Oh yeah! What will you do little baby?” he said with a curl of his lip. “Run along and play with your dolls little girl.”

  “You don’t have to be nasty just because you didn’t get your own way,” Barbara snapped back.

  “Get my own way! I wasted all that time and didn’t get anything. You are frigid, you stuck up little bitch!”

  Under the lash of his insult Barbara’s anger flared. She waved her finger under Scranton’s nose and shouted: “If you were a decent man you might have gotten more but you just wanted to use me. You don’t care about me at all. You are just a selfish bully!”

  That obviously enraged Scranton as he swore at her in a disgusting way and called her horrible names. At that Barbara exploded. She shouted angrily: “Don’t you call me a troll, you foul-mouthed pig!” She waved her clenched fist at him and went on: “Clear off! I don’t want anything to do with you ever again! And don’t go around spreading more lies about what you claim to have done to me, you filthy toad!”

  At that Scranton lost his temper. His hand shot out and grabbed Barbara’s wrist. “Don’t you call me a toad, you stuck-up moll!”

  “Let me go!” Barbara shouted. She pulled back and tried to break free. Scranton held on and twisted her arm. She cried in pain then swung her free hand in an attempt to slap him. But he fended off the blow and then punched her hard in the face. Tina was appalled and stood up, thinking to intervene. As she hurried towards them she saw Barbara struggling to break free. Barbara tried to kick Scranton in the shins but failed. To Tina’s horror Scranton punched Barbara again, the blow almost knocking her off her feet. Then Tina saw Scranton draw back his fist for another punch and she screamed both as a warning and because of her own helplessness, still being twenty paces away.

  At that instant another shout distracted Scranton. He glanced, pushed Barbara aside, and turned to defend himself from the new attacker. Tina saw a boy run across and crash into Scranton so hard that both boys went sprawling on the ground. Only as they separated and sprang to their feet did Tina see that Barbara’s rescuer was Willy.

  As Scranton scrambled up mouthing obscenities Willy lashed out at him. The punch connected but it did not knock the bully down. It just made him angrier. Scranton swore vilely and lunged forward, fists flying.

  Whack! Willy was struck a hard blow on the side of his head and reeled back. Thud! Another punch by Scranton stuck his shoulder. Tina could see that it was a most unequal fight. Scranton was bigger, stronger and had a longer reach, and he was wild. He seemed to have completely lost control and was shouting and punching like a madman. Willy reeled back from another blow to the face. Then he sprang forward and punched hard with his bandaged right hand.

  The blow took Scranton full on the nose. He stepped back and yelled in pain. Blood showed on his face. Fury glittered in his eyes.

  Tina was dismayed. ‘Oh my God! He will kill Willy!’ she thought. She stepped forward to help but was blocked by others. As she tried to move forward she saw Mr Conkey step between Willy and Scranton. Mr Page, the Geography teacher, also appeared,
as did Graham Kirk and Peter Bronsky.

  The fighters were separated. Barbara suddenly burst into tears. She looked stunned as she wiped blood from her face. Fiona appeared and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s alright Barb. You are safe now,” she said.

  Karen also joined them and began to comfort her. Barbara buried her face in Fiona’s shoulder and sobbed with reaction. Tina stood and watched, feeling both angry and helpless. Never in her life had she witnessed such a brutal assault and it left her feeling shaken and nauseous. She hated violence, especially brutality to women by bigger males and she felt quite sick. She also now felt quite sorry for Barbara and she even admitted to a grudging admiration.

  The teachers now took control. Willy and Scranton were ordered to the office and Barbara was sent of to the sick room with her friends. Tina stood and discussed the incident with her friends but was still feeling breathless and upset when it was to me to go back into class. ‘Oh, I hope nothing like that ever happens to me,’ she thought.

  Then she thought of Danny’s threat to get her and she was gripped by a spasm of terror so strong it temporarily paralyzed her.

  CHAPTER 15

  MITCHELL RIVER

  One result was that when Tina went out to feed her birds after school she felt quite anxious. She did not want to admit that she was scared but she suddenly felt very alone when she went into the back yard. As she fed the finches and budgerigars she kept looking at the back of Neville’s house and into his aviary. But there was no sign of anyone, only the birds. Tina saw that there were still a dozen rainbow lorikeets but that there were also a couple of new parrots she could not identify.

  To study them more closely she stood and pretended to talk to Beaky. Still unsure she went back inside, after carefully locking the back gate to the courtyard, and took out her copy of Australian Birds Fieldguide. After some searching she decided that the unusual parrots were Australian King Parrots.

  ‘Is it legal to have them as pets?’ she wondered. But she was still so unsure that she took no action, not wanting to cause trouble. Instead she settled to her computer to do a homework assignment. Later she sat and watched TV but was barely aware of it, her thoughts being mostly about Andrew, with some worry over the Barbara-Scranton incidents.

  When she met Andrew at school the next day she learned that Scranton had been expelled from the school. That relieved some of her fears but did make her wonder whether that would be the end of it.

  Classes then ground on with their usual routine and Tina settled to studying- and daydreaming. ‘A weekend camping must offer some romantic possibilities?’ she decided. So she imagined various incidents that would all help to help the romance flourish.

  During the breaks she sat with her friends- and yearned to sit with Andrew. She listened to the gossip and noted that Barbara was not at school and heard that she and a girl named Nicole had been involved in a fight in class the previous day. “What over?” she asked Sarah.

  “I heard that some of the girls were being really bitchy and were passing notes accusing her of all sorts of horrible things,” Sarah answered.

  “I’d fight too in that case,” Tina said. She tried to imagine what it might be like with people making accusations and whispering gossip about her. ‘It would be horrible,’ she thought. But she couldn’t help thinking that Barbara had brought it on herself by her behaviour. ‘The way she and her friends act; flirting and flaunting themselves,’ she thought.

  Thursday dragged slowly and Friday even more. Only the knowledge that she had Navy Cadets and then the weekend camping trip to look forward to made the waiting easier to bear. Tina threw herself into her work to try to blot out the ache of impatience and soon had all her homework and assignments done and she was left fidgeting and wondering what to do next.

  That night at Navy Cadets the D of E teams were given another lesson in preparation. This was on navigation on land, somewhat different from navigation at sea and with different technical terms for the same thing (‘Triangle of Error’ instead of ‘Cocked Hat’). There was another lesson on Morse Code including an introduction on how to send messages by signal lamp. There was also lesson on knots used in sailing. Tina enjoyed them all and tried her hardest.

  Before dismissal parade there was a discussion on training expeditions for the D of E. Lt Ryan suggested that all the groups go together for one weekend to practice the various skills with instructors to help them.

  “But where sir?” Andrew asked.

  “Over the mountains somewhere. I will ask the army cadets for ideas. They do more of that sort of thing,” Lt Ryan answered.

  Andrew put his hand up. “I know some army cadets who go hiking all the time sir. They go to our school. I will ask them if you like.”

  “Yes please.”

  Tina looked quizzically at Andrew and he said softly, “Graham and his mates.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Tina agreed. Graham, Peter, Stephen and Roger went hiking at least once a month and always seemed to be getting into some sort of a scrape or adventure.

  Dismissal parade followed. Afterwards Andrew walked with Tina to her mother’s car. He did not seem to be bothered by the looks they got from several other cadets and that gave her hope. “See you tomorrow then,” he said.

  Tina nodded and stood close with her face upturned. She had to suppress a strong urge to reach up and take his head in her hands. The impulse to give him a kiss was so strong she trembled. “Yes,” was all she could croak. ‘Tomorrow,’ her mind cried, even as her body seemed to ache in need of his embrace.

  But there was the night to get through and she could not sleep. She tossed and turned and fantasized, sometimes in quite naughty ways. Then her dreams were just frustrating; with Andrew about to kiss her or about to do other things and then the situation would change or she would wake up. It was all very tiring and annoying!

  Saturday morning was more fidgety waiting as the vehicle had to be packed and the main chores done. Tina quickly packed her own bag and carried it and her hat and sleeping bag out to the vehicle. Then she fed the birds, once again looking anxiously at the house at the back. As she did she had the niggling beginnings of a worrying idea but did not want to organize it into proper thoughts lest it spoil the weekend.

  It was not until nearly 10:00am that the boat was hooked on and they could set out. By then Tina was almost in a fever of impatience. ‘Oh come on!’ she fretted. ‘Andrew will be worrying and wondering if we are coming.’ But she said nothing and tried to act calm.

  Andrew was waiting at his front door. He wore baggy old blue trousers and a long sleeve blue shirt and baseball cap. To Tina he looked very rugged and handsome and she wished she was going away to camp with just him. Andrew’s mother and father and his sister Carmen all came out to say hello. Tina climbed out to greet Andrew. In her fantasies she hugged and kissed him but in reality she just gave him a shy hello and showed him where to put his gear.

  She then climbed back in next to Garth and Andrew sat on the outside. Farewells were said, Tina noting a delighted gleam in Carmen’s eye. “Have a good time!” she said, her voice dripping with double meaning. Tina blushed at those thoughts and then sat and barely spoke a word to Andrew. He also remained silent much of the time except to comment on the scenery. Garth kept glancing at Andrew and then smirking at Tina but he soon tired of this game and became a typical bored little nuisance instead.

  It was lunch time when they reached Mareeba so they parked in the main street and walked up and down and then purchased pies and hamburgers. Tina enjoyed a chocolate milkshake while she and Andrew sat and looked self-consciously at each other. To her relief her parents just seemed to accept Andrew as ‘the boyfriend’ and they took it for granted that they would sit together.

  Tina liked Mareeba. It is a busy town of about 10,000 with sufficient variety of people and shops to make it interesting. But she had been there a dozen times so it was no novelty. They waited until Sarah’s family arrived and had some refreshments. Afte
r lunch they drove on northwards. That took them into territory that Tina was unfamiliar with. She was struck by how straight the road was and how flat the country. Then she noted that there was a very gentle slope away on both side with mountains in the distance. Those on the left were further away and looked much more rugged.

  Tina’s father pointed out the window and said, “This road runs along the Great Dividing Range. You are on it now.”

  Garth did not believe this and disputed it until his father said, “This gentle rise we are on is the watershed between the rivers that flow east into the Coral Sea and those that flow west into the Gulf of Carpentaria. To your right is the Barron River, down among those trees there; and to your left is the Mitchell. You can’t see the river from here but later we will pass a lake where its waters are impounded.”

  On reaching the small town of Biboohra they got their first disappointment. They stopped at the turn-off to the Mareeba Wetlands and found a sign saying that they were closed. After a short conference with the Creswells it was decided to go on to the campsite and start fishing and bird watching.

  The drive after that was northwards along a good bitumen road with open savannah woodland on both sides. After ten kilometres or so this gave way to more swampy and scrubby country on the left. They passed through a small range of hills at Carr Creek and then along a few long straights in open country.

  Suddenly the view opened up on their left to reveal the lake and as soon as she saw it all of Tina’s vague thoughts crystallized into a solid theory that sent chills of excitement through her. Ever since the incident at Croydon Dam she had considered all large lakes in North Queensland as likely places for the wildlife smugglers to operate their float plane and as soon as she saw the Mitchell River Lake she thought, ‘This is the ideal place for them. It is big. It is well away from any houses or settlements, it is right beside a bitumen road with dirt roads going off to it at various places to give easy access.’

  When she saw the teeming bird life on and around the lake she was even more certain it was just the sort of place the crooks would operate from. A feeling of tense anxiety began to grip her and she felt sure that some sort of malevolent fate would lead to her encountering them that weekend. But when she thought about it rationally she shook her head. It would be too much of a coincidence. Despite that the idea lodged and she felt uneasy.