The Painted Sky

by Alice Campion

  ‘Anything that doesn’t seem natural, I guess,’ said Heath. ‘Maybe a wooden or stone marker where he could have buried something?’

  They searched for half an hour, the sun bearing down on them.

  ‘Well I’m buggered if I know,’ said Heath, stretching his shoulders.

  ‘Let me just …’ Nina edged onto the steep slope that led from the goat’s head down to the water. ‘There might be something –’ The loose sand under her foot gave way, and with a cry she was hurtling down the slope on her backside, grasping at branches and roots.

  ‘Nina!’ Heath scrambled after her. ‘Grab a tree – grab a tree!’

  Nina slammed into the side of a broad stump that hung above a sheer drop down to the swimming hole.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Heath’s voice came from above.

  ‘Uh, yes. I think a tree grabbed me,’ she called and sat for a moment, trying to slow her racing heart. Then she saw that she was staring up at a natural chimney in the rock. ‘Check this out!’ she cried.

  Heath slid the last few metres down to where she sat. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes, yes, fine. Maybe this is it,’ she said, pointing.

  He inched across the loose rubble and found a ledge to stand on, his head and shoulders inside the rock pipe. ‘Hello?’ he called. A faint but distinct echo came back.

  Nina carefully got to her feet, bracing herself against the tree stump.

  ‘It’s a cave.’ Heath looked at her with shining eyes, and for a second she saw the face of the boy he had been.

  ‘Hang on, I’ll squeeze in.’ He propelled himself up by pushing his long legs against the sides of the narrow entrance. He hauled his body over the lip of an opening in the side of the chimney. ‘Can you make it?’ He reached down.

  Nina grabbed his hands and levered herself up towards him. Launching herself sideways from the chimney into the opening where he stood, she felt her shoulder and hip collide with his hard thighs and belly, braced to take her weight. He let out a sound and grabbed her upper arm, but his other hand, flailing, brushed her breast. She felt it like a burn. Without thinking, she looked up to see his face startled and exposed in the dim light. A moment of stillness and he released her. Their breathing was audible. She took a half-step away.

  ‘Right. Come on,’ Heath said abruptly.

  He turned and led the way along a short rock tunnel and into a low-ceilinged cave with a rocky floor. They just had room to stand.

  Nina could make out that it was about ten metres long. At the far end, the floor was sand and a pile of large boulders lay tumbled together on it like an ancient sculpture.

  ‘Let’s check over there,’ said Nina. She steadied her feet on the small, shifting rocks till they reached the sand. There seemed to be a dark void beyond the boulders.

  ‘Boost me up and I’ll look over the top,’ she said.

  Heath made a stirrup with his hands and Nina stepped into it and hoisted herself up. She could see nothing more than a black empty space but something caught her eye. A frayed rope looped over a rock spur. She had to get to it.

  ‘Hold me up. There’s a piece of rope.’ Nina was overwhelmingly conscious of Heath’s hands gripping her calves. She scrabbled to catch the end of the rope and when she’d grabbed it, she flicked the loop off the rock and caught it. It was blue nylon, not a climbing rope, and the loose end was only a couple of metres long.

  ‘Okay, I’m coming down,’ she called. His hands released her and she wriggled backwards until her feet touched the sandy floor.

  Turning to him, she held out the piece of rope. ‘This was …’ she said huskily. She cleared her throat. ‘It’s too dark to see what’s below.’ Heath took the rope and turned it over in his hands. Even in the low light, Nina could see his eyelashes defined against his skin as he looked downwards.

  ‘We need a torch,’ he said briskly. ‘And a climbing rope. We’ll have to come back tomorrow.’ He slung the loop over his shoulder and led the way back to the rock chimney, not meeting her eyes.

  Nina climbed out first without help and waited for him to slide down after her.

  ‘Let’s see.’ Heath ran the rope through his fingers, pinching it softly to test its resilience. ‘Nylon. A few years old, though. Tomorrow, with some lights, we’ll be able to see more. Maybe even get down into the hole.’ He still didn’t look at her. Instead, he peered over the edge of the drop to the water below, and up to the goat’s head again. ‘It’d be easier for us to drop down and swim back instead of trying to get up that slope again. Safer, too. You up for it?’

  ‘Sure,’ she said.

  Turning away from one another on the narrow ledge, they stripped to their swimmers.

  ‘The drop’s only a few metres,’ Heath said. ‘You set?’

  ‘Yep,’ she said, but her heart was banging.

  ‘I’ll go first. Give me your stuff.’ Bundling their clothes together with the rope, he threw them onto a flat rock near the water.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I know every bump and stone of this place. We’ll be fine.’

  He balanced himself on the edge and then let himself fall, his limbs relaxed.

  Nina craned her head over the drop, holding her breath. Then his shiny dark hair broke the surface, a flick of his head scattering droplets.

  ‘Just go with it,’ he called. ‘Fall, don’t jump.’

  How nice that would be, she thought. To fall simply and easily into his arms without a worry or a care in the world. ‘Right. I’m coming,’ she called, hesitating at the top of the slope. She stepped forward, then lost her nerve at the last minute, moving back awkwardly. And then, somehow, she tumbled down into the water, and landed on her belly with a massive slap.

  ‘Tsunami!’ yelled Heath, laughing, as she spluttered to the surface.

  He grabbed their clothes and, holding them high in a bundle with one hand, duck-kicked on his side to the beach, watching Nina as she followed him.

  Twilight was falling, tipping the edges of the trees, the grasses and the river’s ripples with a pale pink cast. They swam slowly. Heath emerged from the river glossy-skinned, blending into the landscape. Nina couldn’t tear her eyes away. Thank heavens Ben was here.

  But when she landed, Heath was standing, hands on hips, facing an empty space where the ute had been. In its place were two swags, some camping gear and the battered Esky. A note staked to a tree with a knife fluttered in surrender.

  ‘Where has that crazy bastard gone now?’ Heath pulled out the blade and read aloud, ‘Gone to feed dogs, back later. B.’

  ‘Bloody Ben. He always pulls stunts like this. I can’t trust him to do anything,’ Heath said as he rubbed his hand through his hair.

  ‘Is there any phone coverage out here?’

  Heath shook his head and glared into the distance. At last he turned. ‘Well, I’ll make a fire and we’ll rustle up some tucker. At least we’ll be able to have a good look early tomorrow. If Ben ever comes back there’s a tow rope we can use to climb and a torch in the ute.’

  Nina nodded. Glad to be doing something, she gathered up her clothes and took shelter behind the biggest tree to change. Standing naked in the soft light of dusk, she could feel the warm wind licking her body, evaporating the last of the dampness. She felt calm and clear-headed.

  She slipped into her dusty shorts and t-shirt and joined Heath. He plumbed the depths of the Esky and pulled out a round flat tin.

  ‘Wow,’ said Nina, looking at the label. ‘A pie in a tin?’

  ‘Like, yeah,’ teased Heath. ‘They’ve only been around for 50 years. You put a hole in it and chuck it in the coals.’

  Nina picked up kindling while Heath cleared a space and built a fire. Soon the pie tin was heating. Two potatoes in foil nestled in the coals alongside a billy holding peas.

  ‘If only we had a bottle of red. Surely it’s cocktail hour?’

  ‘This do?’ Heath offered as he pulled a bottle of rum from between the folds of the swag she was sitting on. ‘Lik
e the princess and the pea,’ he smiled.

  ‘Didn’t feel a thing. I think this proves my arse is not royal,’ said Nina, holding out her tin cup.

  Heath splashed them each a healthy slug. ‘Cheers.’

  ‘Well, looks like Ben thought of everything,’ said Nina. ‘He obviously planned this all along.’

  Heath laughed as he rummaged through a canvas bag. ‘Jesus. He’s even packed toothpaste and salt. I should have known he was up to something.’

  ‘I don’t get it,’ said Nina later as she tucked into her baked potato. ‘Why did he leave us here? He couldn’t have known that we’d want to come back tomorrow.’

  ‘Look, Ben’s got a chip on his shoulder,’ said Heath, making a face.

  ‘You mean about his legs?’ Nina asked gently. ‘Not that, it’s Deb. He doesn’t like her. He doesn’t get her. Knowing him, he probably thinks it’s a great old laugh to leave you and me out here so somehow the news will get back to Deborah. He should bloody well grow up.’ Heath stabbed his pie with his fork.

  ‘I see,’ said Nina, staring into the fire.

  She felt Heath’s eyes on her. He started to say something, then stopped. He seemed torn, confused.

  ‘Here,’ he said, topping up their cups and then kicked one of the logs back into the fire. The flames lit up the scar on his neck with a red glow.

  ‘Tell me about the accident, Heath,’ Nina said, the rum filling her with courage. ‘Moira told me a bit about what happened.’

  Heath sighed and turned away, agitated. ‘Sorry, I didn’t want to upset you. And I’m not snooping. I just want to understand.’

  ‘It was my fault. Did Moira tell you that?’ he asked. He stood and drained his cup. The bitterness in his voice made the hairs on her arms prickle.

  ‘Forget it, I should never have –’

  ‘Well it was. I’d just got my pilot’s licence. The idea was to plan ahead and diversify, so that I could do contract mustering for larger properties. Obviously, that plan hasn’t gone anywhere now. Anyway, I wanted to take the family up to celebrate. We’ve only got a two-seater Cessna on Kurrabar, so I borrowed Mac’s four-seater.’

  Nina remembered the little Cessna in the hangar with the winged sculpture.

  ‘It was going great and then a willy-willy came up out of nowhere. The thermals are fierce over these plains when the weather’s hot. It threw us up and then down and then up again. I couldn’t get the controls back. We were going round and round in a flat spin. I practised getting out of that scenario a dozen times in my training. I should have known what to do. But it all seemed to go out of my head … Dad was yelling and grabbing for the stick and Ben was wrestling him back into the seat and Mum was telling him to leave it to me.’

  Nina watched as he paced the edge of the firelight, gripping his enamel cup in one hand. Finally he sighed and took his seat again, gazing into the flames.

  ‘That’s the bit I dream about. Pulling on the controls and nothing happens. The plane clipped some trees near the river as it was coming down. That slowed it, so it didn’t hit as hard as it could have. It was still pretty rough, though. But what I didn’t realise was that the fuel tank was leaking. Mum was knocked out and Ben was hysterical, screaming that he couldn’t feel his legs. I got my arms under him. He was bleeding bad. Dad was yelling at me to get him away, far away. I laid him down near the river and headed back. I could see Dad pulling on Mum’s seatbelt. He saw me coming and he put up his hand like this –’ Heath held his palm forward, towards her. It was shaking. ‘The Avgas burns so hot you can’t actually see it. I got so close I nearly grabbed his arm and then there was this blinding explosion. I didn’t feel anything. When I woke I was in the ambulance. They put me in a medical coma. Then they had to tell me. Poor bastards.’

  ‘It must have been agony,’ said Nina.

  ‘What, this?’ He gestured to the scar and laughed sourly. ‘This is nothing, mate. Nothing at all.’

  He splashed more rum in each of their cups. ‘I was lucky. That’s what they kept telling me for months. Soooo lucky.’ He looked upwards, blinking rapidly, and kicked the log again.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. It’s okay. The first couple of months after we knew about Ben I just wanted it all to end. I couldn’t stand seeing him struggle. All the things he’d never do anymore. He was a great horseman. He never blamed me.

  ‘And thank god for Deb. She talked me back again. She made me see I had to keep it together for Ben. After a while, I started making the bits and pieces around the place. The one on the hangar was my first. It sort of … helped.’

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Nina.

  ‘Without Deb, I’d be dead.’

  Deborah again. No wonder she was so important to him, Nina thought. Those were the sort of bonds that never break. Saint Deborah. Nina knew it was unfair but she couldn’t help feeling annoyed at the absent woman whose presence here at the campfire was all too real. But Deborah and Heath were a couple cast in stone. They were bound by a lot more than attraction.

  Later, they spread the two swags out on either side of the fire. The night air, now chilly, blew softly over Nina’s face as she snuggled down. She looked up at the milky carpet of stars – a painted sky. Magic.

  ‘Night,’ Heath murmured.

  ‘Night,’ she replied. She heard him turn away from her to sleep.

  A mopoke called its sad song. Heath was in love with Deborah. Deborah had saved his life. She’d saved his family and his sanity, whatever Ben might think.

  And then there was tomorrow. Was the rope her father’s? She was scared about what they would find and even more scared that they would find nothing. What did all of Russell’s scribblings mean anyway? Could she trust them? Maybe Russell had done something to her father – nothing was certain. A chill went through her. Maybe her father did die out here? So many possibilities.

  Or Hilary? Was she to blame? She was the last person to see him. An image of Hilary with her perfect hair and high heels stalking through the bush seemed so ludicrous that Nina smiled.

  And what about Harrison? What if they had had a lovers’ tiff?

  Or maybe her dad had just been looking for the stupid nugget and come to grief. Out here. All alone.

  Her hand reached for the smoothness of the locket, but tonight it offered no comfort.

  CHAPTER 16

  ‘Wake up. Tea’s ready.’

  Nina opened her eyes. Tiny pinpricks of light showed the sun shining through the canvas of her swag.

  She pushed the flap off her face and enjoyed a long stretch. She’d been so warm. The swag was a kind of envelope of canvas with a slab of foam rubber inside, nothing fancy, but she’d had one of the best sleeps ever. The morning air was sharp and scented with wood smoke.

  Heath, squatting near the fire, poured tea from a billy into an enamel cup. Nina thought he looked perfect in his rumpled jeans and t-shirt with ruffled bed hair and sleepy eyes.

  ‘Very rural,’ she smiled. She felt closer to him after their talk last night. He handed her the tea and a muesli bar.

  ‘We have to get back,’ he said. ‘The cattle will be thirsty. Where the bloody hell is he?’

  Nina said nothing. She sipped her tea, trying to hold onto that peaceful feeling. The bird song, the stillness, the isolation. How long was it since she’d been out bush?

  Heath busied himself around the campsite, rolling his swag, packing up food. Nina lay down again and opened her muesli bar. It was the best muesli bar she’d ever tasted, sweet, but not too sweet, chewy but not sticky. The sun slanted through the wood smoke drifting into the leaves of the nearby gums standing silent above her. How good it would be to stay out here for a week, sleep under the stars.

  She’d never thought she liked camping. Once she’d gone on a school trip to Barrington Tops. The leaking tent and the leeches made a funny story to tell Mum when she got home, but it didn’t make her want to go camping again. But this was different. The country out here was made for sle
eping out: sandy riverbeds, wood for campfires and no rain.

  It was strangely fascinating to watch Heath without his knowledge as he scraped the fire coals together. He moved without tension or awkwardness.

  ‘Do you camp out here a lot?’ she asked him.

  ‘Eh?’ said Heath, waking from his own daydream. ‘Not much since …’ He fell silent.

  ‘It’s lovely.’

  Heath nodded. ‘I know.’

  They both heard the ute approach. Heath pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes.

  Uh oh, thought Nina, scrambling out of the swag and rolling it as best she could. She raked her fingers through her curls and pinched the sleep out of her eyes.

  Ben swung himself out of the cab, a guilty smile on his face. ‘So? How did you go?’ he asked.

  ‘Where the hell have you been? Christ, Ben, you really come up with some dumb-arsed ideas sometimes,’ said Heath.

  ‘Sorry, bro,’ said Ben as he grabbed his crutches. ‘There was no water in the ground tank in the top paddock at all, so Lobby and I had to move the cattle, and then it was too late to come back. I knew you’d be okay, with the swags and food and stuff.’

  ‘Very forward thinking of you, mate. Miraculous,’ said Heath sarcastically.

  Ben hopped over on his crutches and sat down on Heath’s rolled-up swag.

  ‘So, Ben, you moved the Senepols in the dark, in your chair?’ asked Heath, deadpan.

  ‘It was fine. Lobby rode. There was moonlight, it was only along the road. They’re right as rain.’ Ben looked up at his brother. ‘Chill. Deborah’s not back till tonight. No harm done.’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Heath darkly.

  ‘So, did’ja find the nugget, guys?’

  He can’t help himself, thought Nina, smiling.

  Heath turned and walked to the edge of the waterhole to rinse the billy.

  ‘No,’ Nina said. ‘But we found a cave. There was a rope leading down to this big gap in the floor, like a well. The rope was frayed or cut. Someone’s been down there. We should go and check it out. It could even have been –’