by S. J. Morgan
It was a much-needed airlock having company. Over a few beers, we heard a bit more about their plans. They were going to some place called Normanton, a few hours north, on the promise of work in a new hostel which was due to open there.
For me, it was a new experience seeing Sindy talk about regular things with regular people, and I could almost imagine myself her proud big brother as I watched her telling them all about her favourite TV shows and which films she wanted to see at the movies.
The coolest thing about the Canadians was they all seemed to like Sindy. Genuinely. Warmly. Jules found Sindy hilarious and I could see Sindy lapping up the attention.
After such a decent evening, it put a dampener on things when they reminded us that they were leaving in a few days for their work adventures. It would have been good to have had their company for longer.
Once they’d left Mt Isa, I knew all I had to look forward to was helping Sindy search for her family: a family that she seemed totally indifferent to finding.
Chapter 48
‘I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it,’ Sindy’s shrieking as she paws at Minto. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.’ She’s getting blood everywhere and I’m on the verge of puking.
I take her hand and pull her away. ‘C’mon. We need to get out of here.’
She’s still struggling to get back to him, so I yank her hard and her shoes slap against the concrete. We get to the door, but I look back and see her shotgun on the floor. ‘Wait,’ I tell her. And she does.
I run over and pick up the gun – it’s still warm and I want to carry it at arm’s length, as far away from me as possible.
‘He’s not really dead, is he? Alec?’ Sindy whispers as I join her. ‘I haven’t...killed him?’ She starts making this weird mewing sound and tugs at her hair. ‘What will they do to me?’
I spin around, trying to gauge the situation, get my mental bearings. ‘Where’s everyone gone?’ I say. ‘Sindy! Where did the others go?’
She can barely form words. ‘I don’t know, I don’t know. I can’t remember.’
I grab her by the arm. ‘Think for fuck’s sake!’ I’m shouting in her face. ‘Could they come back?’
She rubs her cheek, not realising she’s smudging Minto’s blood all over her. ‘They’ve gone to Alice Springs,’ she says, gulping out the words. ‘They’re having a big meet. Till tomorrow at least. Minto’s meant to...’
‘We need to get out. Now.’ I dash over and throw open the door. The sunlight is blinding.
I pull Sindy outside and we run towards the one bike left by the tree.
It’s hotter than it’s ever been in my life: I’m melting from the inside.
‘It wasn’t meant to go off,’ Sindy says, sobbing. ‘I thought it wasn’t loaded.’
‘Where are the bike keys?’ I yell at her.
‘What?’
‘The keys to the bike, Sindy. Where are they?’
She shakes her head, her body convulsing as she cries. ‘I don’t kn... in his pocket.’
I glance back at the clubhouse. ‘Shit.’
‘I can get them,’ she says. She’s about to run back inside but as she reaches the doorway, she turns and stops. ‘I don’t want to see him,’ she splutters.
There’s no time to try and cajole her: I’m forced to hurry past.
Raw fear grips me the moment I step over the threshold. I can’t believe he’ll still be dead. It’s like those horror scenes where you think the monster’s been slain, then suddenly the body’s gone and a shadow on the wall reveals a dagger, poised and ready.
But a shaft of sunlight shows Minto is just where we left him, his bulky form splattered across the concrete floor like a spilt pint. I’m about to put a wary hand on his jacket but I spot my bag, upturned in the corner. It gives me a moment to delay and I go and grab it before returning to kneel beside Minto. I still daren’t touch him and I know this is all taking far too long. We need to get out. We need to get away.
I take a breath and look towards the door: somehow, I know Sindy will be watching me, taking in my every move. It crosses my mind I don’t trust her.
‘Come in here,’ I say. ‘Give me a hand.’
She takes a few steps forward but shakes her head at coming closer.
I return my attention to finding the keys and I keep my eyes on Minto’s clothing – the collar of his jacket; the stitching on his jeans – anything other than the humanness of him.
He’s the great ogre felled from the beanstalk. I won’t look at his face but all the time I’m digging in his pocket, I smell and taste the metallic ooze of his blood and I have to hold my breath to stop myself retching.
Sindy’s sniffing and sobbing. Did she really not know it was loaded? Or had that bullet been meant for me?
My fingers connect with the jagged edge of metal and I pull out a small bunch of keys. I yank my hand from his pocket and suddenly can’t get away quick enough. Even as I stand, I’m half expecting to feel his hand around my ankle. Instead, I feel a dampness on my jeans and realise I’ve been kneeling in Minto’s blood.
I touch Sindy’s shoulder as I reach her. ‘C’mon. Let’s go.’
‘We can’t leave him here.’
‘What?’ I’m right on the edge, percolated. ‘We can. We have to get out.’
‘But...’
‘He’s dead. Okay? There’s nothing to be done.’
‘He’s...’ She still can’t get it through that thick skull of hers. ‘Are you sure?’
I blink back at her. ‘Yes, Sindy. He’s dead.’
Her mouth moves but no sound comes out.
‘C’mon. We have to move. Now.’ I drag her outside by the elbow and manhandle her onto the bike. My backpack has to be strapped to my front and the guns are a fucking nuisance. I get on the saddle and put the pistol in my pocket, the shotgun under my thighs. If that thing goes off, God help any driver overtaking me.
The bike weighs a ton, but I manage to get it into gear without dropping it. Just as well Black taught me the basics or I’d have had no clue. We skid and slide across the dirt, almost overturning the fucking thing, until I finally find my balance.
‘Ace of Spades’ jabs at my brain as we zig-zag through the tree line. White trunks, hot dust, endless sky, ‘Ace of Spades’.
Chapter 49
The next day, Sindy was already with the Canadians, having breakfast, when I joined them in the communal kitchen. She was busy showing off the photo in that passport of hers, passing it around to each of them in turn. The cover was starting to look battered already, I noticed: mainly because whenever Sindy wasn’t flashing the thing around, she’d have it wedged in her back pocket like it was her personal lucky charm.
The fans were spinning, full tilt, but everyone looked flushed and sweaty. Sindy was right in amongst them: flanked by Stu, and Lexi and opposite Jules, looking like she was really part of their world.
‘Hey, have you guys done the mine tour yet?’ Stu asked, passing Sindy’s passport back to her.
‘What mine tour?’ Sindy reached past him for the jam and spread it inch-thick onto her toast. She looked puzzled. ‘We haven’t done the mine tour, have we, Alec?’
I took the spot beside Jules and grabbed a piece of toast.
‘I think you’d remember if you’d donned a hard hat and descended fifty-feet under the ground, Gina,’ Jules said to her.
‘Actually,’ Sindy said. ‘If I was going underground, I’d keep my eyes shut the whole time, so I probably wouldn’t remember. Though I would remember a hard hat.’ She took a bite of toast and added: ‘Or even a soft, floppy one.’
That set Jules off again and she sat there leaning into me as Sindy crunched her toast.
It was still early but already hot. We’d got used to having a crap night’s sleep because the miners at the hostel were all on different shifts, and there was a lot of toing and froing in the small hours.
Lexi picked Sindy’s camera up from the table. ‘These are cool, aren’t they?�
� she said. ‘Are the films expensive?’
‘Not sure,’ Sindy said. ‘I haven’t bought one yet. Alec said we should wait till we’re in a city: they might be cheaper.’
Lexi passed the camera to Jules to look at. ‘But that means you can only take a few photos while you’re in the outback,’ she said. ‘We’ve taken loads. We’ve got pictures of kangaroos, lizards, snakes, a koala.’
‘I don’t wanna see snakes,’ Sindy said. ‘Alec promised we wouldn’t.’
‘Is that right?’ Jules said, giving me a look.
Stu was laughing. ‘That’s a brave promise to make.’
He glanced at Sindy as he bent down under the table. Just as she was reaching for the jam, she let out a scream and fell backwards off her seat. She scrabbled to her feet and was still hyperventilating when she came and clung to my back.
Stu held up the rolled-up magazine he’d tickled her leg with. ‘You are twitchy about snakes!’ he said.
It took a few moments for Sindy to see the funny side, but eventually she sat back down and enjoyed the afterglow of being the Canadians’ centre of attention.
‘So, when do you head off?’ I asked, once everyone had quietened down.
‘Day or two,’ Stu said. ‘The place isn’t opening till next month, but they have to get the rooms and the grounds ready. We’ll be general labourers for a while.’
‘What sort of work after that, d’you reckon?’
‘Cleaning mainly,’ he said. ‘Maybe do some pickups from the station; pool maintenance, that sort of thing.’
‘Cool.’
‘Yah. We get free board and meals, so we’ll have money left for the rest of our trip.’
‘Lucky ducks!’ Sindy said.
He smiled at her and shrugged, like it was no big deal. ‘Why don’t you come?’ he said. ‘They need all the help they can get.’
Sindy’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. ‘Ooh, we could, couldn’t we?’ she said, looking at me. ‘I could answer the phones.’
Stu laughed: ‘This’ll be more your hauling and lumbering. Not sure it’ll be as glamorous as reception duties.’
‘It’d be so cool if you came,’ Jules said, looking between us. ‘We’ve got room in the car if you wanted to.’
‘Can we, Alec?’ Sindy said. Her pink cheeks were even pinker now. ‘I’d love that. And these guys are our friends now. It’d be fun!’
I slid my eyes to her. ‘We can’t, Gina. We’re still trying to find...y’know…’
‘Oh, we can do that any time.’ She folded her arms and sat looking sulky. ‘Maybe I’ll go with them then. By myself.’ She turned back to the others. ‘When would we go?’
‘Day after tomorrow,’ Jules said. She shifted her gaze to me and looked me up and down. I had the feeling she was keen for us to come as a package. ‘You can’t abandon your kid sister!’ she said. ‘So, how about it, Alec? You up for a little fun?’
I’d grown to have serious doubts about the names Sindy had given me. The surnames were not ones I could find in the whole of the Queensland area. There was no Plan B, that was the problem: I couldn’t believe Dad had sent me away without a long list of contingencies. The trip had been made in such a hurry that the focus had been on getting Sindy away. And now that had happened, I was left with the problematic fallout. What was I to do with Sindy if we couldn’t find her family?
It was stifling in our room with only a ceiling fan to cool us. But, for once, it wasn’t the heat that woke me: it was the jab between my ribs. And something which seemed to stick to my back as I breathed. I reached down to my stomach and found a hand.
Sindy stirred as soon as I touched her, and she drew her knees against the back of my legs but didn’t wake. I blinked in the darkness as her arm tightened around me.
‘Sindy! What are you doing?’ I hissed.
Her voice was small, delicate. ‘What?’
I threw back the covers and got out of bed.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered in the darkness. ‘I was cold.’
‘In this furnace? Put some fucking clothes on then.’
‘I didn’t mean anything.’
‘You can’t just clamber into bed with me. You’re meant to be...my sister.’
A car’s headlights lit the room briefly and I saw the silhouette of Sindy’s head, barely visible above the sheets.
‘Look,’ I sighed, trying to gather my thoughts. ‘I’m sorry but…jeez, maybe you’ve been around people like Minto for too long.’
I heard her swallow, and guessed she was in tears.
‘You just need to learn to be friends with people instead of…anything more, okay?’
She didn’t reply.
‘Sind…Gina? The only way this trip can work is if you accept that we’re friends,’ I said. ‘Nothing more. No hidden agendas. Just mates... brother and sister. D’you get it?’
She sounded sullen when she answered. ‘Yes! Okay!’
‘Good,’ I said, ‘because, if you can’t accept that, well –’
She seemed suddenly interested. ‘Well, what?’
I flailed for a suitable threat. ‘Then, I might as well go home.’
She pulled the sheets and sat up against her pillows. ‘All right then.’ She sounded deadly serious.
‘What?’
‘I’ll stay with the others. I said I would. You go home.’
I knew she was only saying it out of defiance, a bit of bravado. She’d think differently in the morning, when it really came to it.
‘Yeah, right,’ I said, climbing up to the top bunk. ‘That’s exactly what you wanna do. ’Night, Gina.’
‘‘Night, Alec.’
As her breathing steadied, though, the strange notion began to roll around like a loose marble in my consciousness.
Perhaps she would be better off without me. I couldn’t see any way we were going to find this elusive family of hers, and the longer it took, the more resentful I was likely to get. Maybe she’d be happier with a bunch of people who accepted her for who she was. People who didn’t know where she’d come from; what she’d been through. People who had no concept of Minto’s Sindy.
I tried to push the idea away. Of course I couldn’t just leave her.
It wouldn’t be right.
As my eyelids began to droop, though, I was already planning a route. I could hitch to Alice Springs, see Ayers Rock then get a flight to Sydney. A spot of Christmas shopping; a cuddly koala for Daniella. Then home.
The whirr of the fan was making it hard to keep my eyes open. I imagined myself writing Sindy a note; making an ‘Alice Springs’ sign to hold up. I wondered where the best place would be on the highway to stick out a thumb.
‘Sindy? I whispered into the darkness. ‘D’you really mean it?’
The rhythmic sound of her breathing told me nothing, but it didn’t matter. I already knew the answer.
Chapter 50
I’ve had to ease off the throttle and pull over as we return to the outskirts of Mt Isa. We’re back in civilisation; potentially as big a danger as I faced from Minto. Can I be sure Sindy hasn’t lied about where the bikies have gone and led me, instead, to another ambush?
I get off the bike and Sindy remains where she is, deathly pale, clearly still in shock. Minto’s blood has dried on her face. More of it has soaked into the knee of my jeans and it feels like the bastard has come along for the ride.
The relentless heat is weighing me down, smothering my thoughts but I know thinking is exactly what I need to do. Calm down, clean up.
‘We need to get changed,’ I say to Sindy. ‘And washed. We can’t go anywhere like this.’
She looks down at my bloodstained jeans, swallows and nods. Her hair is stiff and clumped and I realise there’s blood in there too.
‘I need to put the bike somewhere,’ I say, thinking out loud. ‘We can’t leave it where it’ll get noticed.’
‘What will we do after that?’ she says.
‘Leave.’
‘Alec?
Will we go back to Swansea?’ Her voice wobbles, and I sense she’s having as much trouble keeping herself together as I am.
The question ricochets in my head. It sounds so ludicrous, I almost laugh. ‘No, Sindy,’ I tell her. ‘Not Swansea. It’ll never be Swansea.’
I leave the bike in one of the residential streets near the main town, parked between a van and late-model saloon. I hope it will sit there, unnoticed and unremarkable, for a few days at least.
Sindy and I have to eke out the dregs of that warm lemonade I’ve had in my bag: my survival rations have turned out to be just that and, even though it’s sticky and disgusting, there’s enough moisture for us to get the blood off our faces and hands.
Once I’ve rolled up my jeans, we look unbloodied enough to walk into a store and buy ourselves new clothes. We take our new T-shirts and shorts, along with our bottles of shampoo, to the nearest public toilet.
It’s the shotgun that’s, literally, the biggest nuisance. If I could snap it in two, confident it won’t go off, that’s exactly what I’d do. Instead, I’m stuck with it, like a tourist with a freaking didgeridoo, until I can work out where to lose it.
I look around in the toilets. There’s a gap where the breezeblock wall ends, and the rafters of the roof begin. It’s shadowed, hidden, for the time-being at least, so I stand on the toilet lid, reach up and place both guns up there, pushing them back as far as I can.
‘Alec?’ Sindy appears by the urinals, shampoo bottle in her hand, hair stuck to her scalp like she hasn’t rinsed it for long enough.
‘Where are your clothes? The…dirty ones?’
‘In the bin.’
I dash past her, into the ladies. She’s left them in the wire basket, a blood-stained sleeve sitting there, loud and proud, like a fucking confession. Is that deliberate too? I yank all her clothes out of there, stuff them into my bag and join Sindy outside.