Kipp The Kid (6 page)

“Yeah,” said the other two in agreement.

But as they retreated backwards from their lying
position at the top of the chasm, one of the boys dislodged a rock,
which rolled out in front of them and over the edge of the cliff.
It whacked hard into the ground beneath them and the echo was like
a siren in their ears. They instantly ducked down and then shoveled
backwards, before getting up and legging it back to their
bikes.

“What was that?” asked Jane, looking up.

“Trouble,” answered Kipp.

chapter 7: thrice the trouble

Kipp had just managed to get a glimpse of the face of
one of the boys and thought he recognized him as Trent Jansen. He
had two brothers, all of them triplets. “Thrice the trouble,” his
grandfather had once said when the boys were in the local paper
because they had damaged a shop front by bombing it with stink
bombs. Since coming to the area, Trent and his brothers, Arnold and
Jake, were always getting into trouble at school and wherever there
was a fight, they were involved. They had gotten the cuts more
times than they had gotten D’s, which was quite an
accomplishment.

They were two year levels higher than Kipp at school,
but they honed in on him and were always doing something to his bag
or stealing from him or playing a practical joke. Kipp had tried to
ignore them, but sometimes he lost it and ended up in trouble
himself. It was a long walk home after school when you knew you
would cop it at home for getting into trouble. But thankfully, his
gran and grumps were sympathetic, only punishing him with more
chores. He knew his grumps did not like the Jansens.

“Out-of-towners,” his grumps would snicker, whenever
their names were mentioned.

“I’ve seen those three in action at school,” said
Jane when Kipp told her about them. “They usually leave me alone,
but they pick on the other boys something shocking. What are we
going to do?”

“Nothing we can do.”

“But they know we’re here,” she said, concern in her
voice.

“Nothing we can do about that now.”

“Won’t they come back?”

Kipp thought hard about how to answer. He thought
they probably would and there was no doubt it was them that wrecked
the camp site. But in his mind he was already developing a cunning
plan.

“Yes, but if they do, we’ll be ready for them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, we have work to do.”

The night before Jane had just wanted to go home. She
had been frightened. But with the morning light and the warmth of
the sun, she had wanted nothing more than to stay. She hadn’t been
harmed. Whatever it was that haunted the chasm had not done
anything but scare her.

Just to be sure, Kipp had done the gentlemanly thing
and asked her if she wanted to go. She shook her head and grinned.
He was glad. They had planned to stay two nights. He dreaded having
to explain to his gran and grumps why they came home early and he
doubted they would let him come out again for at least a few days,
if not a week.

He also had grave doubts Jane’s own father would let
her ever come camping again, once she got home. He began to worry
what might happen to her when she did. In his wild imagination he
had thought they might be able to run away together. It was a
fleeting thought, so impractical and stupid. For all their faults,
his grandparents needed him and he loved them, despite their
strange ways. He had been imposed on them at a time of grieving.
Abandoned by his father, they had had no choice but to look after
him. He was thankful for that and he felt he owed them more than
running away.

Kipp and Jane packed up their stuff. Jane didn’t have
to ask where they were going. There was only one other place safe
enough, far enough out of the way. They made their way back down
the shaft, along the narrow tunnels and down into the hovel. Just
to be sure, Kipp closed the wooden latch above them.

“We have to use candles,” he said, “The lantern burns
too much oxygen,” he added by way of explanation.

The air was stale and dank, but Jane didn’t have any
problems breathing. Kipp opened up a vent in a tin pipe that went
up into the timber ceiling.

“What’s that?”

It’s a ventilation shaft. It runs part way back down
the tunnel. It’ll help provide enough breathable air. We’ll have to
stay the night here, but we can’t have a fire or cook real food.
We’ll have to make do with tinned.

Jane shrugged and nodded. Kipp laid out their swags
at one end of the hovel. “It’s still early. Come on. Time’s a
wasting.” He grabbed Jane by the hand and led her through a small
opening at one end of the hovel. It was covered at the entrance
with sack cloth. There was only enough room to crawl and in the
dark, Jane wondered what her clothes must look like. Kipp had the
torch, which by now was just a dim glow. They came out into an
opening, not much larger than the hovel. But at least here they
could stand up.

Kipp lit a candle he had brought and placed it on a
stone ledge. Jane was surprised at how much light it cast. Around
her the walls were a different color rock, but there were thin
strips of colored stone in between the layers. Some of them glinted
in the candle light.

“What are they?” she asked.

“Gems. Some crystallites and if you’re lucky, some
opal.”

“Wow!” Jane went over to the wall of the chamber and
brushed a vein with her hand. So smooth.”

Kipp had a small pick, which he handed to Jane. “Have
a go.” She struck the vein hard, but nothing happened. “No, you
have to chip at it, careful like, along the edge.”

He took the pick off her and started chipping away at
the vein. After a while he had dislodged a small gem. He held it up
to the light of the candle. Jane could see the colors through the
gemstone. She was amazed by the many colors in the small stone. He
gave it to her and she held it up again. Then she went to give it
back.

“Keep it. Consider it yours.”

“Really?” Jane said, trying not to sound too
excited.

Kipp chuckled at the child-like manner of Jane. After
the events of the night before, he did not know when he would see
the old Jane again, but he was glad she was back. She placed the
gem stone in her pocket and Kipp started chipping away at the wall.
After some time he had several stones, enough to fill a small cloth
bag he had with him. He held it up, drawn tight by a string.

“You said you had a plan…to deal with the boys?”

The small bag swung back and forth in front of Kipp’s
grinning face. “This is the plan.” Jane grinned too, though for the
life of her she did not know why. She knew enough to know how
cunning Kipp could be and she trusted he had it all worked out.
“You see,” he began. “Boys like the Jansens don’t know a hell of a
lot. They aren’t particularly literate. They are bullies. They will
steal your lunch, get you into trouble, pick fights around the
school, gang up, but for all that they don’t have much going for
them. What they do understand though is greed. They see something
they want and they will take it, whether they need it or not.”

“So you are going to…tempt them? With those?”

“Yep!”

Jane smiled a beaming smile. She liked the way Kipp
thought. For such an unassuming lad, he could be very clever and
witty and this was just another side to him she liked.

“You are full of surprises.”

“And do you know what? These little gems, for all
their apparent beauty, are worthless.”

“What?” Jane said and then giggled.

“That’s right, they aren’t the real deal. At least
not a patch on the gems up north. And this?” He now held something
that glowed gold. A piece a little smaller than his hand. “This
will fool them completely.”

“Is that what I think it is?”

Kipp only smiled.

chapter 8: A Fool’s treasure

Kipp placed the treasure inside a wooden box that
looked as old as the mines themselves. Then with a bit of hot iron
he carefully inscribed a word he hoped the boys would recognize.
Then he and Jane buried the box at the base of the chasm wall at
the far end of the chasm. They then covered it with grasses and
cacti they had dug up from elsewhere, planting them so that they
looked like they had been there for a while. Kipp then inscribed
something resembling the British Crown above it on the rock.

The two of them stood back and admired their handy
work. Then they looked at each other and laughed. Jane held a hand
up to her mouth and laughed into her wrist. She noted for the first
time how dirty it was.

“Do I look as dirty as you do?” she said.

“Filthy,” came the sure response, before they both
broke out in laughter.

They returned to the hovel and had a lively
discussion about how long it would be before the boys returned and
whether they were smart enough to at least follow the clues that
two of them had planted all around the place, especially the tops
of the chasm. Kipp knew it was only a matter of time before the
boys could not resist returning. He suspected they would bring more
than just their cameras.

Kipp and Jane talked for what seemed like hours. Jane
asked him about his parents and family and cousins and he told her
almost everything. When he spoke about his dad, it was with
careless indifference. But whenever he mentioned his mother, he
softened and slowed down, turning his gaze towards the flickering
candle light.

He told her how his dad had left them and how it had
broken his mother’s heart. Even though he was only four years old
he still remembered the look of utter sadness on his mother’s face,
as she read out loud the letter his dad had written.

“I will never forgive him for that,” he said, then,
after a moment’s pause he turned to Jane. “What about you? I mean,
I’ve told you all about me.” For a little while Kipp was convinced
she wouldn’t open up. But just when he thought she wasn’t going to
say, she started to tell him a story that for the first time in a
very long time, would bring a tear to his eyes.

“My mother was killed right in front of me,” Jane
started. Kipp was surprised at how forthright her manner was. “We
went to town and caught the city tram because I had never been on
it before. It was just before my seventh birthday. We had planned
on spending the whole day there. Dad was off working in the mines
interstate for weeks on end and he was due home that weekend for a
long overdue break.”

I had gotten off the tram, but mum’s dress got stuck.
The tram driver had gotten up to help her pull the dress from the
door. She turned to thank him and because she was distracted, she
stepped off the tram without thinking and walked right in front of
an oncoming car. The force of it killed her instantly. I remember
staring at her. She was smiling as she looked up to check where I
was. I will never forget that smile. It was the most beautiful and
terrible thing I ever saw and the last time I would ever see my
mother’s wondrous smile.”

Jane had no tears as she said this. She related the
story as if it had happened to someone else. Her eyes were glazed
over and she looked absent, like her spirit and left her body as
she sat motionless, not even blinking. Kipp could not help the
tears in his own eyes. He did not know which of them he felt more
sorry for. He had cried secretly many nights for the loss of his
own mother. She had died giving birth to what would have been his
sister. The baby had not lived to see the end of that day. He had
never seen her. She lies in an unmarked grave with the hundreds of
other infants in Moonta Cemetery.

There was a funeral for his mother, but none for her
new born child. His own father had not even come to say goodbye. He
had not told Jane any of this. He had not told her how he wished he
had a sister. He had thought of Jane as someone who might be like a
sister. But now, when he looked at her, he saw someone truly
beautiful, fragile, vulnerable. A treasure to outshine any precious
gem.

Kipp had never kissed anyone except his mother when
he was younger and his gran every now and then, but only when she
had given him something, a gift for his birthday or presents at
Christmas. He had rarely kissed his grumps. Mainly because his face
was so rough and bristly. Kipp almost broke out in a rash once
after kissing his grumps on the cheek and swore he would never kiss
him again.

Almost without thinking about it, he leaned in and
kissed Jane on the lips. To his surprise she did not move away. She
did not even flinch. It was the briefest of kisses. But it was the
softest, most delicate, most delicious thing he had ever touched
with his lips and it left a memory that would stay with Kipp for
many years.

Jane held her gaze for a while, steely, steadfast,
not looking away. Then, as a smiled crept slowly across her face,
she said, “My mother would have liked you.”

Jane didn’t talk much about her father. But she did
say later how she felt sorry for him. After all, his wife had been
taken from him in such a horrific way. It explained why he got so
drunk.

“But he shouldn’t hurt you,” Kipp had said.