The Audrey of the Outback Collection (22 page)

Janet beckoned Audrey closer.

Audrey crawled over. It was only a little way and the sandy soil was soft.

Janet leaned forward, put one hand up to Audrey’s ear, and whispered. Then she sat back. ‘No one can call me that name till I get back home. First person gonna say it again is my mum.’

‘Your real name sounds nice,’ said Audrey. ‘How old are you?’

Janet shrugged.

‘Don’t you like to say how old you are?’ Audrey crossed her legs and rested her elbows on her knees.

‘Maybe this many.’ Janet held up eight fingers. Then she held up seven, changed her mind and made it six.

Outside the cubbyhouse, a kookaburra called out. It sounded like loud laughter.

Instantly, Janet grabbed hold of Audrey’s wrist and squeezed tight.

Audrey hardly dared to breathe.

Fourteen

Audrey hardly dared to breathe.

She listened for any sounds that didn’t belong in the bush. Anything which might suggest someone was out there. But there was just the wind and the crows, then the kookaburra again.

Stumpy, his lower jaw moving from side to side, stood outside the doorway.

With her free hand, Audrey put one finger to her lips, reminding him to be quiet.

‘Who’s there?’ hissed Janet.

‘Just my camel. He’s called Stumpy. I don’t think anyone else is out there. Do you?’

Janet let go of Audrey’s wrist and looked at the open doorway of the cubby. ‘That camel, he your family?’

‘He’s my
friend
. He’s got four legs and a big mouth. He doesn’t spit though, and he doesn’t smell like other camels. And he has beautiful big eyes. Most people can’t see him.’

The two girls exchanged understanding looks.

‘I reckon
you
could probably see him,’ said Audrey. ‘You’ve got the right sort of eyes.’

‘He’s yours. My family, we got kooka burras.’

Audrey shifted and felt the boiled egg in her pocket. ‘Are you hungry?’

Janet’s eyes flashed.

Audrey reached into her pocket, took out the egg and offered it to her.

‘Half each?’ suggested Janet.

‘I’m not hungry. You have it.’ Audrey’s stomach rumbled. She hoped Janet hadn’t heard it.

Janet took the egg, smacked it between her hands, then peeled it. Pieces of white shell fell on the red sandy soil.

‘What happened to your ankle?’ asked Audrey.

‘I was runnin’ and my foot went down a rabbit hole.’ Janet’s face crinkled, as though she was going to cry. Instead, she pushed the egg into her mouth and began chewing. Yellow yolk-crumbs fell onto her dress. She picked them up between two fingertips, the way Douglas sometimes picked up ants. Then Janet put the crumbs in her mouth. That was also what Douglas did with ants.

‘Men in a car, they takin’ me from the mission down to Quorn. They said they’d give me lollies. They told me that before, long time ago, when they took me from my family, first time. But there’s no lollies. They said they’d take me back home.’ Janet had a faraway look, as though her eyes were seeing into forever. ‘They never gonna do that.’

‘What men?’

‘Police, I reckon. They got buttons here.’ Janet ran one finger from her neck down to her waist. ‘Those men got bad faces.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘When they first take me and the others, we hear those cars and we run. My mum hid me in the bush. But the men found me. I been at the mission, learning school things and washin’ floors. Now they saying some woman in Quorn looking for a girl to work in her kitchen. Or wash clothes. Or somethin’. I don’t care if it’s kitchen or clothes. All the same to me. I don’t want to go.’

Little girls helped their mums. But they didn’t go out to work. At the Barlow house, Monday’s washing was hard work. It took all day, even when there were several people to help. Audrey couldn’t lift a wet sheet by herself. It was too heavy. Dad or Price lifted the sheets now that Mum wasn’t allowed, in case the baby didn’t like it.

‘Tyre on the car went
bang
when we were going to Quorn. They was tryin’ to fix it and I ran into the bush.’ Janet wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. One last yellow crumb fell. She pinched that up too and popped it in her mouth. ‘Did all right till I twisted my ankle.’

‘There’s plenty of bushes around here to hide in,’ suggested Audrey. ‘And you can stay in my cubbyhouse until your ankle’s better.’

‘They might get a tracker. His eyes will be like an eagle’s. Good tracker, he could tell those men how tall I am, if I’m carrying somethin’, how long before I left foot marks in the sand.’

‘My dad could …’

‘
No.
Those men will make him give me back to them.’ Janet’s eyes widened. ‘I’ll never get home. My mum and my aunties, they calling my name every day. I hear them.’

Audrey felt hot stinging behind her eyes. It was horrible to even
think
about men with too many buttons snatching her away from her family. She imagined what it would be like, stuck in the bush with an empty stomach and a swollen ankle.

‘I’m goin’
home
.’ Janet’s eyes flashed again.

Audrey believed her. A girl with eyes like that could do anything. Audrey looked down at Janet’s puffy ankle. Janet’s heart was bursting to get home, but her leg might not let her.

‘I’ll lean on a stick,’ said Janet.

‘That’s a good idea. But your ankle will have to get a bit better before you can use a walking stick.’

Janet’s face fell.

‘We’ve got a billycart at home!’ said Audrey. ‘Dad made it and it even works. It’s wood and it’s got wheels. There’s a rope on the front for pulling it. You could use that and you wouldn’t have to walk.’

Janet thought for a moment. ‘But who’s gonna pull that rope?’

‘Oh.’ Audrey blew air into her cheeks. ‘I forgot about that. And sometimes, if the sand is soft, the wheels get stuck.’

‘I’ll have to walk. Unless I ride an emu.’ Janet chuckled.

‘Wouldn’t you be scared?’

‘I could hang on to his feathers.’

Audrey nodded. ‘It’d be hard getting him to stand still while you climb on though. Our camels hate it, even though Dad rides them all the time and he’s got a saddle …’

Hope shone in Janet’s eyes.

Audrey spoke first, ‘A
camel
… you could borrow one of Dad’s camels.’

Then Janet’s shoulders slumped. ‘Can’t tell your dad about me.’

‘But Dad’s a nice man …’

‘No!’ Janet’s eyes widened. ‘Grown-up people bring back other kids that run away. I seen it lots of times. Always, they bring ’em back. Those kids cryin’ when they come back … and they don’t go out again.’

Audrey stopped arguing. Janet’s mind was made up. There was no changing it. ‘We can’t borrow a camel without telling him.’

‘I’m gonna
walk
, soon as I can. Got here, didn’t I?’ Janet shook her head.‘Promise you won’t tell about me?’

‘I promise.’

It was one thing to say that. But keeping Janet a secret from Audrey’s family would be much harder.

Fifteen

‘Audrey!’

She flinched and looked up, her pulse racing.

Her mum stood at the corner of the house, a bucket of water in her hand. She leaned slightly to one side. Either the bucket was heavy or her gammy leg was playing up.

‘Are you all right, dear?’

‘Mum! You scared me.’

‘I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. You look as white as a sheet. Are you feeling sick?’

Mum’s face didn’t have much colour either.

Audrey bounded towards her. ‘I was thinking and my head was loud. I didn’t hear you coming. Dad said you shouldn’t carry heavy buckets.’ She grabbed the handle of the bucket. ‘I’ll help, then we’re only doing half each.’

She thought of Janet, offering to share half of the egg.

Mum smiled and her eyes crinkled. It was a nice crinkling though. Mum had pretty eyes. Audrey’s eyes were the same colour, but she didn’t think she’d ever be as pretty as Mum. Audrey wondered if Janet looked like
her
mum.

As they stepped out together, water slopped over the top of the bucket.

‘Let’s slow down, shall we?’ said Mum. ‘We’re not on our way to a fire.’

Audrey matched her steps to her mum’s. The bucket wasn’t big, but the handle dug into Audrey’s palm. Water was tricky. You could see right through it, but it was as heavy as anything.

‘Your dad and Price have gone looking for the camels.’ Mum sighed. ‘They got loose again.’

Audrey felt her back stiffen. What if the camels ran towards her cubby, and her dad and Price saw Janet? Janet might think Audrey had broken her promise and told her family she was there. What would happen to Janet then?

‘I don’t know why we bother tethering the camels,’ said Mum.

Crow noises from inside the house told Audrey that Douglas had woken from his afternoon nap.

Audrey and her mum stopped at the kitchen door. It was only wide enough for one person to enter at a time.

‘I’m big enough to lift the bucket inside.’ Audrey tried to make her voice firm. The way Dad sometimes did when his mind was made up. But it didn’t come out that way. Audrey simply sounded as though she had a sore throat.

Mum let go of the bucket and held open the kitchen door.

The bucket of water pulled on Audrey’s arms and neck. The handle dug further into her palms. If Janet had to work in some woman’s kitchen, she might be carrying many heavy buckets like this.

Audrey made it into the kitchen, spilling only a few drops.

‘Leave the bucket on the floor. Dad can lift it up onto the table when he gets back,’ said Mum.

Audrey rubbed at her palms, but the red handle-lines stayed on her skin.

‘Cuppa?’ Mum picked the billy up from the bench. ‘I’m as dry as a bone.’

‘Can we have bread too, with lots of jam?’

‘You must have walked a long way today,’ said Mum.

Audrey shrugged. If she folded a slice of bread in half, it would slip into a pocket very nicely. Most likely, she could fit in two slices, one each side.

The Douglas-crow noises in the bedroom stopped.

Audrey took the billy from her mum and slipped the ladle from its hook on the wall. ‘Mum, if I got taken away from you, would you call my name every day?’

Her mum leaned back against the table, her hand against her chest. ‘If you weren’t here, I’d think about you all the time.’

Audrey scooped water from the bucket into the billy. Drips dotted the mud floor. The billy wouldn’t take long to boil once it was hung over the fire.

‘Do you think I’d know if you were calling me?’ asked Audrey.

Mum came over and put her arms around Audrey’s shoulders and hugged her. It was a sideways hug. It was getting harder to get close to Mum front-ways. Her tummy got in the way.

‘I believe you
would
know.’

‘Can I ask you a question about Pearl and Esther?’ Audrey stayed with her face against her mother.

‘Of course you can.’ Mum’s voice seemed to come from a long way above Audrey.

‘Do you call
their
names?’

‘Every day.’ Mum’s voice sounded thick. ‘But inside.’

‘Why do you do it
inside
?’ Audrey kept her arms firmly around her mother’s large waist.

‘My granny used to say, “Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone.”’

‘But if you cry alone, then no one can help you.’ Audrey looked up then.

Her mum’s eyes were moist and shiny.

‘I’m never going to get married,’ said Audrey. ‘I’m going to stay with you forever.’

Mum patted her back.

‘Anyways, if I got married, I’d have to get used to a lot of beard scratching. Bloke reckons men have got animals in there. Real little ones.’

Mum made a hiccup sound. ‘Don’t ever change, Audrey Barlow.’

It was too late for that. Audrey couldn’t remember keeping a secret from her mum before. She wanted to tell her all about Janet, but she couldn’t. And that changed everything.

Sixteen

Audrey parted the hessian curtains in her bedroom, held out the potato bag and let it drop outside.

‘Mind that, Stumpy,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll be round to get it in a minute.’

She turned to find Douglas staring up at her, his blue eyes intense. He had his sneaky slippers on. Made of kangaroo skin, they muffled the sound of his footsteps.

‘Wanna come wiv you.’ He rocked back and forth on his feet.

‘Who said I was going anywhere?’

Usually, she didn’t mind him tagging along. But today she had plans that could not include him. He didn’t understand secrets. If he heard something, it went from his ears to his mouth in a few seconds.

‘Come
wiv
you.’

‘Not this time,’ said Audrey. ‘I have to run, and your legs are short.’

‘Cawwie me.’

‘You’re too heavy. I can’t carry you. It’s a long way. I’m going to ask Bloke to come across for tea tonight. You can see her then.’

Douglas pouted.

Audrey hoped he wasn’t about to have a tantrum. Mum would ask her to take him along.

‘I’ll play a game with you when I get back.’ Audrey smiled.

Douglas nodded. His hair was still messy from his afternoon rest, and dried jam smeared his right cheek.

The clanging and banging of pots from the kitchen told Audrey that her mum was preparing preserved meat for tonight’s tea. It took hours to soak out the extra salt before it could be cooked.