The Boys from Binjiwunyawunya (20 page)

Deep in thought, Norton watched them from his seat, pondering how he was going to organise the confrontation with Kilby, and with him somewhere in the background. It was a bloody tricky one again, and no Eddie to help him this time. It was nine-thirty and each of them had taken a turn on the bone before Les made a move. He picked at his chin, nodded to himself, checked his pockets for change and went down to the yellow phone in the foyer.

When the phone rang Percy Kilby was sitting in his office feeling angry, ill and completely mystified. He was angry because of what had happened to Frank the night before. His illness, although nowhere near as bad as it had been, had started not long after he walked into the office. Which was why he was mystified. How could you feel like a million dollars all weekend, then feel like a shithouse as soon as you start work? This had to be the weirdest case of flu, or whatever it was, he'd ever had or ever heard of. He was definitely going to see a doctor that night. Kilby was crook all right. But he didn't feel anywhere near as bad as Frank, who was sitting opposite him, looked.

His lieutenant's mouth was puffed up and full of stitches. There were stitches in his cheek and a large portion of hair was missing just above his forehead, where the nurses at Prince Alfred had shaved it to add a few more stitches. Frank felt like he had more stitches in him than a wedding gown. And his two mates hadn't fared that much better. One had a broken jaw. The other had about the same amount of stitches in his mouth as Frank, and all his front teeth were gone. Frank's larynx wasn't in the best of shape either, from where Norton had tried to tie a Windsor knot around his throat with the towel. Which was why Kilby, sick and all as he now was, had to answer the phone. Frank's voice sounded like a Sydney silky with bronchitis. His discomfort, however, was matched by his hatred for Norton. And his hatred was matched equally by his fear. Frank had met some tough boys in his time, in the ring, in the street, and on the football field. But he'd never come across a punching machine like Les. No one could possibly fight like that. Nevertheless, it was quite a different version of the battle in the Redfern RSL men's room that he'd related to his boss.

Kilby reluctantly looked at the ringing phone for a few moments before finally reaching over and picking up the receiver. ‘Yeah hello. AWEC', he growled.

‘Is Percy Kilby there?' Norton crossed his fingers on his end of the line and hoped the plan he had in mind would work.

‘This is Percy Kilby.'

Norton couldn't help but hesitate for a second or two before he answered. ‘My name's Les Norton. I work for Price Galese.'

There was a shocked pause for a moment, then Kilby exploded. ‘
What?
he roared. ‘You — you cunt. You've got a fuckin' hide ringing me. After what you and your mates did to my assistant last night.' Kilby put his hand over the receiver and looked at Frank. ‘It's that prick from last night. Les Norton.' Frank gave a double blink. ‘I can't believe your front ringing me after what you and your team did to Frank. What do you want anyway? You arsehole.'

‘What did your mate Frank say happened to him last night?'

‘You and a couple of other clowns jumped him outside the RSL when he was half full of piss and gave him a kicking.' Kilby stared over at Frank, who swallowed hard and looked away.

Despite his apprehension Norton couldn't help but chuckle to himself: he hadn't been too far out in his summing up of Frank. ‘Is that what he told you, is it? I think you'd better pull him aside later and find out the truth.'

‘Ohh look, don't start coming on with that shit.' Kilby dismissed Norton's last statement with a contemptuous wave of his hand. ‘Anyway, what do you want, you flip?'

‘I want to see you. I want to have a word with you.'

‘You want to see me, do you? Well I don't particularly want to see you. You cunt. And you can tell that old prick you work for, Galese, that the price has just gone up to $650,000 too.'

‘That's what I want to see you about,' lied Les. ‘Price has agreed to your offer.'

There was a sudden pause at Kilby's end of the line. ‘He has?'

‘Yeah. Look, what happened last night was just a mistake. But Price is prepared to give you $250,000 tonight. And another $250,000 next week. I'll have to get back to him about the other $150,000 though.'

Kilby drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment while he had a think. Coming on top of what happened to Frank,
this took him completely by surprise. ‘So you want to give me $250,000 tonight?'

‘That's right.'

‘What's wrong with bringing it round here? Right now.'

‘No. It has to be on neutral territory. And there has to be other people around. We're talking about quarter of a million dollars you know.'

Kilby's eyes narrowed. ‘I don't know. This all sounds a bit funny to me.'

‘There's nothing shifty going on. I just don't trust you in your office — that's all.'

‘Ohh don't give me the shits.'

‘Look,' said Norton. ‘What about I meet you up in the RSL tonight? I'll be on my own, and I'll have the money in a blue overnight bag. I'll put it on the bar and order a drink. What can possibly go wrong?'

‘I don't know. It just don't seem right to me. You could have a bomb in the bag.'

‘Ohh don't be stupid. You can open the bloody thing in front of me. And you can have as many mates with you as you like. But don't get any ideas in your head about giving me a serve, cause you won't get the rest of the dough.'

Kilby thought about it for a few seconds. What could go wrong? Norton would be on his own in a crowded RSL. And he'd make sure Frank and some of the boys were around. There'd be no point in giving Norton a serve over Frank and bombing the other $250,000. Plus possibly the extra $150,000. Fuck Frank if it came to that, anyway. Norton was right. What could possibly go wrong?

‘Yeah all right,' agreed the AWEC boss. ‘I'll see you up there when we finish here. About five.'

‘I can't get there before six-thirty, seven.'

Kilby tapped on the desk for a second. ‘Yeah righto. But no later than seven. I'm not too good and I want to get home to bed.'

‘You're what?' Norton couldn't hide his surprise.

‘I said I've had the flu or something the last few days. And I want to get home to bed.'

Norton's face broke into a grin. Kilby had been crook the last few days. Maybe this thing was working. ‘No worries mate. I'll see you there about six-thirty. Seven at the latest.'

‘Just make sure you are. And on your own. Or you and Galese can shove your money and I'll go straight to the papers.'

‘Sweet as a nut. I'll see you up there.'

Kilby hung up abruptly.

Well thought Les, gazing absently through the door of the foyer in the direction of the AWEC office. That's that. I just hope to Christ I've done the right bloody thing. He sucked in a breath of air and let it out again. I think I have. Oh well. Too bloody late now. An way, I'll go and get that fruit, then I s'pose I'd better tell the boys what's going on.

In room 9, Tjalkalieri, Mumbi and Yarrawulla were chanting away like there was no tomorrow. They didn't stop or even turn around when Les walked in, so he guessed they didn't want to be disturbed. He placed the fruit on the table, and still feeling a little tired, walked quietly into the bedroom and lay down staring up at the ceiling. Even though a multitude of thoughts were swirling around in his mind, the steady, low buzz of the boys chanting seemed to relax him as it drifted through the open door. It wasn't long before he'd dozed off.

He came to with a bit of a start just before twelve. Shit! What time is it? He blinked groggily at his watch, stretched, then went into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face. Back in the main room the boys were still chanting and dancing away steadily. He peeled and spread the fruit out on the table, then sat down on one of the seats and watched them. Before long it was afternoon and they abruptly stopped.

‘Ohh shit!' said Tjalkalieri, flopping down on the seat nearest Les, while the others almost collapsed on to the settee. ‘I'm buggered.'

Norton could see from the flushed looks on their faces and the trickles of sweat beneath their headbands that they were obviously quite exhausted. ‘Hard work eh?'

‘It is this time,' said Mumbi. ‘We've really got to concentrate.'

‘Yeah. I understand.' Norton felt more than a little self-conscious because it was mainly his fault. ‘I'm sorry about last night.'

‘That's all right' said Yarrawulla. ‘You couldn't help what happened.' The little Aborigine tilted his head back and closed his eyes. ‘Listen Les. What about making us a cup of tea. We're dead-set too fucked to move.'

‘Yeah, sure mate,' replied Norton, getting to his feet. ‘There's fruit on the table too if you want it. Do you want me to run out and get you something to drink? Some orange juice, or lemonade or something. What do you want?'

‘Just a nice cup of tea'll do, Les,' said Tjalkalieri. Like
the others, he had his head tilted back and his eyes closed.

Norton made a pot of tea and after the first cup they seemed to have freshened up a little, so he poured them all another and made a fresh pot. While the kettle was boiling he told them about his phonecall to Kilby and what he'd organised. He hoped it suited them because if he had to ring Kilby back and change the arrangements there was a good chance he'd smell some sort of a rat and back off.

‘Meeting him up the RSL was about the best thing I could think of fellas.' Norton threw the tea leaves in the pot, poured in the boiling water, then folded his arms and looked hopefully at them while he waited for it to draw. ‘If I'd have arranged to meet him somewhere where there was no-one around, and I walked in with you, or you were already there, he'd get suspicious. He's a real shifty bastard.'

Tjalkalieri gave Norton a tired wink. ‘Actually that's perfect, Les.' Which cheered Norton up immeasurably. ‘It's best there's some people around. Even though what's going to happen will be over in a matter of seconds. With people around it will help to hide it. A small group, or one or two people would take notice. In a crowd there'll be confusion. No-one will be sure what's happened. You've done well, Les. It'll work out good.'

‘Just what is going to happen?' asked Norton.

Tjalkalieri looked earnestly at Norton, looked for a second at the others, then back at Norton.

‘Les,' he said slowly. ‘What you're going to see briefly tonight... No white man in Australia, or the world for that matter, will have ever seen before.'

‘Yeah?'

‘We're going to fleetingly make contact with the Otherworld tonight Les. We can't, and we won't, explain it to you. But you must swear you'll never, ever, tell a soul what you'll see tonight. If you're quick enough to see it.'

Norton nodded solemnly. ‘Yeah, fair enough.'

‘There's forces in this world, Les,' chimed in Yarrawulla, ‘that you and any other white man know nothing about. Even we're not too sure of them.'

‘I can appreciate that. I've known you blokes, and about you, all my life.'

Tjalkalieri got up, took a piece of rockmelon from the table and chewed on it for a moment when he sat back down; as if he needed to get a sudden dryness out of his throat before he could continue.

‘We're going to raise an evil spirit tonight, Les, and hope he'll do something for us. He's called Mungoongali. He's one of the evilest there is. The thing is, Mungoongali feeds on the weakest. If we don't insure that Percy Kilby's Kurinata is weaker than ours, Mungoongali will turn on us.'

Norton stared at the three of them and blinked. It all sounded like some sort of fairy tale. But their usual lighthearted banter had completely disappeared and the nervous looks on their faces told him they were deadly, even fearfully serious.

‘If Mungoongali doesn't wish to do what we want him to do after we raise him from the Otherworld. He'll kill us.'

‘What Tjalkalieri's trying to say,' said Mumbi, ‘is we're laying our lives on the line tonight.'

‘Jesus!'

‘We'll need more than him to save us if this doesn't work out Les,' said Yarrawulla.

Norton stood there staring at them. Motionless. Absolutely lost for words.

‘But don't worry, Les,' smiled Tjalkalieri. ‘We're fairly confident our Kurinata's good.'

‘Look,' said Norton, and he pointed at all three of them. ‘I don't know much about all this spirit thing. But I know you blokes, and I know you've always been fair dinkum. If this is getting a bit beyond what you can handle, and there's any sort of danger to you, I want you to knock it on the head. That's fine by me. And I'll still give you your money. It's not worth it to lose three old mates.'

‘No. Everything's going to be okay,' smiled Tjalkalieri. ‘We've come this far. We can handle it.'

‘Okay, suit yourselves,' shrugged Norton. ‘But if you want to pull out — no sweat. It was a good try. And all this fuck-up's my fault anyway.'

‘She'll be sweet, Les,' winked Mumbi.

‘Anyway. I think we've got time for another cup of tea,' said Tjalkalieri. ‘And then we'll get into it again. I'll tell you what. This rockmelon's all right.'

‘Yeah I was just watching you,' said Yarrawulla. ‘I might grab a bit myself.'

The boys finished their tea and most of the fruit. Then after using the bathroom they started chanting again. Yarrawulla took first turn at holding the bone.

There wasn't a great deal Les could do now. The fresh linen had been left outside the door so he made the beds
and cleaned up what little mess there was from lunch, doing his best to keep quiet and out of the way while the others continued their chanting. Tjalkalieri told him that when they'd finished their trance and went up to the RSL to do whatever it was they were going to do, they would still have to wear their body paint and their headbands with the blood-smeared feathers stuck in them. Their tracksuits would cover their bodies, but they would need some beanies or caps. So Les went out, found a K-Mart and bought three Khaki cotton, army-style bush hats. Back in the hotel he phoned Kingsley Sheehan, putting him on standby for Tuesday. That was no sweat said Kingsley. The rest of the afternoon Norton spent reading and half-dozing in the bedroom and before long it was five.