Stella pressed a broad-brimmed hat into his hand with a little squeeze. ‘Don’t do too much. It’s supposed to be a fun excursion to show you around. They can forget,’ she warned.
He nodded and jammed the old Akubra happily on his head, where it sat worn and soft, with a hole in the brim that gave extra character, something he hadn’t expected to feel comfortable in.
Ava smiled at her mother, and he had no doubt there was something significant in the loan. He’d donned a pair of lace-up walking boots for the climbing, though Ava had said they’d do little today. Hopefully he’d be able to keep up.
Ava had her own hat, which looked better than the homestead beanie, and their buttoned, long-sleeved shirts seemed too warm for the day’s heat.
They climbed into the all-terrain vehicle and settled back. The vehicle, which was open to the air, had bench seats and swing doors. Jock jogged back to the house for something he’d forgotten and Ava said quietly, ‘Jock expects to find dead livestock. That’s why I insisted we come with him. Hope that’s okay.’
‘I remember you said he’s taking it hard. I’m happy to help in any way I can.’ When Jock returned, he said, ‘This vehicle looks like it can climb mountains.’
Jock jumped back in and heard the last part. He patted the bare, dusty dashboard. ‘It’s a good quad. I like the roll bars – not that we’re going to try them out, but sometimes we can be at an angle on a ridge and it can get dicey. It’s got a good twelve inches of ground clearance, so it can climb up and over rocks and over stumps if we need to, and it’s a mission to get it bogged even in the river sand. I don’t try that hard.’
Ava was watching her brother and he could feel the undercurrents of concern she was trying to hide. ‘So where are we going?’
Jock glanced at Zac. ‘Out the back. There’s no feed at all out there. Ava tell you?’
He nodded.
‘Good. I want to look at all the trap yards. I’ve been making them with a plan in mind for the future – the future when the cattle aren’t dying.’
Zac looked from one sibling to the other. ‘What’s a trap yard?’
‘A set of cattle yards in the bush with a one-way entry and a one-way exit for cattle,’ Ava answered. ‘You can put the yards around a water source and they come in, drink and leave again. But if you want to catch or work with particular cattle, you lock the exit and they come in for the water and can’t get out until you let them out. Technically,’ she added, then glanced at her brother and they both smiled.
It was all fascinating stuff. ‘Technically, eh?’
Jock nodded and steered around an ant’s nest that was bigger than a grown man. ‘If you get a mean enough scrub bull in there, he’ll just carry on and demolish the place until you let him out. It’s better to give in to him than take him on.’
‘So you can muster cattle like that?’
‘You can. Though you end up with pockets of cattle near water sources as opposed to a mob at the house yards if the muster crew bring them in and get them loaded onto trucks from the same place. But an overall control system with remote taps could nudge the cattle towards the yards by turning off consecutive troughs and making them search out the next one. It’s no good for now as the cattle are too weak, but when the season is good I reckon it would work well.’
He glanced at his sister. ‘I’ve wanted to move to that way of mustering for a couple of years now, but Mum is old-school. And Mim even older. If we went that way, we could look to the future of just using the yards and lose the expense of the stock contractor.’
Ava didn’t seem sure because she frowned.
‘Muster’s a lot of work for us,’ Jock added. ‘And we’re too few. But the contractors wouldn’t like that and might not back us if we needed them later. If we still have a station when I’m finished with it.’
‘Your ideas will work,’ Ava said, but Jock’s labile mood had plummeted again. She frowned.
‘What are you thinking?’ Zac slipped his hand across and took her fingers. He decided she needed comfort. She flashed him a grateful glance which made it all worthwhile.
Jock looked away. ‘Maybe we should just sell. Like they did over at Dreamtime.’
Ava and her brother exchanged an unhappy look.
Zac stretched his brain to try to catch the nuances, but his thoughts were less flexible than he wanted. He was also trying to understand the intricacies of running a cattle station. ‘So you hire extra people to help with the muster?’
‘In the past, yes. And probably this year as well. We hire the already assembled regional gang. The head musterer runs it. He has his own crew, and usually a contact who has an R22 helicopter or two if the mob have really taken to the far boundaries. We don’t have the workforce for scattered stock, and he does the rounds of the stations that need manpower. That’s his livelihood. But the old man has retired and his son’s come home to take over.’ Jock glanced at Ava. ‘I don’t like Jai. Never have.’
Ava screwed up her face and Zac’s brain tickled him again. Then it clicked. Jai. The father of Ava’s daughter. The one who wanted to marry a fortune. No wonder Jock didn’t like him. Zac had never met him and he definitely didn’t like him.
The flies buzzed annoyingly when they slowed down to a crawl to move over or around obstacles, and the heat in the day was building despite the breeze they were making with the forward motion.
Ava was saying, ‘… Not so many stations this year either, so if we pull out then the business will be down for them. With the Wilsons gone. Have the new people taken over Dreamtime yet?’
‘Just. Mum said it was bought by an Italian guy for his son. Apparently, the son and his wife have been working on stations for a couple of years and Dad has enough money to buy them one. He came over last week with a cut hand.’
‘Over here? Mum’s met him?’ Zac felt Ava stiffen. ‘Our new neighbour came over here and she didn’t say?’
Jock’s eyes were roving across the landscape, unlike his sister’s, who watched the road when she drove. But then they weren’t on a road, they were driving through a paddock, Zac guessed and winced as Jock ran over a submerged boulder. ‘Mum stitched him up and gave him a tetanus shot. Said he seemed pleasant enough.’
‘You didn’t meet him?’ Zac felt Ava’s curiosity beside him. ‘Did he meet Mim? Funny. Mum didn’t mention it when I spoke to her.’
Jock peered at her, then back at something that caught his eye out to the left. ‘Why would she?’
‘She doesn’t get that many visitors, and it’s not exactly commonplace for a new neighbour to drop in. Especially for an injury. She’s usually full of that sort of news.’
‘Not lately.’ Jock shrugged. ‘She’s not that forthcoming.’ Then he pursed his mouth. ‘I do remember Mim mumbling something about how she missed out on meeting him and Mum being all flustered. Then our mother shut her up. Maybe she’s not game to mention him in case Mim starts again?’
Zac could tell Jock thought it wasn’t an interesting topic, yet Ava leaned towards her brother, particularly intrigued. The dynamics amused Zac and he wondered what it would have been like for his own childhood to have had siblings to squabble with. Roslyn had been an only child as well, and hadn’t taken teasing well, and that was possibly why she’d been in no hurry to have babies. Another regret … He pulled his mind away from the past.
They rounded a large outcrop of rock and tufts of some flowering grass, and he saw the first of the cattle under a tree not too far to the left of where they were driving. ‘Are they Brahman?’
‘Mostly, though we have Charolais, Senepol and Brahman crosses as well.’ Ava pointed out the different breeds.
The beasts were bigger than he expected, predominantly white or brown, most with the Brahman floppy ears and long noses. ‘Is there a water source around here?’ He couldn’t see how. They were out in the middle of what looked like a desert.
‘There’s a bore that feeds a trough, so we’ll check that while we’re here. The cattl
e come between one and three times a day to drink. This is another area I want to put the yards on, but for the moment the musterers would just drive them back towards the main yards from here. Some of the other properties are remote-controlling the far bores and bringing the cattle in closer to the yards by shutting off the water sources the way I’m looking to do.’
‘Ava said I could join the muster.’
Jock nodded. ‘Sure. The more the merrier. Mustering’s a big workload when it happens. Up before sunrise, doesn’t finish till after dark, sleeping out in a swag, so it’s cold and no showers. Can’t waste time getting to and from the mob by driving back and forth, so we need to cook and maintain a camp as well.’
Ava cut in, ‘If you’ve got a dozen people that’s a bit of work.’
Zac was seeing that. ‘I can imagine.’
Ava’s gaze flicked to her brother and she smiled. ‘That’s where Mum comes into her own. She’s the best camp cook in the Territory and Granny Mim is good at sorting problems. Jock is good at managing the stock problems.’
Ava was bouncing on the seat beside Zac, and he realised he’d lost her hand when she’d pointed something out earlier. He might have to get that back. ‘And what are you good at?’ he asked.
‘I’m the peacemaker, and the dogsbody.’ She smiled at her brother. ‘And I look pretty.’
Jock laughed. ‘You do at that.’
She was more than that. ‘You look beautiful,’ Zac corrected her, his sudden need to say that surprising him.
Jock peered over his sunglasses and Ava caught the look and said primly, ‘Thank you, Zac.’
They travelled around the closest paddocks, pointing out the direction of the local Aboriginal community, and then the trails that led towards the rising MacDonnell Ranges. They drove to the top of Lone Tree Hill, a local landmark with the graves from their family dating back to their grandfather Max’s father, the first settler of Setabilly.
While Jock drove off to check another set of troughs, Zac and Ava set the thermos and the contents of the esky out for morning tea. When she lifted a section out of the bag she laughed.
‘Mum’s put in some fresh sausage rolls and a bottle of tomato sauce. Jock’ll be in seventh heaven – he’ll want to travel with you more often. We’re getting spoiled.’
Zac leaned over and peered into the bag. ‘Happy to be of service.’ He couldn’t remember if anyone had ever packed a picnic basket for him. Or put something special away like Granny Mim’s Anzacs or Stella’s sausage rolls. Another poor little rich boy moment that he needed to get over.
Soon they’d eaten far too much and packed away the remains, the sun was past the middle of the sky and Jock looked at the blue sky above them. ‘We’ll head down to skirt the bottom of the ranges, steering into indents in the rock, looking for canyons or a place where cattle could be caught by weakness.’
They found half a dozen cattle, enough to make them all pale. Jock went silent as he dealt with those he couldn’t save and mapped the ones he’d come back for. With each successive tragedy, Jock withdrew further into himself.
Zac watched Ava grow more concerned as she assessed her brother’s mood. ‘We should go back,’ she said. ‘I want to check on Jessamine over at the community today or tomorrow. Mim will be wondering where we are and it’s Zac’s first day back doing normal activities.’
Jock grimaced and turned for home. ‘I guess.’
Ava had explained that the whole family depended on the number of breeding cattle to get them through the lean years, so Zac could understand his devastation.
‘We’ll just check the trap yard in the next gully. Then we’ll go back. I haven’t been out here for a few days,’ Jock muttered.
This time Jock noted the marks of a small herd that had stood for a while, whether too tired to move they couldn’t tell. ‘Okay. We’ll go home.’ But Jock set his face and said, ‘I’ll be coming back.’
‘If you do come back,’ Zac said quietly, ‘I’d like to come with you.’
Jock raised his brows and nodded his head in acknowledgement. ‘Sure. Be glad of your company.’
Ava didn’t say anything, but Zac could tell by her face that she was relieved he’d offered.
Chapter Thirty-three
Ava
The next morning, Ava drove with Zac over to the local Indigenous community to talk to Jessamine. The community lay spread across the expanse of desert, a busy, dusty place, with the occasional motorbike or old car, and a group of shirtless young men playing footy on a patch of bare earth out to the side of the settlement.
A drop-in with Zac seemed a good opportunity to have a doctor cast his eye over the twins now that they were more than a week old. Zac carried the big first-aid kit Ava never left home without. Normally, Ava would check the babies herself, but she wanted to share her world with Zac and this was one of the best parts of it – reconnecting with mothers and babies in their own environments. The prospect of seeing Jessamine and her twins again made her wish she’d phoned Denise.
‘I should have asked Denise to come out and meet us there, but it’s too late now. We should have come yesterday, but the light was fading by the time we made it home after touring the boundary fences.’
‘And Stella had been adamant that I rest before tea,’ Zac said dryly.
Ava laughed. Last night, she’d seen Zac’s eyebrows rise at her mother’s bossy orders, which amused her, probably unkindly, but still. Zac wasn’t used to it. She couldn’t help if it tickled her sense of humour to see him take himself to his room with a frown. But this morning, even her mother couldn’t complain about how well he looked. It was a shame Ava’s heart didn’t feel so healthy.
She dragged her thoughts back to their task. Hopefully Jessamine, who’d been home for a few days now, would be able to see them unless she’d gone north to see relatives.
‘The birth was amazing,’ Ava was saying as she steered into the sprawling settlement.
Zac said, ‘It’d be nice to remember that I’ve seen a spontaneous twin birth. And breech!’
That’s not all you can’t remember, Ava thought wistfully. She wished there were a brain exercise she could offer him, but there was only the healing of time. All she said was, ‘We don’t have breeches every day. And no more babies until I get back to work, please. Did you want to tell Jessamine about your memory loss, or do you want to just wing it?’
He looked weary as he thought about explaining. ‘I’ll wing it.’
When they arrived, they found Jessamine sitting on a blanket under a tree, Mother Earth with her two little babies feeding twin fashion at the breast. Ava’s heart swelled at the sight and she beamed at the young mum.
‘Look at you, sitting up there as relaxed as a grandmother. Go you, Jessamine.’
Jessamine smiled shyly at both of them, and glanced at Vivian, a woman Ava had shared midwifery care with in Alice Springs two years ago. Vivian, a cousin of Big Jim’s, knew Ava well as her baby had been born premature, and she’d had to spend weeks in Alice waiting for him to grow enough to come home.
Ava had tried to be available for Viv in the beginning, during her visits to the neonatal nursery. Their rapport was obvious by the warm smile Viv sent Ava, and Ava sighed with relief to see her. She hadn’t been sure Jessamine had friends yet, and Viv would be a support person with good sense.
‘Viv –’ she gestured to Zac – ‘this is Dr Zac. Zac, this is Vivian. Dr Zac was there when Jessamine had her babies, so I brought him with me today. I thought Jessamine might like him to check the babies over?’
‘Good to meet you, Vivian.’ Zac smiled at Viv.
Ava explained, ‘I was lucky enough to be at Vivian’s son’s birth – a terror of a two-year-old now.’ As if on cue, a dark-skinned, dark-eyed cherub appeared from behind his mother, clutching a battered green truck. ‘Ahh, there you are, Willy. When he was born he was as big as your hand, Zac.’
Zac smiled. ‘Hello there, Willy.’ They all pretended they didn’t see Jessamine
taking the babies off the breast and tucking herself discreetly away. When she had covered herself, Zac turned to her.
‘What do you think, Jessamine? Would you like me to look at your boys?’
‘Be good,’ Jessamine agreed. ‘He makes a noise when he breathes and this one’s got a funny belly button.’
Zac smiled at that. ‘That sounds like healthy variations of normal, but let’s start with our noisy one. What’s this man’s name?’
‘Jarrah.’
‘A good, strong name.’ Ava watched Zac with his calm, friendly manner and the way he put Jessamine at ease while examining her babies. It made her heart ache for what might have been – a desert medical duo reaching out to those in need – and she turned away, blinking away the sting in her eyes as she gathered the little set of portable baby scales.
After Zac examined each baby, she weighed the little one then handed the naked baby back to his mother to dress. She wrote the weights down to pass on to the child-and-family nurses for their records.
Vivian had left; she’d taken Willy’s hand and they were small figures in the distance walking along the dusty road on some errand. Another mum hustled her toddler towards Zac, and Ava wondered if all the mothers would bring their children to see the doctor. Zac would enjoy that and the mums would be pleased to have any concerns clarified by him.
They’d seen most of the small children and had begun preparing to leave when the roar of a motorbike made them look up. The motorbike skidded to a halt beside them and the boy riding it gasped, ‘Viv, on the road! She needs the doctor now!’ He waved his hand behind him. ‘I didn’t see him.’
‘What happened?’ Zac voice was calm but firm.
The boy gulped, his eyes wild. ‘Willy. His arm. I hit him with the bike.’ His big dark eyes pleaded with Ava to understand. ‘I didn’t see him. He ran out.’
Ava scooped up the first-aid kit they’d just packed. ‘We’ll go. I know it was an accident,’ said Ava quietly. ‘Go find Willy’s dad and ask him to come and help Viv.’
The Desert Midwife Page 20
