by Karen Wood
Holly shook her head and they both sat quietly for a while, drinking tea.
‘Remember all the protests at Blue Gum Flats over the geo-sequestration?’ she asked her mum.
‘Of course.’ Mum had been a leader in the movement. Her picture had even been in the paper. She had climbed a tree and refused to come down.
‘Reckon they would do that around here?’
Her mum shrugged. ‘There is a lot of mining going on in this area, so maybe.’
‘There is an oil wellhead on this place,’ she said. She looked at Mum. ‘What was the name of the mining company that wanted to wreck Blue Gum Flats?’
‘AtWorld Resources,’ she answered. Her face hardened.
32
‘Your dad wants to see you in his office,’ said Jerry, appearing on the verandah with a leaf-blower in his hand. As always, his tone was neutral.
Kaydon stepped into the blast of cool air and took a seat in front of his father’s desk without speaking. There was a brittle silence.
His father looked away. He toyed with a pen, rolling it back and forth under his fingers. ‘I told you not to go out to Glenvale.’
‘The whole place would have burnt down.’
‘But we don’t own the place yet. We could have negotiated to get it a bit cheaper.’
Kaydon was astounded. ‘You wanted the place to burn?’ he clarified. What kind of bastard was his father? Everything Holly’s family owned was in that place.
His father let out an enormous sigh, tapping the pen absent-mindedly against the top of the desk. Tap tap tap tap tap . . .
‘All the same, you did well today. I was proud of you.’ The words didn’t seem to flow easily out of his mouth, but at least he said them.
‘Thanks,’ Kaydon muttered.
‘I didn’t know Ken Harvey’s wife had cancer.’
‘There’s a lot you don’t know,’ said Kaydon.
‘Like what?’
‘Did you know Mr Parker is a geologist?’
‘Was a geologist,’ his father corrected him. ‘Now he works in finance and investment.’
‘Financing mining projects.’
‘Kaydon, if there was even a sniff of minerals or resources on this property, don’t you think I’d know?’
‘He doesn’t want resources.’
‘That’s right,’ said Pat. ‘Now drop the bloody subject.’ His voice was getting a narky edge to it.
‘Dad, he wants to do something worse, like dump . . .’
Pat thumped his fist on the table and pushed himself up out of his chair. ‘Oh, stone the bloody crows, Kaydon. You’ve done one school assignment on carbon cycles and now you’ve become a tree-hugger.’ He leaned across the desk. ‘Don’t you get it? We need capital investment and having Parker as a partner is the only way to do that. It’s my only option.’
‘But it’s not about that, Dad. It’s about geo-sequestration.’
‘Drop it.’
‘Dad . . .’
‘We’re settling on Glenvale tomorrow. It’s as good as done. And with Aaron out of action for six weeks, I need you to help run the place.’
‘But I’ll be back at school.’
‘No you won’t.’
‘What?’
‘Unless this Glenvale deal works for us, there will be no money for your fancy private school, Kaydon. There will be no money for you to go and do something whimsical like environmental science.’
‘Dad, that guy doesn’t care about farming. He’s going to turn this place into a dumping ground.’
‘No he won’t, because I won’t let him.’
‘Holly reckons that . . .’
‘You’ve been listening to the hippies? What do they know about the land? What do they know about running a viable farm? They’re filling your head with crap, Kaydon.’
Kaydon slumped. He was getting nowhere. ‘What percentage share will Mr Parker have?’
His father didn’t answer.
‘Will he own more than us?’
His father’s face only tightened further.
‘So, he’ll be able to do whatever he likes with the place.’
‘You have absolutely no proof that this guy wants to do this geo-whateveritis. You’re making assumptions based on what some barefoot hippie with a pretty smile told you.’
‘Don’t you think you should look into it?’
‘I’ve told you. It’s too late. We’re signing tomorrow. The deal is done.’
‘And I’m a part of that deal without having any say?’
‘Go and get showered and changed, we’re visiting Aaron in hospital.’ His father pointed to the door.
Kaydon spun on his heel and stormed out of the office, slamming the door on his way out.
In the burns unit, Aaron lay on his stomach on crisp white sheets with his head to one side. One arm was bandaged and rested on a plank that was attached to the bed. More bandages covered his back and there were tubes everywhere.
Aaron spoke to them out of the side of his mouth. ‘Sorry about the fire,’ he said. ‘You missed Mum and Dad. They just left.’ He closed his eyes again. Kaydon wished he could do the same. He was queasy with tiredness and felt like he was running on autopilot.
A male nurse came into the room. ‘He’s been heavily sedated.’
Bron touched Aaron’s hand. ‘How’s the pain?’
Aaron’s eyes flickered briefly open and he gave a stupid grin. ‘What pain?’
‘He’s had plenty of morphine too,’ said the nurse. ‘He has second-degree burns, which will heal, mostly without scars. Once we can control the pain without a drip and the risk of infection passes, he can go home.’
‘Very lucky he didn’t burn his hands or face,’ said Bron.
Kaydon took a chair in the corner of the room while his mum tried to make conversation with Aaron, but he kept falling asleep. He must have dozed off too because when he snatched suddenly out of sleep, his parents had left the room. Outside, the day was fading and settling into night. The bustling traffic whizzed along in a stream of headlights.
‘Your parents went to get a coffee,’ said a girl in a blue uniform, as she checked Aaron’s chart.
Kaydon stared at his cousin. Once Aaron got out of here, they would work at Glenvale together. No more school. He never thought he would feel crushed about that. It angered him that he had no say in his own life. Dad couldn’t afford to keep him at Bentleigh, that was fine, but couldn’t he go to the local high school? Couldn’t he at least finish school?
‘Heyyy, Squirt.’ Aaron was staring at him with bleary eyes.
‘Gidday, arsonist,’ he replied.
‘Sorry about that.’
‘You look more sorry than me.’
Aaron looked around the room. ‘Has Parker been in to see me?’
‘Not that I know of. Why?’ Kaydon leaned closer. ‘How do you know him, Aaron?’
‘Met him at the pub in Narrabri. Then we went fishing together.’
‘I thought you worked with him?’
‘Nah. He worked at the same mine as me years ago, but not while I was there.’ He started snoozing again.
Aaron met Mr Parker in the pub? Alarm bells started ringing.
Kaydon shook Aaron’s hand. ‘Wake up.’
Aaron’s eyes snatched open and his face contorted with pain. ‘Is Stacey coming to see me?’ He fumbled for a small white gadget and clicked it a few times. ‘I can’t remember how much of this stuff I’ve had.’
‘Aaron, who does this guy work for? What is his company name?’
‘Mr Parker works for himself. He is a very smart man.’ Aaron started snoring again and this time, no amount of shaking would wake him up.
33
Holly had assembled all the leftovers from the fridge, and everyone sat around the table in exhausted silence. She left the dishes to her brothers, showered and collapsed. The sounds of her family merged with distant dogs barking, crooning cattle and something scratching in the corner of the room; a mouse?
She didn’t stay awake long enough to find out.
It was in the middle of the night, when the hut was dark and deeply quiet, that she heard hoofbeats outside the window and the soft snort of a horse. Penny?
She peered out the window. Pilot?
Kaydon!
She slid the sash up as far as it would go. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Keeping my promise,’ he whispered. ‘Coming?’
‘Where?’
‘To see some koalas.’
‘In the middle of the night?’
‘Best time to see them,’ he whispered. ‘I brought a spotlight.’
Holly slipped out of bed and quickly changed into some clothes. She tiptoed quietly to the front door.
She was barely out the door when Kaydon took her hand and led her across the yard. Everything smelled like cinders and dust. In the moonlight she could still see the seared land around her, with tufts of long grass here and there, like a bad shaving job. The night did little to hide the destruction. Pilot grazed on a line of unburnt grass that ran along the edge of the driveway.
Kaydon pulled the horse’s head up. And then he faced her. Holly’s heart started hammering in her chest. Jake was right. She so needed to get kissed.
With her hands on his shoulders, where she could feel the muscle beneath, all tight and strong and amazing, she stood on her toes, reached up and kissed him on the lips.
His eyes closed briefly and she felt the air rush from his nose as he kissed her back and then let go. Under her hands, his chest lifted and his breath went raspy across her neck. She felt red heat march up her face. ‘I can’t believe I just did that,’ she whispered.
‘Nor can I.’ He sounded genuinely surprised.
‘Sorry.’ She tried to pull away.
‘Don’t be.’ His hands stayed tightly around her waist. ‘I liked it.’
‘Now what do we do?’
Kaydon pulled her closer and pressed his mouth against hers. She pressed back into his kiss until she felt she would almost drown in him. It was all-consuming, delicious, wonderful and scary-exciting.
‘Are we going to see some koalas?’ he finally whispered into the kiss.
‘Only if you take your shoes off,’ she said.
‘This again,’ he smiled, with his lips still on hers. ‘Is there anything else?’
Holly stood back and looked him over in the moonlight. His shirt was rolled up at the sleeves and his top button was open and loose around his neck. His hair was clean and shaggy. She looked down to his feet and laughed.
He was in his socks.
‘I like you,’ she gushed. Gawd, did she really just say that? So lame.
‘I like you too,’ he said. He vaulted onto Pilot. Then he held his hand down to her.
She sprang up behind him. ‘Let’s go.’
34
Wow, Holly had kissed him. Kaydon felt so high it wouldn’t have surprised him if Pilot suddenly sprouted wings and they soared into the sky together, crossing the moon like ET flying on his bicycle.
Holly’s legs tucked in behind his and he could feel her bare toes brushing against his ankles. She had made him take his socks off. Pilot’s fur was soft against his feet. He wondered why he had never tried this. It was good.
‘I’ve never ridden in bare feet,’ he said.
‘I’ve never ridden at night,’ she countered.
He took her hands from his waist and pulled them tight around his stomach. Her chin rested on his shoulder. ‘Horses have good eyesight for it. They can see better than us in the dark.’
Kaydon let Pilot pick his way through the paddock and begin climbing a long, winding hill track. Stars filled the crisp autumn sky like shards of splintered ice.
They rode by the first waterhole, past the old oil wellhead and to the stand of bluegums. He brought Pilot to a halt under a tall, slender eucalypt. ‘Nice view, huh?’ Below, an ocean of darkness spread out over the plain and the distant hills formed a dim silhouette behind. He could make out the road and a few lights from other farmhouses.
He lifted one leg over Pilot’s shoulder and then lowered himself to the ground, his bare feet crunching into the layers of shredded bark. He looked up at Holly. In the silvery light she looked almost regal with the wind lifting the hair from her neck. She let herself slip down into the space between the horse and his arms. He put his hands around her ribcage and lowered her slowly to the ground.
He nuzzled the hair away from her neck. It smelled like raspberries. Her skin was soft and perfect and all he wanted to do was kiss it. But that thought was interrupted by a loud belching and grunting noise.
‘What was that?’ said Holly.
‘A koala,’ said Kaydon. Drat, did it have to appear so quickly? He pulled a spotlight from his jacket pocket, flicked it on and ran it up the trunk of a tree. After a brief search, two eyes glowed back. He heard Holly’s breath snatch.
The noises became short, sharp screeches. Kaydon lowered the light and found a second set of eyes.
‘Another one,’ whispered Holly.
‘They’re fighting.’ As Kaydon’s eyes adjusted to the light, he saw a large buck in a fork of the nearest tree. Its lip lifted with each short screech, revealing a set of jutting front teeth. Below it another koala reached up to touch it. Each time the buck was touched by the koala below, it responded with another screech.
‘That is the slowest fight I’ve ever seen,’ laughed Holly.
‘Wait for it,’ said Kaydon.
A couple of minutes later, the lower koala lunged for the other’s leg and bit it. The treetop erupted into a skirmish of grey fluff and spotty white rumps. A tangle of fluff and teeth dropped into the rustling leaves and tumbled down through the tree, screaming and screeching.
Finally one scrambled away down a lower limb. The victor started bellowing and belching and grunting triumphantly.
‘That was awesome,’ said Holly. She laughed with delight.
Kaydon’s eyes flickered over the silhouette of the oil wellhead. ‘It would be such a shame if carbon dioxide was pumped into that old oil well,’ he said. ‘The koalas live right over the top of it.’
‘Who’s going to do that?’ asked Holly.
Kaydon sighed. ‘I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think Mr Parker is interested in farming Glenvale. He’s a geologist, and Aaron reckons he used to work in mining. I don’t like him.’
‘I don’t like him much either,’ said Holly.
Kaydon felt a surge of guilt. ‘My dad’s a hard man, but he wouldn’t normally kick a family out like that. Mr Parker has a huge hold over him and I don’t know why. I’m so sorry . . .’
‘Don’t,’ said Holly. ‘You don’t need to apologise.’
‘I do, it’s rough,’ said Kaydon.
His father’s words echoed in his ears.
‘I hocked half of Rockleigh to get this place, Kaydon. We can’t stuff this up.’
Kaydon couldn’t ignore the churning sensation in his gut. The thought of being kicked off Rockleigh was incomprehensible. ‘My dad defines himself by his home, his land. He’s the king of Rockleigh. I’m the fifth generation of Armstrongs on the property. This place is who we are.’
Holly looked up at the sky. ‘Shooting star,’ she said, as a meteor slashed across the sky and then disappeared as quickly as it had come. ‘Make a wish.’
‘I wish you weren’t leaving tomorrow,’ said Kaydon. ‘I wish it would rain. I wish Dad would listen to me more. I wish I knew more about Mr Parker.’
‘Don’t get greedy,’ said Holly.
‘I wish I knew what other properties he owns,’ Kaydon continued.
‘Well, that’s easy,’ said Holly. ‘You just look him up on propertydata dot com.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s an online database for property and real estate. Dad uses it all the time.’
‘Do you know how to do that?’
‘You need to be a subscriber. I’d have to find out Dad’s password.’
‘Would he give it to you?’
Holly blew a raspberry. ‘Err, no.’
Disappointment flooded Kaydon.
‘But Brandon might know it,’ she said.
‘Would he mind if we woke him up,’ Kaydon asked. ‘As in, now?’
‘Probably not,’ said Holly. ‘But I would.’ She put her hand on his cheek. ‘I made a wish too.’ She lifted her chin and kissed him again.
‘I can probably help with that,’ he muttered, pulling her closer. He never knew a girl’s lips could be so unbelievably soft. The night whirled into a dizzying spin of the golden-haired girl in his arms, her kisses, and two cranky buck koalas grunting and griping overhead. He kissed as though he would never have this moment again, drank her in as if the world was running out of water.
35
Back at the hut, Holly slipped quietly off Pilot’s back. Kaydon tied him to a nearby tree and they both tiptoed barefoot to the caravan.
Holly rapped her knuckles softly on the window. She could hear snoring. ‘Brandon,’ she hissed. ‘Wake up!’ She knocked a little louder.
Kaydon tried the front doorhandle. ‘It’s open.’ He let himself in and fumbled around for a light switch.
‘This better be important,’ Brandon grumbled, pulling a pillow over his head.
‘What the hell?’ Jake complained. ‘Turn the light off!’
‘We need help,’ whispered Holly, squeezing through the door and placing herself between Kaydon and her brothers. ‘Please?’
‘Can’t it wait for morning?’ mumbled Brandon, still from under the pillow.
‘Can you log us in to propertydata dot com?’ asked Kaydon. ‘Where’s the computer?’
Brandon sat bolt upright. ‘Hey!’
Holly squished in behind the table and opened the laptop that Brandon had tethered to his smartphone.
‘Get out of that,’ said Brandon, leaping out of bed, and then scrambling for the sheet as he remembered he was buck naked.
‘Whoa, big fella!’ said Kaydon, holding up a hand to shield himself from the view.
Brandon wrapped the sheet around his waist and pushed himself into the bench seat next to Holly. He elbowed her along, took his place in front of the laptop and pushed the screen shut. He rested his forearm over it. ‘Not until you tell me what is going on.’
