A New Kind of Dreaming

by Anthony Eaton

  ‘What sort of expression?’ Jamie remembered the unguarded moment when he’d asked her about the other missing boy.

  ‘Almost angry. She looked majorly upset about something. Then she remembered where she was. “What do you mean by that?” she asked Robb, and he gave her this look. Really weird, it was. Then he explained. “The mileage on the truck. I checked it while the Sarge was talkin’ to everyone. It’s done a couple of hundred kilometres since I filled it up yesterday.” Lorraine went pale when he said that. I mean dead white. I thought she was going to faint. She whispered something.’

  Cameron paused, seeming to gather his thoughts.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t even know if she realised that she’d said it, she was so quiet, but I was close enough to hear. “Flaherety’s Curse”, she said, then she rushed inside Archie’s.’

  Cameron sawed in silence while Jamie digested all of this information. It seemed to make sense. If what Butcher had told him was true, then Lorraine must have known where he was.

  ‘How’d you find out about this place, then?’

  ‘I thought it sounded like a mine. Dad’s always going out to places with names like “Doubtful Ridge” or “Tucker’s Revenge”, so I ran home and checked his company map. I had to look pretty hard, but sure enough there it was, Flaherety’s Curse, sixty kilometres west along the highway, turn left, and then it’s about a hundred kilometres along unsealed tracks. First you head dead south for forty k’s inland, and then the track gradually winds to the east, back towards Port Barren. This place was abandoned in the eighties.’

  ‘And you just took the car and left?’

  ‘Not right away. Lorraine was still hovering around, so I followed her from Archie’s place to the police station. She disappeared inside and after an hour I figured she wasn’t coming to the rescue. I doubt her car would have made it anyway. Mum and Dad were still about, so I waited until they went off to the town meeting before I took the car.’

  ‘Won’t you get busted?’

  Cameron shrugged. ‘Dad’ll be unhappy with me for a couple of days, but he’ll come round, it being a mercy mission and all. I didn’t count on Butcher trashing the car, though. We’re just lucky that my old man is paranoid about desert survival.’

  ‘I’ll say.’

  The silence was broken only by the grinding of the hacksaw against the steel bracelet.

  ‘I reckon this blade’s just about had it.’

  ‘How much have we got left?’

  Jamie held the torch as Cameron sawed.

  ‘Not much. Another ten minutes should do it.’

  From the bushes on the other side of the clearing, a shape detached itself from the shadows and moved out into the open space.

  ‘Cameron!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Look—’

  Jamie raised the torch and a startled kangaroo stared into the light for a couple of seconds before fleeing into the darkness. His dusty red coat left a blur in Jamie’s vision.

  ‘You see that!’

  ‘Big one.’

  ‘Yeah. If he can get by out here we should be able to, eh?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  A few more minutes of silence and then the other handcuff fell into the dirt.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Any time.’

  twenty-three

  They spent the night in the back of the car. Their original plan was to settle down in the prefab where Jamie had been chained, but the cushioned back seats of the Land Rover looked more promising.

  As the sky began to lighten, Jamie woke and climbed out of the ruins of the mining hut leaving Cameron still asleep. He moved on legs that were stiff and sore and the wound on his head throbbed, but he felt a little better for a solid night’s sleep.

  After a drink, he wandered to the far side of the clearing to relieve himself. The sun hadn’t yet climbed above the horizon and in the cool pre-dawn light the desert was alive. About a hundred metres out a group of red kangaroos grazed in the scrub. The tracks of creatures that had crossed the clearing during the night dotted the soft earth.

  The air was cool against his skin. Jamie took another sip from the canteen and stayed as still as possible, absorbing the power of the sunrise.

  With the horizon growing lighter and the sky glowing a deep crimson, all of the fear and tension that had for weeks been dominating his thoughts seemed to evaporate, drawn out of him by the gentle morning breeze and blown away over the red sand and dusty plants. He’d been left out here to die and yet all he could feel was a sense of unbelievable oneness: of belonging. Jamie knew, right at the core of his being, that he was actually supposed to be there, was meant to be standing in that clearing drinking in the dawn. He understood in an instant the meaning of destiny.

  At the second the sun broke the horizon, a flash of green lit the entire sky, just for an instant. It had come and gone almost before he’d had time to register it. Immediately the sun began its ascent into the heavens and the heat intensified.

  ‘Pretty amazing.’ Cameron had come up from behind without Jamie hearing.

  ‘Yeah. You see that flash?’

  ‘What flash?’

  ‘Just as the sun came up. Huge burst of green light.’

  ‘Sorry. Must have missed it.’

  ‘It was pretty quick. Drink?’ Jamie offered the canteen.

  ‘Thanks.’

  They stood watching silently for a few minutes as the kangaroos, their breakfast over, bounded off into the desert.

  ‘Guess they’re off to find somewhere shady for the day.’ Cameron drank deeply.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I’ve been thinking we should do the same thing.’

  Jamie looked at Cameron, puzzled. He’d thought that Cameron would have been keen to get started just as soon as it was light enough.

  ‘We should stay here for the day, in the shade. Drink up as much water as we can and travel at night, when it’s cooler. We’ve got the torch and the moon’s full at the moment, so light shouldn’t be a problem.’

  ‘What about direction? How do we find our way?’ As far as Jamie was concerned, if the sun was up, then at least they’d know roughly where they were headed.

  ‘There’s a little compass in the dash of the car. I’ll try and lever it out.’

  ‘Won’t your dad mind?’

  ‘He’d rather we got back alive.’

  Yesterday, the thought of walking off into the desert had terrified Jamie. Now, with that strange, almost intimate feeling of belonging still fresh in his memory, the idea of crossing the dry expanse had lost some of its fear.

  ‘We oughta rest up, then.’

  ‘Yeah. We’ll need to make twenty-five or thirty kilometres tonight and then find some shelter for tomorrow.’

  By now the sun had climbed fully above the horizon and already Jamie could feel its rays burning at his face and arms. An ache in his belly reminded him that it had been a long time since his apple and chocolate dinner.

  ‘How about some breakfast?’

  ‘Yeah, all right.’ Cameron seemed hesitant. ‘I guess we can have a cereal bar and a couple of apples, but we’ll need to save a lot of what we have for the walk.’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  Inside the main hut they took stock of their provisions. Cameron had grabbed a box of eight muesli bars and half a dozen apples before he’d left. His dad’s desert survival kit yielded a few packets of dried biscuits and concentrated food, which they decided to save.

  ‘Have an apple.’

  They crunched at the fruit and the gnawing in Jamie’s belly subsided.

  ‘Want another?’

  ‘Yeah, okay.’

  ‘I’m going over to have a crack at the compass before it gets too hot. You
can try to rig up some sort of a harness to drag the water along with.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we make a sled or somethin’?’

  ‘I don’t reckon we’ll need it, it’s just more work. That red sand’s pretty soft, and we should be able to pull the jerry can through it.’

  ‘You’re the boss.’

  It was true. Since Cameron had arrived he’d taken charge. Jamie had to admit that he seemed to be thinking pretty clearly. Taking a screwdriver and a couple of other tools from the toolbox Cameron headed back to the car. His confidence was reassuring.

  Jamie turned his attention to the jerry can. A moulded handle on the top behind the spout was the logical place to tie a harness. It was still heavy, even with a third of the water already drunk or in the canteens. What he needed was some rope.

  He wandered over to the car, clambering through the wrecked wall into the cooler interior of the hut. The bulk of the four-wheel drive filled almost the entire room, leaving just enough space for Jamie to squeeze along one side. Cameron was already somewhere under the dashboard, making crunching noises.

  ‘Your old man have any rope in here?’

  ‘Don’t know.’ Cameron’s voice was muffled. ‘Have a look around.’

  There was nothing of any use in the back. Just lots of boxes of tools and instruments, most emblazoned with the Great Northern Mining Company logo. Under the floor of the boot however, he discovered a set of jumper leads and a towing rope. These looked promising.

  ‘Found something.’

  ‘Great.’ Cameron didn’t stop what he was doing.

  It took Jamie half an hour to rig a makeshift harness, using the blunt hacksaw blade and a pair of pliers to get the metal clips off the ends of the cables, and then putting together a sort of belt and shoulder strap which tied on to the handle. Dragging it all outside took a lot of effort. He eased the jerry can onto a patch of soft sand near the side of the hut, careful not to allow the plastic container to drop too heavily onto the hard ground, then shrugged the harness into place.

  A couple of steps and the jumper leads stretched a little, before drawing up hard against the heavy container. Jamie shifted his weight. It was an effort, but slowly he began to haul the water container through the sand. ‘Cool!’ He broke into a grin.

  A few more steps, building momentum, and it became easier to pull the load, but the cables started to bite sharply into his waist and shoulders.

  ‘That’s no good,’ he muttered. They’d be dragging it along for hours and the last thing they needed was to have the harness cutting into them.

  Pulling the whole assembly back to the hut, Jamie wriggled out of the harness and untied it from the handle of the can. Back inside, he looked around for something to use to pad the shoulder and waist straps. A bundle of rags someone had cast into the far corner caught his attention.

  Crossing the hut, a sudden, nervous tremble ran the length of his spine. The pleasant, connected feeling that had been lingering all morning vanished abruptly, and was replaced by a coldness, reminiscent of how he felt when he was in Port Barren. For a second he stopped, listening, searching for some cause of the uneasiness. The only noise, however, was the hammering from where Cameron was working in the other building. Trying to shrug the feeling off, he picked up one of the rags from the top of the bundle. Something rolled from under the pile and bumped against Jamie’s foot. He looked down.

  Lying on the floor staring back up at him with empty eyes was a human skull.

  twenty-four

  ‘Who do you reckon it is?’ Cameron stared at the bundle in the corner of the hut.

  ‘I can take a guess.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Have a look at this.’ Jamie offered him the rag, which he still held.

  Cameron examined it, puzzled. It was an old blanket with faded blue and white stripes on it.

  ‘I still don’t get it.’

  ‘In the corner.’

  Cameron peered closely. Stitched into the fabric at the edge of the blanket were the initials GNMC.

  ‘Great Northern Mining Company?’

  ‘From the nursing station back in town.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I’ve been there, remember?’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So, who else do we know spent the night there?’

  Cameron stared at him, his face a mixture of surprise and dismay.

  ‘You really think it’s her?’

  ‘Who else could it be?’

  A feeling of release swept over Jamie. It wasn’t a powerful emotion, not like the fear he’d experienced in the back of the police truck, or even the peacefulness of that morning. It was more gentle, like a sigh of relief. Cameron interrupted his reverie.

  ‘I’ve got to go outside.’

  Cameron had gone pale, and looked shaken. Jamie followed him out and found him flopped down in the shade at the side of the hut.

  ‘How’d she get out here?’

  ‘Same way I did.’

  An unsteady silence filled the atmosphere around them.

  ‘At least the bastard didn’t handcuff her.’

  ‘He wouldn’t have needed to, would he? She was pretty crook.’

  Jamie went back inside and fetched a canteen. The other boy accepted it gratefully and took a long drink.

  ‘Why didn’t he bury her? Hide her or something?’ Cameron asked.

  ‘He wouldn’t need to would he? You said yourself that it would have been impossible to find this place without fresh tracks to follow. No one comes here. Besides, Butcher’s too arrogant.’

  ‘Arrogant?’

  ‘Yeah. You should have heard some of the stuff he said when he dumped me here. It didn’t even cross his mind for a second that he’d get caught.’

  Cameron was silent, considering. ‘So what do we do about her?’

  ‘Do?’

  ‘Yeah. Shouldn’t we bury her or something?’

  Jamie sat next to him, leaning back against the fibro wall.

  ‘I think we should take her with us.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We can’t leave her here. She doesn’t want to stay.’

  Cameron gave Jamie a strange look.

  ‘It’s a skeleton. We can’t carry it.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It’s . . .’ Cameron stopped, unable to give voice to his thoughts. Jamie took the opportunity to drive his point home. ‘Think about it, mate. If we bring her back, what’ve we got? We’ve got evidence against Butcher, that’s what.’

  ‘Yeah but . . .’

  ‘Without her, then it’s just our word against Butcher’s, and you know what he’s like. Hell, he’s probably back there right now spinning some bullshit story to the town to make the two of us look like criminals. We need her. She needs us, too.’

  ‘What about the extra weight?’

  ‘Look at what’s left of her, just a few bones. That’s nothin’.’

  They lapsed into silence. Jamie let Cameron think it through for himself. He wasn’t ready to tell his friend that the girl had been talking to him, calling him.

  ‘How do we carry her?’

  ‘In the bag. There’ll be room.’

  ‘You’ll have to pack it. I’m still trying to get that compass out.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Cameron still wasn’t comfortable with the thought of bringing the girl across the desert with them, but at least he was coming around.

  ‘Look at it this way. Perhaps she’s been looking after us so far, eh? Maybe we owe her.’

  ‘Yeah, possibly.’ He didn’t sound convinced. ‘I’m going to get back to the car before it gets hotter.’

  ‘Okay. I’ve got to finish the harness, then I’ll get the bag packed.’

  Cameron t
ook another long swig from the canteen then climbed to his feet.

  ‘You really reckon we can pull this off?’

  Jamie looked hard at him. For the first time, a glimmer of doubt lurked in the other boy’s expression.

  ‘I don’t see that we’ve got much choice.’

  Without another word Cameron padded off across the hot sand to continue his work. Jamie took himself back inside.

  desert

  twenty-five

  The sun was dropping to the horizon when they set out. The compass in the central console of the Land Rover had proved immovable, and rather than waste another day Cameron decided they could risk the journey without it.

  Jamie wore the backpack and Cameron had the water container harnessed to his shoulders. Looking out at the sunset the desert suddenly seemed even more immense – if that was possible. Cameron outlined his plan.

  ‘It shouldn’t be too hard. We’ll take a bearing from where the sun sets. That’ll be pretty much west. As long as we keep moving roughly north, we have to hit the highway eventually. Then we can hitch a ride back into town.’

  ‘I thought people in the desert wandered in circles?’

  ‘I read how to beat that. We pick a landmark in the direction we want to head, and from there we pick another one further up the trail. Provided that we keep lining things up behind us, we should keep going in a straight line.’

  ‘You sure about this?’ Jamie still couldn’t shake the feeling that following the road would be safer.

  ‘No. But I told you, I reckon it’s our best chance.’

  Staring ahead, both contemplated the immensity of the desert. It extended away forever, lit by the diffused pink glow of sunset. An almost eerie stillness descended on the landscape. The scufflings and scrapings were momentarily hushed, almost as though the land itself was waiting for something to happen.

  ‘Let’s get on with it, then.’

  With a few tentative steps, Cameron took the weight of the water container and started to drag it forwards across the soft sand. It was a little less than half full and left a long, wide track in the soft earth.