Nothing could have prepared them for the fact that they instead woke up to find themselves under a massive boab tree on red soil in a flat, barren land. They both sat up and looked around. The sun was in the same position in the sky as the last place they had been in but here it seemed further away. The land seemed to stretch on forever in every direction and the sky was clear blue and seemingly enormous. The heat shimmered on the horizon in every direction in which they looked, as well. There was not much plant life except for a crop of gum trees a long way off in the distance. There were no other signs of life either. David swept up a handful of the red dirt and it sifted through his fingers like dust.
“What!” he said, and Bobby could see how alarmed he was. “How could this have happened? We’re in the outback of Australia, if I’m not mistaken.”
“How could that have happened?” said Bobby and she stood up to fully take in her surroundings. She looked about with her hand held on her brow. That was when she noticed the heat. Sweat burst from every part of her, it seemed, and she thought she would do anything for a cold glass of water, some proper shade and maybe a fan.
“It’s sweltering out here,” said David.
“I know,” said Bobby and she sat back down. The heat was so oppressive it made her feel faint.
“Look, there’s an old shack over there,” said David. “Let’s go and see if there’s at least a drink of water in there.”
“Okay, but I still don’t understand it, do you?” she asked. “I mean, we both held the thought of the island in our minds when we held the ball and said the words, so why did we end up here?”
“Good question. I bet it won’t be long before we find out too,” answered David. They walked up the steps of the front porch of the shack.
“Bobby and David, I’ve been waiting for you,” said a low voice with a strange accent. Bobby nearly jumped out of her skin and David turned toward the voice with a start.
“I – I – I’m sorry, sir; I see we’re on your land … It’s just that – oh you know our names!” David said as he took in this new turn of events.
“I know your names and I’ve been expecting you for quite some time now. You don’t have to worry because I’m not going to hurt you. Come inside.” The tall black man stood up and walked towards them. Bobby recognised that he was a native person of Australia, an Aborigine. He wore very old clothes: old in the sense of worn-out but also old-fashioned. Bobby wondered what year they had stumbled into. He was very stately, almost regal in his posture but was definitely getting on in years as well. His mostly black hair was peppered with white and the skin on his face was worn, heavily wrinkled and deeply scarred in places too. She wondered if he was a chief of his people …
“I give to you a drink of water and food,” he said as they entered the shack. Bobby noticed when she looked around inside the shack that it was literally one room with a curtained-off corner which she assumed was the bathing area. The simple and sparse furnishings were what she would refer to as antique; a single brass bed, a wooden table and chairs. Even the ornaments and crockery were definitely from another era; the 1800s, she assumed. Was it possible they had stepped back in time to the outback of the 1800s or was her imagination getting away from her? How strange. And yet, there the man was, ladling soup which was cooking on the wood-burning stove into two bowls for them. And he knew their names and was expecting them, so obviously this was where they were meant to be right now. She tried to relax a little.
“Please,” he said, “now is time for you to sit and eat and drink and then we talk about everything.” Not wanting to be rude, they both took their place at the table. He placed the bowls and glasses and some dried-up, old bread in front of them. Odd, thought Bobby. Who would think you could eat soup in this climate? But it was actually much cooler inside and the prospect of having a home-cooked meal cheered them both immensely. The soup was quite delicious. They each said so repeatedly. Bobby couldn’t make out any of the ingredients though. She imagined that maybe it was made out of snake, witchetty grubs and gumleaves or something like that (and she wasn’t far off the mark either).
“You have come here for a reason,” the man said. He looked at them intently from his position by the stove. Then he took a pipe and some tobacco out of his pocket. Bobby and David looked at one another and Bobby remembered the old homeless man in their own hometown who had told them the story about the ‘alien ship sighting’. His smoking had offended David dreadfully and so she frowned at David now as if to warn him, “Don’t say anything, or I’ll thump you,” and David frowned back at her as if to say, “As if I would be that rude.” Bobby pursed her lips and nodded her head slightly to David as if to say, “Yes, I know you by now and I think you would be that rude.”
“Maybe I smoke later,” the man said and put the pipe and tobacco away, as if reading their minds.
“No, no, we don’t mind at all,” Bobby said and she elbowed David sharply, “do we, David?”
“Oh no, go right ahead,” he said, through locked teeth and he gave Bobby a look that said, “See.”
“You’re so very rude,” she couldn’t help but blurt out.
“Oh, I’m the one that’s rude. Listen to you slurping that soup like a – like a homeless person.” David couldn’t help saying it out loud, either. How could he be so mean, she thought to herself not for the first time, and seriously considered punching him right on the nose right here and now. But then she remembered her view on violence, so she used words instead.
“Well, maybe I am a homeless person. I suppose that means you don’t like me anymore,” she retorted. David turned to face her squarely as if he was about to let loose a verbal barrage that she would find very offensive. But right at that moment the man let out an enormous laugh that made both of them hush instantly and look at him. He was slapping his leg with one hand and had his other arm wrapped tightly around his stomach as if trying to hold something inside. Tears were rolling down his face and he was jumping up and down in his chair, unable to control himself.
“You so funny,” he finally managed to say and he pointed at them and broke out laughing again.
“I don’t see how we can be so amusing,” David said smiling and trying to remain as polite as he possibly could.
“You two; they said you were like that – you and you,” he said and pointed to them individually. “You make nice couple, real nice couple, ah ha ah ha ah ha,” and off he went again in peals of laughter, leaving Bobby and David staring at each other and speechless for a moment.
“No, I think you’ve made a mistake,” Bobby finally found her voice. “We’re not a couple. We’re cousins. And besides, who do you mean when you say ‘they’?”
“Yes, that’s right. You are here to get the story. I tell you everything,” the man said, suddenly regaining his composure. He sat up quite straight in his chair and took out his pipe and tobacco. This time he filled the pipe and lit the tobacco quietly. It seemed to be some kind of ritual, not unlike the one they had witnessed before, so Bobby and David waited patiently, knowing their questions would be answered. Then he launched into a story that was so momentous and intriguing that the next thing Bobby and David knew, they were lighting candles against the dark; the daytime hours had vanished without them even noticing, slipping into another age, right at the start of their shared history and epic journey together.
Chapter 8
The Story Of Wanda
He began by telling them how the white man came and how that meant the end of the days of his people. His people had been there since “long, long time”. They had their own stories and legends handed down to each generation from a time, long, long, long ago. They called it dreamtime. He told them how the Aborigines had a story for everything that happened in nature. How the rainbow was made, why the snake sheds its skin, how the moon comes at night and the sun in the day. They were simple people living in nature. Yes, they sometimes had disease that the Shaman couldn’t cure. Yes, they did not know about God. Yes,
they did not know how to write and read. But yes, they were happy like that. He said that they had no opportunity to know anything but what their parents and their parents’ parents told them and they didn’t know there was another way of life. Their dreamtime gave them all the answers they needed so they hunted and gathered because that was what his people had always done.
He spoke in such a colourful way, drawing out the ends of his words and using his hands and facial expressions to describe what he was saying that it wasn’t long before Bobby and David had become completely entranced by the story. He poked at the fire in the stove every now and then and threw in more sticks of wood when they were needed. Bobby and David used their imaginations to picture the people and events he was talking about.
His tale continued as he told them about how the white man thought the Aborigines were dirty animals and that they needed to be taught about God, and how to read books and wear clothes such as they wore. White men wanted to make them slaves in their houses and take the children from them, just like that, to send them to schools and convents. White man decided that the Aborigines were at fault for all things that went wrong and decided that every white man could shoot a black man if he saw him. Many of his people died because of this.
Bobby was appalled at this new information. How could she not have known about this before? She imagined the black men being shot on sight.
He spoke of how the black men who were left were not allowed to go anywhere near the white men and they were not allowed to go back to their other way of life either.
He interrupted his account and asked Bobby and David in a distressed voice, “So where were they meant to go? There was not a place left for them on this earth.”
Before the children could answer, he continued once more, pointing out the door, “On the ninth day of the ninth moon, all of my people from around here meet at the gorge,” and Bobby remembered that she had seen that gully of gum trees when they had first arrived.
He explained that they did it like this every year but on the occasion he would tell the children about, not many people were there because so many had been killed previously. The white man did not know about this place but the Aborigines organised lookouts, just in case. On this fateful night, their Shaman showed them a big crystal ball and a blue, pointed, spear-looking wand and told them of her new plan. She would weave a powerful spell on all of them to form them into shapeshifters.
He broke off from his story-telling and asked the intrigued Bobby and David, “Do you know what this meant? Yes, from now on when Aborigines are around white people or they come near us, we form into a tree. All kinds of trees, big ones, little ones, wide ones, skinny ones, just like people. But not trees they might wish to chop down. Just plain, ugly trees. And you will see them everywhere around here, if you really look.”
He went on to describe how this worked very well. Most people chose a spot and formed deep roots into the ground with their hands to stay alive and stayed there all the time. But on the ninth day of the ninth moon if people stayed around here until night time they would see all of those trees changing back into people and running toward the gorge. The spell has to be done again at this time to last another year. That is when all the families come together again, being very merry. They have little fires and make little songs and dance – only little because they don’t want the white people to know about it.
Apparently this worked well for some time, but one year a little white girl found them at the gorge. They didn’t know how she got past their lookouts but she did and before they knew it there was a little girl standing and looking at them, crying. She wore a long night gown which was dirty and torn and she had been crying for a long time.
She had obviously been lost for a long time but they did not know where she had come from. She was very skinny and hungry. She stared at the rabbits on the fire and said, “Yum, yum.” They gave her food and drink and tried to talk to her but all she would say was, “Mumma, Mumma,” and point to the sky. Then there was big talk about what to do with her. They talked about taking her back – but to where? Could any of them risk their lives to go to where the white man lived? What would become of her if she stayed with them? She watched another child drinking from its mother’s breast and went up to where the woman sat and said, “Mumma,” and waited and when the child moved away she lay down in the woman’s lap and started to nurse. Some of the people were very angry about this. The white man was their enemy after all. “But she is not the white man, she is a little girl,” the nursing woman said and she stroked her hair.
That was when her spirit guide visited the tribe. A mighty wind blew into the gorge. It was so strong that the fire almost blew out and there were embers blowing everywhere and onto their faces. It was as powerful as a cyclone. It stopped right in front of the little girl. She sat up and talked to the wind in her own baby language and put her hand out to stroke it. Then it became a wolften – a wolf that is as tall as a hut, very big. They had heard of these in dreamtime stories but none of them had ever seen one before, not even the Shaman. She was very beautiful with deep yellow eyes and grey and brown fur. All along her belly were dozens of little teats that were very milky. She had puppies somewhere that was for sure. She lay down in front of the little girl and let the girl pat her nose. They seemed to be communicating without words. The people thought she would take the little girl with her, thinking that was why she had come. But then the Shaman stepped forward and the wolften and she communicated with their minds. Suddenly, there was a mighty howling as if many wolftens were howling together and the wolften sprang up and howled in return. She looked toward their Shaman one last time. Their Shaman said, “As you wish,” and the wolften changed back into the swirling wind and left the gorge and that was the last time they ever saw her. The little girl said, “Bye-bye,” and started to cry again. “Mumma here,” said the woman who had been nursing her, and took her gently by the hand. Her husband came and took the girl’s other hand. That was how they became a family. “She is to stay with you,” said the Shaman, but they already knew.
The little girl stayed with her new family. The Shaman wove her magic on the little girl as well and they all became a group of trees standing together and holding each other’s hands with their knobbly and knotted branches. They had a lot of time where they could shapeshift into their human form and stay that way because they lived close to the gorge and white men didn’t go there much. But when the white men did come they would go back into their tree form. The little girl, who was called Wanda – because of the fact that she had wandered into their group one day – came to love her new family and home very much. She grew up only knowing the ways of her people and didn’t recognise that she was different from them. She knew her skin was lighter but still felt she was a part of their tribe. All of the other children loved her as well and they played happily together when they saw each other. She became very close to the son of the chief, whose name was Insa. As they came into their young adulthood it was clear that the two of them would be husband and wife. Both Wanda and Insa were very happy about this. They each pictured themselves being with the other until the day they died. All of the tribe thought it a perfect match. But then Wanda started to have terrifying nightmares. In her dreams she would see all of her tribe being murdered by the white people. She saw them being stabbed and shot and even strangled to death, which was disturbing for her because up until now she had never known that such acts existed, her tribe being a peace-loving tribe. And she saw the women and children of her tribe being cruelly treated and tortured, just for the fun of it. In the dreams, the white people knew of the magic the Shaman had used to shapeshift the tribe into trees and every single one was taken down at the roots and burned in massive bonfires all across the land. As the trees burned they turned back into the bodies of her people and so were burned to death, with nothing of them remaining except a handful of ashes. As the days went on and the nightmares increased in intensity, Wanda realised that the people respon
sible for this massacre – even though she had never actually seen them in her life before, only heard of them from her people – were people just like her with white skin. They had strange customs and wore unusual clothes that covered them from neck to toe.
She went to the Shaman and spoke of her dreams and her concern that the dreams might be premonitions. Often, over the years, she had talked to the Shaman about the Shaman’s ability to see into the future. Wanda knew that this was one of the reasons the Shaman held so much power. She always knew what was coming up and the people of the tribe respected her for this talent, and relied on her to guide them with all of the decisions they had to make at all times. But this day, when Wanda needed her advice more than ever, the Shaman simply said that they were annoying dreams that meant nothing and to ignore them. Pre-wedding jitters was the explanation. Wanda wasn’t convinced but the more she pressed the Shaman, the more irritable the Shaman became and then she stopped talking altogether and asked Wanda to leave.
Wanda walked away from the Shaman’s hut even more confused than when she had arrived there. Not only because the Shaman had reacted in an uncaring way about her dreams, but also because Wanda noticed something else about the Shaman too. There was a certain look in her eye and tone to her voice that Wanda had never seen before. But she couldn’t recognise what it was. The Shaman acted as if she wasn’t worried about the dreams and what they meant, but she was hiding something; intuitively Wanda knew this for sure. She decided to take matters into her own hands.
It wasn’t long before the Shaman would come to deeply regret her decision to ignore the girl.
Chapter 9
Wanda’s Terror
The Blue Seal of Trinity Cove Page 5
