Under the Flame Tree

by Karen Wood

  Kirra sat under the flame tree and watched, willing one of Lisa’s heels to catch on the uneven ground and snap her ankle.

  Lisa made it to Jim, gave him a cold smile and held out a hand. ‘I’m here to pick up some of Daniel’s things.’

  Her father looked at her hand as though he wasn’t sure if he should shake it or kiss it. Kirra almost laughed. In the end he gave it a limp shake. She smiled coolly at the other men.

  Jamie appeared from the tractor shed. ‘Hi, Lisa.’

  Kirra’s resentment doubled in a heartbeat.

  Lisa’s laugh tinkled like a bell. ‘Hey, stranger!’

  Of course. The one human being on the planet not intimidated by the extraterrestrial ice invader would have to be Jamie. Kirra instantly despised her, envisaged her in a pool of blood on the slaughterhouse floor.

  The girl turned to her and smiled, and Kirra hated the way she felt as if she should pull her feet off the table. So she left them there, one crossed defiantly over the other. She slid her wraparound sunnies down over her eyes and picked up the Campdraft magazine that lay open on the table.

  ‘You must be Kirra.’ Lisa’s voice was pleasant and light, but the cutting edge to it rang in Kirra’s ears.

  ‘We met at Dirt and Dust,’ said Kirra without looking up. Clearly Lisa didn’t remember what a rude cow she’d been.

  ‘Daniel told me about you,’ Lisa said. ‘He said you were sweet.’

  ‘Did he now? And when did that conversation take place, given that last time we spoke you wanted him back behind bars?’ Kirra looked up and lifted her sunnies from her face.

  ‘It took place when I visited him,’ said Lisa with a cold smile, ‘while he was back behind bars, which is where he belongs.’ She turned to Jamie. ‘Where are his things?’

  ‘At the cottage. I’ll take you over there,’ he answered and Kirra felt infuriated by his niceness.

  She watched him lead Lisa to the cottage. She stopped and waited while he opened the door and they both went inside. From where Kirra sat it seemed like such an invasion of Daniel’s space, her space, Moorinja’s space. A space she had no right to enter. Why was she allowed in there? Who had given her permission?

  Nancy appeared from the main house and marched across the yard after them. She too disappeared into Daniel’s cottage. There were muffled voices, dull thumps and the sound of furniture scraping across the old timber floors. What were they doing in there?

  It was a good half hour before Lisa emerged holding only the bag she went in there with, nothing else. She got into her car without pleasantries, looking as if she couldn’t wait to escape, started the engine and rolled out of the driveway.

  ‘Who was she?’ asked Steve in a slow drawl.

  Kirra targeted Jamie as soon as he returned to the table. ‘What was she looking for?’

  ‘A letter. She went through his entire files. Lucky Nancy was there to supervise.’

  ‘Did she find what she was looking for?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Kirra’s head spun. What sort of letter was it, an old love letter or something? She shuddered. ‘Who said she could go through his stuff?’

  ‘Daniel rang Nancy from the police station and asked her to give it to her,’ said Jamie.

  What sort of letter would be so important that Lisa would drive for hours to come and get it? Must have been something very personal . . .

  Kirra busied herself on the front end loader that afternoon, yanking at the levers, lifting huge round bales of hay into the feeders. She derived some inane pleasure from lifting them as high as the bucket would allow and then dumping them, watching them crash into the feeders with a heavy thud, sending dust and debris flying. They didn’t even bounce, they were so heavy. She imagined each one landing on Lisa’s head. What did she hold over Daniel? Why would he let her go through his things like that?

  When all six feeders were full Kirra cut the engine of the loader and took her knife, slashing the winding pink string from around the bales. She cut and stabbed, string after string, and it felt good. The weaners bustled around her, nosing into the leafy green mass and tearing out huge chunks. It was beautiful hay, she noticed. No wonder they liked it. She could almost eat it herself.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she heard her father yell from the gateway. ‘Blimey, Kirra. That’s prime hay.’

  She looked up from the last bale, holding a mass of pink string. ‘The feeders were empty.’

  ‘That’s for the horses, not the cattle. Crikey, girl, you know better than to waste prime lucerne on the cattle. They get the Rhodes hay!’

  Kirra stared at the brilliant green lucerne bales. The cattle had already torn through half of them. There’d be no pulling them off it now. Her father gave her an infuriated snarl and shook his head. ‘What were you thinking?’

  She squeezed her face into a mortified apology. She hadn’t been thinking, she’d been brooding and sulking. Argh! How could she make such a costly mistake? ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Those bales were two hundred bucks each. What am I gonna tell Tom?’ Jim walked away in disgust.

  Damn, she had to get control of her feelings. But the questions kept smashing around in her brain, making it impossible for her to focus on her job.

  How did Lisa know the Blackbrae boys? She looked so at home with them, as though she was one of them somehow. Why would she testify against Daniel in court if it wasn’t true?

  And how did Jamie know Lisa? Suddenly she wondered if she could trust him. Something told her he knew a lot more than he let on.

  Kirra sighed. She didn’t know who to trust any more. She must be the most stupid girl on the planet to be missing Daniel, pining after him like some dumb animal. How was it possible to fall so heavily for a guy, to hear his voice in her ear, feel his touch on her skin over and over while she worked, to relive his kisses and his laugh?

  He completely filled her senses. Every time she thought of him her heart started leaping around in her chest like a caged beast. She was obsessed. Was this normal?

  Four days later, Kirra woke with the first low chuckle of kookaburras. In the tree outside her window three puffy birds sat side by side, shaking with laughter. From across the vast property, more laughter echoed back through the pre-dawn stillness. She briefly considered closing the window, but it was unusually muggy and the gentle waft of air coming through was nice on her skin.

  The light was murky and tinged with orange. The birds went quiet and Kirra stared blankly at the pane of glass. She could hardly even be bothered getting up. The window was dusty, like everything else at Moorinja. As her eyes focused, she noticed clean lines and swirls. Letters. She sat up, pushed her hair out of her face and squinted at them.

  KIRRA.

  Her name was written in the dust.

  Something smooth and velvety wrapped around her heart. And then it twisted into a small, tight knot. Daniel. When had he written that? She ran her fingers over the clean side of the glass, tracing her name. When had he watched her sleep through her bedroom window? Her eyes cast across the yard to his house and her breath caught.

  The kitchen light was on. Who was in there? Kirra had seen Nancy come out and lock the front door behind her. Daniel? Lisa? Had the police believed him? Had he been cleared? Did Lisa bail him out or something?

  Kirra cast her mind back to the previous night. The lights had all been out when she had gone to bed. Who else would go in there in the middle of the night?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Kirra threw off her covers, hurriedly dressed and nicked out the door. She stole across the main yard in a pair of shorts and old workboots. She peered through the kitchen window of the cottage and found it empty. No one was in the lounge room. She crept around to the back and peered through the half-open window of Daniel’s bedroom. The sash was raised a few centimetres, letting fresh air and flies in.

  He was there, alone, lying close enough to touch, asleep in the honeyed pre-dawn light. His face was hidden in the clouds of
pillows and his messy dark hair brushed the nape of his neck. He wore jeans, one long leg stretched out with a bare foot hooked through the steel rails of the bed end. A wallet and some keys were on the bedside table. He must have crashed heavily.

  She watched as wakefulness came to him. One arm stirred and then he reached for the back of his neck and scratched. He rolled over and inhaled sharply through his nose. His face was still swollen and bruised. The cut looked like it hadn’t been treated or cleaned since she had taken care of it.

  Then his eyes opened and he saw her, standing outside the window, scraping her hair behind her ears with her fingers. He did one of his half smiles and then his lids shut again. ‘Stalker,’ he mumbled.

  She ran her eyes over the small scattered ink marks on his chest. She hadn’t seen them since that day in the cattle trough. A rocking B sitting in a crescent shape, like a cattle brand, other symbols and markings. Her eyes stopped at the SAM inked over his heart.

  ‘Coming in?’ he asked, without opening his eyes.

  ‘No,’ she said, taking a step back and reliving the humiliation she had felt only days before. ‘Who’s Lisa?’

  His eyes snapped open then, and he ran a hand over the side of his face and groaned. He swung his legs to the side of the bed and sat up with his back to her, then reached for a T-shirt and pulled it over his head. She heard his footsteps head for the front door. Then he was standing in front of her, outside his bedroom window.

  ‘It’s not what you think.’

  ‘What is it then?’ Her hands automatically went to her hips.

  ‘She’s just a friend.’

  ‘Jamie said she was your girlfriend.’

  ‘He’s wrong. We’re just . . . close, you know, like friends.’

  ‘Some friend. She wanted you behind bars.’

  He shifted about, looking uncomfortable. ‘At the time she had every right to be angry with me.’

  ‘Why? What did you do?’

  ‘It’s complicated.’

  ‘Try me,’ she said. ‘Tell me your story, Daniel.’

  There was that searching look again, that secret on the tip of his tongue. What was it that he wanted to confide in her? He inhaled. ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘Not yet, anyway.’

  ‘How come you never tell me anything about yourself? All these other people, they tell me things, like not to get involved with you and that you’re trouble – but I don’t want to hear your story from them, I want to hear it from you. Why won’t you talk to me?’

  He shrugged. ‘Not good at trusting people, I suppose.’

  ‘But you trust her? Lisa?’

  His face looked troubled, as though he didn’t know the answer.

  ‘Has she got something over you?’

  He nodded. And then he took her face in his hands and she almost melted as he slid his thumbs around her ears and held her so she couldn’t look away. His look was intense, scrutinising.

  ‘Why do you always look at me like that?’ she whispered.

  ‘I gotta tell you something,’ he said, in a voice that sounded cautious. ‘I don’t want you to freak out.’

  ‘What?’ He really had hurt his little sister? He was a psychopath? He was going back to juvy? Kirra’s head went instantly crazy. What sort of good news ever began with, I gotta tell you something?

  None. She put her hands up to his and pulled them from her face.

  He looked at her as though trying to work out how to word it.

  ‘Tell me,’ she urged.

  ‘Lisa wants to come and stay for a couple of days.’

  At that moment, Kirra gave up. There was a whole part of Daniel she didn’t know or understand. And he didn’t want her to, either.

  ‘She’ll stay in the women’s quarters,’ he added quickly, ‘with Liz.’

  Kirra still didn’t like it. ‘What for?’ she asked, with little hope that he would explain.

  ‘She wants to talk.’

  ‘About what?’

  There was that loaded pause again. ‘About what she’s got over me.’

  ‘Right.’ Kirra stepped away from him. She stood there, bewildered, unsure of what to say next. He didn’t want to share anything meaningful with her. He just wanted to fool around. What an idiot she’d been. After a long, awkward silence, she turned and walked to the horse shed.

  ‘Kirra . . .’ he called after her.

  She went into the harness shed and closed the door behind her. She wished she could just stop thinking about it, but she couldn’t. What could Lisa possibly have over him that would make him so . . . bound to her and under the thumb like that? What did a letter have to do with it all? They didn’t even seem to like each other.

  A wave of nausea rolled over Kirra as one scenario in particular began to circulate in her head.

  17

  There was a sharp rap on the harness shed door. Before Kirra could yell at Daniel to leave her alone, her dad walked in. She caught her torrent of anger before it left her mouth.

  ‘Workplace romances are never a good idea, Kirra.’ He rested a hand on the doorjamb.

  ‘I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,’ she said, picking at the thread on a chaff bag. ‘He ditched me.’

  Her dad raised his eyebrows. ‘He’s got a lot on his plate for a young bloke, Kirra. His life is complicated.’

  ‘Too complicated for me,’ she agreed.

  ‘Yeah, maybe.’ He paused. ‘You got the choice of riding any horse on this place every day, some of the best-bred horses in the country. You could ride cutting horses, trained-up reiners and camp drafters, yet you choose that feral black thing. Why?’

  ‘Iceman?’ The thought of him made her smile. ‘He’s just misunderstood. There’s a quality horse under all that itch and buck.’ And he was always worth the fight. He had something special about him.

  ‘He dumped the boss.’

  ‘Everyone makes mistakes.’

  Her dad smiled. ‘There’s your answer.’

  Kirra frowned, unsure of what he meant.

  ‘You always try to find the good in everyone and everything,’ said her dad.

  ‘So, what’s wrong with that?’

  ‘It’s beginning to compromise your work. Other people are noticing it. You wasted over a thousand dollars’ worth of prime hay on the weaners yesterday because your mind wasn’t on the job. That’s not like you.’

  Kirra looked at her feet.

  ‘It puts me in an awkward position when you stuff up, Kirra. I have to come down on you the same way I come down on anyone else. It’s also up to me to sack you if it doesn’t work out.’

  ‘Sack me?’ Kirra’s voice lifted several octaves. ‘Is Boss Carney unhappy with me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Kirra was shocked. ‘It was an honest mistake!’

  ‘He doesn’t want what is already a very complicated situation becoming even more difficult. He doesn’t need you and Daniel creating issues around here.’

  Kirra squirmed. This was not how she had imagined her first year of work at Moorinja. None of this was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be her chance to prove herself, show the boss that she was serious about a career on the station.

  ‘If you want Tom to send you to ag college next year, you need to stay away from Daniel. You can be as angry and heartbroken as you like on your own time, but don’t bring your feelings into work. Otherwise you’ll be going back to school next year.’

  Kirra nodded obediently. Her dad was right. Daniel wasn’t worth risking her agreement with Tom. The last thing she wanted to do was jeopardise her job.

  But her dad wasn’t finished. ‘You know what will probably happen to Iceman if you’re not around to ride him next year? You know what the boss thinks of him, don’t you?’

  Horror rushed over her. ‘He wouldn’t . . .’

  ‘He would.’ Jim got back to business. ‘Tom wants the breakers finished by lunch so you can go over to Scrubby Creek and sort out some other horse that’s bucking. I suggest you focus on
that for the day.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Daniel’s going to work with Tom for the next couple of weeks, so you’ll have to do all six breakers. Can you manage that?’

  ‘Easy,’ she bluffed, knowing she would be working until dark again. Maybe that was a good thing.

  ‘Your mum and I are going to Townsville tonight. We’ll be home late tomorrow. Do you want to stay over at the women’s quarters, or will you be right on your own?’

  Lordy no, Lisa would be there. ‘Can I ask Nat over and stay at home?’

  She was pleasantly surprised when her dad agreed.

  As he turned to leave the shed, he spoke again. ‘Try not to break poor Jamie’s heart while you’re sorting out your love-life. He’s a good bloke.’

  Was Jamie a good bloke? Kirra wasn’t so sure, but she nodded and got back to work.

  She spent the morning long-reining the colts: walking behind them with big long reins, teaching them how to steer. She drove them through the main yard and around the cattle yards, off the loading ramp, in and out of the shallow dam and anywhere else interesting she could find. Anywhere away from Daniel.

  In the afternoon she went out to Scrubby Creek to sort out the horse that was bucking. She got there to find that the horse that was ‘bucking like a mad thing’ had a badly fitted saddle – a broken dee ring was pressing into the horse’s spine. She took the saddle to the back of the ute, found a screwdriver and pulled the dee ring off. Problem fixed. She then had to wait the entire afternoon before Steve the mechanic was ready to drive her back to the main station.

  She found Iceman in the yards. The stockmen had left him behind, taking other more reliable horses. She saddled him up, this time taking extra care to prevent him from bucking, taking his head to one side every time he arched his back and then letting him back out when he relaxed. He eventually walked forward without misbehaving when she gave him the reins. Every time he threatened to buck she pulled him back into a tight circle.

  Once she had smoothed him out and got to cantering properly, he was poetry in motion. Like nothing else she had ever ridden. He was big, powerful and agile: quick on his feet and even quicker with his mind.