Under the Flame Tree

by Karen Wood

  ‘That’s the softest I’ve ever seen that horse go.’ It was Old Jack, leaning against the rails.

  ‘He’s a great horse,’ said Kirra, running a hand over his neck. ‘I wouldn’t mind owning him.’ He was the only horse on the place that she felt like that about. She would be cut to pieces if Tom sold him.

  ‘You’re a working girl now, you might be able to afford to buy him.’ Jack gave her a kind smile and walked away.

  Kirra looked at Iceman and imagined him as her own. ‘That’s not a bad idea, old man,’ she muttered to herself.

  While Kirra waited for Steve, she helped to move some stud calves into a new paddock. But riding Iceman at a walk through the saddle-high leucaena saplings after ambling calves gave her mind too much time to wander back to Daniel.

  It was late in the afternoon when Steve finally slid into the driver’s seat and Kirra buckled up beside him. She twisted around and checked on Iceman on the back of the horse float. He could come back to Moorinja and be her main horse for a while.

  During the hour it took to get back to Moorinja, Kirra stared out the window and ground her jaw, unable to listen to anything Steve was rambling on about. She tried taking deep breaths, tried counting all the way to five hundred and sixty-three, but it didn’t work. Jealousy made her teeth clench. Lisa would be at Moorinja by now.

  It was Friday afternoon. Back at the homestead all the blokes plus Liz were sitting under the flame tree having a knock-off beer. Its leaves had shrivelled and its flowers lay on the ground in a semi-rotten carpet of red and brown gunk. Her parents’ car was already gone, and Kirra was relieved to find that Lisa’s wasn’t there yet.

  Daniel was sitting at the table next to Boss Carney, who was muttering to him about the running of the station. After a while, Tom got up and left the table, leaving Daniel to read a pile of papers. He didn’t look up or acknowledge Kirra.

  That’s when a familiar ute rolled down the driveway. Kirra’s stomach bottomed out as though it was being hurled through a rollercoaster ride. If she got up and bolted, would she be accused of creating a scene? She stayed put under the flame tree, determined to be dignified. No theatrics. Especially while the boss was nearby.

  Daniel stood and walked to greet Lisa as several sets of eyes followed. Lisa alighted, wearing a short floral dress and strappy sandals.

  Kirra didn’t know where to look. She busied herself rummaging in the esky for a can of Coke, but found none. Not wanting to come up empty-handed, she grabbed a beer.

  ‘Where shall I put my things?’ Lisa asked.

  ‘At Liz’s place,’ said Daniel. ‘I’ll take them.’

  Kirra twisted the top off the bottle and glugged it into her empty stomach, draining the last drops in less than ten seconds. She let a burp flow slowly, stingingly out of her nostrils.

  Everyone at the table stared at her.

  ‘What?’ she snapped.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Paul, raising his stubby. ‘Cheers!’

  Kirra reached into the esky for another bottle, twisted the top off and guzzled again. The beer tasted disgusting and made her feel bloated but she forced it down. By the time she reached the bottom she was light-headed and thought she might vomit. Daniel and Lisa had gone.

  Rain began to fall. It started off light and everyone revelled in it. But as big fat drops began bouncing off the ground and shifting the dust, Liz and Steve went inside. Jack and the Scrubby Creek staff headed back home and she was left with Paul and Jamie, who were dead keen to party.

  18

  Kirra rose from the table and caught her balance by grabbing hold of Paul’s shoulder. ‘Whoops!’ She laughed. ‘I should go home. I’m getting drenched.’

  ‘You right?’ said Jamie.

  ‘Fine,’ she assured him, but the leaves and branches overhead were moving more than they should have been. ‘I should go home.’ Did she just repeat herself?

  ‘Want me to walk you over?’

  ‘Nope. It’s all good. I . . . I think I should go home.’

  Once she got walking the world slowed down a bit and she reached the front door without incident. She sank onto her bed, glad her parents weren’t home. She’d never drank more than a glass of beer before, usually when her parents weren’t looking. Tonight, she’d guzzled two large stubbies one after the other. At least she was still able to count, she reasoned.

  From her bedroom window, she looked across at the cottage. The shutters were pulled down and her head and her heart filled with all sorts of images of Daniel and Lisa. She found her phone and rang Natalie.

  ‘Can you come and stay tonight? I’m so depressed.’

  ‘What’s happening?’ asked Natalie.

  ‘Daniel’s girlfriend’s come to stay for a few days.’

  ‘Oh.’ There was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone. ‘You didn’t tell me he had a girlfriend.’

  ‘That’s because he didn’t tell me either.’ Kirra burped and the taste of beer rose up the back of her throat and made her feel all vomity again. ‘In fact, he still denies it. But she seems to have him wrapped around and around and around her little finger.’ She squared her shoulders and focused on a spot on the wall. ‘This conversation is making me dizzy.’

  ‘You sound weird.’

  ‘I think I’m drunk.’

  ‘I’ll get Jet to drop me over now.’

  ‘Don’t be long or I’ll die of sadness.’ In the mirror, Kirra’s entire face went all tearful and her mouth pulled into an ugly grimace.

  By the time Natalie arrived, Kirra’s head had cleared a little, but her mood was no better. She walked out to the yard and embraced Nat before she had completely stepped out of the car, holding her for longer than what was usual.

  Natalie giggled, gently pushing her off. ‘I brought champagne. It makes you happy,’ she stated as though it were a world-renowned fact. Who was Kirra to argue? Maybe it would counteract the effect the beer was having on her.

  As they walked through the rain back towards the house, Jamie’s head appeared out of one of the windows of the men’s quarters, a series of small portable bunkers. ‘Come over,’ he called out.

  Natalie grinned at Kirra. ‘Come on. It’ll do you good.’

  Kirra shrugged. They wanted her to stay away from Daniel, didn’t they? This would help her keep her mind off him. ‘Yes, I think you’re right,’ she said to Nat.

  They ran from the balcony of the foreman’s house through the heavy rain, laughing. Both girls were soaked through when they got there. Jamie flung the bunker door open and let them in. Kirra noticed his face lift when she waved hello and her mood instantly improved. At least someone wanted her around.

  The bunker had a small living area next to a kitchenette and two doors that she assumed led to bedrooms. There was no room to swing a mouse, let alone a cat. The husky drumbeat of rain on the metal roof was deafening and made it hard to hear each other speak.

  Natalie popped the top off the champagne bottle and the cork ricocheted off the wall. ‘Glasses!’ she said loudly. ‘We need glasses!’

  ‘Music!’ Kirra demanded, spying two large speakers behind the couch.

  Jamie tossed her his phone. ‘Take your pick.’

  Kirra slid her fingers all over it, searching for a playlist. ‘I’m gonna read all your text messages instead,’ she teased, and planted herself on the couch.

  ‘Don’t you dare,’ Jamie laughed, sitting next to her.

  ‘Been texting French backpackers again, huh?’ She held the phone away from him.

  He reached across and grabbed for it. His fingers wrapped gently around hers.

  She grinned up at him. ‘Must be something very naughty on this phone.’

  ‘Thought you were looking for music,’ he answered, and tried to pull it from her hand again.

  ‘I was,’ she said, containing her laughter. ‘Let me look. I promise I’ll behave.’

  Paul brought some glasses from the kitchen and Natalie poured frothing champagne into them. Kirra took h
ers and guzzled half of it. She held the phone in her hand and looked sideways at Jamie. ‘I hate behaving.’

  ‘So do I.’ His leg pressed against hers. There was an awkward silence, and then Paul asked the question that had been tormenting Kirra for days. ‘Are you with Daniel, or what?’

  She snorted. ‘Nup.’

  ‘Who was that girl?’ Paul asked.

  ‘His girlfriend,’ Kirra answered, wishing he hadn’t reminded her. There was a penny-dropping silence. ‘Where’s the music?’

  Jamie gave her a sympathetic smile. He tapped at the screen of his phone and brought up a playlist. Kirra read through them. ‘Maori haka and chant music?’ she said with surprise.

  ‘Paul put it on there,’ Jamie laughed.

  ‘You Kiwi?’

  ‘Heck, yeah,’ Paul said, in a thick New Zealand accent.

  Jamie shrugged. ‘Plug it in.’

  Kirra took another long fizzy sip of champagne and handed the phone to him. ‘I don’t know how.’

  Jamie clipped the phone into a small dock and a low haunting chant started rumbling through the speakers. Kirra shrieked with laughter when Paul started pounding his feet around the tiny room.

  That was the first thing Kirra remembered the next morning as she rolled around on the floor of the foreman’s residence with corn chips crushed through her hair. She groaned as more details flooded her aching head. Somehow they’d ended up playing rugby in the rain and mud out in the main yard. The empty champagne bottle had become the Bledislow Cup Trophy. She and Jamie played as Wallabies and Natalie and Paul were All Blacks. She looked down at her orange mud-caked shirt and cringed.

  Vague memories of Jamie following her to the horse shed came to her and she grimaced as she recalled him leaning into her and running his arms around her waist.

  ‘You better not let my dad catch you doing that,’ she’d giggled into his ear. ‘Workplace romances are never a good idea.’

  ‘Let’s not get caught, then.’ Jamie, as ever, was sweet. Polite but cheeky. His laugh flowed from him easily. He was happy. Carefree. Fun.

  And then Daniel had walked into the harness shed. His eyes had met Kirra’s. She’d glared at him defiantly and waited until he’d turned and walked out. Then she wriggled from Jamie’s grasp.

  ‘No, seriously.’ She’d pushed at Jamie’s chest. ‘I promised my dad I wouldn’t get involved with anyone at work. The boss threatened to sack me. And besides . . .’ She leaned in and whispered in his ear, ‘I think Natalie likes you.’ She’d turned and looked around. ‘Where is Nat, anyway?’

  Then she’d dragged her sorry, muddied self home, found Nat asleep on her bed still fully clothed, and sobbed into a packet of corn chips in the lounge room until she’d passed out on the floor.

  Liz entered the house, stepping over the sprawling mess that was Kirra. ‘Your mother asked me to check in on you,’ she said, as she made her way to the kitchen.

  Kirra heard the jug flick on and gurgle to life. She stayed on the floor, groaning, until Liz brought her a cup of tea, some Panadol and about ten different vitamin pills.

  ‘So, who is this Lisa person?’ Liz pressed.

  ‘Daniel’s girlfriend,’ Kirra replied miserably.

  ’Right,’ said Liz.

  Yeah. Right. Kirra dragged a cushion off the couch and pulled it over her head. ‘I don’t want to live,’ she moaned from the dusty depths of the brown velour.

  ‘So let me get this straight,’ said Liz, in a disapproving tone. ‘You like Daniel, God knows why. His beautiful girlfriend comes to stay and you respond by getting hammered and behaving like a bushpig, leaving them alone together while Daniel is, most likely, fairly disgusted with you.’ She looked down at Kirra. ‘You’re covered in mud.’

  ‘I got a bit over-exuberant doing a haka.’

  ‘Yes, I know. So do Tom and Nancy. They had a full view of you from the main house.’

  Her father’s warnings instantly rang in Kirra’s ears.

  It’s also up to me to sack you if it doesn’t work out. Tom doesn’t want you and Daniel creating issues around here.

  ‘I gotta start making lunch,’ said Liz. ‘You better clean this place up before your parents get home.’

  Kirra peeled herself up off the floor and choked down the tea and pills with little faith that they would do much to stop the pounding in her head, let alone the hammering in her heart. What a mess. What had she done?

  Outside a car honked. Natalie trudged through the lounge room looking like Kirra felt. ‘That’s my ride.’

  Daniel didn’t come to the flame tree for morning smoko. Kirra was glad that Jamie had left to work at Scrubby Creek earlier that morning so she didn’t have to face him. Lisa hung around. Obviously she thought she was on a farmstay holiday. Kirra couldn’t even look at her. Not only because she was mortified by her own behaviour, but also because her head hurt so bad her eyes would barely focus.

  Shortly before lunch, when she was alone in the harness shed, Daniel came in and closed the door quietly behind him. ‘What was that all about?’

  ‘What was what all about?’ she asked.

  He looked at her for a long time without speaking.

  ‘You’re not my boyfriend,’ she finally said. ‘I don’t have to answer to you.’

  ‘And you’re not my girlfriend either.’

  ‘Then what I do is none of your business.’

  ‘If that’s how you want it to be.’ The hard edge to his voice made every fibre in her heart twist. He turned and left.

  ‘That’s how it has to be,’ she said quietly, as she watched him walk out to Lisa’s ute and get in. From the driver’s seat, Lisa passed Kirra a serene smile, and Kirra felt like jabbing her in the eye with a stick. The ute rolled out the driveway and turned towards Scrubby Creek.

  Kirra had barely stepped out of the harness shed when the boss appeared.

  Tom Carney was tall with wide sloping shoulders. He cut a huge figure in the small doorway of the harness shed. She knew he was furious before he even spoke. Nancy appeared beside him, looking grim.

  ‘Hi.’ Kirra found it hard to meet Tom’s eyes. She stood there, shrivelling into her boots.

  ‘Kirra.’ Tom’s voice was sharp. ‘You can’t drink alcohol on this property until you’re eighteen.’

  Kirra pulled her lips between her teeth and nodded. She tightened her grip on the bridle that hung over her shoulder.

  ‘I gave you this job because I had faith in you, not just as a jillaroo, but as a person. Should I tell your old man what went on last night?’

  Kirra couldn’t look up. Her teeth clamped so hard around her lips she thought they would bleed.

  ‘I thought you would take this job seriously. I wanted to offer you an opportunity to make a career on the land, be part of our team. But I can’t have this tomfoolery going on. This sort of behaviour affects the mood of the whole station. It affects our standing in the industry and in the community. Nancy and I knew it could create a few waves having Daniel here, but we didn’t think that would be complicated by relationship dramas.’

  Relationship dramas. So that’s what this was. A relationship drama. Kirra silently snarled. Here she was, copping a thorough bollocking while Daniel drove off into the sunset with Lisa by his side.

  Nancy chimed in. ‘I know it’s difficult having Lisa here.’ The look on her face hinted that she didn’t like Lisa either. ‘But it’s important that you give her and Daniel some space.’

  ‘Do you understand?’ Tom demanded.

  Kirra unlocked her jaw briefly. ‘I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.’

  ‘Make sure it doesn’t. Any more stuff-ups and you can find somewhere else to work.’ He held out a large white envelope. ‘This came in the mail today. Applications to enrol start in a few months. You better work out if you’re serious about doing this course.’

  As Tom and Nancy walked away, Kirra stared at the envelope in her hand. It had a pink and blue logo that she recognised: the Australian College o
f Veterinary Nursing. It was information about her course!

  Kirra spent a contrite evening vacuuming corn chips off the lounge-room floor, throwing the champagne bottle in the big dump bin near the main house and trying not to look out the window at the cottage. Once she had hidden all traces of the previous night, she sat at the table and opened the envelope Tom had given her.

  Kirra drew out a glossy brochure. A photo of a woman handling a palomino horse stared back at her. She read through the subject descriptions until her eyes were sore. And then she read the prerequisites.

  To be eligible to enrol in this course you must:

  • Have successfully completed Year 10, or equivalent, although completion of Year 12 is highly recommended

  • Be employed in a veterinary practice or registered horse breeding operation a minimum of 6 months.

  Kirra’s heart twisted. If she didn’t complete six months of work at Moorinja, she would have no hope of getting into this course. It was what she had dreamed of since she could remember: visiting local properties and helping sick and injured horses.

  Her parents got home well after dinner and sat up watching late-night television. Kirra saw Daniel’s ute roll back down the driveway. She heard laughter as he walked Lisa back to Liz’s place.

  As she watched through the window, in the light of the moon, she saw where Daniel had written her name into the dust on the glass. KIRRA.

  She made a mental note to rub it off in the morning – she wasn’t going to let him wreck this for her. She had to get on with her job and forget about him for good.

  19

  The next day was Sunday. Day of rest. Kirra woke tangled in twisted sheets, her doona on the floor. She stretched and arched and clenched her fists, waking every muscle in her body.

  She heard a tapping sound and when she opened her eyes she saw Daniel staring at her through the window. His face, still bruised from the Blackbrae boys’ attack, was less swollen and back to its original shape. Her tiny stitches still crawled across his wound like an insect. His eyes were as dark and hypnotic as ever. Especially when he looked at her the way he was looking at her now.