Under the Flame Tree

by Karen Wood

  Jamie shot the boss a questioning look. This was not the usual mustering arrangement. But when no answer came, he had the good sense not to argue.

  Jim got up and everyone followed. Jamie threw his saddle over a fresh horse. Kirra saddled a bay filly. Daniel grabbed the two-way pouches out of Tom’s truck and handed one each to Jamie and Kirra before saddling up too.

  The afternoon began without a hitch. Jamie rode several strides ahead of Kirra and Daniel lagged behind. No one spoke for the half-hour it took to get to the ridgetops, and then the three were quiet as they concentrated on gathering the steers and holding them in a mob. Jamie kept the lead and began taking control of the muster. Kirra cooperated, wondering when Daniel would make his move.

  Soon they held a bawling mob in a fence corner under a stand of kurrajong trees. They drove them down through the rocky tracks and towards the flat river country where the leucaena grew brilliant green.

  The cattle seemed to smell it and moved easily, stopping to water at a wide dam on the way. Jamie whistled the dogs to push them off the water, and they got moving again across the open flat grass lands under a brilliant sky.

  It was a long, slow march. Kirra’s throat dried up and dust seeped into her clothes. The filly began to drag her feet. Jamie hooked the gate back against the fence and led the steers onto the hedgerows of the small feathery-leaved pasture trees. They streamed through the gate, quickly fanned out and began snatching at the foliage as Daniel closed the gate behind them.

  The three riders sat on tired horses watching the cattle graze as Jamie reached for his two-way and tried to talk into it. He pressed at it a few times. ‘Tom, you there? The cattle are in . . . you there?’ He opened the pouch on his shoulder and took the radio out. ‘This thing is set on the wrong channel or something.’ He dropped his reins and switched the buttons on and off. ‘Battery’s flat.’

  Daniel reached for his. ‘Yeah, Tom, we’ve had a bit of a delay. We’ll be a half-hour late, sorry.’ He switched his two-way off.

  ‘What?’ Jamie looked up. ‘We’re not late.’

  ‘Not yet, but we will be,’ said Daniel. In the blink of an eye, he leaned over, unbuckled the bridle of Jamie’s horse and slipped it over its ears. ‘You and I need to talk.’

  ‘Hey!’ yelled Jamie. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ He jumped off the bridle-less horse. Daniel acted quickly, taking the bridle and slapping it over the horse’s rump, sending it cantering off after the cattle, stirrups flapping.

  Jamie stood with his mouth open, stunned for a short moment, and then he turned on Daniel and lunged at him. Daniel was already in a canter, circling him. His horse skirted out of Jamie’s grasp.

  Kirra reined back the bay filly, keeping well out of it.

  ‘I had a strange dream the other night, Jamie,’ said Daniel, keeping the horse in a canter. ‘I dreamed that I was driving home from a rodeo and you ran me off the road.’

  Jamie put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground, shaking his head. His mouth curled into a tight grimace. His shoulders tensed and he looked as if he wanted to smash something. When he spoke it was an angry snarl. ‘Did you now?’

  ‘Yeah, I did. It seemed so real. There were ambulances and police everywhere. My little sister was on a stretcher next to a wrecked car.’ He pulled his horse to a sudden stop and stared Jamie in the eye. ‘You know how sometimes you have those dreams and you wake up and you could have sworn it really happened?’

  ‘I’m not interested in your dreams or your problems,’ said Jamie. ‘If you don’t give me that bridle back and go and get my horse, I’ll make sure you never work on another station in this district again.’

  ‘No, see, that’s where you’ve got things mixed up,’ said Daniel. ‘If you don’t start talking about what happened that night, I’ll make sure you go to prison. You are over eighteen now, aren’t you, Jamie?’

  ‘Why would I tell you anything?’ said Jamie, arms folded tightly across his chest. His eyes flicked about nervously.

  ‘Because I have a witness.’

  Jamie laughed out loud. ‘You’ve got nothing.’

  ‘Someone who is willing to stand up in court and say it was you. Someone who wanted her letter back.’

  ‘Lisa,’ Jamie hissed through his teeth. He muttered a string of insults under his breath.

  Then he looked at Kirra and stopped. He seemed to choose his words carefully. ‘Lisa won’t testify against me,’ he said. ‘She’ll get done for lying in court.’

  Daniel let his reins go loose. He rested one hand on his leg as he eyed Jamie discerningly. ‘Yeah. She will, Jamie.’

  Jamie lunged suddenly at Daniel’s horse. Although Daniel had plenty of time to ride away, he lunged back, launching out of his saddle, grabbing Jamie around the neck and shoulder and bulldogging him to the ground. All of a sudden it was on.

  Kirra made a gasping sound as the two boys wrestled in the dust, throwing punches and clawing and brawling like a pair of wild animals. Daniel came out on top, pinning his rival down by the forearms. He took a moment to get his breath back before he spoke. ‘Blood’s thicker than water, Jamie.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ panted Jamie, writhing beneath him and trying to get out of his grasp.

  Daniel held him firm. ‘Lisa’s my sister. That letter she sent you to get? It was proof. It had DNA test results in it. That’s why she wanted it back.’

  Kirra watched Jamie struggle against Daniel’s grip one last time before going limp underneath him. Then he laughed like a girl. ‘She’s your sister?’

  Daniel shoved his arms forcefully into the ground. ‘I swear you better start talking, Jamie, or I’m gonna do to you what you did to Sammy.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ said Jamie. ‘And I’ll have you done for assault. You’ve got nothing on me.’

  Daniel was silent for a thoughtful moment. Kirra was shocked when he got up and let Jamie go. ‘Fine,’ he said, dusting off his jeans. ‘Let the law deal with it. They’ll summon you to court and lock you away anyway.’ He reached for the reins of his horse and laughed. ‘Doesn’t bother me. You’ll just get a longer sentence.’

  Kirra rode forward. ‘They’ll go heaps easier on you if you just fess up, Jamie. I heard Lisa. She’s willing to stand up and tell the courts everything.’

  Jamie pulled himself off the ground and gave her a questioning, almost sad look.

  Kirra nodded. ‘She will, Jamie,’ she said, with as much conviction as she could muster. ‘Like Daniel said, blood’s thicker than water. Lisa wants more than anything to be a part of the Rutherford family now.’ She marvelled at her sudden ability to make up such a blatant lie. Though at least the latter part of her argument was kind of true.

  Jamie sighed through his teeth. ‘I never meant to drive you off the road. I swear, I never meant that to happen.’

  ‘So, it was you.’ Daniel stared down at Jamie with a disgusted look on his face.

  Kirra did a mental victory punch; they had just totally tricked Jamie into fessing up. No way had Lisa offered to stand up in court. They had just played the two off against each other brilliantly.

  Jamie hung his head. ‘It wasn’t Lisa’s fault, it was her mum’s.’ He looked up at Daniel and then across to Kirra. ‘Emily turned up at the rodeo, demanding some letter from Lisa. When Lisa didn’t have it, her mum flew into a rage and told her to go and find it.’ He shook his head and gave a disbelieving laugh. ‘Now I know why.’

  ‘So why did she send you?’ asked Kirra.

  ‘Lisa didn’t have a driver’s licence then. She stayed at the rodeo, trying to calm her mother down.’

  It was Daniel’s turn for a disbelieving laugh. He shook his head.

  Jamie threw his hands in the air. ‘I can’t believe she ratted on me. I’m always the sucker.’

  ‘The letter was in my gear bag,’ said Daniel. And then his expression changed sharply. ‘The car was behind me flashing its lights. I remember now. I didn’t know who it was but it was you, you kep
t coming up close and then backing off, like you wanted me to pull over. You were driving like a lunatic.’

  ‘All you had to do was pull over,’ said Jamie, sounding frustrated.

  ‘I had Sammy in the back, so I just kept driving. Then you started trying to overtake me.’

  Jamie stayed tight-lipped while Daniel continued. He looked away.

  ‘A road train was coming. I ran off the road so you could get out of the way.’ Daniel stared down at Jamie with contempt. ‘I saved your life, you dog. And you watched me go to juvy. Sammy was in hospital all that time and you never said a thing.’

  ‘Jamie, you have to tell the police what you know,’ said Kirra.

  Jamie squared up to Daniel. ‘If I go down, I’m taking that two-faced sister of yours down with me.’ He gave a sudden sardonic laugh as though he’d processed something for the first time. ‘Your old man jump the fence, mate?’

  Daniel charged at him again, shoving him with both hands. Jamie kept laughing, until Daniel’s fist connected with his jaw and his head snapped backwards. Jamie’s body twisted as he fell to the ground.

  Daniel dived on top of him, fist clenched. ‘You are lower than the worms in your horses’s . . .’

  ‘Daniel, stop!’ Kirra screamed. The horse she sat on startled at the pitch of her voice and reeled backwards. She held it steady. ‘He’s trying to provoke you.’

  Daniel held Jamie to the ground with one hand and raised a tightly clenched fist. ‘You keep Lisa out of this.’

  Jamie rolled his head sideways and spat a mouthful of blood onto the dirt. He laughed again. ‘No, I don’t think I can do that.’

  ‘She’s been put through enough. This gets sorted out between you and me.’

  Jamie looked up at him, blood smeared around his mouth and malice in his eyes. ‘No, this gets sorted out in court. You don’t want me to lie, do you?’

  Daniel hesitated before, shifting off him and letting him up.

  Again, Jamie brushed himself off. He wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve. When he spoke, he faced Kirra. ‘I’ll tell the police what I know if your boyfriend here promises to leave Moorinja and go work somewhere else.’ He spoke without so much as a glance at Daniel. ‘Otherwise I’ll make it as difficult as I can.’

  Kirra couldn’t believe what she was hearing ‘That’s not fair,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sick of being nice and I’m sick of being fair,’ Jamie said. ‘Being fair gets you nowhere.’

  Kirra glanced at Daniel. He was twisting his jaw thoughtfully as though he was considering it.

  ‘Daniel’s done nothing wrong,’ said Kirra. ‘Why should he have to leave?’

  ‘Why should I give you two a happy-ever-after?’ Jamie stormed.

  ‘You’re breaking us up out of spite? Out of jealousy?’

  Before she got an answer, Daniel stood, walked over to Jamie and held out his hand.

  Kirra watched on, aghast, as Jamie stared at it a moment before shaking it. Daniel held it firmly for longer than usual, making sure they had an understanding. And just like that, the deal was done.

  Jamie snatched his bridle off the ground, turned on his heel and walked off to get his horse.

  Daniel’s eyes trailed slowly from the ground, up to Kirra.

  ‘You’re leaving?’ She couldn’t believe it. He had traded her in. Again. So easily.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Daniel’s voice was calm. ‘You’ll have a much better chance of getting your job back if I’m not around.’

  ‘And if I don’t?’ she protested.

  ‘If you don’t, you’ll be away at boarding school anyway. I’m going to talk to Tom, tell him I’m leaving and that he should give you your job back. There’ll be no more trouble.’

  Kirra felt cold prickles up her arms. ‘I guess blood is thicker than water.’

  Daniel didn’t answer.

  She composed her features into a calm mask, and then, because there was nothing left to say, she turned her horse towards home.

  Back at the station, Kirra placed the saddle on a spare rack and busied herself with hanging the bridle and martingale.

  Daniel followed. He stood in the doorway watching her put away her gear. ‘Kirra, I could get acquitted, not just with the law but with my family.

  ‘What about Lisa?’

  He shrugged. ‘She’ll have to face the music too. If she doesn’t, Jamie will always have something over her. None of us can move forward living on lies.’

  ‘Will she withdraw her testimony about you being drunk?’

  ‘I hope so. Mum still believes I drove drunk with Sammy in the car. It’d be nice if she knew that wasn’t true.’

  Kirra swallowed. ‘Don’t you have to stay here as part of your release conditions?’

  ‘If I get acquitted I won’t have release conditions.’

  ‘Will you come back?’ she asked.

  His expression pleaded with her for understanding.

  ‘Oh.’ Okay, she got it. Fully. Daniel wanted his life back, his family and his home, even if that didn’t include her. He’d never really chosen to work at Moorinja. It was just part of his bail conditions. ‘Good luck,’ she said.

  She couldn’t feel angry with him, but she didn’t want to hang around for another lingering goodbye hug either. She left him standing in the doorway and joined the others under the flame tree.

  Later, as she finished off a mug of cold tea, she watched Daniel walk out of Tom’s office with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He tossed it into the back of his ute and sank into the driver’s seat. He glanced across to the flame tree as he started the engine, but she looked down, unable to mask the betrayal she felt.

  Daniel drove out and headed towards town and Jamie’s ute followed. Beyond the table, the late afternoon spread out over the horizon; the sun cast gold light over black silhouettes, the steers frolicking against the sinking sun in the leucaena pastures.

  A puff of breeze whistled through the bare silvery branches of the flame tree, shearing off the last of its crumpled brown leaves and swirling them through the air before dumping them on top of a decomposing carpet of old flowers and leaves. The air stilled and Kirra looked up through the skeleton of the tree, feeling the cold dark fingers of approaching winter run over her skin.

  28

  Daniel didn’t come back that night. Or the next day. On Friday Kirra turned out the three young horses he had started into the horse paddock behind the big house. They had earned a spell. The grey and the two bay fillies cantered across the patchy Mitchell grass to the big tree beside the dam, whinnying to the other horses. She watched them play for a while – galloping, leaping and bucking with the joy of freedom, the inclusion and protection that they drew from their herd.

  She spent the evening at home, curled up in front of the telly, her eyes resting blankly on the screen, her mind somewhere else.

  ‘Is Daniel coming back?’ she asked her dad, when he came in from work. She still clung to the hope that he would change his mind.

  ‘He rang today and formally gave his notice,’ he said gently.

  Everything inside of her collapsed. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘He’s staying in Brisbane. Troy’s down there with him trying to get his case reopened.’

  The phone rang. Kirra’s mum rose from her armchair and went to the kitchen to answer it. She was gone a long time, while Kirra sat staring blankly at the television.

  ‘That was Nancy,’ Jocelyn said, mostly to Kirra’s dad. ‘Deb Rutherford’s left Ted, taken Sammy and moved to one of the outstations.’

  ‘Really?’ said Jim, without a trace of surprise in his voice.

  Jocelyn gave Kirra a wary look.

  ‘It’s okay, I already know,’ said Kirra.

  ‘Ted’s had an affair.’

  Jim Ravel took a long slow breath. Had he known all these years? Kirra wondered. They’d worked together, been old friends. Did blokes tell each other that sort of thing? Judging by Jim’s silence now, she guessed he would never
tell if he did.

  Kirra felt crushed for Daniel. He’d been sacrificing himself to avoid breaking up his family. At least now the truth was out, maybe the courts would acquit him and he would be an innocent person. He would go back to his life at Rutherford: his life that she knew nothing about, his broken family that he needed to sort out one way or another.

  ‘Shame Daniel’s life was so messed up,’ said her dad. ‘He was a good hand. I could do with ten of him around this place.’ He picked up the remote and flicked through the channels.

  Kirra sank further into the armchair, trying to gain comfort from the deep old arms that wrapped around her. ‘I liked working with him,’ she said, without taking her eyes from the telly screen. It was the most massive understatement that had ever come out of her mouth.

  The phone rang again. This time her dad answered it.

  Kirra tried to focus on something that didn’t hurt. A show about renovating houses was on and the contestants were all fighting and in tears.

  Jim returned to the room looking dumbstruck. ‘That was Tom. Jamie’s been arrested. It was him that ran Daniel off the road.’ This time he did sound surprised.

  Kirra nodded.

  ‘You knew?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘But they drove off into town together!’ He shook his head. ‘I thought they were going to the pub! I thought Jamie just pulled a sickie yesterday because he had a hangover!’

  ‘Nope,’ said Kirra.

  Jim threw his hands in the air. ‘Now who’s gonna break in the horses?’

  ‘You had a perfectly good horse-breaker,’ she said, finding it hard to hide the bitterness she felt.

  ‘I did,’ said her dad, shaking his head. He walked to the front door and grabbed his jacket off the hook. ‘I’d better go talk to Tom.’ The door slammed after him.