Diamond Spirit

by Karen Wood

  As if reading her mind, Dodger turned his nose around and nuzzled her. He lifted his tail and let out some particularly noisy air, then nickered softly.

  Luke laughed. ‘Dodger doesn’t like her either.’

  Dodger groaned as he let out another one.

  Jess waved her hand in front of her nose. ‘Pwah, Dodgey.’ She couldn’t help laughing.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s weird the way the other horses don’t like that Chelpie?’ said Luke. ‘Ever notice how she always grazes on her own?’

  ‘Yep, it’s the same with the cattle,’ said Jess. ‘She’s horrible.’

  Her mind was whirling. Katrina and Tegan must have seen Diamond in the grid when they went to catch Chelpie. Diamond was in that grid for hours and they just left her for dead.

  ‘She’s been made that way,’ said Luke. ‘They lock her up in a stable all the time so she doesn’t get dirty. No wonder she’s so sour. I bet she’d be a much nicer horse if she was treated better.’

  Beyond a distant thicket of mulgas Jess could make out some sort of lights, hovering above the trees.

  ‘Looks like our ride’s here,’ she said, pushing away the pup and pulling herself up from the ground.

  ‘Already?’ Luke sounded puzzled. ‘That’s not where the road is.’

  The three lights accelerated quickly, travelling much faster than any vehicle could move in that country. They were smooth and silent, unlike anything Jess had ever seen. Then they stopped and hovered about twenty metres from where she and Luke stood.

  ‘What is that thing?’ she whispered.

  ‘Dunno,’ said Luke. He gathered up Marnie’s rope and held her a little closer. ‘Easy, girl,’ he said, running a hand down her neck.

  The three silvery lights shone intensely, illuminating the surrounding trees. They bobbed up and down, whirled around playfully, then sped off towards Chelpie, grazing in the distance.

  ‘What the heck?’ Luke whispered. Marnie began pulling at the rope. ‘Whoa, girl.’ The mare only pulled harder.

  ‘Don’t let go of her,’ said Jess. ‘Lawson’ll kill you.’

  ‘I know,’ said Luke, holding onto the mare’s rope with both hands. ‘But . . . I can’t hold her!’ The mare broke into a trot, pulling the rope through his hands until she jerked free. She trotted over to Chelpie and then put her head down and started grazing.

  ‘Stay here. Don’t go after her,’ hissed Jess. ‘Don’t go near those . . .’

  What the hell are they?

  ‘Will they hurt her?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Jess glanced down at Dodger, who just lay there with heavy eyelids, looking as though he was about to fall asleep. ‘Are you in a coma or something, Dodger? Didn’t you see that?’

  The pup trotted towards the lights with its hackles up and let out something halfway between a whine and a growl. The lights began to move playfully around Marnie, who just continued grazing. They whizzed under her belly and danced around her head, circling her again and again while she calmly walked over to a mulga bush and nibbled the seedpods off a low-hanging branch. Luke walked after her as though he too were in a trance.

  Then without warning the lights zoomed back towards Jess, but rather than hovering at a distance they came right up and began to circle and dance around her. A warm glow radiated from them. Jess stood with her arms outstretched and giggled. The pup yapped around her feet, jumping up and snapping at the air.

  All too soon it was over. The lights whizzed back to Marnie, circled her again, and then, as if disappearing into the belly of the mare – blip – they were gone.

  25

  TAP, TAP. Tap, tap. Tap, tap.

  The sounds broke into Jess’s sleep. Someone was shoeing a horse outside while she, and indeed the sun, had barely begun to greet the new day. Next to her, Grace and Rosie lay motionless, mops of hair poking out the top of their swags.

  Jess looked at her watch. It was all over for her now. The second round of the junior event started in half an hour. There was no way she could win that draft with Dodger’s foot in such a mess. She would never own Walkabout. She rolled onto her side.

  Lying in her lumpy swag, she thought about the previous night – the warm, bright lights dancing around her, and then disappearing into the belly of the mare. It was as though three stars had fallen out of the sky and come to life. Stanley and Lawson had come back in a borrowed truck to find her and Luke standing stupefied in the dark, gibbering about lights and ghosts and reincarnation.

  No one had believed them. People said they were motorbike lights, or gas balls, luminescent insects even. Except for Lawson: he said they were min min lights.

  ‘I camped a big mob of cattle out this way once,’ he told them. ‘Took ’em until after midnight to settle down and cud. Then this strange light came out of nowhere and danced all over them till I was sure they would up and rush. I thought I was seeing things; thought I’d had too much rum.’ He snorted. ‘I had some rum after I saw it, I can tell ya!’

  Jess couldn’t help feeling they had something to do with Diamond. Those three silver lights, like shining diamonds, just like her markings.

  It must have been her. But what was she trying to say?

  Tap, tap. Tap, tap. Clink. A farrier’s furnace roared to life outside the window. Jess hopped out to see Lawson tossing a heavy, custom-made shoe into a small gas furnace on the back of his truck. He squeezed Dodger’s leg and picked up his injured hoof.

  ‘Lawson?’

  ‘Are you going to hold this old brumby for me, or what?’ he said, without looking up. ‘I might be able to bridge this with a strap of steel. It’s a bit of an old-fashioned method, but I don’t have any fancy gear with me. Won’t hold forever, but it’ll get you through the finals.’

  ‘Will he be in any pain?’ asked Jess, taking the rope and giving Dodger a pat.

  ‘Nah, he doesn’t seem to have damaged the sole. If this shoe comes off it could be another story, though. He wouldn’t want to split that hoof any further.’

  Lawson held Dodger’s foot in his lap and rummaged in his pocket. He put several tiny screws between his lips, and delved in his tool belt for a power drill. He began to fix a plate over the hole in Dodger’s foot.

  ‘You’ll have to turn him out to pasture when you get him home, and let it grow back,’ he said through the screws in his mouth.

  With the plate on it, the hoof looked well and truly fortified. Jess’s heart did a little leap inside her chest. She had ranked in the top ten competitors yesterday, and if she could get a good score in the second round, she was in with a real chance.

  ‘If you’re not doing anything useful, you could get me a coffee.’

  ‘Uh? Oh, sure.’

  ‘And for Pete’s sake, will you put some shoes on?’

  Jess dived back into the truck. She squeezed her eyes shut and victory-punched the air. It was Diamond. She was in the lights. She was telling Jess she would win the draft!

  She had to reshuffle her entire brain. ‘Boots, boots, where are my boots?’ As she scrambled into her clothes, she heard Harry’s voice outside. She peeked through the window.

  ‘Your event is on, son. You’d better get that mare saddled up.’

  ‘Yeah, I was supposed to be on half an hour ago,’ Lawson mumbled, keeping his head under Dodger. ‘Thought I’d fix this kid’s horse. She might have a shot at the junior title.’

  ‘But you’re in the finals.’ Harry glanced at his watch.

  ‘That Jessica kid showed real guts catching that stallion last night. I’m gonna do a quick patch job on her horse’s foot and then pack up and go home.’

  ‘How come?’ Harry sounded confused.

  ‘The mare’s not running right. I scratched her.’

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’

  ‘Dunno. She’s just not right.’

  Jess shrank down below the window so the men couldn’t see her, but kept listening.

  ‘She was a bit jumpy yesterday,’ Harry
offered. ‘You wanna warm her up a bit more before the event.’

  ‘It’s nothing I can’t handle.’ Lawson was starting to sound bristly.

  ‘Yeah, righto, I was just trying to help. Seems a shame to miss out on the finals, though.’

  ‘I said, it’s nothing I can’t handle.’

  ‘Maybe you could use a different bit in her mouth, something a bit softer, a rubber one maybe.’

  Lawson let out an exasperated sigh. ‘For God’s sake, Harry! I said she wasn’t right. I’m going to sit this one out!’ Jess heard footsteps and a banging of steel over an anvil. ‘What do you want me to do? Dope her up, the way your precious stepson does with his horses? She’s just not ready yet, so back off.’

  There was a silence. Jess wanted to peek out the window again but didn’t dare. She crept towards the side door and peered through the crack.

  Harry spoke in a guarded but gentle tone. ‘Lawson, that was years ago. You need to let go of it, son, move on.’

  ‘I am moving on, Harry. I’m going to shoe this horse and then I’m packing up for home.’

  ‘You’re letting it eat you to pieces. You’re just not the same person anymore.’

  ‘It’s nothing to you that Ryan killed Dusty, is it?’

  There was a pause.

  ‘That horse was twenty-five years old, Lawson.’

  ‘Yeah, well, he would’ve lived to thirty-five if Ryan’d left him alone.’

  ‘He made a mistake,’ said Harry. ‘I know it was a bad one, but that’s what it was – a mistake.’

  Lawson’s voice rose. ‘Well, it wasn’t his mistake to make. You don’t go sticking a needle into someone else’s horse. He killed him! He stuck him so full of dope that Dusty collapsed on me in the middle of an event. And you still treat him same as ever.’

  ‘Lawson, you know I don’t agree with what he did. There’s no excuse for doping a horse, but you’re going to eat yourself up with bitterness if you don’t forgive him and get on with life. He didn’t mean to kill Dusty. He absolutely idolised you. He just wanted to see you win an event on that old horse. He thought it would make you happy.’

  ‘I didn’t want to win an event on that old horse. I just wanted to ride him. And I wanted to see him retired out in a big grassy paddock to live out his days. That’s what he deserved. Not to drop dead from an overdose in front of a crowd of people.’

  ‘I know all that, son. But Ryan was a messed-up kid.’

  ‘He’s a drunk,’ said Lawson with contempt. ‘I don’t know why you defend him all the time.’

  ‘Because he’s family; blood or no blood, he’s your brother. You stick by your family, it’s unconditional.’

  ‘He’s not my brother,’ snarled Lawson. ‘None of these orphans that you want to adopt are my brothers!’

  Harry stood there a moment longer, then said, ‘I don’t even know who you are anymore.’ He turned and walked away.

  Lawson turned around and saw Jess in the doorway of the truck, dumbstruck.

  ‘Are you going to get me a coffee or what?’ he snapped. He threw his tools into a bucket with a loud clatter.

  Jess scurried back into the truck.

  Dodger cantered around the outside of the arena. He felt as sound as a bell and seemed not at all tired by the events of the previous night. As the announcer called her name, Jess brought him back to a walk and took her place in the line outside the camp. In the stands, Caroline and Craig waved madly, oblivious to the night’s adventures. Hetty and Aunt Margaret sat next to them, eating burgers.

  This is it. Stay with me, Diamond.

  She eyed the cattle. A motley lot of mixed breeds hustled to the back of the yard while a girl on a flashy palomino charged out the gate after one of them. Next was a boy on a grey stockhorse. He scored a cut-out of twenty-two, but sailed past the beast at the first peg.

  Then it was Jess’s turn. She entered the camp, running her eyes over the cattle. A big, cumbersome steer took her fancy. It ambled about in the centre of the mob, looking alert and ready to flee. It was perfect. Nice and big and fast.

  ‘You just wait there, Missy, while we change the cattle over. This lot need a drink. We’ll get you a fresh lot, ay.’

  Damn!

  Two men in big hats chased the cattle out the gate and set about bringing a fresh mob in through the yards.

  ‘You see a min min light?’ the stockman suddenly asked her.

  ‘Yes, I did, how did you know?’

  ‘Lawson’s a friend of mine. He told me.’

  ‘There were three of them and they just disappeared into one of the mares. Why? Have you seen them too?’

  ‘Oh yeah, seen it a couple of times. Pretty spooky, ay? Never seen three at the same time, though.’ He shook his head, a grim look on his face.

  ‘What are they?’

  He squinted and whispered in a low voice, ‘Ghosts, debil debil. You wanna stay away from that mare, Missy.’ Then he swung the gate open for her. ‘Cattle are up.’

  Stay away from Marnie?

  Jess focused on the cattle.

  In the yard more of the same mixed breeds milled about. She walked around and had a good look at them. She exchanged glances with the judge, then approached the mob.

  A plain black Angus trotted down the side of the fence, bellowing like an old man. He was big and agitated, with clear purpose in his stride.

  ‘You’re mine, sucker!’

  Jess snuck in behind, easily pushing the steer away from the others. It bolted down to the front of the camp and turned its head about, as though searching. A lovesick moo floated across the arena. The beast immediately turned, rammed its head through the big steel gates and bellowed back. It stamped its front foot at the ground and pushed at the gates, nearly lifting them off their hinges.

  Jess legged Dodger from side to side, wondering how to get the animal’s head out of the metal bars. She trotted Dodger up and gave it a nudge. ‘Hah!’

  It turned and eyeballed her without pulling its head out of the gate, then gazed longingly across the arena. It wailed again. A cow bellowed back.

  ‘Hah!’ Jess yelled, reining Dodger back and forth. ‘HAH!’

  The steer ignored her. It continued to exchange wails with its lovesick friend. Jess pushed Dodger up closer and gave it another nudge. It kicked out with a hind leg but didn’t move. A muffled giggle went through the crowd.

  She tried whistling at it. The steer clamped its tail between its legs and closed its eyes.

  She couldn’t believe it. It was in love!

  She rode up and gave it another nudge, harder this time. ‘Move it, Romeo!’

  A roar of laughter went through the crowd. There were whistles and yells.

  She came around and gave the steer a good shove on the other side. It pushed its head deeper into the gate. The clock was ticking. She had no choice. ‘Gate!’

  The stockman released the gates and the cow wrestled its head out from between the panels. As she followed it into the main arena she could just hear the judge above the laughter of the crowd. He called a cut-out score of thirteen.

  Jess would have to complete the course in breakneck speed to make up the points. She set out after the steer, which trotted in a dead straight line towards the herd at the other end of the arena.

  Dodger leaned heavily against its shoulder, pushing with all his power to get the beast to turn. But it was single-minded, slowly bulldozing forward. Dodger set his ears back and gnashed his teeth. He tossed his head.

  Jess yelled, ‘HAH!’

  She heard the crack of the judge’s whip.

  Eliminated?

  She brought Dodger back. He pranced around, not yet ready to let the beast go.

  She couldn’t believe it.

  Neither she nor Dodger had done anything particularly wrong, but the beast was just a dud. A total dud. Jess gave Dodger a pat on the neck and dropped the reins.

  The crowd were on their feet, clapping, but that was it. Her attempt to save Walkabout was over.


  Finished.

  26

  JESS HEADED FOR the horse wash, Dodger puffing behind her. The announcer’s rambling monologue followed them, and Jess wished he would just shut up.

  Dodger took long cool gulps of water from his bucket, and Jess watched them travel up and along his gullet. She looked at his robotic hoof. It was ridiculous. How could she have believed that Diamond was speaking to her?

  Me, win a campdraft? She laughed out loud.

  ‘What’s funny?’

  Jess spun around and saw Luke, holding Legsy by the halter. He took the hose and began filling a bucket.

  ‘Everything,’ said Jess. ‘Those lights. I thought they were spirits. I thought it was Diamond.’

  ‘I can’t stop thinking about them,’ said Luke.

  ‘They were probably just balls of gas.’

  ‘Yeah, probably.’ Luke still sounded uneasy.

  They both stood there, letting their horses drink. In the distance Tegan Broadhead picked out Chelpie’s hooves while Katrina sat on a fold-out chair and sipped from a can of lemonade. ‘I’m going to win the Best in Show trophy, I know it,’ Jess heard Katrina say. ‘Chelpie is by far the best horse here.’

  ‘Chelpie is by far the biggest troublemaker here,’ Jess muttered to Luke.

  ‘Lawson wants to put a bullet in her,’ said Luke.

  Jess thought about Lawson and Dusty. It had never occurred to her that someone like him could have gone through the same thing as her, losing their first horse. She thought about the anger Lawson carried around inside.

  ‘Shara is on in the finals soon,’ said Luke.

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ said Jess. She ran her hand over Dodger’s back. There was one thing she needed to do before she packed up to go home. ‘I have to go and talk to her.’ She pulled Dodger’s head up out of the bucket. ‘Come on, Dodge.’

  She led him to the side of the nearby horse float, where Shara was brushing Rocko’s rump.

  ‘I found out how Diamond got out, Shara.’

  Shara continued brushing Rocko and didn’t look up. ‘How?’

  ‘It wasn’t Rocko’s fault.’

  Shara stopped brushing for a moment. ‘No kidding.’

  ‘Lawson Blake—’