Jack & Harry

by Tony McKenna

  ‘I’m the parish priest in Kalgoorlie, been there a number of years now.’

  ‘My God, that’s it!’ Claude became animated. ‘Jack, remember? The priest, the old broken down Chevy we push-started and …’

  ‘Forget the car, Claude.’ Alice came to life. ‘What’s the news you have, Father, about our boys?’

  ‘Yes, you say you know Harry?’ Jean joined in.

  The priest was assailed with questions from the four of them speaking at once so he held up his hands to quieten them. ‘I think you better sit down and I’ll explain some things to you. Rest assured though they are in good health …and safe.’ He anticipated the next question.

  ‘So, where in Kalgoorlie are they?’ Claude pressed.

  ‘Let the good Father explain.’ Jean put her hand on Claude’s arm. ‘Sit down and listen. Please tell us about our boys, Father.’

  Father O’Malley explained as briefly as he could that Jack and Harry had been brought to his home by Paddy O’Brien but before he could explain further Alice broke in, ‘Who’s Paddy O’Brien?’

  ‘I know you’re anxious to know everything at once but please …’ He paused, waiting for their full attention. ‘Let me explain briefly first, then you can ask questions. The lads wanted me to clarify some things to you as they are very concerned about your reaction to what they did by running away from home.’

  He waited until he thought they would be quiet enough for him to continue without major interruption, then went on to give them a thumb-nail sketch of the events, watching their eyes become wider and wider and mouths slack open with shock. He told them briefly that the boys had gone from Kalgoorlie, joined a droving team in the Territory and travelled down into South Australia ending up in Coober Pedy where they had been for some months.

  ‘You mean they’re not in Kalgoorlie after all?’

  ‘No, Alice, I’m afraid they’re not. In fact they were only there for a day.’

  ‘But the letters we received were all postmarked Kalgoorlie. How could …’ She shook her head in a daze, ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘There’s an explanation for that.’ Father O’Malley felt guilty but decided he would explain that at a later time. ‘The major thing is that both the lads love you very much. They are wonderful young men and would have let you know their whereabouts long before now except they believed they were still wanted by the police until quite recently. The reason I’m here is to break the ice as they were afraid you would be angry with them. I understand if you are but for their sakes please consider what they’ve been through before you react to them.

  Alice burst into tears and sobbed. ‘I don’t care what Jack’s done, I just want to hold him. I’m not angry, just worried.’

  ‘Me too.’ Jean also started to cry putting her arms around Alice. ‘I couldn’t care less where they’ve been or what they’ve done, I just want to see my son again.’

  The priest looked at the two fathers standing together beside the barbecue. ‘You, Jack? Claude? How do you both feel?’

  ‘I could have strangled the little buggers, oh … sorry, Father, when they just up and left but that’s well past. I’m just glad to know they’re safe. There’ll be no recriminations. Tell them they can come home and that we love ’em.’ Jack Ferguson’s voice was thick with emotion.

  ‘I feel the same as Jack,’ Claude said. ‘We searched high and low for them but not to punish them, just to let them know they could come home and that they’d been proved innocent of any crime.’

  Alice sniffed, gaining control of her tears. ‘So they’re in Coober Pedy, I can’t believe it. We were just talking about that area tonight.’

  ‘Well no,’ Father O’Malley said, ‘they’re not in Coober Pedy at the moment.’

  ‘They’re not?’ Jack Ferguson was exasperated. ‘Where the hell are they then?’

  ‘Sitting in my car out the front of your house.’

  There was stunned silence for some seconds until the news registered and then with shrieks and yells, the four grown adults ran like little children, scrambling over each other, to greet their sons.

  Father O’Malley was relegated to an ignored onlooker, standing off to one side as the families were reunited. It was mayhem, tears, laughter, hugs and rowdy conversation. Jack’s five brothers and sisters and Harry’s siblings ran wild, shouting and tugging at their brothers for attention while the adults plied them with questions. Jack and Harry were overwhelmed with the attention and found it impossible to answer any of the questions completely as, before they could compose a reply, another question was fired at them, so anxious were their families to get all the information immediately.

  After the initial uproar the younger children began to lose interest and drift off one by one until only Jack’s brother, Tim remained with the adults, a look of sheer adulation on his face. Eventually, the initial shock and reaction waned and quietness fell on the group of seven as Father O’Malley watched, feeling somewhat of an intruder on this very personal moment in the families’ lives.

  The priest moved closer to the group still all standing around the barbecue and coughed softly to gain attention. ‘Excuse me, I’m sorry to intrude but I best be heading off now and leave you all to catch up on the past few months. I’m sure you’ve got a lot to talk about.’

  ‘Oh, I am sorry, Father,’ Alice said, her arm around her son’s shoulders. ‘We are being rude. Please stay for a while and join us. I’m sure the boys are hungry and you must be too. Jack …’ She turned to her husband. ‘Fire the barbecue up so we can get the food cooking.’

  ‘Yes, you will stay won’t you, Father?’ Jean pressed ‘I’m sure the boys would like you too.’

  ‘I don’t know how we can ever thank you.’ Jack senior walked forward and drew the priest into the group ‘We owe you a lot for bringing our sons back.’

  ‘I didn’t do much more than drive the car, the lads brought themselves back.’ Father O’Malley smiled.

  ‘I think without you goin’ in first to break the news, Father, we woulda bolted,’ Jack said with a grin. ‘Don’t you, Harry?’

  ‘It was pretty scary, mate, yes. Come on Father, stay for a bit.’

  ‘Its done my heart good to see you all so happy and I’d love to stay but you need time together alone and I have to get to where I’m staying otherwise they’ll think I got lost …or my car broke down. He turned to the boys. ‘Not much chance of that now though thanks to you two.’

  Jack looked at his son. ‘How’s that, Jack? You do some work on it, you and Harry?’

  ‘Its nothin’, Dad. The old Chevy ran like a clock didn’t she, Father?’

  ‘It did indeed, Jack. Well, I’ll be off then, lads.’ He turned to the parents. ‘Nice to have met you and I’ll have that barbecue again some other day perhaps.’

  The two sets of parents watched as their sons went to the priest and couldn’t fail to notice the friendly intimacy they shared as they shook hands warmly in farewell.

  ‘You two have a great time now,’ the priest said. ‘You have my telephone number so call and tell me what your plans are.’

  ‘Plans?’ Claude asked. ‘They’re home now where they belong and the only plans will be to settle down and get back to school.’ He moved closer to his son. ‘Finish out that Leaving Certificate, eh, son?’ He punched Harry affectionately on the arm, missing the alarmed reaction on Harry’s face that Father O’Malley noticed.

  They all walked the priest to his car where the boys retrieved their blueys from the boot and taking their hats from the back seat placed them on their heads. Alice couldn’t help but think how grown up they appeared with the hats, dungarees and riding boots as they slung the packs over their shoulders, watching the priest back from the driveway.

  ‘You’re right, Claude,’ Jack said as he watched the Chev drive off ‘That’s the same darned car we push started in Kalgoorlie all right.’

  Jack woke well before sun up and after lying in bed for some minutes, couldn’t settle, so got u
p, dressed quickly, stoked the stove and had the kettle almost boiling when his father appeared wearing striped pyjamas and brown slippers.

  ‘What are you doing up so early son? You’re making a racket out here, wake the whole family you will.’

  ‘Sorry, Dad. I’m normally up about this time at home.’ He realised the slip immediately.

  ‘Home, eh? This is ‘home’, mate.’ His father yawned and looked at the clock. ‘Good heavens it’s still the middle of the night but it’s so darn good to see you, Jack. You had us so worried.’

  ‘Like a cuppa, Dad?’ Jack refused to be drawn in the ‘home’ issue.

  ‘May as well, seeing I’m up.’ He sat at the laminex kitchen table opposite his son and couldn’t help noticing how well developed his son had become, muscles rippling under the tanned skin of his bare arms. ‘Tell me, Jack, I know why you blokes bolted but what made you decide to go to Coober Pedy of all places?’

  ‘We overheard you talking about the ‘fire in the stone’ the night the police came round and figured we’d go out there and make our fortune.’

  ‘Make a fortune, eh?’ His father grinned and took a sip from the cup. ‘More people go broke out there than find anything worthwhile. Bet you slogged away and found nothing of any real value.’

  Jack didn’t respond and his father took it for agreement. ‘How did you get there? The priest told us you joined a droving team in the territory, which is bloody amazing. Did you travel in the wagon or what?’

  ‘No, Dad, we leaned to ride. Got a horse now too. Big bay gelding named Brehardie. Uncle Warri, he’s our Aboriginal mate that taught me to ride, gave him to me. Harry’s got a colt too, named Brumby, and we’ve got a packhorse, Dolly, as well.’ Jack said conversationally.

  His father looked at him in amazement unable to believe what he was hearing. ‘Really? That’s incredible, and the priest said you went down to South Australia with some droving team, that right?’

  ‘Yes, Dad, that’s right. Joined Tom Cooper’s team in the territory and drove with them all the way to Marree.’

  Jack’s father almost choked on his tea. ‘Tom Cooper, the drover? Big Tom Cooper, you’re kidding?’

  ‘No, you know him, Dad?

  ‘Ahh, sort of. I went over to Marree to inspect a mob of cattle just after Christmas. Met him and the camp cook. Can’t remember his name. Funny bloke … wore a bow tie.’

  ‘Toffy,’ Jack said.

  His father turned pale, realising that his son was not making up any stories as he spoke in a matter of fact manner and obviously knew these men.

  ‘Bill, the bloke from Adelaide office and I went up there and stayed the night in the Marree pub. Pretty rough joint that. Had the front window boarded up as it had been smashed the night before in some wild brawl.’

  Jack laughed and refilled his cup from the teapot. ‘Some fight that, Dad. You shoulda seen Tom Cooper, he took on the whole bar. Did you see the hole in the ceiling? Bert the publican blasted it with a shotgun to stop the fight. Great night!’ he chuckled.

  ‘You … you were there?’ His father was incredulous. ‘They took you to the pub in Marree? Good God! What sort of blokes would take two kids to a rough joint like that?’

  ‘Yeah, we were there. There’s always a celebration at the end of a drove.’ Jack couldn’t understand why his father seemed so upset and angry.

  Harry was also up well before anyone else in the Turner household. He boiled the kettle, made tea and cooked toast that he took outside onto the back verandah. It was chilly, but not as cold as an autumn desert morning and he was still in shirtsleeves when his mother came out, dressed in slacks and a thick woollen cardigan.

  ‘What on earth are you doing out here, Harry? Come inside before you catch a death of cold.’ His mother fussed over him.

  ‘I’m all right, Mum. Used to this weather and it’s not all that cold anyhow.’

  ‘At least put a jumper on.’ She shivered. ‘Why are you up so early, I heard you moving around an hour ago?’

  ‘This isn’t early, Mum, normally started shovelling by now. Got to before the sun gets too hot, then about lunchtime we go underground where it’s cooler and work down there for the afternoon.’

  ‘Goodness me, it all sounds so dangerous, is it?’

  ‘Can be, I suppose.’ He didn’t say anything about the cave-in ‘It’s safe enough if you’re careful.’

  ‘Well, it’s certainly made you a lot fitter. You must have grown a couple of inches in a few months and you’ve filled out too. At least it’s been an experience you can talk about in years to come,’ she said with a smile ‘… the time you spent months out in the wilds of the outback.’

  Harry didn’t know how to respond and was even more stunned when she added, ‘You will be able to write a good composition for your English class about your time out there.’

  ‘English class? What? … you mean at school?’

  ‘Well, of course, dear. Your teacher asks about you often and you will want to finish your education. You’re smart, Harry, and you will soon catch up on the lost time.’

  Going back to school was an option Harry had never contemplated. He and Jack in fact had never discussed it and the thought of being back in a classroom again disturbed him. ‘I think I might go and see what Jack’s up to a bit later, Mum, what are your plans?’

  ‘I have to run the children to school. I thought you might like to come with me and see the headmaster. Haven’t you seen enough of Jack for a while?’

  ‘No, Mum. We’re good mates and I’d like to have a week or so to just catch me breath before I go to see any headmaster,’ Harry said in an attempt to defer the issue.

  ‘Well, all right. I suppose you do need to rest up, you poor dear, living such a rugged life all these months but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to spend too much time with Jack, dear. He’s not a very good influence on you, causing you to run off like that.’

  ‘Jack didn’t make me do it, Mum, we decided it together.’

  ‘Whatever you say, Harry, but you need to have an education as you won’t get anywhere in life without it.’

  Jack spoke to his wife quietly in the bedroom after sharing the early morning cuppa with his son and was still disturbed by what Jack had told him about Tom Cooper and the bar brawl. He wondered what other situations his son had been in while he was away, with no discipline and able to run wild with a bunch of uncouth bushmen. ‘The sooner young Jack gets settled down the better, Alice. I don’t think we’ll be able to talk him into going back to school as I think it would only put him off being here. He’s changed you know.’

  ‘How do you mean, Jack?’

  ‘I don’t know exactly but he seems a lot more mature and has obviously been exposed to a lot of things other kids of his age aren’t. He’s got self-assurance about him, that’s good in one way but could cause him to be a bit wayward.’

  ‘What do you suggest then, Jack, if he doesn’t go back to school?’

  ‘Well, it seems he can ride a horse. Owns one, apparently, that some old Aboriginal gave him.’ Jack shook his head in wonder. ‘He was also on a cattle drive so obviously knows a bit about stock, I suppose, so I thought I might have a talk with the boss at Elders. I’m sure I could get him into a job at the saleyards. It’d be a start anyhow.’

  ‘That sounds like a good idea but don’t push him too quickly, dear; let him get used to being at home first.’

  ‘I’m afraid if we don’t get him involved in something pretty quickly he won’t get used to being home at all.’

  A knock at the bedroom door interrupted their conversation. ‘Come in,’ Jack called and their son, carrying a bottle wrapped in brown paper, entered and sat on the edge of the bed.

  ‘Dad, I got this present for you. Sorry it’s only in a paper bag but Paddy says it’s the best and I know you like a drop of whisky now and then.’

  His father was speechless for a moment. ‘How did you buy whisky, Jack, you’re too young to go into a pub?’ He
then remembered Marree and the brawl.

  ‘Father O’Malley bought if for me. Got one for Harry to give to his dad as well. Paddy calls it ‘the doins’. Hope you like it.’

  ‘The priest bought it?’

  ‘Yeah, but we gave him the money.’

  ‘I see.’ Jack didn’t know what else to say until Alice prompted him. ‘Oh yes, thanks, son … very good.’

  ‘Got somethin’ for you too, Mum.’ Jack reached into a pocket and brought out a small cloth-wrapped item that he handed to his mother.

  ‘Whatever is this, Jack? You shouldn’t have spent all your money on presents for us’ She began to unwrap the cloth. ‘After all, that whisky must have cost you enough to …’ Her mouth gaped open as the opal fell onto the bed cover and glowed with rainbow colours in the overhead lamplight.

  ‘Take it out into the sunlight later, Mum,’ Jack said, ‘then you can really see it flash. Do ya like it?’

  ‘Oh, darling.’ The opal transfixed her. ‘It’s … It’s beautiful. It must have cost you a small fortune. Jack you shouldn’t have.’

  ‘Didn’t cost me anythin’,’ Jack said proudly. ‘Oh! I guess a bit of sweat.’ His mother and father both looked at him with astonished expressions.

  ‘You see I found it, Mum … in our mine.’

  ‘Your mine?’ Jack’s father gasped. ‘What do you mean your mine?’

  ‘Me and Harry. We own a mine at the nine-mile in Coober Pedy, Dad. Ishmo, he’s the Afghan camel driver that took us over from Marree, had this claim and we bought it from him for two hundred quid.’ Jack was unaware of the stunned looks on his parents’ faces as he fondled the opal.

  ‘You bought a mine for two hundred quid? Where the hell did you get two hundred quid?’

  ‘Sold some of the opal we found, Dad.’

  ‘You just said some Afghan, this er … Ishmo, is that right?’ Jack Nodded. ‘Took you from Marree to Coober Pedy with a camel train, when was that?’

  ‘The day after the cattle drive ended.’

  Jack’s father couldn’t speak at all. He took the stone from his wife, examined it closely, then, handing it back to her without a word, he patted Jack on the shoulder and walked from the room. As he closed the door his memory flashed a picture across his mind of a camel train silhouetted against a late afternoon sky and three horsemen trailing a pack animal as he and Bill Martin drove into Marree.